The scripture we read is something Jesus said Himself. You probably have a purpose for coming to church. We come to church to worship God, and since we want to worship God, we have to receive the grace of Jesus Christ. By doing so, we can enjoy the things that God provides to such people. That is the purpose why we live a faith life and a church life. To put it simply the reason for going to church is to receive eternal life. That is what Jesus Himself has said. Jesus said, “I came to give them eternal life and for them to have life in fullness.” You know how we talk about the “afterlife”? That means a world or life to come in the future. The goal of our faith must be the afterlife.

Some people come to church for the first time because they are told, “If you come to church, your business will do better! You will find peace when you go to church!” Even if they come with these reasons in mind, everyone must know clearly what it is that God is trying to give them when they come to church. And it is eternal life that God wants to give us. Eternal life, meaning everlasting and unending life. If there wasn’t life after death, there also won’t be eternal life. Living forever on this earth is impossible. This is because this world will eventually fade and disappear. Even though the sun sheds its light on this earth, scientists claim that even the sun has a lifespan. Therefore, after a long time has elapsed the sunlight will be no more. And, of course, the earth will disappear too. Mankind likewise will be no more. Hence it is impossible to live eternally on the earth.

Yet there is a god who created the sun, the world, and man. That god is the One we call our God, and He lives eternally. And it is God’s will to give us that power, that life to live eternally. We will enter eternal life, but not on this earth. We will depart from this earth and from this universe to live eternally in the place God has prepared for eternal life.

Nobody else had gone there except one man 2000 years ago. Who do you think that man might be? He is Jesus Christ, the One in whom we put our faith. As a man, He is the only One who entered that eternal kingdom. He is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Is Jesus alone in heaven, then? Not at the moment. There are countless personalities in heaven. And they are angels. But as Man, there is only one. One day, we also will go there, and on that day, there will be many people, just as there are many angels in heaven. God wants that to happen.

Therefore, if the goal of our faith life was to have a better life on this earth, it won’t work out right. If the goal was to be rich in this world, personally I wouldn’t come to church on the Lord’s Day. Some workplaces pay their employees double if they work on the Lord’s Day. I have been preaching in our Chinese worship service for about 15 years now. We have many foreigners that came over from China. What do you think they came over to Korea for? It is to earn money. So, for them to come to church on the Lord’s Day to worship and not go to work is very difficult because the very purpose they came all the way to Korea is to work and make money. Even if they try not to work on the Lord’s Day, the temptation is so hard to resist. If they work, they would be given double their usual pay on Lord’s Day. While not all jobs offer this, many do. Thus, those who are weak in faith go to work and get paid more.

Hence it is not going to be all favorable on earth just because one leads a faith life. In fact, it may be more difficult. But what is the reason we still live our faith life? It is not for a better life on this earth but for the everlasting life we will have after this life. The problem, however, is that we can’t see the life after death. What we do see is the reality of our present life. As a result, we keep chasing after what we can see before our eyes. That is the reason why we need faith, that we may go after what we cannot see.

Jesus talked about Lazarus and a rich man. The rich man held feasts every day with his friends when he was on the earth. Do you think he had a great personality or a bad one? I think he would’ve been a nice and generous person. People who are well off don’t usually become narrow minded. Instead, they are often calm and collected, generous and giving. So this rich man had many friends, lots of money, and lacked nothing on earth. But there was a beggar named Lazarus in front of his house who had nothing to eat, and he wanted to eat whatever leftovers were thrown out from this house. And dogs would come and lick his sores as he sat there. What an unfortunate fate!

But in the end, they both leave this world. Both the rich and the beggar Lazarus died. Lazarus died and was taken by angels to Abraham’s side. Here, Abraham’s side can be seen as a part of the eternal kingdom that God promised. Because Abraham was the first man to plant the seed of faith, it is called Abraham’s side. You can understand it as the afterlife, that is, eternal life after death. Lazarus went to Abraham’s side, while the rich man also died and went to Hades, not Abraham’s side. Perhaps he didn’t have faith and was only interested in living affluently on the earth, and then he died.

So when the rich man looked up from Hades, he could see Lazarus in Abraham’s side. He cried out and made a request. “Father Abraham! Please send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue!” Why? Hades is a place close to the fire of hell. Hence, he must’ve been very thirsty. So he asked, “Please send him to dip his finger in water and cool my tongue!” But he was told that it was impossible. Why? Because there is a great chasm between Hades and Abraham’s side, where one enjoys eternal life, making it  impossible for anyone to cross from one side to the other.

We will have eternal life, but if anyone fails to attain it, they will have to go to a place called hell. Hell is a tormenting place but just because it’s painful, one cannot say, “I don’t want to be here!” and move to heaven from there. The rich man, who realized  this shocking reality far too late, said to Abraham, “Father Abraham! I know it’s already too late for me, but please send Lazarus to my brothers to let them know  this truth! Please let my brothers know that there is an afterlife, that a world exists after this life. Please let them know that believing in Jesus and believing in God is not only for having a better life on earth, but that there is eternal life after everything on earth is over. Then they would believe!” So, since he knew he had no chance, he wanted Lazarus to go and tell his brothers, who were enjoying their affluent lives on earth but didn’t know about the afterlife, about this truth.

Then Abraham told him, “They have Moses and the Prophets. Let them hear from them!” The rich man answered, “No, if a person returns from the dead and speaks to them, they would turn and have faith!” What he said does sound reasonable, doesn’t it? Think about it. A person died. But suddenly, after a day, he comes to life again. And this man says, “After I died, I saw that there is an afterlife! When I died, I went to heaven! I saw Abraham there. God’s kingdom does exist! And there is even hell! So you need to have faith properly!” You would think people would believe him, right? Because he speaks after coming back from the dead.

However, Abraham said to him, “No! Unless they hear from Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if a person rises from the dead!” So he is emphasizing again that they must hear from Moses and the Prophets. In order to know God properly and have eternal life, one must have faith. But to do that, one has to first hear from Moses and the Prophets.

Have you heard from Moses and the Prophets? Even though you do come to have faith, your faith could easily become futile. So, we must first hear from Moses and the Prophets. But what do Moses and the Prophets speak about? Do you have a Bible? Everyone who goes to church carries a Bible, don’t they? The Bible is made up of the Old and the New Testaments. It contains the words of Jesus  but also the words of Moses and the Prophets. Hence, to know Jesus, we need to understand what the Old Testament is trying to say.

What is it that Moses was speaking of? It is God’s Law. Moses is the one who taught God’s law. “You sinners! If you want to be with God, then keep these commandments!” And there were many commandments. A summary of those many commandments is the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are: You shall have no other gods before Me; do not worship idols; keep the Sabbath as a holy day; do not misuse God’s name. Then there are commandments with regards to people: Honor your parents; do not murder; do not steal; do not make false testimony; do not covet; and so on. And apart from the Ten Commandments, there are additional commandments in the Law that specify the punishments for not obeying them.

And what do they teach about? They teach that if one sins, he will be punished. Those who misunderstand might think, “Oh, so I shouldn’t sin! And since I don’t sin, my faith in Jesus will be sound and I will go to heaven!” Such people are mistaken. Can you live without sinning? If we could live without sinning, we wouldn’t need Jesus. And if we were able to live without sinning, then God might later deem us righteous, and we could go to heaven. But whoever thinks this is possible deceives himself. People thought they could live without sinning, that they just needed to try not to sin, but that turned out to be false.

What Moses was trying to teach was not “Do not sin!” Rather, he was teaching that everyone is a sinner. You can try and try again not to sin. After some effort, you might become satisfied, thinking, “That should be enough.” But try harder than that. Do everything you can to not sin. Do you know what conclusion you would come to? You would confess, “I am a sinner!”

Is there anyone here who has never had a quarrel with his wife? Some men even physically abuse their wives. It is a shameful thing to do, but I’m sure almost everyone has had a quarrel with his wife at some point. You may not do that anymore, but perhaps when you were younger, you did. However, there was a person who said he had never fought with his wife. I know a lecturer at the theological seminary who said he never had an argument with his wife. Even so, do you think he has never hated his wife in his heart? God does not think, “Wow, he’s never beaten his wife? Outstanding!” Nor does He find it commendable that this person never fought with his wife. Did you hate someone in your heart? God says that is the same as murder. Hence, there is no one who can say before God, “I am righteous. I am sinless.” Everyone is sinful. Therefore, what the Bible is trying to teach us is that we are all sinners.

Sin is accompanied by punishment. Therefore, whoever sins must be put to death. It is written, “The wages of sin is death!” Hence, one has to die if he sinned. We are already under the death sentence. And this is exactly what we first need to realize. We are already sentenced to death. But if one says, “Okay then, I will go to hell,” then he does not need to believe in Jesus. We do acknowledge, “I am a sinner who must go to hell!” but then if we have listened to Moses, who should we hear from next? We must hear from the Prophets.

What is it that the prophets were trying to teach? “You are sinners, but you will not be left to perish! God has the will to save you. Therefore, accept God’s gift!” This is what the prophets preached. Let’s say a man says to his son who has done wrong, “How dare you do this! Get out of here!” and the son replies, “Yes Father. I deserve to die!” and then leaves the house to die. That would be terrible, wouldn’t it? That is not the father’s will. His will is not for his son to leave home but to be regretful for his actions and stay by his father, saying, “I am sorry father! I have done wrong!” So when God spoke through Moses, saying, “You are sinners!” it was not with the intention that everyone must be destroyed. Instead, He wants all men to repent, turn, and accept God’s love. Thus, when the time came, He sent Jesus Christ.

Therefore, there is something that you must do first if want to go before Jesus. You have to confess, “I am a sinner!” What kind of sinner? “I am a sinner doomed to hell!” This is what you have to admit. After that, you need to believe that God has taken measures to pay the price of our sins and accept what He has done. And that measure is that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to die in our place. Aren’t you glad? To those who believe this, God gives many testimonies.

Hence, if you have not yet repented, thoroughly confess that you are a sinner. If you have not yet met God, first admit you are a sinner. After that confess, “I can’t live without God’s help! And since God has sent a countermeasure for someone like me, namely Jesus, I will receive  Jesus!” For whoever does so, God will reveal Himself to them.

Before I came to know Jesus, I was in touch with a certain religious organization. I thought they were Christians, but later I found out that they were a cult. Because I wanted to meet God, I followed the evangelist in that religious organization for some time. For about a month, what he explained to me was, “Noah’s ark was real! The flood truly happened!” He was trying to get me to believe that and showed me all sorts of  scientific proofs regarding Noah’s ark. By doing that, he was trying to convince me that the Bible is true. He showed me photographs of Noah’s ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey and so many other pieces of evidence. So I thought, “Ah, it could really be true!”

But would I be able to receive God by doing that? These efforts are meaningless according to what Jesus said here. Even if a person rises from the dead and preaches, “God is real!” it will not work. The problem is not outside of us but within our own selves. Unless we first confess that we are a sinner, we will never be able to meet God. So first, confess that you are a sinner. I am not telling you to admit you’re a sinner to do any harm on you.

I once spoke to my father-in-law and told him, “Father-in-law, you are a sinner!” And I think he felt he was being criticized. So at first he was unhappy about my words and said, “He called me a sinner! He is judging me!” But now he no longer has that misunderstanding. Yet at first, he felt as though I was attacking him.

However, when God tells you that you are a sinner, it is not to destroy, attack, or punish you, but to lead you to repent, turn, and accept the merits of Jesus. Only then will you  have eternal life. Do you understand?

So first of all, if you have not yet met God, when you are praying alone or during the worship service, confess, “I am a sinner!” But don’t end there. If you just say you are a sinner, you are subject to punishment. So give thanks to God, saying, “But to save a sinner like me, God sent His beloved Son to shed His blood on the cross and die to pay the price of my sins. Thank you, God!” Then the Holy Spirit will inspire you and reveal to you that God is living. Hallelujah! I’ll pray.

Thank you, God our Father. By meeting God, we have been given eternal life which is only for God to have. If there is anyone who has not met God yet, may they come to fully acknowledge the truth that we are sinners, just as you spoke through Moses. And as the Prophets said, may they realize that God’s will is not to destroy us but to save us. By accepting the merits of Jesus Christ, let everyone here receive eternal life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.