Title: Look at Us (April 23)
Content span id="writeContents">◆ Main text: Acts 3:1-10
Watching children play is sometimes moved and sometimes surprising. Not long ago, I watched children playing in the break room. In the name of Jesus, a child playing a role in children's pranks said, "In the name of Jesus, you will be lame." So you walk like a lame man. Another child said, “In the name of Jesus, you become blind.” I close my eyes. Seeing that, I told my children about it. “Children, Jesus is not the one who makes people lame or blind.” Then, the child said something and said, “My mother told me that if you don’t listen, Jesus will make people blind and lame.” Guys, you are teaching your children the wrong way. Jesus is a blessing, not a curse. Jesus is the one who gives life, not the one who kills.
Today's verse is a verse you are familiar with. You can see Peter and John praying at a set time and at a set place. At any time and any place, we have to pray and worship from time to time, but to worship and pray at a special time and place also symbolizes God's promise and power. So, we value worship at a set time, and we experience the living power when we pray at a set time.
At the appointed time, Peter and John were passing by the beautiful gates of the temple, and a poor beggar, crippled by birth, was sitting there begging people, as always. This lame beggar thought it was natural to beg from others. Because he's crippled... because he can't get up and work... he thought that it was his natural destiny to have no choice but to beg from others. We often meet so many people who give up their lives, bound by the two letters called fate. When meeting people, this person does not meet people with a happy face, but with the saddest expression on a face, with a pitiful face, making the person who sees him feel as pitiful as possible, earning a penny or two and living each day. If you are lucky, you earn a little more that day than on other days, and if you are unlucky, sometimes people come home complaining that they don't help you. That day, as always, he was sitting in front of the temple's beautiful gate, begging for a penny with a pitiful look and a pitiful voice.
This week, with twenty-five of our women's presidents, I had a meeting for the homeless in the best park in Japan called Ueno Park. First of all, the feeling I felt when I left was a kind of pride. We always have in our minds the idea that we should never lose to Japan even if we play strangely. In any case, we have the idea that Japan is a country that we should win against whatever it is. This is because our people will never forget the pressure and pain they have suffered from them for 36 years. I went to Japan and visited them with a proud heart that we were helping the beggars, feeding them, and being able to help them.
Many beggars gathered in Japan, which is said to be the world's largest economy. A lot of beggars gathered to eat a bowl of rice we were going to share. But while I was preaching, I was moved by the Holy Spirit. “You came here with the wrong idea. You came to give me a bowl of rice, but that's not what I want.” As the beggar wept as he listened to my sermon, the Holy Spirit strongly rebuked me in my heart. At that moment, I gave such a sermon to them. “I did not come here from Korea to share a bowl of rice with you, but to share the name of Jesus.”
In the end, it is not our purpose to take a few bucks and go and feed the beggars, but the name of Jesus we received, that Jesus, we are saved because of the name of Jesus, and the Jesus whom we are blessed with because of the name of Jesus. I have come to realize once again that it is a proper mission to pass on to. Because the name of Jesus is a blessing. Because the name of Jesus is the fundamental solution. Even if you earn a penny or two, you will have to get it again tomorrow after that day. Peter and John are talking about this poor lame beggar who only lives on for a day but cannot fundamentally solve it. “Look at us. Look at us.”
Until now, the person giving them money had never said, "Look at us." “Why the hell did that person tell us to look?” Just as he is looking at him curiously, Peter takes his hand and says: “In the name of Jesus, I command you to get up and walk.” It's a non-verbal sound. He knows better than anyone that he can't walk. For a crippled beggar who thought it was his destiny even after waking up after death, it was someone else's story to say that he walked up and not his own. As if mocking himself, he speaks nonsense towards the most pitiful, wretchedly abandoned self.
Our Christianity is a religion that speaks nonsense. It's a nonsensical thing to say. The moment he heard the nonsensical sound and looked at them, strangely, the beggar's heart began to race. I was shocked as if my veins were about to burst. A muffled sound began to give his body a strange shock, like an electric shock. His body began to move at the sound that transcends reason and does not speak at all. Things began to happen that he could not comprehend even if he thought about it. My body moved, my legs moved, and I woke up unexpectedly. It's an amazing moment. We, Christianity, are a religion that exists for this moment. It is because of this spiritual experience that Christianity is said to be a religion of experience. So we talk about Christianity as a living religion.
What should we give? What do you want to leave behind for your children? property? We must leave behind a living Jesus. Gentlemen, we must leave the living Jesus to our brothers as well. The church is not a social work organization. The church is not even an institution of fellowship. The church should be a place that spreads the name of Jesus. Today I speak to you again in the name of Jesus. Rise up everyone in the name of Jesus. Change your destiny in Jesus name. Bless you all in Jesus name. And I sincerely hope that you will become the people of blessing who share that blessing. We will pray together.
“Thanks and thankful Father God, I wish that the power that caused the lame to be manifested in this foundation, in the name of Jesus. Help anyone to rise up in Jesus name, help change their destiny in Jesus name, and help them be blessed in Jesus name. Help us to make the marvelous work of spreading the name of Jesus throughout the world. I earnestly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen."