Title: Value Revolution (2) (Matthew 4:1~11)
Contents
Today is the second hour of the value revolution. We would like to share the value of fame and the value of fame. In particular, today is Palm Sunday and the first day of Holy Week, and I believe that these words of today will be valuable food for living for a week. In life, we are tempted by the temptation of fame, that is, by fame. There is a saying that if an animal cannot be tempted with food, it should be tempted with a bubbly one. Animals will fall over if you lure them with food. However, if it doesn't pass, if you make it uplifting, it will all fall over.
Let me tell you a piece of Aesop's fable that everyone knows. A crow sat on a branch with a piece of meat in its mouth. Then a fox who witnessed the scene approached and said, "Crow-sama with great feathers and a beautiful voice is a king among birds. Please listen to a song with that beautiful voice." Then, the bubbly crow raised his voice and sang "Kak Kak Kak". Then the fish it was biting from the open mouth fell off. Then the fox grabbed the fish that had fallen and ran away. He said, "Oh, you stupid crow. Don't eat meat. What song is that with that voice?" A poor crow who missed meat while coveting fame.
Satan is well aware of this fact.
This is also the core of the story of the good and evil of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, which depicts the first fall of man. Satan forbade Adam and Eve from eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden, saying, "God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." It is a temptation to become like God if you eat the fruit of the forbidden fruit.
At first, Adam fell into Satan's temptation and left original sin.
But Jesus, who came as the second Adam, was led into the wilderness after fasting, and the second temptation he received from Satan was to set it up on the top of the temple in the holy city of Jerusalem and say, "If you are the Son of God, jump and see, and God will send I will command you to support you with their hands, so that you will not strike a stone.” When he jumped from the top of the temple, an angel appeared and received Jesus, and many people in the temple applauded the sight and said that he would become a celebrity overnight. This tempts you to grab a lot of people's attention. I want you to know that this is one of Satan's favorite methods in the church and among Christians.
Even now, Satan is tempting us to take worldly fame as our value.
Even now, many people invest everything they say to become famous. Because I think it's worth it. You're famous, but what can't you do? You don't know how many times unknown singers or unknown celebrities fall into the temptation to become famous and lose their bodies, money and time.
The evil devil, Satan, tempted him to use his God-given powers to meet Jesus' emotional needs. The devil's second temptation is the societal temptation to gain popularity. Just like the temptation of Jesus, the devil tempts those who want to be seen by others to do something that is outrageous. In order to gain popularity, even Christian celebrities are encouraged to go out with a sexy concept. The devil tempted him with a higher level of popularity than money. Because if you get popular, money will follow.
But Jesus rejected this. You have shown yourself that fame is not the true value of life. Satan is the same today. The temptation of fame casts us at it. But we must do it as Jesus did. Fame and popularity are false values. It is the value of the moment. No matter how famous a person is, in the end, he can't maintain his fame and he can't keep his popularity until the end. They are greedy to prolong this worldly fame even a little longer, but eventually they are on the path of corruption, corruption, and destruction.
I bless you in the name of the Lord that you can lay down the fame of this world, the fame of this world.
According to Luke 23:39-43, Jesus was hanging on the cross on the hill of Golgotha. We all know that two evildoers were being crucified together on the left and right sides of the Lord at that time. And under the cross, the chief priests, scribes, and elders looked up at the cross and mocked Jesus. “He saved others, but he cannot save himself. Come down from the cross now, and we will believe.”
Also, passersby shook their heads and insulted Jesus. “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross.”
And even the evildoer who was crucified for committing an evil deed said, "Aren't you the Christ, save you and us?"
People think that if Jesus is the Son of God, he should be able to avoid the cross, and if he happened to be hung on the cross, he should have a decisive chance to come down from the cross. That is what it means to be the son of God. You have to jump off the cross to become famous. It is worthy of the name of Jesus. But Jesus did not come down from the cross.
As the Son of God, Jesus was able to escape this crucifixion. But you did not avoid it. And Jesus didn't even come down from the cross. It wasn't that he couldn't avoid it because he couldn't dodge it. It wasn't that he didn't come down because he didn't have the ability to come down. Because if we avoid the cross, if we come down from the cross, we, poor sinners, cannot be saved. Jesus, the Son of God, came to save us. Therefore, you must not come down from the cross to show people that you are the Son of God. He cannot abandon the people he has come to save in order to become famous.
That's right. You cannot be the true Son of God until you come down from the cross. People say that when Jesus comes down from the cross, they will believe in Him as the Son of God. But if Jesus comes down from the cross, then Jesus is no longer the Son of God.
If the crucified Jesus comes down from the cross with the shouts of angels, then the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people will be judged and destroyed at that moment. And we will all be unable to escape from destruction forever. Foolish people shouted loudly that they would believe if they came down without knowing it.
The one who comes down from the cross is not the Son of God, but the one who does not come down from the cross is the Son of God. People don't know that.
Satan gave Jesus the crude idea of fulfilling a divine purpose by performing an immediate, dazzling, indisputable miracle that the world would love. However, that method is not the method permitted by the Bible, and it is far from the method God has prepared to save the world. Because God's way was for Jesus Christ to go up on the cross, not the church steeple. When Satan tempts Jesus, he persuades him by quoting scriptures in his own way (Matthew 4:6). Satan also persuades and reassures us by directly quoting God's Word to accomplish his purposes. Even though the truth is irrelevant, it is also Satan's method to distort even the Bible in order to get what he claims. In doing so, the Christian is thrown into doubt and confusion and is comforting himself.
No one in this world is free from temptation. Satan does not approach publicly for everyone to know. Satan often attacks Christians with the most plausible reasons, the most religious and the best. Very sneakily, it stimulates and fuels our desires and desires for fame and fame.
But Jesus has no class. He said that the greatest is rather like the lesser, and the chief is like the servant. And he called himself, "I am among you as a servant." Even within the church, there are people who have to set their ranks and classify them in order to unlock their titles. It is the principle of the world, not the principle of the Lord. If you try to solve everything according to the principles of the world, quarrels and sorrows arise, and disputes and strife arise.
The Lord has cast a famous path for us.
Still, if we say that we only want to be famous through the Lord, then it is against the law and ingratitude. The cross of Golgotha is an example of life for all of us to emulate. The sacrificial life that is revealed through the cross, the life of self-giving, the life of absolute obedience to God, these are mankind's hope, future, and alternative.
We believe that we, who live before the Lord as the Lord's children, His disciples, and His servants, should give up fame and become people who work for the Lord without a name or light.
We must break away from the temptation of fame and fame, which are world values, and change to the values of God's kingdom. Knowing that you are always acknowledged, shown, and proud of others as happiness is victory, and knowing it as a blessing is a sick greed, a worldly value, and a perishable value. Jesus adamantly rejects this. "Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test'" (Matthew 4:7). No, it is true happiness and a victorious life to be acknowledged and blessed in our inner relationship with God. People don't become happy because of fame or fame, but because of the grace that comes from a deep and strong relationship with God.
The devil expected that he would be tempted to tempt him by making him famous, but Jesus did not move. We, too, should try to please God instead of trying to get people's attention. Whether people recognize it or not, we must silently do God's work. If we delight in God, God will build us.