The Path Following the Lord, the Path to Save Lives (Mt. 8:18-27)
Let us bless one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.” Throughout the week, God has given us His Word, the healing that takes place with the Lord. The fact that the Lord is with us means that the Lord is the Lord of every aspect of our life, and the result of Him being with us is naturally healing. If God is with us, if the Lord is with us in our lives, then the natural result is healing. This is something that cannot happen even if we go to a hospital. I believe that throughout the week, you have held onto that Word and God has given you that grace.
1. Path of Jesus – Path of only
1) Crowd (Mt. 8:18)
The Word that God is giving us today is titled, “ The Path Following the Lord, The Path To Save Lives.” After Jesus Christ did His many works of healing those who were sick and demon-possessed, He was on the move, and many crowds began to follow Him. Why do you think they would crowd around Jesus? It’s because they had something to gain from Him. Isn’t that right? Just like today, there are many people who crowd around celebrities and idols, it’s because they gain some sort of satisfaction from these celebrities. The World Cup is going on right now, and if the country or nation wins the World Cup, the entire nation feels that satisfaction or joy.
(1) Crowded around Jesus (Mt. 8:18)
(2) Jesus saw (Mt. 8:18)
When many people crowd around Jesus, there’s something they can gain from Him, however, when Jesus Christ sees these crowds, His reaction is not to welcome them; but He actually gave them orders to cross to the other side.
(3) Gave orders to cross to the other side (Mt. 8:18)
Cross to the other side means He will cross to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. In other words, He is turning these people away. Many people should come to church; however, the people that Jesus desires come. The people whom Jesus desires are recorded today.
2) A teacher of the law (Mt. 8:19)
(1) One who records the Bible
One of these people was a teacher of the law who came to Jesus. This ”teacher of the law” means he was a scholar of the law who also records the Bible. You know that because back in those days, the political government of Israel was also entwined with the religious structure.
(2) Teacher (Mt. 8:19)
So this person had tremendous social influence, and he calls Jesus, “Teacher.” Because he is interested in the Bible, he wants to receive teaching from Jesus.
(3) I will follow you (Mt. 8:19)
He says, “I will follow You.” This teacher of the law is following Jesus Christ, thinking he can learn something from Him. There are also disciples who follow college professors around to learn something from them, and it’s the same thing in every area of life. We have mentors we try to learn from, and the reason we follow them is because there is some kind of knowledge we can gain from them and some kind of help.
But Who is Jesus? Jesus Christ came as the King of the Kingdom of God to rule over all of the world, and yet, he called Him, “Teacher.” If there were people like the teacher of the law back then, they also exist in the church today. These are the people who want to learn the words of the Bible, however, more so than acknowledging that the One Who has written the words of the Bible is their Lord, they just want to learn some kind of knowledge from the Bible.
There are people who live their walk of faith just to achieve some kind of satisfaction or joy from learning knowledge, and for those people, they will receive that kind of answer. I think there are especially a lot of people like that in America. There are Bible studies in every area. There are some instances of people outside this church who go to multiple Bible studies throughout the week. That’s not such a bad thing, but the problem is, Who is the One Who has given us these words of the Bible? That person is chasing around these Bible studies in order to gain some kind of satisfaction from learning new knowledge; that’s honestly not even a walk of faith, that is just for their own satisfaction.
There are also people who want to learn the Bible in the original text in Greek and Hebrew to dig deeper into the text and the characteristic of these people is that they think the messages of the pastor are low level and without depth. The characteristic of these people is that they don’t go to church but they gather together in groups to research the Bible. That’s not worship at all; we must be serving and worshiping the Lord as the Lord and Savior, but they’re just analyzing and digging into the Bible.
When you look at the way Christians have developed in America, you see they move churches after 2-3 years. When you ask them why they moved churches, they say, “I have learned everything there is to learn from this church already,” so they go to another church to try to learn something new. These people will never have their spiritual problems solved, because they can never change the owner and master of their life, because, “I have to realize something, I have to do what I want,” so even though they live their walk of faith for such a long time, their deep spiritual problem is not being solved.
Who is Jesus Christ for you? Is He simply a point of reference as you live your life, or is He your Lord and Savior? If He is your Lord and Savior, then God’s Kingdom will be established in your life. The reason you guys are suffering now because the Lord is not your Lord and Savior. You think it’s because of somebody else, but that’s not true. Your suffering is because of your frame. Because things are not fitting within the frame you set, you suffer, and you keep on trying to force other people to change. That’s why we suffer. It’s because the Lord is not our Lord. If we let go of our own frame and entrust everything to the Lord, God’s Kingdom will be established. Then, there will be the joy and the peace of God’s Kingdom that nobody else on this earth can give.
You’ll be correct if you think all of your suffering begins from yourself. “Why are my kids like this?” It began with me, it’s because I have planted my own frame in my kids. You don’t like it because now their reaction is now directed at you, but it’s what you have planted in them. You did not plant “Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,” but instead, you planted your frame, standards, and values. That’s how Satan works. He makes it so that you do not plant the Word of God, but instead, we live our lives planting something else.
3) Jesus
(1) Foxes – Dens, Birds – Nests (Mt. 8:20)
When the teacher of the law said, “I will follow you wherever you will go,” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.” Jesus is essentially saying, “Why are you following me? I have nothing to give you. If I had some kind of inheritance, I would give it to you, but I have nothing to give.”
(2) Son of man (Dan. 7:13, Mt. 8:20)
(3) Has no place to lay his head (Mt. 8:20)
Then, Jesus Christ uses the term, “Son of man.” This is the first usage of the phrase “Son of man” in the New Testament. In Daniel 7:13-14, and Daniel is a book of prophecy in the Old Testament, it was a book in the Old Testament prophesying the Messiah to come, and it says in Dan. 7:13, “In my vision at night, I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man,” So in the Old Testament, he is prophesying that there will be someone who is a human who will come in the future, and he will come as the ruler of the kingdom of God.
They call him the “son of man” because he is a human, and Daniel 7:14 describes Him well, “he was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” This teacher of the law knows well about the Old Testament. Then, when he hears the term, “Son of man,” he should think of Dan. 7.
This teacher of the law had a lot of ulterior motives. In the future, the son of man would come to rule over all of creation as the Lord of Lords, but the teacher of the law is not able to make this connection. It’s like today, when there are social elites and very established, successful people coming to the church, people like that because they have a lot of authority and power in the world, but Jesus Christ tells this person not to follow Him. This means that the way we see things and the way God sees things is different. We think of our walk of faith as receiving a lot of power from God in a worldly way, and connecting with other worldly powerful people in the church to do something with that influence.
But that means we do not see Jesus Christ as our Lord, as the King of all Kings and as the One Who must reign over my life. We do not need the power of people, we are completely satisfied by being controlled by His power. These are the people who follow Jesus, and there’s a characteristic of these people. For them, their first priority is following after Jesus and worshiping.
2. Path of Jesus – Path of saving lives
1) One person among the disciples (Mt. 8:21)
(1) First go – Priority (Mt. 8:21)
The next person is a disciple who follows Jesus, and he asks Jesus, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow Me and let the dead bury their own dead.”
(2) Father – Bury (Mt. 8:21)
What does this mean? If your father passes away, don’t you think it is rightful to give them a burial ceremony?
(3) Dead – Bury their own dead (Mt. 8:21)
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a funeral for him, but Jesus Christ is teaching this disciple, what is his priority? When we go to a funeral service, we give a message that testifies of Jesus Christ so that this service can save lives. When we go to a wedding, there are many unbelievers who gather, so we proclaim Jesus Christ there. So, it’s not saying we shouldn’t go to these different festivals or celebrations, but when you go there, what is your first priority? Especially when we have a funeral service, there are many unbelievers that attend because they are close relatives. So, we proclaim the words of Jesus Christ to make this the place of greatest blessing. What Jesus Christ is saying to the disciple here is, what is your priority in life? It must be your life being saved by Jesus Christ and saving other lives.
2) Priority
(1) Noah’s Age, Lot’s Age (Lk. 17:26,28)
The Bible tells us of two situations where people failed because this wasn’t the case. It talks about in Luke 17:26-28, it is the Age of Noah and the Age of Lot.
(2) Eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, buying, selling, planting, building (Lk. 17:27,28)
In the age of Noah, people were so busy eating, drinking, marrying, and moving into their houses that when they faced the disaster of the flood, they were all destroyed. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get married or eat, it means they were doing everything while losing hold of the most important part of saving lives.
(3) Flood, fire and sulfur – Death (Lk. 17:27,29)
It was the same thing in the age of Lot, they were so busy planting trees and building houses, that when the day of fire and sulfur rained down on them, they were all destroyed. Of course, we do have to build houses, and yes, we have to plant plants and we have to build houses, but I’m not saying that’s wrong. The issue is that we’ve made that our priority instead of saving our own lives. If people live their lives so diligently, but in the end, they’re not able to save their lives or anybody else’s lives, that is a failure.
3) Days of the Son of Man (Lk. 17:26)
It says in Luke 17:26 that it will be the same as in the days of the Son of Man. People are so busy buying, eating, and celebrating, but they lose hold of their own lives. Then, what must we do? If we place Jesus Christ as the very first priority of our lives, everything else takes place. What does it mean that this naturally takes place? It means God gives us these answers. Now, through Jesus Christ, we have become people of the Kingdom of God, then we must have our order. We need to lay everything down so that the One Who is the Lord of my life will control, then He will control my life. He reigns over me with power and authority, That is how we receive answers on earth as well.
But instead of doing this, we’re doing everything else like studying, getting married, moving, and building houses, so we’re reigning over our own lives, but what is our level? The level you’ve lived in until now is your level. The level of your future is the same level at which you’ve lived your life, and it’s the same level as your mom and dad. If you try to research and develop and plan out your own life, the same things will repeat. We are not able to solve our own depression, we cannot solve our own mental problems. But people say they’re in suffering, but they still hold onto the ownership of their own lives, even though they’re overwhelmed with anger, they cannot calm down. We have so much rage pent up, it’s enough to make us shoot people. We are at a point where we have no choice but to do drugs, and as we do that, we get addicted. Why is that? It’s the result of you reigning over your own life, and that is why, today, Jesus is telling us to fix our priorities.
What happens if worship becomes your first priority? The Lord reigns over me with His grace and His power, then the Word God has given to us will guide me forward. Things take place according to God’s Word, not according to your own thoughts. If you think things work out according to your thoughts, it means you have created your own kingdom in the world. There are people who try to control other people with their words and their thoughts. If somebody does not go into this person’s control, then they run away. So everybody wants their own skills to be acknowledged. But make it so that the Lord is reigning. That is the work we must do.
I myself must be reigned over by the Lord, then God’s Kingdom will be established within me. That is how the things Satan held onto me with until now will be broken down. If that is a panic disorder or bipolar disorder, it will be healed.
(1) Follow me (Mt. 8:22)
He says, “Follow Me,” and this is the way to live, and this is the way to save your children as well. Try anything else you want. The way your life will continue to stay in is the way you’ve lived even in your family line unless your Master changes. On the outside, you may be a little bit different from your parents, but on the inside, it’s the same, because that’s the masterpiece of your family line. However, if you change Jesus Christ to be the master and Lord of your life, then your masterpiece will change into the Kingdom of God.
(2) Path of saving lives
Are you following after Jesus Christ because He is your Lord and Savior, or are you following after Him just to get the things you need? If you’re following Him because you need something from Him, He is not your Lord and Savior; that’s what we call a religious life, or idol worship. However, if you simply believe and follow Jesus Christ because He is the King of Kings and the Lord of the world, then the Kingdom of God will be established upon you. The Kingdom of God is heaven; it means that paradise, heaven, will be within me, but if that doesn’t come upon me, it is a hellish suffering. That is why we struggle continuously within suffering.
(3) Path that blocks destruction
So, even though we go to church and live our walk of faith, we’re always suffering. It’s because Jesus Christ is not our Lord and Savior. Only when you let go of every single thing and entrust it to your Lord will He begin to rule over.
3. Path of Jesus – With power
1) Got into the boat (Mt. 8:23)
(1) Disciples – Followed (Mt. 8:23)
Starting from Mt. 8:23, the disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee on a boat. They get onto this boat, but the Sea of Galilee has very strong winds.
(2) Lake – Storm (Mt. 8:24)
So, Jesus Christ was sleeping on the boat and there was a furious storm and the boat was about to capsize. The disciples saw this and were so afraid. Isn’t that what our life is like? When the pandemic came, we were so afraid. When we see financial or economic problems arising, our hearts lurch. It means we’re afraid, looking at our environment. What is the Lord teaching us today? “Oh you of little faith,” what does this mean? He is saying, “I am with you right now. The King of Kings Who can even quiet the waves is with you, so why are you afraid?”
(3) Boat – Situation where the waves swept over (Mt. 8:24)
The disciples were facing the fear of death because of their circumstances. If the winds hadn’t been blowing so hard, they wouldn’t fear for their death, but you have no idea how much we’re controlled by our environment. When we live our walk of faith, we’re not being controlled by our environment, we’re not ones to be controlled by our financial environment. I’m not being controlled by the words of people. We must be controlled by the Lord Who is our Master, then what happens? The Lord begins to work, He is reigning and ruling. This is something that looks impossible to me, but the Lord begins to move. This is what the Lord showed to His disciples.
As we follow the Lord and we live our walk of faith, we will face circumstances that are so strange and difficult to understand, and the reason God gives them to us is for us to realize, Who is our Lord? However, if you live your walk of faith, it’s easy for you to misunderstand that and think, “Why are these things happening to me even though I believe in God?” If we believe in Jesus Christ it seems like we should ask Him to take away the problems and the waves, but that is what other religions do.
Jesus Christ is the Lord of our life. Jesus Christ is the One Who sends the storms. The One Who gave us the coronavirus pandemic is not the devil; it is Jesus. Who is the One Who allowed you to hear those words you heard? It was Jesus. You don’t like it when you hear words that hurt your pride, right? Your pride means that Jesus is not your Lord; you are your own lord. “That person just said these words, but my pride is still hurt.” The way we pray is for this person to shut their mouth, but they actually speak more, and everywhere you go, there are people like that, and they keep causing you suffering. So you can’t even go to your job because of people. It’s hard for you to come to church, too, because of that person.
You have to change yourself, how? You must look for the plan of the Lord Who has allowed this to happen. Your pride must not be your lord; you must lay that down as ask the Lord to be your Lord. Then your suffering of having your pride hurt will go away. You heard this person say those words and you can understand from their perspective. You can look at soccer when you realize that some nations are happy and some nations are miserable; it’s all relative. In the World Cup, the South Korea team beat Portugal, and we had the reaction of, “It was such a great relief!” Because in the 1960s, Korea beat Spain and made it into the top 8, however, they lost against Portugal, they scored the first 3 goals, but the next 6 goals were against Korea, so they always held onto this resentment, and it was such a relief when they won. In the normal stance, they were enemies, but now that their side is one, they could understand from the other side.
We must change our perspective like that. There are many people who have lived their entire walk of faith just staying as their own lord and asking Jesus to get whatever they need. And we keep drawing our image, ”God is love, so I should only get good things,” and if we talk about something negative, we think, “That cannot be God,” so we build walls against that. That is actually someone who has made their own god. “Because God is love and He is peace, He is not going to say any mean words; He must only say nice words.” that’s actually something you created for yourself, but there are so many people like that. They think this is God, but when you say, “Jesus Christ is God,” they say, “No. We have to talk about other religions, we have to live together,” those words sound so good, because humans are their own master, but that’s the ideology of America, and that’s going into your future generations.
These are words that sound so good to hear, but the mental problems of America will continue to increase. Because they don’t believe Jesus Christ is the King of all Kings, they believe in some other way. They’ve created their own kingdom; they think, “God will guard my kingdom.” They are building their Tower of Babel. They say, “God will always bless me. God will always block any storms coming my way.” The Bible never says that.
“Wherever you go, no matter what happens, even if you’re treated unfairly, even if you’re surrounded and persecuted from all sides, even if you’re persecuted for the gospel, I will be with you,” that’s what He’s saying, and the fact that He is with you means He is with you as your Lord. He is not just there to request things you need; He is with you as your Lord, and the Lord will begin to reign over your circumstances and your circumstances will turn into blessings. That’s what this means, that’s why we go where no one else goes, and it’s okay even if nobody else helps us, because when the Lord God works, then He is with us. That’s what the Bible says. We go into the business field where nobody else is, and we establish God’s Kingdom there. That is what the Lord gives us.
If you go to where people are, there is so much competition, so there’s no need to go there. Go to the place where everybody hates to go, go to the place where no one else is interested in going, go there and establish God’s Kingdom, and no matter where you go, the Lord is with you. That is what Jesus told His disciples. The thing you must fear the most is death. Think about it carefully, what are you afraid of? We are afraid of dying. Why do celebrities commit suicide? Because when people spread vicious rumors of them, they lose their reputations, and when they lose their reputation, they lose their money, and without money, they have no will to live; they think that is death. That’s why they commit suicide.
2) Disciples
(1) Woke up Jesus (Mt. 8:25)
(2) Lord, save us (Mt. 8:25)
(3) We’re going to drown (Mt. 8:25)
Even as we go to church, because it says in Hebrews that Satan rules over people with the fear of death. Look at this, the disciples see the storm on the Sea of Galilee and they are afraid of death. People get cancer and they’re afraid of dying. When people get panic disorders, they’re afraid of dying. That’s the work the devil does. The cancer is not given to you by Satan, but Satan gives you the fear of death so you’re paralyzed by fear. People think if they fail, their lives are over, so they’re afraid, but Jesus resurrected and He says, “I will be with you forever; even if you die, you will come to life.” The devil can no longer attack you because He overcame that fear.
There was a naval general in Korea, named General Lee, and he said, “The greatest thing to fear is fear itself.” your circumstances are not the problem, it is the fear that comes from the circumstances. Because Satan controls people with the fear that comes into them. You must overcome that fear, but we cannot do that with our own ability. We can only overcome when Jesus Christ becomes my Lord and Savior.
We do not die because of cancer. People die because of the fear Satan gives them through the cancer. If somebody has an uncertain future, they’re afraid, and from that point on, Satan controls them and makes them strategize, to make a plan. We use the cover of diligence and working hard, but we’re actually working to overcome our fear. We need to live diligently with the Lord for the goal the Lord has given us.
That was my testimony. People are all the same, though. Even for pastors, the devil gives them the fear, “What if I fail?” It’s the same thing for business people, “What is going to happen if I lose everything? What happens if I die because of the virus?” Even if we die, we go to heaven, so why are you afraid? The Lord controls death; you do not control death. Whether you live or die, you go forward with Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior, and that is the way to victory.
3) Jesus
(1) Why are you so afraid (Mt. 8:26)
(2) You of little faith (Mt. 8:26)
(3) Rebuked the winds and the waves – Judged (Mt. 8:26)
(4) Winds, waves – Obeyed (Mt. 8:27)
The Lord is asking you, “Why are you so afraid, you of little faith?” What faith is He talking about? The faith that Jesus will be with you forever. Because of that, do not be afraid, because when you’re afraid, the devil enters, and there’s no medication in the world for that. There’s no medication for that other than only Christ. It doesn’t matter how much advancement we have, we cannot medicate that. Even with scientific advancements, we cannot fix that. That is a disease that can only go away when Jesus Christ comes into me as the King of all Kings, as the ruler of the Kingdom of God.
Then it doesn’t matter what circumstances we face. Joseph went in as a slave, but it didn’t matter to him. He went into prison but it didn’t matter to him that much because that’s where God’s Kingdom was established. When somebody says something to me, I say, “Okay, that’s their perspective,” and if anything, it becomes an opportunity for me to consider that person again. It also allows you to think about your own image that made that person speak that way about you. But we are always asking, “What is God’s plan?” meaning, we are allowing the Lord to be the Lord of the situation; that’s the kind of walk of faith I’m talking about, so that Jesus Christ really becomes your Lord and Savior.
Then, without a doubt, His Kingdom will be established and no one can block His authority. That is our walk of faith. We shouldn’t ask for the pandemic to stop because God is the One Who gave us the pandemic. You think you have to fight against your circumstances, and you say, “We have to have a strong mindset.” People in the world teach you, “No matter what circumstances you face in the future, you must overcome it with your mental strength,” and that might help a little ,but it’s not enough because in the future, there will be even more problems that don’t even exist even now.
There’s only one thing. The only answer is the path where I follow Jesus Christ and I believe He is the King of the Kingdom of God to reign over all. You’re afraid of what’s going to happen to your kids, aren’t you? The reason you guys are afraid is because you can’t control it. When you face fear, you need to see that as a sign to entrust that over to God. Only at that point will God begin to work upon your children, transcending time and space.
Conclusion
1. Jesus Christ – Lord
Let us conclude the Word. Jesus Christ is my Lord. Without a doubt, He does the work of Christ. The One Who is My Lord does the work of the Christ, He is the One Who overcomes all the curses and disasters of sin and hell and Satan. Every time He becomes my Lord, the forces of darkness and curses break down.
2. Power of the throne – With (Prayer)
As evidence of that, God’s Kingdom is established upon me, and I have peace. We change unbelievers with this. Yes, we may change them with our words, but it’s really with the peace of God that we change them. That’s what we call the power of the Kingdom of God and the power of the Throne of heaven. This is something the 7.5 billion people in the world cannot make, this is something that cannot be made by science or by anything else.
3. Work of saving lives – 237 nations (Evangelism, missions)
Then, I will come to life, and because you’re coming to life, your children will come to life, and when that businessperson goes into their business, the people working with them will come to life, and God needs to give financial blessings to that person to save more people. May you have these answers and blessings.
Message Prayer
Let us hold onto the Word God has given to us and really ask to live the rest of this week with this Word. Let us hold onto that Word and pray together.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Prayer
God, we thank You. Thank You for allowing us to believe in the fact that Jesus is Lord and He is Christ. May Jesus Christ be the Lord and Savior of my family and business Everywhere we go, may the Kingdom of God be established and lives be saved.
We have returned Your material blessings as offering. We pray that everywhere this offering is used, Christ’s Kingdom may be established, and we pray that the many people who are suffering may be changed by God’s peace. We pray that You will work upon the offering to save the church, the Temple Construction, the future generations and missions as the economy of light. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. God, we believe You will bless and guide the newcomer so they will receive the fulfillment of God’s Word, that the path of following Jesus is the path to save lives. We pray that Jesus Christ will be her Lord and Savior by faith, and through this faith, many of her diseases and weaknesses will be healed. In Jesus’ Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Benediction
God, we thank You. Just like the Word You have given us, may this week be a blessed week that saves lives. Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God, the multiethnic people, and the remnants, who desire to follow after Jesus and be in the path to save lives from now until forevermore always, amen.