Title: The Biggest Person in the World
As the year draws to a close in December, people look forward to Christmas.
Children and young people all get excited about Christmas.
Christian or not, Christmas is now a holiday for people all over the world.
However, from the standpoint of believers who fear our God, we keep it as the Day of Advent during the month of December.
It means to live with a heart that prepares the way for the coming of the Lord. In other words, we must live with a heart ready to welcome the Lord of the Second Coming.
In that sense, I think of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Lord.
Our Lord said, Among those born of women there is no one greater than John the Baptist. Who is the greatest in the world? That being said, it must be John the Baptist.
Then why can we say that John the Baptist is the greatest?
What did John the Baptist see and what did our Lord say?
Considering that today, we too should become saints who prepare for the coming of the Lord like John the Baptist.
1. First of all, what does it mean to be the biggest person in the world?
In general, people think of great people as people who have left unparalleled achievements, especially those who have made an effort to improve the welfare of mankind, and those who have built up achievements in scientific knowledge.
Of course, there is no doubt that such people are great and great people. However, I think that the great man our Lord spoke directly to us was not in that sense, but for the coming of the kingdom of God.
From a worldly point of view, there are many people who have done great things like John the Baptist.
There are many people who have made greater contributions than John the Baptist in the fields of politics, economy, education, art, and science. But there is no one greater than John the Baptist in preparing the way of the Lord in making the kingdom of God real on earth.
According to the record of the Bible, he called himself.
is just shouting and disappearing with an echo.
Nevertheless, what was the reason for saying that she was the greatest among all the people born by a woman in this world? That's exactly what we need to think about.
2. John the Baptist differed from us in his outward daily life.
① His style of life was completely different from ours.
He had no home, no home, and no children.
They lived in the wilderness in the wilderness. It is said that they ate locusts and stone blue for food.
And it was said that the clothes he wore were camel hair clothes and leather belts.
Looking at his appearance, he lived a life that was not understood by common sense. This was usually a life beyond common sense.
If there is a person who lives like this even today, it can be said that he is a person who lives differently from us.
If there is a person who lives like this today, he will be treated as a nobleman. Because John the Baptist lived outwardly differently from us, he was born to a woman.
That doesn't mean that none of them are taller than this.
As existentialists say, it means that he did not live immersed in everyday life.
After World War I, there was a time when the so-called existentialist philosophy took over the world. As they say, John the Baptist lived a different life from the so-called so-called immersed in everyday life. Ordinary criminals (凡人) living in the ordinary world all live with the problem of food, clothing, and shelter. Now we are no exception. It means that everyone is living like this without knowing why they have to live because of these problems of eating, wearing, and living. In that respect, John the Baptist lived differently.
According to the teachings of the Lord, "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness", but we do not set the standard of value in the kingdom of God first, but try to find it in living according to fashion like others in this world. Without thinking about the kingdom of God and His righteousness, I am troubled because I cannot live like anyone else, and I am more worried than anyone else.
Most of them are complaining because they don't have it. But John the Baptist transcended this. So, in this respect, John the Baptist is the greatest among those born of women.
② Also, John the Baptist clearly knew why he had to live that way.
In other words, he clearly understood the purpose of his life. He knew clearly that the purpose of his life was to prepare the way for the coming Messiah. A person who lives with this kind of consciousness is called a person with a sense of mission. John the Baptist was a man with a strong sense of mission than anyone else.
If you live in the wilderness without any sense of mission, without a home or home, you are either a psychopath or an ignorant person or someone who lacks a little bit.
Even today, there are cases where people who give up their ordinary lives and try to live something different from ordinary people have a clearer purpose in their lives. Among them, there was no one as great as John the Baptist.
In the case of common sense, there are not many people who can be called Sano with a grand sense of mission. Just living, there is just an instinctive attachment to life. It's just a case of being pushed into the biological life-circle. But John the Baptist knew very clearly how he was supposed to live. So he said He said that it was just a sound that had to disappear after crying out.
How many people do you see today who clearly know the purpose of their life and live with a sense of mission?
In a sense, those people on today's terrorist list may be different from the rest of us.
So, aren't they willing to sacrifice their lives to fulfill their mission?
But no one can surpass John the Baptist.
Because they were in vain ideas, ideologies, and false beliefs, John the Baptist opened the way for the coming of the Savior of mankind, so they cannot be compared.
In fact, if you look closely at our lives today, you can feel the saying that we are being pushed away. From the beginning, who has become who I am today?
At first, everyone grows up saying that they want to become presidents, generals, and great people. But when I look back on who I am today, this is not the path I have chosen, and most likely it is not what I wanted to be.
In that respect, John the Baptist is bound to be the greatest of all those born of women.
From the time she first conceived, she conceived six months earlier than Jesus, and it is the only person that no one can compare to in that she was the person God predestined to be born in order to prepare the way for the Lord.
In view of this, among those born of women, who is greater than John the Baptist?
③ He fearlessly pointed out injustice and lost his life as a result.
He spoke directly of the immoral life of King Herod. He took away the wife of his brother Philip, but no one pointed him out. But John the Baptist pointed this out to the king. As a result, he was imprisoned and eventually beheaded and died.
This means that among those born of women, there is no one greater than John the Baptist. Even when we see injustice, we do not have the courage to point it out, so maybe we are living comfortably and for a long time.
Today, like John the Baptist, if there is no fear in pointing out injustice and injustice, he may die early.
But all of us are afraid of death, fear of persecution, fear of breaking the rhythm of our daily life, so we simply do not have the courage to do so.
In that sense, where else could there be a person like John the Baptist?
Indeed, I think it is fitting to say that he is the greatest among those born of a woman.
Even though we know what is right and what is wrong, we must honestly admit the shame of living without the courage to speak the right words.
④ In addition, the greatest thing about John the Baptist was his humility: “He must increase and I must decrease.” This is usually a difficult test to win.
When he was baptized in the Jordan River for the first time, many people thought he was the Messiah. Moreover, Jesus also came to him and was baptized.
At this point, people are tempted to claim that they are the Messiah.
It could also have done so indirectly.
However, in this respect, he showed a great point to say that among those born of women there is no one greater than John the Baptist. He resisted this temptation.
If you look at all the deeds of cults and cults among Christians today, you don't know how many deceived people are as if they were directly communicating with God.
Among the two olive trees in the East, there is no one who says he is one of them, but because Jesus accomplished only the salvation of the spirit, he left half of his salvation, but there are those who say that he will restore the paradise with his own blood by saving even the half of the body Isn't it, even these days, there are so many false people appearing as if they were the Son of God?
In many cases, John the Baptist clearly asserts that I am not the Messiah, and that I am not worthy to untie his shoes.
In this regard, he said, “He must increase, and I must decrease.”
What a great act this is!
Now, as we approach Advent, we must become saints who prepare the way for the Lord to come to our heart.
To do this, we must first find a lesson from John the Baptist.
① I have to reflect on what I have been living for so far.
If you were just immersed in your daily life and rushed to live according to the world's fashion, I hope you will have a spiritual reflection to look back on your own life at least once.
In that sense, I hope that you will participate in the prayer-like prayer movement during this month.
I hope it will be an opportunity to reflect on yourself by participating in the morning prayer meeting, the three-day prayer meeting, and the Friday prayer meeting.
② And I need to reflect on whether too many unrighteous things have entered my mind, whether too much complacency and too much compromiseism dominate my life. As long as these things are in my heart, the road that the Lord will find in my heart is not smooth.
③ And, I need to reflect deeply on whether there are any temptations to get ahead of Christ or arrogant thoughts about office without my knowledge. Indeed, I must prepare the way of the Lord so that I can live the rest of my life like that with the awareness that he must increase and I must decrease. ♣