Title Cursed Cities/Matthew 11:20-24
Contents There are problems facing modern cities. For example, there are various problems such as population concentration problem, traffic problem, housing problem, air pollution, environmental destruction, and crime problem. No matter where you go in the world, you can easily discover that the bigger the city, the bigger the problems it faces.
The same was true of ancient cities. The bigger the city, the bigger the problem. And the important thing is that some of those cities survive to this day, some have disappeared.
For example, cities such as Sodom, Gorora, and Pompeii disappeared.
The three cities mentioned in the text also disappeared. Those three cities are Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Those three cities aren't as big as Seoul or New York, but they were big cities in the area at the time.
Finding the reasons why those cities disappeared will help characterize the modern city and shape our position.
1. Because it was a city of distrust.
Verse 20 says, “Then he rebuked the towns in which he had shown the greatest power because they did not repent.”
Repentance is the result of unbelief. If you believe, the repentance movement will happen, but if you do not believe, you will not repent. However, what is noteworthy here is that the city is personified as a person. The fact that Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum did not repent means that the people in those cities did not repent.
Repentance is a human duty to stand before God. And it is the process of salvation. In other words, without repentance, salvation is not complete.
Repentance has the following steps:
The first step is to become aware.
You must realize, feel, and discover your sin.
The second step is to admit it.
You must admit your sins and mistakes you have made. You must not make excuses or make excuses.
The third step is to confess.
You must confess your sins with your mouth, and you must also confess your faith with your mouth. In other words, we must confess, "Lord, I am a sinner."
And I have to confess my sins openly and openly, as if I were writing an autobiography.
The fourth step is to ask for forgiveness.
It should not end with just a confession. I must ask for forgiveness for the sins I confessed with God's mercy and love.
The fifth step is to believe in forgiveness.
I have to believe that if I confess my sins and ask for forgiveness, He will forgive me. The Bible everywhere promises that God forgives our sins. He promised to forgive us whiter than snow and whiter than wool (Isa. 1:18) and blot out our sins (Isa. 44:22). He promised to remove our sins as far away as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12).
The sixth step is to turn around.
Repentance must turn from there. You must step out of there, wash your hands, and leave the site. We must cast away our regrets about sin. True repentance is a change of direction.
The seventh step is to return to God.
If you stop on your way and turn around, you must immediately return to God. That is true repentance. You must not go anywhere else.
The eighth step is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Humans have a tendency to return. They say they have repented, but there is a high possibility that they will go back to the old days. However, if I receive the Holy Spirit filled with the Holy Spirit and follow the directions of the Holy Spirit, I cannot return to the way of sin. If I am possessed by the power of God the Holy Spirit, I have no choice but to live according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The people of the city of Chora heard the gospel and witnessed the miracles of the Lord, but they did not repent.
What about modern cities? How many people who live in Jangan, Seoul do not know the church and who do not know Jesus? If there are, there will be very few. However, there are still many people who do not believe in Jesus. No, I can't even think of 12 million Seoul citizens. Among my family, my relatives, my neighbors, and my friends, there are people who live like Gorashin.
If there is no repentance to return to God, the next thing is only destruction.
2. Because it was a city of pride.
Verse 23 says, “Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven?
There was an angel Lucifer who insisted on ascending to an equal position with God. The angel fell and became the devil.
In Genesis 11, there were people who gathered in the Plain of Shinar and built a city. They began to build the castle by making bricks and making bitumen.
The height of the city was to reach to heaven, and the purpose was to humble God and make his name known. But the tower collapsed. The tower of pride that humans first tried to build is now gone.
Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 also melted in the brimstone fire because of pride, depravity, immorality, and unbelief.
Neither individuals, cities, history nor dynasties should be proud. In particular, pride is forbidden in the religious life.
King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian dynasty was driven out because of pride, King Saul of Israel was also ousted from the throne, and Haman, the Prime Minister of Persia, also died because of pride.
As the British theologian Jeremy Taylor once said, "Think of what you were before you were born. Then you were nothing. Think about what you were over the years. It was weakness. Then you "Think of who you are. That is a great sinner. Who are you before your neighbor and God. You are indebted to God, your parents, and your neighbor. If we think about these things, we must be humble every day."
What does the story of the two giants who lit up the early Korean church teach us?
The city of Capernaum, which was supposed to be exalted to heaven, disappeared without a trace.
This story does not end with Capernaum alone.
The Hebrew word for pride is gaon. It means "to give". Pride or [gaon] is when you inflate yourself with what you have or what you have, and inflate it, as if you have known, possessed, and mastered everything in the world. There is also the word zud. It means to be proud, to be arrogant. But there is a Greek word that best describes pride. It is the word tupho. Its meaning is "to burn slowly", "to burn out". That's right. A humble person rises slowly but surely. But the proud person burns slowly, as if a candle is going out.
Is that all? Pride is what makes fame, success, possessions, and popularity disappear one day.
Psalm 119:21 says, “Cursed is pride”.
In James 4:6 it says, "The Lord opposes the proud."
We must strictly guard against pride. We must stay away from pride.
3. Because you are cursed.
Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum Why did these cities disappear from the field of history? In verse 20, they were “reproved”, and in verse 21, they were cursed, saying, “Woe to you!” And if you look at 23, you were rebuked and cursed, saying, “You will be brought low even to hell.”
We must find an important lesson here. It means that neither the land nor the people nor the nation have a place to stand when they are cursed by God.
In Genesis 3, the earth was cursed and thorns and thistles began to grow.
In Genesis 9, it is recorded that Ham, the second son of Noah, is cursed. His father, Noah, was drunk with wine and fell asleep naked. Seeing this scene, Ham ran out and talked about it. But Shem and Japheth turned their faces and went back in and put their clothes on. "You are cursed to be the servant of your brother's servants."
The descendants of that same Ham later scattered across Sidon, Gerar, Sodom, and Gomorrah, and became the ancestors of the blacks.
The opposite of a curse is a blessing. What we need is not a curse. What we want is a blessing. Me, my family, my relatives, my neighbors, my friends, and my country should be a blessed country.
There are several hallways. There are various types of blessings such as wealth, health, children, honor, and married couples. However, it is difficult to receive or possess all these blessings. If you had to choose one of them, which one would you choose?
I chose the blessing of believing in Jesus. Because faith is the secret to all blessings.
I was the son of a poor peasant. In my childhood, I was so envious of eating, wearing, and writing properly. I was the poorest in the town I lived in. However, my mother told me that I must not stop believing in Jesus and studying, so I sold rice fields and fields, and taught me to study.
If I hadn't believed in Jesus, and if I hadn't continued my studies, I get dizzy when I think about what I would be like now. Did you become a thief? Did you become a gangster? Or is he already dead? The more I think about it, the more the hymn of “Oh, I don’t know why God’s grace redeems this useless body” approaches with emotion.
Gentlemen, unbelief is the cause of the curse. Pride is the cause of the destruction of the curse. Let us cast away our pride before God. Let's confess our faith.
And rescue my family, my relatives, my neighbors and my friends from the cursed death.
To them I believe in Jesus
jesus i met
i love jesus
Let me testify of the salvation I have received.
I cannot leave them alone in the heap of curses.
It must be dried.
must survive.
Let us be blessed together and receive eternal life.
1994. 5. 22.