2009/12/10 수업시간에 한 설교 원문 - 영문

Preaching suppliment.ppt

Introduction

Today, I would like to deal with the matter of death. We Christians often say that we have to participate on the death of Jesus. But I did not have many instances that I have been told why we have to participate on the death of Jesus. Today, I would like to share the reason why we have to participate on the death of Jesus.

I. The meaning of death: The ultimate weapon used by Jesus for His conquering project.

However, before we think about why we have to participate on the death of Christ, we may have to think about the meaning of Christ’s death first.

When I was young, I was often thinking about suicide because the circumstance of my surrounding was not easy. Actually my situation was heavily difficult and I was so troubled for that. I wanted to escape from my difficult situation and that was the reason why I wanted to kill myself. In this case, the meaning of death was escaping from a difficult situation.

However, for Christ, the meaning of death would not be like what I expected. Then what is the meaning of death for Christ? In order to trace this question, the best Bible verse I found was Rev. 5. Let me read it first. (Read the Bible)

Rev. 5:5 is explaining the identity of Christ, whereas verse 6 is explaining how Jesus has conquered the world.

In verse 5, John hears that the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Root of David has conquered. The target of the conquering is not presented here but obviously it is the power of Satan. Lion of Judah image was borrowed from Gen. 49. This is a kingly image. Root of David image was borrowed from Isa. 11. This was a messianic image. Those two imageries are combined altogether and produce one image which is Messianic King. The Messianic King has conquered the authority of Satan. Obviously this Messianic King is Jesus. This is the identity of Jesus and here it is clearly a military imagery.

But in verse 6, when John sees, He was not able to see the Lion but he was able to see a Lamb which had been slain before. Indeed, verse explains how the Messianic King conquer the Satanic power. The prophesied Messianic King does not conquer the Satanic Power by sword and military force but His self-sacrificial death.

So in Rev. 5, death was Jesus’ major means and weapon to conquer the Satanic power. In order to conquer the Satanic power, He did not use sword and military power. He used His self-sacrificial death.

II. We are to participate on Jesus’ victory through participating on His death.

Okay. Now we understood that Jesus has conquered the world through His death. Then what is the connection between His death and us? We already know that we are saved by His death and resurrection. Is that all regarding the relationship between His death and us?

Let me say the answer first. We are participating on Jesus’ victory through participating on His death. When we die, the conquering power of Jesus is showing through us. Jesus is practicing His power through us. Let me show you Rev. 7. (Read Chapter 7)

In Chapter 7, there is a similar paradigm which is parallel to Chapter 5. What John hears is different to what John sees. From verse 4-8, John hears a certain number of Israelite. This is census imagery. The similar image is found in Num. 1. Before the Israelite conquers the Canaan, they do census in order to get the number of people who can actually fight against their enemy. In this regard, census was related to banding a military force. Here in chapter 7 also has the similar imagery. Counting the number of Israelite is an imagery of banding a military force. Those 144,000 people would fight against the enemies of the Lamb. It was what John heard.

But when John sees, there was no military band. Rather John saw martyrs who were sacrificed themselves for the sake of the Lamb. The multitude is wearing white robes. Regarding the multitude, 7:14 and 12:11 explain well. In 7:14, the text says that they experienced great tribulations and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. In 12:11, they conquered Satan and when they were conquering Satan what they used was the blood of the Lamb. Here, the blood of the Lamb is not such a thing that we can physically handle. This is not some kind of physical weapons or magical spells. It is participating on the Jesus’ blood shedding. It is participating on Jesus’ death. In this sense, this is another imagery of self-sacrifice.

So there is a same paradigm as we looked at in Rev. 5. John hears news about military force for the Lamb, but actually when John saw that, there was no military organization. There was uncountable multitude who gave themselves to the death.

Jesus’ project of conquering the world has not stopped in Rev. 5. His mission is still on going on in the people of the Lamb. The people of the Lamb are the Church and every Christian including us. As the people of God, we are responsible to involve the war of the Lamb against the Satan. In this war our weapon is not the sword and military power. Our weapon is participating on our Lord Jesus’ death. Through our death, we would represent the death of Jesus and through our death, the world will know who Jesus is and will come back to Him. This is the reason that we have to die.

III. Christ’ love makes possible for us to die.

Then here is the last question. How can we die? In our surrounding, there are many instances of those who died for their beloved people. It is not only us Christians who die for others. But between we Christians and other people, there is a big difference. They die for their beloved one but we die for our enemies. As I know there is no religion teaches that one have to die for his or her enemy and that is victory except Christianity. Now we are facing a incredible challenge. We are about to die for our enemy. It is possible? How can it be possible? The answer is the love of Christ.

There is a story of a mother who has died for saving her baby. During the Korean War, a U.S. soldier found a dead woman who was totally naked. It was very cold day. She might die for the cold weather. However, she was embracing something. It was her cloth. Inside of her close, there was a baby. Probably the baby was her baby. She might worry about her baby’s death. To save her baby, she would undress all her cloths and wrapped her baby with it. As the result, her baby was able to survive but she died. The U.S. soldier adopted the baby and grew up. Long time after, the U.S. soldier told the story to his son, and one day the son was able to visit his mother who was in a small tomb.

What do you think about the story? What was the reason for the mother to decide to die for her baby? It was her love to her baby. The major cause of Jesus’ self sacrifice for the world was His unconditional love toward the world. The principle is the same to us. To die for the world, we have to be able to love the world. The love of Christ should govern and dominate us. Then we can die for the world.

Conclusion

Most of you may have seen the movie “End of the spear.” It is the story of Jim Elliot and his friends. Jim and his friends plan to do mission to the tribe of Auca in Amazon. He put every effort in order to get the heart of the Aucans giving them presents through airplane. But at the first time when he and his friends tried to get meet them in person, they were killed by the tribe. After their death, the wives of the missionaries came into the tribe in order to continue what their husbands did. When they meet the tribe people, the first thing they did was sending the message, “We forgave your crimes, and we love you.” Eventually the whole tribe came back to Jesus.

This is the power of our Savior Jesus Christ. Through their death, Elliot and his friends and their wives presented the death of Jesus which was the means of His conquering the world. We do not need to limit the way of death just in physical way. The wives of the slaughtered missionaries also experienced death through denying themselves. Eventually the whole tribe of Auca came back to Christ.

Now is our turn. Prepare your death. Pray God for the heart to love the world. Through Your death, the Kingdom of God will come upon the world and the people will turn back to our Lord, Jesus Christ.