title co-worker
After breaking up with Barnabas, Paul goes on a second missionary trip to strengthen their faith by revisiting the place where he had gone on his first missionary journey.
From verses 1 to 5, how he met Timothy and took him with him, and from verses 6 to 10, which we see today, the content of the many saints having doubts and disappointments in their hearts. The Holy Spirit prevented us from preaching the word in Asia. So, Paul tried to go to Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow him, and even more so, he saw a vision telling him to come to Macedonia, and this is the record that he left for Macedonia. Oftentimes, this verse is one of the verses that saddened Koreans, especially for Asians, especially in Asia, because Korea is the most Christian zealot. At this time, if the Lord had allowed him to preach the gospel to Asia, it would have been this Asia that ruled the world today, and the whites would not have been the ones to be held accountable for. However, this is one of the biggest misconceptions.
And the Asia mentioned here is not the side we live in, but the peninsula of Asia Minor. This is where Turkey is. So, at most, Paul was hovering near Palestine. Although the nationalism of Israel was surpassed, the people of Israel were still unable to escape from the place where they were most scattered. However, because God's plan is to spread the gospel to the whole world and to save all mankind through Paul, he is calling Paul to get him out of his nest quickly, not Asia.
Don't do it with just one side. It feels unfair to be born in Asia because Asia is getting worse. Maybe it would have been better if we were born when we were living well. Even if you were born in the US, if you were born black, it would be stupid. There is nothing as nonsensical as driving the Bible by looking at the Bible and tying it with what you want now. But when you read the Bible, you do things that are absurd. This is because the perspective of looking at the Bible is very insufficient. Often we don't even know the ABC's of what the Bible's responsibilities and demands are.
For example, something like this. I've been asked this question before. ‘Is King Saul of the Old Testament saved or not? ’, but think about it for a moment.
There are many records in the Old Testament that we do not know what would have happened to us now. Saul is one of those representatives. Seeing that he became the king of Israel and was chosen to be anointed by God, he must have been saved. In the middle, he became a completely different person, disobeyed God’s command, was deposed, and was deposed by God. When I see that he opposes the chosen David, is cursed by the evil spirit, and eventually commits suicide and dies, it doesn't seem like it...
As we look at the Old and New Testaments, one thing to be clear is that the Old Testament does not have records to answer the questions asked a while ago. The most important focus of the Old Testament writings is on who God is.
So, out of the many things that God wants to record and let us know, how high is God in the Old Testament as a whole? How is God so powerful? What does God like? What do you hate? It is the focus of the content. So in the Old Testament judgment is very swift. But now, even if you do something far worse than then, the judgment does not come so quickly. This is because the focus of writing that the Old Testament aims at is completely different from what the New Testament aims at.
As mentioned earlier, the Old Testament focuses on who God is, and the New Testament focuses on how the believer uses the content of his faith.
So, when it comes to the New Testament, judgment is very much withheld. There are always failures, there are failures, and there are failures, so coming back and going back and forth becomes a record, and you come across things like these and other things that make you think and conflict. So if you look at the Bible for a spell on how to get what you want without chasing what the Bible is trying to explain, you won't get the answer you need from the Bible.
As it is today, in this record in which the Holy Spirit prevents us from preaching the word in Asia and drives Paul and Silas to Macedonia, we are not asking why God did it, but what essential content God wants us to know in this record You should be able to listen.
The first thing we need to confirm in this passage is that God calls us to be co-workers. As I said at the beginning, ‘Why did God prevent us from preaching the Gospel to Asia? ’ Not this, but the fact that God calls us to be co-workers. What it means is that when the things God wants to do and what we want to do do not match the meaning of what God wants us to do, He never says, “You go your way, I go my way” and coaxes, persuades, and coerces us to go together.
Do you know the game of two players three angles? It is a game in which two people tie their feet one by one and make two people have three feet, so they have to match each other's breath. We have to cooperate with each other and we have to adapt.
God is calling us to be such co-workers in what God wants to do. That is why Paul has sincerity for the Lord and is passionate about preaching the gospel, but when it does not go according to God's plan and will, the Holy Spirit comes and persuades him, and keeps telling him how God works and under what plan, and works together. see. You don't know how blessed this is for us. In other words, a believer is an expression of a noble being. A person who walks with God in all things.
Let's go to Matthew 16. “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. ” (Matthew 16:18, 19)
That is the glorious status of believers. God is the only one who binds what is bound in heaven with our hands on earth. It means that what we set out to be loosed in heaven can only be released on earth with our own hands. It means that God does not work alone. It is only through us that the gospel is preached, the kingdom of God is expanded, and the glory of God is witnessed because God has adopted that method. God has limited Himself in that sense.
There is a saying among the jokes. I see people who can't marry or get married even though they're old enough, or what is it that they still can't do? It's because they're all ready, but there's only one thing missing. What is it, then there is no bride. Everything else is ready. For example, if you have health, money, and the will to do something, as they say these days, even if you have a house and a car, you can't get married without a bride. God sees us as such, so to speak.
It's not like we're working on a car, a house, a sofa, a toothpick, or whatever God works. A bride is one of the most essential people in a wedding.
God does His work that way. So, in John 17:18, Jesus explains the existence of a believer like this: “As the Father sent me into the world, so I also sent them into the world.”
Please savor these words carefully. The Lord came to this earth in obedience to the will of the Father. A brief look at the Lord's work at that time reveals that God is always satisfied with His work and existence. “This is my beloved son. He is my delight.” It always is. “Listen to them. I have been glorified and will be glorified in the future.” We always testify that God is 100% satisfied with the existence and work of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, on the part of Jesus, “I do not want to do what pleases me, but to do what pleases my Father, so my Father is always with me.” talk like that
For the sake of my father's pleasure, I withhold all of me. yield you talk like that There is, of course, how solid the cooperation system is when the two of you work together, but in other words, the Lord is limited by the Father, and God the Father is limited through the Son Jesus, and that the limitation is insufficient. I see it as a relationship in which the two of them must agree so much to do something, rather than being limited by one side. This is what sends us as such beings.
So, at the end of Matthew 28, Junip says: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b).
Isn't that like the declaration of Jesus when he came to this earth, "Father does not leave me alone, because I do the things that please the Father"? This is what the Bible wants to tell us today in the incident where Paul saw a vision under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This is Paul's vision and not Paul's privilege. It is God's hospitality and relationship to all believers. It's not just Paul.
Second, we must remember that the first thing we looked at in this work together was, 'How does God want us to be limited in us, and how does he want us to be limited in God? If it was something to do, it is how diligently God accomplishes what God has planned, even though he is subject to this limitation. We see this in this case today.
If we do not understand the Spirit, we must not understand it through books, general revelation, other common sense, or anything else, even through visions later to convince us of the will of the Father and fulfill it. We must go another way. In this case, we can see God's power to prevent us from going without a mask and the zeal that works directly with power.
We must never overlook this issue. The life of faith is ultimately a battle of how much God's intervention, guidance, and obedience to God's demands. What is the least of the faith is the faith that comes from going the other way and being beaten.
Unfortunately, however, the testimony of the Korean church and what believers are proud of are how true they are. But what is it like? If you talk like your children, how much did you explode after not studying? How many times did Bokki-jjak break up? How did the watermelon break so many times? It's nothing but pride. A child's pride should be in the active development of a job that makes them great by studying, but he didn't do that.