December 18th 2011 Sunday Message Summary & Audio

Scriptures: Luke 2:14

The Bible records that when Jesus was born on earth in the flesh, God let people know the birth of the Messiah by showing them signs. Jesus was not a king of this world but the King from Heaven, the Savior sent by God. God showed the sign of a star shining brightly in the sky so that people could recognize that Jesus was the Messiah sent from Heaven. This is a sign that no human beings can show. Also there was the sign of the Magi coming from the east, from afar, to see Jesus. In addition, angels appeared to the shepherds tending sheep and told them that the Savior was born.

However, the Jewish priests, who believed in God and who were waiting for the Messiah, didn’t show any interest in the birth of Jesus. The priests of the Jews didn’t know that the King of kings, the Savior of all mankind, whom God sent, would come in such a humble way. The Holy Son, Jesus, came to earth in the body and grew up for thirty years in order to fulfill the history of salvation. Even though history was flowing by in that way, they didn’t know it properly.

When people don’t know, they don’t know no matter how many blessings God gives them. The difference between a person who knows and a person who doesn’t know is like the difference between heaven and earth. Therefore, no matter what it is, and no matter what work it is, we must learn about it. When we compare the blessings that we receive from knowing and the misfortunes we receive because of ignorance, the difference is like the difference between heaven and earth and it determines whether our lives go either to Heaven or to Hell.

From His birth till His death, Jesus had been surrounded by misunderstandings, distrust, hatred, suffering, and hardships. Despite all that, He endlessly did the work of saving eternally the lives of spirits and, in the end, He gave up His body for the generation that distrusted Him and for all mankind who had many sins. Jesus provided us with the path of salvation that would lead anyone, who believes and follows Him, to Heaven. Afterward, He resurrected in spirit and went up to Heaven.

Jesus is the Holy Son. Even before He was born in a physical body in the land of Bethlehem, Jesus had already existed in Heaven as ‘the divine Spirit of the Holy Son,’ as one of the Trinity—the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit. God made things in such a way that when a person’s physical body is born, their spirit is born at the same time so that their spirit exists along with their body. The spirit is created in such a way that only when the body believes in God and the Savior, obeys His will, and does righteous deeds, will it transform into a spirit of Heaven according to the deeds of the body, and go to Heaven.

In order to fulfill the will in the world where people live in the flesh, Jesus had to be born as a human being. Only then would people be able to listen to His words, see His deeds, and fulfill God’s Will. So, God had Jesus’ physical body be born on earth through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Son of Heaven appeared using the body of ‘Jesus’ as His own, and He fulfilled the will of salvation and carried out God’s history.

Therefore, Jesus is different from Abraham or Moses, or any other figure in the Bible. Human beings are born through the principle of love of the earth, but Jesus was not born in another way. Jesus is not a human being from the earth like Buddha, Confucius, or Socrates—the so-called ‘saints of the world.’ The Holy Son of Heaven, who is at the standing of God of the Holy Trinity, came to the earth wearing the flesh of the world. Just as not everyone can become the same as a hero, a king, or a saint of the world, not everyone can become a person like Jesus.

People who were born on earth like Abraham or Moses only worked throughout their lifetimes and ended at that. Jesus, however, worked throughout the two thousand years of the New Testament history, He is still working today and He will be working and making the salvation history throughout the one thousand years of the Complete Testament history as well. Also, it is Jesus that will come back again at the time of the Advent, where He comes back in spirit. We must know this as we celebrate the Lord’s birth and give glory to God. Only then will our celebration and rejoicing reach up to the heavens.

This omnipotent and omniscient Holy Son appeared through the weak physical body two thousand years ago. However, at the time of the Advent when He comes back, in other words, in this current time, He has not come back in the weak physical body. He gave up His body on the cross, resurrected in spirit, and went up to Heaven. The Lord has come back in the almighty spiritual body, as the King of kings and as the entity of God, and He is making a new history.

Just as the magi from the east presented Jesus with gifts of gold, incense, and myrrh, we should celebrate Christmas by giving the Lord our body, ‘the body of a bride,’ that is full of love. We should, as His bride, celebrate His birth by becoming a life of gold, a life of incense, a life of myrrh, a life of shimjeong, and a life of love, and we should give thanks and glory to God who sent us the Lord.

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