Know and Set My Priority on the Spiritual Christ (Acts 2:46-47)
I hope the word of Acts 2:46-47 will open your eyes to this important field. The Early Church was in a very unfortunate situation according to the eyes of people. But with these eyes, you cannot do the work the people of the world talk about. If you want to do works in the world, you have to gather strong people. If you don’t gather with strong people, you can’t carry on physical actions. You also have to have worldly knowledge and also have worldly power and money, and there must also be someone in a high enough position, but these 120 people were nothing like that.
Then, why did God gather these people? These people were a gathering of people who only focused on God’s power and God’s vision. People who are focused on each other and their successes were not allowed to be in Mark’s Upper Room in the Early Church. These people would go to the Temple Courts in Jerusalem because that’s where the strong people gathered. But these people saw something inside that did not have strength. They saw the fact, the truth that Jesus is the Christ.
In other words, the fact that Jesus is my Christ means I no longer need my own strength, my conditions are no longer my problem, my situation is irrelevant, because Jesus Christ has become my Lord. It is by that name that I’ve been liberated from sin, Satan, and the forces of darkness. So, when Jesus Christ is with me, there is no problem. So, my conditions are not a problem. It was only these people, the 120 people who gathered in Mark’s Upper Room.
It wasn’t a problem of gathering a certain number of people, but rather the gathering with people who believed in the name of Jesus Christ. It was not a gathering about Jesus Christ, it was a gathering of people who could not make money, who were worthless in the eyes of the worldly perspective. Those people with a worldly perspective would go towards the people with strength who have worldly success and power.
The most powerful being is my Lord and Savior, then that should be enough. If you believe in the fact that my Lord and Savior controls over the Roman Empire, then nothing would be a problem. The one who has broken down the forces of Satan in this world is my Lord and Savior? Then nothing would be a problem. Only those people who understood this message gathered together.
Nowadays, whether they are able to understand it or not, people just come to church. People who have received salvation and people who haven’t received salvation all come to church. Even those who have received salvation, those who know this worth and those who do not know this worth all come to church, and even those who rejected salvation and those who know this worth and those who don’t all come together. So, it can turn out that some people may not know what is the proper position and status of the church, that is why we have to confirm what the church is through the Bible.
What are we calling a “Christian”? Who is a Christian? When I say sin, Satan, curses, and the background of hell, doesn’t it seem to be very wrong? Of course it is by God’s grace that I know and believe in this, but don’t think about this so complicatedly; rather, think about your parents and family in this regard because if you take out this content of sin, Satan, curses, and hell, then it is all useless. You have to know yourself, your family, and your background. You have to confirm the fact that you yourself and your background has been captured by Satan and dragged around into this background of hell.
That is what you need to confirm in order to confirm Christ. If you’re not able to confirm this, then you’ll be shaken, that is why, when you look at other people, you can’t see this. You can’t see the fact that this person needs Jesus Christ. Then a huge problem will occur, meaning you will only be able to see the physical things. The Lord cannot be seen spiritually, but it’s a very big thing because you’re focused on physical things, so you believe the Lord only exists for physical things. You believe the Lord to be the Lord who provides with physical necessities, that’s why God becomes a religion or idol, but that wasn’t it for the Early Church.
At that time, they were able to actually look and focus on Jesus Christ, but we cannot do that. That’s why you have to confirm in your personal life as well as your family background that you have been caught within Satan, sin, curses, and disasters. If you’re not able to confirm this, then you’ll become vague about Jesus Christ and not be able to be assured in Jesus christ. At the very least, you have to be assured of and confirm Jesus Christ for yourself. Simply put, you have to know your spiritual problem, otherwise it won’t be relayed to your future generation. You won’t be able to recognize or acknowledge the problems of your future generation. You’ll see it but you won’t know the cause of it.
Your children are leading the next generation however, there are so many problems and gun shootings? Why are these happening? You won’t be able to see that. You won’t be able to see why they have no choice but to fall into LGBTQ types. Legally, these gay marriages have become legalized, and so legally, it is no longer a problem, so legally, if it’s not a problem, is it really not a problem? You have to know the cause and reason for why that is the only choice for this to happen.
You have to know the cause as to why they have no choice but to fall into drugs, but if you don’t know the cause and you just focus on why they do alcohol, you have to know why this person has no choice but to follow after alcohol and gambling. It’s not that they go on trips on the holidays, but at any whim, they just go, so these problems I’m talking about are within the Three Fundamental Problems flowing down the family background, so that is why they have failed and will fail.
But people can’t see this, but rather, I have received salvation in Christ and they know about this in a vague way. Within this vagueness, Satan will grab hold of you and drag you. Though I have received salvation and will go to heaven after I die, I will love this life being dragged around by Satan. So earlier, I talked about my daughter. Why was I talking about my child? You won’t be able to understand it if I just did so, but you have to speak about it truthfully because it is a spiritual problem.
There are some people who just imagine when they’re alone, these people are very paranoid and they assume everyone is talking about them, and that’s a spiritual problem. There are some people who are stuck within themselves and create a world of imagination. They may have read a few books, but Satan is working through this. You have to know the truth. You have to look clearly and truthfully about your family background. You have to be able to experience why this problem came about and why this problem repeats.
If you’re not able to confirm this, though you may know Jesus Christ, you’re very vague about Jesus Christ. That’s why Jesus Christ must be within me in my family and you must confirm and stand as a witness for this. That’s what you must confirm. Don’t speak about other people but rather, my things, my family, and my background. That’s what you must speak in the field. You must see this and you’ll recognize that this person’s field is the same thing as my field. If you are not able to see this, then you’ll just look past the other person’s field; you won’t be able to see spiritually. Not being able to see spiritually means you look physically. That’s when you’re physically judging, you physically put out these actions and you physically make these mistakes.
So, this answer of Jesus Christ has liberated me from the problems of myself and my family. Isn’t this certain and definite? That’s what you must have assurance on, Satan will continue attacking you, and if you’re not able to have this confirmation inside of Christ and you’re shaken, then Satan continuously drags you. At the very least, even though it’s a gathering of people who are socially successful, there may have been just one day. They gather, holding onto the vision of what God was going to do. Physically they had no strength, but they were the ones with the greatest strength because the Lord was their Master. The Lord has liberated them from sin, Satan, curses and disasters, and the background of hell. They were the ones who gathered with the vision that this gospel must be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.
They gathered and prayed and God gave them the working of the Holy Spirit to fulfill this. In other words, what is the gospel of Jesus christ? It is complete liberation. What is the vision I’m holding onto and going towards? How do I fulfill this? If I believe in God’s strength and prayer. It was the ones who had the absolute vision, God’s plan, the Holy Spirit, those were the people who gathered. That’s just it. In other words, you have to be with the Triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So no matter how weak they are, it doesn’t matter. For people who hold onto this, God will give them the power to do God’s work. People who don’t know this will look down on people at the church, “They have no power or strength,” but these people go to the Temple. When they go to the Temple, they see a lot of successful people. That’s the Temple of Jerusalem, there were the High Priests, the successful people, the scholars, they had to go there. But that’s the place where people who are not able to be liberated from Satan sin curses and disasters are gathered. Because they did not acknowledge Jesus as their Christ and Lord, they actually killed Jesus. So, in other words, these are the people who say, the fact that Jesus is everything, but they say otherwise.
The Jewish people think Jesus Christ is a prophet. For people who attend church, they say Jesus Christ is everything, but they think of that as only the basics. That’s not thinking of Jesus as the Christ, but that’s thinking of Jesus as one of the teachers. Jesus Christ is the Creator God and He has liberated us from sin, Satan, and hell, and He is the final judge, but some people say, “That’s just basic.” Those people cannot see nor hold onto God’s vision.
Jesus has to be everything in order for you to hold onto Jesus’ vision. Whatever work I do, I have to know what worth and value it is for me to stake my life on it, so you have to know Jesus Christ in order for you to stake your life on Jesus Christ. Staking your life means that, despite being labeled as heretics despite going against the law, you still stake your life on it. Believing in Jesus Christ is exactly that. You have received life from death, even if you give your life, it is okay for God’s Kingdom. These are the people who are able to see what will happen, they’re able to see world evangelization. These people, no matter where they go, they will not be shaken because Jesus is the Christ and He is my master. God’s Kingdom will be established. “I will do world evangelization with His power.” The person who has this.
So, how did these people live their daily lives? This is Acts 2:46-47. Every day, they continued to meet together in the Temple Courts. At that time, the Temple was the Jerusalem Temple, and as they met in the Temple Courts, it means they gathered right in the middle. Whether it’s the outer courtyards or the prayer courtyards, they gathered in the Temple Courts. There are a lot of people who try to sacrifice to their respective gods, and at that time, the only place to gather was a Temple. Nowadays, there are a lot of places you can go, but at that time it was only the temples they could gather. Every day, they gathered to meet and the Jewish people probably didn’t know that they gathered at the temple.
Why would they come every day to gather together? At that time, they would have just spread the Word around them and prayed together.
They broke bread in their homes. So, in these verses, there are only two locations: the temple and their homes. Every day they must go back home, and every day, you must gather in the temple and break bread together. Breaking bread means they had Communion, because the Lord said to keep the Communion until He comes. It is confirming the fact that Jesus Christ is with us every day as we share this bread and wine, and the Spirit is with us; we are confirming that with Communion. In this regard, we are breaking bread and sharing food, in other words, we are communicating and sharing together.
There are many things within this place. It could have been done individually and separately, but why are they gathering in the temple courts and in their homes? This is the mystery to conquer their region as well as to overcome Rome. Every day, God gives us time and God can just work inside of that time, that’s why we gather. Meeting to gather with one heart means they gathered together in the direction God desires.
How can their hearts become aligned? Even when family members cannot? So how can the church align their hearts? It means we have the same vision, it means the Lord is the same, so the content of the prayer is also the same. Only when theHoly Spirit comes upon you, you will be witnesses until the ends of the earth. It’s the same message, so that’s why everything is the same, it must be something very simple in order for it to be clear. If it’s very complicated, you won’t be able to understand it.
Every day. They praised God, and they enjoyed the favor of all the people, meaning they received favor from all the people who said, “This is so great.” In other words, they weren’t gathering physically to do physical work. When people gather together, they try to gain physical benefits. If a church gathers with physical motives, it will just disadvantage other people. For example, if a person gathers with this physical and personal motive, then they have to go out into the world and step on others to achieve their physical motive.
Why did these people receive loyalty? Because they were doing this physical devotion of world evangelization, that’s why they receive loyalty. And unbelievers like it when you treat them well. Treating them well means you’re at a disadvantage, but why is it okay for Christ to be disadvantaged? It’s more important for the saving of lives. That is why we devote our prayer, we devote our materials for the saving of lives, that’s how we become closer to people, so that’s why we give them knowledge, we tutor a person of that family that is not very smart, so it seems to be very good, according to the eyes of unbelievers. They think, “These people are okay and great,” then that’s when the gospel enters in, so that is why the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
This was the same when they entered into the land of Rome. They entered into the land of Rome as slaves, but they were such good slaves because they didn’t just enter in as slaves, but as missionaries to relay this gospel. So, despite being slaves, they were not really slaves because they had this vision inside of them, they held onto Jesus Christ and at that time and place, they prayed. One day, the children received the gospel, and as the children received the gospel, they started to change. There are no parents who haven’t had their hearts moved because of their children changing; that’s when the gospel went into them.
So, the reason why God sent them in as slaves was because of this, so it doesn’t matter if you go into a good or bad position in your work, but it matters who is sent to that workplace. It’s the same thing in mark’s upper room, that house by house, they gathered nad did this. So, we can simply say that the gathering of this church is the priority.
Why is it that this is the first priority when we have to do our work and study? They staked their lives when they went in. If you think about making money, you have to go to the Jerusalem Temple. These people gathered already knowing something, that’s why they gathered every day, and every day they received spiritual strength. Every day, they gathered and prayed. At that time, the field was their homes, but now, our church and schools and workplaces are our homes. They gathered at their fields in order to receive the covenant and evangelize.
Business people must go into their business field and do this. They were doing this in their homes. If they’re not doing business, they should just die, but this gospel was relayed all the way to Rome. The Lord is the One Who controls all things, and the Lord is the One Who chooses whom to raise to the seat of success, but that’s nothing. The first priority is worship, to save lives by evangelism in the field. I’m not saying to do this but you must discover something that makes you have no choice but to do this.
If you’re not able to do this, then you have no choice in your walk of faith to be dragged and forced to do this, because you don’t understand the meaning of this. You may think that worship is routine, it’s very repetitive and ritualistic, but God is alive and He is continually giving you this living word to be fulfilled through worship. That Word is power but you don’t know. You have to hold onto this Word and pray, and it’s the same in your field. There’s no one who can block it because this is the work that God does.
This is something we must have in order to have our walk of faith. If we don’t have this, no matter how hard we work for this, we say, “oh this is all I did” Because you don’t know Jesus Christ, you are continuously trapped by spiritual problems. Being afflicted by spiritual problems means you’ve already been liberated from Satan, but you continue to act as a slave to Satan. Worship and the church, if it becomes your first priority, then everything will happen for that person because that’s what the Lord is saying, daily.
“Every day, I have an appointment,” the appointment is important so that’s why you’re going ahead. I’m not saying don’t make an appointment, but rather, if you know what’s important, you have to avoid it and make plans. If you tell your friend, “I can’t make this time,” then your friend will also understand, and so, if you say, “I can’t make this time,” then the friend should understand. The person who knows this value should gather, and that’s why you have to discover this value.
It’s the same Jesus Christ, but if you don’t know the meaning, you cannot stake your life on it. Not only can you not stake your life, but you are continuously trapped inside of the problems of your life and this is not a spiritual problem that can be solved by education. Do you think a person who committed gun shooting incidents can be changed by the education system? Or, could this person have changed by a different parenting style? That’s not right, it’s a spiritual problem, in other words, it’s a problem where they were seized by evil spirits, and education cannot make the evil spirits flee.
The evil spirits attached themselves inside the scars, and the evil spirits will know whether someone who has Jesus Christ is holding onto Jesus Christ or not. Even scientifically, if they have a mental illness, you can’t heal the mental illness. It’s not cured by medication. So, the Bible says this is a spiritual problem, but if the person says, “I don’t know what that is,” then the person doesn’t know Christ.
They can say, “Counseling can solve this,” but if it’s something that is solved by counseling, then it’s not the work of evil spirits. That’s What I’m saying. You have to come out of this by Jesus Christ. You have to know what the problem is in order to come out of it. People in your region don’t know this, which is why they are being afflicted. They are not cheating because they want to, “It just happened like this,” but it happens repeatedly, and you can see that’s never ends, they can say, “My personality is bad,” but that’s a spiritual problem, and that’s within everyone’s family background. That is when you have to be liberated from yourself by Jesus Christ, by my Jesus Christ, and that’s when you have to plant the vision to save yourself.
Your personal problems, your family background problems are the same as the problems in the world. Your family is a blessing. If this problem is not changed into a blessing, then you’ll be dragged by this problem, so that’s why, by the gospel and through the gospel, you must change it into a blessing. It doesn’t matter if the field is hard and the waves are rough, you have to ride out the storm. It’s not a problem even if you say, “The waves are so strong and deep,” but you just have to ride the boat.
But because they don’t have Jesus Christ, “Even though I come to church nothing is working out, this doesn’t work out, that doesn’t work out, nothing is working out,” but that’s a spiritual problem. Jesus Christ has to be everything in order for everything to be solved, and that’s the vision that is going to save these kinds of people. My household problems are the same problems in another household. That’s what I’m saying, and that is why God said, “I’m giving you the filling of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of the power of the throne,” and God is saying He will bless you in every work you’ll do, that’s why you have to know the address very well.
If you see the field but go to a different address, then you will not be able to see it very well. It’s not about setting a location to meet, what purpose are you meeting for? For what are you meeting? That’s what I’m saying. The gathering places are the regional churches so God has no choice but to continuously work. You’re not very concerned with material things, but God gives you material things in order for you to do this. Your children’s problems are being solved because God has no choice but to solve it to save. If you say, “I’ll do this after doing that,” then that’s not your priority; you’re looking at another priority, “I’ll finish this after my physical problem is solved,” but that’s not possible, it looks like a physical problem but actually Satan who has entrapped you.
So that’s why, according to the bible, if worship becomes your first priority, and evangelism and missions and your region become your first priority, everything else will follow. Let us pray, holding onto the Word of becoming like that person. Let us pray.
Prayer
Let us pray for the Youth Evangelism Institute, the Young Adult Evangelism School, and the Businesspersons Worship.
Christmas Eve, there will be a Christmas performance, so I hope you will invite all the nonbeliever friends that you may have, because they’re spiritually exhausted, allow them to receive the gospel at that time. Let us also pray for the LA Winter Retreat, as well as the Washington Winter Retreat.
Benediction
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 heads of the remnants, the 237 nations, and the 5000 unreached people groups who will do world evangelization, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.