Pray Together to Receive God’s Grace to Make the Confession of Matthew 16:16 and be a Witness of God’s Work
May the answer of the members of Mark’s Upper Room who met in Acts 1:14 in prayer be the answer given to you. I hope that today will be a time where you confirm through the word of God, if this is your time schedule or if this is another time schedule. The time schedule of Acts 1:14 was when the Early Church naturally took place. May this be the time when you confirm through God’s Word the process they went through until this point.
Jesus came to this earth and began his ministry. He did a lot of different things, but in Matthew 4, He called His disciples, and He did many miracles and signs. Many people saw that and followed Jesus, and simply put, there were many people who saw the physical signs and siad, “I believe and follow Jesus now.” And even though so many people were following Jesus, in Matthew16, Jesus asks, “Who do these people say that I am? Who do they think I am as they follow Me?”
Even now, the Lord is asking, “Why do people go to church? Why do you pray in the name of Jesus Christ? Why do you say you believe in Jesus?” That is what the Lord is curious about. It’s recorded in the Bible. People followed Jesus but they’re following something that is not Jesus. This may be the human form Jesus, but they do not see Jesus in His true form. They believed in Jesus, but they believed as if he was Elijah. A Jesus who had a lot of power, so if they followed him, they’d also have a lot of power. A Jesus like Moses, with the law. Yes, we must live by the law because Jesus said everything according to God’s Word.
Some people believed in Jesus like Jeremiah, “You have to be humanistic and they need to have a lot of tears, and they need to care for others, and not be so cold-hearted,” they believed like this. People who believe in Jesus like this could not pray like in Acts 1:14, they could not pray the prayer that receives these answers.
But ultimately, the embers of the early church were used for world evangelization. Just as God carried out the Exodus with one staff of Moses, God did the world evangelization with nothing from the Early Church. They held onto the proper prayer topic from Acts 1:14, and until this time took place, there were a lot of times God led them to, then Jesus asked, “Who do you say I am?” Peter then confessed, “You’re the Christ, the son of the living God.” He said, “Lord,” and back in those days, they only said the Emperor Caesar was “Lord,” and anywhere within the Roman Empire, the Lord was Caesar. So if someone said Jesus is Lord, they would immediately face persecution. The Jewish people confessed the LORD God is the Lord.
Peter confessed this did not hear this confession from someone else, but the Father in heaven revealed it to him, because it’s not enough to teach people. The Father God in heaven allows us to confess this. There are people prepared to make this confession, it doesn’t matter they know of Jesus as Elijah, but with their mouth,they confess Jesus Christ. But they understand Jesus as Elijah, then works will never arise for them.
But some people are prepared in the field who will confess that Jesus is the Christ. He is saying, “The Lord is not the emperor of Rome, the lord is not the God the Jewish people talk about, it is you Jesus. You are the Lord and You are my Christ. You are the One Who has solved the most fundamental problem of all mankind.” How could he know that? God revealed it to him through the Holy Spirit. There’s no way he can learn that by studying the Bible diligently, God has to teach it to them, “You are the son of the living God,” in other words, He is God because the son of God refers to the One Who came to earth as a human.
He just confessed that with the inspiration of God. Once you make this confession in your proper state of mind, everything is finished, but if you’re not able to do that, you go to church and worship idols. Without a doubt , Jesus is my Christ, but you keep holding onto something else, so you’re not believing in Jesus. You don’t believe that Jesus is the Christ or God. Then what happens? Jesus says, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah,” which means that all of the blessings are given within this confession, but you can only know that when God gives you grace.
“On this rock I will build my church,” and “rock” means it will never shake. It means the one who believes in this confession will never shake. Why do you keep shaking? It’s because Christ is not your master, but you are your own Lord. You keep shaking because you have your knowledge and background, you have your capabilities as your background, “But on this rock will I build my church,” that’s when missions and evangelism will take place, and the gates of hades cannot overcome you. Only at this time is the darkness in your family broken. Before that point, even after 100 days later, it won’t.
There’s darkness in the family line, there’s a channel of idolatry in the family line, there are empty places in your family line that are not filled with Christ, and the devil knows this and holds onto it and he doesn’t leave. When you make this confession, you have to believe but Peter was not able to. He made the confession by God’s grace, and from our perspective, he had a great thought.
Jesus promised, “I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven,” the key to answers to prayer. If you just believe and confess this, it’s finished, but in Matthew 17, he doesn’t believe. It’s not only Christ, but he says to build a shelter for Moses and Elijah; he doesn’t believe Jesus is Lord, and God says, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” Only listen to the words of Jesus Christ, don’t waste your time unnecessarily studying the words of the Old Testament because God has entrusted all of his words to Christ.
If it’s not the words of Christ, then the words of the Old Testament have gone astray because God gives us all words through Christ. The was that enough? It still wasn’t enough. The disciples were following Jesus and they were receiving God’s grace, but it still wasn’t enough; they wanted to gain a position. “I have a condition for following Jesus. He is the Lord, it is only Jesus, but there is one condition. I have a condition that I want some kind of position,” they fought to be seated at the right and left hand of God. They followed Jesus Christ thinking, “If I follow Jesus, I’ll have success in my business. If I follow Jesus and do the evangelism movement, then my next generation will be blessed,” they follow Jesus with these conditions.
These conditions must be gone because Jesus is still not your Lord. Once Jesus becomes Lord, it is finished. The Lord takes care of everything, there’s no reason for a person who is following to say, “Give me this, give me that.” For the rest of their lives, they enjoyed and testified of this Gospel, and they died hanging on the cross, upside down. There’s no condition, only racing towards the throne, the prize of heaven. The devil couldn’t do anything to them. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, they all ran away. Until the very end, they turn their backs because they couldn’t satisfy their greed.
Why would they believe in Jesus and leave? Because their greed was not satisfied, they used to believe in Jesus Christ because of these conditions, but they’re not being met so they leave, and I think that’s normal. Peter did that, all the disciples did that, it’s not a matter of whether this is good or bad but there’s a stream that is necessary until Acts 1:14 takes place, and it’s not up to us. Gen. 3, this greed and success doesn’t go away. I want to follow and confess Jesus Christ, but I cannot control my heart.
When is this restored? When the Lord resurrects. What does “resurrection” mean? It means, when you confess He is truly the Lord, He is truly God. Until this point, he made this confession by grace, but he was still confused. But now that He died and resurrected, He is truly my Lord and my God. By the time they confirm this, all the conditions are lost.
If you have any conditions now, you are at this time schedule, until now. If you have a condition, the only condition is that the Lord becomes the Christ. Only when you confirm that, is this finished. If you’re not able to confirm this, you’ll have no choice but to keep getting stuck in Satan’s channels, through your greed, motives, and idolatry, constantly falling over, but the Lord knows this and finds us in the end, meaning he gives us the grace until this takes place.
The Lord’s grace is continuously upon me, we cannot do this with our own skills, it’s only possible by God’s grace, that’s why it’s so important to stand before God to worship, isn’t that right? You must stand before the Lord to receive grace. You can only experience the resurrection when you stand before the Lord and worship. Once they confirmed this Lord, their life was finished.
You must confirm Christ. At first we follow Christ and have many conditions, but one day will come when the conditions go away. That’s the time and time schedule for God’s Kingdom and mission to come upon you. At that point, Jesus called them to the Mount of Olives for 40 days and gave them the mission of God’s word regarding God’s Kingdom. Until this point, the mission did not go in, we follow Jesus for our own motives and greed, then the gates of hades will not end.
Shockingly enough, I reverted back to the flow of my family line. Even if you go to church for a long time, it doesn’t end. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a pastor; I’m a pastor myself. The devil says, “You’re a pastor? So what?” It’s like saying, “I’m so-and-so’s child,” it doesn’t mean anything to the devil. “My ancestors devoted so much to the church,” but the devil doesn’t care about that at all. You didn’t do any of that yourself, you did it by God’s grace, so there’s nothing for you to boast about.
If the family line doesn’t change to only Christ, it will keep flowing. Does that mean you should just put a plaque in your house and say, “This is a place that does Mark’s upper room ministry.” That’s not enough; not everyone can meet in mark’s upper room, but only those who have no conditions could enter the Early Church. This was a place that not anybody can go. Anybody with their own conditions can go to the church, however, nobody with their own conditions and goals can go into the Early Church because you die if you go in. You have a condition so you try to live with it, but if you go into the Early Church, the condition is that you die.
Only the people who have this answer, “I can replace my life with Christ,” can go in, and that was 120 people. Tens of thousands of people received the grace of Jesus Christ, but only 120 entered into the Early Church. That’s not a small number, 120 people said, “I can stake my life, it’s okay to die for this.” While the Temple of Jerusalem didn’t believe in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, they slaughtered goats and lambs, but the Early Church kept gathering inside of the temple of Jerusalem. Whether they were in the temple courts or in their homes, they were not just in the Mark’s Upper Room, but all the people of Jerusalem gathered in the Jerusalem Temple. These people already had the answer and went to the temple for others. They already had the answer; they already received God’s Word, and with that, they already received God’s mission. It’s already finished.
They never see ones again about Mark’s upper room. They were either in the temple courts in the Jerusalem Temple or in their homes, and when they go to the temple courts they start touching the people who have been prepared, and when they go home, they gather again, in other words, the temple becomes their home, and the Jerusalem Temple becomes their field because the work of the Holy Spirit took place in the Pentecost.
All the people of Israel gathered at the Jerusalem Temple to honor the three feasts, so it means so many people gathered at the Temple, it’s a complete field. That’s the situation they were in. Once the Pentecost is over, they return to their own nations,or they return to the countryside, and the people who live in Jerusalem will stay but they held onto the mission,s o they knew the future that would take place in advance. God’s Kingdom. They already knew the entirety of Rome was bound to collapse.
If you don’t have God’s grace to see this, you’re so enslaved by Rome, thinking Rome is the best, holding onto its success and education, it’s not a simple feat to hold onto the mission. They held onto the mission and went forward knowing that this world may seem so strong, but it’s an idol worshiping nation that’ll be destroyed under disasters and curses. In other words, they held onto the mission with faith in the covenant that the Kingdom of Satan in the Roman empire will change into the Kingdom of God; they already knew, and these these people gathered together.
They didn’t just gather to pray, they were praying for the working of the holy spirit, waiting for God’s mission which will surely be fulfilled. They didn’t pray for their kids to get along well, there’s no condition for that, but He is Lord, He is my God, and He is alive right now. What conditions would you have? Therefore they gathered together with one heart, only praying for the mission for God’s Kingdom.
THis is something anyone can do, and that’s why the working of God’s Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, the work of the holy spirit that comes from heaven and it seems like they came upon them once, but they’re continuously relayed. The work of the Holy Spirit that transcends time and space, the work of the Holy Spirit that shines the light of the 237 nations, after calling everyone to the temple of Jerusalem. Even though the members of the Early Church seemed like they had nothing, they had the greatest thing. If anything, these people were able to look down on Rome.
You think America is so great? Then you have to be a slave, why? Because you don’t know the gospel, so you keep trying to earn handouts. “My kids have to have good things,” and of course they have to be well educated, but your family line will not be broken. The problem that we’re flowing will continuously repeat, and it’s visible. You must have this answer. Only these people will hold onto “only” and pray.
Religions and idols cannot compete; the devil cannot compete; how could the politicians of Rome compete with this? Rome was the hegemon of all nations; how could the army of Rome defeat this? Even right now, we are following Roman laws, but the Roman laws cannot follow after this. How could these things compete with the work of God that transcends time and space that shines the light to the 237 nations nations with the gospel?
People who knew this gathered together, region by region, house by house. They gathered together, they prayed, they shared forum, and they broke bread regarding the words of God’s covenant, and do you know why God kept sending more people? It’s evidence that darkness was broken in the region. 2 Corinthians 4:4, the god of this age blinds the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of Christ, the image of God. If there is one person who knows this mystery, then the darkness has to break down in the region, and that time schedule will absolutely come and has already come.
So, there’s never any reason for you to be in despair; it’s not working out because you do it with your own strength, the Lord God will do it with his grace and his power. If someone says they do it with their own strength or realization, even though it was given by the grace of God, they will leave this movement. When it was really given to you by GOd, so you cannot boast about it. If someone keeps talking well about themselves, they have not received the true gospel yet because they keep bragging about themselves, and they will quickly leave the movement because their greed will not be satisfied.
But if you come to the conclusion, there’s no condition, you just say “Thank you.” And a,or of pastors move the moment, they should have left to begin with; Christ is not their answer. They pretended like he was, but he wasn’t. Everything they’ve been teaching until now was from their knowledge, what’s real to them, and the devil knows this and stops them from continuing the evangelism movement then what’s going to happen to the family line? It doesn’t stop. The problems continue to the future generations.
IT’s not a threat; it’s reality. God gives this kind of grace to foolish us, when we just sit still. I’m the representative case of this, I have no background, nothing. No one knows my name, but by God’s grace, I received God’s grace one day. I received it so I relay it, and that’s why I keep doing one heart, whole heart, and continuation. No need to draw a grand vision, either, I just do what God gives me, and whoever has come we just make them receive the answer. I only have one daughter, and she asks me for a ride, so I give her a ride and give her this word, that’s why it’s God’s grace.
I have received by God’s grace, but if someone realizes through their knowledge, they talk a lot, they keep trying to teach because they think it’s because of their knowledge, and if that other person is already shaking back and forth, whether they should come or not, but then someone else’s keeps on giving them knowledge, that person is going to leave. That person will give up because nothing takes place even after a long time. God is waiting for the time schedule, but they give up on their own. Look at Peter, he didn’t take a test, there’s no test like that. The fact that he confessed Jesus Christ is no small feat. Jesus promised, I will build my church on this rock, and the gates of hades will not overcome this. And that’s what happens when you make the proper confessions according to the time schedule, but if you just know this with your knowledge, you can speak well but it will be hard.
Simply put, when Jesus Christ died on the cross, in other words, when you face a problem, you won’t be satisfied and you’ll leave. But God will find those who really confess Jesus is the Christ, because from the beginning, they confessed by God’s grace, and God will empower them until the end. That’s grace. There’s nothing to brag about. It’s not about my skill at all.
How can we know the spiritual things without God’s grace? The evangelist says he has nothing to brag about. He saw works taking place and bragged a little, but then he realized it was all fake. How would all of these pastors follow Rev. Ryu, it’s because they saw God’s work. All these pastors have such incredible pride, and the pastors would otherwise never be able to follow someone else; they would rather be stabbed to death. I don’t know if you know, but that’s whatI pastor is lIke even if nobody good to Church, Pastor’s will be worshiping by themselves, and if someone tells them to get rid of their church,they would never do it, they will never do it because God gave them a mission, it’s just they have a time schedule, that’s a pastor.
But a pastor will not follow anyone easily. It’s impossible to do that unless they have seen the work of God.
These are the blessings we must have and relay to the remnants. It’s not a method; it’s not anything. It’s simply by God’s grace we realize, “Oh, it’s Christ, He is living right now, He is my Lord, and it’s finished, isn’t it? If He is truly my Lord, it is finished,” but because he is not really your Lord, you worry. But because He is your Lord, he is guiding us with his word moment by moment, he gives us our mission and helps us fulfill his mission, by the working of the holy spirit that transcends time and space. These people gathered in Mark’s upper room in the Early Church, so it was an atomic explosion.
All the idols, the religion, the ideologies, the science and advancements of Rome were unnecessary. Only 1 thing was empty, “Lord, You are the Christ” was the only thing missing from that field. Even as people confessed that Jesus is the Christ, they were believing in Jesus as Moses, Elijah, or Jeremiah, stuck in their legalism whether it’s right or wrong, but they do say that Jesus is the Christ, but they aren’t following Jesus, they talk about Jesus as Moses-like Jesus, then their time schedule remains in Matthew 17.
You all confess Jesus is the Christ, but where do you remain? If this does not take place, you’ll have a condition for following Jesus; you must not. “I’m dead, what condition must I have? The only thing I have is God’s mission.” From that point on, you’ll have the prayer of Acts 1:14, and if one person is like that, then other people like this will be then other people like that will be attached to them. This must be relayed to the next generation remnants, and yes we have to teach it to them, but that’s not enough to just teach them, we can’t tell them this with our words, we must use the word of God, because honestly, this is not something we can do with our thoughts, we are just going through these messages with faith that God will work with the Holy Spirit to give us the faith to stand as witnesses, but if we think we’re supposed to give good, well-explained messages, that’s not enough to teach them the spiritual things.
It’s not because they were weak, but because people are strong, they cannot receive Christ. There are also strong people like Paul who can receive Christ, what an incredible blessing we’ve been given. The answer to all problems, Christ! He is living right now in this moment and He is my Lord. That must be enough. Then, once that takes place, you will realize God’s mission through his word, before that point, no matter how much he gives you his mission, you can’t hear it, and He doesn’t give it to you because you wouldn’t be able to understand it. Only during the resurrection does He give the mission. There is a time schedule for that, you hold onto that and pray.
That means it takes place in order for you to pray when you gather in the field because there’s only one thing, only that for 24 hours. You interpret everything that happens through this one thing, and that’s how it takes place. I express this logically, but just because you see the Bible, will you know it? We’ve only read through the gospels once or twice, but we’re not able to see the spiritual reality through the text.
You have to have the thing God desires the most hooked in your heart in order for you to see this. Anybody can study God’s Word because there’s nothing else to talk about, but it’s hard because you don’t have this. It means you have to study more, and yes, you should, because we need to share God’s word with the 66 books of the Bible, but once you understand, it’s so simple. It’s simple but it’s truly everything. These people’s prayers conquered the entire region. Even before they set foot into the field, they established God’s Kingdom and breaking down the forces of darkness, and they confirmed this in the field every week.
It’s possible this doesn’t take place until God’s time schedule comes, even so, God gives grace according to His time schedule whenever you call somebody, so it’s important for you to wait for continuation. When you say things are working or not, that’s a strange way to express things. You just do things as God gives them, things will only be finished when we go to heaven; how could you know the width, depth, and height of God while we are on earth.
I went to a funeral today, after visiting this family for 3 years, and I see the children have gotten older and the elderly people are more sick. That’s normal, we are made of dirt and to dust we will return. But if you only think of it like that, it’s sad, but we are made with a spiritual life, we are spiritual beings. We are not living on this earth just to maintain our physical body, eating and surviving.
If that’s how you want to live and you’ll return to dust, how useless is that? But we have God’s covenant, we have God’s mission, we are going to live the rest of our lives to fulfill God’s mission and then we’ll go to God. One thing that really moved me and I’m very thankful is, something that changed the last time I met this family, is that there’s a disciple in this family who is spreading God’s Word. As I was driving back, she told me, “Pastor, I listen to your message from morning to night every day,” and I asked her, “Is there something to it?” she expressed things the way I expressed them earlier, “It’s the word about God doing the work, this is God’s plan, God is fulfilling it right now.” She said people keep getting attached to her at her job and that’s normal.
You don’t open things because you want to open them, even if you stay still they will be attached to you. God attaches them to you because you have something to relay, so I was very thankful. Three years ago compared to today, I knew two of the young adults there, and they have online Bible studies and come on Sundays. She said, “It’s so great to see you in person.” How can we know God’s work? We can’t know anything, we can’t even imagine. God gives us His grace according to His time schedule and we cannot know that. Region by region, God has hidden the disciples and is guiding us forward. I never told them to evangelize, but she’s doing that because God is opening the doors in her field. If the doors don’t open, she can’t do it but she gives the Word as people get attached to her. That’s the characteristic of God’s work.
Prayer
May we restore and enjoy and testify of this blessing. Let us pray holding onto the Word God has given us. It doesn’t matter what time schedule you’re in, because either way, God said He would do it, so it will take place. God already knows our weakness, God already knows our ways, too. But God is saying, “I will do this regardless.” To anyone who makes this confession just once, God will follow them and find them and make them into fishers of men.
Let us pray holding onto the promise of God’s covenant and the future that will take place according to the Bible.
Let us pray for the Sunday message, and starting from this Sunday at 6pm, there is the Remnant Conference of America, Leader’s Retreat. In Africa, that’s 5am. There will be the RCA Leader’s Retreat this Sunday. Anywhere people gather to spread the name of Jesus Christ, God promises to work there. We don’t gather to pray, because we gather for evangelism in Christ’s name, God promises to work. Let us pray together for RCA.
When we pray for our missions field, God works with the working of the Holy Spirit that transcends time and space to shine the light. You have to know this to work, too. If you don’t know this, your business will not take place. If you live with your diligence, that’s disbelief but you’ll be worse off than people who are receiving the power of the Nephilim that transcends time and space. Today, at this time, as we pray for the missions fields of the world, God knows our things. When you seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, God knows your family,job and he knows you studies. Let us pray for our missions fields.
May we dream the dream that comes from the CVDIP. Everything else is a pipe dream. May we dream the true dream and be witnesses of a dream fulfilled.
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unlimited love of God, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and communion of the Holy Spirit, be upon all the people of God’s Kingdom who desire to hold onto the covenant of only Christ, Only God’s Kingdom, and only the Holy Spirit, to do world evangelism upon all of their studies, businesses, the future generations, the multiethnics, and their ministries, be with us from now until forevermore always, amen.