Title: I am the Jesus you are persecuting!
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: Acts 9:1-8
Title: I am the Jesus you are persecuting!
Before the Apostle Paul was converted, he went to the high priest and asked him to make an official letter to go to the various synagogues in order to arrest those who believed in Jesus. When he himself was going to Damascus to arrest those who believed in Jesus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. Saul fell to the ground and heard him, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul answered, “Lord! Who are you?” Jesus answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.”
If you look at the people who persecute Jesus, you can see that it is not those who do not believe in persecuting Jesus, but those who believe in God are persecuting Jesus. As you can see from the above text, you can see how many people Paul persecuted before he was converted. Saul is not alone. At that time, the chief priests, scribes, lawyers, and Pharisees who sat in high positions were persecuting believers in Jesus. You can see that those who were the most diligent in their religious life at that time opposed and persecuted Jesus the most.
So why is this happening? This is because people themselves were righteous before Jesus came. The Jews felt proud to be born of the lineage of Abraham, the father of faith, and believed that the faith of God also descended through lineage. When the law was given to those who had such thoughts, they believed that their sins were forgiven through the act of the law (slaughtering cattle and slaughtering sheep). But, as you know, the law is to discover man's sins, not to forgive them.
But the Jews did not understand it right away. No matter how brilliant and talented humans are, the fact that people living on the earth do not fully realize these things is proof that humans live in darkness. For humans living in darkness to fully realize this principle, they cannot realize it by themselves, no matter how hard they try, only when they receive the true light of Christ from heaven. This is still the case today.
God gave the law to man in order to find out the sin in man. However, if you try to become righteous just because you have kept some of the laws through the law that was given to find out your sins, this is truly wrong. This is the same logic as today, because you have been attending church diligently, you mistake it for faith and think that it is salvation.
Salvation is achieved through the forgiveness of human sins through the Son sent by God. However, if salvation comes from keeping some laws or attending church diligently, God's grace will be useless in the end. The Pharisees were justified because they kept some of those laws. Therefore, they opposed and persecuted the Son sent by God because they did not conform to their doctrine.
This is also true of Christians today.
Although the Son sent by God has not yet appeared in front of Christians, it is clear that if the Son sent by God one day appears in front of Christians, Christians will also persecute and oppose the Son. Then why do Christians oppose and persecute the Son again? This is because most of the believers today believe that they were all saved before the Son sent by God came. Salvation is possible only when the Son sent by God comes and forgives the sins of mankind. Like Jews, Christians believe that they were saved even before the Son came.
If a son sent by God appears in front of these people and says, “You have to believe in me to be forgiven of your sins of disobeying the Holy Spirit and to enter eternal life, who would genuinely believe and accept it? Wouldn't all Christians come forward with the same attitude, accusing such people of heresy and stoning them? We keep cursing and pointing fingers at Jews who did not believe in Jesus at that time, but Christians will also act foolishly like Jews when they do not realize who they are.
But Christians, like Jews, will never listen to such a person. Just as the Jews tried to kill him unconditionally without hearing the words of Jesus or even hearing the story of his brother Saul, who was converted by God's grace, Christians today also met and converted to Christ by God's grace, and the wrongful Christian life of faith. When pointing out, they will also not be willing to listen to such a person.
Christians will never know this without being converted through Christ, like Paul. Many people today believe that they are converted when they receive the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit does not bring conversion, but only to help people who did not know God and lived their lives according to their will to realize that God is alive. Therefore, those who have received the Holy Spirit have the duty to live according to the Holy Spirit from then on. If a person who has received the Holy Spirit violates the Holy Spirit, even if he dies, he will come out in the resurrection of judgment.
Then why are the Jews at that time and Christians today not willing to listen to those who have been converted through Christ? This is because they cannot destroy the stronghold they have built up until now in a single day. Because if they listen to Christ right away, the stronghold they have built up until now will be destroyed in one day. Not only that. Because everything they've taught them becomes a lie in front of people, they can't even say that a converted person is right, even if it's true.
Even the scribes, lawyers, and even the Pharisees in Jesus' day knew very well that what Jesus was saying was never wrong. In Matthew 22:16 we read, “Teacher, we know that you are true and righteous, and in truth you teach the way of God, and you do not hate anyone, for you show no respect.” Nevertheless, they tried to hold Jesus to the end. Judging from this fact, they also wanted to believe in Jesus internally, but because they could not break the doctrine they had maintained so far, they persecuted Jesus until the end, and eventually agreed to kill Jesus.
Once you fall into this wrong faith, it is never easy to turn back. Moreover, it is even more difficult for those who have taught lies to be true. So James said, “Brothers! I am warning you not to be a teacher. As teachers, we will receive a greater judgment.” This is not to teach people carelessly without knowing the will of God properly. There is only one Christ who can point and educate man, and when he misleads people according to his own thoughts, not through Christ, a greater judgment will follow him.
No Christian is yet free from the sin of disobeying the Holy Spirit. However, the church today teaches that everyone is saved. Then, how will the sins of Christians disobeying the Holy Spirit be resolved? Do you not believe that Jesus, who died on the cross, even forgives sins against the Holy Spirit? The person who received the Holy Spirit could not quench the lust of the flesh, so he disobeyed the Holy Spirit on his own, and Jesus unconditionally forgives it. If you still believe that you are saved, then even if something goes wrong, you are greatly wrong.
The fact that Gentiles believed in Jesus and received the Holy Spirit is proof that our original sins were forgiven through the shedding of Jesus' blood. However, if the Gentiles have received the Holy Spirit, they are obliged to live according to the Holy Spirit. If a person who has received the Holy Spirit cannot fully follow the Holy Spirit, God's severe judgment will follow. Those who broke the law did not survive, how much more can those who break the Holy Spirit survive? Currently, all Christians are imprisoned under the sin of breaking the Holy Spirit. Christians do not realize this now and believe that everyone is saved.
When the Jews were all imprisoned under the sin of the law, God sent His Son to save those who were imprisoned under sin. At this time, prostitutes and tax collectors who realized that they were sinners who broke the law could believe in the Son sent by God and receive forgiveness of sins and enter eternal life. This is called the grace of God. However, those who believed that they had never broken the law and those who believed they were righteous did not believe in Jesus. However, in the end, their sins were not forgiven for breaking the law, and all of them were brought to the judgment of God.
Salvation that leads to eternal life through the forgiveness of sins is only possible through the Son whom God will send. Just as the Jews were all imprisoned under the sin of breaking the law so that God could grant grace only through His Son, so all Christians were imprisoned under the sin of violating the Holy Spirit only to be gracious to God through His Son it is for However, if the Son of God has not yet appeared in front of Christians, and some Christians boast that they have already been saved, they are deceived by the wolves who teach lies.
And we must not forget that those who persecute Jesus are always around us and within us yesterday and today. Never forget that everything that does not acknowledge and rebel before the Lord is ultimately persecuting and opposing Jesus!- He who has ears, hear and understand-