The Church in the Flow of the Living Word (Acts 7:38-50)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The title of today’s message is, “The Church in the Flow of the Living Word.” People work so hard to succeed in the world, but they don’t know the reason why people collapse after success. Even if their success remains, they are personally being destroyed on the inside. There are historical figures, and we can see all of their works and the history they left behind, but personally, they died a very desperate and pitiful death. All of the great empires in history, we still remember their names, but all of the people and individuals who led those empires were destroyed. We remember these great cultural leaders and figures like Tolstoy and Hemingway, but all of them died lonely deaths, or committed suicide, or died outside of their home.
Buddha began to meditate under a tree, on the reason why people live their lives and will continuously face suffering, like sickness and death. In the end, he concluded that he didn’t know; and then, he died. In America, there is a lot of meditation happening. Because people have so much suffering in their thoughts and in their heart, they are looking for solutions to solve this. Meditation tells people that the real problem is not external factors, but it’s my internal thoughts and emotions, so I must empty myself. So, meditation is the practice of stopping or slowing down one’s thoughts. But people have thoughts, and it’s impossible for us to stop thinking.
In today’s scripture, we read about how the Israelites received salvation and were brought out of Egypt into the wilderness, but they still failed because they didn’t hold onto worship. On the other hand, there were a few Israelites who really held onto God’s Word, and they had spiritual victory, conquering the world, and those two streams exist in the church today.
1. The Wilderness
In Acts 7:38, it says, “He was in the assembly in the desert, with our fathers; and he received a living word and passed it on to us.” That “assembly” is referring to the church in the desert, where the members of saved individuals gathered together. This was in the wilderness.
1) A place where there is nothing else to depend on
(1) Lacking water and food.
In the wilderness, there’s nothing to eat or drink. Simply put, they are living in the desert. We all have a physical body, so we have our physical needs.
(2) Where we depend only on the invisible God.
But there were two different types of people. There were people who were focused on the physical, visible things, and there were people who were focused on the invisible God.
(3) A training ground to live by God’s Word. (Deuteronomy 8:2–3)
2) Satan’s flow
(1) Temptation through: Bread (physical desires) (Matthew 4:3), Pride and self-glory (Matthew 4:6), Worldly glory and authority (Matthew 4:8–9)
When Jesus Christ began His own public ministry, He was fasting in the desert and was tempted by the devil with three things. Because Jesus was fasting for 40 days, He was very hungry, and the devil told Him to turn this rock into a piece of bread. Jesus did not just turn the rock into bread; He answered, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Then, Satan took Jesus Christ to the highest point of the Temple and told Him to jump down, “For God will send angels to catch you,” so he is making Jesus care about the recognition He gets from people. Jesus responds yet again with the Word of God. He says, “It is written, ‘Do not put the LORD your God to the test.” The third temptation, the devil took him and showed him all of the splendor of the world, “If you bow down and worship me, I will give all of this to you,” and Jesus said, “Worship the LORD your God and serve Him only.” So, God Who has come down to earth in the flesh, was fasting for 40 days, and Satan used the physical and visible things to tempt Him. But, Jesus always responded with the invisible, with the Word of God.
(2) Deceives people by what is visible. (1 John 2:16)
1 John 2:16 says, everything in this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life come not from the Father, but from the world. So, we are all living to gratify the cravings of our flesh, our eyes, and our pride. We are living our lives so that we can fill our greed of what other people think about us. We race towards success so we can satisfy our own desires to be proud in front of other people. These things are not from God; they are from the world, they are from the devil. In the wilderness, if you chase after visible things, you have no choice but to suffer.
(3) People into suffering and ultimately to destruction. (2 Timothy 3:1–2)
2 Timothy 3:1-2 says that people will suffer, but it tells us the reason why. Do people suffer because they lack money or power? The Bible doesn’t say that; the Bible says that people suffer because they love themselves more than they love God. That means that they place their own thoughts, knowledge, and experience at a higher priority than God’s Word; that’s why we suffer. The Bible tells us that people suffer because they love money more than they love God’s Word, and that we gain more pleasure from the pleasures of the world rather than the Word of God.
3) God’s church in the wilderness (Acts 7:38)
(1) Jesus overcame Satan by the Word of God. (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10)
Satan makes us obsessed with the physical and visible things and drags us towards suffering. But God gives us the living, invisible Word of God and leads us towards victory.
(2) God gave Moses the living Word. (Acts 7:38)
When Moses had everything he needed in the palace for 40 years, he did not hear God’s Word. But when Moses was in the wilderness with nothing, he started to hear God’s voice and he started to look towards God. When Apostle Paul had all of the knowledge of the success of the world, he could not find Christ, but after Paul met Jesus Christ, he said everything he had before—his knowledge, his education, his success—was all rubbish.
(3) They received the Word and lived by faith. (Acts 7:38)
As we live in this world, we have to know what is the cause of our suffering, and we need to be able to see the source of these problems. The problem is not because of my depression. The problem is not because I do drugs. The problem is not because I got diagnosed with cancer. The real source of the cause of the problems is living my life, losing hold of God’s Word.
2. Israel
1) They refused to obey Moses (Acts 7:39)
(1) They rejected God’s Word. (Acts 7:39)
(2) Their hearts turned back to Egypt. (Acts 7:39)
As evidence of this, even after the Israelites received the Word of God through Moses, they rejected this. In fact, they turned their hearts back to Egypt. Egypt represents the world, because all of the physical things of the world were prepared in Egypt. So, even after we’ve received salvation, rather than following the guidance of God’s Word, our hearts are still obsessed with the physical things of this world. The reason is because every single human being is born with Original Sin in our hearts, so we live our entire lives working so hard for the physical things. As a result, we cannot prioritize God’s Word above my own thoughts. Right now, if you face a problem, you cannot escape from your own thoughts. All we have to do is escape from our own thoughts, because God is actually in charge of the problem. Escaping your thoughts means, all you have to do is look towards God’s plan. This is our way to live. But why are we not able to look to God’s plan?
Because Original Sin makes us prioritize our own thinking and desires above God’s Word—I am the lord here. Then, even in the midst of my problems, I cannot see God’s plan for blessings. There are some people who face crises and problems and turn them into an opportunity, but there are other people who crumble and fall. If you want to save yourself, then you have to do the opposite thing. Let’s say you have some kind of disease or sickness right now. If you keep on focusing on that, you will get lost in it; that’s actually the devil’s method. For us, we must focus on and concentrate on God’s spiritual Word. That is the way to live in the wilderness.
(3) “Make gods for us.” (Acts 7:40)
In Acts 7:40, even though the Israelites believed in God, when Moses went up to Mount Sinai, they told Aaron, “Make us gods who will guide us,” and they made an idol in the shape of a calf. Why do you think the Israelites called this golden calf, “God”? Because in their hearts, what they really wanted is for their god to be like that.
2) Idols
(1) Mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, feet, and throats—reflecting self-worship. (Psalm 115:4–8)
In other words, rather than believing in God through His Word, they imagined their own god who would fill their own greed and satisfaction like this golden calf. God is everywhere; God is not limited by a certain location. God is in heaven and He is moving all of creation with His Word. Then, why is it that even Christians who go to church fail in their walk of faith? It’s because many people misunderstand God as a God Who will satisfy my greed. God actually exists through His Word, but we think He will just satisfy our own desires, so we actually end up rejecting God’s Word and move in a direction that satisfies our greed.
(2) Worship of demons. (1 Corinthians 10:20)
(3) They made a calf idol, offered sacrifices to it, and rejoiced (Acts 7:41)
Then, they were bringing sacrifices in the golden calf and they reveled in what their hands had made.
3) 40 years in the wilderness
(1) They did not truly offer sacrifices and offerings to God. (Acts 7:42)
Most of the Israelites lived 40 years in the wilderness like this, suffering, and then dying. Then, we need to think about ourselves. When we worship, are we receiving the Word God wants to give us, or are we worshiping just to get what we want? If we are worshiping to satisfy our own greed, we cannot receive God’s Word, because God works through His Word. If I want to give correct worship, then I’ve received God’s Word because the way to be with God in this world is through His Word. I hope you and I will have spiritual victory through correct worship, holding onto God’s Word.
In Psalm 115:4-5, it says that these people created idols with hands, eyes, and mouths. But why is it that these people created an idol that looked just like a human and begged to it and worshiped it? It’s because they wanted this idol to “see me with its eyes,” to “talk to me with its mouth,” and “to listen to my problems with its ears.” It is a god built for my own desires. But later on, it says that they have eyes but cannot see; they have ears but cannot hear. But God has given us our eyes, our ears, our mouth. He blew His breath of life into us, and He is watching over us. God is omniscient and He is unlimited; He exists everywhere, and yet the Israelites were creating a visible idol and worshiping it as God.
(2) They worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars, the tent of Molech, and the star of Rephan. (Acts 7:42–43)
So, the Lord said that He left them to worship the heavenly bodies. This means that God turned away from them for them to worship the sun, the moon, and the stars. Until that point, there was not a single civilization that did not worship the sun. They did that in Babylon, and even in Rome, the greatest god was the god of the sun. Even the North Koreans call their dictator the “son of the sun,” because if the sun did not exist, we would all die. But they were not able to see the God Who created the sun; they are just worshiping down to the sun, and then, people will look at the stars and try to tell stories or a future from it.
(3) They served gods that satisfied their own desires. (Colossians 3:5)
But all of this is stated in Col. 3:5, as an “idol, meant to satisfy their own greed.” In Acts 7:42, God responds saying, “Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings for 40 years in the wilderness, people of Israel?” God is telling the Israelites that they’ve never once worshiped God correctly. They for sure thought they did, but God never received their worship. What if we are also worshiping God, but God is not accepting our worship? Giving worship means you must lay yourself down. In the Old Testament, when they gave their burnt offering, it meant they would give the animal up completely and offer it up to God. This means everything about me—my physical body, thoughts, experiences, knowledge, problems, circumstances—I entrust them all to God. I ask God to completely reign over me—that is the burnt offering worship. The blood sacrifice represents Christ on the cross, where we pray for our sins to be given to this lamb or sacrificed animal.
What is “worship,” then? It means I completely give myself to God, and when I completely give myself to God, God works upon me with His Word and grace. But the Israelites never gave themselves up to God; they only went to worship to get what they wanted. So, in the end, they were only suffering because of their own idolatry and died in the wilderness. In America, there are many churches and there are many Christians, but why do people keep on failing and suffering? Why are people dying, killing themselves and falling into substance abuse and addiction because of their mental problems? I’m sure that some of them have already been to church, but they’ve only gone to church without knowing what correct worship is, because no one had ever taught them what correct worship is. Many people are under the misconception that, “If I just go to the church building, then I’ve worshiped,” but the Lord is telling us that He never receives that worship. The Lord receives worship. I give my life to the Lord, but if I’m worshiping God so I can get what I want, God is saying, “That’s not worship at all.”
3. The Tabernacle of the Testimony
1) With Israel
(1) Built according to God’s command. (Acts 7:44)
(2) God was with them even in the wilderness.
(3) The tabernacle remained with them as they entered and conquered Canaan.
Acts 7:43, God says, “You have lifted up the shrine of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore, I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.” God commanded the Israelites to make a Tabernacle where God would be with them. The Tabernacle is just a representative form to show that God is with the Israelites. God exists in heaven and all of the universe and creation, but God told the Israelites to make the Tabernacle as a representative form to show them that God is with them. This means that every time the Israelites moved, God was with them. God being with you means that you follow His Word. It does not mean you live with your own thoughts; it means that you follow and listen to God’s Word. That was the case in the wilderness as well as in Canaan.
2) The Temple of David and Solomon
(1) God does not dwell in houses made by human hands. (Acts 7:48)
(2) God is the Creator of all things. (Acts 7:50)
(3) The temple was not what God desired.
After David became the king of Israel, He saw the Ark of the Covenant was in a wind-blown tent and he asked God to make a temple for the Ark of the Covenant to reside in. It’s a very humanistic thought that David had to build that temple, but God says, “I am not limited to your Tabernacle or your Temple; I exist in all of creation, and the Ark of the Covenant is my footstool.” So, David built the Temple, and it was in a fixed location, unlike the Tabernacle, which could be moved. God actually didn’t want that. What God commanded the Israelites to make is the Tabernacle, which could be moved whenever the Israelites moved. He never asked for a temple in a fixed location, but actually, as time passed, the Israelites began to idolize the temple itself.
When Jesus Christ came to earth and said, “The Temple represents me, I am the Temple,” the Jewish people killed Jesus. In today’s age, God makes the church. The Temple, we are the Temple; the spirit of God dwells within us, and that makes us the Temple.
3) The Church
This church building is a location where we gather for worship, and we also have our border of worship and our traditions; that’s not what we call the church. We keep misunderstanding what our church is. We think that the pastor and the elders make the church, but I myself am the church. When we gather together, that is the church. God is the head of the Church. But we keep thinking the church building is the church; we say, “Oh, I went to church,” when I am the church. The Tabernacle means, everywhere I move, God is with me. So, David made this temple that was in a fixed location, and people started to make it into an idol. Now, people are using it as a strategy to gather people in. So, we think, “If I go to church, then I give worship. If I leave the church, then I can live however I want.” God doesn’t like that. He wants the correct and proper church, the Church God is with through His Word.
(1) Believe that the living Word of Christ dwells within us. (Galatians 2:20)
Gal. 2:20, Paul says, “I have died on the cross with Christ.” The old “me” that lived to satisfy the cravings of my sinful nature died on the cross. Now, the life I live in the flesh is lived in faith in Christ Who lives within me as my Lord. Now, instead of living for my own desires or greed, I live chasing after the Word Christ gives me. Then, when this spirit of life gathers us together, that is also the church. The church is bound to walk through the wilderness. America has everything that we could want, but if we focus on that, that’s when the problems of America begin. God will test this in us by giving us a problem. God gives us a problem to see if we would be focused on the visible problems, or if we will continue to race towards God’s invisible and living Word. For people who live their entire lives obsessed with the visible things, when they face a problem, they get lost in the problem. However, if somebody lives their life, following after God’s Word of life, then when they face a problem, they look for God’s plan of blessing.
What is the problem that you and I have today? Do you think that really is a problem? If you think that this is really the problem, it means you’ve lived your life obsessed with the visible and physical things, and this is the result. God is the One Who can get rid of that problem or change that problem into a blessing. But for the people who live in the wilderness, focusing on both the physical and visible things, they are bound to face suffering and failure, but the people who follow after the Word of Life, they will seek answers and blessings. There are some people who are mentally afflicted 24 hours, every single day. There are people who are having a difficult time because of their physical ailments. But God wants you to use this problem to change you from someone who focuses on the physical things to someone who concentrates on the Word of Life. This is how God led the Israelites through the wilderness, where they had physical needs they needed met, when they worried about what other people thought about them, or success.
God allowed them to concentrate on His Word, and we must also concentrate on the One Who has victory over the world for us to overcome the world.
(2) A church with the Three Courtyards—for all nations, healing, and the next generation.
In John 14:6, Jesus Christ says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” What does it mean for us to be within Jesus? It means we are inside of the Lord in faith, just like Galatians 2:20. Only that can give us the victory over the wilderness and conquer Canaan. There is a promise that Jesus Christ has requested of us, Jesus Christ says, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” This is our standard. My standard of everything I do at work or at school is not for physical things; it is to fulfill Jesus’ Word. In the wilderness, God gave manna from the sky to feed the Israelites; there was nothing to eat in the wilderness, but God gave them manna from the sky. This is how God responds; God is saying that he wanted to teach the Israelites that man does not live by bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. If we keep on moving to gain the physical things, then we will die. But, if we follow after God’s living and invisible Word, even the visible things will follow. If the students are suffering and the professionals are working for the goal of physical things, then we will die. We do all of that to make disciples of all nations. Jesus Christ told us to proclaim the gospel to all peoples and heal them, that is what we’re doing. We do all of that to raise up the next generation and save the posterity.
(3) United in one heart and empowered by the Holy Spirit, becoming Christ’s witnesses. (Acts 1:8, 14)
In order to do these three works, God promised to be with us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The way for us to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit is, as I said earlier, to completely lay oneself down, and I believe that when every member of the church has their heart aligned with this mission, God will work upon us with the fire, wind, and power of the Holy Spirit to raise us up as witnesses. Then, who can we live this life in the wilderness? We will divide each day into three sections. Every person lives their day. Tomorrow, we will live another day, and as we combine these days, they become a year or our life.
Conclusion
1. Morning – A time to receive strength for both spirit and body.
How will you live in the morning? When you wake up in the morning, before you talk to anybody else, you must receive spiritual strength from God’s Word first. You can receive the strength of God when you let go of yourself. So, from the morning, you let go of yourself and you ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with His strength and power. The speed at which you age is also determined by how much you utilize your lungs. If you utilize your lungs fully, then you will breathe in very deeply and breathe out very deeply. This will delay the rate at which you age. In other words, it restores your health. This is the morning time you must have with you and God before you talk to anyone during the day. If this doesn’t happen, then as soon as you wake up in the morning, you are filled with your own thoughts and you live the rest of your day like that. Then, all of my decisions and all of my path will be based on whatever thoughts enter my brain; that is the path to failure.
2. Daytime – Find God’s plan in every task, place, and person, and bring life and blessing.
Then, how do we live the second part of the day, in the daytime? We will meet with all types of things, places, and people. We must discover God’s plan for blessings inside of these things, but this is impossible with my thoughts and experiences. That’s because God is with you as a blessing in all situations, problems, and relationships. So, the greatest blessing of meeting is one where you’re able to relay God’s blessings to other people.
3. Evening – Find answers through God’s Word and prepare to raise those who will continue God’s work.
At night, it doesn’t matter how wonderfully you think; your thoughts cannot save people. You must come to the answer through God’s Word. Oh, you try to comfort yourself with these great works of literature? That cannot save you. There are many people who rely on literary works in order to try to solve their lives, but they cannot save them. We must come to the answer in God’s Word because God is with all things through His Word. We must also dream about the next day, the people whom we will meet who will receive salvation through the gospel, or who will stand as disciples like me. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ that we will no longer be obsessed with the cravings of our flesh, but instead, we will possess, enjoy, and follow after God’s Word of Life.
Message Prayer
Let us pray right now together, holding onto the Word God has given to us as the covenant for the rest of the week.
Announcements
1. Please continue to pray for the purchase of our church building.
2. WRC-Korea, July 29 – August 6. Three adults and three Remnants will be attending
3. Venmo account for church worship offering: @Antiochmissionchurch
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We were doomed with no choice but to live a religious life for the physical things, but we thank You for giving us the grace to live by the Word of Your Life. We desire to live our lives within the faith in Jesus Christ Who has overcome the devil’s temptations in the wilderness. Through the Word, allow us to save ourselves and the field. Allow us to receive power only from the Word of God and stand as Your witnesses. We have received all things from You, God, and we are returning a portion of that. We pray You will bless the hands that have given the offering and use it to bless the church and the future generations. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.
God, we thank You. We pray that You will bless Jessica so that, just like the Word You have given today, she will not live for the cravings of the flesh, but instead, live following the Word of life following Jesus Christ. We pray You will bless her so she may stand as a witness who will save all people around her through the Word. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Closing Prayer and Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, the indwelling, working, guidance, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all of the people who desire to let go of the cravings of the flesh and to follow the Word of life, to testify and to save others, be with them now and forevermore always, amen.
Let us remain within the flow of the Word of life!