Former Church Headquarters
Matthew 18:1-14
The title of the speech today is "Jesus Is Searching for Us in This Way." This is the topic upon which I will speak.
Jesus Christ is the person who came on the earth as the one for whom God had poured out His heart in preparation for 4,000 years. Jesus Christ came to save humanity, representing the will of God and His languishing heart.
The Lamb that Fell Away
Fallen man is like the lamb that fell away from the herd of sheep. After the fall, humanity does not stand among the 99 lambs, but with the lamb that fell away. The millions of Heavenly soldiers and angels in heaven cannot return joy and praise to God because they have lost Adam and Eve, who are like the lost lamb. God has been working hard until now to claim back fallen men, who have prevented the Heavenly soldiers and angels from returning joy and praise to Him. Jesus was sent to the earth as the one God has been seeking for 4,000 years. Jesus, as the good ancestor of humankind, stood in the position of True Parents and persevered in his toilsome work in order to redeem our lives.
Today we have a simple understanding of Jesus Christ as the only begotten son of God in the 4,000-year history of the dispensation and the central figure who won the victory over Satan. He bore the cross for the sake of saving humanity, which had lapsed into sin and evil ways. What did God do to raise up Jesus as the center? He entrusted in Jesus all that He had been doing in His dispensation for the world and humanity. As a result, when Jesus Christ was lifted up as the new center of the providence, he stood in the position to be responsible for the salvation of the whole of humanity. When he was put in such a position, his mind and body must have been overwhelmed with unspeakable sorrow.
Jesus Christ Who Came Looking for Us
When Jesus seeks us, what kind of course does he take? To save humankind, during the 4,000-year history, God established the word, and through many prophets and sages, He prophesied to the multitudes that the Messiah would come.
Therefore, the followers of Judaism were prepared to receive the Messiah based on the words and testimonies of the prophets. This is the history recorded in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ, who came on that prepared foundation, was supposed to consummate the 4,000 years of Old Testament history as the history of goodness. Accordingly, the new words of truth that he spoke contained within them the sorrow that had accumulated during the 4,000-year course of the dispensation of restoration. At the same time, they were the truths that revealed the heavenly laws all must follow in their life of faith.
How would Jesus have felt looking down upon the unfaithful groups of the countless followers of Judaism? They were supposed to listen and believe in the words that he proclaimed. You must understand that Jesus was crying out to them with an agonized heart.
God has been looking for me, this one man, until today. To claim back all of humanity, who are imprisoned in sinfulness, He has been working hard for a long time. Through the prophets, He gave the Israelites the law during the Old Testament era. To end the sorrowful history of 4,000 years, He sent Jesus Christ and proclaimed the new words of truth. Because the Jewish people did not believe in those words, they were not able to comfort the sorrowful heart of God. Instead, they exacerbated the grief in the heart of Heaven. This is what you must understand.
For this reason, Jesus went before the crowd who did not know the direction they must head in and who remained within the dominion of Satan and, pointing the way, he revealed the path to survival. Nevertheless, the Israelite people did not listen. Consequently, humanity lost the direction of life and the altar of 4,000 years of toil that God had built. If the Jewish people had become one on the foundation of God's words, then they would have substantiated the words of God, and God would have been able to embrace them as children again.
The Jewish People Did Not Believe in the Words of Jesus
Because the Jewish people, who were originally supposed to become the examples, did not believe in the new words Jesus gave and could not unite, Jesus had to leave behind words of sorrow. For this reason, the Jewish people, who should have stood in the position of the hundred lambs, found themselves in a position similar to that of the lost lamb. We find ourselves in the same situation.
We have to understand the heart of Jesus toward the Jewish people, who were like the lost lamb. In order to elevate the lost Jewish people, Jesus cried out with a sad heart.
What we have to understand today is that God had been carrying on the dispensation with a heart full of pain for 4,000 years so that He could claim me; and after that, Jesus inherited the sorrowful heart of God. He has been calling to us, following us.
In his thirty years of life, what kind of course did Jesus walk? Jesus prepared for thirty years of private life, hoping for God's dispensation to emerge. When he appeared to spread the new words after that period had passed, he was not speaking the words with joy. He propagated the message with the sorrowful heart of God.
Although Jesus spoke many words such as "Follow me," or "Believe in me," those who attentively listened to the voice that cried out from a lamenting heart were extremely small in number.
You must understand that Jesus spent thirty years of his life in such an environment with a sad and bitter heart. The desperate voice of Jesus, spoken aloud in his lifetime, is still pleading with you through the biblical passages. Even in this hour, Jesus Christ is making an earnest request to you from the spirit world.
Therefore, you must now learn the contents of Jesus' request and find the way that you must walk. You will be greatly mistaken if you do not know the way in which you must head and what position you are in, the position of the lost lamb, and if you hold to the belief that this world will continue as it is. You yourselves might not know this very well, but while walking the 2,000-year course of history since his birth, Jesus is calling out with a sad voice, that calling has become your hope.
God's Heart and the Voice of Jesus
Would you ignore this voice, which is so earnestly calling to you? If there is anyone who cannot hear, he or she should at least feel the heart of bitterness. Is there anyone among you with ears to hear who does not long for that calling voice? We must shape up in order to listen to this voice. If you hear the voice calling out to you but cannot move because your body is not strong enough, you should direct your heart and soul toward that place. To claim back this one person who is like the lost lamb, God has been struggling not for one day, not for one year, not for one hundred years, but for 6,000 years. The 6,000 years He suffered to find the lost flock of lambs in heaven and on the earth is Heaven's history of redemption. Because we men cannot hear the voice of God calling out to us, He revealed it through Jesus, who was the embodiment of God. The words proclaimed by he who unveiled the invisible heart of God are the words of the gospel.
Because men cannot understand the mind of God, who exists in invisible form, and cannot hear His voice, Jesus came as the incarnation of God. Moreover, the Jewish people should have listened to the words he preached, and by going before him, they should have understood the true intent of God, which had not been understood for 4,000 years. Feeling the heart of God, they should have repented. Despite this, the Jewish people did not repent, but instead distanced themselves from Jesus. Therefore, from now on, you must make preparations so that you can understand the sorrowful voice of Jesus. What should you do in order to do this? The only way is that just as you listen attentively to words spoken in the worldly context, you should have the determination to believe in Jesus who stands before the multitude representing the heart and will of God. Jesus came as the representative of the invisible God and walked the course of atonement on behalf of ignorant man, who has only caused grief for Heaven for 4,000 years. Likewise, you should be able to fathom the heart of God who put Jesus in such a rueful situation and made him renew his determination.
If the Jewish people had been able to broaden their perspective and discern the voice that cried out on behalf of the internal heart of God, they would not have had any problem understanding the doleful words of Jesus, who came as the substantial body. Yet in what state were the Jewish people? They were content only with the words written in the Old Testament scriptures. They thought that God's final words were all already written in the Old Testament.
This is not the only sorrow of God. The Jewish people did not realize that if they did not serve Jesus when God lifted him up to reveal and testify to His innermost heart, the sadness of Heaven would become the sadness of the earth. You should understand that Jesus was supposed to liberate God's sorrow and suffering of the 4,000 years, but because the Jewish people did not recognize him, God's sorrow could not be liberated. Furthermore, His sorrow continued.
Jesus Christ, who came to the earth representing the will of God and the 4,000-year history, had to go back without proclaiming the words of happiness. Consequently, 2,000 years of history have passed since Jesus, but when we look back on the 6,000 years of history today, we find that even now, the sorrow of God and Jesus is still deeply rooted on the earth. We should come to understand the sadness of God and Jesus and be able to consider God's words of happiness and the words of Jesus. The reason Jesus came seeking us is not only to give words of sadness. In the laborious course of claiming back we who are like the lost lamb, God should not always speak grievous words. Since He spoke sorrowful words for 6,000 years, the moment the lost flock of lambs is found, there must appear words of such happiness that one can completely forget the 6,000 years of sorrow. You might think that such words of happiness will come from Heaven, but that is a great misunderstanding. Now we have to become the flock of lambs who will rush toward the heart of Jesus, who has toiled for 2,000 years, and toward the Lord who is to come seeking us.
We should not hesitate or be unable to find our direction after hearing the crying voice of the wounded Jesus Christ of sorrow. When Jesus Christ comes suddenly and calls you with a doleful voice, you should not flinch. What should you do? Before the sad voice of Jesus can be heard by you, you need to cry out in a sad voice first. You must be the first to shake heaven and earth with the cry, "My shepherd! Lord!"
Jesus who comes seeking you will then listen carefully to your cry; when he calls you again, he will not call in a sad but a happy voice. You should stand in such position.
We Must Testify to the Sorrowful Heart of Jesus
Today, we must testify to the sorrowful heart of Jesus. We should not just lament about having lost the shepherd, but we should also cry for the sake of finding the shepherd.
Likewise, we can only satisfy Jesus when we become people who can take responsibility for the path of suffering Jesus left behind. You must understand that today Jesus is searching for us with a sorrowful voice. In order to find us, he is repeating the pain of his life. Jesus, who represented the 4,000-year dispensation for the sake of saving humanity, could not live comfortably. He is coming looking for us today based on the foundation of his life of pain and suffering.
As you know, the thirty-year life of Jesus was a life of anguish. The thirty-year preparation period as the son of Joseph the carpenter was a life of pain and suffering, both internally and externally. He could not live freely in comfort like you. It is a great mistake to assume that he lived like the honored Savior of humanity. He was persecuted by his stepfather Joseph, Mary and even his younger brothers and sisters. He lived a life of agony in which he could not speak freely, though he had so much to say. His tribulations were not suffered for his own sake. He knew that if he did not represent the heart of God, there was no one else who could claim back the lost family, so he focused all of his heart and soul toward Heaven. Furthermore, when he saw people fighting among themselves in a pathetic environment for the sake of themselves and the surrounding environment, Jesus entered the course of a difficult and grievous life. Representing the living words of God of the 4,000 years, he put his life on the line and fought to build the ideal world.
Jesus did not receive proper treatment from the time of his birth until the time of his death. He led a lonely and difficult life just like the life in the wilderness. Such external tribulations are sufferings, but the internal anguish in his heart, hidden from others, is known only to God.
The Jewish people, who should have believed in and followed Jesus, did not recognize him and recognized someone whom they had little need to recognize. Living amid such people, Jesus longed for his life in the homeland.
His life, the things he ate and clothes he wore were not for his own sake and not for the sake of his own peaceful days. Jesus ate, clothed himself and did everything for others. He stepped beyond it all to live for the sake of God and humanity. The same can be said about each of his footsteps. However, there was not even one person who could understand the situation of the Messiah. There was no one who embraced the lonely heart of Jesus and said, "I understand your heart. I understand your feelings, so I will follow you wherever you go and become a friend who can comfort you." Without a doubt, his disciples should have comforted him, but they could not comfort the innermost, heart of Jesus hidden from others.
For this reason, the thirty years of Jesus' life became dotted with suffering and pain. From the first day of his three-year public ministry, when he preached the gospel, the words he spoke were not private words. They were not words spoken for his own benefit or for boasting about his skills. They were spoken to fulfill the will of God.
However, there was not even one person who tried to represent the people and become a friend to Jesus, who came to him with comforting words and good will. Jesus was mocked by the people in his own town and ridiculed by all the people.
Today, you live in an environment in which you can listen to the words of God in comfort. You should never lose this opportunity to relate with God in a free environment.
Jesus of Suffering
At that time, even when he was speaking the words of truth, Jesus had to do it secretly, and when he was listening to the words of God, he also had to hide. Consequently, they went into the wilderness. Even in the midst of that, Jesus tried to lure many people to the wilderness and teach them the words of God. You have to understand the heart of Jesus. He was determined to fulfill the will of God by propagating God's words even if he had to use those means.
Likewise, during the course of his life, Jesus tried to spread the gospel to many people, but there was not even one person who welcomed it. No matter how desperately in earnest he was in his desire to disseminate the truth, there were many who did not understand. The more Jesus tried to fulfill the mission and responsibility given to him, the more people appeared who tried to obstruct him.
Miserable Jesus Christ, who was observing this and crying out to the multitudes in the wilderness all day, voluntarily began walking the thorny path leading to Gethsemane in order to appeal to God once more. You should reflect again on the hard-won accomplishments of Jesus, who went before God alone because his disciples all dispersed. Comforting God's wounded heart, he tried to generate enough strength to fight with Satan again. You must understand that Jesus offered all thirty years of his life to lead the most painful of all lives. But this is not all. It is a great mistake to think that the suffering of Jesus came to an end when the thirty years of tribulations were over. Today, even after going to the spirit world, Jesus is still in great anguish.
Jesus is carrying on the dispensational providence centering on the one purpose of realizing the will of God, because the 2,000 years of history has been prolonged. He is leading a life of suffering even in this hour. His life of suffering was connected to the present.
How will this suffering then be resolved? It is not through all the things on the earth today. It is absolutely not through them. The only way for the longstanding suffering to be resolved is through your pain and suffering, you who can be responsible for today.
Therefore, Jesus disregarded the historical distance between you and revealed to you the suffering he experienced during the long process of the dispensation. You should realize this, and you should hold onto the painful hands of Jesus and comfort him. The responsibility lies with you today to place the deep-rooted suffering and grievance of Jesus on your own shoulders and give comfort to him. What happens when you have failed to stand in such a position? You should feel the tribulations of Jesus in your own environment. You should be able to analyze the suffering life of Jesus from within your own life.
What kind of sin did Jesus commit that he had to live all of the thirty years of his life in such pain and suffering? If he did commit a sin, it was that he was chosen as the Savior to bring salvation to humanity. You must understand that Jesus was in pain and shouted in desperation for the sake of humanity. We should have a repentful heart before Jesus today. Even within your own life, you can find traces of the suffering of the thirty years of Jesus' life. You are to reap them, and you are to reap all of his suffering beginning from the time of his birth at the stable to his trials on the hill of Golgotha. You must even reap the traces of his suffering during the 2,000 years after the resurrection. You must understand this will of the whole.
The sorrow of Jesus did not end with just crying out in desperation. It did not come to an end with the tribulations and toils in his life. Many people today misunderstand and think that his sorrow came to an end through the difficult life he led and his death on the cross, but because the dispensation has been prolonged as a result, the sorrow of Jesus remains unresolved. Knowing this, you should put your life on the line and save Jesus from sorrow.
Since Jesus Christ has endured the pain and has walked this path full of grievance and suffering for 6,000 years until now in order to find us, and since he has put his life at stake and walked the road of the cross, you must hold onto Jesus.
Even when he was facing death on the cross, which put an end to the thirty years of his life, he earnestly appealed to God, "Oh Father. . . ." The appeal that the countless prophets had made with their blood in the 4,000 years should have been brought to fruition by the Jewish people. It was not, so how could they recompense their ancestors? There is no way they can compensate for it.
The person who requited the historical appeal of blood on behalf of the people and who paid indemnity was Jesus Christ. When the blood of Abel made the appeal through Jesus, there came about the liberation of the conditions laid by the countless prophets and sages who had shed their blood wherein they appealed to the earth, shattered and stained with blood, as well as to the Jewish people. The voices of lament and the cause that the countless sages and prophets had appealed for during the 4,000 years were answered through the death and resurrection of one man, Jesus. Because the grievances of the ancestors who had shed blood on the earth were addressed by the resurrection of Jesus, their will, for which they had reproached the earth and demanded liberation, had been realized. Only after that moment, men were finally able to bow as an offering before Heaven through Jesus who stood before us.
We Must Liberate Jesus
Jesus consummated the appeal of the blood of the sages and prophets who had been sacrificed because the Jewish people had not remained faithful to Heaven. At the same time, what did he leave behind for the future generations? Jesus left behind the blood of the death of crucifixion for ensuing generations. For this reason, when you stand before Jesus and when you reflect on your life, you will find that even in your own life there have been passes of blood that you had to cross. You must understand that while this is a compensation for the appeal that the sages and prophets made through their blood, it is also a recompense for the appeal of blood made by Jesus. So, when Jesus comes through the path of the cross and tells us to come, we should also go toward him through the path of cross. Now you have to deeply feel the zeal with which Jesus made the desperate appeal with his blood on the cross on the hill of Golgotha. His blood is now actively at work in your veins and arteries.
Jesus came seeking you by the way of the cross, but you have not understood his suffering until now, and you did not even take the cross away and reach out to him. Jesus, who walked the path of death and came to look for us while bearing the cross, is even now still crying out and appealing unceasingly for our sake. Even while suffering pain and walking the path of death, he is still working strenuously for our sake.
Now we are facing Jesus with the cross placed in the middle, and someone must resolve the grief and suffering caused by the cross. It is we of today who must do it. Without resolving it, we cannot graft onto Jesus and call him our bridegroom. This is the reason when Mary Magdalene called out, "Oh Lord!" right after the resurrection, Jesus stopped her. For the same reason, although Mary wanted to begin life in Heaven from the day she met the Lord, life in Heaven was prohibited for 2,000 years. We should understand this grief from the background of the cross, and we who have faith must bring the solution.
What did Jesus, who crossed the pass of crucifixion to come seeking us, leave behind? He left the mission of the bride and bridegroom. Accordingly, now the Lord will appear as the bridegroom in your prayers. You are the bride and the Lord is the bridegroom, and this is the appearance with which he will come before you. When you meet the Lord who comes as the bridegroom, you have to always think about the recompense of the blood shed on the cross.
What is left and what the Lord must give us is that he must find for us the path through which we can dismantle the cross and wish for the blessing to be given to humanity. He must show us the path through which we can go over the cross. We must cross the pass of the cross so that Jesus can hold onto us freely and we must bring liberation from grief by shaking off the cross. Unless we set the unchanging standard based on which we can dismantle the cross, the altar, heaven and earth, and the works of the Second Coming, will not be complete.
The Light, Water and Oil that Jesus Left Behind for Us
What did Jesus, who came seeking us, leave behind for us of this day? What is that which he has given us, having found us through his doleful life of suffering and death on the cross? Jesus left behind for us the light of life. He risked his life and came looking for us, and the gift that he brought was the light that lit up this dark world. Therefore, when we shed tears of gratitude while reflecting on the death of Jesus, we will come to understand his heart and his situation.
What is the next thing that Jesus left for us? He left behind water and oil. He left behind water and oil with which he can heal our wounds as we undergo tremendous ordeals and many wounds are inflicted on us. Accordingly, we must use the light Jesus provided for us to discover our wounds and wash them with the water and oil. Knowing our sins and realizing that we are naked, we must weave a holy gown and wear it. Such a time has come. Similarly, only after you have lit up your heart and mind to wash all the sins away, healed the wounds, and worn the gown, can you realize today the dream of Jesus who passed away 2,000 years ago. Now, we must light up the lantern in our hearts, wash our bodies with the water, and apply the oil to our wounds. Finally, after wearing the gown granted to us, we should bear the cross so that Jesus does not have to and bow before Jesus. This is the task man on the earth must fulfill. Do not wish for Jesus to bear the cross for you, but bear it yourself. It is not Jesus who should bear it; you must become the people who give out the light of life. Then being equipped with all the power, wear the gown that can represent the light of the eternal and unchanging value. After that, go over the cross to become the beloved brides who will hold onto Jesus and bow before him, saying, "Lord, please rest in peace eternally." God is hoping these kinds of brides will appear.
Now you have to unravel the burdens Jesus left behind. You must inherit the light of the heart from Jesus, and receive from Jesus the blessings of water and oil, and then wear the holy gown. This gown is not to remain only with you as individuals. It will not apply only to you, but there must emerge many people who can become the brides by receiving the light, as well as the blessing of water and oil through you.
Prayer
Father of love! Please let us realize the grieving heart and be in awe before that heart by understanding how thorny the 6,000 years of history have been. We did not know what the gravest of all sins was, but when we come to the realization, we find that it was a great sin to consider the light that the Lord has given us only as our own. Although we possess the water and the oil, it was a great sin to hold it only for ourselves. Although we were wearing the holy gown, it was a grave sin not to have caused many people to wear the gown, although we have the responsibility to make people become faithful. It was a great sin on the scale of representing the 6,000 years that we could not make others believe.
Please let your children who have gathered here understand that more than committing sin themselves, it is a greater sin to cause another to commit sin, and it is a greater sin to have failed to give them the light, water, oil and the gown that Jesus left behind through his suffering. Father, please let the children who had scattered receive the hyung-sang of Jesus Christ and listen to his calling through the words I have spoken. Although they should be responsible for the historical difficulties and tribulations, including even the suffering of the cross, because they are inadequate and ignorant of Heaven's will and the Father's wishes, please encourage them and reveal Your will to them first; let them hear Your voice directly first. Loving Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that, since they are trying to lead a life of goodness, You will lead them to live their life as they hope.
Please prepare them as the bride of the Lord and guide them to become children who can prevail over everything and bring glory to Heaven, and please govern over the new historical event. I entrust everything to You, so please govern us as You will and appear in the hearts of these who have gathered here. I pray that You will raise them up as the children who can represent the eternal glory of victory. I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.
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