The Church Officer’s True Beginning (Acts 1:14)
The main scripture we read just now is talking about the main point the members of the Early Church concentrated on. The entire church concentrated on the point God desired, then the works of Acts 2 took place. The works of saving people’s lives continued to take place after Acts 2.
Then, what was the state of people’s lives all the way from Acts 2 to Acts 28? From Jerusalem all the way to Judea, it was a very legalistic field. The people who received the law from God did not know the gospel, so that is why they persecuted Jesus Christ and nailed Him on the cross. We can see that even right now, the people who are holding onto the law instead of Jesus Christ are understanding the gospel upside-down.
All the way from Samaria to the ends of the earth, it says in the Old Testament, the Greeks seek knowledge. If we have wisdom, then many things will follow from that. The thinking the nonbelievers seek is wisdom. Because if you have wisdom, then you can study and run your business well, you can succeed, and you can make a lot of money. The LORD is giving them the answer to these kinds of fields in advance and is sending them out.
So what is the Word the people delivered to Jerusalem, to Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth? They gave the answers to the people in the areas they did not have the answers to. The people who are stuck in legalism, despite having the word of God, they are struggling without the answer, and nonbelievers who live without God at all.
What is the answer to these two fields? Christ is the answer because on one field, they have received God’s Word, but they have discarded the gospel and they are living their walk of faith with the law of the Word of God. They need to use the law to go to the gospel but they’re not able to go there, and the result of the law is the field that is pursued by sin, curses, and disaster.
Nonbelievers have never met with God so they are serving the idol of their greed; they fall into a state of destruction, and these fields need Jesus Christ. But it’s not about just knowing this, but God says He will deliver the Word who receive this as their answer in their own lives.
Even for the disciples, Christ was not their answer. Even when they were following Jesus Christ around, they were following Him with another ulterior motive. They were living their walk of faith not with the motive God had given to them, but with an ulterior motive. What is that? The motivation they had was wanting to become the left and right arm of God in the Kingdom of God. All of that motivation was destroyed in front of the cross.
If we live our walk of faith for ourselves, then it is God’s grace for all of that to be destroyed. Through this incident of the cross, the disciples’ motivations changed from being centered on themselves to being centered on God. The characteristic of those who live their walk of faith is that they live for their own motives, so they give a lot of offering, serve the church, and evangelize a lot. But all of that needs to be broken down in front of the cross in order for them to receive the correct answers.
Once you look at the disciples who ran their ministry after they met Jesus Christ, they lost their motivation; they said, “This is the Messiah, He is God.” After they confirmed the true God, they no longer needed their own motivation. “Only God Himself is my new motivation in life,” so we are completely sufficient with Christ alone because He is the True God, He is the One Who is working in the entire universe now.
That Christ must one day come in and strike me. If somebody lives their walk of faith and this does not strike their heart, then one day, they are bound to collapse. What is bound to collapse? Their own motivation is bound to collapse, then that individual will feel that things are not working out. The people whose motivations have not been destroyed yet will think, “Maybe things will work out,” don’t you think the disciples thought that as they followed Jesus? They followed in hope that things would work, but one day, everything collapsed, and it did. That becomes the true beginning.
A lot of people say this or that; all you have to do is change their motivation. Apostle Paul lived his walk of faith with the law. What is the law? “If I keep the Word of God, then I’ll be blessed,” but he threw away that motivation. In Acts 9, he met Jesus Christ and he realized, “With my motive of the law, it will not work,” and he discovered the reason why he must die on the cross with Christ. It means, “none of my actions will work; it must be the act of the Lord Who has no sin, dying on the cross, for this to work; all of my sins and curses must be finished; the authority of Satan must be finished; the incident of meeting God must take place.” That is what Apostle Paul experienced. Those are the beginning steps of walking with Christ.
What does such a person do? This person throws away what was to his benefit; now he races towards that for which Christ called him. It is no longer praying to get whatever I want, but I race forward to grab whatever Christ wants, and it turns out, all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. You holding onto God is the blessing of all blessings. However, if you’re still filled with your own motives, then instead of being interested in God, you’re still interested in your own motives. If there are a lot of believers like that in the church, what’s it like in the world? They’re not able to give the answer to the world or save the world; anytime this happens, curses and disasters plow into the church. That’s the reason the Israelites faced seven disasters in the Old Testament. God gave them only Christ but they held onto something else.
After Paul realized this, he went toward the Jews. They kept emphasizing circumcision even though it was no longer necessary; they kept talking about the feasts even though Jesus Christ had already finished it all on the cross. God gave us everything including the feasts in order to explain Christ. One day, after Paul realized this, he was so frustrated and went out to find church members who would live their walk of faith, holding onto the Word of God.
He told them, “Only Jesus is the Christ. We must live for only the Kingdom of God.” Yes, Paul had met Jesus Christ personally once, but he had never heard about the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ called the disciples for 40 days and trained them in concentration regarding the Kingdom of God. Because the disciples were continuously imagining a kingdom of their own desire, and they were planning the things the world desires. Not that, but the kingdom that God desires. He gave them a concentrated training where God reigns, subdues, and saves many people to come into the Kingdom of God.
How is the Kingdom of God fulfilled? Only when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Matthew 12:28, it says, if you cast out demons by the Holy Spirit, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. All these things rooted in you do not change; your scars and trauma from your youth do not change. Only when the Holy Spirit’s power comes upon you will you receive power, that means you will receive strength to overcome everything. Now you’ll be a witness of Christ everywhere you go, to the ends of the earth.
This is not talking about just the Holy Spirit, the one who understands what “only Jesus Christ” means will understand these words. Paul did not personally hear these words, but he heard them through Priscilla and Aquila. They had only heard of the baptism of John the Baptist. Everywhere Paul went, he talked about the Kingdom of God, and he designated a time, whether it was two years or three weeks. This very educated person did not speak of anything other than Christ.
Even his Roman citizenship was hidden or shown in order to proclaim the gospel. In order to proclaim the gospel, he would use the Greek language he had learned. Before he knew this, he boasted of his Roman citizenship because it was the same thing. He would boast about the education he received under Gamaliel’s training, but now he met Jesus Christ, he realized all of it was elementary. The things that could only be solved by Jesus Christ were solved by Jesus Christ, so his goal was the Kingdom of God. God ruling and subduing over me is true success.
It’s true, the same talented person’s life will be different depending on whether they’re born in North or South Korea; it means, your life depends on who reigns over you. He realized no matter how diligently you live your life if you’re seized by Satan, and he realized true success comes from being in the Kingdom of God where God is reigning and subduing over me. It is the kingdom where all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
He says, “It is not that I’ve accomplished or fulfilled any of this, but I race towards that kingdom.” He would even go into the prison for the gospel, he was beaten for the gospel. He was at a loss for the gospel. Even if we are at a loss or treated unfairly, it shouldn’t be for my wrongdoing that I correct it, but it should be for the gospel. You need to finish all things with the gospel. All your questions should finish there; I’m not telling you to not ask questions; it should all be finished.
How can you finish all your questions? Entrust everything to Him, then there’s nothing to ask because He guides you, isn’t that right? You just pray for Him to work, because He is with me even now. He is with me even now and for all eternity with all authority in heaven and on earth. His IQ is infinite; there is no reason for me to argue with that. He is the One Who makes something out of nothing. If somebody is blocking Him, He can call them away. We must finish everything there, and when we go into the field, Satan knows and runs away; nonbelievers also know this that there’s something about this person.
Many people know this, everybody knows this because your master is different. If somebody is the master of their life, they are just like a nonbeliever. But if God’s kingdom is my kingdom and Christ is my Lord, I’ve entrusted everything to Him so I’m peaceful. If you have peace, then even if you ask for healing, you will be healed. You have peace because you see the future. Because even your future will go in the direction of God’s Kingdom.
“I am racing towards the future for that for which I have been called. Though I’m hard pressed on all sides, it doesn’t matter, why? The Lord is with me. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the reason I do not fear is the LORD is with me. Even as I’m hung upside down, I do not turn because God is with me.” These are people who completely gave their lives to the Lord, and when such people go into the world, the Bible says the world is not worthy of them.
There was an old movie called, “Middle-aged man,” that I really like. The man would ask gangs to do things through the phone, and he would threaten the gangs, “You are living for the future but I’m living for today,” meaning he was willing to die today. “I live today and I’m going to die,” he was saying, “I will fight you to the death today.” The gangsters live for the future so they avoid today.
Whom is the devil is most afraid of? The devil cannot budge against the person who says, “Even if I am hard-pressed on all sides, it doesn’t matter.” That is the Christian the Bible talks about. However, if you call somebody else a Christian, nonbelievers will be confused. That’s why the nonbelievers don’t want to go to church because they think those other people are Christians. But if the person who truly knows the gospel goes into the field, the field itself becomes the Mission Field.
That’s what nonbelievers want as well; they’ve just never seen it. They never know it because they don’t know what the Kingdom of God is, but that is what they desire. All of nature and the world has been destroyed, so all the children of God desire to go back to God, so don’t misunderstand. You think you can do something well, but nonbelievers do it better. You think you will glorify God by going to the Olympics and getting a gold medal, but nonbelievers do it more often. So, believers are under the misconception, “If I get this gold medal, I will glorify God,” but nonbelievers aren’t moved by that at all; you’ve just fallen into your misconception.
Does God not get glory if you get last place? Revealing the name of Christ glorifies God. Do you think God was not glorified when Paul went to prison or when Stephen was martyred? We put nonsensical thoughts in our hearts. There are more successful nonbelievers but the Christians plant strange thoughts into kids and drive them crazy. God never said that. But that’s what people crave. Especially parents crave that. Nonbelievers don’t care at all, because there are so many successful and renowned nonbelievers, they’re not moved at all.
If there’s a first place believer, they think, “That just happened because so many people get first place.” Among the Christian believers, they’re moved by each other, “He got first place, he goes to this church,” but nonbelievers aren’t moved by that. What are nonbelievers moved by? By true Christians. What is a Christian? Someone who lives not by themselves but by Christ. Inside of Christ, there is no such thing as failure. Inside of Christ, I live by the power of God. So, it’s not me at all, but you keep putting yourself in, so your walk of faith isn’t working out. I am living in faith that I died with Christ and now Christ lives in me.
Don’t be deceived. If I could do it myself, why would Christ die on the cross? “Now that Christ has saved me, I must live with my own strength”? No, you must live by God’s grace from beginning to end. If one person like this rises in the field, the field will rise with a spiritual uproar, but that’s what is happening now. That’s why no matter where you go, we have regrettable things happening like people getting shot to death. Because people who go to church don’t have the answer, kids are falling into drugs.
However, when we receive the things God has given us: only Christ, only the Kingdom of God, and only the Holy Spirit, where is it that the Early Church concentrated? We shouldn’t concentrate on our studies, but we study as we concentrate on God, and we receive answers there. If we get rid of God and concentrate on our studies, that’s obsession, and the deeper you fall into that, you have mental and spiritual problems.
We were created in the image of God so we’re not supposed to do anything separated from God. Even when we study, we cannot be in a state separated from God. Whether you work or do your ministry, you live your life, connected to God. Then, we receive the answers of God blessing us; we rule and subdue. That’s what the future generations must learn inside the church. It might not seem true, but it’s right. If you set this foundation very solidly and sturdily, the rest of the building will be raised. But if this is not your foundation and instead your hard work and diligence is your foundation, one day, it will collapse and your life will be built on sand.
Do you think that just because you go to church, is your life not built on sand? The beginning of every day must begin with the Triune God. The process is living in the process of the Triune God. The goal is you living for His goal. It’s not my strength; everything is by His grace, and it’s not my motive, but God’s motive. For people like this, they’re bound to continuously receive God’s grace. That was Joseph.
Joseph didn’t really do anything special; if anything, he said too many useless words and was bullied by his brothers, but one thing he had was different. He held onto the covenant of Gen. 3:15 which was relayed from Abraham. The offspring of the woman must come to crush the serpent’s head, so we cannot do it by mankind; this answer must come. Young adults, listen. It cannot come from a man on a white horse. It’s not going to work if you just get a rich businessman riding in on a white horse.
God must come upon me, and He must come upon you in the physical form of Jesus Christ. With me, there is no way. With people, there’s no way. God must come to earth in the form of Jesus Christ, born through the Virgin Mary, die on the cross and resurrect, for me to be set free from sin and Satan. That covenant was relayed from Abraham to Jacob and Joseph heard it.
Then, in order to relay that covenant, God gave him the dream in Gen. 37 that the sun, moon, and eleven stars would bow down to him. It didn’t mean he would become governor. The Bible never prophesized that he would become governor. Through this, he would reveal God. Through you, many people will see the glory of God. Back then, every single nation had their own governors. God didn’t write this just to raise a governor. But through this governor, God wants to glorify the name of God through this nation and the surrounding nations.
Because of that reason, God gave Joseph the filling of wisdom. He went from a slave to prisoner to governor, then what words came from Joseph’s mouth? “I can’t do this but God can do it through me.” When the seven years of famine came, imagine all the people from all the surrounding nations asked, “How could this nation have grain when no other nations have it?” Did Joseph say, “I used my big brain”?
There’s something Joseph said when Pharaoh asked if he could interpret dreams. He talked about God, “God can interpret this dream for you.” This was the kind of person Joseph was. He knew this so well. If you have received a mission to correctly explain and proclaim Jesus Christ to this, America, you’ll be someone like Joseph.
Gen. 41:38, Pharaoh said, “Whom can we find like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then you’re filled with wisdom and people are attached to you. Money and success follow, that is the work God does. That’s not the goal. Ultimately it is the glory of the Jehovah God being testified to all nations through this person.
Today, America is the superpower nation of all nations. A lot of churches is not the issue. What’s important is, what does God desire? Why is it that, even though there are so many churches, people lose their sanity and do drugs at church? Why is it that even now, people are not able to escape from their own motives and go into God’s motive? It doesn’t matter how many churches like that there are; they cannot give influence. They may have received salvation but they cannot influence the world.
The reason why so many churches close down and the future generations continue to leave the church is because the gospel hasn’t been restored. Even if you give them the scent of the gospel, the children will smell that and come to life. When we were in a mess, a disaster, God saved us. It doesn’t matter how destroyed the next generation seems, God will save them, and even if you exude this aroma, the children will arise from this scent. But instead, if we exude legalism, ‘What did you do wrong? You did that?” The kids will leave.
If kids could control it themselves, would they do it? When we receive salvation, we need Jesus Christ, and even now, every moment, we need the grace of Jesus Christ, but because the kids are not able to smell the scent of the gospel, they follow the scent of the world. The kids are not leaving the church because they never heard of Jesus Christ in the church, they need to relay through their lives what the gospel really is.
“Oh, things don’t work out by my strength,” that’s why the Lord is with you, and when that person has suffered, when you give them the smell of the gospel of Jesus Christ, they will not fail. But instead of exuding the scent of the gospel, you say, “Because you did this wrong, you didn’t come to your senses,” they are living in the opposite direction of the cross as an enemy of the cross.
God is with them, that’s why you need God’s power and strength; you allow them to overcome with God’s power. The future generations have not heard the gospel. They’ve heard sermons but they haven’t experienced the gospel being an answer to their problems and situation. We must relay this, then the kid is okay no matter where they go and they will never fail. That’s the gospel.
If you relay, “If you don’t get into your right mind, you’re going to die,” that’s not the gospel. Does God stay still? God says, “I am with you until the very end of the age,” and not only that, He will guide you. If you fall, you can stand. If you fall again, you can stand again; you can hold onto the gospel and pray for God to raise you up. They need to experience that to run their business in the field as well.
Studying well is not the issue; after you complete your studies, that’s the beginning. Ever since you’re young, this is important. For you and me, if we just enjoy being Christians the Lord desires a little bit, we come to life, but we don’t relay the gospel. The sermons are always talking about the way we live our lives, so people package themselves so they’re not criticized.
When you come to church, be comfortable, relaying your lackings and weaknesses. The church needs to allow people to get rid of their exterior packaging. In order for the General Namaan to be healed, he had to take off all his clothes and bathe in the Jordan river, but people come into the church full of armor to match their lives with the law; that’s the message they’ve been given. Nonbelievers know this so well, so they don’t like it. If anything, it would be better if Christians reveal what kind of person they are. They’re embarrassed. Some people live their entire lives hiding. No need for that. The Lord will lead us today and tomorrow. Because things taking place is not dependent on me, it is in the Lord’s hands, so it’s that potential.
Humans never have the answer. If you mix that in with the word of God, that humans have potential, you’ll kill them. “You just have to come to your senses,” it’s not going to work. Even if people come to their senses and go to an Ivy League, they take drugs. Not because they’re in their right/wrong sense, but it’s not enough to come to your senses. God’s grace and power must be upon me. He must guide me. I hope you and I will enjoy this blessing very first through worship, then everywhere you go, you’ll come to life.
If there’s any other mystery other than this, tell me what that is, and I will prove to you that this is true historically, I will testify of this through my life. There’s no other way. There’s never something that can come from a person, if somebody has never succeeded, they think they can do this by working hard; those are physical words. Even if you do succeed, your life doesn’t work out. I’m not looking down on success, but I’m saying that’s not the answer.
The one who has the answer is already successful. The one who has success will not cling to success, and success follows them. You cannot try to follow it. You need to race towards that for which Christ called you, you shouldn’t race after anything else. The entire Early Church concentrated on one thing, so that’s what it meant when they devoted themselves to prayer. They held onto the promise of what God would do and they prayed with that target.
You yourselves are important so pray for God to be upon you through the Holy Spirit. Then, the field where you live and work is also important so pray for the Holy Spirit to work upon that target. Then, in between me and the field, God will guide. All your life is contained within that, your studies, your business, that is how you’re led; because they knew this, they devoted themselves to prayer in this.