God Raised the Lord

Acts 10:34-43, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-10 2020. 4. 12. Yonsei University Church

May the grace of the resurrected Lord be with all the brothers and sisters of Yonsei University Church.

Today on Easter Sunday, you may have prayed looking forward to seeing the faces of brothers and sisters sitting next to you to worship and to celebrate, but it's a pity to worship separately in your own place. I pray that this time God will comfort you and enrich the joy of the resurrection.

Although we cannot see each other, please exchange Easter greetings with your heart.

Today is the day Jesus broke the power of death and triumphed three days after being buried in the grave.

Nowadays, although we are in the midst of spring, it does not feel like it. Cherry blossoms, magnolias, forsythias, and rhododendrons are in full bloom even on the campus of Yonsei University, and spring comes as beautiful as spring flowers with yellow-green buds, but it is not like spring at all.

The Spring Flower Festival has been canceled, people are recommended to participate in social distancing.

The world is now helpless with the rapid spread of Corona 19. It is medically uncontrollable. Moreover, the global economic crisis broke out. Factory operations stopped, businesses went bankrupt, stores lost customers, and mass unemployment began. Poor people have become hard to make ends meet.

Above all, the disaster brought the shadow of death to reality that I thought had nothing to do with us. Don't you get scared when you have a headache or cough once or twice?

Dear brothers and sisters, this year's Easter is even more meaningful as we are facing a gloomy situation. It is because we can see the brilliant victory of life from the Lord who overcome death and confirm the trust in God's salvation. And I am grateful that the resurrection of the Lord is the root of the church.

It was because the disciples who had escaped and scattered from the crucifixion returned, stood up vigorously, became witnesses of the resurrection, and through them, the Church of Faith was born.

Because of the resurrection of the Lord, the disciples who had been haphazard became a brave army, and Peter is the representative. Jesus said to Peter, who gave a proper confession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, “You are Peter. I promised to build my church on this rock”(Matthew 16:18), but if Peter had not returned, this precious community of faith could not begin.

So, on Easter Sunday today, we need to pay our attention on the apostle Peter in Acts 10.

Brothers and sisters! What comes to mind when you say Peter, Jesus' first disciple?

Simple, acting, impatient, flatulant, sloppy, and passionate on the one hand ...

So what does he look like in the Gospel of John? At that time, the women who followed the Lord were active in following Jesus like Mary Magdalene, even though they weren't even called disciples, but Peter was faltering.

After hearing the story of the empty tomb, Peter and one of his disciples seem reluctant to follow.

They witnessed the body and head of the burlap and towels without the body of Jesus in the tomb, but they were not moved. The Bible clearly states that they "did not understand the Bible saying that Jesus must rise from the dead." Although the empty tomb was strange, Peter and his disciples, who had no realization of the resurrection, returned to the attic, silently hiding.

John, 20:19 describes their condition very well.

“In the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were closing all the doors of the gathering where they feared the Jews.” After witnessing the empty tomb at dawn, many hours passed and it was evening, the disciples were still in fear. This is because the door of the heart was tightly closed.

Brothers and sisters, in the text today, Peter preached 10 years after the first resurrection. The place was Caesarea, the administrative capital of the Roman Empire that ruled Israel at the time.

There was Cornelius, a Roman centurion, who received a vision from God as a faithful man and invited Peter, who is staying in Jobba, 48 km away, to tell him the way to salvation.

Peter is now witnessing God's saving work through Jesus and his faith journey in front of his relatives and friends gathered by Centurion Cornelius. It is an imposing image of witnessing the gospel to the Gentiles at risk. Let's take a closer look at his testimony.

First of all, Peter testifies that God accepts everything.

He knew that he became a disciple not because he was qualified.

Moreover, even though he strongly denied and replied Jesus three times, he confessed this because he experienced Jesus’ forgiving love he forgiven.

Theologian Paul Tillich defined faith this way: “Faith is that I accept that God has accepted me.”

Brothers and sisters! I want to assure you that God always accepts and embraces us just as we are.

Second, Peter testifies that God has brought peace through Jesus Christ.

Peter remembered that Jesus said on the mountain, “Blessed is the man who makes peace. God remembered them mercifully. ”

Because when he witnessed the empty tomb and was afraid and locked the door with other disciples, the resurrected Jesus came in the midst of them and said, “Peace be with you!.” Everyone! Remember that the best peace given to us is that our relationship with God has been restored through faith, and I wish you peace.

Third, Peter testifies that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and power.

He witnessed that when he served with the Lord for three years, Jesus preached and taught the gospel, and he had a lot of healing work.

It contains a confession that his ministry was possible by giving God the Holy Spirit and power.

Because when Jesus came to them in fear, when he prayed for peace and gave him a mission, he poured out the Holy Spirit to handle it.

It is found in John 20:22. “I breathed on them and said, Take the Holy Spirit. ”

Brothers and sisters! In the Bible, there are only three accounts of God's spirit, the Holy Spirit depicted as 'breath'.

First, in Genesis 2: 7, then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

And in Ezekiel 37: 9, when God said, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”

Finally, in the New Testament, Jesus was the only one to breathe the Holy Spirit into his disciples. This made Peter a powerful being by the Holy Spirit.

Don't forget that we are the ones who have received vitality and power through the Spirit of God.

Fourth, Peter testifies that people hung Jesus on a wooden cross, but God raised the Lord on the day of the Lord and made him appear. He added that he ate and drank with the risen Lord. Indeed, Peter had an experience by the see of Galilee where he had breakfast prepared by the risen Lord.

The detailed story appears in John 21. The disciples who met the resurrected Lord go back to their hometown of Galilee and catch a fish in the Sea of Galilee.

Here too, Peter leads the way. But they don't look lively.

It was because they had the shame and guilt that they had betrayed the Lord on the cross, and there was still anxiety and fear. So, can fish be caught in such a state of mind? Here, the resurrected Jesus was watching. The Lord helps them catch a lot of fish, cooks the fish on a charcoal fire, and prepares bread and invites them to breakfast. And he got to spend 40 days with the risen Lord before Jesus ascended to Heaven.

Finally, Peter preaches that the resurrected Jesus was given a mission to proclaim and testify that God has appointed him as a judge, adding the testimony of the prophets.

“Everyone who believes in the Lord is forgiven of sin in his name.”

This is because he has changed dramatically through forgiveness.

Shall we go back to the sea of Galilee again? After the meal, the Lord asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” Maybe he asked three times because he denied it three times?

Then he gives him a precious mission, "Feed my sheep." When calling Peter here, it is important to note that he called him by his real name “Bar-jonah Simon” “Simon the Son of Jonah.”It was a title that reminded him of his first love when he was called by the sea of Galilee.

Instead of asking, "Did you love me?" in the past tense, he asked in the present tense, "Do you love me now?". Jesus made sure that Peter still loved him, but did not bring up the past failures, but as if nothing had happened, he believed in his present confession, saying, "Feed my sheep." The Lord's love for Peter pressed down on his remorse.

Peter, who experienced this forgiving grace, became a confident witness of the Resurrection, and boldly proved God's salvation history to the Gentiles.

Brothers and sisters! Our Lord has covered our past and cherished our present faith.
Last year at this time, during a trip to the Italian monastery with religious people, I saw a chain that tied up Peter when I visited the Peter Chain Church in Rome. Peter was convinced that he was the disciple of the resurrected Lord, so he did not refuse the chains, and requested that his cross be upside down, as he felt unworthy of being crucified in the same manner as Jesus.

It was a result of the Resurrection that wiped out his failure and betrayal, and poured the Holy Spirit upon him.

Then how should we live with the Resurrection faith as a gift?

Colossians 3:1-4 can be a good guide.

Paul's position as an apostle when he met the resurrected Lord is clear: God has spared Christ, and must live in pursuit of the things above! That's it.

I urge you not to think about what belongs to the earth, but to live in pursuit of the kingdom of God.

Facing the Corona-19 crisis, the true natures of the world, the church, the human civilization and the human are revealed. Some people engaged in mask fraud; others make masks and distribute them to neighbors; others run to Daegu voluntarily to serve; others deliver gimbaps to residents of the doss-house; others donate money to the intellectually disabled and senior recipients receiving basic living cost; others lower monthly rent for tenants, etc. All of them are touching stories of consideration, empathy, concession, and solidarity.

So the junior pastor in Daegu confessed like this.

"I was lucky, too, living in Daegu. I'm experiencing a kind of Utopia formed in the midst of a disaster.“

And there are people who inspired others by reflecting themselves and their church in the Corona-19 incident.

A pastor prayed like this. "Lord, it has become a world where we can't live a day without a mask. This seems to be the Lord's command to live a little more silent to us who have said a lot of irresponsible words and carried false news casually. From now on, let me keep my mouth closed, speak less, and try to tell others the truth."

Pastor Song Gil-won, whom I met a while ago, wrote this article.

"I have learned. All the time has stopped. The daily life is gone. I can't meet the person I have to meet. Even if I meet, I have to be vigilant…only then I have learned that everyday life is a miracle. I have learned. I've learned that death can have something to do with me someday, and one day it can come to me too, so that I have to prepare for the death at any time."

Dear brothers and sisters! This is what apostle Paul said: the practice of "seeking what is above."

We hope to practice the will of God above such as life, peace, love, justice, solidarity, and communication.

Meanwhile, the Corona-19 incident revealed the bare face of human civilization. It's also called group incompetence.

Money, greed, and infinite competition exclude the poor and strangers and ignore global warming. It happened when the fight for medical equipment between allies, the hoarding of medical equipment by advanced countries, the intensive investment in weapons production, the medical system with no public nature, the neglect of the vulnerable, and racism boasted the entry of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

A general assembly and a religious association protested the government's strengthening of social distancing as a religious oppression, and some churches ignored the insecurity of the residents and the quarantine rules.

Brothers and sisters! These are the things Paul said that belong to the earth today.

Brothers and sisters! May you listen to the precious word of Jesus on Easter Sunday. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

God has surely revealed his love for mankind by resurrecting Jesus, and the Lord has opened the path of life of resurrection, and He has given us the eternal life.

May you now put the Lord at the center of our lives like Peter did, and lead a noble life in pursuit of the above.

Apostle Paul, who met the resurrected Lord and became an apostle and was full of the Holy Spirit, declared this.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 8:38-39)

Dear brothers and sisters, Corona-19 is a secret power, but we can triumph with the resurrection faith, the history of God's love. We, who have become free from fear and anxiety by faith in resurrection, can breathe life, peace, hope and joy into our neighbors through the daily life of resurrection. To all of you who are determined to pursue the kingdom of God, I wish you the full presence of God the Holy Spirit.