Today’s passage comes from the book that records the very first works of Jesus among the Gospels. The author is Mark, and he wrote specifically about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today’s text is found at the very end of the Gospel of Mark. These are the words of Jesus Himself: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Conversely, this also means that those who do not believe are in a state where they cannot help but perish.

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Then, what exactly are we to believe? We are to believe the Gospel.

The Gospel means “Good News.” The Gospel says: first, God is omnipotent. There are many gods in the world; yet they are not all-powerful. However, the God we believe in is a God of full of love. There are many gods out there, but we must not draw close to just any of them. There are also evil gods. Fortunately, the God we have come to meet here at church is a God overflowing with love. He is so full of love that He sacrificed everything for sinners like us. To save us, He even allowed His beloved Son to be cursed and die on the cross. He is not a god who uses and abandons us; He is a God who truly loves us. And thankfully, this God is not powerless. He is omnipotent. He can do anything. This world was created by this God. We now call this God “God our Father.”

Second, the Gospel says, “Jesus is the Son of God.” Jesus was a man who grew up in the town of Nazareth; He was a young Jewish man. Yet, we acknowledge Him as the Son of God. The title “Son of God” does not mean He is lesser than God. Rather, it means He is equal to God. A son is the one who inherits all of his father’s possessions. So saying He is the Son of God means He is equal to God. As I just mentioned, God is omnipotent and overflowing with love. Jesus is the very One who is equal to that God. He is omnipotent, and He is full of love. This is what we believe.

Third, the Gospel says, “Jesus is the Christ.” The word “Christ” means the servant of God who carries out His will. The word originates from Greek. It comes from the meaning, “the Anointed One.” When God calls someone to do His work, He sends them out after anointing them. So, it means Jesus is the servant of God.

But we just said that “Jesus is equal to God.” This means He is God Himself. Yet now, He is called the servant of God. Although He is as high as God, He became a servant. He became an incredibly lowly being. In other words, the One who is the Most High came down to the lowest place and took upon Himself a most cursed work. The One who should receive glory with God died on the cross. Isn’t that extraordinary? But this is the Gospel.

Then, why did the One who is equal to God receive such a curse? Why did He come to this earth, carry the cross, and endure all that suffering, insult, and mockery from people? What was the reason? He did it for us. Originally, we were destined to be cursed. But God gave the command to His Son: “You bear this curse.” It is the heart of a mother. “My son, I will bear the curse, so you may be blessed!” This is a mother’s heart. This is exactly who our God is.

Everyone, wouldn’t you like to grow closer to such a God? If you draw close to an evil god, you will suffer greatly. Those who possessed by demons often end up cursing themselves; the Bible even tells of a man who was possessed and began striking his own body with stones. However, God—this God—is completely different. He is overflowing with love. Believing in this truth is the Gospel: that God sent His Son to save us and paid the full price for our sins. Anyone who believes this and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. God has said, “You are a sinner; you shall be condemned.”

We are originally sinners who deserve condemnation and judgment. However, for those who believe that God has already borne the curse in our place through Jesus Christ, we no longer have to pay the price for our sins. Not long ago, I went to a restaurant. After finishing my lunch, I stood up to pay, but the owner said, “You don’t have to pay.” He told me, “Someone who was here earlier already paid for you.” I asked, “Who was it?” and he replied, “Oh, a fellow believer came by and said they wanted to pay for your meal before they left.” What should I do in that situation? Should I still pay before leaving? There is no need to pay! But what if I didn’t believe that fact? I would probably insist on paying anyway, wouldn’t I? I had never even seen that person, nor did I know they had been eating there. However, because I believed the owner’s words, I didn’t have to pay the bill. If I had refused to believe it until the end, I would have ended up paying my own money again. It is exactly the same with God. He has already paid the full price for our sins. If we don’t believe it, we will have to pay for them ourselves—and that lead to destruction. We must believe. If we believe, we no longer have to pay; we can simply walk out the curse. This is the Gospel.

“Signs will follow those who believe in the Gospel.” It is the same with “Evidence will follow those who believe in the Gospel.” What kind of evidence follows them? Jesus said, “In My name, they will cast out demons.” This means that everyone who believes in Jesus has the authority to cast out demons. Then Jesus continued, “They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” If God were not alive, laying hands on someone would be in vain. But because God is alive, He fulfills that promise.

When I first came to the church, I was a junior in college. At that time, I heard about the power given to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Especially, I heard the message often that “if you lay hands on the sick, they will recover.” After hearing those words, I joined the military. Out of all the messages I heard during those three months, the most powerful and impressive one was about the power of believers. So, whenever I saw my fellow soldiers who were sick, I would immediately ask them, “Shall I pray for you?” If they said yes, I would lay my hands on them and pray. If a friend had a headache, I laid hands on his head; if his back hurt, I laid hands on his back. And then, quite naturally, many of them would say, “Oh? The pain is gone!” Since I had started doing this as soon as I believed in Jesus and saw these results, I thought it was only natural. I didn’t think it was anything special; I simply thought, “This is how it’s supposed to be.”

So, I evangelized a lot during my time in the military service. Later on, I was leading at least one person to Christ every day. It was exciting to do such a thing in that confined military environment. Because I lived out my faith so passionately, I became quite well-known within the unit, even though I was a new believer. In the military, there was something called “Religious Roll Call.” Before bed, after the roll call and receiving instructions, soldiers would gather by their respective religions—Christianity, Buddhism, or Catholicism—to have a brief service. One day, I was suddenly asked to lead that time. I was a new believer. Even I was not at all a senior soldier. In fact, I had many seniors above me. Standing there with all those seniors staring at me, I felt nervous. But I thought, “This is an opportunity given by God,” and I stood before them. I wondered what I should talk about and decided I should give them a shock. Out of all the things I could say, I told them that those who believe in Jesus can cast out demons. I said it to make an impact.

Usually, what I had seen at retreats was that when people heard messages about demons, their hearts would become fearful and they would start trembling. Then, when they were called to come forward, the demons would manifest. They would reveal themselves and then be cast out. So I thought, “Well, I first need to make the demons manifest, so if I talk about them for a while, those who are fearful will come forward.” With that in mind, I spoke about demons for a quite a long time.

After that, I announced, “If anyone here feels anxious or is trembling in their heart, please come forward. I will cast the demons out for you!” But there was only silence. I said one more, “Come forward!” but no one moved. Perhaps only three minutes had passed, but to me, it felt like thirty. My face turned bright red, and I thought, “What should I do? I don’t know…How can I wrap this up?” Just then, one senior soldier said, “I’ll do it,” and stepped forward. Up until that point, I had never actually cast out a demon myself. I just did exactly what I had seen my Pastor do; as soon as he came forward, I looked him in the eyes and called out, “Demon! Demon!” I kept calling out “Demon!” for about three minutes by myself, but he didn’t move an inch. I asked him, “Don’t you feel anxious?” and he simply replied, “No.” The soldiers sitting below started yawning, and I could hear them grumbling, “Ah, I need to sleep…” I was just breaking out in a cold sweat. Then, another senior came over and said, “Hey, let’s wrap it up here,” and it all ended awkwardly. So I ended with a prayer. I can’t tell you how embarrassed and miserable I felt. My face was burning. I thought, “How can I look them in the face tomorrow? I wanted to reveal God’s glory, but I am so powerless.”

The next morning came, and even before breakfast, someone quietly came to me. His voice was barely a whisper. A senior soldier came to me and said, “Please pray for me.” He continued, “My throat has been hurting so much for the past few days. Please pray for my throat. I heard everything you said yesterday. Cast the demon out of me, too.” It seemed that my words had touched at least one person’s heart. I had to take him somewhere, but where could I go to cast out a demon? It was still early dawn, and while searching for a suitable place, we went to an outdoor restroom. There were about ten individual rooms, and we went into one of them. I had him take off his cap and glasses, and then, facing each other, I shouted, “Demon!” and cursed it.

While I was casting out the demon, I gained more courage and shouted, “Hey! Go out!” I was completely immersed in the moment when suddenly, the door burst open. An officer shouted, “What are you guys doing? I caught you in the act! I saw you beating him!” One of the officers claimed he had witnessed a beating, so he seized us and took us to the security office. If this matter had escalated to higher authorities, it would have been a huge problem, as it was a time when the military was taking physical abuse very seriously. Since the officer walked in right at the moment when I had the senior’s cap and glasses off and was holding him by the collar as if I were about to strike him, no explanation of “casting out a demon” would have been convincing.

So I said, “This is something any Christian would know. It is recorded in the Bible.” The officer then asked, “Is there anyone who can testify to this?” I replied, “The military chaplain’s assistant will know.” However, you should know what kind of person this assistant was—he strongly disagreed with casting out demons. He knew that I practiced this, and he even told me not to attend early morning prayer meetings. Yet, in that moment, I had no choice but to call him as my witness.

So the officer summoned the chaplain’s assistant, stood him right next to me, and asked, “Is the casting out of demons in the Bible or not?” Now, this was a person who usually insisted, “Casting out demons is wrong!” Yet here was the officer asking him, “Is it in the Bible or not?” What do you think he said? He had no choice but to say yes. Even though he usually opposed casting out demons, it is clearly in the Bible. So he replied, “Yes, it is there.” The officer then asked, “They say they were casting out a demon just now; is that consistent with the Bible?” and he answered, “Yes, that is correct.” It became such an ironic situation. The very person who had criticized me so much was now saying with his own mouth, “This is in accordance with the Bible. What this man is doing is consistent with the Scripture.” A truly amazing work had happened.

As a result, we were released. Usually, after being told to “Go back!” one would quietly return to their unit. But instead, the senior said to me, “Let’s go to another place.” We headed to the boiler room in the basement. It was empty and well-soundproofed. There, I shouted, “Demon!” and cursed it several times. Then, the demon inside him actually manifested. The man began shaking and trembling and fell backward. This was my very first experience of casting out a demon. It was the first time I had ever done such a thing since believing in Jesus. Because the demon was finally cast out after such a difficult struggle and many twists and turns, it felt incredibly victorious.

After he got back up, I said, “Let’s offer a thanksgiving prayer.” But he thought I was asking him to pray. Suddenly, he began to pray out loud. His voice, which had been barely a whisper just moments ago when he said, “Please pray for me,” had completely returned to normal. He cried out, “God our Father!” in a loud, clear voice. So, not only did I witness a demon being cast out, but I also experienced his body being fully restored to health once the demon had left him.

This was my very first experience of casting out a demon. From that moment on, I was filled with great courage, and I began to cast out demons frequently within the military. As I gained more experience, I eventually faced even more serious illnesses that I could never have imagined. After finishing the military service, I even prayed and cast out demons for the blind, and I saw them open their eyes. I also witnessed the lame stand up and walk. I had many such experiences especially while serving as a missionary in China. In every village, there were so many sick people, and I had numerous opportunities to witness them being healed. All these things are recorded in the Bible. It is not something only I can experience; it is a promise given to everyone who believes in Jesus. If a problem is not resolved after praying once, then pray twice. If it’s still not resolved, pray three times. And if it still persists, we can pray more and more for God’s power.

We who believe in Jesus are those who possess a new power. We have not only received a new identity but also a new power. In our families and in our daily lives, how many illnesses and accidents do we face? That is why people worry. They worry about death; they worry about how much money they will have to spend at the hospital. However, we can live completely free from such worries. Of course, there are times when things do not seem to work right away. But in countless cases, so many problems are resolved instantly through prayer.

When my child was in kindergarten, he suddenly collapsed while walking and couldn’t get back up. For a moment, I was terrified that he might become paralyzed. In that state of worry, I suddenly came to my senses. I commanded him, “In the name of Jesus, I command you! Stand up!” At that moment, he jumped right up. When I shouted, “Run!” he began to run.

Who could have known if he would have stayed paralyzed like that? Yet, he stood up so simply. That same power has already been given to all of you. Now, all you need to do is take that power and use it frequently. And the way to do that is through prayer. In the name of Jesus, I bless you, that you may be filled with the power God has given you.

God our Father, we thank You for pouring out upon us the spiritual power that belongs to heaven. Through such empowered lives, please help our souls to testify that You are alive and to bring all glory to You. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!