2008. 5. 11 Rev. Kim, Young Bong

The Gospel According to John Sermon Series
“The Gospel of Life (97)”
The Church Is Not Our Final Destination
--John 20:19-23

1.

Sometimes, what looks like to be the safest choice may be the most dangerous one. For example, we may be so unwise to feel the safest in maintaining a secluded life. And that is in fact the most dangerous choice. If we lock up our mind and stay inside our own world, it will confine us and end up by gradually making us die slowly in it. It is because God has created us to find true happiness only in relationships, and to grow up as a holistic human being only in relationships. Therefore, to live only within one’s own world and live for oneself is to isolate and lead oneself to death. To the contrary, to open and make relationships with others and to live for each other are to make everyone live wholly. This is the Providence of creation, the natural law and the psychological principle.

The problem is that to open ourselves and to have relationship with others is sometimes very dangerous. While human beings cannot truly live without opening up to others, opening up to others is the most dangerous thing. Why is it that? It is because while opening up and approaching others, we inevitably make ourselves vulnerable to wounds and sufferings. Incurring repeated wounds, we become like shrinking violets and close our minds and withdraw from the world. When the pain and suffering rise above an endurable level, temptations grow in our minds to quit everything, to move to a remote place, to have no relationship, to be uninterrupted and live peacefully alone.

At this stage, even going to church becomes a scary thing. After the worship service, we don’t want to see anyone and we escape through back and side doors. At times we feel like talking to someone revealing our hearts but we remember the wounds we received by doing so before. We are afraid others may be aware of our problems. We also do not want to be involved in other’s affair. We really want others to withdraw their attention from us. We do not want to hurt others and we do not want to be hurt from others. We want to meet God, but we do not want to meet people. Thus, we avoid being involved with others. When we cannot avoid involvement, we draw a line at a distance to avoid being damaged by each other. We do not go beyond the line and we do not allow others to come over the line.
Under these circumstances, we ask how to find someone with whom we can build a relationship, where we can open ourselves safely. We ask how to open ourselves to others and how to share life with others, without any fear. Where shall we go? Will we see a counselor? Counselors are specially trained for anyone to be safe to open their mind to them. Therefore, it is good for anyone to seek their assistance when we have problems. However, how miserable are we if there is no one to whom we can open our hearts, other than a counselor? Most of us actually live without anyone to open our hearts. There are many who do not fully open their hearts even to their spouses. An increasing number of people put themselves inside their own castles, suffering from illness.

2.

The salvation we need is not only the eternal life we get when we are dead. Before that, there is the salvation we need to enjoy during our life on earth. We need to be saved from this prison in which we have locked ourselves from inside and have put our own hands and feet into shackles. It may be asked, “Why can’t we break out from this self-imposed prison?” We may not liberate ourselves without curing the uneasiness and fear in our own minds. Because this is a prison we erected to escape from further wounds, we will stay forever crouched in the darkness unless there is a certain change inside us. Someone must cure the fear and uneasiness and restore in us the courage to face the world.

The very person who can make these changes inside us is the resurrected Jesus Christ. Our resurrected Lord cures the uneasiness and fears depressing our inner self. He renews our spirits, and He changes us to remove the bolts from the doors and march out towards the world. The words of the Gospel of John, Chapter 20, from verse 19 through 23, upon which we have been meditating for three weeks, witness this truth.

The disciples of Jesus were hiding in a house in a deep corner of Jerusalem for fear of falling into the hands of the Jews who had executed their Rabbi. They did not have the courage to open the door and step outside. Without a drastic change for them, they might have spent the rest of their lives avoiding people’s eyes.
Like this, when they are huddling together to stay warm, the Lord suddenly appears among them. He says to the disciples, “Peace be with you!” To the confused disciples, who are not ready to understand, He reveals that He is Jesus of Nazareth, resurrected after death, and then comforts them. No sooner than the disciples recognize His identity, then the apprehension and fear suppressing their minds disappear like smoke. Then Jesus says, “As the Father sent me, I am sending you.”

Jesus Christ is one who was with God, the Lord of creation. Because God so loved this world, He sent His Son Jesus Christ in order to save it (John 3:16). Until He died on the cross, Jesus was obedient to God’s will and after death, He resurrected and it was at this moment He was to return to God’s presence. Before returning to God’s presence, Jesus said to His disciples, “Just as my Father sent me, I send you.” In order to save this world, just as God sent His son Jesus Christ into the world, Jesus also sent His disciples into the world. After saying these words, verse 22 records an interesting observation: After saying these things, Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

The resurrected Jesus breathed on the disciples? What could this mean? If we breathe, it is no more than air. However, the breath of the resurrected Jesus cannot have been simply air. That’s because His body was different from ours. Because that body transcended the 3rd dimension, the breath from that body cannot have been a simple breath. That breath was probably similar to the “breath of life” that God blew into Adam’s nostrils. As Jesus blew that breath and that life, he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus was petitioning that the disciples be filled with that same breath of life that gave life to Adam who had been a lump of clay.

After Jesus blew the breath of life on them, the disciples were able to experience what they could not experience before. Maybe we could use the analogy of seeing in color what could only be seen in black and white before. Or maybe we could compare to an air-filled balloon that was empty before. Or maybe it’s like a desolate wilderness that suddenly turns into a grassy plain. This is what many are referring to when they speak of the “fullness of the Holy Spirit.” And so the disciples gained courage to face the world and not fear the pain of the world. They received the courage to spread the Gospel to the world and received the strength to work toward the salvation of the world. And so they went into the world, to begin to change the world, one person at a time, one step at a time.

3.

And so this is the salvation we need to receive as we live in this flesh-and-blood world. Jesus Christ, who is with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit, embraces us with true peace and pushes away the anxieties and fears that oppress us. He blows into us the “breath of resurrection,” the “breath of life” that transformed the lump of clay into life. He helps to fill us with God’s Spirit. From the strength of that life, our spirits are filled with hope, our faces change, and even our steps are renewed.

As we live in this world, we have often fallen and stumbled. We have been crushed by threats in the world and we have been deceived by the temptations of the world. We have always been sacrificed in this world. Just as Jesus’ parable taught, we have always been like that one lost sheep. And that’s why we closed the doors to our hearts and the doors to our homes. How we long to escape from our self-made iron-clad prison! If we believe in Jesus; if we call the Lord of creation, “Father;” if we receive the Holy Spirit; if we serve the resurrected Jesus Christ; then, we will have the power to open that prison door and go into this world. With that power, we will have the power to deal with the dangers of this world, and face the temptations of the world. Just like the helpless sheep surrounded by wolves, we were once oppressed, but in the presence of that weak Sheep, the wolves retreat.

But there is one thing we need to remember. It is the truth that, before we demolish the door and head out into the world, first and foremost, we need to gather in church. That small room in which the disciples met was actually a church. Church is that place in which believers gather together. It is there that our Lord visits us. It is just as Jesus said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them” (Mat 18:20).

We as believers should not head out into the world as soon as we meet the resurrected Lord. First and foremost, we meet regularly at the church, and prepare to go out into the world to save it. In faith, we learn to meet others honestly, to open our hearts, and to form relationships, because once we are in the world, our most important task is to meet others. In order to spread the Gospel, we must be able to meet people honestly. We must approach others with open hearts. By the way, it is a very dangerous work. We must not do it carelessly. That’s why training is necessary. And it’s in church that such training takes place.

The essence of the church is relationships. It is companionship. It is about opening myself, meeting others, and forming relationships. The church exists so that in moral and intimate relationships, we may receive healing and restoration, so that we may grow soundly. And in the process, we gather in church so that our relationship with God deepens, and our relationship with our brothers and sisters deepens. When we do so, the breath of life that our resurrected Lord gave to us will fill our hearts, and with that power, we will approach those we do not know, establish relationships, and to those relationships we will bring the presence of the Lord.

In certain ways, the church is like the world, and in other ways, it is different. It is like the difference between what soldiers do in training and what they do in actual battle. The training will be effective only if conditions are somewhat similar to actual battle. However, if conditions are exactly like those in battle, you may lose a life in the process. In the same way, the church is similar to the world in which we live. And because it is so, when we meet others in church, open our hearts, and form relationships ? that is when we can see the impact in the world. However, the church cannot be cold-hearted and brutal like the world. The church must be a place safe enough that we can open our hearts and approach others.

4.

Because church is a training ground, a certain degree of risk always exists. Church has to be such a risky place, and there is no alternative but to be such a place, because church is a place where everyone who is human like me comes. How many people hope that everyone who comes to church is a more mature believer except themselves? Such people are so vulnerable that when they are hurt even a little, they don’t know how to handle it. Such people complain, always by saying, “How could a church be like this?” But if they think about those who come to church are not much different from me, then they can fully understand why a church could be like that. A church can be like that, because it is a place where many different people get together and have spiritual fellowship.

We should not expect that any such hurt we get from church will disappear completely; rather, we should better put our efforts more to pursue a deeper relationship with God the Trinity. When we form a deep relationship with Jesus, who is resurrected through the Holy Spirit, we receive courage and we are not afraid of being hurt by others. When we get peace of mind and the fullness of the Holy Spirit through our relationship with Jesus, we can easily approach anyone with an open mind, without any fear of being hurt. The handshakes of those who are mature in spirit do not impart a feeling of intimidation or high-handedness. And the spiritual maturity does not come with prayers alone, but also in doing spiritual exercise. Only by being with others and getting hurt by others or hurting others in this gathering, and then through prayers and struggle, can we arrive at spiritual maturity.

In this respect, I have to again emphasize the importance of cell group meetings. Cell group meetings, in which members get together regularly within church for deepening their relationship with God and learning more about each other, with an ability given by God, is very important. By doing that, people can exercise opening themselves to others and accepting others. A cell meeting is, therefore, the best training ground. There may be one or two persons who are difficult to deal with. There may be some who try to constantly dominate conversations with the topics on politics or sports, others who talk about shopping they have done or others who keep on talking endlessly once they start to talk. Of course, there may be the others who brag about themselves, in the form of “self- confession,” ones who always know-it-all and try to teach others, and those who hurt others’ minds without opening their own minds. Unfortunately, such habits will not be changed easily.

That is the providence of God. You may think that God provided it in that way. Let’s suppose that there are only good people in church. In that case, people might have an illusion that, living within a church, “the world would be like this.” Or, people might want to stay only within church. People might be afraid of confronting reality if they have to face people they don’t want to see, so they want to stay only within church. Then, church would become a refuge from the reality of the outside world. To believers, church would become the final destination. That would be a distortion of church. That would be the corruption of church and the failure of church.
There is another important reason why we really need true fellowships within church. When we interact with the people who are difficult to deal with, or whom we want to avoid, all within the fence of the same belief, we often realize our limitations and feel disappointments in ourselves. Outside the church, we can avoid anyone we don’t want to see or deal with, but we cannot do that in church. God speaks to us through His inner-voice, tells us not to avoid others, not to avert our eyes, but to face them again, even though it is hard. When we follow His words, we become to realize that we are not so important beings, but instead we, too, are only very pitiable sinners. In that process, we more often kneel and more heartily rely on God. We are gradually changing through this process. That is the spiritual training we can exercise within church.

5.

Church is not the final destination of our faith for us. We should continue to reach out to the outside world. Jesus didn’t create church as a place to escape, for His believers to gather and sing ‘This Sinful World is Not My house.’ That song only carries half of the truth. Our eternal house is God’s embrace, not this sinful world. However, we need to embrace this sinful world and walk into it for salvation, before we reach God’s embrace. This is what God did and so did Jesus.

How can we save this world? We can do it by leading each other, one by one, to Jesus Christ. We call that ‘evangelism.’ We can also participate in the salvation of this world through our dedication to make this world a better and happier place to live. That is called ‘mission.’ We cannot save this entire world all at once. We can only do it one by one and an inch by an inch. Would you like to ask, “When and what can we accomplish with such an approach?” You are right to ask such a question, but please remember that Jesus worked that way and God also expects us to work like that.
For evangelism and mission, we need to take the skill of building relationships we acquired from church and walk into the world. Through contemplative living with the resurrected Jesus, we need to receive peace and be empowered by the Holy Spirit. With the power acquired through close fellowship with Jesus, we need to practice building such relationships with the brothers and sisters in church. Developing relationships with those who are hard to deal with will especially give us a good opportunity to train ourselves. Such practice can help us open our hearts and make it easy to deal with people in our workplace and society. We need to open our hearts first to the one to whom we want to proclaim the Gospel. Someone who wants to dedicate himself to the world’s happiness should open his heart to those whom he wants to reach out. Otherwise, true evangelism or mission can’t be accomplished.

Living like this is not only for the world, but is also the happiest choice for us. Escaping to the fortress we build for ourselves is neither safe nor hopeful. Ironically a real safe zone is not the castle we build for ourselves, but outside of that castle and in the midst of the world which is full of pain, danger and temptations. If we stand alone in this world, it will be just as bleak as a sheep standing among wolves. However, if we are full of breath from the resurrected Lord and the spirit of life coming from God, we will be safe in this world. When we walk into the world filled with the Holy Spirit, spread the Gospel to everyone we meet, and serve them with happiness, we will find true happiness and be filled with experiences that make our life full of meaning.

6.

On this Whitsunday let’s reflect on ourselves. What state are we in?

Is the door to your heart and even to your home locked very tightly because you are afraid to get hurt and you don’t want to be interrupted by anyone? I pray with all my heart that the resurrected Lord pays a visit to the room you’re hiding in, and that you will come out of your self-made prison by the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of peace from Him! I hope you can confirm that the safety zone you made is a graveyard you dig for yourself and the world outside, which seems like a war-zone, is the safest place.
Is any one of you wanting to meet Jesus but silently fearing to be hurt, or not wanting to open your heart to other church members because of a bitter experience in the past? I pray the resurrected Jesus will blow the breath of the Holy Spirit into you, so that you are healed from your past hurt. I pray that you will no longer be afraid of getting hurt. As you come from an imperfect faith, shown through coming to church to just meet Jesus alone, I pray you will leap spiritually by reaching out your hands of friendship to your brothers and sisters in faith. There’s no such thing in Christianity as a ‘stand-alone’ faith. No matter how burdensome, hard or frustrating it gets, we need to keep our relationships with others. Then we can meet God. That is the nature of church and helps us grow spiritually.

Are you keeping your fellowship with other brothers and sisters in faith, opening your heart and the doors to your home? It is so good to do so. Please keep on working hard to develop deep relationships. Let’s work hard to become a spiritual friend to others and to make our relationships holy so that we make many spiritual friends. How good it would be if you could have friends in church to discuss your problems in case of trouble? How good it would be if someone in an emergency could call in the middle of night and ask for help? Let’s work hard to develop such relationships.

But let’s not forget the fact that church is not our final destination. The relationships we build in church must help us become true friends to those we meet in the world and help us lead those to Jesus. The reason the resurrected Jesus gave peace and the Holy Spirit to His disciples is to say “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” The reason Jesus built His church by sacrificing Himself is to train us to build true relationships and to send us into the world. Jesus is sending us into this world where people escape into the castles they build and die in solitude, where it is hard to find true relationships, and where no one can open his/her hearts to anyone. Jesus is sending us so that we become friends with people in this world and lead them to Jesus.

7.

We need to get there. We shouldn’t stay inside church. If we are trained in church, we then go out to the world. It is said “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16),” not “God loved church so much so He gave His son.” We need to embrace the world God loved so much, and with the power received from the Lord, we need to go into the world. That should be our goal and we need to pray about it. When we reach that goal, we may say “It is finished (John 19:30),” as Jesus said. It is not that we will have accomplished our hope -- we will have accomplished God’s will for us.

A life in which God’s will is fulfilled! What better blessings can you think of? I wholeheartedly pray such blessings will be upon all of us.

Dear Lord,
Invade our rooms that are shut tight.
Conquer our closed hearts.
Proclaim Your peace to our shaky hearts.
On our lifeless souls,
Breathe Your breath of life.
Let us open wide our hearts
And embrace our brothers and sisters of faith.
And with that ability,
Let us go out to the world,
And search for lost souls.
Amen.