Title: What Fathers Do and What Sons Do
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: John 15:1-12
Title: What Fathers Do and What Sons Do!
There is a saying in our proverb that even hedgehogs are as cute as their young. That is how much he loves his children. To us, a prickly cub may look so cute, but to a hedgehog, he is a precious and lovable child. How much less must a silent animal love its own children like this, how much more should a person who is the lord of all things love his own children?
But these days, children killing their parents are not uncommon. Parents are also blinded by money, killing their children without blinking an eye. This is often the case in Eastern Courtesy, where children should respect their parents, and parents should cherish and love their children. This is not unusual. In the light of God's Word, it is telling us that the end of the world is not far away.
A few days ago, a 14-year-old middle school student set fire to his apartment, and the entire family was burnt to death. To borrow his words, he wanted to go to a high school where he could sing and dance, but his father wanted to kill him by beating him with a golf club and threatening him to become a judge and prosecutor. The beating parent is a problem, but the child who kills the parent also did something unforgivable.
At least 30 or 40 years ago, our parents have sacrificed unconditionally for their children, not sparing their all for their children. “Forgetting all the hardships of giving birth, you are working hard day and night to change the place of your heart, and you are suffering until your hands and feet are worn out.” The poorly raised children grow up selfishly and become a more and more brutal society.
When God created man, he did not tell him to live this way as it is today. When God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, they were judged because they went against the laws God had given them at that time. It is said that men lost interest in sleeping with women, and became more interested and delighted in sleeping with men. This is against God's law.
Likewise, today, children killing their parents and parents killing their children are also against God's law. Rather, it can be said that the present situation is worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah. At that time, it was limited to fornication, but today the hierarchy of families is collapsing. To say that the family hierarchy is breaking down means that Satan is taking over everything according to his will. For this reason, God's judgment is short-lived.
A proper parent sacrifices everything for their children. So, even if you suffer, you wait for only one child to get better, and you do not hesitate to go through all sorts of hardships and suffer to death for the sake of your children. That is the duty of parents. At that time, the children who grew up eating the sacrifices of their parents would never forget the kindness they had for their parents for the rest of their lives, and they would pay filial piety to their parents over and over again. This is the dory of becoming a child soon.
A farmer sows seeds in the spring to get a bountiful harvest in the fall. Likewise, God sows seeds in the spring to obtain a bountiful harvest in the fall and is waiting for the autumn harvest. Summer is an inevitable part of the road to autumn. It is because of this process that God compared the Israelites to summer fruits.
God had sent His Son before the people of Israel in order to reap the summer fruit from among them. Unfortunately, however, the Israelites spit on and beat the son of the owner's house, who had come to gather the summer fruit, and eventually threw it out of the vineyard and killed him by the hands of a foreigner. God is angry and has destroyed all the vineyards, and now he is looking forward to the autumn harvest from the Gentiles to be brought into God's barn.
If we compare God's work to a farming method, it can be seen as a spring sown for about 2,000 years from Adam to Noah's Flood. Spring is the most difficult time to spend because there is really nothing to eat. Even in Korea, until the early 70's, there was a saying called "Borit Pass". It means that everyone had a hard time until the barley came out in early summer because every house ran out of food.
Among the three festivals in Israel, there is a festival called the Feast of Harvest. In a nutshell, the Harvest Festival is a festival to “not forget the grace of God received in the past”. Unlike other grains, barley is not harvested in spring when seeds are sown, but in early summer by seeds sown in the previous fall. Therefore, the meaning of the Feast of Harvest is that God prepared food for the Israelites to eat in case of hunger before the summer fruits came out. to say thank you very much.
When the harvest season is over and summer begins in earnest, the summer fruits come out. Summer is hot, so you need a lot of water. Grapes are one of the representative fruits of summer. Grapes are said to contain nutrients that are good for our body. According to the contents published in the American medical journal, grapes have a unique taste due to glucose and fructose, and are rich in calcium, potassium, and vitamins A. B. C. It is an alkaline food with a lot of iron. The main component ratio of grapes is 81.5% water, 0.5% protein, 17.1% carbohydrate, and 0.1% fat.
Jesus compares himself to a vine. And he compares God to a farmer. “I am the vine and you are the branches. If he is in me and I in him, this man bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” will be. Jesus, who came to the land of Israel, did not save all people in the world, but only saved some of the Israelites who believed in him and some Gentiles living in the vicinity. The 2,000-year history of Israel, which began with Abraham, is also viewed as the summer season until Jesus comes.
God sees the salvation process of the Gentiles as the last autumn harvest work. Perhaps God was waiting for this moment. If he sent his son to the land of Israel and gained some of the Israelites and some Gentiles as summer fruits, now God is expecting grains through his son to all people in the world at the end of 2,000 years of Christian history.
Unlike the summer ones, the grains obtained in the fall must be stored for a long time in the warehouse before eating, so do not eat soft or juicy grains like grapes. Even when we store rice in a grain bar, it rots if it gets too wet, so it is dried in the sun before it is put into the grain bar. Likewise, calling only the name of Jesus today will never be a grain. In order for us to become grains, we must completely remove all impurities remaining in the cage. The impurity that remains in man is the sin that remains in our hearts. This impurity cannot be removed by man himself, but must be through the Son sent by God.
There is no need to remove moisture because it is not stored with the summer fruit. Therefore, the people of Israel at that time could be saved if they believed in the Son sent by God. But the hearts of Gentiles, including Christians today, are full of too many impurities (sins). Therefore, by calling only the name of Jesus, who came to the land of Israel, you cannot completely remove the impurities in your heart.
In order for all Gentiles, including Christians, to have their impurities removed from their hearts and be recognized as grain, when Jesus comes again as a spirit through the Gentiles, we must believe and accept Him as the Son of God. When he comes and speaks “of the impurity (sin) that is in me,” if I admit it, he will forgive all our sins and make us born again.
However, even when Jesus came to the land of Israel, the proud people at that time did not believe in the Son because they thought they were summer fruits. Likewise today, those who consider themselves to be wheat will never immediately listen to what Jesus said when he came in the form of a Gentile. This is because such a person will only be thinking of Jesus, who has come to the land of Israel. This is because the devil is working to make you think that way.
Those who may mistake the Holy Spirit for the Spirit of Christ among believers should not confuse the Spirit of Christ with the Holy Spirit. Like the law given to the Jews, the Holy Spirit only makes people realize their sins, but never removes the impurities in them. If the Holy Spirit had removed the evil in man, the church today would not have gone as corrupt as this. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is responsible for convincing God's people of their sins and holding them in the church so that they cannot go out of the world anymore until the Son comes again before the Gentiles.
Therefore, only the Son of God who comes before us personally is the only one who can remove the impurities heard in human beings. For the Father has given him all authority only to his Son. That is, the Father (the Holy Spirit) had prepared in advance what the Son would do in the future for 2,000 years of Christian history. This is to say that the work of the Father (the Holy Spirit) and the work of the Son (the Spirit of Christ) are different. -He who has ears, let him hear and understand!-