June, 13th, 2010 Romans 1:15~16: "(15) That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. (16) I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Title: The Power of the Gospel Changes the World I pray that today's worship will be a good time for your soul, body and emotion. I also pray that through the victory of today's worship and the glory of worship, you will lead a victorious life for one week. The other day, one of our church members, who is a judge at a court, sent me a letter. It says, "Pastor, Judging at a court is incredibly complicated and difficult. It is never an easy matter. My life itself is so hectic. I would die if I didn't have God's grace through Sunday's worship. I would die because it's too hard for me." On reading the letter I felt like dying too. That's because I couldn't solve his problem. I pray that God will solve all your problems with the power of heaven and comfort through today's worship. Korean soccer team won 2 to 0 last night. I predicted that we would win 2 to 0. I am so grateful for that. I praise God's spiritual power on me. The children of the coach, Hu Jung-moo, are attending our church. And so we should pray for them. In my opinion, our team's skills are not that good, but with our prayers, they can go up to the semi-final. Nowadays, the Koreans have been divided in terms of points of view. I pray that God will cure us through the World Cup soccer. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, when we win soccer games we feel really good, then how much better we feel if we receive the power and grace from heaven on Sundays! I think our church is 'a life community where we become Jesus' true disciples and change the whole world." The life and the gospel. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! The life is given to us through the gospel. These days, outside church we can find a good education. In the past, the best things such as education, serving neighbors and so on were found in churches. These days a lot of social communities are doing very well. However, one thing only churches can do is saving our souls through the gospel. In this respect, there are not two different classes of churches that are divided in terms of size but there are two different classes of churches that are divided in terms of good or bad. This difference is based on the fact whether the church possesses the power of the gospel or not. I pray that our church becomes good with the power of the gospel. Today's text, Romans 1: 15 and 16 actually up to the verse 17, is the essence of the gospel. The book of Romans is considered to be the core of Paul's theology. Martin Luther got strength and power from these verses. Let's see the verse 15. There is one story. What does it say? "That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome." "That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome." What did Paul want to preach? The gospel. I am going to ask you one question. Did the Christians in Rome know the gospel or not? You can guess from my question. The Christians in Rome already knew the gospel. Look at the verse 6. It says, "And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ." They are already called to belong to Jesus Christ. They already knew the gospel. Then why did Paul want to preach the gospel to them? Theologians say that Paul wrote this letter 20 years after churches in Rome began to develop. Paul thought the grace of the gospel and their enthusiasm had cooled down then. Sometimes he strongly encouraged them to live a proper life. As in the chapter 13 verse 13, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy." This means they must not think about secular things but clothed themselves with Jesus Christ. Judging from his encouragement or his statement, we can guess there must have been something wrong. Consequently, I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. What is the core point of this statement? As for Paul, he had a heart of a shepherd and thought, "I wish Christians were restored and had the enthusiasm and power from the gospel again." With this in his mind, Paul wanted to preach the gospel to Christians at Rome. I would like to call each one of your names here and I would like to say that I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you. I pray that all of you recognize Paul's heart. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! There are two symptoms in our life where the grace of the gospel has disappeared. First, there is a rigid formality. This fossil-like law confines and limits us in everything. What is the feature of this rigid formality? Especially those who have believed in Jesus for a long time tend to show this. They tend to be lifeless. I don't want to say that formality itself is wrong. Formality itself is important. However the lifeless formality is a problem. As far as the Sabbath is concerned, when Jesus cured the sick on Sabbath, Pharisees put a lot of blames on him. Keeping Sabbath well itself is important. However, what did they overlook? What were their weaknesses? They were rigid formalists, rigid law abiding people or rigid fossil-like people. Sabbath is important. However curing the sick to restore their lives is more important. A lot of people tend to have their own religious frame when they have been Christians so long. It's their own faith frame. And so they don't tolerate others. Strange to say, if there are those who cannot tolerate others despite their long church life, they should listen to the gospel again. Do you understand? The other is 'cynical criticism'. This can be seen among the young. They tend to be cynical to almost everything. Whatever they see, they just say "Humph!' The cynical criticism. Through this there is not the grace of creation, blessing of restoration or healthy encouragement. There is only destruction. I pray that God will solve all these problems with the gospel. Today, 560 members are either going to be baptized or confirm that they are going to be baptized later. This is so important a moment. What should we do now to support them? What is the gospel? Today, God is calling each one of your names and wants to teach what the gospel is. God says, "I want you to listen to the gospel." Dear brothers and sisters in Christ here. God is calling us with the voice of the Holy Spirit. God wants us to listen to the gospel again. What is the gospel? We tend to think of the gospel as the death of Jesus Christ and resurrection of Jesus and then salvation. When we preach the gospel by using Sa Young-ri, The first principle and the second principle both talk about the gospel. That's it. However, in more detail, they are the content of the gospel. They are not the definition of the gospel. When I was in college, we made Sa Young-ri exclusively for college students. When we talked about the Holy Spirit, a lot of people began to believe Jesus. A lot of people came back to God. Of course, this grace is happening now, too. However, nowadays, campus ministry has become so hard and weak. We need to realize the gospel in more detail. What is the gospel? What is the definition of the gospel? The verse 16 says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Here the meaning of everyone who believes is beyond everything such as race, education, age, incomes, skin colors, family backgrounds, religious tastes, and morality. God saves everyone who believes in God. The meaning of salvation is not just for us to go to heaven and have peace after death but for us to experience heavenly life here on earth. You should believe it. This is a eclectic salvation. What is God to be who saves all people in the world?" God becomes power. In a word, the definition of the gospel is the Power of God. This should be the things we must bear in our mind whether Sarang Community Church or all churches in Korea. I repeat it. What is the definition of the gospel? We should determine and bear in our mind. The gospel is power of God. Power of God. How can this power of God be expressed in our lives? Dear brothers and sisters, what is expressed when the gospel becomes God's power? I would like to think about one thing with you for the gospel to become God's power. Please look at Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1 and 2. Let's read them together, "(1) The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, (2) to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,,," And so on. When the gospel becomes God's power, all these things will happen. "to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners,,," When the gospel becomes God's power, it becomes not fracture but the whole. When the gospel becomes the power of God, there will be not just individual salvation but the whole society will be changed. In the past, there were a lot of divisions in Korean churches because of the different opinions on individual salvation and social responsibility. Why are we so analytical? That's because we are much influenced by the Enlightenment, rationalism or analytical philosophy and so on over the past 100 years. We are analytical to find out what is first between individual salvation and social responsibility. In fact, when the gospel becomes God's power, they become one. The two things go together. When the gospel becomes God's power, not only the relationships between God and us but between ourselves are restored. They go together. According to the books of Luke or Mark, people come before Jesus. When Jesus began his publick work in the book of Luke, Jesus quoted the same verses in Isaiah chapter 61. "to preach good news to the poor,,, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,,,, to comfort all who mourn" When Jesus proclaimed all these things, a lot of people began to come before Jesus. In the book of Luke, we can see 7 kinds of people, the sick, the demon possessed, those who are hurt, lepers, a woman suffering from constant bleeding, Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a rich man but he was very poor in his heart. All these frustrated and poor people came before Jesus. When they came to Jesus and listened to Jesus, the gospel became God's power. They experienced cure, restoration and liberation. Only one person was exception. There was one rich officer. He was an exception. I repeat it. Gospel is not just something partial but the whole. When we are given the grace of God, not only God's power or individual salvation but also cure and power through them will appear together. Hallelujah! In this sense, what you and I should do from now on, for example, such things as our helping the poor, the oppressed, orphans and widows are not something we do as if we do favor to them but this is part of our church work. If the gospel is power and the whole and includes the whole integrity of humans, all these things should go together. It's not we serve or help them. Rather in their lives, the power of the gospel appear and God blesses us so that our church work will be able to be established well in them. When we help the poor with the whole integration in our mind and the sense of the whole and perfect man in our mind, the very poor and sick people can cleanse our church work. This is it. When we help the poor and the sick with the sense of the whole and perfect man, in a way, our church makes God's honest work appear in this world. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! You can see 'Loving Outreach 2010' in the weekly bulletin. Please don't consider this just as a part of our work. You should believe that through all these works, we, Sarang Community Church, with the whole integration of the gospel, will cleanse and renew ourselves. Do you feel happy in your lives? Do you feel gloomy? Do you wonder why your life is so miserable? Is there anything frustrating or uncomfortable in your mind? If you take part in one of the outreaches introduced here, integrating your hearts and looking desperately for the power of the gospel and concentrating your minds on God's work, God will cure you and renew you. I firmly believe so. This shows the whole property of the gospel. A paralytic, the poor, widows cannot stand up on their own. They are marginalized in our society. Helping the poor is not church's doing a special favor to them. Rather, when the gospel is well carried to the poor, the gospel becomes cleansed and pure. And so the cleansed gospel renews churches. In this sense, the poor help churches. I pray that this truth will be realized by you. This shows the whole integrity of the gospel. For the power of the gospel to appear, there is one thing we should be interested in. That is, as we saw a few minutes back, "the spirit of God came to me,,," The power of God is deeply connected to the work of the Holy Spirit. I think you know this well. Let's read today's text and the last chapter together. Romans 15: 18 and 19. I am going to read the verse 18 and you are going to read the verse 19. "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done? (19) by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ." Amen! In order for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed all the way around, as in the verse 19, it is done by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit." Here the power of signs and miracles are done with the power of the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, 'Gospel equals Power''Gospel equals the power of the Holy Spirit'. In the gospel, Christmas is needed to celebrate Jesus' incarnation in this world and the Holy Friday when Jesus was crucified is needed. And also, in the gospel, a new hope with the power of Jesus' resurrection is needed. However, for all these things to be accomplished and for all these things to be covered with God's grace, what do we need? We need the power of the Holy Spirit as in the Pentecost. As in the book of Matthew, 12:28, Jesus says "But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." We need the whole integrity for the gospel to become God's power. We should abolish partiality. We should go together. The gospel needs the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray that all these things will be experienced in your real life. I will introduce a mission organization called Overseas Crusades International. The leader of the organization is a missionary named 'Dick Hillys'. While he was working as a missionary in China, one day, a Chinese soldier brought his wife to them. He heard that "Jesus has power" And he brought his wife to them and said his wife was possessed by demon. The Hillys couple were well educated, stable and intelligent. But they had never treated demon in that way. Anyways, they had to deal with her. They knew there are a lot of cases demons were cast out in the Bible. So they began to pray to get rid of the demon from her. When they began to pray, the demon repeated after them. The demon said, "You don't have the power of prayer." mocking him. He felt ashamed and burdened. Then suddenly he was reminded of this Bible verse, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Later, he wrote this to describe then situation. It says, "With the demon mocking us, we kept reading the Bible and prayed. All of a sudden, God helped us realize the fact that we are associated with Jesus's death and resurrection. God has raised us high up to the point where Jesus is seated so that we are above all powerful people in the world, demon, any authority in the world. God also helped us realize that we have power thanks to Jesus Christ. My wife and I began to praise the power of the gospel and the blood of Jesus while claiming this new power and position. After praising, we ordered the demon to come out of the woman with the power of Jesus Christ. As soon as we did so, the demon came out. Hallelujah! This is a real power. The gospel is God's real power. I pray that all of us here will be persons who practice this gospel and be beneficiaries of the gospel. What is the point we have cure-all medicine? If we just place it on a shelf and don't use it, it's just good for nothing. We should open it and eat it. Today, please drink this power of the gospel, eat it, experience it. Doctors say, "Today's lifestyle will shape your lifestyle after 10 years and your health after 10 years." Your Christian life and my Christian life will determine our Christian life after 10 years. How will you live? The gospel with the whole integrity is more important than anything else. It is more precious than gold, cash and jewelry. Let's drink the power of the gospel today. I pray that those who are going to be baptized today will be main characters of the power of the gospel. Then how happy Christians we will be! When I realized this power of the gospel and when I began to believe in Jesus as my savior, I began to sing a hymn song. I sang this song with throbbing heart for one month in my father's study. When I sing this hymn song, I feel a lump in my throat. Let's open the hymn book and find hymn number 274.