Title: Experiencing the Presence of Jesus
Contents
I wrote a rather difficult expression of 'experience the presence of Christ' as the title of the sermon, but the content is very easy and it is a very basic story about the Christian faith. Unpacking the title, it is The question is, 'We believe that Jesus Christ is alive today and lives forever, are we actually meeting or experiencing the living Christ?'
There is a story about St. Francis. One day St. Francis was walking through the Umbrian Forest and praying, asking, 'Who are you, O God, and who am I?' Then he got lost in the forest. He wandered for two days in the woods, but could not find his way. After two days, I was hungry. So he pleaded with God. 'Oh God, please give me something to eat. I am hungry now. As soon as the prayer was over, a house stood out. There was a lantern hanging right next to the house and a large sign was attached to it. The sign read, 'They bake fresh bread every day.' St Francis, hungry, ran to the house and knocked on the door. Then, I did a synopsis. “Madam, I beg you, just one slice of fresh bread that this house bakes every day,” the woman said, looking at him. "I'm sorry, Father! We don't have freshly baked bread in our house. We just make signs like this."
In churches, or preachers, or Christians, it is often said that Christ is still alive and that Christ is present. But if someone asks you to show them the presence of Christ, they may say with their hands open. “We only make signs that Christ is present.”
Guys, are we Christians? What kind of people are Christians? Many definitions of 'Christian' are possible. People who believe in Jesus, people who go to church, people who believe in Christianity, etc... Are you and I are believers in Christ? And if we believe in Christ, then with what is that faith filled and unfolded?
When I define a Christian, I believe that a Christian is one who actually experiences the presence of Christ, that is, Christ is present in my life, in this history, and in this universe, providing salvation. Christians do not simply confess with their lips or admit with their heads, saying, 'He is alive', but they are people who experience the event of his salvation. And that experience is not a one-time experience in a single moment in the past, but an experience that occurs over and over again in our lives today and now. Even if we concede that we can call ourselves Christians without this experience, by what power can we live as Christians without actually experiencing Christ? Where does faith in Christ continue to fill, and that faith gives us the strength to live a life of practice in this world? I believe that it is difficult without the Spirit of God, the presence of Christ through the Spirit of Christ.
Some of you may think that just because you confess that 'Jesus Christ lives' means you are experiencing Christ. That is a very serious mistake. There is a very big difference between knowing Jesus as the Christ and experiencing Christ. Let's take the example of a restaurant. Imagine you go to a restaurant and look at the menu. Most of you probably know the taste of the food written there. When you see food called 'Kimchi Jjigae' or 'Doenjang Jjigae' on the menu, you can think of its taste the moment you think of it. But you can't say you've experienced it unless you've tried it. We know the numerous salvation events of God and Christ in the Bible. So, if you read the Bible, you can understand the development of that event and its meaning. However, that does not mean that everyone has experienced that Jesus Christ.
What is the experience of Christ?
1. Original experience
The content and mode of this experience of Christ's presence can be divided into original experience, churn experience, and re-experience. The original experience means the very original experience that Jesus Christ experienced in this history, Jesus' God experience, truth experience, and life experience. It refers to the very experiences that Jesus himself experienced as a human being on this earth, as revealed in the Bible, such as Jesus’ experience of God the Father, Satan’s test experience, various experiences that came from dealing with people, and the life experience of suffering on the cross and resurrection. The original experience is the basis and standard of all Christian experiences of faith. The Bible is a record of Jesus' original experience, and all our experiences are matured and verified through Jesus' original experience. However, the original experience is not a one-time experience only for Jesus. We can also experience the God experienced by Jesus. Jesus wants us to experience again what He experienced.
This is why we read the Bible and look to Jesus. We must have a desire to experience the same original experience that Jesus Christ experienced in our lives. If you imagine the depth and intensity of Jesus' original experience, the content of the Bible, written and expressed in words, would be less than a billionth of that experience. You cannot read the mind of Jesus by seeing and hearing the descriptions or expressions of Jesus' experiences that are indirectly transmitted through reading the Bible or through sermons. We can only come to know Jesus by experiencing the very experience that Jesus did. Only then are we people of Jesus.
'The experience of Jesus as my experience!' This is the essence of our 'Jesus experience. This is possible because of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus also experienced God in the same spirit and experienced this world, we too can experience the original experience of Jesus through this spirit. This is the world of Jikji-in-min (直旨人心) in Zen Buddhism. Jesus actually wanted his disciples to have the very experience he had experienced. They wanted to become a channel for their original experience. Many of Jesus' teachings, such as "Father in me, and I in you, so also in us" (John 17:21), etc. He said to see God and become one with God. I cannot become one with Jesus Christ without personally experiencing the original experience of Jesus. The spiritual life matures through repetition of the original experience of Christ.
2. Experience
3. Re-experience
Re-experience refers to the fact that the above-mentioned original and extra-experienced experiences are not a one-time experience, but are continuously experienced in different forms and contents. Our experience is an experience that happens over and over again. gained through experience