Title: When the Word of God Comes
1. Introduction: Restoration of Unity through the Church
- God did not establish the church on this earth simply as a group to be praised by the people of this world. It has to do with the universal plan of creating heaven and earth and restoring the created world when it was corrupted by sin. When God created the heavens and the earth, all the worlds were good, and all creatures were organically connected.
And through that union, the glory of God in the creation shone. However, when humans sinned, all connections were broken, and sin entered all creation. God did not leave this world alone, but gave the light of knowledge that could lead to salvation.
Through that light, they had faith to see the coming Messiah, and through that faith they were saved. Those who were saved in this way formed the church with Jesus Christ as their head.
The church is grafted into the crucified and risen Christ for our sins. Thus, the church will preemptively restore the unity that was broken by sin.
2. Body
1) Dark Ages
- The text describes the era at the time, naming five political leaders and two religious leaders. They show the background of the time in which John the Baptist lived. None of them feared God, and no one could read the optimism that God would be with them.
They were mean and vile political leaders, hypocrites religious leaders. This era was the time when John the Baptist was born.
- The value of the church is revealed by how it glorifies God in these very times. When the church fulfills its duty and reveals who God is, these times are rather an opportunity for the church to reveal the glory of God.
The darker the times, the more the church and Christians can reveal the true light. And the three means by which God allows the church to be proudly revealed as the body of Christ are the Word, prayer, and the Holy Spirit.
2) The man who was captivated by the word of God, John the Baptist
- God is always the Lord of the church and the Lord of the whole world. And He wants us who believe in the Lord to go into the world and restore it back to the created world full of the glory of God. What God did for that was to prepare for the birth of a man named John the Baptist.
He was already destined to come from the Old Testament. In the past, there was a person who called for the king to go before he went. The protruding ground is broken down and lowered, and the hollowed ground is filled in. This is what John the Baptist came to do.
However, he knew that the way Jesus Christ came was not the way of the king of the world, and he knew that the way he wanted to go was the way of the heart, so he proclaimed repentance and prepared the hearts of people.
- Even though the times change a lot, the way God heals the world is always the same. It is a way to bring the word of God to a person. Through this method, God made the church full of glory.
The glory of the church is not the gathering of many saints. It is the glory of the church that the word of God is always proclaimed magnificently, and conversion works through the word, and they become children of God, and those who become children of God preserve that conversion and live.
- John the Baptist found God while searching for God with all his heart. When we say that the word of God has come to anyone or anyone, it is not merely an intellectual realization, but it means the idea of the soul in which the word of God is deeply planted in his heart.
It becomes a person who gives up all his former values and views and becomes obsessed with divine values, and becomes seized with an unspeakable longing for the glory of God. We must become Christians captivated by the Word of God. Those who do not are like chaff blown by the wind. You must be captivated by the word of the gospel, keep the influence of the word, and live your life of faith in the ability to live according to the word.
3) in the empty field
- It was the empty fields where the word of God came to John the Baptist. The wilderness does not simply mean the natural side. The wilderness at that time was not a friendly forest where streams and flowers sprouted.
It was a place where there was scorching sun during the day, chills at night, and the threat of wild beasts. So, on the one hand, the wilderness represents the state of the heart where there is no one to help but God.
- How is your spirit? Do you still retain the lowered heart and joy from God when you met Christ?
Do you still have the confession that you cannot live without the Lord? Are you satisfied with your stable life, losing your heart to contact with the world, and losing your original calling from God?
- Think of how lonely John the Baptist must have been when he lived in the wilderness. In the past, you lived in darkness because you did not know Jesus Christ, but now you know Jesus Christ and experience His grace, why are you living in sin and suffering because of that fact?
Do you have a sad heart that you cannot live without the light of truth and grace that comes from Him, that there is no world and no me, but only Christ who saved you?
Are you so poor in spirit that you look to Christ? The world desperately needs the testimony of Christ. Because we did not hear this testimony, we lived in the dark for so long.
As a person who has tasted the grace that has been delivered from darkness, we must live like a person who has tasted the great love of the kingdom of heaven that others do not know. We must live as people who belong to the light with the infinite burden of the gospel.
2004-02-15