St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

John 6:4-15

Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.  One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,  There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?  Jesus said, Make the people sit down. Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.

When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

True Leadership

This phrase catches my eyes: When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself

Think about that. This one sentence sums it up. It summarizes what kind of leader we have, and I’m very proud of the kind of leader that we have. Jesus Christ showed what true leadership, what a true life should be like. Our leader is not easily influenced by other people’s reactions about him. He did not seek other people’s attention. And I like that strength. I like that in people. People who seek attention, they show the weakness of people, but our leader, Jesus Christ did not seek attention from people. And that showed confidence and strength. Little kids, they like attention. But as you grow and mature, as you get older, you don’t need that attention anymore. You’re so confident with yourself that you don’t need to seek attention from people and our lord, Jesus Christ, showed that strength so well.

There is an ordination prayer that is used for ministers. So whenever we ordain people to enter into ministry, there is a prayer that we always use. My favourite part, says: Let him or her not easily be puffed up by the praise of others, nor easily, too depressed by the blame of others. I love that part. In ministry, you’re always working with people, and you try to lift up yourself. And then with your charisma and with your popularity, you try to do ministry. And when you get blamed for ministry sometimes get easily depressed or we get easily popped up, but instead of doing that, you do your own thing. And I like that part of the prayer, and that prayer shouldn’t only be for ministers, but for all of us.

A Humble God

When I studied Jesus, being humble is a very strong trait. Jesus was always surrounded by people, but he was not easily influenced by them. Whenever he did something, he didn’t use it to bring attention to himself. I think people are crazy about Jesus. I think people were really mesmerized by his charisma of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even into today’s story where Jesus manipulated the boys' lunch of with five loaves of bread and two fish. I don’t know exactly how he did it, but somehow he fed 5,000 people. During that time, they only counted men in that number, so that 5,000 people meant about 10,000-15,000, it could even have been 20,000 people there. And then he fed that many people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Wouldn’t you be crazy about Jesus after experiencing that? Wow, what a miracle! And Jesus drove them into a frenzy. They were in a fantasy when they were with Jesus! Jesus-mania. You remember Beatlemania, right? Some women even fainted. These people were crazy about the Beatles. People were like, “I love Ringo Starr, please stay with us forever!” I think Jesus-mania was 10,000 times better than that. He just fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread. But amazingly, Jesus was not affected by people’s reaction. I think the greater miracle is not to feed 5,000 people. The greater miracle was that Jesus was not affected by the people.

When people were crazy about him and wanted to force him to be their king. Jesus decided to be by himself in the mountains, most likely to pray. He didn’t really care about what people showed him. He simply retreated into the mountains.

That shows me the character of Jesus. He wanted to be alone. He didn’t want to be influenced by other people’s reactions. And the next day, he went about doing the same thing as usual: teaching, healing and guiding them. The people were looking for Jesus because Jesus went to the mountain, and they were looking for Jesus, but they couldn’t find Jesus anywhere! So they spent all night looking for Jesus, and finally the next day, they found Jesus.  They came to Jesus and the same crowd gathered together again. They wanted more miracles. They wanted more excitement. They wanted more from him, and then, Jesus teaching them about the meaning of the miracle he just performed the day before. In teaching, Jesus said this; Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. It is very difficult to understand. Even now, it’s hard to listen to, however we have the sacrament so we know its message is not literally, but think about the first time people heard this message. Eat the flesh and drink blood? Unless you do that, you have no life in you? The people did not expect that kind of message at all. They wanted more miracles. They wanted more exciting messages, but Jesus’ teaching was weird. Eating flesh? Drinking blood? They didn’t get it, so this is what they said: This teaching is difficult, who can accept it? I think Jesus already knew their reaction before he said it. He knew that they will respond to him in this way when they hear the message. If Jesus was looking for popularity, fame, then he would not have said these kinds of things. He would have toned down the message so that he could get more attention from people, and with the people’s power, he could do whatever he wanted to do. But when he said this, he knew that people will not like it, but he said it anyways. Immediately, the people lost their appetite for Jesus. They were deeply disappointed with Jesus, and this is what John said: What happened after Jesus said this message, because of this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, Do you also wish to go away?

Leader for the People

They did not want to go. They did not want to follow Jesus any longer. They all left. Think about the energy and power. Let’s say 10,000 people are here, and they are mesmerized with Jesus’ message and Jesus’ miracle. They all decide to follow him and they think that he is the greatest. “You have to be king!”. “You have to lead us and guide us!”. But Jesus said just one word, and everybody left. He was all alone with 12 disciples. Sounds like only 12 disciples were there. And then Jesus asks, Do you want to leave too? And then Peter said: You have some words of life, where can we go? And Peter always says the right thing at the right moment. I think Jesus must have loved Peter. That’s what Jesus wanted to hear! I think it would be very easy to do ministry with Peter. I think Jesus knew the crowd very well. He was not fooled by the crowd. Just because people left him. He did not let that into his head. I like that.

What if Jesus really entertained the idea of people wanting to make him king and all that? What if Jesus actually took that seriously? The next day he would’ve been a king without his people. If Jesus said the same thing, they all would have left. What kind of a king is that? A king without anyone who follows him?

Temptation

In the Gospel of John, is there a temptation story? Matthew, Mark and Luke have temptation story, three temptations stories we know. But in John, we don’t have a temptation story. But this particular story is different, John describes three temptations and this is the last temptation. The last temptation is Satan took Jesus up on the mountain and showed the whole world, and said “I will give you this”. In other words, I’ll make you a king. If you follow, if you bow to me, I’ll give you everything. Jesus resisted that temptation, the temptation to be the greatest. Jesus was not fooled by the people’s reaction towards him. When people shouted “Hosanna”, Jesus let them but he was not pleased. He was not happy with the praise. He knew that soon, they will desert him. When people said, “Crucify him! Crucify!”, Jesus just let them, but he was not overly disappointed or angry. In that sense, Jesus was truly free, Jesus was free from people’s evaluations, people’s expectations, people’s reclamation, and people’s attention. True righteousness is not something we achieve.

He didn’t get his identity from people. He knew his own identity. Jesus is our king, but Jesus did not become our king because WE made him our king. Jesus did not beg them to make him their king. Jesus did not perform miracles so that he could become a superstar and people might desire and admire him. Jesus did not want to be a hero. Jesus did not come to this world to become a hero. So in Mark, whenever he did a miracle, he said not to tell anyone. We don’t need to be important people in other people's  eyes. We are already precious as we are. Jesus was rejected, abandoned and ridiculed by people, but it was okay to him. They did not want to make him king anymore. They mocked him. They wanted the powerless king to be arrested, punished and executed. It was alright for Jesus, because he knew very well that preciousness would not change. He knew that people cannot make a king nor can the people make him a criminal. That is what the crowd does.

The Journey

One day they will make you a king, the very next day they leave you and make you a criminal. Jesus did not become our king because we chose him. Jesus became our king because of his sacrificial love for us. Jesus, our leader, is the King of love. People are hungry for attention and recognition. They will sacrifice many things just so they can get praise from people and become an important person. Our Lord Jesus did not seek attention. Our Lord Jesus did not rule by the power, our Lord Jesus ruled our hearts by his love, and Jesus wants us to follow in his footsteps. Instead of going out to receive people’s praise and admiration, we withdraw to the mountain by ourselves as did our Lord Jesus. There in that mountain, we will meet God. That’s our journey. Our journey, is a journey into our own mountain where we meet God alone. That should be our lifestyle. Instead of seeking attention from people and enjoying the power of people’s admiration, we see God alone in our own mountain of prayer and that is the confidence. When you’re free from people, you can be quite creative.

All the artists, all the great people in history, they were different than the people of their generation and they would not conform to people’s expectations. They did their own thing, overcoming people’s admiration and recognition. So during that time, they might have suffered, but they created tremendous artistic work because they went their own way. Instead of always trying to get attention and recognition from people, we go our own way. In that way, we can do what God wants us to do. Be creative in your own mountain. Find your own calling. What you wanna do with your lives? Do not worry about what people say about you. Do your own thing. Find your own calling and live that. That is courage and strength, and that is what Jesus Christ, our Lord, showed us what a true authentic life is all about. We don’t want to just copy other people’s lives just because people accept and approve of it. We want to live our own lives; our own authentic life that gives you true happiness, joy and meaningfulness. That is a stronger life, and that is a spiritual life.

Do you find yourself conforming to the expectations of others, or doing things to gain the approval of others? What can we learn from the example of Jesus, who withdrew himself to the mountains at the peak of his fame?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

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1 Corinthians 1:18-31

How much do you know about today’s text supporting right foolishness power wisdom Greek Gentiles Jewish? And how much do you know about the Creek yet church to each apostle? Paul wrote this letter 2000 years ago. We have scholars there, you know, to see you from today’s text. What is the important image you can get as Peter read the whole text today for us? Yes, the cross, the cross, the main subject of today’s text. And let me ask you the last question. Thank you for your patience. What seems to be the issue of this text? You can be so many, right? It can be so many, but I want to take this one particular angle and share the message with you today. verse 18 says for the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us, what is saved, it is the power of God. As you can see, there are two different groups of people. Paul is addressing to one group is perishing because they considered the cross as foolishness. The other group is not perishing, but being saved because they consider the cross as to the power of God, because we heard about this passage here and there. So often we are so familiar with the cross itself. We do have to think about the scandalous aspect of the cross anymore.

What was the cross originally in once the similar, the punishment from the Roman empire superpower at the time, the cross was the thesis of power, the power of the Roman empire to crush those regardless, opponents and threats. It was indeed the sign of defeat and shame and can we truly say the cross is the power of God? What is going on in that cross? I was intrigued by the fact that apostle Paul addressed this passage to the church. He established, there were people in the church who would consider the cross as foolishness and all that. Before we investigate further, let’s look closely at the culture and the spirit of the city of Corinth. Corinth has validated New York. When you go to a New York Manhattan, fascinating lot of people, Corey was a Seaport situated at the border of Arcadia, which is nowadays Greece. Let’s see the pain because of this geographical kind of advantage. The city had Booming economy the population at a pause time, they had 200,000 people and it was, they, there were 14,000 theaters in that city. And there were so many trade clubs and voluntary organizations and Christians incorrect thought themselves as one of these social clubs, because a lot of trades, the city was known for its sexual immorality. The Greek word for creating your girl is Corinthia zesta and he became a work of prostitute. The society was filled with a ruthless and competitive spirit. New Testament scholar with Arrington said public boasting and self-promotion was considered as an art form. Now you get the picture, right? Because of the trend of the times, the Creek and church were not immune to and because of the culture and the spirit of the society, the corinthian church became vulnerable to the extent that their foundation as the church was attacked as a pastor call with urgent concern for his church, you have to write this letter to the Corinthian church. When he wrote this letter to his, the church, he didn’t know that it will become, it will become a Bible, part of the Bible. When we look at acts of chapter 18, there’s a record that Paul established this church in current, administer them for one a year within the first Corinthians, the book of first Corinthians, the word for church in Greek, which is ekklesia appears 22 times. What does it mean? It tells us how much Paul wanting to educate his congregation. What church is all about and what the community is all about it. Mostly what the cross of Jesus Christ is all about what was going on in the mind of those who viewed the cross as foolishness.

They think they are wise and they need to prove they are wise with boasting and self-promotion. And when such people gather in a group, what will happen, divisions and conflicts, no wonder we can trace such divisions in the book of the First Creek. It’s the same book, the same text today’s text. For example, in chapter one, verse 12 says this. What I mean is that each of you says, I belong to Paul. I belong to a policy. I belong to Cephas, or I belong to Christ. It shows that there were divisions in the Corinthian church. Paul as Cephas. We can understand that, but there was a group called Christ. What this tells us is that certain people out of their own interests, wanting to use the names, the leaders well-known names to maximize their interests in the church, just like they would do in any social clubs, perhaps Paul or Apollos or Cephas did not know their needs were used by these groups. I don’t know. Another example can be found in chapter 12, where Paul explained the church as the body of Christ. Remember that the background of this metaphor is also the divisions in the church. Those were strong and honorable by the standard of the world, mistreated the weaker and less honorable members in the church. As we see from this evidence, we know that there were divisions and conflicts among the church members. And the main reason behind this is the sub promoting and competitive spirit for certain people who thought they were wiser. And they had all the rights to display their wisdom and wealth, whatever they can most would, but they didn’t know. They became so blinding, blinded by their own lust. Those who think they are wiser and view themselves higher than anybody else will be drifted away from God. This is a spiritual condition. They are all, but they did not know that today’s verse 21 says this for, since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. They will cut off from God. They were drifted away from God. As we started enrollments a few weeks ago, the vanity of people’s thinking is the beginning of destruction. Romans one 21 days, but though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. But they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.

In other words, they want it to become a God themselves without knowing that’s the fast track to isolation and death. The one that they view the cross as foolishness, then who are the people who viewed the cross as God’s wisdom and God’s power to take understand that secret mystery of Christ. The cross one thing we can say is that they were not the people who boasted about their wisdom and their status. According to the worldly standard, Jesus once said, let’s sit up pure in heart for, they will see, I would say a blessing on the pure in heart for, they will see the cross as the wisdom of God and the power of God because of their status in the society was not in the sector, but in the margin, they may understand the power of God and the wisdom of God in the prostate Mave, because where there is a need of God, God will be there for them, but I don’t think they would praise God for the cross through which they became, what they want wanting to be. Even the may have such desire to become greater and all that. As soon as they encounter the cross, as soon as they went through the cross, the power of God and the wisdom of God, there’ll be no more of such desire to become greater, but the standard of the world, we need to understand the true power cross in the cross and through the cross, people will be transformed, not from a, to B, nor from B to a, not the reversal of both sides and be all kinds of people and all kinds of things of the world, surrendered to god in the cross. This is how the wisdom of God and part of work through the promise. God created new humanity for the cross. And thus the cross is God’s power and God’s Vista the silence, all the noisy boasting of the world. And it compasses everything under the cross.

God called everyone in United in the cross. How marvelous God’s wisdom was when we looked closely at the latter part of today’s text, we will see more clearly how our God works with his power and his person. God calls, God chooses with this powering, with this wisdom, God calls, not only one particular group, but everybody to form a church verse 24 says, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, verse 26 says to consider your own call brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many more powerful, not many nobler, and verse 27 says, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. And lastly, verse 28 says, God chose what is low and despised in the world. We come to church, not accidentally. The fact that we are here today is God’s calling and gossip shoes, cowards show the world how wise his wisdom is and how great his power is through this church. You and me only when we humbly surrender to God’s calling and God’s choosing, then our eyes will be open and see the gospel that is filled with wisdom and power. We’ll be able to see a confess that the cross is not foolishness, but the power of God, remember the story. The prodigal son and gospel of Luke, the product itself was spent all this money living with the pigs, but he realized he was in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness. And does he repented just like him? We will see Jesus who comes to us when we are hitting rock bottom of our life. That’s what we see through it, across what we see Jesus who comes to us when we are helpless and we are in a struggle. That’s what we see through the cross. We will see Jesus who left the heavenly throne to be with us. That realization happens when we see the cross, look at the painting by rampant. It is called the return of the prodigal son, the love of the parents, the most foolish of all, but the greatest love above all.

Jesus is grace or some, not by the wisdom of the world, but embraced us in his heart. And we say, finally, home, nothing will matter to us anymore. The power and wisdom of this world will not. Yes, we will have to live in this world, but now with a different identity in Christ and things that happen hidden now revealed to us because of our new identity in the cross. Jesus once said in Matthew 11:25, I thank you, father, for the vote of having another because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have we build them to influence what will be our spiritual blessings of the class. We become one with ourselves and one with God through the cross, that is what the cross is doing. The cross reconciles us to God and unites us. Now we have peace with ourselves before our hearts were torn apart by the fear and the parity by the blood of the cross, we weren’t healed at BK or through the cross. We have access to God and we enter into the state of unity and intimacy with God and foremost, because of this unity with God, we are able to reach out to others in the community with the ministry of unity.

As reverend Kim said last Friday, this is the spiritual principle. And I said to you a month ago in the Sunday sermon, that is the spiritual principle. One must have solid, solitude to a time of God alone. Hearing the voice from God. You are. I’ve been loving, having an intimate relationship with God. His solitude will be able to go out to the community and serve one. Another Henry now said the intimate relationship with God would create a community. And that’s what the cross of Christ does to us. And to this community where we have peace and unity with God is solitude. You, we will have peace and unity with others in this community. As you all know, by now, we are learning the book of Romans every Friday. It has been a true blessing for all of us. And I thank God for his Vista and power that happened so visible through the lecture from reverend Kim and the serving hearts from KSM’s men’s group we witness the unity of the church through the power of the cross and my friends. It is our turn to reach out to those who are alone and who I need of God’s grace. The cross of Christ will reach out to those who are in need in need of God’s grace. And God will use us as his tool to unite God’s people.

Today’s international woman’s day with electing heart, with the lightened existence, look around those who can be in a vulnerable situation. And when we do even little thing, but justice and peace, that’s what the cross does through us. A few Yia studying away from home, where we remember them and take a moment to pray for them. That is what the cross is doing through this community. As we are in the season of lent, I encourage all of you to think seriously about your own spiritual journey. Remember you’re called and chosen by every member, what God did to us through the cross. Unless we have the solitude with God and breakfast alleviation with God, we won’t be able to reach out and have you need to with one another, there’s the cross foolishness to you or the power of God and wisdom of God and god to give you the strength to love the rugged cross and surrender to the power and wisdom of God revealed in the cross, put down your wisdom and power, but to surrender, surrender to God, God will correct you. Peace. You need to, how to carry your own cross to Jesus Christ.

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In this session, we study Romans chapter 12.

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Mark 8:31-38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Gospel of Mark

Today’s message is the core of the Christian message and the core of the Gospel. This is probably the most important text in the whole Bible. As I said before, Mark is simply amazing. The Gospel Mark, is traditionally understood as the memoir of St. Peter. Mark was following around Peter and he recorded the Gospel message, remembering what Peter said. Ultimately, it is a very simple book.

It is a great book. Short, but it gets to the point. It is precise but clearly presents the Gospel. There are only 16 chapters, but it’s very clearly defined into 2 sections, both of 8 chapters. In the first eight chapters, he is talking about the identity of Jesus. In the second eight chapters, he is talking about the suffering of Jesus Christ. It is a very interesting combination. The identity of Christ and suffering of Christ. The passage that you read today was in Chapter 8:27-38, and that is the core. That is where the transition begins. Up to chapter eight, Mark is trying to establish who Jesus is. And from chapter eight onwards, he’s talking about the mystery of Jesus’ suffering. Why is this a mystery? Because it is a scandal. The Messiah, the hero, saviour. That Messiah suffered, was rejected, and died a cruel death. Can you accept that the Messiah was not powerful enough like Superman, who comes and saves humanity, but rather a Messiah who suffered, was rejected and died? Can we accept that kind of Messiah? Can that Messiah save us from all our troubles and our problems? People wondered, and we also wondered. Can that kind of Messiah save us?

We are going to explore what Mark is trying to communicate. The climax is the confession of St Peter. Jesus asked the disciples, Who do people say that I am? And they replied Elijah, and others said as a prophet to the people.

Jesus, The Messiah

And then Jesus asked Peter, Who do you see that I am? And Peter who is always fast in responding. Peter came out and said, You are the Messiah. You are the Messiah. What is Peter doing? He’s nailing the point. The first eight chapters are talking about the identity of Jesus Christ, and from Peter’s mouth, comes  “You are the Messiah!”. He did a great job in concluding and proclaiming who Jesus truly was. Seeing that Peter understood Jesus’ identity, Jesus started revealing the mystery of what would happen to him. And he said, the son of man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again. At the first part, it was about Jesus’ identity, but as soon as Peter said, “You are the Messiah!”, Jesus told all his disciples to be quiet. When he started talking about his suffering, rejection.

Peter did not like what Jesus said, so Peter took Jesus aside. Peter is about the same age as Jesus.  Even though Peter was his disciple, Peter was also a friend. Peter actually got upset with what Jesus said. He just said, “You are the Messiah!” And Jesus talked about his suffering, rejection, and death. So Peter said to Jesus “Don’t say that. Don’t say that. The scripture said Peter rebuked Jesus. So Peter would not have said “O Lord, please do not say that.” No. “Don’t say that. Don’t say things like that. You’re ruining it! You are ruining your reputation, you’re ruining what we are trying! Don’t say that.

What did Peter not like? I wonder. What did Peter not like? Peter did not like defeat. To him, what Jesus said was similar to a defeated mentality. Suffering, rejection, and death? They all implied the defeat of the Messiah in Peter’s mind . In other words, “Jesus, you’re wrong, don’t say that.”. Peter wanted to correct Jesus. Jesus, in the same way, rebuked Peter and said: Get behind me, Satan. It was a strong word to his friend, his disciple. Get behind me, Satan. But Jesus had to use it because Peter’s thinking was everything what Jesus tried to fix. That’s why right after, Jesus said, For you are setting your mind not on divine things, but on human things. It was not just an innocent mistake Peter made. Jesus wanted to go one way and Peter wanted to go a totally different way? Look at it very carefully. We’ve been meditating on these things. There is the identity of Jesus for the first eight chapters and Peter was correct. But in the second part when Jesus started talking about suffering, rejection, and death, Peter did not accept. Peter did not like it. When you look at these two, what are you reminded of? Are you remind of anything? Why would Jesus use the word “Satan”?

Rejection, Death and Suffering

Do you remember the temptation story? When Satan tempted Jesus what did he say? If you are the son of God, then do the wonderful things such as turning stone into bread and jumping down from the temple. That’s what the son of God is. The first part mentions, if Jesus is the Messiah, then prove it. But Jesus did the exact opposite of that. I will suffer, I will be rejected and I will die, but Peter did not like that. Peter followed exactly what Satan was trying to do, and that’s when Jesus said, Satan, get behind me. To Jesus, suffering, rejection and death were not signals of defeat. Satan tells us we should try to avoid suffering, rejection, and death at all cost. That those are bad things. Suffering, not worth it. Rejection, why not be popular and be accepted by everyone? If everyone rejects you, then you are dead. Try to avoid rejection as much as possible! Death is not what we want!

But Jesus is saying, do not be afraid of suffering, do not be afraid of rejection and to not be afraid of death. Rather, you should embrace your suffering and that is the important truth. In verse 34: if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. What does that mean? This is a very popular saying. We all know if anybody wants to become my followers, let him deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Take up their cross and follow me. We hear that so many times but we don’t understand what it means. Is Jesus saying, “If you to follow me, suffer?” Is that what Jesus is saying? Take up your cross and follow me! You can not have a big house! If you want to follow me, suffer! Is that Jesus is trying to say? Take up your cross, is what Jesus is saying. He’s not asking you to suffer. What he’s asking you is to not be afraid of suffering! That’s what Jesus is saying. Taking up your cross means to embrace your suffering. People seem to be scared of suffering, rejection and death. They are scared of them. What if everybody leaves me? What if nobody likes me?What if I lose my job? What if my children suffer? What if I have a terminal disease and I faced death?

People are scared of suffering and death, so they run away from these things. We need these things. They think they’re defeated. They try to save themselves from these things at all costs. You come to realize that you can never save yourself from these things. Suffering, rejection, death. The more you try to save yourselves, the more you become weak and the more you become scared. You tried to run away from these things, but they chase after you like a shadow. So you’ve lived your life for awhile forgetting about rejection, forgetting about death, and then turn around and it is right there waiting. Instead of disappearing from you, like a shadow it follows you around. You are trying to run away, but in the process, you’re losing yourself. You tried to run away from these things, but ultimately you will lose. Jesus said a very important truth: For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel will save it. If you try to save your life to avoid your suffering, you will lose the life they tried to save.

If you are willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel and Jesus Christ and you lose your life, in the end you will save your life. You’re trying to save yourself from suffering, rejection and death, but you’ll lose. Remember, in your life, you’re trying to save yourself from suffering, rejection, and death, you will lose. You’ll be imprisoned in your own fear, anger and sadness. But if you say to yourself, turn around and face your suffering, rejection and death. “OK suffering, come! I am ready to suffer! I’m ready to be rejected! I’m ready to die!” All of a sudden, suffering, rejection and death, they no longer have a grip on us. They don't have any power to control us anymore. But as long as you try to avoid them, then they will be continuously in power over you. When you turn around and face suffering, death and rejection, then they will lose power.

Face Your Fears

When I was teenager I was very small and there was this big guy. He was a bully. He scared the heck out of me. Everyday, I would go to school and as soon as he appears, I ran away. I don’t know how many days I did this but my life was miserable. One day,  I was angry with myself. I said to myself, I’m going to face this guy. So he came and started hitting me and all that. I turned around and I faced him.

And then he was scared. He didn't know where this courage came from. I just turned around and faced him. “You want to beat me, beat me.” I didn’t even have to fight and after that he left me alone. That is the truth. In your life. If you’re scared of suffering, rejection, and death and you constantly run away from them, you will die. You will become a slave to them. But when you face them, they will lose that power against you. You can face those things because with the God, we can persevere our suffering. With God, suffering will produce perseverance, character, and even hope. That is real power. With you alone, you can’t do that. But with God, suffering cannot destroy you. Suffering even produces hope. With God, we can face our rejection because Jesus said, I will never abandon you. Even when the world rejects you, God will always be with us and embrace us. With God, we can face our death because Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me, even though they die, they will live with God. We can now face suffering, rejection and death.

These three things will always be a part of your lives. When you graduate from high school, it will still be there. When you finish university, they will still be there. When you get married, they will still be there. Even when you’re 60, 70, 80 years old, suffering, rejection and death will be always part of your lives. We cannot run away from them and even if we wanted to do so, it will never leave us as long as we live. As we try to run away from them, you become weaker. Apart from suffering, don’t try to build your own joy and happiness. Apart from rejection, don’t try to build your identity. Apart from death, don't try to build your life. Find joy in the midst of suffering. Find your identity in the midst of rejection. Find life in the midst of death. When you are ready to suffer, ready to be rejected, and ready to die, you’ll be amazed by that power and it will empowers you. And you’ll be free from fear, and you will have an abundant day. Today is March 1st. For Koreans, March 1st is a very important day. That’s when they all rose up against Japanese imperialism, when Korea was part of Japan. The people had no power, no weapons, no nothing. But thousands and thousands of people came out and stood up against the oppression, against Japan's imperialism. They fought against it. How do they do it? They said, If I perish, I perish.

I’m ready to perish. If I perish, I perish. When Martin Luther King Jr. started his demonstrations, they had the same attitude. If I perish, I perish. And they were able to come out and fight against injustice. In your life, if you can say that, if I perish, I perish, you will live. But if you say, I’m scared of perishing, then you will die. That’s what the Christian Gospel is all about. If I perish, I perish. I’m not going to be a slave to money, and I’m not going to be slave of fame, I’m not going to be a slave to the comforts I enjoy. If I perish, I perish. Then your life will come alive.

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In this session, we study Romans chapters 9 to 11. Listen in on an exciting and insightful lesson!

Mark 1:9-13

There are five major milestones in Jesus’ life. Those were baptism, transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. These are the five major events that happened in Jesus’ life. We saw the transfiguration last Sunday when we reflected that spiritual experience on the mountain top is good, but it is not enough to deal with life’s challenges. So we should ask God not only to give us a wonderful spiritual experience but also at the same time, equip us and empower us to be able to deal with the daily challenges of our lives. So that’s what we reflected on. Today, we are looking at Jesus’ baptism story, which is another milestone of Jesus’ life. And then we see a similar thing going on in this story, as a story of transfiguration. In transfiguration, the disciples saw Moses and Elijah from heaven they earth the voice. But in Jesus’ baptism they saw heaven torn apart, the spirit descended like a dove.

And then there was a voice: You are my son, the beloved. With you, I am well pleased. It’s a wonderful scene. They experienced a heavenly experience. So wonderful. But right after, the spirit who descended on Jesus for like a dove, now with violent power and force, drove Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted. I mean, they are short passages, Mark just put these two together and he even doesn’t talk about temptation, the content of temptation. So, that’s why I like Mark, one of my favourite books, but it is short and precise, to the point, but it has a powerful message. It is the gospel that was written first, before Matthew and Mark, and then he describes a right there that when Jesus was experiencing heaven and as soon immediately Jesus was thrown into the wilderness, in the reality of temptation,

and then I realized that that’s our life. That is my life and that’s your life. When you praise, you feel like you’re in a different world. You experience the holiness and the presence of God and everything. As soon as you walk out of this sanctuary, we are faced with temptation of the world. In your everyday living, you are faced with the reality of temptation. Life is a mix of the good and bad. You cannot always expect the good. You won’t always stay on the good. You won’t always experience inspiration in your lives and many times you only experience the dark reality of temptation and challenges and difficulties and hardships, and I was thinking about what is temptation? What is the basic core meaning of temptation? Is temptation the power to make you do what you’re not supposed to do? Is that what temptation is? A power to make it do what you’re not supposed to do?

You’re on a diet and there’s a delicious pizza right in front of you, especially at 11 at night. Should I eat this, or not? Oh my goodness, right here, I can smell it. I can just take a small slice. Pizza is your temptation. You’ve decided to do exercise every morning. You’d get up, “Aw, it’s too cold! I don’t want to go out and walk or run or anything. I just want more sleep. One more hour of sleep.”. Sleep is your temptation. It is a power to make you do or you’re not supposed to. Mark does not describe the details of Jesus’ temptation, but Matthew and Luke do. Do you know the famous story of Jesus’ temptation in Matthew and Luke? Satan told Jesus to turn the bread into stone, and then he took him to the the temple and said.. “Why don’t you throw yourself off?”. Nothing worked, so he took him to the high mountain and showed him the whole, and he said I’ll give you this if you bow to me. That was the temptation that Jesus had. And then I read a few times and then I realized that you nothing to do with the power to do what you’re not supposed. Jesus fed 5,000 with only five loaves of bread and two fish. So Jesus could have easily turned the stone into bread. So it has nothing to do with the power to make you do what you’re not supposed to do. Then what is temptation? And as I read those temptations again and again, one statement, one phrase kind of jumped out at me and that was say to kept asking Jesus: if you are the son of God. That comes up every time. Satan wanted Jesus to prove himself that he was truly the son of God.

That gave me insight or a clue to understanding the reality of temptation. I’ve learned that temptation is basically questioning our basic identity. Temptation is questioning my basic identity, who I am, who we are. What was Jesus’ biggest temptation? Jesus’ greatest temptation was the cross. Cross was his last and final and the greatest temptation. When he was upon the cross, the people ridiculed him, saying: If you are truly the Messiah, why don’t you save yourself? If you’re really the son of God, why don’t you show to the whole world they you can do that? Why don’t you just come down save yourself? You save others, why not just save yourself? Show it! Prove it! About who you are! Let me read an exact quotation: He saved others. He could not save himself, let the Messiah, the king of Israel come down from the cross now so that we may see, and believe. As I read the scripture, Jesus did not do anything to prove himself. He was silent, quiet and he breathed his last breath. That’s it. Finished. Jesus did not say “Hey! I can do it!”.

He didn’t do that. He just quietly died. Strangely after he died, a centurion, seeing all that he said, he said: he was truly the son of God. A centurion. Jesus’ identity was identified by a centurion. Jesus did not do anything to improve himself.

Jesus’ identity was not what he claimed or what he achieved. Jesus’ identity was declared by God and the centurion recognized Jesus’ identity. That makes me think. What is my identity? Is my identity what I claim or what I achieve? If my identity is what I claim or what I achieve, l would be living a very tiring life. I’ll be always tired, always having to prove myself to other people. “Hey guys, see, this is who I am.”. If I cannot do it, I may even force it. I’m may even disguise myself and deceive others. Whatever it is, I want people to see me THIS way. In life, sometimes our identities are attacked. Who we are is attacked. We experience a situation where we feel like we are nobody, worthless, ugly, and undesirable. These days, I don’t even want to look at my mirror. “Gosh, when did you get so old?”. I don’t want even want to have a picture taken.I think “What happened to your hair?”. And I say to myself, I got to take care of my hair, before I stand up in front of people and talk. We are scared of feeling like that. So we tried to prove ourselves in whatever we do. You want to define who we are. We are smart, funny, powerful, we have attractive, religious, we’re special!

Wow. That’s tiring. Especially if you’re not smart, and you are pretending to be smart. That will get really tiring. Soon our harsh reality hits us, and makes us feel that we cannot hold on to what we like to define ourselves with any longer, and we feel uncomfortable with the feeling that we are losing the grip on our lives. My friends, when you’re in the moment of trial and temptation, if you can recognize that all the identities that you like to paint yourself with are false identities. If you can recognize that it in the hour of temptation and trial, then you will come out of temptation stronger, bigger, greater. But if you don’t recognize that even in your temptation and trial, it will come out smaller and more miserable. At the baptism, God declared that Jesus was the son of God. That was God’s declaration. It was not something Jesus achieved or Jesus had to prove. The identity of Jesus was the gift of God, Hallelujah. Your identity is God’s gift. You are a child of God. You are sons and daughters of God. That’s a gift That’s what God gave you. That’s not something that you achieved.

When we go through difficult times, sometimes we wonder about who we are. We have doubts about who we are and what we can do. We lose sometimes confidence about ourselves, but let us not forget, that you are the beloved sons and daughters of God, and that doesn’t change. That doesn’t change. This is what Isaiah says: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Who’s are you? You are God’s. Our identities are not what our circumstances gave to us. Your achievements did not give you your identity. You identity is basically God’s gift for you. Our identities are not what we made up arbitrarily, but it’s God’s gift, and that never changes, so we need to continuously and constantly go back to that basic identity and starting from there, all other small identities just come and go. The most important identity that you need to hold on to is that you are God’s precious child. It was a busy day yesterday. After early morning prayer at 6:30, we had a session meeting at 8:00, and 9:30 we had BOM, and at 12:00 there was a wedding.After the wedding, everybody left. I was all alone in this church, in my office, and all of a sudden, this question came to me: Can you do it? Can you do what you want to do? Or is it unrealistic fantasy or dream. I lost all confidence. I even lost the taste for ministry for the moment. Do it over, and over, but no change. And then I went back to that basic identity. I am God’s precious child and God has called me and God called me to persevere, to continue. When I went back to the basic identity again, I could have confidence and then I finished the sermon yesterday. And I finished the sermon five minutes before the reception.

When you face challenges of your life, when your identities, crushed, demolished, whatever that may be, as a musician or as a professional, whatever it is, when that is crushed, there is a stronger identity underneath: that you are a precious child of God. Go back to that and you can build yourself back again.

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In this session we study Romans chapters 7 and 8.

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Mark 9:2-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.' He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!' Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. This is the word of the Lord.

There are many, many different ways of appreciating God’s creation and beauty. We need to celebrate God because of everything, not just because of one or two things, but because of the totality. Everything that God has provided for us. I was thinking about the life of disciples with Jesus, what would have it been like? Life with Jesus Christ… Before they met Christ, they were pretty ordinary people. The fishermen, they believed in God, and they worked hard. But after meeting Christ, somehow a lot of wonderful things were happening. It must have been fantastic and they never witnessed that kind of things in their lives. Before day to day was predictable. They just worked hard. But when Jesus was so different, every day they were shocked, surprised, totally unexpected. So in life with Jesus Christ, it must have been really fantastic. They witnessed many out of this world experience. They saw sick people coming and Jesus laid his hands and they were healed. Then demon possessed people, then Jesus came and just with his word of authority, he challenged them and exorcised them. They were terrified, they were trembling and then they left. And this miracle of feeding 5,000, 10,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish they actually witnessed all these things. Every day they experienced some out-of-this-world experience. They’ve never had that kind of a thing. They never saw that thing. And most of all, Jesus even brought them Lazarus. Come on.

So I think they experience, tremendous joy, and excitement. Life was very, very different after meeting Christ. Even today’s experience is very much an out-of-this-world experience. This story is one of the five pillars of Jesus’ ministry or Jesus' manifestations, resurrection, ascension, and all that. So it’s a one-five. Up in the mountain they saw Jesus completely being transformed. His clothes became dazzling white such as no one on Earth could bleach them. Not only that, they saw Moses and Elijah who are on Earth 14 years before Jesus Christ came, and the 900 years before Jesus came respectively. And all of a sudden they saw Moses and Elijah. The teachers were talking with them. What would he talk about? Probably might be my guess, but probably he was talking with them about the cross, how he had to die. The cloud came and then from the cloud they heard the voice and the voice said “This is my son.” They loved it. They listened to him.

Wow. Best of the best. He can’t get any better than this. He can’t get any more dramatic. The ultimate supernatural experience. We e don’t have that kind of experience more often these days. I hope that we could have more of these experiences, then they will take God more seriously. They’ll come to Bible study and be more serious. Like, Wow, God is really alive, God is really there. I just hope that God really shows a little bit more.

I don’t want to explain to these stories in a way we can understand and accept, that’s no fun. You don’t kill the power of the story. It was not an understanding of experience. It was an inexplicable experience. No matter how much we tried to explain it scientifically or whatever, it is inexplicable. I don’t just leave it as it is. It wasn’t beyond our ordinary day-to-day experience, the experience was beyond that, and I wonder if the disciples were even there. I think they would have just stood there with their mouths open in awe. They could not even communicate with each other. They were just standing there. They were terrified. Yes, of course. When you experience what you cannot explain, you become terrified. But it can be good at the same time. They were terrified, but it was good. Peter liked that experience so much that he was like, Hey, why don’t we build three tents, three dwellings, and then one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah. So why don’t we just say here in this mountain? This is great. I never experienced it and I feel so peaceful. I feel so glorified here. I want to stay here. Why don’t we just stay here?

But Jesus’ reaction was strange. That's why I like Jesus, that’s why I’m fascinated by this person, Jesus. He’s not like any other human being. He’s not like any other. When you read a story, you can see how different he is from most of us. I mean, the utmost experience was a wonderful out-of-this-world experience and they were so excited and then they were coming down and thinking that they were going to be the three disciples that Jesus took. Not all twelve disciples. Peter, James and John were the main core disciples. They took these three and then went up and then on they way down, they must have been like, Wow. This is really, really great. I’m going to go down and talk to the other guys. You know what I experienced at the top of the mountain? I met Moses and Elijah. We heard a voice and we saw the dazzling white that was the transformation. They were just dying to share what they experienced on the top of the mountain with the people down there. But strangely Jesus said, “Don’t tell them what you experienced.”

I wonder, isn’t it better for them to share about how wonderful they experienced it with other people so that they could believe in God more? That was not Jesus’ way of letting other people believe. Jesus was always saying that’s not how you can believe. That’s how you can obtain, but that’s not how you change. That’s what Jesus used to say. We didn’t read it today, but right after the story, there’s another story. It was after the experience, all these fantastic things at the top of the mountain. They came down and there was a father who came to the disciples with a sick son and then they asked the disciples, Please, can you heal my son? The disciples could not. They had a wonderful experience, experiencing the mountain. When they came down, they could not heal the son of this man. Then this was what Jesus said: You faithless generation. How much longer must I deal with you? How much longer must I put up with you? They had a wonderful experience at the top of the mountain. It was a heavenly experience, but when they came down and faced that dark reality, they were powerless. Experiencing God is great. I think we should all experience God at some point of our lives. But Jesus is telling us that there is life down there, where we have to deal with the evil, darkness, hurt and pain. Christian life or Christian discipleship is not just about experiencing God. Christian life is about dealing with our everyday situations, where we experience suffering, disappointment, sadness, anger and frustration.

The Christians live in a matrix of glory and suffering. Both are present in our lives. Every day we encounter pain, suffering, hurt, and all kinds of negative things. Everyday you encounter your own dead demons. You're encountering your own darkness. You cannot expect life to be just always good and glorious. The secret of life is not in searching for the experience of His glory, but in it to be empowered and to be able to deal with our dark reality. We cannot always look for honey and some kind of pleasure of this sweetness. We cannot always ask for, Okay where is the fun or where is the honey? Where is the pleasure, where is His glory? We cannot always do that. We have to learn to be strong in every situation that we encounter in our lives. Yes, we need to experience God, but we cannot stay there as Peter wrongly suggested. You have to come down to where we have to deal with the suffering in this world. We should not only ask God to give us the joy of experiencing God. Also ask God to empower and equip us to deal with the pain and suffering of this world. I do believe that God will give us the wisdom and power to do so.

Last night while I was finishing up my sermon, my mind was wrapped around this mountain top experience. Yes, these disciples experienced this wonderful manifestations of God and the Bible was reflecting on it. I’m on my bed and this call came in and then one of the ministers in Toronto – he’s an intermediator of our church – we started talking about the problems that I have at church and he asked me for advice. I was at the top of the mountain right there. Oh my goodness. This church problem, people fighting, kicking out ministers and and all that stuff. Oh my goodness. We are always facing challenges in the world. Ask God to give you wisdom and abilities to be able to deal with challenges in this world. God will grant that.

Last Thursday I visited one of our retired elders. Actually he’s Jenny’s grandfather. Just very recently he discovered that he's suffering from lung cancer. There was no symptom, he was healthy. Just three weeks ago I talked to him. He was at the service and all of a sudden, terrible lung cancer and he’s fighting right now in uncertainty. How am I going to deal with this? I pray that God may grant him and his family the power and the grace to go through this very, very difficult time. Let us ask God to equip all of us for a source of strength when challenges come to us. Transfiguration, that is the foreshadow of resurrection. Transfigurations show what will come at His resurrection. The resurrection will be different from the transfiguration. These disciples just went up to the mountain to experience transfiguration, but without the cross, there is no resurrection. You cannot just experience resurrection. Only through the cross, you can experience resurrection. St. Paul said, You die and you rise with Christ. You’ll need, to experience the resurrection, you’d have to take up the cross.

It is easy to believe in God when everything is going right, when everything is good. It’s easy to be living up. When the darkness comes to you, difficulties come to you and hardships come to you, when the cross comes to you, are you going to give up?

When you've had a mountain top experience, it’s good to be living up. But down there, when you experience the evil darkness and the cross, are you going to give up? Without that cross there is no resurrection. I saw some people – they started well, coming to church and experiencing God and all that. They experienced the cross in their lives, but they stopped there. They gave up. They don’t go through to get to the resurrection. This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. That means starting this Wednesday, Lent begins. Meaning we reflect on Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. That we are already on the way of the cross, our journey to fullness, is also our journey to the cross. Without having journeyed into the cross, there is no fullness. There is no resurrection. May God give you strength and insight about the journey for each of us. I hope that we Christians become able to deal with the darkness of this world. I don’t want Christians to be soft, or Christians just sucking on the honey and pleasure and joy in God. I want our Christians to stand up. Deal with the darkness, injustice of this new world to stand up strong. That’s what Christian journey is all about.

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In this session, we study Romans, chapters 5 and 6.

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