Title: Wilderness Church
Contents
Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Some people rose up in the synagogue of the so-called free people, that is, the Cyrenians, the Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia, and they argued with Stephen, and Stephen They were not able to speak in wisdom and in the Holy Spirit, so they bribed men to speak, saying, We have heard this man speak blasphemy against Moses and God. And they set up witnesses, saying, This man does not cease to speak against this holy place and against the law. We have heard that this Jesus of Nazareth is going to destroy this place and change the ordinances that Moses gave us. But all those who were seated in the council looked at Stephen and saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Acts 6:8-15).
While Peter's sermon demonstrated that Jesus was the Messiah of Christ with the evidence of resurrection and the experience of the Holy Spirit's presence, Stephen's famous sermon is characterized by emphasizing the historicity of the church with Christ as the focus. However, the historical origin of the church was not the temple of Judaism at the time when Herod built it, or the temple of Ezra or Nehemiah, or the magnificent temple of Solomon. It is that the tent temple, which was used as the tabernacle, was named the Wilderness Church, and the apostles tried to find the source of the newly started church there. Therefore, we need to reconfirm the true form of our church today in that the Christian church is connected to the wilderness tent church, which is different from the Jewish building-centered temple in terms of meaning and faith.
Judging from the fact that even after Solomon built a magnificent and splendid temple, at the dedication ceremony, he said, "How can God stay in this house made with human hands? If the heavens of heaven are not enough for his dwelling place..." It seems to be a correct expression of God's faith that he always had a regretful heart for having God in that house even though he built the temple with his best and best efforts. Therefore, today, at the meeting where the members of Anam Church put their heart and soul into building and dedicating such a beautiful temple, we must also confess that the living God must not be confined to this temple or to this chapel and not to coincide with this chapel.
Next, the Wilderness Church is a tent church, a church that is together and acts together in the lives of the Israelites. One side of the church is Christ-oriented, and the other side is people-oriented, i.e. people-oriented. The point is that the people or people are not Protestants who see them as socioeconomic class, but specifically the Israeli national community, that is, the human community. This point is well expressed in Stephen's sermon, especially in detailing the history of Moses and emphasizing the fact that there God appeared among the thorns. The point is that God works in the field of history, the field of human community, as the one who saves that person.
And it is emphasized that that community is not just the nation of Israel, the narrow community of the Exodus, but is ultimately connected to the God who lives and saves in the human community. The fact that God, who lives and saves us today, is acting with them as they march forward and backward with the march of the nation of Israel in the tent. Therefore, today Anam Church is still here, but Christ and the church this church serves. Following Christ, the head of this church, the new Israel marches, the marching ranks of our national community, and furthermore, do not deviate from the marching ranks of mankind, become bystanders, or outsiders. , I pray that the mission of the savior, the mission of the guide, the mission of the comforter, warning and the mission of the educator will be fulfilled.
The ultimate purpose of the church is to complete the kingdom of God without a church hall. People are trying to make heaven on earth on this earth for the fortress, and the church is saying that we should focus on realistic concerns, and that the faith attitude of individuals and churches should be more realistic and qualitative, but no matter how ideal it is, it is the heaven We need to reaffirm the fact that this does not happen, and that the kingdom of God cannot be made by human hands or brought down from heaven, even if human beings use extraordinary talents. We confess again that the kingdom of God is a kingdom that God establishes, and that it will be completed only by the coming of Christ.
While dedicating this church today, we need to confirm that this house is a provisional church in the wilderness, a stranger's church, and pray for a better and eternal presence of the church of God and the kingdom of God. The prayers of the early church members who said, ?쏞ome, Lord Jesus,??should be our ultimate prayer.
At this time today, Elder Kichan Kim of this church is also said to be retiring. After all, it is a body that goes through the life of a stranger, but I know that it will get hotter by longing for a better hometown. The wilderness is not a place to live forever. The church is the long-awaited community that longs for eternity, builds the kingdom of God, and awaits the presence of that kingdom. Therefore, there is an absolute in believing in God, but in living in this world, we cannot make an absolute judgment of value. The church cannot be bound by any ideology, let alone the powers of wealth and power in this world, and must make sure that even the ideology or values created by the church itself cannot be consistent with that of the kingdom of God.
The communality of the church is therefore an eschatological community, that is, a community awaiting the kingdom of God, and therefore includes, ignores, and transcends all worldly understandings, views, statuses and positions in spite of their contradictions. You can become one within. Our church now hopes to use this temple as a better home, a tentative base for the second coming of Christ, and a forward base for the completion of the kingdom of God.