Title: Romans 11:1-5 Remnant Faith
Contents Remnant Faith (Romans 11:1-5)
Remnant Faith
Hello classmates, how are you?
First, they were the faith that confessed only Jesus as their God and Lord above all things in the world. In the midst of the ordinary, this faith is very easy. However, the cultural and social conditions in which they lived were very different from the present we live in. First of all, Rome was the wealthiest and most splendid cultural center in the Western world at the time. I didn't know what I was lacking, and there were splendid and elaborate structures of marble and overflowing with silver and gold. Even today, where everything is high-tech, they lived with buildings and interior facilities that could not be imitated. At that time, there were already air-conditioned and heated saunas, flush toilets, opportunities for free sex culture and pleasure, and prostitute villages and trends of homosexuality were rampant.
With wealth from conquered nations around the world, the Roman world rejoiced. It is common for people to participate in the 3rd and 4th banquets in the evening, so they even prepared a place to vomit food to eat at the next party while they are full. It was a daily routine to lie down on an angle and fill it up one by one, eat, vomit, eat and vomit, participate in parties, and enjoy physical fun.
Also, the situation they lived in was a time when all gods were recognized. They were idols from the conquered land. The god of the person living next door was different and the god of the person living next door was different. They were all gods of abundance, gods of pleasure, and gods of wealth. At that time, the most popular goddess Artemis had 24 cow testicles attached to her chest. Those who bow down to him are told to see many descendants. After offering sacrifices, prostitutes around the temple and those who came to the temple held a festival of promiscuity with priests. And then I had children. It didn't matter whose child it was. However, Christians confessed only the cross of Jesus as the way of salvation and blessing.
In that temple, there must have been the temples of the emperors. Because the emperor was a god, he had to be worshiped. But Christians confessed that only Jesus was their King. This is the fundamental reason Christians are hated and rejected.
Rome, which boasted power and abundance by ruling Europe, the Near East, and North Africa at that time, remains a small town in Italy today, and only ruins of its rich and splendid civilization remain, testifying to the impermanence of human history. All the kings and powers have gone, and their high towers, which they had built up like flowers with materials obtained by killing countless lives, also collapsed. However, even in the midst of tribulation, the gospel of Jesus, which they confessed, is still alive today and is extending to the life of saving countless souls. Knowing this, they were already professing this faith at that time.
All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever and ever. (1 Peter 1:24-25)
Second, they valued this faith more than life.
About an hour and a half flight from Istanbul to Cappadocia region in central Turkey. When we visited a place called Goreme there, all of our ministers were shocked. According to 1 Peter 1:1, this was the area in which Christians lived, who were scattered throughout the Roman Empire to escape persecution.
They came here to escape persecution because they had natural conditions for hiding. It is shaped like the US Bryce Canyon or Zion Canyon, with towering towers with bizarre shapes. However, in each of the towers, they dug a hole and lived in hiding as if the Termite had built a house. Now they have windows outside, but before, they lived in hiding in the dark without windows. When asked when he made the spear, he said that in 313 A.D., when Christianity became official and there was no reason to live in hiding, he said that he had a spear. They lived in that crypt for more than 250 years. We followed through the poor houses, which was the entrance to the underground city. A long cave where you had to bend over to enter continued for 3.9 km. It is said that a shepherd came in following a sheep going through a hole and found it by accident. A maze was built in the middle, and a stone like a large millstone was placed and rolled to block the road. It was a device for when an external attack came.
It is said that the depth of the cave is made up of 17 floors up to 56m underground, and about 10,000 people lived in the cave. There are currently 150 such caves, and it is said that they are still being excavated. More than 150,000 people lived in this underground city to escape persecution. At the end of the cave, there was a cross about 8ft wide and 8ft high, and that was the church. Our group sang, prayed, and shared the Lord's Supper while thinking of the early Christians who lived and died in that dark crypt for more than 200 years for their faith, and then dispersed to pray.
I went into the tomb deep inside the chapel. It was a place where the body was kept for a while when a church member died, avoiding external surveillance. Then, if they could not find a chance to go outside, they went down 20m further and floated in the underground river. There, remembering the early Christians who went to heaven with the hope of resurrection and looking only at the Lord even during persecution, we repented and prayed about how easy our faith was, extravagant, superficial, and uncertain.
What is my faith for today? Is it for eternal life and salvation beyond today's temporary life? Are you living with the eternal life and salvation given in Jesus more precious than the comfort and abundance of the flesh and the life of the flesh?
The Lord speaks clearly. ?쏻hoever wants to find his life will lose it, and whoever loses it for my sake will find it??(Matthew 10:39). The early Christians were people who were willing to give up their lives and ease for the sake of the faith of Jesus.
Third, the early Christians were people who changed their surroundings through their faith. I went to Ephesus where Paul preached the word. Paul stayed there for three years and established the Tyrannus vow, where he taught and raised disciples. The magnificent temples, buildings, and living conditions were so large and splendid that even a rich man like Carnegie today could not imitate. The entire city was laid out in marble and houses the third largest library in the world at the time. It is said that marble pillars were erected along the road leading from the beach to Ephesus and lit up at night on top of them. It is said that the Temple of Artemis was built high at the end of the road and decorated with gold, so that sailors who came from the sea at night or day could see the splendid city from afar.
In the middle of the city square, Paul said that an idol made by hand could not be a god or an object of worship. And they preached Jesus. When they heard the gospel boldly preached, many people abandoned idols, and because of that, idol dealers did not make money, so they mobilized people to demonstrate and drive Paul out of Ephesus. Paul's life-threatening evangelism shook and changed Ephesus.
I went to the Catacombs of Rome. It is an underground cemetery. It is said that if you crack the catacombs with a funny sound, you will be blown away. It is said that an old Japanese couple came in not long ago and got lost, and the body was found a long time later because of the fear of wandering.
The reason Christians hid in the catacombs was because Roman soldiers respected the dead and did not even go into the cemeteries and destroy them. It was built with solid bricks in a Roman cemetery. The body was laid along the cave
Seats were lost. It was amazing to think of the early Christians who must have lived with so many dead bodies, as the length of the cave that continues like this is 600km. There must have been people who were born and died there.
A man named St. George was then a Roman officer. The persecution was so extreme that the Roman emperor ordered that even the catacombs be searched for Christians. However, this officer named George, who was looking for and persecuting Christians, is shocked inside when dealing with Christians. "How can we be so proud in the face of death? How can we sing in the midst of so much persecution and pain? How can we love each other in such a poor and difficult situation?" The more he treated them, the more dwarfed he became, and eventually he took off his Roman uniform and became a Christian. As a result, he died while being tortured. Later, when Christians learned that he had a young daughter, they took her to the catacombs and raised her. The child was blind growing up in a dark cemetery. But he is in the catacombs
It is said that he died while guiding and lovingly caring for new Christians, and was not decomposed until his body was found in the catacombs many years later.
The believers of the early church confessed only Jesus as their Lord, and it was a faith that even exchanged their lives for him. Even in the midst of tribulation and persecution, it was a faith that changed the surroundings through that faith. We call this faith the remnant faith.
In the book of Romans we read today, Paul said that there is a remnant whom God has chosen by grace, and there is a remnant who has not bowed down to Baal. God is fulfilling the Father's plan through the chosen people who live with this remnant faith from the beginning.
Am I living by remnant faith today? Or do I live by faith for my convenience and comfort? The fleshly things last for a while, then disappear like the flowers of the grass, leaving only ruins. However, that life lived by faith in the remnant remains among us today with the power to save our lives with the gospel with a beautiful fragrance. I pray that our church will become a faith that abides in the grace of God who lives by the faith of this remnant.