Yonsei University Church Sunday Service

2021/09/12

Rev. Paul Wonkyu Choi

Scripture: Mark 8:27-34

Living as His disciple with His grace daily

Intro

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to worship at Yonsei University and share God's grace through the Word. My wife and I have been very blessed through Yonsei University and Yonsei Medical Center. I am always grateful for this. I graduated from medical school in 1992 with her wife. I majored in pediatrics, and my wife became a specialist in rehabilitation medicine. Thank you for adding professional blessings to our professional areas so that we can grow well as medical professionals through Yonsei University. Another thing I am grateful for is that I have been able to enjoy spiritual blessings through Yonsei University. As I participated in the Mongolian medical mission started by Yonsei Medical Center, I gained faith and it was a turning point in my life.

I have lived without the Lord for 30 years, and for the next 25 years, I have tasted and lived with the Lord. The 30 years of living without knowing the Lord and 25 years of living in the Lord were clearly different. For the first 30 years, I was at the center of the world, with myself at the center of my life. I was a person who worked hard in my own way with my own standards and my own methods and my know-how. However, over the past 25 years, I am learning a new life to know the Lord and live by faith in Jesus.

In 1993, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Missionary Avison's visit to Korea, Yonsei Medical Center started a Mongolian medical mission. We conducted academic exchange programs with Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, and established and operated Yonsei Friendship Hospital in cooperation with Ulaanbaatar City, Mongolia. In 1997, I started working at Yonsei Friendship Hospital in Mongolia as a KOICA International Cooperation Physician. There, I got to know the Lord through Bible training with several missionaries. First, I learned the words of the Bible intellectually, and the content came to me with irresistible logic and great weight. Through the 5-6 months of Bible training, I gradually came to know what kind of sinner I am and what kind of God who loved me to the end. Because he loved this world, Jesus, who died on the cross and rose again, came to me, and I was born again by believing in this.

In today's text, Jesus asks his disciples. “Who do people say I am?” “Who do you say I am?” He was not interested in the Lord and made known the Lord through the Bible. As Peter confessed, he came to confess, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The feeling of believing in the Lord was like having a brain transplant. My worldview, values, and priorities have changed. Also, it was like entering a 'new operating system (OS)'. An operating system is a system that operates a computer, such as DOS, Windows, and OS. It was as if I was living in a new operating system. Just as a new operating system requires new software, a new operating system, i.e., entering the kingdom of God, required me to learn a new way of living that is different from the way I lived before. My thoughts and my life began to change.

The biggest change for me in the new operating system was ‘the change of owner’. In 30 years I have never once thought that I was not in control of my life. But the Bible says that everything that belongs to me is not mine, but the Lord's. It was a big shock for me. It was very shameful to use something that was not mine as if it were mine for 30 years. I was concerned about how I could get it back. The fact that my owner has changed has renewed many aspects of my life.

The change of owner also demands a new change in my 'purpose of living' and 'how to live'. The purpose of living anew in the kingdom of God has become ‘living for the glory of God’, and for this purpose, ‘living as a disciple’ has become the goal of life. Also, I am learning a new way of living, ‘living by grace through the Holy Spirit.’

Today's sermon is titled 'Living as His disciple with His grace daily.' I bless the Lord that you and all of you live your life ‘as a disciple every day and by grace every day’, to the glory of the Lord. What would it be like to ‘live as a disciple every day and live by grace every day’?

Body

The keywords of today's Word are 'disciple' and 'grace.'

First, what does it mean to be a ‘disciple’? Verse 34, Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” There is a possibility of becoming a disciple. You and I are all candid/candidates to become disciples of Christ. Next, he describes the conditions for becoming a disciple.

The first condition of discipleship is ‘denying oneself’. To deny oneself is to deny one's thoughts, knowledge, experiences, and traditions. Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” To crucify my thoughts, knowledge, experience and traditions is self-denial. It is to reconsider my knowledge, experience and traditions.

You may remember Jesus walking on the water in Matthew 14. On the Sea of Galilee, where the wind was blowing and the waves were high, the disciples were rowing all night to live. When the disciples see Jesus walking on the water, they shout, “It’s a ghost.” The disciples could not recognize Jesus because they did not wait for Jesus. Jesus says, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Recognizing Jesus' voice, Peter says from the boat, "Lord, tell me to come to you on the water." The Lord answers, “Come.”

If you and I were Peter, what would you do? You probably said, “Oh no. That's it. How do I walk on water? Come on board.” But Peter was different.

Peter puts his feet out of the boat and walks on the water. Peter, who knew better than anyone else that he could walk on water, went out on the water. It is 'self-denial.'

He denied Peter's knowledge, experience, and tradition. Denying the knowledge that he could not walk on water, the experience of never walking, and the tradition that no one had ever walked on water for generations, he got off the boat and put his feet on the water. Peter walked on the water. And he soon fell. What do you guys think, did Peter fail? The Lord rescues him and says, “You of little faith, why do you doubt?” To ‘doubt’ means to have your heart split in two. One had a heart toward the Lord and walked by faith, while the other was divided when he saw himself standing on the water, the storm, the waves, and the environment. However, Peter became the first person to walk on water like no one had ever experienced. He became a man who experienced the grace of God.

I and you all want to be disciples by ‘denying yourself’. He is self-centered and does not want to depend on his knowledge, experience or traditions. By always questioning ourselves and ‘denying ourselves’, we want to be ready to go beyond our limits and experience God’s grace.

The second condition of discipleship is to ‘take up my cross’. In the sense that the cross signifies death, it is in line with the meaning of ‘self-denial’. Also, to bear the cross, as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, ‘to follow the will of the Lord, not mine,’ is to bear the cross. It is to discern the thoughts and will of the Lord, and to actively take it with faith. It is absolute obedience to God's Word.

Is obedience difficult or easy? In a way, it's easy because you can do it as it is. However, it is difficult. Why is it difficult? Because we cannot give up our thoughts. Also, if you become central to yourself, you will not be able to discern God's will. Even if you are discerning, you will not be able to obey because you think you cannot do it. However, it is not a matter of difficult and easy things, but whether this is God's will or not should be the standard of action. It is not based on what I can do or can't do, whether it is beneficial or not, but it should be decided according to whether God wants it or not.

When Peter got out of the boat and set his feet on the water, he obeyed the Lord's word, "Come." It was possible because of Peter's self-denial and faith relying only on the Lord. Although Peter knew all too well that he could not walk on water, he experienced God's grace through his self-denial and obedience. He began to taste and understand what it means to live by grace in the kingdom of God. I believe that it is only by grace that you and I can ‘deny ourselves’ and ‘obey God’s will’ and live as disciples. So, today's second keyword is 'grace'.

After living independently of God for 30 years, the thing I was most unfamiliar with in the Lord's kingdom/new operating system was the 'living by grace'. Which one are you more familiar with, ‘living on your own’ or ‘living by grace’? I thought that if I had the strength, I could do anything. I thought that I could do something if I had knowledge, experience, ability, wealth, and power. However, the Bible says that the source of strength and power does not belong to me, but to the Lord. He says that I do not have the ability, but I give it to Almighty God to act through me. Galatians 2:20, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” I pray that we will live by the character and power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

It was not Peter's ability that allowed Peter to walk on water, but God's free grace given to Peter. Peter knows that it was by the grace of the Lord that Peter could hear the voice of the Lord, obey, get out of the boat, and walk on the water. The Lord made Peter learn what it means to live by grace. I know he is inviting you and me to learn to live by grace, just as he taught the Israelites.

Romans 8:3-4, “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” He has made a way so that we can live according to the will of God. He said that if we do not live according to the flesh, our thoughts and knowledge, our experiences and traditions, our wealth and power, but we live by grace by relying on the Holy Spirit, we can achieve what the law requires. He gave us the hope of denying ourselves, discerning the will of God, and living in obedience. I know that only by grace can we live as disciples.

Outro

‘Every day as a disciple, every day with grace’! May self-denial by grace, knowing the will of the Lord, and absolute obedience arise in you. The Bible says that self-denial and obedience take place “daily” as disciples. Just because you graduate from Discipleship School does not mean you become a disciple. When we deny ourselves daily with grace and obey God daily according to His will, we become disciples, and we know that we are becoming more like the Lord. The Bible says that without self-denial and obedience, one cannot become like the Lord. The result of a long, self-centered life of faith is to create a ‘religious person like a monster.’ Just like the Pharisees and scribes of the Bible. Every day I become a disciple through my own denial and obedience. I know that when I live as a disciple every day, I am glorifying God by becoming like Jesus. I bless you and I to live as disciples every day and by grace every day.