2015.04.12_Bereans

God Sends His Word to Accomplish His Will

God fulfills His will. Although a great number of people say they believe in God’s existence, they fail to understand its reality. God is not an abstract notion that only exists inside people’s minds. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter if God doesn’t actually exist. All that matters is to live according to the Bible.’ This kind of thinking does not come from faith. We need to understand that God is living and hence fulfills His own will.

Time never stops ticking regardless of whether people work hard or are lazy and leave work undone. In the same way, no matter how indifferent people are about God, He continues to do His work. The Bible says that God is the farmer, Jesus Christ is the vine, and we are the branches (Jn 15:1-5). Until he harvests the fruits, the farmer’s hand never stops working to fertilize the tree, prune the branches and so on. The living God also does not rest until He accomplishes His will.

God gave His word to the world. First He gave the Law, and after that, the Gospel. The Law is a law that condemns not save man. And in like manner, man’s conscience condemns him. The only difference is that conscience makes him confess before himself and others that he is a sinner, whereas with the Law he confesses he is a sinner before God.

The Garden of Eden was the most beautiful and perfect place on earth. There were all kinds of gemstones and gold in that place. From the garden flowed four rivers, and there was an abundance of various fruit trees including the tree of life in the garden. But the moment Adam disobeyed God’s word, thorns and thistles started to grow and eventually Adam had to leave the garden. If God’s word is rejected in one place, it becomes a useless land where thorns and thistles grow. God who said, “For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17), is still at work even now.

Though people were indifferent about God’s kingdom, God gave the Gospel to the world. When people brought before Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery asking, “Moses commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” Jesus answered, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And hearing this, the people went away one by one. Then Jesus told the woman, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (Jn 8:1-11). The Gospel is not a law that condemns. Its role is to save mankind.

God’s Management

We are God’s field (1 Cor 3:9). A farmer sows seeds in the field and cares them to grow well continually. If we are truly God’s field, it is only natural for Him to manage us according to His will. Yet so many Christians do not experience God’s management despite their long years of faith life. Those people make their own plans and endeavor to accomplish them. Even so, only thorns and thistles will grow if it is not under God’s management. What needs to be sown in us is not our own seed but God’s.

Though God wants to fulfill His will through us, if we keep stubborn and hold onto our pride, God will not be able to manage us. One of the things we can do at once as God’s field is evangelizing, reaching out. This does not particularly cost anything nor does it involve any risks. It can easily be done as long as we can overcome our own personalities/characters. Nevertheless, many people fail to experience God’s management because they would not give up their petty pride.

If we continue pursuing our own will but have no interest in God’s will, His concern will be drawn away from us eventually. We all know the story of the five virgins who pleaded to be let into the wedding banquet but were unable to once the doors were shut. God has tested us for a long time already. And on the day when God gathers away His hope from us, there will never be another chance no matter how much we cry, “God I will do it.”

We are the house God dwells in (1 Cor 3:9). Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man had no place to lay His head (Luke 9:58). Yet we who are on the earth have become God’s temples (1 Cor 3:16). Thus Jude verse 20 says, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith.” We need to build ourselves into a temple where God can dwell comfortably. Most people become fixated on money as they endeavor to own a house of their own on the earth. On the other hand, some people work hard to save up their money and offer that to build a worship center. They regard it a great joy that they are under God’s management, and constantly think about how they might be able to serve God better.

We are God’s co-workers (1 Cor 3:9). But is God indeed walking with you? Are you working together with God enough to expect Him to walk with you? Is your heart filled with God’s works? Even though God has given the opportunity to work with God, so many people do not act upon it only to regret it when God’s interest is drawn away and they covered in thorns and thistles. How vain is it when a person boasts about having made so much money at one point in their life?

Those United with the Church

We must be the ones who have seen the kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt 12:28). We come to know Jesus profoundly if we receive the Holy Spirit. To know Jesus means to have seen the kingdom of Heaven. God did not leave man to his own imagination about Heaven; He revealed the reality of Heaven.

Jesus Christ’s coming to the earth was the coming of the kingdom of Heaven. The kingdom of Heaven is not of this world. Jesus Christ did not have a place prepared for Himself, not even a single room in this world. But the world condemned and put Him to death. Nevertheless God raised Him to life because of His righteousness, and finally lifted Him up to Heaven. Thus to see Jesus Christ means to see the kingdom of Heaven.

God has allowed us to come into Jesus Christ. If we board an airplane, we can travel a long distance in a relatively short time on that plane. Similarly, we must be inside Jesus Christ in order to enter the kingdom of Heaven. We were originally doomed for hell because of sin. Even if the entire universe was sold, we would not be able to pay the price of our sin. Knowing this, God opened the way to salvation, namely Jesus Christ (Jn 14:6).

Jesus Christ commanded baptism so that we may go inside Him. Baptism is not a religious ritual. Although the Law stipulated countless rituals, Jesus Christ abolished them through His death on the cross. And one would be greatly mistaken to think that He has commanded us another ritual. Baptism is a reality that unifies us with Jesus Christ. Whoever is baptized has actually become a member of the body of Jesus Christ.

The church is the body of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the head of the church (Col 1:18). Thus to say we are united with Jesus Christ is equivalent to saying that we are united with the church, the body of Jesus Christ. If you keep off the scab over a wound that is healing because it feels itchy, it will only cause another wound. Are you truly united with the body of Christ? Are you not wound the church like a scab that has fallen off the body? We need to be completely united with the church and let God manage over us.

Return to the Bible

Acts 17:11-12 says, “These (the Bereans) were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.” When Paul preached the Gospel in Thessalonica, not only did the Jews there refuse the Gospel, they intended to kill Paul. At this Paul escaped to the region of Berea, where he discovered a completely different attitude from the people. The Bereans accepted the word with an earnest heart unlike the Thessalonians, and read the Scriptures every day to check whether Jesus preached by Paul was indeed the Christ as prophesied by Moses and the prophets. As a result, many of them believed, including prominent Greek women and many men.

Berea movement is about resembling the Bible. After coming to believe in Jesus, I lived like a Pharisee for the first five years, and during that time people mostly commended me. But when I came to understand the Truth and started doing God’s work, I was confronted with harsh persecutions. We must keep in mind that the Lord forbade us from persecuting and condemning others.

Among those that persecute Berea movement, some say, “they are heretical because they cast out demons!” However the Lord commanded His disciples to cast out demons, even gave them power to do so. Then there are others who say, “They are heretical since they claim demons to be the postmortem spirits of unbelievers.” Unbelievers are enemies of God’s kingdom. When Peter said to the Lord out of human sentiments, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” Jesus called him “Satan” (Matt 16:23). Unbelievers are like demons in playing the part as God’s enemies. Now, is it something to oppose outright when the postmortem existence of such unbelievers is identified as demons?

Demons definitely have to be cursed. So if anyone illustrates a demon as having seven horns, then a Christian who is an enemy of demons, have no reason to be upset for the demons. The ones we should curse are demons not people. It is unreasonable to condemn it heretical for identifying demons as the postmortem existence of unbelievers.

Even when Jesus was on the earth, people persecuted Him because He was casting out demons. That has remained unchanged today. Up until a few decades ago, those who spoke in tongues in Korea were pronounced as heretical and excommunicated. For a time, praying to receive the Holy Spirit, healing the sick, seeing visions etc. were conceived and condemned as heretical although nowadays it has become widely accepted and fewer people make issues of them. The standard by which these people condemn others so irresponsibly is the doctrine of the denomination they are associated with. If their doctrine is taken as the standard of measure, they are right. However the doctrine of a particular denomination is not the standard by which faith is measured, the Bible is.

The important matter is whether our faith is in line or distant from the Bible. As the result of Adam’s disobedience to God’s command, mankind was doomed to perish and the land was covered in thorns and thistles. There is no commandment in the Law that says to cast out demons. It was Jesus, the Son of God who came and commanded us to cast out demons, and the Holy Spirit then came and gave us the power to expel demons. And to rashly condemn others because they cast out demons is extremely dangerous.

A few decades ago, I began crying out that we need to return to the Bible all by myself. But now there are many co-workers doing this Berea movement. What are you yearning for? Is it to resemble the Bible, or to have a religious life? The decision is up to each individual, but in the end everyone will reap as they have sown. Jesus said, “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matt 16:27). That day is definitely coming.

God wants us to resemble the Bible. We must return to the Bible just like the Bereans. Just because we cannot understand we should not refuse as the Thessalonians did, but take on a noble attitude and read the Bible and fulfill the words of God in the Bible. When we resemble the Bible, we resemble Jesus Christ, and that is the way to abide in Him and have life. Jesus Christ has resurrected. Our hope is also in the resurrection. Jesus Christ has thoroughly fulfilled the Law. Now we have to listen to the words of Jesus Christ, not the Law. God will surely manage those who desire to resemble the Bible.