2008. 6. 8 Rev. Kim, Young Bong

The Gospel According to John Sermon Series
“The Gospel of Life (100)”
A Healed Healer
--John 20:19-23

1.

"All religions are like many paths to reach to the top of the same mountain." This is one of the phrases used on how to view many religions in the world. At first it sounds alright. However, whether there is as much truth in that phrase as it sounds is doubtful. In my opinion, it would be better if we change it to: "All religions are the same in that they search for a way to reach the mountain top."Of course, we have to exclude cults or evil religions from here. Excluding those, so called enduring religions are the same in that they seek the way to reach the top of the mountain, in other words, the way to salvation.

All religions agree on the point that human beings are presently unhappy. They agree on the point that we should not live like this.Thus, each religion diagnoses the cause of our unhappiness and suggests a method to treat that unhappiness. Each religion differs in their diagnosis of the cause of unhappiness, its solution, and the kind of salvation you get through the solution.

We can compare it to this. Let's imagine a huge mountain with many peaks. Below that mountain, there are many paths. One path leads to a small peak in the east, another path leads to a medium peak in the west, and another path leads to the highest peak. Paths in the mountain all lead to the top, its destination differs.Likewise, all religions intend to save the mankind from the unhappiness but because the diagnosis of that unhappiness and its solution are different, the salvation they bring is also different.

For example, in Buddhism, the most important thing is called four holy truths. The truth of Buddhism can be summarized into four words -- Suffering, Obsession, Destruction, and Way or Truth.Human beings have fallen into Suffering, unhappiness and its cause is Obsession. Hence, you need Destruction to be freed from that obsession and you need Way or Truth to do that. The salvation achieved through this method is called Nirvana, blessed state of being. Confucianism teaches denying one's self and being tuned with the grand principle, Confucianism thinks unhappiness is caused by oneself colored by greedy acts against the nature's order of harmony and moral order. As a result, in order to overcome the unhappiness, one needs to overcome the selfish ego, and live in harmony with nature and moral code. That is the salvation in Confucianism.

2.

Christian religion is the same as other religions in viewing that human beings are in misery and needs salvation. Christianity also considers the root cause as egotistic self and views being out of tune with natural and moral order as problematic. Christianity, however, thinks that there is a more fundamental problem.We believe that human beings did not come into existence accidentally or naturally but were created by God who exists.Hence, the fundamental problem of mankind is in the relationship between human and God.Human beings, as creatures, are bound to depend on God, the creator, and to live in fellowship with Him but this is not the case and the problems arose as a result.

The distorted relationship between God and human beings, that estranged relationship, is called 'sin'.If I were to understand the collective teaching in the Bible on sin, we can come up with two meanings. First, in English expression, using the article and the capital letter in a singular form, there is the Sin.In Korean, it's sin.The second is when it is used in a plural form. Following the English grammar, it should be the sins. In Korean, this is sins.

When it is said that 'I have sinned' it refers to the second kind of sin. This is the word we use to refer to lies hatred, murder, stealing, and lewdness When it is used as in singular form, the Sin, it refers to the root cause problem. This not only covers the sins we commit but also the distorted state that results in those sins. The state where we are separated from our Creator, where we turn our backs to Him, where we ignore Him, and where we live totally apart from Him. People living in such a state, we call 'sinners'. As long as we remain in that state, no matter how much we educate and cultivate our minds, we cannot avoid sinning.

Even if we are not committing sins, living without God, the source of our existence, ignoring Him, turning our backs to Him, turning our faces away from Him itself is sin.Only one week left until Father's Day. What is the greatest impiety of all to our fathers?Not giving them some pocket money? Not remembering to celebrate their birthdays? Of course, they belong to impiety too but is it not the greatest impiety for children to ignore their parents, turning their backs to them, with faces turned away?Of course, all those actions come from corrupted mind, but even without those actions, the mind is already in an impious state. The relationship with God is like that also.Even before we commit any sins, if we live ignoring God in our heart with our backs and faces turned, that state itself is already in sin.

This very sin is the origin of all unhappiness confronting us.Human beings have no other choice than to live in suffering because of sins we or others commit. Because of envious mind, egotistic mind, hatred, rage, stealing, obscenity, fraud, and murder, we cannot avoid disasters individually or collectively. Other religions try to look for the most fundamental sin among these 'sins' and try to treat that. On the other hand, Christianity views that the root cause of all these sins is in the estranged relationship with God, the fundamental sin.Christianity presents a method to remedy that relationship.

Let us go back to the image of that huge mountain with many peaks we talked about in the beginning.The salvation Buddhism shows is Nirvana and the salvation Confucianism suggests is in a life tuned to natural and human moral order.The two are not the same.The peaks are different from one another.The salvation Christianity presents is the recovery of relationship with God. That is yet another peak.As a hiker, we have to choose, a very important choice we have to make. Paying close attention to signs, investigating carefully which peak each path leads to and pondering upon which peak is the way to go, we should choose.

3.

In order to recover the relationship with that we have forgotten in our lives, He whom we turned away from, the God whose voice we heard in our hearts but kept refusing to listen, we have to receive the Holy Spirit.The Holy Spirit has to touch our hearts for us to see our true self.We get to realize that we are not a lump of cell clusters but a spiritual being with our existence as a living spirit rooted in God, and our lives apart from Him living in disobedience is the greatest sin.It is not just knowing it in your head.The realization comes through a torn heart and a trembling body.When the Holy Spirit touches us, this kind of realization occurs.

In such awakening experience, when we seek the way to salvation, crying out loud, "Oh, I am dying! What should I do?", we discover the road to salvation on the Cross. Receiving Jesus Christ as Lord who died for my sins on my behalf, owing to the achievement of His precious blood, we go to God, our creator, call Him "abba, our Father".If we are again accepted as children of God like that, we become new beings.The outer self remains the same but the inner self is created anew.It is being born again.Getting born again from above.Our fundamental sin is cured.

After that, as the Holy Spirit residing in me governs my life, my sins are gradually solved. Those sins were caused by the fundamental sin of my existence being separated from God. Now I became a God's child, a disciple of Jesus Christ, and a person of the Holy Spirit. Since the fundamental sin has been treated, the 'sins' that originated from it is gradually diminished.The ruling of the Holy Spirit gets stronger and stronger, the area of the Holy Spirit's ruling gets wider and wider, the temptation of sin loses its power and sins start disappearing one by one.

4.

Recently I read a book titled <Confessions of a Pastor> by Craig Groeschel. The author is the creative leader of a mega-church called LiveChurch.tv. As you can see from the title <Confessions of a Pastor>, this book is an honest confession of the internal agony and temptations that might be difficult for a pastor to reveal. As a fellow pastor, I could empathize much with what I read, and applauded the courage to confess one’s own embarrassing weaknesses without sugarcoating them. I would like to introduce one of his confessions.

The author spent his teenage years under the influence of liquor, drugs, gambling, and sex, but at the age of 19 he was saved by the touch of the Holy Spirit, and by meeting Jesus Christ. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, he was able to rid the sins he was addicted to, but even afterwards, sexual temptations remained strong. He knew that his future depended on how he dealt with this sin, and so from then on many strategies were sought to protect himself. In order to keep his chastity toward his wife, he kept some rules in his life. For instance, something like never traveling alone. Not only this, to prevent himself from sinking into porno internet sites, he made a promise with several of his close friends to check one another’s computers regularly. In this way he was able to live with a fresh joy, free from sexual temptation.

One day, he was on his way back home after leading a passionate sermon in an assembly. While he was waiting to board at an airport, he went into a men’s room. As he locked the door of the stall and sat on the toilet, there on the floor, within his reach, was a pornographic magazine that he once enjoyed. Suddenly, his heart beat like the engine of a high speed train. He could feel the familiar excitement as if he was under the influence of drugs. He was far away from home, alone in a secretive place, and there was no one who knew him there.

At that moment, wouldn’t it have been great if Pastor Groeschel thought, “Oh, this is a shame. Let’s pray for the poor soul that brought this in here. Let’s throw this away before anybody could be tempted.”? But to the contrary, after a moment’s agony, he reached out with a trembling hand to pick up that magazine. Fortunately, that was all. He did not open up the magazine. But the fact that he had picked it up from the restroom floor, something that was both mentally and hygienically unclean, greatly embarrassed and saddened Pastor Groeschel.

But this experience helped him to achieve enormous growth. Not long after, he faced a very similar situation. Again he was alone, and there was a pornographic magazine within reach. But this time he was able to throw it in the trash can without any anguish. He was under the influence of the Holy Spirit and was hence distanced from his sin. The victorious feeling and the joy he felt as he threw it in the trash could not be compared to the furtive, false pleasure gained through enjoying the magazine.

As we can see there, even after becoming God’s children through the touch of the Holy Spirit and accepting Jesus Christ, and even if one prays everyday and breathes a deep spiritual breath and thus lives under the Holy Spirit’s reign, temptations for sin are ever present, and even those who live a Spirit-filled life can sometimes fall into temptation. There are sins that naturally disappear as our relationship with God deepens, but we need to establish strategies like Pastor Groeschel did, to protect ourselves from temptations to sin. If we do this, we can experience faster growth and greater freedom.

This does not end with our own happiness. The more we free ourselves from sin, the ones we love become happier. Thus the family becomes happier, the church and the country become happier. The biggest gift we can give to our loved ones is to become touched by the Holy Spirit and to be transformed through his reign. If one person is to truly change, from that person begins the peace in the family, peace overflows in the workplace, and the church transforms because of him. When there are many such people, society changes and the country is transformed.

5.

Then, let’s ask ourselves these questions: Have we resolved the problem of the Sin, the origin of all human sufferings?Have we realized our sinful nature, accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord, and been restored as children of God, being touched by the Holy Spirit?Have we eradicated living without God, living away from God, and living against God?Have we been cured of our original sin, that’s to say, ‘the Sin’ in English?Just like trees pulled out of the earth are rooted again in the ground, or just like fish taken away from the water are thrown back in it, have we truly been united with God after living away from God, who is the origin of our existence?Do we have the courage to call Jesus Christ “Lord!” or God “Abba, father!”?

If you cannot say ‘Yes’ in response to these questions, I hope that, until the Holy Sprit touches your hearts and conquers your hearts, you will open your hearts wide and seek the grace of God with deeper desire and sincerity. Being a religious person is not enough.Being a follower is not enough. Formality is not enough.We need to communicate with the living God.It happens only when the Holy Spirit touches our hearts.

Can you answer ‘Yes’ to these questions? If so, let’s be thankful.And let’s be diligent about taking a spiritual breath every moment of our days.Let’s have a close relationship with the Holy Spirit living everyday, so He can govern our minds, His reigning can get stronger and stronger, and the area of His reigning will become broader and broader.Let’s confront the temptations of the sins that are trying to pollute us, to topple us.

The sins are very conniving.At first look, they seem to be bringing us benefits and making us happier.While we are indulging in them, the sins deceive us into believing that we are truly happy. However, the sins reveal their nature in the end.When it happens, our lives become barren and destroyed; those we love are inflicted upon tremendously; and our society turns into hell. When we think about it, a person’s misery, an individual family’s misery, a society’s misery, or a nation’s misery- all these are caused due to the Sin and the sins.Therefore, if I, an individual person, am reconciled with God by the touch of the Holy Spirit and continue to be renewed by His guidance, then it will no longer be a matter of me alone.It will be a matter of my family, my church, my country, and all mankind.

So, let’s put our minds to this wholeheartedly.Letting the Holy Spirit reign in us for every aspect of our existence to change, so that we will enjoy infinite freedom from the sins, let us desire the Holy Spirit more.Through worships, meditations on the Word, prayers, the sharing of the Holy Communion and spiritual fellowships, participating in services of love, missions and evangelizing, and obeying God’s calling, let us keep breathing deep, spiritual breaths.

6.

At the same time, if our sins were removed and we were truly liberated from sins through the Holy Spirit's touching and reigning in us and if we believe that is the true solution for the human being's unhappiness, we should remember that we are responsible for spreading this solution to others as well. We should let them know the road we are walking on. If we were cured from fatal diseases, we should let others know of that cure for them as well.

The biggest contribution we can make on this earth is passing on this road to salvation to others. Did the resurrected Jesus Christ not say it? "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." As the disciples, who were filled with the Holy Spirit after breathing in the spiritual breath the resurrected Lord breathed out to them, opened the firmly locked door and went out to the world to pass on the gospel, we too must do that if we know the Holy Spirit. Going to the world, we have to pass on this path to salvation to those still in the Sin and sins. Borrowing the expression used in Henry Nowen's famous book title, we should go out to the world as a 'healed healer'.

To the extent to which the gospel is passed on, the problem of sin will be cured. To the extent to which the gospel is not passed on, the problem of sin will remain or get worse.If the sin remains as is, the unhappiness of human existence will not go away and remain or get worse.It is the responsibility of us, the believers, who received the gospel already and know the Holy Spirit that this world is trampled with sins and people are getting unhappier. Because of our laziness in doing the mission work and evangelizing, sins prosper in this world and the world as a result turns into a harsher place to live in.

The reason why the resurrected Lord said "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." is in here.The Lord wants to send us, who received the touch and reigning of the Holy Spirit and solved the problem of the Sin and sins, to lead others to changes.The creator God loves this world so much that He would not spare his one and only Son. Because He wants to save yet one more person among those who are dying in the Sin and sins and desires to make this world a little bit more blessed place. Mission is about doing this very work. Evangelism is about doing this work. Before this desperate and holy commandment and fiery expectation of God toward us and this world, what would we do; we who are the children of the Holy Father God and the disciples of Jesus Christ and became people of the Holy Spirit?

Lord,
We are sinners.
We claim that we believe in Jesus Christ.
In seeking for the governing of the Holy Spirit, however, we became lazy.
Although we were accepted as God's children
Still living in the midst of sins
With no evidence of the Holy Spirit in our lives
We have no courage to tell others "Believe like us. Give it a try."
O Lord,
Have mercy on us
Help us to desire the Holy Spirit even more
to desire its holy reigning more
so that the Holy Spirit is evidenced in our lives
And with that testimony, we will go out
to pass on the gospel humbly but boldly,
to work as the healed healer,
O, Lord,
Lead us. Amen