Title: Hidden Man/Bible Words: Philippians 1:8
“God is my witness of how I long for all of you with the heart of Jesus Christ.” The Greek word for ‘heart’, ‘splanknois’, refers to the important parts of the human internal organs such as the heart, liver, and lungs. It is a word used to express the mind, emotion, or emotion rather than referring to material things. Therefore, the text means that Paul loved the Philippians with the heart that Jesus Christ loved for others, and it well expresses how deep and great Paul's heart for the Philippians is.
On the other hand, Paul is presenting God as his witness to prove the sincerity of his heart. However, Paul was not originally a man of such faith. He had a past man named ‘Saul’ and a present man named ‘Paul’. In other words, although existentially one Paul, life lived two types of life.
I: People of the Past -Saul
Saul was a man of fear and death from the disciples of the Lord, and when he met a man who was following the way of Christ, he went to Damascus to bring him to Jerusalem in bondage, regardless of whether he was a man or a woman (Acts 9:1-2). As you well know, he was a Jew who was a supremacist of the chosen people's ideology, came from the most prestigious academic background (Acts 22:3), was a Roman citizen and boasted of world power (Acts 22:26-29), and was a persecutor of the Way. (Acts 22:4), was at the forefront of punishing Christians (Acts 22:5), and was in favor of killing the Lord's Witness Stephen (Acts 22:20).
Paul's former man, Saul, was not a Christian, he was a strong opponent of Christianity, and he lived a life of his own "righteousness." Paul's past man was a man who went to the gates of hell with pride. Quite the opposite of humility to the gates of heaven, a man who lived a great distance.
There is a saying that ‘love sees through a telescope and hate sees through a microscope’, but Paul’s past was a person who looked at Christians through a microscope to find the pods of Christians. He was a voluntary slave to sin. So a change had to come to Saul.
But one day, the decisive moment of grace came. It is the experience of being reborn on the famous Damascus Road. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting” “Lord, what shall I do?”
Mr. Lee Sang-jae from Vietnam was imprisoned for protesting against Japan, and this is the second time he was imprisoned. As I was spending my boring and stuffy days in prison, I noticed that a bunch of blanks came out a little bulging while I was wandering around the cell. When I looked up, there was a small book, and it was the Gospel of John in the Gospels. He avoided the jailer's eyes, read the Gospel of John, found Jesus, the Savior, met him, and found peace of mind. Then one day, the prison cell was opened. He couldn't hide his joy because he thought, "Now it's release." But there was something supremely happiest for him. Lee Sang-jae's confession, "The more pleasant and happier thing than the opening of the prison cell is that the door of my heart has been opened."
A famous German artist, Stenberger, painted a crucifix, but stopped and put it down because of the price of the painting, and painted nude paintings that made money. One time, a nude model woman asked, pointing to the cross she had been painting.
Woman: What kind of painting is that? Stenberger: It's a cross of Jesus Christ. Woman: What does the cross mean? Stenberger: It is the love of God that took the place of the sins of all mankind. Woman: Then you must have died with my sins as well? At that moment, a stab in Stenberger's heart came. He repented and stopped all nudity, and began repainting 'Jesus on the Cross', and an immortal masterpiece was born. The painting was kept in the German Museum and left the viewer with great emotion and tears.
Beloved saints! The greatest work of life is given to a repentant life. What kind of heart do you live with? Is it the heart of a person from the past? Is it a new heart transplanted into the heart of Christ?
Anyone can come to church. However, if you start your life before God, the confession of Paul who was converted, not Saul, must be mine. We all need the courage to put an end to the people of the past.
Ⅱ: New Man - Paul
Saul became Paul by being born again on the road to Damascus. “How I long for all of you with the heart of Christ…” “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20) “Have this mind in you, which is also the mind of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 2:5)” These are the confessions of Paul, the new man who has been changed.
Eggs and chicks are different. The egg, though alive, is in fact dead; it cannot see, walk or eat, it cannot hear, it cannot feel. There is, of course, the possibility of hatching into chicks.
The hatched chick is born with a new form of life, can see and walk, eat and hear, make a sound, listen to the mother's warning and avoid the enemy.
I know too.
True Christians are not people who are alive only by words and are like the dead, but people of the spirit who actually live and live, born again. Therefore, our hidden ones must live their lives with the heart and heart of Jesus.
In order for today's church to become a church-like church, Christians like Christians must gather. A Christian like a Christian is not a person who has undergone plastic surgery on the outward man, but a person who has undergone major surgery on the hidden inner man as a man of spirit.
Saul became Paul, but the outward appearance was the same as that of the old Saul. The hidden inner man became Paul, the apostle running to heaven, not Saul, who was running to hell. A new man was hidden in his personality, and the hidden man took control of the outer man. What matters to us as Christians is the thoughts, words, and actions of the hidden person. God sees my hidden person.
A certain king was looking in the mirror, and a man in the form of a king in the mirror asked. “How do you think you became king?” “That’s because you are better and more powerful than others.” “There are a lot of people who are better and more powerful than you in the world.” The man in the mirror kept asking him why he became king, and the king was very wise and had a lot of wealth. , with excellent leadership... Said. In the end, the king broke down in sweat and confessed, “Is there anything I can be proud of? It’s all by God’s grace.”
Those who are not born again do not know the grace of God. I'm just a person who thinks I'm good and makes others hurt Who is hiding in you? You must be a person who can confess that everything is God's grace. There was a hidden person in Judas Iscariot, and the same hidden person in Paul. But the unseen of Judah was a wicked devil, and in Paul
People were like Jesus Christ. A spiritual person not only changes others, but also completes his or her own life beautifully. “Where there is love, there is God” is Tolstoi, and “there is no unhelpful love” is P. Tillich.
Christians are not those who live where I breathe, but those who need my love. Lange said, "Love is like a circle, a circle has no end." Augustine said, "Love finds no limits, but finds an exit." Human beings make ‘I’ by what they love. The love of those who have the heart and heart of Jesus Christ is the supreme and greatest foundation of a solid and good life.
The Bible is God's love for mankind. Exhortation, consolation, instruction, warning, discipline, scourge... There is nothing that is not love. We must be witnesses of the love of Christ and make Christ known to non-Christians.
Help the 34 elders who have been appointed as leaders of our church to become exemplary elders who are faithful with the heart and heart of Jesus, and help the 8,000 members of Manna live their lives with the heart and heart of Christ.” It is entering into Jesus Christ, and the character of Jesus is put into my soul. We must bring new life into my life and let the grace of the Lord's love come in. New birth is to possess the life of God and to acquire the right to enter the kingdom of God. Therefore, it is urgent and important to change into the Holy Spirit and embrace the heart of Christ.
The moment when I am renewed is the moment that gives true and eternal meaning to my life that will flow in a fleeting way.