Title: Faith in Action / Matthew 21:28-31
Content We want to receive grace by thinking of the words of the parable of the Lord.
One man had two sons.
One day the father went to the eldest son and said, "Son, go to work in the vineyard today." He replied, "Father, I will go." He said he didn't go. On the other hand, when he asked his younger son to go to the vineyard to work, he calmly refused, saying, "No," but after that, he repented and went. Then the Lord asked. You asked, who do you think obeyed the Father?
You and I will surely answer the second son.
The chief priests and elders who were asked the question also answered that he was the second son, and the Lord recognized it as such, so the younger son who obeyed was justified.
The Lord makes us realize that there is a person who symbolizes first through this parable.
Here one person refers to God, and the older son symbolizes the high priests and elders who are being questioned. Also, it can be seen that the younger sons are tax collectors and prostitutes, which can be clearly identified through the words of verses 31 and 32.
We want to learn two lessons from this parable.
The first is the fact that those who repent are righteous.
The younger son coldly refused his father's offer. He made his father very sad by refusing to say, "No," in front of him, and he was like a person who didn't even know how to be a child.
This little son, who was disrespectful to his father and always burdened and hurt his father's heart, is like the tax collectors and prostitutes at that time who did not keep God's laws and commandments at all and were on a sinful path.
But, as we can see, can't we see that tax collectors and prostitutes in Jesus' day first heard the gospel and repented? We are well aware that the situation is indeed a sight to behold.
On the other hand, wasn't it true that the chief priests and elders were those who were entrusted with the law, and were dealing with God with a superficial attitude, friendly and obedient to God's commandments and wills like the eldest son? But they did not accept the gospel that Jesus preached.
What was God's desire for obedience to go to the vineyard and work?
It is about believing and accepting His Son, Jesus Christ.
Although tax collectors and prostitutes were like little sons who had disobeyed God's will until now, we can see that they heard the gospel, understood it, and repented.
However, the chief priests and elders said they honor the Father, but in reality they are disobeying and disobeying the Father's will, Jesus' words.
To people, the elders and high priests would have looked holy, and tax collectors and prostitutes would have had to think of them as sinners among sinners. .
Second, it teaches the truth that “one must act to be righteous.”
How are you talking today? In the end, it was a matter of whether we did it or not.
The younger and older sons' answers were not very important. All he wanted was to go to the vineyard to work.
1 John 3:18 exhorts us, “Children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and truth.” It is said that there is no benefit if only words and tongue are used.
Our lives should soon become people with sincere deeds.
Also, in James 2:14, "My brethren, if a person says, "I have faith, and has no works, what profit does it have? Can faith save him?" You are asking yourself if you can do it.
In the continuing verse of James, it is said, “Be ye doers of the way, and not hearers only, and deceive yourselves.”
It was said that liars will go into the lake of fire. Are not those who deceive themselves also liars?
Proverbs 20:7 says, “The righteous are those who walk in perfection, and blessed are their descendants.” Those who walk perfectly are saying that they are righteous.
In fact, there is nowhere in the Bible where a person without deeds is recognized as righteous. Only those who practice perfectly, that is, those who practice thoroughly, can receive approval.
Because God is a God who asks for actions like this, even if he answered well and did not make his father feel uncomfortable, the eldest son who did not even follow his actions was never acknowledged as a good and righteous man.
We must have come to realize how important works are through these facts.
Then, what is the Lord telling us to do now, who values the fruit of action so much? What kind of fruits do you want us to bear?
Today I want to think about two things.
First, it tells us to practice love.
In John 13:34 it says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” It is the Lord's new commandment and the highest commandment.
In these words, we will see the Lord eagerly waiting for us to love one another.
Ephesians 3:17-18 says that you may know the love of Christ, rooted in love and exceeding knowledge, so that you may understand its length and height and breadth.
In this way, we can practice love only when we keep in mind the Lord's earnest words to love each other and when our love takes root in the depths of Christ.
Korea has traditionally been a country of intense conflict between fathers and mothers, and many anecdotes have been handed down.
One mother-in-law always scolded her daughter-in-law. Then who will this daughter-in-law persecute? Of course, isn't that a rip off on your son? The groom, who was scratching the gourd every night, came up with a trick.
"Honey, they said you could give me honey chestnuts to make your mother die soon," he said out of the blue. In other words, if you eat a lot of honey chestnuts, the stomach wall will thicken and you will die early.
My daughter-in-law liked it and brought me honey chestnuts. I thought, 'I wonder how I was treated for a day', but as it continued for a day or two, my mother-in-law's heart began to move.
This daughter-in-law doesn't have such good news that her mother is dying early, so would you miss a day? It was to bring you a chubby night without skipping a day.
The continued hospitality melted her mother-in-law's heart and said, 'Oh, I must have harassed my kind daughter-in-law for some reason.' It is said that the daughter-in-law was inspired by her mother-in-law, who loved her without even knowing that she wanted to kill her, and came to serve with her intelligence.
Everyone! We must remember that only this love can solve all our knots and problems.
There was a murder thief in a house.
The owner of the house was a house where the father and the son together believed in Jesus.
When the thief was discovered, he wielded a weapon and killed the father of the house. It must be so heartbreaking for a son who has lost his father, but the son went to the thief's house.
The thief's house was very poor.
My son thought, 'You must have become a thief because you were so poor', and brought you a bag of rice. And he wanted to make a petition to the judge to take into account the normality of the crime.
Isn't this something that only people of faith can't do? Indeed, it is the image of a son who loves even his enemies.
The Lord wants us to be able to do this kind of love.
Didn't he say, "If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat, and when he is thirsty, give him something to drink, and he will become the Son of God"?
Our love should be able to act from such a depth. Do you have a love that is deeply rooted in Christ?
How unfortunate it would be if our love was like shallow water.
If you have a self-sufficient heart that says you are practicing a certain amount of love, and if you do not practice the love that is rooted in the depths of Christ, how wonderful of a love and an abomination in the sight of God?
The story of 『Jean Valjean』 is a famous story, but he became famous because he stole a loaf of bread and served 19 years in prison.
I was released from prison, but there was no one to greet me, so I went to the church.
You will meet Father Miriael in the cathedral. Father Miriale showed great love for Jean Valjean and made him sleep in her bedroom.
When Valjean lay down on his bed, he realized that the two candlesticks illuminating the room were silver candlesticks. Valjean was in trouble. Stealing would be a betrayal of human loyalty to a bride who treated him well, and leaving it alone would be a waste. In the end, he stole a silver candlestick, betrayed his loyalty and ran away.
After a while he was arrested by the police. People reported that the famous Jean Valjean had a silver candlestick. The police ask Father Miriael to confirm that this person seems to have stolen the silver candlestick from this church.
Father Miriael then said, "No, I gave this candlestick to this man. I gave you two, but why did Jean Valjean only take one?" and went into the room and brought the other one.
Valjean began to change from then on, thinking, 'Is this what the truth is?' Eventually, he ended up living as a mayor, raising a child named Cosette, marrying a young man named Marius, and passing on all of his fortune.
Such a moving story was the power of the moving love of Father Miriael. Only our love can move people and save them.
God's love will be delivered to us who believe in the cross forever.
Second, God wants us to become saints who practice holiness.
Since I am emphasizing holiness over time, I want to tell you today that I will become a holy person by being a guard of my mind and heart.
We must remember that we can never be holy if we do not block the vacancies in our minds and hearts.
Satan first conquers our minds and hearts, and eventually leads us to sin.
David wandered leisurely on the roof, but he could not overcome the temptations of his mind and heart, and he committed the terrible sins of adultery and murder.
David, who had spent his whole life on the battlefield, became a quiet time and he could not overcome the emptiness and emptiness that flooded in his heart and sinned.
We, too, should keep our hearts and minds at peace.
These days, there are frequent commotions about young entertainers in their 10s or early 20s committing suicide. Because they could not keep an empty mind and heart.
We must not hold on to Satan's tempting thoughts and hearts that pass from moment to moment. Let there be no folly of adding thoughts to impure thoughts.
We need wisdom to break free from impure thoughts from the elementary stage. If you continue to allow your thoughts to be foolish and unbeautiful like a drama, you will lead to terrible sins.
Romans 12:3 tells us not to think more than we ought to think, and Hebrews 3:1 tells us to think deeply about Jesus, the high priest. Because we think deeply about the Lord, we can be delivered from foolish thoughts and hearts.
Proverbs 4:23 says, Guard your heart above all else, for it is the wellspring of life. Above all else, let's become holy people who guard our precious lives by guarding our thoughts and hearts.
Eve lost her life because she failed to keep her arrogant and greedy thoughts. - End -