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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Grace Given to Us - Easter Sunday Evening / Holy Communion |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
John 6:53-55 |
Date |
2013-03-31 |
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Passage
[John 6:53-55]
"So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. [54] "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. [55] "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink."
The title of this message is 'Grace Given to Us'.
Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;"
God the Father has given to us a gift that cannot be exchanged with anything else.
The gift is His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.
The blood of Jesus shed on the cross guided us to the way of salvation.
This gift was not given because our deeds were holy and perfect.
It was not given because we pleased God the Father with our good actions.
It is a gift that is given freely by the Father God, without any price.
How thankful are you for this grace of God?
Psalm 116:12 says, "What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me?" As said, we can never pay the Father God back with anything, for He has given us limitless grace.
The second part of today's service is the Holy Communion, and I hope you will give thanks to the Father God who has given us such tremendous grace.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will give thanks until the Lord comes back again, saying, "All that I am is the grace of the Lord."
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, most people forget the grace they once received with the passage of time.
When they receive some grace, they think and say they will pay back the grace received by all means.
But their determination becomes increasingly fainter.
Because God the Father knows this nature of men, He has let us have the Holy Communion.
As Luke 22:19 latter part says, "do this in remembrance of Me," God let us think about the providence of the cross of Jesus through this ceremony, so that we can remember the love of the Lord.
Now, what kinds of spiritual meanings are embedded in the Holy Communion?
Matthew 26:26 says, "While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is My body.'"
The bread that we take in the Holy Communion refers to the body of Jesus.
Furthermore, as in today's reading passage John 6:55, 'My flesh', namely the body of Jesus refers to true food.
Then, how can the flesh of Jesus become our true food?
John 1:1 says that the Word is God.
John 1:14 says that God, who is the Word, became flesh and came down to this earth, and He is Jesus.
So, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man is to take the Word of God, which is the truth, as our spiritual bread.
It is to change our heart with the Word.
To eat the flesh of the Son of Man this way, we must drink His blood at the same time.
It's like when people eat food they have to drink liquid, too.
We can absorb the nutrients and also give out the bodily waste only when we consume liquid, too.
In this way, we can take the bread of the word of God well only when we drink the blood of the Son of Man.
To drink the blood of the Son of Man is to practice the word of God with faith.
When we do that, the untruths will leak out from our heart, and the truth will replace them.
Also from 1 John 1:7 we can understand that we have life in us only when we drink the blood of the Son of Man as well as eat His flesh.
It says, "but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
Jesus shed His precious blood to redeem us from sins, but for us to be forgiven through His blood, we must walk in the light.
This is the essence of a Christian life to become a true child of God the Father.
For example, nowadays, you are learning the word of God more diligently than ever, in order to accomplish spirit.
You learn about Spiritual Love chapter, the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit, and Beatitudes enjoying it.
Moreover, you listen to the testimonies of those who have come forth as spirit and you try to do the things they did.
But is there any of you who just feel you are blessed and touched but do nothing with them?
Some of you think, "Wow, he is great. I think he has a different kind of heart than mine," and you do not actually try to practice the truth that you learned.
Or, some of you learn the messages on Goodness very well and even memorize the whole thing.
But then you don't even try to hold your evil, which is the first level of goodness, but show your uncomfortable feelings to others.
This means that you input the word of God just as knowledge and have not cultivated it in your heart.
The changes can take place only when you actually obey and practice the word of God.
Only then can the Word become life and power for you.
I hope you will keep in mind the meaning of the Holy Communion, and quickly come forth into the light and spirit by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man every day.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, if the ministry of Jesus had ended by holy sacrificial death only, we wouldn't have had eternal life or hope for the kingdom of heaven.
As said in 1 Corinthians 15:17, "...and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins," all our actions will be worthless.
But our Lord broke the power of death, resurrected, and ascended into Heaven.
He promised us that, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age," and He proclaimed His Second Coming to take us.
After His resurrection and ascension, the Lord sat on the right hand of God's throne, thereby showing to us that the life of Christians is the most blessed and glorious life.
He let us overcome any kind of hardship or sorrow having the faith and hope that we will participate in the resurrection of the Lord, too.
The resurrection of the Lord itself is such wonderful grace to us.
I will talk to you about the two kinds of grace given to us on this Easter. Please keep them in mind and participate in the Holy Communion with a grateful heart.
Dear brothers and sisters, the first grace given to us through Easter is the Word of Life.
When we were wandering around, God's word became the lamp and showed our way.
He guided us only to the way of life.
Moreover, the deep spiritual messages given to our church are leading us to New Jerusalem in such a delicate way.
God let us know the dimension of 'spirit' and 'whole spirit' which nobody could fathom, and He let us achieve that dimension.
But we cannot gain life unless we understand the word of God in a spiritual way.
In John 6:64-66, we find some people who do not understand the spiritual word.
They had witnessed so many signs that Jesus performed, but they could not take Jesus' words saying, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," and "If you eat my flesh you will live," and eventually, they left Jesus.
But Peter said, in John 6:68, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."
Even the most excellent morality or philosophical knowledge cannot give us eternal life.
We can gain life only when we make the spiritual bread of the word of God.
Therefore, when we break the bread today, I hope you will give thanks to God saying, "I have an eternal life thanks to the Lord, and thanks to the word of life."
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the second grace given to us through this Easter is that we can cultivate perfect faith which is followed by deeds.
Christians can forsake the good things of the world for the Lord, and they can take up any hardship or wretched life because they have the hope of resurrection.
We can see this fact through the lives of the disciples who had witnessed the resurrection of the Lord.
They never feared or submitted, even to death.
But rather they only thought of the day to enjoy the glory of the resurrection together with the Lord.
For that reason they walked the way of life shown by the Lord, only with 'Yes and Amen'.
In this church, you heard spiritual messages that cannot be disproved, and witnessed the power of God that confirms the word.
And yet, are there any of you who still find it hard to live by the word of God?
Or are there any of you who think you are just so far away from accomplishing spirit?
Just as the fathers of faith overcame any kind of difficulty having the hope of resurrection, I hope you will also try harder to practice the word of God having the hope of resurrection.
I will conclude the message.
Today is the last day of the 3-months of the suspension period.
Have you deeply realized the love and grace of God given to us for the last three months?
God the Father said that you church members, and especially the pastors and Levites would have a new start beginning from this Easter.
As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come," I urge you to become a new person who is not putting on the flesh but the spirit.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, just like our Lord who overcame the power of death and resurrected, you will cast away all kinds of sins and become the brides of the Lord who are spotless and blameless. |
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