Title: To Receive the Revelation of God's Will
Bible: Matthew 11:20, 25-26
Title: To Receive the Revelation of God's Will
Matthew 11:20-26 ‘20. 25. Then Jesus answered and said to him, "Father, Lord of heaven and earth, you hide these things from the wise and prudent, and give thanks for revealing them to little children, One, 26. Yes, it is the will of the Father that it should be so' - Amen.
In the Old Testament times, God revealed and delivered the words and will to prophets or special persons, but in the New Testament, Jesus, who came in the flesh, spoke the words of God directly, and then the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and realized what they had learned and mastered for three years. In the midst of powerful teaching, God's work took place and the church was founded. After that, the Bible was completed, and after that, it was an era in which God's will was mainly communicated through preaching and evangelism. The Orthodox Church uses the Bible as the standard for determining faith and God's will, and sets all standards of faith in the Bible. Who should you be?
1. Those who repent know the will of God
Christianity is not a religion of knowledge, but a religion of repentance of sins. Without repentance, we cannot know the will of God. No matter how much worldly knowledge you have, you don't know. As John 6:63 says that the word of the Lord is spirit and life, since the truth of the Bible is a spiritual word, we should at least say that we can hear it with our hearts, but we must say that we must hear it with our spirit, not with our heart.
Matthew 11:20 “Then he rebuked the towns in which he performed the most of his power because they did not repent.” The purpose of Jesus' coming to earth is to lead sinners to repent and believe. So, repent of the words of the first evangelism! was a call. So was John the Baptist. The church exists on earth so that, at any time and in any way, a person can confess that he is a sinner and repent.
Some people say that they believe when they see a miracle, but there are many people who do not believe even after seeing a miracle. What did you say in today's text? Didn't he say that the towns where Jesus performed many miracles did not repent, that is, he rebuked them for not believing? Therefore, faith must precede repentance.
We believe in the power of Jesus. Anyone can believe, but it is God's purpose to repent of our sins and believe in Jesus.
Luke 24:47 “And it is written that repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem”. If you repent, you will love. Immediately after hearing the gospel preached by the apostle and repenting, Acts 2:44-46 ‘44. All those who believed were together and shared all things in common 45. Also, selling property and possessions and distributing them according to each person's need, 46. Day by day, we worked together to gather in the temple, breaking bread at home, and enjoying joy Eat food with a pure heart'
2. We must be humble like a child to reveal God's will
Just because you do a lot of theology and read a lot of books in the world doesn't mean you know God's will clearly. When you are humble like a child, the revelation of God will come to you. If you are proud of knowledge and worldly things, even if it is religious, if you are proud, your spiritual eyes will be darkened and you will deviate from God's will.
Text Matthew 11:25-26 ‘25. ... Father, I thank you that you hide this from the wise and prudent and reveal it to little children, 26. Yes, it is the will of the Father.' He symbolically taught those who knew they were all weak and depended only on the Lord. When He speaks of little children as a model of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:14), it does not mean that all children will enter the kingdom of heaven. It is up to the child to mourn. Kids these days are so clever that they're very different than they used to be. I became evil because my parents didn't teach me how to grow up as a person, but instead taught me how to kill others and live alone.
Children, like growing seedlings, are beings that need to be carefully handled, educated, and trained, not the ones who will realistically show and lead the kingdom of heaven. They too will begin to spit out more and more sins after they embrace the original sin nature, so we need to teach them and train them in advance and teach them how to trust and rely on the Lord. However, what we need to understand about children in the Bible is that children are important, but that children obey and listen well to adults. .
The common denominator of those who were revealed in the Bible and entrusted with God's work was that they were humble. To some extent, I see that he was a man who completely surrendered to God beyond the ethical dimension between people. The person who received many revelations in the Old Testament was Moses. Moses was called at the age of 80 to do God's work. The New Testament Paul was also a great apostle who wanted to receive more grace by being humble every day by practicing to kill the self-centeredness that rises day after day after receiving the Lord's call from the past when he was full of pride.
If you know something, you don't even know who the other person is, and you can't receive God's grace if you arrogantly talk like you know everything. Having knowledge and having a lot of information does not mean that you will receive God's favor. 1 Corinthians 8:2 'If anyone thinks he knows something, he still does not know what he ought to know' 1 Corinthians 10:12 'Therefore, let him who thinks he is standing be careful lest he fall. '
Instead of climbing a mountain to pray to receive a revelation or praying in a strange way to experience the mysticism at church, if you continue your life of repentance while sitting down, God's revelation will continue to come. God's revelation is living according to the Bible, and it is so-called opportunistic orientalism when people suddenly say that they will hear a voice from heaven while their hearts and actions are messed up. Korean church members who know and believe in the Christian faith as magical and magical are still there. Because it was left to the ideology of ups and downs. If you repent and humble yourself, you will understand everything, and your heart will be pure as a child, and there will be a revelation of personal guidance. Bless you for believing.*