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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
Tears - Thanksgiving Sunday Evening Holy Communion |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
John 6: 53-55 |
Date |
2013-11-17 |
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Passage
John 6:53-55
"So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.'"
Throughout this year the Father God has given us such abundant fruits. There were some souls who felt God was a fearful and cold God even though He has such warm love, and there were also those who were trembling with fear because of their unforgivable sins. To these souls, He gave strength to live by the Word, so that they could be renewed every day.
But this grace did not come without a price. We could receive this new life because there were tears that poured down on our wounded hearts just as sweet rain would revive the life of a dry barren land. Jeremiah 14:17 is the Word of God who was mourning for His people who would be destroyed. It says, "You will say this word to them, 'Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow, with a sorely infected wound." The Father God is waiting for us with tears every day until we repent and come forth as true children of God.
Now then, what kind of tears has the Lord shed for us? Jesus willingly gave His body for heinous sinners. Hebrews 5:7, first part says, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death..." Even in the pain of His flesh being torn apart and His bones being exposed, He interceded for us with tears saying, "Father, forgive their sins."
I know better than any other person the meaning of the tears of the Father and the Lord. For that reason I also had to shed countless tears. My eyes were filled with tears every time I read each of the sins that were written in the countless repentance letters. I could not read any longer because of my tears, and yet I still tried my best to read them. But my tears began to pour out soon thinking of the souls who were going the way of Hell. Holding on to the repentance letter, I prayed with tears, "Father, they are my beloved souls. Let me not lose even one soul. Give them strength so that they will not give up or get discouraged. Let me harbor them until I lead them to New Jerusalem." Praying for them in this way was my daily routine.
Dear brothers and sisters, until countless souls on this earth are saved, the tears of the Father and the Lord will not stop. Those tears will stop only after we come forth as true children and wipe them out at His bosom. When we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lord on this Thanksgiving Sunday, I hope you will think about what kinds of tears you are shedding when participating in the Holy Communion.
[Main]
Dear brothers and sisters,
Now, what kind of tears do we have to shed before the Father God?
First, the kind of tears we have to shed before God is tears of repentance.
True repentance begins with shedding tears. We cannot ask for forgiveness before the Father God with dry eyes. Of course, if you by force squeeze your eyes to make tears come out, it is not true repentance. Or, if you shed tears because you are feeling oppressed, afflicted, angry, or wrongfully-accused, they are not tears of repentance either. Tears of true repentance come out when we rend our hearts before the cross of the Lord who redeemed us from our sins. Feeling that we have crucified the Lord once again, we would not be able to lift up our heads, and we would just keep on shedding tears.
About 2,000 years ago, there was a man who shed tears of true repentance. He was a fisherman from Beth-saida. He had been living a meaningless life as a poor fisherman, but from the time he met Jesus, he lived a completely new life. Jesus taught him the will of the Father God and showed amazing power. The only happiness in his life was to serve his great master. So, he never left Jesus even for a moment. He was always with Him.
But, the three years that he spent with Jesus in happiness collapsed in a moment. On the night Jesus was arrested, as his life was threatened, three times he denied Jesus who was his everything, and he even cursed Him. Then from afar, he watched Jesus who was climbing up Golgotha carrying the cross, with His body covered with blood. For the last few years, he was with Jesus like a shadow, but he could not go closer to Him. He felt miserable. He shed tears of regret without ceasing. It was not just a couple of drops of tears. He banged his head on the ground and repented without even realizing he was bleeding. And those tears let him take the way of the 'apostle Peter' who boldly preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters,
What kinds of tears of repentance have you shed? Is there anyone who says, "I don't cry or weep at all."? Just imagine Jesus is right in front of you, hung on the cross and shedding His blood and being mocked by the soldiers. Have you not walked back avoiding the eyes of Jesus, following the world? I hope you will check if you haven't loved the Lord enough while saying that you know His love. On this Thanksgiving Sunday, I hope you will give thanks to the Lord who has washed our sins to make us whiter than snow.
Dear brothers and sisters,
The kind of tears that we have to shed, secondly, is the tears of thanksgiving.
The resurrected Lord came to Peter who was catching fish at Galilee. The Lord did not ask Peter why he had betrayed Him. He just looked at Peter with warm eyes. Peter could not help but just shed tears of thanksgiving before the Lord who had forgiven him of everything.
What kinds of tears of thanksgiving are you shedding today? Some of you have received much greater forgiveness and compassion than what Peter received. Some of you were willfully committing sins knowing they were sins. You committed sins leading to death, which would take away your salvation, and you committed them again and again. But the Father God, through the time of grace on Dec 25, 2010 and again on March 31, 2013, forgave us of all our sins and iniquities. That is why we cannot help but always shed tears of thanksgiving in our daily prayers.
I believe in your prayers you say things like: "Thank You, that I was a sinner but was forgiven, and now I can boldly call You Father," "Thank You for saving my soul who had to die from the swamp of death," "Thank You for giving me the strength to cast away sins and repent of my sins," "I am thankful just for being forgiven of my sins, and I thank You more for increasing my faith and making me take hold of better heavenly place by force." "Thank You for letting me dream of New Jerusalem."
Such tearful thanksgiving will be deeper and thicker as our faith increases and grows up. To the extent that you cultivate spirit in you through the Word of God and prayer, you will feel the love of the Lord more greatly in the deeper part of your heart, so you naturally shed tears of thanksgiving. Even though you cannot physically enjoy good things, you can offer up tears of thanksgiving to the Father God for loving you. In this Holy Communion, I hope you will remember the love of the Lord that was given to us without a price.
The kind of tears that we have to shed, thirdly and lastly, is the tears of love.
After His resurrection, the Lord appeared at Galilee and asked Peter. "Simon, son of John, do you love Me?" He felt ashamed for having denied the Lord, but now he could confidently profess his love. There was only one thing he could say to the Lord who had forgiven him without asking anything, and whom he missed so much. "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." Since then, Peter spread the gospel for a long time and eventually he was crucified upside down. Peter must have shed so many tears throughout his life, remembering the love of the Lord in his heart.
Do you also shed such tears of love? As for me, if I just say, "Father God, I love You," my eyes are already filled with tears. Just by calling 'Father', I miss the Father so much and I feel my heart will burst.
1 John 4:19 says, "We love, because He first loved us." As said, the Father God loved us since before He planned human cultivation. For this reason, He gave His only begotten Son Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins. Then, He earnestly wants to receive love from us who were revived by the price of that blood. I hope you will also offer up deep prayers of love to the Lord like the profession of Peter.
[Conclusion]
We have the Holy Communion in the second part of this service. Jesus said the bread is the body, which is the flesh of the Son of Man, and the cup is His blood. Now, what does it mean by eating the flesh of the Son of Man? John 1:1 says the Word is God. John 1:14 says the Word became flesh and came down to this earth, and it is Jesus.
So, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man in other words is to take in the Word of God. It is not just to know it in our head but to change our heart with it. It is to cast away evil and to cultivate goodness and love in us. In order for us to eat the flesh of the Son of Man this way, we have to drink the blood of the Son of Man as well.
For example, it is like when we eat food, we have to drink liquid, too. Only with the liquid can the nutrients of the food be absorbed, and the body waste will go out. In the same way, when we learn the Word of God, we should not just put it in our head but we have to try to practice the Word. Only then will the Word of God that you learned become life and power in you.
You have been trying hard to be changed into true children of God, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man. Revelation 21:4 says, "...and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away." As said, later, when you reach the throne of the Father God in New Jerusalem, He will wipe out all your tears. I pray in the name of the Lord that, hoping for that day, you will come forth as holy and perfect children of the Father God. |
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