Jesus said to Philip, "There are so many people coming here now. Where should we buy bread for these people could eat?" Everyone, where could you buy bread? They are in the vast wilderness. Even if they were in a large city, it still would be hard to buy bread for 5,000 people. But what Philip says is, "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little."

But then, a disciple named Andrew comes to Jesus. He said, "Sir, there is a lad here who brought five barley loaves and two fish. But what is that amongst so many." Philip would have probably thought, "Oh my. Jesus, why did you make Andrew a disciple? How can five barley loaves feed 5,000?"

But then, a disciple named Andrew comes to Jesus. He said, "Sir, there is a lad here who brought five barley loaves and two fish. But what is that amongst so many." Philip would have probably thought, "Oh my. Jesus, why did you make Andrew a disciple? How can five barley loaves feed 5,000?"

Even though they were both disciples of Jesus, Philip's calculation was accurate in the humanistic sense. But Andrew's plan was faith. Philip and Andrew both followed Jesus. However, during that time, Philip simply thought, "Jesus is amazing" while he followed Him. But Andrew saw Jesus doing the works of God. He saw Jesus changing water into wine. He saw the man with an infirmity for 38 years rise and walk. Andrew felt, "That man is the son of God. There is nothing that he cannot do."

On the other hand, Philip simply thought, "Yeah, He is a good teacher. He is a great man. Yes, he does great works. He just saw him as a great human being. But Andrew was different. "If he is God, then he can take care of all of our problems. Five barley loaves and two fish. Yes, it is insignificant but if Jesus works, He can do it. During this time, Andrew saw how Jesus worked and said, "Wow, He is God! If he works we could feed the 5000 with the 5 barley loaves. He is the one who created heaven and the earth. He had the faith to believe him. But although Phillip saw the works of Jesus, he remained in his own humanly calculations.

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I had been going to church from a young age, but I came to believe in God in 1962. Before that, even though I went to church, I always said I was a sinner. I did not care for what the Bible was saying about me. I was just too busy trying hard to live according to the words of the Bible.

In October 1962, God brought about a change in my heart. What change? Indeed, I had sinned. I'm sorry to say that we were always hungry back then, so I committed lots of theft. I would steal wheat from other people's farms and eat them. They say the stolen food tastes better. A few friends of ours would go to the field, cut off bundles of wheat, put it in our shirts, and run to the mountains. We would start a fire, and we roasted the wheat there. When the grain got roasted, we would rub them with our hands. And after then we'd blow the shells off. All the shells blow off, and only the kernels would remain. Because of the ashes from the fire, our hands and face would be black with ash. It was so tasty. We had no food back then. I knew that this was theft, and I knew that I was a sinner.

When I attended church, I went to the early morning prayer service even from a young age. Every early morning, I would beg for the forgiveness of sin. Every early morning I said, "God, yesterday I committed such and such sin. I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. Please let me not sin today." But in the evenings, I would do the same thing when I'm with my friends. In the morning, I was determined not to go and do bad things again, but I was already doing them by evening time. I would continue to commit sins again and again.

I committed lots of theft and told many, many lies. I was a sinner in front of God.

However, as I began to read the Bible, I saw that the words of the Bible were different from my thoughts. The word of God started to clash with the thoughts of my heart. I had told lies and committed theft, and I committed so many sins. If somebody said "sinner", I would immediately think, "Oh me! That's Me! Of course, I am a sinner!" But as I read the Bible, although it says that there is no one righteous, it also says that there are righteous people. When I read further on, I found the process of how a sinner becomes righteous.

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One time, I was suffering terribly because of a stomach ulcer. Even though I ate only watery rice porridge, my stomach would hurt and I would have diarrhea. In three months, I lost 15 pounds in weight. In July, we have many church events and camps scheduled. One morning, I was praying to God. I thought that there was no way I can get through the summer schedule with my stomach so I prayed, "God my stomach hurts so bad. Please heal my stomach.¨

Suddenly, one Bible verse came to mind. It was Mark chapter 11 verse 24, ¨What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.¨ It was so easy. I thought, "Oh, whatever I desire and I pray for, if I believe that I received them, then I shall have them.¨So, I prayed sincerely, ¨God, please heal my stomach." Afterwards, I believed that my stomach is all healed.

Then, I thought about it: "If my stomach is all healed, then I should be going eating breakfast." I love to eat kimchi. As you know, Korean dining tables always have lots of vegetables open them. But the doctor had told me, ¨Pastor, your stomach walls are paper-thin. They may burst. And if it burst, you will die within 24 hours. You got to be careful.¨

But if my stomach gets healed, I should eat kimchi. But in one corner of my heart, if I eat kimchi, my stomach may burst. They said that if that happens, I´m gonna die. So I thought about it deeply: ¨Why do I think that my stomach will burst? It says, ¨What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them". I realized that I´m not believing the word of God.

I decided my heart to believe that my stomach is all healed. I read that Bible verse 10, 20 times. The real amazing thing is that when you talk with people, their hearts and opinions change. But the Bible, Genesis to Revelation, you read it so many times, but still, it never changes, it says the same thing. Whether I´m in a good mood, it says the same thing, or even if I´m in a bad mood, it says the same thing. It says the same thing when my stomach hurts. The word does not change.

My stomach is healed. I decided to believe it.

So I sat at the table and grabbed a bowl of rice. I ate rice and I ate kimchi. It was my first time eating rice in 3 months. My wife saw me and she was stunned. After the meal, I started to have diarrhea. It hurts so bad. I moaned, ¨Oh, my stomach.¨ Then, I thought, "If I eat kimchi, my stomach is going to be in a disaster. But the words of the Bible were not saying that. I realized, "Oh, I am not believing the word of God.¨

For lunch, I had another bowl of rice. Then I had diarrhea again. That evening, I was invited to dinner at a buffet restaurant. As I walked. in I thought, "Okay, I'm just going to have a little bit of porridge… Wait no! My stomach is all healed!" I ate so much that night that my belly was popping out. But that night I did not have diarrhea. The next morning when I woke up from sleep, in exactly twenty-four hours, I was completely healed. I've talked about this so many times and this is how God worked exactly according to his word.

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Have you heard of this story? There was a young man who lived in Germany. He really loved beer. He would come home from work, open up his fridge, and have a nice cold beer. That was the greatest joy of his life. But one day he came home and opened the fridge but he was out of beer. He wanted to drink beer so badly but every once in awhile, he would run out. He would think, "Oh! I need to have some beer! What should I do? But I can’t go out and get it right now.”

One day, he had an idea. “How about if I connect the pipeline from the beer factory to my house!” He made this his goal in life. He went to the beer factory and met the manager.

“Hello! How are you, Mr. Manager?”

“Oh, yes, how are you?”

“The beer from your company is so tasty!

“Oh, wow, thank you! What brings you here?”

“I came to ask for a special request.”

“What is it?”

“I want to connect the pipeline from the tank in your factory to my house.”

The manager replied, “Well that’s a great idea. But we’re not going be selling that much beer to one person. We cannot do that for you.”

The man went back home. But he came back the next day. He came back again the next day and kept on asking the manager. The manager of the beer factory contacted a pipeline company and asked for an estimate. They sent to him and estimate and when that young man came to the factory, the manager showed him the estimate. The man agreed to do it. The workers from the pipeline company came and connected the pipeline.

The guy called all his friend saying he’s going to have a beer party. All his friends came over. There were glasses everywhere. But where’s the beer? There’s no beer. The guy said, “Hey, don’t worry. Look at all the faucets in my home. All the faucets painted red are the faucets of beer. If you turn it on, you will get beer!"

If you connect the pipeline from the beer factory to your house, when you open up the faucet, you’re gonna get a beer. If you believe the words of Jesus, it means the pipe of the heart has been connected between you and Jesus. If we were to labor to become like Jesus it would be so hard. But when your heart becomes connected with the heart of Jesus, you become one heart. Then the life inside of Jesus becomes your life. Then the righteousness inside of Jesus becomes your righteousness. Then the holiness inside of Jesus becomes your holiness. In the heart of Jesus, there is holiness, there is righteousness, there is love, there is wisdom, and there is power and it all becomes ours when we are connected with him.

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You know when I first went to the army, I learned how to throw grenades. We underwent much training to be used in battle. Grenades have a safety handle. When you hold the handle together with the grenade and you remove the safety pin, it will not explode. Then you usually go, "One! Two! Toss!" And when you toss it, then the handle is released. The safety is completely released and it strikes the, the wick, the detonator. The detonator lights on fire. The fire goes all the way to the gun powder which takes about three seconds. And once it reaches three seconds, What happens?

The gun powder gets set on fire and then, "BOOM!" There's a big explosion. The metal strap breaks into little pieces and shoots everywhere, killing people.

A grenade with a safety pin on it, it's nothing, it's fine. And even though you toss it, if the pin is not removed, it's nothing. Sometimes, people are in such a rush that they throw the grenade in to battle without removing the pin. Then sometimes the enemy catches it removes the pin, tosses it back. and it kills you. For a grenade, once you remove the safety pin, it'll hit the detonator, and light it on fire.

The wick will go down for three seconds and then hit the gun powder and it'll blow up.

It is the same with the word of God. When the Bible is closed, it's just sitting there -it can't do anything. The word will not work. But when you take the Bible and open it up, and read it, and when you accept that word into your heart, amazing things happen.

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When we search the Bible about righteousness, it is written in Romans chapter 3 verse 10 says, "there is no one righteous, no not one." After reading this, people can naturally think, "Of course, there is no one righteous."

But, in Genesis, it is written that Noah was a just man. Also, again in Romans, it tells us that "the just shall live by faith". James chapter 5:16 tells us, "the fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much."

There are three parts to this: there are sinners, there are righteous people, and lastly, there is a process of how sinners become righteous.

The biggest reason the man with the infirmity for 38 years was able to accept the words of Jesus was because there was no way for him to walk. As he has lived his life for 38 years, the most important thing he realized was that it was impossible for him to ever walk.

He would think, “Now, I cannot walk. I have no way, I have no methods, and I’ve tried everything. I’ve been to hospitals, “I’ve tried to get up, I tried doing leg exercises but it all failed!

He had tried everything so he no longer could have any hope in himself. If he failed one time, then maybe he’ll try something new next time. If he had failed ten times, he could think, “But this time, maybe it will work”. If he tried a hundred times, he could have still thought, "Maybe this time, it will work." Maybe that is what he was actually thinking. But no longer could he think in this way. Because for 38 years -for a long long time- he had failed every attempt he tried. Therefore, he knew all of his ways were failures. There’s no way for him to walk whatsoever.

But because it was impossible for him and because he had no way, he was able to accept the way of Jesus.

Jesus met the Samaritan woman at a well. The Samaritan woman and Jesus had an amazing conversation. There was a clear difference between the heart of the Samaritan woman and Jesus. However, eventually, her heart and Jesus' heart became one.

Jesus said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." We would think, "What kind of water is that? What kind of water would make a person never thirst again?" That makes no sense to us. However, this woman believed what Jesus said. She replied, "Jesus, give me this water, that I thirst not." What Jesus said was not the same as her thoughts, nevertheless, this woman accepted Jesus' words.

Before, this woman believed that she was going to be happy as she married her first husband. But she was not happy at all, so she went through 5 different marriages and was living with her 6th husband. None of her husbands or choices in life could quench her thirst. But then the words of Jesus became an everlasting spring of living water. She didn't need anything more because now she had Jesus in her heart. The words of Jesus cleansed her of her sin. Jesus' words filled her heart with joy and life.

We went into the hospital room of brother Kim Choonghwan. Brother Kim Choonghwan's wife was standing next to the bed with her head down and we walked in, she just looked up and put her head down again. Brother Kim Choonghwan's mother was also next to the bed with her tears streaming down her face. The brother's not dead yet, but in the hearts of the family, he was already dead.

But right then, what I thought of was, "If the one who opened the hospital door and entered in was not me but Jesus, what would happen here? Surely, Jesus would heal this brother."

Then, I shouted at Brother Kim, "Hey, listen up. The doctor's said you're not going to survive the next two or three days. But that's is just the circumstances. I've read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John many times. Jesus healed so many sick people. And the interesting thing there is when Jesus saw the sick, he never ignored them once. The blind, the lepers, the lame man, and he healed all people of sickness. Jesus never ignores the sick. He always healed them. Jesus wants to heal you. You must know, "Oh, Jesus wants to heal me". Brother, if that's the heart that you have, then the heart of Jesus and your heart become one. "

In the Bible, the people who met Jesus can be divided into two kinds. There’s the one kind who refused the words of Jesus. There’s the other kind who accepted the words of Jesus. Some of the words of Jesus are difficult to understand. However, there were people who accepted those words.

For example, Lazarus died. He had been dead for four days. Jesus went to Bethany where Lazarus had lived with his two younger sisters, Mary and Martha. Both sisters were sad that their brother had died. But Jesus said, “Thy brother shall rise again.” Mary and Martha could not accept those words. They thought, "His body has completely rotted! He would smell!" However, Jesus told them, "Didn’t I say that if you believe my words, you shall see the glory of God?” Before Jesus raised the dead Lazarus, He first wanted to revive the Lazarus who was dead in the hearts of Mary and Martha.

He kept on telling them, “Your brother will live. I said, ‘if you believe, you will see the glory of God.’” And through that, the words of Jesus began to enter the heart of Mary and Martha. “Ah, if the Lord wills it, then our brother can live.” A new heart was made in them. Right then Mary and Martha opened the tomb. They removed the stone of the tomb, and Jesus said to Lazarus, “Lazarus, come forth.”

Jesus is the king of kings, the king of the universe. He says, “Let there be light.” The light obeys. “Storm, be still. Sea, be still.” The storm and the seas obey. As the King of the universe, if Jesus tells a dead man to come back to life, he has not choice but to come back to life.

**** Pastor Ock Soo Park’s Lectures on the Gospel of John streams live every Saturday. You can watch the broadcast on TV or through the links below, and you can also watch it on CTN app and homepage.

Hours: 9PM (EDT) 6PM(PDT)

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