Title: Wasn't Your Heart Hot? (April 11)
Content span id="writeContents">Text: Luke 24:28-35
Easter is the most important holiday in Christianity.
I believe that Easter is a time of blessing that gives us the fact that death is not stronger than life, that suffering is a process, not an outcome, and that for Christians, whatever process they go through, the end leads to victory. .
I only put on these “afflictions” and “resurrection” decorations behind the pulpit a few days ago. I asked whoever it was. When I asked him why he did it so late instead of a little earlier, he said that “resurrection” was added late to make him think only about suffering during the Holy Week. That's not it.
Because we have the resurrection, we can endure suffering. No matter how well you live, if it is certain that you will perish in a few days, even living well now is unfortunate. However, no matter how difficult or difficult it is, if it is clear that things will get better in a while, then there is no poverty, no difficulties, no hardships. That is the doctrine of Christianity here.
Last Friday, our church rented 3 movie theaters to watch the movie “The Passion of the Christ” by all members of the church. I cried a lot. As I was leaving after watching the movie, Master Kwon held my hand and said something like that. “I have to start my life of faith again.”
Although cinema is an art that can end with emotion, there is a message that really lives on in it, and it has come to us. It does not end with emotion, but in my life, the suffering of the Lord has entered deeply into my heart.
His suffering does not end with his suffering. When I think of the Lord who suffered because of me, gratitude comes naturally, and I realize that the cross is a token of love that forgives my sins.
If there is a word from the Lord to us this morning of the Resurrection...
“Are you happy because of me?” "Amen"
When they followed Jesus, they saw so many miracles. A man stricken with a mortal disease was healed. I saw a person who was not like a human being changed and changed to such an extent that the words “No, how did that person…” come out spontaneously.
It was amazing to hear the words, and it was all new to see. Until now in their short life, they had never met a person who gave them so much excitement and hope.... Through Jesus, a new dream has begun for them.
They thought that he was the great patriot who would find the lost nation and restore the lost Israel. When that country comes, we will rise to a good position and become a minister, a member of the National Assembly, and... Those who lived their whole lives as fishermen and had to die as fishermen were their sellers. The one who followed Jesus, who would become the king of Israel who would restore the kingship, could not speak a word properly, suffered unimaginable suffering and pain, and took up the cross.
Even as I followed the place of the cross, I thought that he would come down from the cross, but on the cross, he died out of nowhere. The problem was not the suffering of Jesus, not the problem of Jesus' death, but their dreams were dead. I lost hope.
It is said that the most unhappy people are when they lose their dreams. When you lose hope, everything loses its meaning. Depression is the most common disease these days. You don't know how much depression you have. When you get depressed, everything loses meaning. Laughter is meaningless, well-being is meaningless, and meeting people is meaningless. A time of loss of meaning...
They have no hope now and are going down to their former hometown. It is not the hometown you go down from success, but the road to the hometown where you fail and go down is bound to be a heavy step. But then, someone came along with me. I don't know who he is, but while talking with him, he found strangely that their words were very different from what he was saying. We're talking about the same event, we're talking about disappointment, but he's talking about hope. He was talking about a sad cross, but he was talking about the resurrection after the cross.
What is the difference between a person before having faith and a person after having faith? It is said that the same event has meaning for those who have faith. I didn't know who he was. Even though we were together, I didn't know who he was. Christianity is not a religion in which we seek Jesus, but a religion in which Jesus comes to us.
I don't know why you came looking for me. I don't know why he went with me among so many people. It wasn't because I went out well, but came to find me who was unsuccessful. You came to see me in a lethargy that I could not do anything. You came to see me in my depression.
The Lord is with you now. The Lord is with us now. It is not the gospel that the gospel is different, but that He is with us now.
After listening to the Word, the two disciples later confessed.
“The moment we heard the word, didn’t our hearts warm up?”
Christianity is a hot religion. Christianity is a religious religion. Why is my heart fluttering so... Why is my heart pounding so much... A strange wave started crashing into my disappointing heart. A wave of disappointment began to enter me. The word became a fire, and it started to get hot.
Haven't we all experienced such a thrill at least once? Because the word is hot, our hearts get hot.... Why do we cry when we hear the word, and why our heart gets so excited when we hear the word.... Confidence grows with just one word , One word of the word gives me confidence... Because of this, we say that Christianity is a living religion.
“Did not your heart burn when you heard the word? When I heard the word, my heart was warm, but wasn’t your heart too hot?”
I have sometimes introduced to you that the word becomes fire because my heart is burning, but it is time to go to Gwangju and hold a revival meeting. It is the story of a 35-year-old old virgin. Since my father is an alcoholic, my family has been at odds since I was little. I want to go to middle school, but I don't have the money. He's very smart... So, from middle school to a young age, I worked as a tutor for other children, and went to middle school, high school, and university nursing. Until I reached that age, I couldn't even get married because I had to study for my younger siblings. He was a man who gave up getting married and really devoted himself to his younger siblings.
He was working at the hospital as the head nurse on the cancer ward. One day, he suddenly found out that he had cancer. Cancer wasn't even the beginning.... He was waiting for death at home, refusing treatment at the hospital because he knew better than anyone that he had reached the point where surgery could not be done.
Someone from my neighbor introduced me to my meeting and attended. At first, my heart was not open. All I could think of was death. But suddenly, my heart started to heat up in the words. As I once introduced to all of you, the Word becomes a fire in your heart, and during that meeting, you can't control yourself and jump. My face turned red and I had it on fire for a month.
He received fire there and healed the cancer. Now in Gwangju, he has become the person who does the most evangelism. My heart was hot. It is not a fire of thought, but that our Christianity is an actual fire. It is not a religion that I understand, but a religion that appears as it is in my life. it will be on fire.
With a fire burning in John Wesley's heart, "the world is my parish" he founded our Methodist Church. The church in Korea today has become cold. He's smart, he's smart, but he's learned a lot.... Today's theology is a rational theology, not a living faith. If I don't understand something, I try not to believe it. Christianity is not a religion to understand, but a religion to believe in, but I don't know that.
You guys have to believe it. you have to believe You have to believe for history to appear.
“Isn’t your heart hot?” What did they do after their hearts got hot? It was going back to Jerusalem. I started to believe that Jesus, who I thought was dead, has risen. They did not know who the person who was with me now was with their physical eyes, but after the word became warm and the word was understood, they came to know that he was Jesus. I changed my mind. Let's follow along.
“If you change your mind, you will be blessed. A change of mind is a blessing.”
It's the same thing, but the meaning is different. In Jerusalem, the people who returned to their homeland with a disappointing heart at the same place returned to Jerusalem after meeting the living Lord. It means going back to where you came from. It means that I stopped on my way and went back to Jerusalem.
What is Jerusalem? It is where the living Lord dwells. Meeting the living Lord is what we need. As long as we meet the Lord, our faith becomes a living faith.
Guys, isn't faith the same? There is living faith, there is dead faith, there is great faith, there is little faith, there is faith in which history appears, and there is faith in which history does not appear.
Dear brothers and sisters, I hope that our church will become a church with living faith. We want our church to be a church that warms our hearts.
You should be excited when you hear the word. It's not the world's story. The Lord who I thought was dead has risen and is with me. Living history warms our hearts, excites us.... Through this kind of history of faith...
What is the thrill of resurrection? They say that death cannot overcome life, that darkness can never obscure the light, that injustice cannot overcome justice. I believe that this very faith in the resurrection should become our confession. Faith in the resurrection is not a distant story, nor is it someone else's story, but our confession.
Please come up to a place where your heart is warmed from such a warm and lukewarm place of faith. As we listen to the Word every hour, I hope that the work that warms our hearts will be revealed. So, let's turn from the path of disappointment and become people of hope. I hope that you will become people of hope, meet the resurrected Lord, and hear from the Lord the precious words we need to live in the future. Let's pray like us.
“Thank you, God the Father, we welcome the morning of the resurrection. You have defeated the power of darkness, which was difficult, difficult, and fearful, and now you have met the morning of hope. Help me to become great overcomers of faith. Like the two disciples, when we gather at this altar and listen to the Word, may our hearts be warmed. Help us, who, like the two disciples, descend to a place of disappointment with a burning heart, rise to a place of hope. So, help us to become a church that gives glory to God, and help them to have the precious history of the saints living with the living faith and the thrill of resurrection. I earnestly pray in the name of Jesus. Amen."