Mark 16:1-20
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
Today is the day of resurrection, the day when Jesus resurrected 2,000 years ago. Although there have been many Christians in this world, they have not understood this day. When you consider this, you begin to fathom how pained and sorrowful the heart of Heaven is as it looks down upon people who are ignorant even about this day of resurrection.
The Heart of Jesus Toward Heaven and His Desire Toward Humankind
At least you who are here should celebrate this day no one understands on behalf of Heaven and all people. You should become the internal and external friends of Jesus Christ, the ones who feel his heart in this hour. You should sense that the place that you are sitting is a precious place where the attention of Heaven, earth and all things is focused. Thirteen years ago on this day, I remember when Jesus appeared before me and revealed to me that this was the day of his resurrection.
What kind of person did Jesus want to be? What kind of person did Heaven want him to be? Although Jesus came to the earth as the bridegroom, people on the earth did not receive him from the position of brides. Therefore, the bridegroom and the bride had to be separated. If you understand this reality, you will then also realize that Heaven wants you to become the bride who can feel the inexpressible heart of Jesus for the sake of all people.
Jesus knew he had the responsibility to fulfill the purpose of the 4,000-year providence of God, and the enormous mission to pour out all of his heart and strength to pay indemnity for the sins of humanity, which had piled up for 4,000 years. Therefore, he led a life of internal and external ordeals and sorrows, surpassing anyone in history.
Jesus wanted the restoration of the world of creation. The objects of his words were the people of the earth with whom he was to accomplish the task. This is why Jesus unveiled the urgent heart of God to people and appealed to them to fulfill that will. Yet the people of that time neither received nor understood him. As a result, those who received the words of Jesus were limited to certain spheres. He could not speak freely, even within those limited spheres. We must be able to console and mourn over the heart of Jesus, who was trying his utmost in such troublesome circumstances.
The time came when, after persevering through these hardships for three years, he should have been welcomed by all people. Yet not even one person received him as the son of God who represented God's will. Not even the family of Joseph and his relatives recognized him, although they certainly should have. The Jewish faith and the Israelites who should have recognized him did not. The world not only did not recognize him, it opposed him.
Even as he received opposition from all fronts, Jesus looked upon the unfaithful land and comforted the deep sorrow of Heaven. He still had to be concerned about the earth. Even the moment he died on the cross, facing the faithless people, Jesus had to bless them. You have to understand the heart of Jesus.
If you sincerely want to become the bride of Jesus, you must understand the heart of Jesus, who came and died in this manner. You must single-handedly pay indemnity for the sins of all your ancestors and become someone who can cherish the heart of the Lord in your heart and live it in your daily life.
If there is no one in this land who understands the sorrow of God and Jesus and possesses this mind-set and heart, then you who are here must try your best to do so. If there is someone today who possesses the heart Jesus exhibited on the earth, that person will be overwhelmed by deep grief and will not know how to face Heaven. Although there might be a 2,000-year gap of time between Jesus and that person, such a person can still become the bride who can comfort the heart of Jesus
If you understand this situation, then you must compare your life with that of Jesus. If your life and the life of Jesus differ too much, you cannot become a friend or bride of Christ.
The Disciples Should Have Inherited the Will of Jesus
What then must you do? You must at least possess the apologetic and awe-stricken heart of Peter after the resurrection of Jesus. You must try to take after the heart of Mary Magdalene, who was groping and struggling to find him. However, until the moment Jesus shouldered the cross, he did not have even one such friend or comrade.
What was Jesus' heart like right after his resurrection? His heart after the resurrection was sorrowful, and he felt compelled to offer a prayer of disgrace before Heaven. When he was facing the Father and the countless prophets and patriots who had been toiling for 4,000 years, he felt both gladness and endless sorrow. He shed disheartened tears. You have to fathom this heart of Jesus.
Although the people of faith in Heaven were joyful, Jesus was sad. Even God felt both joy and sorrow. Among the people who are living on the earth today, there is no one who understands this heart of Jesus. However, having learned this, you must make a new determination in your hearts.
What kind of determination are you going to make? The cause and the original reason that Jesus met such a fate was not because of the people or because of Heaven. It was because of Satan. Jesus emerged to seek the apostles who had been lost and trampled upon by Satan. When we consider how the apostles, who had once pledged their lives, let evil people guard the corpse and tomb of Jesus, we can see that if Jesus had been an ordinary person, he would not have come back looking for them.
However, because Jesus only felt burning indignation toward the enemy Satan and had unwavering determination to find the disciples, and the people who were suffering inside Satan's bosom, he came looking for them. Moreover, when he beheld the Father, who had repeatedly persevered through the burning anger He felt toward traitorous human beings for 4,000 years, Jesus renewed his heroic resolution to win back the pitiful people and went in search of them. You have to possess this heroic determination today.
After Jesus secured the determination in the remaining apostles to again fight against Satan, he could stay with them no longer. As Jesus watched over the disciples who had to inherit the will and scale the long course of history, who had to walk a bloody course and go over the pass of the crucifixion, Jesus felt sorrow and pain in his heart comparable to what he felt when he was dying on the cross. Moreover, when the forty days were over and he had to leave his beloved disciples among enemies, he felt deep agony.
What kind of mind-set did the apostles have? After Jesus left, they should have understood his sorrow in coming and going, but they only mourned over the fact that their beloved teacher had to part with them. When Jesus observed this, he felt a piercing agony in his heart which cannot be described in words.
When we consider the question of what kind of heart you must possess, you must inherit the tasks which remain after the departure of Jesus and come to possess an unchanging heart of steel, of rock, which will never yield an inch, even in a life and death battle. By doing so, you must directly experience and allay the heart of concern Jesus felt, even as he passed away.
If the apostles at that time had been united in heart and determined to be hung on the cross together with Jesus, God would have not resurrected just one person. If that had taken place, all the apostles would have been resurrected, and Christianity would not be in the state it is today.
You must inherit the mission these apostles left behind. You must feel the indignant heart of Jesus toward Satan as if it were your own. You must consider the determination of Jesus, who overcame the crucifixion, as your own. By doing so, you must become the second apostles who do not die on the cross but who survive it and emerge resurrected. On that foundation, you must become the apostles who can vanquish Satan in one day, the one who has been afflicting God for 6,000 years. With heroic determination, you must win in the fight against Satan and leave traces of the victory, even if you must walk the path of death.
The Great Mission of the People of Faith in the Last Days
You who have gathered here! Have you become such that your every cell can reach harmony with God? Only when your mind and your very cells can become one with God will God come seeking you, as Jesus searched for the apostles after the resurrection. These apostles must gather to search for the humanity of the world. Up to now, apostles have made heroic determinations based on the conviction that Jesus came to die. Therefore, you who understand that Jesus did not come to die must make an even more heroic determination.
In the past, Peter could not keep his pledge to follow Jesus even at the cost of his life. He paid indemnity for it later by making a second pledge after Jesus' resurrection. It can be said that Heaven has been working through the providence until today using this as the condition. Therefore, you are not to make a pledge before Jesus now and you are not to make a pledge to Jesus after his death as Peter did. Further, you must make the pledge to Heaven, earth and the Lord. In this way, you must fulfill the pledge that Peter could not fulfill before his death. When this is done, it stands as the condition to alleviate the bitter grief of the cosmos.
You must fulfill the children's position before God and the position of younger brothers and sisters before Jesus. The apostles of the past had a teacher-student relationship with Jesus, but today you have a brotherly relationship with Jesus. Thus, you must behold God and Jesus from the position of brothers and feel a sense of responsibility to pay indemnity for their distress. You have to understand that, in the same way Jesus persevered through agony in his course, you have the great mission to battle against hardship. Therefore, you must always pay attention to the voices you hear in the last days. Fathoming the wishes of Heaven and earth, you must realize those wishes. When you can do that, you can stand firm as the sons and daughters of God.
