201206 Sermon title: If We Could live Twice

Isaiah 40:6-12/ 2 Peter 3:8-13/ Mark 1:1~8

Hymn 15 “Love divine, all loves excelling” or 135 “Yesterday, Today, Forever”

Prayer of Devotion

God, thank you for letting us realize that if we unite with Christ, we can make a new start, that old life passes, and that new life sprouts.

With the heart of the Lord, who yearns for a new life, we will testify in life and in words the cause of salvation. Please be with us.

I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Today is the second Sunday of Advent. Since the church calendar begins at Advent, according to the church calendar, the new year has already begun. Our brothers and sisters in Christ celebrate the New Year several times. (1) The earliest New Year is the New Year according to the church calendar. (2) Then, according to the solar calendar, the New Year will be celebrated on January 1. (3) Then, the Lunar New Year holidays come next. (4) By the way, another New Year is waiting. A new year for the University year begins on March 1. These four New Years may be a bit confusing, but if you think positively, there's also the good thing that you will be given multiple opportunities for a fresh start.

Which of these four New Years do you think is the most important? Objectively, the most important New Year will not be set. Depending on each person's opinion, one New Year may be considered more important, or all New Years may be considered important. A wise attitude, in my opinion, is to think most meaningfully about the New Year that is closest to you now. From that point of view, the most important new year for us today is the new year according to the church calendar.

The New Year began last Sunday, November 29th. Now a week has passed for the new year. New Year, what do you think of first? It may remind you of rice cake soup and New Year’s bow, but for me, it reminds me of New Year's resolutions. When the New Year comes, I think that everyone should leave the past behind and do this and that with a new mind. Do you know which New Year's resolutions are the most common? A survey of people around the world's New Year's resolutions shows that healthy eating, exercise and savings rank highest each year.

In fact, the New Year doesn't change the physical world we live in. The sun rising on the first day of the new year is the same as the sun rising on the last day of last year. The New Year is possible because people do not accept physical time as it is, but give meaning to it and turn it into human time. Think not only of the New Year, but the important anniversaries that appear on your calendar. A country's history and identity are almost entirely contained in that country's calendar.

Looking back on the past year, there must have been moments of joy, gratitude, and rewarding, and things that are regretful. In particular, there will be memories of experiencing trial and error due to the COVID-19 incident without any preparation. Now we close the last year with a chapter in our lives, do not fall into regrets anymore, or do not get carried away by a sense of accomplishment. It's time to write a new chapter in your life. The New Year is an opportunity to re-start an individual's life, a new opportunity to change the fortune of a society, and an opportunity to commit our lives to God's salvation history.

God is telling us to start a new life in the Bible text today. He invites us to a new path that is fundamentally different from our lives up to now. This God is the one who rules time. The text of 2 Peter explains this in detail to us. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Pet. 3:8) God lets all people go fast and slow to receive salvation. God sets a plan to save all mankind at the end of time and guides the history of mankind. He wants to prepare a new heaven and a new earth (13) where justice is indwelling, and that we all qualify to enter that country. Injustice and iniquity are prevalent in this land because God is long-suffering. (9) But in the end, the day of God's judgment will come. If we do not prepare in advance, the day will come like a thief.(10)

I would like to express the state of mankind, who do not understand God's will and continue to live in injustice and sin, with the following metaphor. Imagine that someone is ignoring the signal and running through a city road with numerous intersections at dawn when the traffic is not very well. I think you can imagine it as Teheran Road. At first, the driver of this car obeys the signal, and even if it violates the signal, he passes through an intersection carefully looking left and right. However, after passing through without accident several times, he feels confident and now he does not hesitate to drive at full speed through the intersection lit by the red light. This is the way humans live now. In a situation where there may be a major accident, this driver continues to run with excitement because his conscience and judgment have been dull. And they laugh and mock at drivers waiting for a blue light when no other car is visible.

2 Peter warns us like this. So far, I have driven with signal violations several times, but the accident has not occurred because I have patiently and protected you to save you. Please, keep the signal from the next intersection. Then you will be able to be saved. Maybe this is your last chance, and if you've already been running like this, it would have happened even if there was a big accident. If you ignore my warning this time, it is not surprising that an accident occurs at any time. Judgment will come like a thief.

Doesn't the text of Isaiah say the same thing? Life is like the grass of the field and the flower of the field. They sell their minds to the moment-to-moment riches, but when God breathes on them, they all wither. “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”(Isaiah 40:8) When we manage our lives, we tell them not to be deceived by the momentary gratification and pleasure, but to listen to the word of God forever.

The first Sunday of Advent, awaiting the coming of Jesus, is the first day of the new year in the church calendar. What is the last day? It is “Christ, the King” Sunday. According to the text of the book of Isaiah, this day represents the day when the Lord comes in glory (5), the day when the Lord takes power and reigns (10), the day when the people are rewarded (10), and the Lord himself feeds the people, gathers them in his arms, holds them in his arms and leads them.(11). According to the text of 2 Peter, it is the day of salvation, the day when a new heaven and a new earth are opened (13). According to the Psalms, it is a day when love and truth meet, justice and peace kiss, truth springs from the earth, and justice looks down from heaven. (10, 11) This kingdom of God is a day that God has for all mankind and each individual. This is the heavenly feast you have prepared.

This is the last goal of the church's calendar. And every year we commit ourselves again and practice again to reach this goal. We are waiting for the baby Jesus to be born four weeks later on Christmas as we begin the feast of Advent, while at the same time waiting for Christ, the King who will return as the King of the universe.

How can we participate in God's salvation feast? John the Baptist proclaimed the baptism of repentance for us to go to the kingdom of God. As Jesus began his public ministry, his first cry was "Repent, the kingdom of God is near!" The text of 2 Peter also says that God wants "no one to perish, and to repentance" (9). Repentance is metanoia in Greek, and its original meaning involves changing the direction of the mind. In other words, repentance has more to do with a change of direction in life than with a tearful, contrite heart. To extend the analogy of driving that we heard earlier, repentance is like a driver who is driving backwards, wakes up and turns 180 degrees to drive normally. Repentance is that urgent and important.

We often say that life has no practice. Wouldn't it be great if there was practice in life? At one time, we practice all kinds of trial and error, and if we live carefully in a more mature state, will not everyone become great people? Even if not the whole of life, I think it would be great if we were given the opportunity to relive some of life's important moments. If given the chance to live life again, it would be a truly miraculous blessing.

By the way, if we look closely at the Scriptures today, we are saying that we have been given the opportunity to live our lives again. We are already beings that had to perish long ago, but we say that God's patience still opens opportunities for salvation to us. The story of Adam's fall that we know well is the story of all of us and of each of us. We are doomed to perish by disobeying God. However, God sent Jesus Christ as the second Adam, giving us an opportunity to live life from scratch. (Romans 5:12-) Taking the mistakes of the first life as a lesson, thinking of the first life as a practice, and the second life He gave permission to live with the last chance.

Repentance is realizing that my life now is actually my second life, and even now I change my life’s direction. We have lived a life of sin in Adam, and in each of us, and we have come to know for sure how it ends. By the way, the reason we are still alive, not perishing, is because God has yet to open the opportunity by patience to save us. We have already lived a life as a practice, and now we are living a real life. Don't hesitate to say, “If I could live my life again...”, it is repentance to realize that my life now is perhaps the last chance given again by God's grace, and to change the direction of life to live the life from now on according to God's will.

To live according to God's will is to live a suitable life as the people of God's kingdom, the ultimate goal of human history. This is a life in pursuit of the kingdom of God and its righteousness without being obsessed with the wealth and glory of this world. (Matthew 6:33) The heart is renewed and changed without being shaken by the trend of this world. It refers to the life of discerning what His will is. (Romans 12:2) Living according to God's will is a life of fulfilling love, truth, peace, and justice (Psalm 85:10-13). When you live your life, your daily life will surely change.

People in the world today listen more to words that bring them to their advantage rather than to the truth. Rather than love and consideration, we are focused on winning competition. I don't know what's most precious in my life, and I live a busy life obsessed with things that will dry up and wither. Aren't Christians living a life indistinguishable from others in this worldly climate? God wants everyone to be saved. And, he wants us to first realize the meaning of salvation and live a life of preaching this gospel to the world.

Dear brothers and sisters, God invites us to a new life as we face the New Year several times. Maybe whenever we encounter the Gospel, God invites us to a new life. However, we know that we cannot live a new life only with our determination and efforts. Without Jesus Christ, who was born on this earth in human form, who passed through all the sufferings and trials like us, and who was resurrected and ascended, the second life will also fail. Only when we remain in Christ we will be able to live a wonderful second life. I will conclude today's sermon with the words of 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!