Title: Unity of Faith
(Luke 5:18-26)
The past week has been chaotic due to a terrorist incident that will astonish the world.
A terrorist attack that struck the heart of the self-proclaimed superpower of the United States took place that no one could have imagined.
Just like the US attacked Pearl Harbor 60 years ago by Japan in 1941,
It is truly surprising that this time, at an unexpected time, the victim suffered several ten times and hundreds of times more than that.
On December 8, 1941, at 7:45 a.m., Pearl Harbor was attacked in unison.
① 6 battleships ② 1 cruiser ③ 2 tankers ④ 188 airplanes ⑤ 2,280 soldiers ⑥ 68 civilians.
In comparison, the hijacking of the airliner and suicide attack this time happened in a matter of seconds, and the damage to people and material was much more than ten times, so the United States is now declaring a national war. It's the way you're doing it.
The world is changing rapidly due to unexpected events.
Today, too, we must remember the words of the Lord, rather than watching fire across the sea.
“Do you know that the eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell and died were more guilty than all who lived in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5). We need to reconsider what you said.
In that sense, today we must once again close our collars and reflect on ourselves.
What should we think when we see so many people dying at once this time?
Is it because they sin more than us?
We must understand the teaching of the saying that unless you repent, you will perish likewise.
In that sense, we cannot help thinking about today's issue of unification on the Korean Peninsula.
Now, the ministers of the two Koreas are coming to Seoul to share their opinions for peace and reunification between the two Koreas, and tomorrow, ahead of the opening of the 86th General Assembly of the church, the Christian Firstborn Church, they will not think about the inter-Korean issues of this country for half a century. You can not.
As I ponder this text, who is today's hemiplegic? I thought about it.
It may be an individual, but it can also be viewed as a country and a people.
In other words, it can be seen as a problem between the two Koreas that have not been united with our waists cut off.
If we look at today's problems between the two Koreas, we should see them as lying ill with a chronic disease that they cannot cure on their own.
How can I fix this?
Let's think about a few things through today's text.
First, seeing that this patient was healed, you can see that it started with the united faith of many people, not an individual belief.
1. First, we were united in showing compassion for the sick
Many patients in the Bible came to Jesus on their own or were healed by their own faith, but the sick in the text were healed by the faith of others.
There are features.
This can be seen in the faith that usually takes pity on him.
There were many people, but they became one in the belief that they should lead this paralytic to Jesus.
Even today, looking narrowly, there are many unbelievers who are paralyzed and cannot stand up on their own, but they are unable to lead them to the Lord because their spiritual eyes are not open to pity them.
Also, if you look at this with a broad eye, there are many cases where you see North Korea differently today.
We have to admit that there are many different thoughts because we can't become one with the eyes of pity for them.
However, those who believe in our God should have united faith in pitying their North Korean compatriots.
The North Korean regime and North Korean compatriots should be viewed separately.
Just as we see our paralyzed compatriots in the North who are oppressed and naked by the North Korean regime, we must believe that all Christians in South Korea see one another in their eyes.
What sin are these northern workers and peasants?
Moreover, how can we not feel pity when we see the children in the north are starving to death?
It is saying that if we unite in the faith to lead them to the Lord, they can be healed easily.
If you become one with the belief that you should lead to Jesus Christ, you will find a clue to the solution of the problem from there.
In that sense, autumn is the season of fruitfulness.
Spiritually, now is the harvest time.
At times like these, we are all like those who led this paralytic to the Lord,
Our gaze must be personally turned to the spiritual unbelievers around us,
As a nation, the perspective on North Korea must change.
And we must become one in the faith to lead them to the Lord.
2. We are united not only in our hearts, but also in faith in action.
There are many people who preach only with words.
There are many people who evangelize only with their thoughts.
But without action, there is no point.
Because miracles are the result of faith in action.
Today, political and economic support alone does not solve the problem.
The power of the Lord must be with you.
This does not mean that simply eating a pitiful heart is not enough.
Acting faith toward the Lord must follow.
That's what's important.
In what direction should help appear?
We must become one with the action that we must turn to the Lord.
Please see all the miraculous experiences in the Bible.
All were given out of obedience to the Lord.
The disciples, who had been catching fish all night, failed to catch a single fish, and the day dawned
When the Lord said, 'Go out into the deep and let down your nets',
They broke their will and showed obedience.
We became one through the act of obedience, saying, "We have toiled all night, and gained nothing, but by the word we will let down our nets."
Today it is the same.
When you act with faith in which your expertise obeys, you experience miracles.
Usually the word miracle is not in a rational or rational way,
These are the words we say when we see super-rational, super-rational results.
Here lies the mystery and great power of faith.
It seems impossible, and it seems impossible, but it is a miracle to see amazing history taking place there.
Had even one of these bedridden men heading to Jesus said this was a performance in vain, this patient could not have been healed.
Let's say that there was the expertise of a doctor or pharmacist.
How do you make a patient give birth to a bed?
It would have been impossible to say.
The same is true of today's issues of unification of the Korean Peninsula and of individual salvation.
I believe that if the North and South Korean Jesus believers unite in their action faith toward the Lord, they will experience miracles.
Therefore, efforts should be continued in which the churches of the two Koreas participate in the action of becoming one.
I believe that the vision for the reunification of our Korean Peninsula will come true as Ezekiel prophesied.
Ezekiel 37:15-17 "Then the word of the LORD came to me again, saying, "Son of man, take a stick and write on it Judah and the children of Israel his companions. Take another stick and take another stick and put it on the stick of Ephraim, Joseph and his companions." Write all the house of Israel, and unite the sticks to one another, and the two shall become one in your hand."
Therefore, we should look to the vision of unity in the hands of the Lord.
But here we can see what we are today.
If you question each other, calculate, evaluate, and even do not believe and doubt,
In such a belief, miracles do not occur.
Maybe it's because our day-to-day lives are all miracles, not living with professional knowledge.
3. We are united in the conviction of the Lord who breaks through the roof.
There were so many people that we couldn't afford to break through.
So I went up to the roof, pierced the roof and sent the patient down on a bed.
This was not normal.
This was usually not certain.
Their faith was a confident faith.
It was not an indecisive faith.
Today is a time when that kind of faith is needed.
Miracles are born out of this unified faith.
It is very important to become one with the heart toward the Lord.
This is the only power the church can show the world.
In the world, each individual has their own assertions first, but in the church, it is important to be united with a heart toward the Lord.
'Therefore, make every effort to keep the unity of the Holy Spirit'.
Separation, party formation, and division are said to be the works of the flesh.
We need to beat ourselves up every day to become one in our faith toward the Lord.
We always talk about the unification of Germany.
The greatest driving force for German reunification was the power of the churches between East and West Germany.
The conviction that they could become one in the Lord's hand was in them.
I think this is the most important thing.
We should have that kind of faith.
In the act of lowering the paralyzed country from the cut off the waist before the Lord, the churches of the two Koreas are united as one.
Terrorism will inevitably lead to another terrorism.
We must be united in the act of chasing down evil, but with the action of lowering the bed to the Lord so that it can be done in God's hands.
In that sense, I hope that it will be the season of autumn to lead the poor neighbors we have never seen before to the Lord.
We need to pray that this will expand so that the churches of the North and South can come forward as one before the Lord. ♣