Title: Joy greater than the joy of blessings
Contents
1. Words that begin
Needless to say, people hate sadness and wave their hands, they love and want joy.
But beggars and chaebols, commoners or rulers, illiterate scholars or intellectuals, in all life, sorrow and joy cross.
Don't try to deny the sadness that will come anyway, but accept it calmly. Don't get caught up in sadness, you have to overcome it. You have to accept and enjoy the joy that will come anyway. Don't let the chance to overcome your sorrows be wasted by not enjoying the joys that come with being entangled in them.
You have to learn to live as sad when you are sad and as happy when you are happy.
Furthermore, instead of waiting for joy to come, you must learn to seek or create it. According to Philippians 4:12 and below,
He said, “I know how to be in need, and I know how to abound. I have learned the secret to be satisfied in all things, and to be satisfied with hunger, abundance, and want. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
2. A joy greater than the joy of surrendering even the demons
The seventy disciples returned with joy and reported to the Lord Jesus. It is said that even the demons surrendered to them in the name of the Lord. It is because the Lord's power was with us that we are happy that the mission was successful.
A demon is an evil or unclean spirit that harms humans. As W. Barclay explained in his commentary on Mark 1:23:
“The Jews believed that demons could eat and drink and produce children. There were a lot of ghosts....they lived in unclean places, where there were tombs and dirty water, and in the desert where their voices could be heard.... . They have given humans evil gifts....they work with certain animals: snakes, bulls, donkeys, mosquitoes, etc....Whether that's true or not is out of the question. The point is that people in New Testament times believed so.”
You cannot believe all of the above. However, we must not deny the existence of demons.
What we can say for sure is that the Lord cast out demons from demon-possessed people, and he also gave the disciples the same power to cast out demons.
This is the Lord's acknowledgment of the existence of demons.
Also, the Lord's conversation with demons shows that demons are spiritual beings. The king of demons is Satan, also called the devil.
F. Foulkes explained in his commentary on Ephesians 6:13:
“The idea of the personal devil is not discussed in every field today. . . . but we must not prematurely reject the biblical term in which spiritual life and its battle are mentioned. And we must recognize that a vastly increased knowledge of the material world has not necessarily increased our spiritual consciousness, but may have degenerated it. We must not think that we are wiser than the apostles and the incarnate Christ concerning the unseen world.”
Throughout the Bible, especially the Gospels, it is recorded that the demon-possessed and the sick are separated, and it is also recorded that Jesus and his disciples cast out demons from the demon-possessed and healed the sick.
It cannot be that the disciples, especially the Lord Jesus, were unable to discern the torments of heart, mind and body due to common diseases and demon possession.
Demons cause people to disbelieve in the Lord, tempt members of the church to abandon their faith, torment them, to make them mentally and physically ill, to urge them to commit crimes, and even to commit murder or suicide. How glad they must have been when the spirits, such evil beings, surrendered to the Seventy Disciples under the power of the Lord. How great was the spiritual joy as well as the emotional joy?
At that time, I was taking a sick leave from a severe flu and was resting at home. I heard from her mother that it was a disease caused by an unclean spirit, and from that day on, my wife and I visited the house every day and prayed for our hands. Then, I put my fingers in various parts of the patient's body, such as where the signal was coming from on my wife's body, and each time I felt pain and sometimes screamed. Surprisingly, when I went the next day, the parts that sprouted like millet used to look good. After about twelve days, I was completely fine, and my energy was restored and I went back to Seoul.
The way that the daughter and the butler of the old couple were very happy is still good in my eyes 29 years later.
Whenever I experience such blessings or healings, I am very happy because of the power of the Lord and the recovery of those who were suffering.
I would be happy if I continued attending church well, but after attending for a while, I often feel sad because of an early graduation without permission.
When Jesus heard the report of the Seventy who rejoiced that even demons had been subdued by the power of the Lord, Jesus said that he saw Satan, the devil, falling like lightning from heaven. When the Seventy Disciples surrendered and cast out evil or unclean spirits, they saw Satan, their leader, the spiritual being who took power in the air, falling from the sky in an instant like lightning.
A. Plummer commented, “In the defeat of the demons by the disciples, Jesus saw the downfall of their chief.”
The purpose of the Lord Jesus speaking these words to his seventy disciples is to warn them not to become arrogant.
In that sense, they
He said, “I have given you authority to trample serpents and scorpions, and to have control over all the power of the enemy, and no one will harm you by any means.” The authority that the Lord Jesus gave to the seventy disciples was so great that no one could harm them. It was such a great spiritual realm that it even controlled the power of Satan. This amazing phenomenon applies only to the saints who have received such authority or gifts from the Lord Jesus, but not to all members of the church.
May all of us devote ourselves to prayer and the Word and obey to receive the Lord's spiritual authority.
Finally, the Lord Jesus spoke important words to the Seventy Disciples, who rejoiced that the demons had surrendered.
“But do not rejoice that the demons surrender to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
The thing to rejoice in more than receiving the spiritual power of blessing is that you have been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus and that it is written in the book of life.
Compared to being saved and becoming a child of God and a citizen of heaven, the joy of performing miracles such as healing and blessings is not so great.
In a time when there was no anesthetic, in Europe, surgery was performed in which the patient's limbs were tied and limbs were amputated.
Therefore, the fear and pain of the patients was indescribable.
However, James Simpson, who was born in England in 1811 and became a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at his alma mater Edinburgh University at the age of 29, discovered a liquid called chloroform while trying to figure out how to perform a painless operation on a patient.
Because the others were afraid, he himself put the liquid to his nose, took a long breath, laughed and chatted as if drunk and fell asleep. When I woke up, several hours had passed. So Simpson discovered the anesthetic chloroform, which brought joy to countless surgical patients and their families.
In his later years, a disciple asked.
“What is the biggest discovery you have ever made?” Of course, it was a question I was expecting an answer to - the anesthetic chloroform. But Simpson gave the wrong answer.
“The greatest of my discoveries is that I am a great sinner and that Jesus is the Savior who saved me.”
This spiritual joy overwhelms all sorrow, including the sorrow of death. However, there are some people who are really looking for a different kind of joy. I'm trying hard to use the badge of the sect.
A funny thing happened at a Presbyterian denomination general meeting. In a bloody and chaotic atmosphere due to overheating of the election, laughter erupted in the hall as the president announced the elected vice-moderator and had passed the vice-chairman. The president, who quickly realized that he had made a mistake, said, “Oh, I made a mistake,” and laughter erupted again when he said that he had won the vice-president.
3. Conclusion
Even in our life of trusting in the Lord, sorrow and joy are bound to intersect. Don't let the chance to overcome your sorrows be wasted by not enjoying the joys that come with being entangled in sorrows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . You have to accept the joy and enjoy it.
Don't wait for joy to come, seek it or create it.
As people of faith, aren't we all registered citizens of heaven and children of God?
There is no greater joy than this spiritual joy of ours. Always rejoice.
Even when death comes, is the heaven where we can enjoy eternal life not secured?
(Poongseong Methodist Church. Book: Complete Commentary on 27 New Testament Books/ Interpretation of Difficult Scriptures I, II/ Salvation Before Jesus Came/Paul’s Understanding of Man/ Prosperity Prayer/ Seasonal Sermonbooks/ Sermonbook 18. -3051)