Title: Someone Who Meets the Lord
Contents
God loves the world and has opened the door from the world to the kingdom of God.
In order to hear God's voice and live by God's love, God Himself opened the heavenly gates that were closed due to sin through His Son.
Humans were originally created in the image and likeness of God, and as beings with spiritual senses, they were created to hear God's voice and live together with God.
Nevertheless, they could not restrain the greed of the flesh themselves, and the moment they ate of the forbidden fruit at the temptation of the serpent, the gates of heaven were shut.
But God, who is rich in mercy, took pity on the life of being the prodigal son of the world and opened the door of heaven Himself, “Jesus Christ. It is
This gate is narrow and strait and few people find it, but anyone who does not go through this gate cannot save their souls, nor can they change their fate and live a happy life.
▣ Jesus is the faith and confession of faith for those who want to change the world's unhappy fate and be happy with God's happiness.
Therefore, those who want to gain life by worshiping God must worship through this door in spirit and truth, and those who serve and dedicate themselves must enter and work through this door, and the prayer of faith must also go through this door. Only God can receive answers.
▣ This gate was rejected by the righteous of the world, and it was a trivial gate in Galilee that they ignored and despised, so they did not look at it.
What gate did God open in Bethlehem in Judea?
It was the gate of life, the gate of happiness, and the gate of grace filled with God's love and mercy for those who longed for eternity.
▣ The name God gave to the Son whom He sent into the world through the gates of heaven.
▶ “Jesus” is the name that will save his people from their sins,
▶ The office “Christ” refers to the burnt offering to be offered to God for our sins in Leviticus 7:3.
God not only revealed his name through prophets before coming to this earth in the flesh, but also prophesied that he would be born in Bethlehem and grow up in Nazareth.
The birth of Jesus, which God promised, was to save mankind from sin, to remove lawlessness from our borders, and to annihilate the devil who opposed God, and then to give God's life to the world.
In order to be with us forever, God made known to the world the name of his son, “Jesus,” through a prophet in advance. A name to kneel down.
▣ As we well know, next Friday is Christmas, when God made Immanuel his son into the world.
Nowadays, in all religions, the day when their headmaster is born is called Christmas.
Please believe that Christmas, that is, holy birth, is only the only way that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, took on a human body and came to this earth in the flesh to forgive our sins.
Today's text is the day that God's only-begotten Jesus was born in a stable in a small town in Bethlehem, Judea, and opened the gates of heaven.
However, according to the text, God revealed the birth of the Messiah to very few people. At that time, there were countless Pharisees and priests who prided themselves on serving God the best, including the scribes who had specialized knowledge of the Bible. Why did God only announce the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds? is to do
▣ The people who met Jesus in the text were completely unexpected people, and an angel of heaven appeared to the shepherds in verses 10-11, "Do not be afraid, behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will come to all the people. Today, in the town of David a Savior was born for you, who is Christ the Lord.” , and numerous angels of the heavenly host sang hymns of the birth of Jesus, in verse 14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom God is pleased.” Says.
When an angel suddenly appeared in front of them and told them the birth of Jesus, when they were terrified, the angel said, “Do not be afraid. These sights and sounds you see and hear are that God has come as a son to save the sinful life,” the angel said. They speak to the shepherds who were tending their sheep.
Just as very few people knew when Jesus came to Bethlehem in Judea in 2009 as the Lord of the First Coming, even when the Lord comes again, only the saved saints and very few saints who have prepared the oil of the Holy Spirit come to the Lord of the First Coming I can meet the Lord, how do I meet the Lord?
1. The Lord of the First Coming and the Second Coming must be spiritually awake to meet.
Among the creatures created by God, the only beings with a spiritual sense are angels who are heavenly messengers, incorporeal angels, and people created in the image and likeness of God.
▣ According to Hebrews 1:14, not only did God create angels with a working spirit, but they also serve God in heaven and have the office of serving the heirs of salvation on earth.
However, human beings, created by God from dust, are objects of God's love, obeying the Word, obeying, receiving the Son of God, being used for God's work, and eventually inheriting the kingdom of God. you've been
However, Adam and Eve forgot the proper human duty to fulfill the greed of the flesh and ate the fruit of the forbidden fruit, so they lost the spiritual sense and office God gave them.
“This inspiration,” the spiritual sense God has given to man, is the human instinct to seek and rely on God, but the greed of the heart and the lust of the flesh have caused the loss of this spiritual sensory function, “inspiration.”
Jesus came to find the inspiration that people lost because of their sins, and he lamented over those who had eyes but did not see, and who had ears but did not hear the word of God.
▣ Everyone has the five senses of smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch, which are bodily functions, and how frustrating would it be if any one of them did not function properly?
In the same way, even though man was created as a spiritual being, if he does not find his spiritual sense in the Lord, like the young man in Luke 12:20, he builds only a barn to accumulate grain for the rest of his life, and he is unhappy because he has never used his wealth will meet the fate of
How do saints find inspiration and keep it going?
Just like David, listening to God's Word as always close to him, writing the Word of God that he sees in the heart of the soul, and obeying it absolutely.
I hope that the shepherds and wise men from the East who knew the birth of Jesus first should nurture themselves with the Word, remember that they are people who are awake to the Word, and always maintain a holy spiritual sense in the Lord.
2. The Lord of the First Coming and the Second Coming A humble person can meet the Lord.
God came in the most humble form when He was Emmanuel in the world.
He was born in a stable in Bethlehem, Judea, not because of the royal lineage or as Emmanuel in the royal palace, so he broke the ideas of the upper class of Jewish society.
▣ As the Lord began his public ministry,
Mark 10:45 says, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
God's grace and blessings flow in the stream of humility.
In Luke 10:17 and below, when the 70 disciples whom Jesus raised went out into the world, cast out demons, testified of the Lord's gospel, and returned proudly reporting their deeds to Jesus, He demanded humility from them. Not only does he not reveal himself, but he does not want to talk about other people's weaknesses and faults because he knows his weaknesses and lives.
▣ In Psalm 149:4, God is pleased with Israel among the many nations of the world,
He said that the first reason He gave them the grace of salvation was because Israel was humble.
We are all like Philippians 2:3-4
“Do not do anything out of strife or vanity, but with lowliness of mind, let each one consider others better than himself, and each look out for his own work, and also look out for the affairs of others, so as to fill the joy of God and live a life of faith in the Lord of the First Coming. I hope you do well and receive the blessing of being lifted up when the Lord of the Second Coming comes.”
3. The Lord of the First Coming and the Second Coming can meet those who are thankful for everything.
In Matthew 2:1 and below, when the wise men of the East come to meet the Lord of the First Coming, there are three offerings:
▶ Gold- As a gift to the king, Jesus Christ was given because He is the King of heaven and earth.
▶ Frankincense- As a symbol of healing, the Lord heals the world and signifies the divinity of healing humans,
▶ Myrrh- Confessing the humanity of the Lord, and offering three kinds of gifts in the meaning of the eternal hope of human beings, the wise men of the East celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Lord of the first coming.
The wise men of the East were astrologers who foretold worldly things by looking at the stars in the sky, but they did not come empty-handed when they followed the star that prophesied the birth of Jesus to meet the Lord of the First Coming. Meet the Lord of the First Coming.
▣ The greatest thing that pleases God in the life of a believer is faith, and the fruit of that faith is gratitude.
▣ Worshiping God is the culmination of our Christian faith and the flower of our faith life.
▣ Therefore, worship and thanksgiving are essential acts of faith for us Christians.
Faith without works is dead faith, and there can be no faith without worship, and faith without thanksgiving is never perfect and cannot exist.
▣ So, we should always strive to gather in the Lord, and we should express our thanks to God whenever we meet. The saints of the early church in Acts 2 always strive to gather together, breaking bread and worshiping God together. He lived a life of praise and gratitude. (Acts 2:46)
Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem in Judea 2,000 years ago, must come to our hearts and come to our homes.
As the good news of great joy that will spread to the whole world, I pray that you will receive Jesus, who came as the Lord of the First Coming, and enjoy eternal peace.