How the Holy Spirit Works

Luke 10: 29-37

Here is a scene from The Little Prince.

“If you tell the adults, “I saw a pretty house made of rosy bricks. There are geraniums in the window and pigeons on the roof.”

You have to say, “I saw a house for a hundred thousand francs!”

They say, “Hey! What a wonderful house!” shouted.>

What does it mean to be an adult? What does aging really mean?

It is usually said that becoming an adult is living by calculating the losses and gains well. Older people who live by calculating well are called mature or wise adults, and those who live without calculating are called people who lack something.

But, is it really? It seems that it is an adult's job to admire a beautiful house, and it should be a child's job to only think about what is in front of them, but in reality, isn't our life the opposite?

If we think about it a little more, it seems that this reversal has occurred in our beliefs as well. As mature believers, it is difficult to find a beautiful form of faith that we can look at and admire, and it makes me wonder if there is only an empty shell of faith that only calculates profit and loss.

It is said that the present Korean church is in a moment of great crisis. It is said that the Korean church will follow a similar path in the near future, just as the magnificent churches in the West are closing their doors one by one. The external reason for this phenomenon can be found in the fact that the role of religion has been greatly reduced due to the development of material civilization and economic growth. The so-called “rule of $30,000” that “religions in countries with per capita GNP of more than $30,000 have come to decline” applies to Korean society as well. In addition, the dazzling development of science and technology extended to the realm of life, which in the past was only regarded as a function of God, and the meaning of religion was further diminished.

If the external causes mentioned above are the real source, the future of Christianity looks very bleak. This is because, no matter how hard Christianity tries, it cannot keep up with the development of material civilization and the development of science and technology.

But, I want to ask. Are these external causes the real root of the crisis?

I want to find the cause of today's crisis in the state of our inner faith. In addition to diagnosing the cause, we will try to think of alternatives that can overcome the crisis.

The crisis of our faith started from failing to see the true nature of our faith and calculating only the outward appearance. Also, this crisis is the result of calculating even the work of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, humans created today's material civilization by performing calculations well. Humanity has accepted such a person as a wise person, a leader, or a pioneer. No one can deny that being an adult means being good at these things.

However, in today's Bible story, Jesus tells us something else.

The Bible story we read today is the parable of the good Samaritan. We've been thinking, 'Christians must be good Samaritans' by taking this part off. However, we can understand this parable a little deeper by looking into what happened before Jesus spoke this parable.

The events behind today's parable are as follows.

In Luke 9, Jesus selected twelve disciples to preach the gospel and gave them the power of the Holy Spirit to control demons and heal the sick. King Herod was surprised to hear of the great things the disciples had done. However, after a while, they were rebuked by Jesus for not being able to heal a young child possessed by a demon.

And Luke 10, the text we read today, begins with the scene where Jesus sends 72 disciples in the same way as in chapter 9. Amazing things happen through the 72 disciples who also receive the power of the Holy Spirit. These disciples, who have returned to Jesus, rejoice greatly. But the Lord says, “Do not rejoice that the demons surrender to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” And Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘Father, Lord of heaven and earth. We thank you for hiding this from the wise and prudent and revealing it to little children. That's right. It is the will of the Father that this has happened.’ After giving thanks to God in front of the assembled crowd, he sees his disciples separately and whispers. ‘I tell you, many prophets and kings have longed to see what you see, but did not see it; to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

In the midst of these conversations, the expert in law gets up and asks a question about how to gain eternal life. Jesus asks this man how it was written in the Law. He confidently answers that it is love of God and love of neighbor. Jesus answered, ‘You are right. Do that.” Accordingly, this teacher of the law asks the question again about the object they should love, that is, who their neighbor is. This is a very tricky question. This is because Israel had already determined those who could be their neighbors and those who were not. If Jesus told us to love those who do not meet his standards, he would be breaking Jewish tradition and, of course, would be hated by the Jewish people who value tradition.

However, Jesus shifts the focus of the question and tells a parable. ‘A Samaritan helped a man who was hit by a robber who passed by both the priest who performed the sacrifices in the temple and the Levite who helped with the work of the temple. Who has become a neighbor to the man who was struck by the robber?’

At this time, the expert in law's answer shows once again his attitude of sticking to the Jewish tradition. He does not answer 'a Samaritan', but 'the one who showed him mercy.'

And the Lord says, “Go and do likewise.”

Jesus told the Jewish law teacher, who was preoccupied with defining the objects of love by classifying people he could consider as their neighbors, to stop doing such meaningless things, and to show love to the neighbor who had just been robbed.

Through today's biblical story, I want to think of two kinds of people. The first is the 72 disciples who received Jesus' command and received the power of the Holy Spirit, performed many miracles, and returned. And the second is a expert in religious law who, after listening to all this, got up and asked Jesus the secret of entering the kingdom of God.

These are all people who are preoccupied with counting. Those who have directly experienced the power of the Holy Spirit through their actions are in a state of frenzy in front of the amazing works they have done. So, as if boasting to Jesus, they tell stories of their experiences. At this time, the Lord tells us not to rejoice over such things, but to rejoice in the fact that you are the people of the kingdom of God.

Jesus taught them that the true miracle of the Holy Spirit is not any special power that appears before their eyes, but that the greatest thing is that sinners are called to become people of the kingdom of God.

After saying this, the law expert gets up and asks the Lord about his qualifications to become the people of the kingdom of God. I think about the hidden meaning of this question. ‘Who dares to speak of the kingdom of God? It is the kingdom of God to those who have no roots. That kingdom of God belongs to people like me who have been clean and pure for a long time! You guys are not!’

Jesus looked into this expert in law's heart and told the expert in law, who had a misunderstanding about 'love', to stop categorizing neighbors and become neighbors.

That's right. What Jesus taught to the first kind and to the second, he spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit. The most amazing miracle performed by the Holy Spirit is to realize the mystery of the kingdom of God, and what the Holy Spirit is ultimately trying to accomplish is to love the person who met a robber who came to me today.

That's right. The most amazing miracle that the Holy Spirit works is that he gives us the heart to live lovingly and helps us who lack the ability to do so so that we can love. This is what the Apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 12 about the various gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as tongues, prophecy, and healing, and at the end of chapter 12, ‘There is a greater gift. You should long for it,' and in chapter 13, he said that love is more amazing than faith and hope.

That's right. We must now see the wonderful works of the Holy Spirit and stop counting according to our own calculation. Because God loves Korea, he sent Underwood and other missionaries to Korea 130 years ago to spread the gospel and to grow up to this day, it is certainly a miracle performed by the Holy Spirit. But from a certain moment, the Korean church has forgotten that living in the kingdom of God together is a miracle of the Holy Spirit, focusing only on things that seem bigger, more generous, and more plausible, while rejecting people who do not fit this calculation like the teachers of the law. Only the Tower of Babel was built high. The Korean church is in crisis to the extent that it makes you wonder whether God is trying to tear down this Tower of Babel now.

To this kind of Korean church, Jesus is saying, ‘Be a neighbor to someone who has been hit by a robber’. Because this is what the Holy Spirit does.

What we need right now is ‘love’. The Korean church must stop counting. The splendid and majestic church building... The crowd gathered there... The leaders of the church who seem to be socially successful... You must not mistake this outward appearance for the work of the Holy Spirit. Rather, we have to start again by showing love to a little neighbor who has come to us today. Because this is what the Holy Spirit does. The future of the Korean church is at stake here.

To conclude today's sermon, I would like to read a poem titled 'He' from Poet Jeong Ho-seung's collection of poems <Die in Love>. I hope it will be a time for you to reconsider the meaning of true love.

"He"

when no one loves me

He was the one who quietly knocked on my window and went back.

When no one prays for me

silently on his knees

he was the one who wept and prayed for me

As I stand by the road of my dirty destiny

When the moment of death finally comes

He was the one who lay quietly by my side and became my death

no one washes my corpse

When they are scattered and blow out the candles and go home

He was the one who calmly became the sea and washed me

to love those who love no one

You already love me before you wait

You've already waited for me before I fell in love