[Message] Pastor Jung Myeong Seok
[Scriptures] John 13:12-20
12 When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’
19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”
Acts 1:8
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Hallelujah! I bid you the love of the eternal God and the peace of the Holy Son.
In Korea, one of the traditional holidays is the Lunar New Year’s Day.
On that holiday, people perform ‘the New Year’s bow’ before their elders and the elders who receive the bow give them 'New Year's cash gifts,' right?
Just as you would receive the Lunar New Year’s Day and do the New Year’s bow with at least this much knowledge, you must also participate in and commemorate the Holy Communion with a certain level of knowledge about it.
Let's look at 'the situation of Jesus' time.'
When the time came, God sent ‘Jesus’ as ‘the Messiah’ to fulfil His Will and what was promised in the Old Testament. God gave him the new Word that would save that time period and let him deliver that Word to ‘the Jews who believed in God’ first.
God gave the Word through Jesus so that everyone would listen to his Word, take action on it and be saved. However, the Jews failed to get out of their established perspectives of faith, established perceptions and established doctrines; they stubbornly held onto their own understandings and teachings, and they did not believe or follow at all.
Saying that Jesus’ teachings were different from their own teachings, they disbelieved Jesus, opposed him and treated him as a heretic. They said Jesus’ Word was false no matter what, without even listening to it at all. Even when they heard the doctrines of the new time period by chance, they disliked it and did not believe it. They absolutely refused to follow, saying they would believe the way they had believed.
God did everything He could so that everyone would realize.
Still, to the very end, the people of the Old Testament refused to believe in and follow Jesus. Rather, they persecuted him, beat him, treated him like a heretic and tried to kill him.
At this, Jesus left ‘Jerusalem,’ went to ‘the gentile lands,’ preached the gospel to them and carried out history secretly.
However, the persecution of the Jews became even worse. The situation became so bad that if things were left as they were, even those who should be saved would be hurt and not receive salvation.
If God were to deal with them according to what they had done, He would have no choice but destroy them. However, since He could not bear to destroy so many people, rather than choosing the method of destroying the wicked and sinners, God chose the method of opening the path of salvation for everyone by the savior paying for the sins of the wicked and sinners and dying for them.
If the sins of the time period, the sins of individuals, and the sins of the nation were not cleared up, everyone would be judged and destroyed without even having a chance to repent, turn back and be saved. Therefore, someone else had to open ‘the path of salvation’ by repenting and paying for their sins on their behalf, so that they would avoid destruction and gain ‘a chance to be saved.’
The only person who could open ‘the path of salvation’ for all of mankind by repenting and paying the price for the sins of the time period, the sins of individuals, and the sins of the nation was ‘the savior God sent for that time period.’
After going to ‘the land of the gentiles’ due to the severe persecution, Jesus returned to ‘Jerusalem in Israel,’ which was the land of persecution.
Jesus, already knowing about ‘his death,’ gathered his disciples on the night he would be arrested, and told them, “The time has now come for me to walk the path that God has appointed for the sake of all mankind.” With that, he held his ‘last supper.’
The Holy Communion was the last meeting with the disciples while Jesus’ body was alive.
The Holy Communion came to be commemorated every year so that those who believed in and followed Jesus would remember that time and carry out God’s Will by becoming the bodies of Jesus the Savior and preaching the gospel.
In the end, Jesus bore the cross, opened ‘the path of salvation’ for all mankind, and gave everyone a chance to believe in him as the Messiah and receive salvation.
As Jesus bore the cross, those who believed in and followed him were cleansed and forgiven of their sins, and from that time on, ‘the Holy Spirit’ worked powerfully to make the history of apostles.
The history that God carries out is not thwarted even if all mankind opposes it, nor is it blocked even if all mankind blocks it.
Since you learned the meaning and will of the Holy Communion, I bless all of you to make up your mind to run and work diligently while becoming the Lord's body, and to spread ‘the gospel of the time period’ far and wide to the entire world.
