Jesus Sending the Title Letter / Revelation 2:1-7
The title of this morning's sermon is "Jesus Who Sent the Letter". A few months ago I watched a video of a movie titled "Letters". It is a film about a beautiful and sad love, and it touched me a lot. The man he loved so passionately gets cancer and dies. But something strange happened. Love letters from the dead are delivered daily. It was about love, and it was about always having courage and living happily. It was so amazing. I was happy but also scared. As I learned later, before the man he loved died of cancer, he wrote a love letter to the woman he loved, one by one, and after he died, he sent the letters to the woman he loved through his friend by mail. The woman who receives the letter swallows the man's hot love with tears and lives happily for the rest of the days while raising her newborn baby beautifully. A beautiful and sad story, isn't it?
There is nothing more moving, more joyful, and sadder than receiving a love letter from a loved one in life. Whenever I read a love letter from my mother, who loved me very much, I feel a burning sensation in my heart. Just reading the first three letters of the letter “To My Son Myung-hyeok” makes you feel the love of a mother with your body temperature.
But I think the story of the Bible this morning is similar to the story of the movie "Letters". After Jesus, who loved the church so much, died, he wrote a letter to the seven churches that the Lord loved and sent the letters to the seven churches through the disciple John. "A letter to the beloved church in Ephesus, to the church in Smyrna, to the church in Pergamum, to the church in Thyatira." As the seven churches in Asia Minor received and read the letters from the Lord, they must have felt a burning heart and love. Now, let me summarize three things about who Jesus is in the love letter. And consider the three words Jesus said together.
1. Jesus knows the church very well. "I know you."
Jesus went to heaven, but He is holding the church with his hands. Although Jesus is on the throne in heaven, He walks among the church members. So, you know the church very well. He is the one who knows exactly where any butler is sitting and thinking. Jesus knows us all too well. He knows our weaknesses and He knows our strengths. He knows our impatience and our lazy nature. He knows whether to come early or to come late to the service. My mother knew me all too well. You know I'm good at pranks, and you know I'm adventurous. So when I was 11 years old when I left Pyongyang and came to the south, one of the last words my mother told me was, 'Be careful not to do anything dangerous.'
The fact that someone knows everything about me can be a burden, but I don't know how much comfort and strength it gives us. "I know you." Moreover, the fact that Jesus, who is full of love, compassion, and power, knows all our circumstances and circumstances, we do not know how much strength, comfort, and courage it gives us. Jesus knows us all too well. "I know you."
2. Jesus is the one who praises and rebukes the church. "But I have something against you."
Jesus knows what the church is good at and knows everything it is doing wrong, but He praises what it does well and rebukes what it does wrong. I received many compliments from my mother, but also many rebukes. Selling was sometimes right. Praise and reproof are essential to our people. Jesus may be the wise one who praises and rebukes us.
He wrote to the church in Ephesus, praising them for their hard work and perseverance. Yet he rebuked them for their mistakes. “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” While writing a letter to the Smyrna Church, he praised them for being spiritually rich even though they were physically afflicted and economically destitute. He wrote to the church in Pergamum, praising him for not giving up his faith in the midst of persecution. Still, he rebuked them for their mistakes. "But I have a few things against you, there are those who keep the teachings of Balaam to you." He wrote a letter to the church in Thyatira, praising their love, faith, service, and perseverance. Still, he rebuked them for their mistakes. "But I have something against you. You tolerate Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet."
3. Jesus is the One who calls for repentance. “Therefore, repent.”
What Jesus said in common to 5 out of 7 churches was, “Therefore, repent.” In fact, the word “repent” is what Jesus continued to say from the beginning of his public life even after his resurrection and ascension into heaven. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). “Therefore remember where you have fallen, repent and do the first works” (5). “Repent therefore” (16). "I have given her opportunity to repent, but she will not repent of her fornication. If she does not repent of her deeds, I will cast her into great tribulation" (21:22).
Why did Jesus repeatedly say to the churches he loved so much to repent? I think it's for two reasons. First, because churches and believers are always weak beings who commit sins. There is not a single person in the world who does not commit sins. Second, the only way for churches and believers to receive God's grace and blessings is through repentance. David was blessed when he repented. When the thief repented, he received the blessing of salvation. When Peter repented, he was blessed. When the Korean church repented in 1907, this country was blessed. Now, our country is being trampled on by the forces of evil personally, family and socially. Sexual morality is so promiscuous that it is becoming like a beast. The love of money has reached such an extreme that there is no place where corruption is not rampant. For money, I would not hesitate to kill my aunt, my son, my husband, and my wife.
The church in Ephesus said that they had abandoned their first love. I think the Korean church has also abandoned their first love. The Korean church loved God passionately in its early days. Money was not a problem, and life was not a problem. For the love of God, I gave up my love for money, love for self, and love for pleasure. But now it's the opposite. I was willing to give up the love of God for self-love, money-loving, and pleasure-loving.
Now, the only way for the Korean church to live is to repent. The only way for our messy families and society to be reborn is through repentance. Last year, Korean church leaders and lay people gathered together to write and read the “Repentance Prophecy” together and repent. Today marks the 481th anniversary of the Reformation. About 250 church leaders wrote the "Korean Church Reformation Declaration" and decided to launch a repentance movement.
Repentance is the first cry to God with a contrite soul. Like David, the soul cries out to God. And it is to change your life by will. Now, I hope that you will confess your repentance before God while reading the declaration of repentance for the lay faithful distributed to you. I hope that the declaration of repentance offered at this time will be a confession of repentance acceptable to God.