Title: Heaven belongs to the violent.
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: Matthew 11:2-19
Title: Heaven belongs to the violent.
Jesus said of John the Baptist, "Among those born of women there is no greater than John the Baptist." This means that among all humans in this world, no one has received the blessing (higher status) than John the Baptist. The reason that John received such a title from Jesus is that he was born with a revelation (prophecy), lived by revelation, and then died in order to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah.
However, Jesus is saying that no matter how great a person is on this earth, he is among the most humble in the kingdom of heaven. What Jesus meant when he said this is that no matter how great a position on earth they are, they are ultimately smaller than those who are in heaven. Furthermore, no matter how greatly used servants in this world, those who die without obtaining the status of sons will go to heaven. it means small Although John the Baptist was a great minister who prepared the way for the Messiah to come, he was also a servant.
Just as Moses and Elijah were the greatest ministers of their time, but they were insignificant compared to the Son of God, so John the Baptist belongs to that class. The Bible continues to record these facts. Hebrews 10:1 says, “It is written that the law is a shadow of the good things to come, not the true image.” This means that if a person could be made perfect through the law, however, a person would be perfected by one sacrifice, and there would be no need to offer the same sacrifice every day.
The law given to the people of Israel was to find sin in men. Therefore, all human beings are imprisoned under the law so that grace may be bestowed through the Son of God. This is the grace and gospel of God. However, humans are constantly clinging to the law and trying to achieve salvation through it. Moses and Elijah were also the greatest ministers at that time, but they were not real but a type of Christ, and could not lead the Israelites to eternal life.
Jesus says in Matthew 11:12, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” This verse also implies that the life of faith under the law is until John, and after the Lord of heaven comes, the violent will eventually win the kingdom of heaven.
To put it simply, if the Israelites realize their sins through the Law, believe in the Son sent by God, and confess their sins in front of the Son, the Son will save them all from their sins. This is the harmony between the law and the gospel. Therefore, no one can attain salvation through the law, but anyone who believes and accepts the gospel will be saved.
This fact was not only true at the time of Jesus, but the grace of the law and the gospel continues today. However, Gentiles today do not realize this at all. Today, Christians are condemning all Jews, including the Pharisees, who did not believe in Jesus at the time, as legalists. At the same time, they mistakenly believe that they have entered into the gospel (salvation) because they believed in Jesus. However, it is important to realize that Christians, too, are still sinners under the law of the Holy Spirit. If you do not realize this, everyone must stand on the judging table dkv.
The “gospel” is the gospel that comes after the law is given first. Only then will “God’s grace” be established. Where the law is not given first, the gospel never finds it. The reason is that God first gave the law to believers in order to make them realize their sins first. This is because humans must first realize their sins in order to accept the gospel.
Therefore, it is for the same reason that God first gave the law to the Jews. The reason why the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles who believed in Jesus in the same way is that, through the Holy Spirit, they should first see their sins hidden in the hearts of Gentiles. Then, God will send His spiritual Son to the Gentiles who believe in Him to forgive the sins of those who come out of Him and bring them to salvation.
Even before the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit, there was a law of conscience. However, the law of conscience has many problems in revealing oneself as a sinner because the degree of remorse varies from person to person according to the number of sins. However, the law of the Holy Spirit does not select sinners based on the number of sins, but because everything that unconditionally disobeys the Holy Spirit (God's Word) is sin. In the end, everyone becomes a sinner.
In front of these sinners, God is going to send His spiritual Son to the Gentiles again through Jesus Christ. In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus said, “Awake! I will go with a thief!” These words were also spoken with the spiritual son coming before the Gentiles in mind. However, Christians are accusing Jews of not believing in Jesus as legalists, and mistakenly thinking that they have entered the gospel because they believed in Jesus.
To the people of Israel, the law (law to find out sin in the flesh) and the gospel (son in the flesh) were given to the people of Israel, and to the Gentiles, the law (law of the Holy Spirit) and gospel (spiritual son) for Gentiles (Christians) were given to them. has been given The law that fits the Gentiles means that when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Gentiles who believed in Jesus, he also gave the spiritual law (the law of finding out sins in their hearts). And the gospel for the Gentiles is that God will also send His Son to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ to forgive the sins of those who believe in Him.
It is a very disrespectful statement to Christians, but all the acts that are being done in chapels around the world today are only shadows of the good things to come, not the real image. If they were all those who had the Spirit (true image) of Christ in their true hearts, however, it should have all ended with one worship service. In other words, there would be no need to go to the chapel every day to worship. But every day they go to the chapel and worship like the Jews in order to get a better thing (a son). That is the true salvation (gospel) that will come to Christians in the future.
Because the life of faith under the law or the law of the Holy Spirit is a life of faith that realizes sin anyway, all you need to do is realize sin through the law. However, when the Son of God who will forgive sins, that is, the owner of heaven, comes, he must run to the Son with all his might with the sins he has realized. Regarding this, Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and he is saying that the violent will eventually win the kingdom of heaven.”
In other words, if you go to the chapel every day to worship even though the owner of heaven has come, someone else will eventually take over the kingdom of heaven. However, those who realize the sins hidden in their hearts through the Holy Spirit will run to the heavenly master, but those who do not realize their sins through the Holy Spirit and rather mistakenly believe that they have received the Holy Spirit as having received salvation, like the Pharisees, are forever cursed by God. will not be able to escape from - He who has ears shall hear and understand...-