Title: The Lord's Last Request
Contents
After being resurrected from the dead, Jesus stayed in the world for 40 days, reaffirming the mission the disciples had to fulfill. As we said last week, He gave us a mission to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you!”
If we could express this verse in another way, it would be: “My disciples, go out into the world! Conquer the world with the gospel so that you can preach the gospel to all people and become people of the kingdom of God who are saved!”
I am not saying to conquer the world by force. It is a message to go forward with the gospel of the cross and resurrection and change the world of darkness into the bright world of heaven.
By losing God, humans lost their understanding of their existence. Therefore, some people understand that their life is lived today by a previous life. Some understand it to exist by evolution. Some people don't care about the meaning of their lives at all, they just live in the world given to them, only pursuing success, success, and pleasure.
The gospel tells us what our lives are like.
First, they are the creation of God. They are not ordinary creatures, but special creatures made in the image of God. One of them is that he was created as a spiritual being with an immortal soul as human beings.
Second, God wants to select those who are worthy of the eternal kingdom of God from among our lives.
Third, God tests people's free will to choose them. Therefore, God placed the forbidden fruit in Adam and required a choice. After Adam's transgression, the content of that choice has changed slightly, but it is still required to be made. In other words, you are asked to choose one of two choices, whether you believe in Jesus Christ to receive forgiveness of sins and come to eternal life, or reject it and go on to the path to death.
God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to preach the news of the living God and salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, through His teaching and His mighty works in the world, and through His death and resurrection on the cross. If you believe and follow it, you will become the people of the kingdom of God prepared for you from the beginning. Otherwise, you will enter the world of eternal punishment.
The ministry of the disciples of the Lord is very important. In the Old Testament, God chose Noah to save the world that had lost the gospel and was drifting to life. He also chose Abraham, the descendant of Noah, and the nation of Israel, his descendant. In this New Testament era, the 12 disciples of the Lord are the third Noahs who will lead the world to salvation, and they are very important people like the second Abrahams.
The disciples of the Lord were with the Lord for three years and received thorough education in the Word. Furthermore, by experiencing the cross and resurrection, we are now fully armed in the gospel. In other words, they were thoroughly armed with the Word.
However, there are things that are not yet ready. That is spiritual armament. No matter how thoroughly the disciples are armed with the Word, if their souls are not armed, they will never be able to fight the battle for the conquest of the kingdom of God.
So, this is what the Lord asked His disciples to do. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise the Father has heard from me! John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5). “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
The age of the New Testament is the age of building the kingdom of God through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. God works through people in carrying out the gospel ministry from the past to the present day. Putting people aside, God alone does not do this work. This is because the free will of our people should always be used in the ministry of the gospel. He is not a God who forces people to do what they do not want to do with their free will. The kingdom of God is progressing only when we humans decide to live according to the will of God based on trust in God, that is, faith.
Our human strength alone is not enough for the gospel ministry of the kingdom of God. Not enough, but almost unbearable. Because our human hearts have been hardened by sin. Therefore, the Lord sent His Counselor the Holy Spirit to His disciples so that they could fulfill the mission of witnessing the gospel entrusted to them.
At the time of the Exodus, Moses carried out the work of salvation for the people of Israel by parting the Red Sea with his staff. God gave Moses a staff of power. And when Moses struck the Red Sea with his staff, just as God had commanded him, God caused the Red Sea to part.
Just as Moses parted the sea when he struck the sea with his staff according to God's teaching by trusting in God, the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples to receive God's power. Because the power of the disciples alone can never conquer the world with the gospel.
So Jesus said, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from me! John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit!” (Acts 1:4-5), and “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will You will be my witnesses in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
After receiving the Holy Spirit, Peter was greatly changed. On the day of Pentecost, when about 120 disciples of the Lord gathered and prayed, and Peter got up and preached to explain the amazing event of receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, an amazing work of 3,000 people repented.
The work of the kingdom of God must be armed with the thorough word of the gospel. Without the Word, there can never be any work of the Holy Spirit. There is the forbidden fruit, and there is a choice. Likewise, if a person does not know the Gospel, how can he choose the Gospel and the condition of rejecting it? Therefore, above all else, the preaching of the gospel must come first.
Second, the most important thing in the kingdom of God is that we can become witnesses of the gospel only when we are armed with the filling of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit? As the God of God who made the world, the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9), or the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15-16), the Spirit from God (1 Corinthians 2:12), the Spirit of the Son (Gal 4:6 ) is called. Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His disciples so that they could hold on to the Word and live and carry out the gospel ministry well. Therefore, if we too are going to carry out the mission entrusted to us by the apostles, we must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the filling of the Holy Spirit.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is given at the time of being born again, and it is a one-time thing, and the filling of the Holy Spirit is a continuous thing that must be repeated after being born again. About 120 members, including the 12 disciples of the Lord, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit together. However, after that, I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit separately as I was born again.
Therefore, those who do not yet have the spiritual experience of being born again should first seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit of regeneration. And those who have already been reborn as children of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit must seek the filling of the Holy Spirit. After Pentecost, tongues appeared as a sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the filling of the Holy Spirit. But in the long history of Christianity to this day, these signs have almost disappeared.
However, the so-called Pentecostals began to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit in tongues again. Like the early church members, they prayed earnestly while waiting for the signs of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the amazing phenomenon of praying in the same tongue as the early church members was given to them. Therefore, even to this day, they are experiencing the signs of the baptism of the Holy Spirit through earnest prayer.
So, what should we do today? The purpose of the Lord's baptism with the Holy Spirit is not simply for being born again. However, many Christians are satisfied with being born again by simply believing in Jesus and have failed to go to the fullness of the Holy Spirit. This may come from not seeking the sign that came when the baptism of the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost. In other words, we lost our passion for prayer because we did not seek the sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit beyond being born again. We too must pray. We must seek the filling of the Holy Spirit. You have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, but you must seek the signs of the baptism of the Holy Spirit that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit. End.