The Church that Crosses Boundaries
Contents
Every person who attends a church service has a reason and motive for participating in the service. God also communicates and interacts with each person through this very medium. Also, as we worship together, we form a group personality. God also communicates and has a relationship with this collective personality that has become a worshiping community. God wants and expects from these collective personalities as well. In general, however, the church emphasizes only the relationship with God as an individual person. Our relationship with God as a collective person is often neglected or overlooked. God deals with individual persons as well as with collective persons. I don't know if the collective personality of Saegil Church has been formed, but I want to stand before God as Saegil Church and think about it as Saegil Church.
These days, we lament a lot about the current state of affairs. Cases of children beating their friends are now so common that they are not even shocking. A few days ago, a student from the right next door came to an apartment. The hostess opens the door without warning. The student enters the house, steals money, and kills the old woman. Ask the 3-year-old, "Do you know who I am?" When the child nods, he kills the child as well. It's a sad story about teenage children. So the leader of the ruling party has declared a war on violence. The police say they will treat teenage students as gang crimes. I want to pick up a more terrifying hawk.
Who is Jesus in this situation? Who is Jesus and what is the Church? It has nothing to do with it, it is nothing. Then, does Jesus, who is professed to be the light of the world, are not the light or life to them? One must ask why the words of Jesus, "I am the light of the world," are unrealistic.
Today, the number of second-generation Korean churches is decreasing. There are few young people in any church. When I reach secondary school, I leave the church. There are a number of churches that cannot close the children's church school and are only maintaining their legacy. The church is in crisis. Because it is clear that its physical lifespan is coming to an end. No matter how good the church's confession and actions are, there are no descendants to continue it, let alone to spread it. It's like a broken house. No, the crisis of the church is not the problem. The crisis of Jesus. No, the crisis of Jesus is not the problem. The world's crisis is the problem. The teenage crisis is a problem. This is the most severe crisis reality. Why did this happen?
Those who become Christians as Jews draw boundaries, build walls, and reject those who become Christians as Gentiles. But the Holy Spirit draws Jewish Christians beyond those boundaries. Today's text is the record of that event.
At first, the faith in Jesus belonged to the Jews. Because they were in Judaism, they were building their faith in Jesus on that very Jewish foundation. It was natural. It was only natural that the customs and culture of the Jews still dominated the first Christians. However, some non-Jews became Christians. Jewish Christians do not tolerate them. Non-Jews cannot be Christians. They do not have the same lifestyle as their own. Old Testament Religion - These are people who have nothing to do with Judaism. Halle didn't even get it. It doesn't even cover food. They don't even keep the Sabbath. It is a very different culture from the Jewish culture. Such people became Christians. The Jews jump.
Peter had the same idea. One day he sees a vision. A bowl like a cloth comes down from the sky. It contained animals that the Jews had considered unclean for thousands of years. A voice is heard from somewhere, telling them to eat them. Peter refuses. "Lord, I can't do that. I've never eaten anything unclean or unclean." I tell you to eat again. also refuses. “Do not call what God has made clean, unclean.” Then the bowl is lifted up into the sky again. This came as a major event for Peter. Because the unclean came down from heaven, which is the symbol of holiness, and then ascended to heaven.
The Holy Spirit tells you to follow two non-Jews without hesitation when they ask you to go somewhere. Shortly after this vision, Peter receives an invitation from a non-Jew named Cornelius. Peter goes to Cornelius's house with some other Jews. But he seems to be at odds with himself. Is it really right for the chosen people to associate with strangers? Then, Peter meets Cornelius and realizes a new truth. Oh, I see! We judge people based on their appearance and external conditions, so some people tolerate and others stay away, and we come to the realization that “God does not judge people by their appearance.” What was the appearance that Peter used as a criterion for judging? Fortress, in Korean, it is 'culture'. People from cultures different from me judged that they could not believe in the Lord Jesus, but 'God doesn't care about cultural differences at all.' This was Peter's realization.
Peter testifies about Jesus. I encourage you to live by faith in Jesus. Then the Holy Spirit came upon them. The Holy Spirit comes upon Gentiles from cultures that are completely different from their own. This is what Jewish Christians see. “These people have received the Holy Spirit just like us, so who can stop them from baptizing them with water?” Peter baptizes non-Jews. This allowed Christianity to go beyond the boundaries of Jewish culture to the whole of mankind. In this way, Jesus became the Christ of all mankind. In this way, you have become the light of the world.
Until 20-30 years ago, our society was a monoculture. But now is the multicultural era. There are separate '1318 culture' for teenagers, 'Generation X culture' for people in their 20s, and 'Culture for generation' in their 30s. It is an era of mixed cultures. However, the culture of the church was monopolized by those in their fifth and sixties. The culture of the 50s and 60s is the church culture. What is the culture of those in their 5s and 60s who monopolize today's church and cut off their hands? Dress like me who preaches, have a neat hair like mine, and have the same tone, thoughts, attitude, and atmosphere as me. That is the culture of the 50s and 60s. This can be collectively referred to as the 50's culture. This 50's culture does not tolerate other cultures. It is to completely exclude the owners of other cultures. No, we retreated and drew a boundary. We have become localized ourselves and we have become ourselves gettos. Like a monastery on a mountain, like a temple, it isolates itself by narrowing and narrowing its boundaries.
What do you think of Generation X? Pronounce your belly button and walk the streets. Bleaches your hair. I dye my hair red and blue. Tear off your plain pants to show off your inner flesh. Jeans are worn across the hips, not the waist. I don't like it at all. I'm a middle school and high school student, but I've been piercing my ears and wearing earrings. Even the song is sung in a loud voice to the gestures that can't be distracted. I want to sing I can't understand it at all. What can you expect from these guys? What will our future be like? crazy guys! Wouldn't this be our reaction to them!
So we discriminate against them. We do not tolerate it in our community. We're blocking them, and they can't even afford access to the church community. No, Jesus is not their light, their hope, their comfort, their encouragement.
We call our 50s and 60s the 'fifty generation'. The 'fifty generations' are blocking other generations. Regardless of age, if you have the same emotions and culture as the 'fifty generation', you are all 'fifty generations'. Of course, values also play a role in how you dress. But we should not condemn them just because we can't accept them. It is a culture rather than a sin. It is not a matter of justice, it is a matter of custom. You should not cut yourself off with this. If you judge a person by their appearance, that is the sin of 'fifty generations'. God does not call their culture a sin. The Lord says to us, "Go and meet him." “Go beyond the boundaries you have drawn.” “Go to Caesarea,” he says. The Holy Spirit is not confined to the boundaries drawn by the Korean church. The Holy Spirit is free. He doesn't care about the boundaries we have built, he crosses over them.
I would like to carefully raise a topic to the collective personality of the church. Who is Jesus to youth? What is the mission of Saegil Church? Saegil Church seems to have already created a taste. I think there is color. There are achievements beyond the limits that the Korean church in general cannot overcome. But, yes, will you be satisfied? Why don't you think about, discuss, and pray about another task of Saegil? About having Jesus in the world of youth! What kind of relationship will you have with God as a group personality of Saegil Church?
Let's look at the vision God is showing us now. Let's take a look inside the furoshiki falling from the sky. What's in it? Could it be that there are those that we drew the border and threw them over there? It is saying that there are maybe 1318 generations of teenagers. I mean, maybe there is no generation X. Let's not call them unclean. Let's not say that those things have nothing to do with Jesus. Let's have Jesus in their world. Let his gospel be. Let's become a group that has a relationship with God. This is the direction of the Holy Spirit.