The Ones Who Correctly See and Save the Field (Acts 13:13-41)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” I believe God has received your confession. The title of today’s sermon is, “The Ones Who Correctly See and Save the Field.” Around 2000 years ago, the Antioch Church was the first church through which God carried out His mission, and there were two people who were sent out as representative workers. What does God want, even now? If God is the Creator and God moves our lives even now, it’s important for us to know what He is doing now. Even right now, God is giving us His Word and fulfilling His Word, and when we pray, based on the Word God has given us, then God is giving us His answers even now, and even right now, God is carrying out His work of salvation. There are people who are able to see this and there are those who cannot. In today’s scripture, the Antioch Church saw that.
In today’s world, there are churchgoers, but there are two different types. There are churchgoers, and then there are “Christians.” Most Christians are just churchgoers; there are very few true “Christians,” because for a Christian, it is not just self-proclaiming that we are Christians, but other people around us can tell the difference between us and someone who just goes to church. I hope you will not just be a churchgoer, but you will be a “Christian.” A “Christian” is somebody who has finished all the problems of their past, present, and future in Christ, but there are many people who go to church without that being true for them. Then, what do those people go to church for? We’ll talk about that later in the message.
As we listen to today’s sermon, ask yourself, “As a Christian, am I able to enjoy and relay the blessings of God to others?” In order to do that, we must know the world we live in very well. We are living in the world, but if we don’t really know the world, then we cannot discern whether we are living well or not. The “Church” is talking about the people who have been called out of the world, set apart, and it looks like people in the world we live in are living such busy and active lives, but there is a key in the middle of it. The ruler of the world is Satan, and he is controlling people with his key, and you must be well aware of this. Even right now, how is Satan working invisibly among many people? In Gen. 3, Satan goes into the serpent and tells mankind, “If you eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will be like God.” Human beings were created to live by the will of God, but even right now, Satan is deceiving us into thinking that we can live on our own, without God. Then, the way that we live our lives now is based on “my thoughts,” “my emotions,” “my plans,” “my experiences,” and “my knowledge,” and we live our lives centered on the material possessions that I desire or that are beneficial to me. Satan drags us in the direction of living our lives for success, gathering “my strength” or “our strength” to attain our goal.
In the midst of all of this, people just choose a religion and live to gain their own greed, but it actually turns out that Satan is using these different religions to work upon people with evil spirits. Then, people are living without knowing the spiritual diseases and problems that are flowing down our family line. Every family line has different spiritual problems; however, the core of all of those spiritual problems is, we are centered on “me,” “my things,” and “my success,” it just looks different in every family line. Then, as we mature, we get traumatized, we get scarred, and these also become channels for Satan to cause us suffering and spiritual problems repeatedly and continuously in our lives. “Christians” are the ones who have been set free from all of these problems. How have they been set free? God himself came to earth as a human and died on the cross for our sins. What is “sin”? What is Original Sin? It is not believing in God. God is absolutely alive, but not believing in that is Original Sin, and even right now, the problems we face in our lives come from our disbelief in God. Then, Satan uses that to drag us along. No religion can solve that, and none of my hard work or diligence can solve that. God Himself must come into this earth, overcome the authority of Satan and sin, and live within me as my life for me to be set free. You must be able to truly hear these words in order to hold onto and live for Christ.
Now, those who have been set free from this world through Christ can now save the world. When God first called Abraham, He said, “All nations on earth will be blessed through you,” and Isaiah 49:14, God says, “I have called you as a light for the world.” 2000 years ago, that church was at Antioch, the people in Antioch never called themselves “Christians,” but the people around them called them, “Christians.” In your field, in your company or your job, the people around you should be able to recognize and acknowledge you, not as a churchgoer, but as a Christian. Everyone in this world is racing for their benefit or desire, their money and their success, but they look around and see churchgoers doing the same thing as them; they just know them as a churchgoer going to this church.
However, there are some people who go to church, but they look very different from me. They think, “That person goes to work but the way they work and their goal for working seems different. That person keeps talking about Christ, but it seems like their goal is different from ours as well.” That’s normal. That is how other people should regard you. There are many churchgoers, but there are few “Christians.” The Antioch Church was called, “Christians” by the people around them, and they sent out two representatives for world missions. For us, we receive the Word of God every week and then we are commissioned out into the field of the world, but when we go out into the world, we are going out as Christians who do not know the world. We think that we just have to work hard and succeed, but later on in life, we are bound by Satan.
In the Old Testament, the Egyptians were building their pyramids, and the people who were used to build the pyramids were the Israelites, the people of God. So, all of their hard work, all of their studies were used in serving idols, demon worship, building pyramids, and then they died like that. You and I are not people who live for that world. We live for Christ Who has saved us, we live for the Kingdom of Christ because He is our Lord.
1. Ones who see the field
1) Perga (Acts 13:13)
(1) John left the mission team (Acts 13:13)
In John 10:18, Jesus Christ says, “I am sending you out into the world, just as God sent me into the world,” and just like that, the two representatives were sent out from Antioch as well. They are going from Cyprus to a place called Perga, and they did not stay long in Perga; they went to Pisidia Antioch which is also known as the region where Galatians would be. During that journey, John, who was also called Mark, left them and went back to Jerusalem.
(2) Paul’s physical weakness – Bodily ailment (Gal. 4:13)
(3) Antioch in Pisidia, city in between mountains
There’s a lot of reasons why, but it says that around that time, the region of Perga had an illness that was spreading, and in order to get to Pisidia Antioch, the journey was treacherous and they had to go over mountains, and the space between Perga and Pisidia Antioch was about 200 km, and in that time, there were robbers and thieves who would attack and rob people.
2) Those who can see the spiritual field and those who cannot
(1) Paul’s illness, John couldn’t walk the dangerous path
In today’s scripture, one of the points we must focus on is that John left them. There’s only two groups of people, people who are able to see the field of the world and those who do not see it. Even though John was a Christian and he was a believer, he did not see the field correctly. All of us go into the world, we live our lives and we have our jobs, but the reason we say our life is so difficult is because we don’t know the field correctly. From John’s perspective, he asked himself, “Am I able to travel this treacherous land on the way to Pisidia, with Paul who has another disease and risk my life like this?” He concluded, “no,” and went back to his hometown.
All of us live in the field of the world; things happen and life is difficult, and in those difficulties, some people might be like John and turn around, but some people might be like Paul who carries forward. There are only those two types of people in the world. No matter how much I study, even if I graduate from an Ivy League school, if I don’t know the world, then it will be harder. However, the people who have received the knowledge of the world but are able to see the world spiritually are able to save the world.
(2) Moses who saw the 10 plagues of Egypt
In the Old Testament, there were the 10 plagues of Egypt, and there were those who were able to see the 10 plagues for what they were, and those who weren’t. They were working so diligently, but why did disasters continue to come? There were those who knew the answer, and among those who knew the answer, there were those who knew how to escape.
(3) Conquering Canaan – 10 spies and 2 spies
After the Exodus, they were in the wilderness and 12 spies went into Canaan to survey the land. Ten of the spies said, “We cannot go in,” and two of the spies said, “That land is surely ours.” There are only one of two options, and for you and me who live in this world, there are those who will conquer the world and there are those who will be conquered by the world. The reason we are worried or concerned or have problems today is because we are not certain about this answer yet.
3) Paul and Barnabas in the 2nd round of evangelism (Acts 15:36-38)
(1) Barnabas, Paul – Dispute over John called Mark included in the team
Later on, John ends up joining the group again while Paul was in prison, but there was another time when Paul refused to take John, and that became a great point of conflict between Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas is just a good person, he embraces people and encourages them, however, Paul is someone who is specialized in saving the world and he made the decision that, “In order to save the field of the world, we cannot bring John.”
(2) Sharp disagreement, separated from each other (Acts 15:39)
(3) Later used Mark again (Philemon 1:24, 2 Tim. 4:11)
Later on, John gets used again. So, for all of us, we fall into one of two categories: are we the ones who will save the world, or are we the ones who will get lost in the world? In order to save the world, Christ must be the Master of my life. If I play the Lord of my own life, then ultimately, I will be enslaved by Satan. Then one day, I will have a mental problem that I cannot solve on my own; I have these depressive emotions that I cannot overcome. We cannot overcome our suicidal ideations, and this is the way people keep getting obsessed with things of this world. When someone is obsessed by something, later on, they are bound by that. That’s a mental illness. Later on, that falls into addiction. In reality, the addiction is not the problem; mental illness is the problem. Right now, there are people who are addicted to so many things—drugs, alcohol, working, gambling—but in reality, it’s a problem with our mind but the reality, the mental problem comes from our spiritual problems, and the spiritual problem comes from our relationship with God being broken. Are we the people who know this, enjoy this fact and to tell other people about it, or will we be enslaved?
2. Ones who saw the field of Antioch in Pisidia
1) Sabbath – Synagogue
(1) Rulers of the synagogue read the Law and Prophets (Acts 13:15)
Ultimately, Barnabas and Paul go into Pisidia Antioch, and they go into the Synagogue on the Sabbath. During that time, the people who were spread out because of the diaspora would reach the scriptures and learn, then, the leaders of the Synagogue would read through the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament, and if there was anyone in the audience who wanted to explain or to add onto the scripture, they have the opportunity. But the people who were gathered at the Synagogue were Israelites and Gentiles who worship God. So, there are two types of people who were worshiping in the Synagogue; there were the Jews who were from Israel, and then there were Gentiles from other nations, but they also worshiped God. But the common characteristic among both of those groups of people is that they knew the Old Testament scriptures.
(2) Paul had the opportunity for a sermon (Acts 13:16)
(3) Men of Israel and you who fear God (Acts 13:16)
So, Paul uses their knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures to explain what they know, and the conclusion is that the one you crucified was the Christ that you’ve been waiting for, and that Christ was born as a descendant of David, and He was born as a descendant of our forefather Abraham. You crucified Him as a sinner, but God raised Him from the dead in three days, and we are witnesses of this. Paul is telling them that you cannot receive atonement from your sins by following the laws of the Old Testament. That means that Apostle Paul knew the real problem of the audience that he was speaking to. He said, “The only way to be righteous is by believing in Jesus Christ.” When we hear the word, “sin,” we think about morals or ethics, but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the “sin” we are born with from our mother’s womb; it is a spiritual state that is separated from God.
When we were originally created, we were created so that even in our mother’s womb, we would know God. But Original Sin means that we are in a state where we do not have God, even in our mother’s womb. Because we do not have God, we are born, influenced by the spirit of Satan. Even in the mother’s womb, the child is born with the spiritual background of their mother and father. There was a time when I proclaimed the gospel to a drug dealer, and their mother was also addicted to drugs, and they had come from Mexico, but they were always going back and forth to rehab and doing drugs, back and forth. The child I was giving the gospel to was only 17 years old, but they were dealing drugs. In order to be a drug dealer in America, you have to be associated with a gang. Nowadays, there are even drug dealers in high school. So, they get their drug supplies from the gangs and they deal them in the schools. This person was shot and killed by a gang rivalry. Even right now, when you go into San Marino or that area, there are these apartments for the gangs. Even among Hispanic gangs, there are different gangs. There were three young people who were just walking the streets at night, talking, and there was a rival gang who thought they were gang members, and did a drive-by shooting. So, one of the students passed away; another student was shot in the spine, and a third student was able to survive. But what I want to tell you is that the mother of that person was doing drugs even while the child was in her womb, and as the children grow up, they receive the spiritual influence of their mother and father’s state exactly.
2) God of the Israelite people
(1) Our ancestors were chosen (Acts 13:17)
(2) Egypt, wilderness, land of Canaan – 450 years (Acts 13:17-19)
(3) Judges, King Saul, King David raised up – Person aligned with God, fulfilling God’s will (Acts 13:20-22)
3) God’s promise (Acts 13:23-31)
(1) David’s descendant, coming after John
(2) Sent the message of salvation to us
(3) Witness who killed Him and God raised again
(4) Law – Righteousness×, become righteous by the power of Jesus (Acts 13:39)
When parents fight, the children get scarred from that. For the parents, they might do that without thinking much of it, but for the child, it causes them to have so much fear and anxiety. For me, ever since I was little, I thought, “If the mother did better, things like this wouldn’t happen,” I grew up in a childhood that did not have the gospel or Christianity, and when I saw my parents fighting, I would always think, “If my mother did better, this wouldn’t have happened.” Even right now, if something goes wrong with my daughter, the thing that comes out for me is, “If my wife had done a better job, this might not have happened.” From my wife’s perspective, she must think, “If you saw it, you can help our daughter with it, why are you blaming me?” So my wife cannot understand me. But for me, when I think, I think it’s rightful. In reality, if there’s a problem with the child, then both parents are equally responsible for taking care of that child, but I have an imprint that would put the blame on the mother. That’s something that happened a few days ago, on Friday, and I realized there’s something very deep inside of me like that, but that was formulated when I was young, before I was even aware. When something happens in the family, then I automatically think, “Oh, the wife should have done better,” and so my daughter is saying, “That’s why you have to date someone very deeply before you get married.” No matter how deeply you date someone, you’ll never be able to see this.
What I told my daughter is, “No matter how much spouses fight, if we have the gospel, ultimately we will go in the good direction,” and I told my daughter, “That’s the difference between people who know Christ and people who do not know Christ.” Yes, of course, we fight with our own opinions, “My opinion is like this; that person’s opinion is like that,” but in the end, the Lord gives us an answer about that situation. That’s what humans are like, but if we have this scar on our own, Satan attacks us with it. If the same problem is happening again and again in your family, then this is the real problem, and if you get married without knowing the spiritual fact, it’s a big problem. When you date someone, you only see the good things about them, but you’re not able to see the things that are hidden deep inside. These things are revealed when you begin to live with them. When you were dating them, you didn’t see it and you wondered if they were hiding it from you, but you just weren’t able to see it. This then becomes the problem of the family, into the nation, into society.
There is a background with which even Adolph Hitler massacred people and created war. He saw his mother being sexually assaulted while he was growing up, and that was done by a specific minority group, and that scar has now been rooted into him as a poison. Then, no matter how much we succeed, nobody can solve the scars we received from our family growing up, and the things we endured while we were young become the problems we face as adults, and also the problems we face today are connected to our future. Paul knew that kind of field and proclaimed the gospel there.
Today, we live in America, but if you only look at the exterior form of America, you only know it halfway. You must be able to see the aspects of America that are invisible as well. In this world, there are nonbelievers and religious people, but no matter how good a person is, if they are a nonbeliever, it means they are their own god, and it means that, “If someone does not agree with me, I cannot live with them.” Because they don’t believe in God, of course they had to live like that. No matter how much I like a person, if they hurt my pride, they are now my enemy. And if that person does not benefit me in some way, then I cannot be with them. If anything is blocking me, from my goal of success, I have to cut it out. That’s exactly what’s going on in politics among nations right now, we wage wars and alliances for our own nation’s benefit, and that’s why the world feels like only the powerful can survive, but how can we live in a world that feels like that? Then, the education of the world emphasizes that you have to be stronger, you have to have more, you have to be smarter, but that’s not how we were created to live. The Creator God lives with me and I live for His glory; that’s how we were created.
3. One who sees the field of the present day
1) Nonbelievers, religious people
(1) Present problems start from past problems
(2) Past problems start from the fundamental problem
(3) Followed sin, death, and the devil – Wrath (Eph. 2:1-3)
This world is dead in its sins and transgressions. “Dead” means spiritually dead, and Eph. 2:2 says we follow the ruler of the Kingdom of the air, that is the devil; how do we follow the devil? Eph 2:3 says that we follow the cravings of our heart and our sinful nature, and by nature we are objects of wrath. We cannot live how we want to live. If we live however we want, then later on, things that we do not want will happen. I lived however I wanted, but later on, the things I don’t want keep happening.
The land of America talks about freedom and tells you to live however you want to, but later on, things you do not want will continue to happen, and immigrants come from all over the world, holding onto this word, “Freedom,” because I can do whatever I want. Even people who have no money, even people of all different races and ethnicities can live however they want to, here. That is how the devil is controlling this culture. Later on, in the end, Satan takes us into wrath and disasters. Do you know why there are so many shootings in America? Do you know why there are more and more homeless people even though the government is trying to subsidize them? It’s not because we don’t have money. It’s because of spiritual problems. There are people who have homes and have money but don’t go home. These are problems politicians cannot solve; these are problems that only Christians who know the problem of the world and can give the answer to the world can solve. There is no way to escape other than Jesus Christ. The ones who have the faith that, “I died on the cross with Christ and now Christ lives inside of me,” now, the life that I live is living for the Kingdom of Christ.
Look at how the children are being educated now, they are being taught to succeed in the world. Yes, we need that, but that’s not right. We are not living to succeed, but we succeed in order to save the world. “Saving the world” means, we must be in a state that can conquer Satan, and in that state, we must succeed. That was Paul.
2) Only Christ – Christians who shake
(1) Past – Death on the cross, my death (Gal. 2:20)
(2) Present – Faith that the Lord of Life lives in me (Gal. 2:20)
(3) Field of proclaiming the gospel – Mission, work that must be done (1 Cor. 9:16)
In 1 Cor 9:16, Paul says, “If I do not proclaim the gospel it will be a loss to me.” In the past, when I read this verse, I thought, “If I don’t proclaim the gospel, will God beat me up?” but I don’t think that’s the God that I know, so, as I kept on reading the Bible, there’s something I received. If I’m not in a spiritual state that is able to proclaim the gospel into the world, then I revert back into my past self. “My past self,” meaning “me,” “my things,” “my success,” I go back to proclaiming those. But if I’m proclaiming the gospel into the world, it means I can be set free from that state, so it’s important that we maintain a spiritual state that is able to save the world every day.
3) My main job – Saving the field
(1) Job used for world evangelization
(2) Job that raises up the church and church workers
(3) Job that relays the gospel in the field
And the work you are doing is for world evangelization, this is incredibly important. We educate our children as much as we can, but they are enslaved by the world. We work in the world for the Kingdom of Christ. And we work in the world in order to raise up the church and the ministers, because the church is used to save the world. And I work in the world to proclaim the gospel to the world.
Conclusion
1. My only mission – Word
In conclusion, if there’s a Word God is giving to you specifically through today’s message, you need to hold onto that word for the rest of the week.
2. With me, with us, with all things – Prayer
That’s what it means to enjoy through prayer, that the Triune God is always with me, with us, and with all things. You have to see how God is with you, and my background is not American citizenship, my background is the Kingdom of God. You cannot overcome the devil with your citizenship. Yes, that might take care of some physical problems, but it cannot solve your spiritual problems.
3. My background – Throne, Kingdom of God
No matter how weak I am, the throne of God and the Kingdom of God is my background. When I pray, God answers me, seated at the throne of heaven, by sending me His angels. I bless you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you and I may know the world and the field correctly and save the world.
Message Prayer
Let us pray together holding onto the Word God has given to us.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We believe You will guide us exactly with the Word You have given us as those who can know, discern, and save the world. We pray You will open our spiritual eyes so that we can see the world accurately. May all of our lives and all of our work be used to save the world and give the answer. We have returned Your materials as offering, and we pray that You will bless this offering so that it may be used to save the church and the world. 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, and the indwelling, working, guidance, and fellowship of the Holy Spirit be upon the heads of all of the people of God who desire to know the field spiritually and save them, upon David and Erdene who will be beginning the church in Las Vegas, be with them from now and forevermore always, amen.
Have a victorious week in only Christ! 👍