말씀 녹취록
He was called a Christian.
Acts 11:19-26
I will greet the people next to me.
You are a person of blessing. You are an evangelist.
The disciples of the church in Antioch in today's text were called Christians for the first time in history.
In the original language, the word "Christian" carries the meaning of a person who belongs to Christ, a person who lives for Christ, and a person who resembles Christ.
The 'Christian' we commonly use today is actually a Christian.
I have met many people of diverse ethnicities.
Many multi-ethnic people born in countries with a Christian background naturally identify themselves as Christians.
They call themselves Christians even though they have not had a true encounter with Jesus Christ.
So I ask, “Do you have assurance that you are saved?”
However, I came to confirm that such genuine encounters do not exist for many multi-ethnic groups.
The name 'Christian' that the disciples of the Antioch church heard was on a completely different level from this.
The fact that they have reached the point of being called Christians is, in a word, because they are crazy about Jesus.
These people gathered risking their lives.
It was a situation where they threatened to arrest and kill anyone who believed in Jesus.
However, it was to the point where many people, looking at them, felt, “They are truly obsessed with Jesus. They truly see no one but Jesus. They have truly staked their lives on Jesus.”
They were people who loved the Gospel so much and were crazy about Jesus.
Therefore, the title that could not be heard without reaching Jesus was 'Christian'.
However, the meaning has changed significantly now.
The title of today's message is 'He Was Called a Christian'.
As I decided on the title for this message, I thought of one sentence.
I am a 'Christian worthy of the name'.
I thought that in order to truly be called a Christian, I needed to become a Christian worthy of the name.
I hope that through today's message, each and every one of our saints will come to realize what it truly means to be a Christian worthy of the name.
I hope you will live as a truly wonderful, Christian-like Christian in the future.
What kind of person is a true Christian?
First, it is a person who knows what God desires.
It is stated in Acts 11:19 and 20.
At that time, those who had been scattered because of the persecution over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word only to Jews. But some of them, from Cyprus and Cyrene, came to Antioch and spoke also to the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus.
The martyrdom of Stephen led to the beginning of full-scale persecution in Jerusalem.
As you know, many people, excluding the apostles, were scattered to various places.
In fact, since they remained complacent even though it was time to scatter, God forcibly scattered them.
Looking at today's text, we see that these scattered people reached as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch to preach the gospel.
However, looking at verse 20 of the text, some among the scattered people who possessed the evangelism and missionary mindset of Acts 1:8 preached the Lord Jesus to the Gentiles as well.
As a result, the evidence that emerged at the scene was truly surprising.
The evidence is in Acts 11:21.
The hand of the Lord was with them, and many believed and turned to the Lord.
As we proclaimed with a mindset of evangelism and missions that Jesus is the Christ and the solver of all life's problems, the work of the Holy Spirit, with the hand of the Lord present, took place there.
Thus, as countless Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord, the Antioch Church was born.
This is the moment when the focus of God's work is gradually shifting from the Jerusalem church to the Antioch church.
I am dreaming of the Antioch Church.
Although our church is a mission church for the nations, we dream of being used like the Antioch church.
I dream of a church where the hand of the Lord is with us and His grace overflows.
God is showing these things to our church little by little.
Our church is a church where the hand of the Lord is with us and the grace of the Lord overflows.
It will continue to be used as such a church in the future.
The Antioch Church was not founded by any single specific person.
It is a church established by people with a missionary mindset and nameless individuals rising up together.
The fact that they could later be called the first Christians also ultimately stemmed from a mindset of evangelism and missions.
Therefore, we must let go of our prejudices.
You must also let go of preconceptions.
We have been called to be a church that goes to the Gentiles and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Being multi-ethnic is no exception.
Everyone needs the Gospel.
They are also spiritual beings and are beings who need God.
We must always move forward with a mindset of evangelism and missions.
When were you called a Christian?
Many believers gathered in the church were called Christians only when they proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ with a mindset of evangelism and missions.
What we need today is the mindset of evangelism and missions that God desires most.
I want that mindset to be restored.
What we must never lose sight of is thinking about what God wants.
What is it that God desires?
In 1 Timothy 2:4, the Apostle Paul says this.
God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
This is what God wants.
The life of faith is doing what God desires.
Wherever you go, I hope you enjoy the blessing of doing what God desires.
If you embrace what God desires, everything looks different.
Even in the same place, people in the world live thinking only about food, clothing, and shelter.
I think about what to eat, what to wear, and what to drink.
However, we are missionaries sent there.
We are there as evangelists.
It is the same place, but we are there as sent missionaries.
We are evangelists.
When we say we are going on a mission trip, many people go on a trip, but we are going as commissioned missionaries.
We are going as evangelists.
That is the greatest blessing in life.
Who goes and who is there is important.
We must enjoy this and receive the blessings that are added to us.
Brothers and sisters, missions are not something special.
Camp is nothing special, either.
Just because we go to the field and do missionary work does not mean we have to do nothing but do missionary work or camps there 24 hours a day.
It is okay if you do not evangelize immediately when you go to camp.
You may come back after having a cup of tea.
The important thing is who is there and who is going to the scene.
It is important whether there is someone there with an evangelism and missionary mindset.
It is important where a person with an evangelism and mission mindset goes.
Therefore, please do not try to do too much; you can simply go to the site, take a look, and have a cup of tea.
That itself can be a part of fulfilling what God desires.
We are holding a multi-ethnic international student camp this time.
I hope you receive the Word, enjoy delicious food, and praise together.
I hope you also have some time to socialize with each other.
Please do not feel burdened, and focus on who is there and who is at the scene.
I believe that God will grant healing for both body and soul, and the blessing of being with Him.
He was called a Christian.
The blessing of being called a Christian comes to those who have a mindset of evangelism and missions.
Second, a trained disciple.
It is said in Acts 11:22 through 24.
When the church in Jerusalem heard about these people, they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived, he was glad to see the grace of God and exhorted everyone to remain steadfast with the Lord. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And a great number of people were added to the Lord.
Many Gentiles were returning to Antioch.
So the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to spiritually build them up.
Last week, we received the message of 'spiritual Barnabas'.
Barnabas was deeply moved by seeing God's amazing grace on the spot.
And he firmly established the believers of the Antioch church on the gospel.
However, the fruit of revival continued to be borne to the extent that Barnabas alone could not handle it.
Barnabas thought, “Ah, I can’t do this alone.”
The person who came to Barnabas's mind at that time was Saul.
Saul was in his hometown of Tarsus at the time.
It is stated in Acts 11:25 and 26.
Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. The two of them stayed with the church for a year and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.
There is something we need to pay attention to in this passage.
It was after receiving full instruction from Paul and Barnabas for one year that he came to be called a Christian.
It is recorded that Paul and Barnabas taught the saints for one year.
What would the two people have taught?
When you say you are nurturing new members, what can you teach them when new people come?
It is the word of God.
What would the Apostle Paul have done while staying in Tarsus?
What can you convey?
What can be taught?
People end up teaching what they have learned and held onto throughout their lives.
If my life is a life of the Word and I have been in the Word, I will come to share that Word.
The Apostle Paul viewed the words he had learned throughout his life from the perspective of Christ.
The Bible was illuminated through the Gospel.
I viewed the 66 books of the Bible from the perspective of the Gospel.
At this time, something amazing happened to Paul.
I discovered in the Bible that Jesus is the Christ.
I came to realize the essential meaning of God's word.
I realized the core of the Gospel: Christ, the Kingdom of God, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
If you were to start a life of faith today, what should you do first?
You must read the Bible. Is that correct?
You must look at the Word.
However, the Word of God is a vast volume of 66 books.
There is a lot of content.
Therefore, the important thing is to first understand the Gospel.
Understanding the Gospel means knowing the essential meaning of God's Word.
What is the gospel spoken of in the Bible?
It means good news.
What is the good news?
This is news that brings us blessings.
What is the greatest blessing to us?
The fact is that Jesus came as the Christ.
Believing in Christ and being saved is the best news for us.
The good news of salvation is the Gospel.
Escaping from the power of hell, disaster, and curse is the Gospel.
If I have escaped from here and realized the Gospel, what should I teach first?
It is the gospel that Jesus is the Christ.
For one year, Paul and Barnabas preached to the saints that Jesus Christ is the solution to all problems.
There is a reason why the Bible was given to us.
He gave us the Bible so that we might realize and believe that Jesus is the Christ and be saved.
My encounter with God and realization of the Gospel is the experience of Mount Calvary.
The experience of Mount Calvary occurred to Paul.
The experience of Mount Calvary also happened to Barnabas.
Those who experience this completely change the direction of their lives on the Mount of Olives to live for the gospel.
Paul and Barnabas were moving forward into a life lived for the gospel through the mission on the Mount of Olives.
Now, I must confess the Lord as my Master and live a life of obedience.
We must go toward the life the Lord desires.
You must live a life following the Lord.
He gives the fullness of the Holy Spirit of the Upper Room so that one may carry out that work.
Paul's eyes were opened to see the covenant of Mount Calvary, the Mount of Olives, and the Upper Room of Mark.
So, imagine how much there must have been to say?
As intensive word training was conducted at Antioch Church for one year, they came to taste the word that it is sweeter than honey and honeycomb.
Paul taught the word, and Barnabas performed the ministry of comfort.
The ministry of building up firmly through the Word and the ministry of comfort that heals hidden wounds created a synergistic effect.
So, I saw the believers of the Antioch church changing and growing in faith day by day.
They have grown into lives that resemble Jesus to the extent that not only believers but also non-believers call them Christians.
A disciple is a trained person.
A disciple is someone who follows the Word.
The word 'disciple' itself carries the meaning of following.
In short, a disciple is someone who follows only Jesus Christ, who is the essence of the Word.
A disciple is someone who follows the Word before being someone who does many things and devotes themselves.
The platform for the life of faith is the Word of God.
You cannot lead a complete life of faith without God's word.
You must properly understand how God spoke through the pulpit today to enjoy a proper life of faith.
I hope you listen to God's voice and live according to His word.
Living according to the Word is the blessing of prosperity.
If you follow the Word and live according to it, everything will go well.
In particular, when I am nurtured by God's Word through worship, my old mold is broken and I am equipped with a new one.
It is being filled with God's things.
Therefore, the thing we must prioritize in our lives as children of God is worship.
Worship can only be offered by God's saved children.
Through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, the wall separating God and sinful humanity was broken down.
Therefore, approaching God by relying on Jesus Christ is worship.
Spiritual growth occurs when the Word of God proclaimed during worship is established within me as a firm tower.
And you will go on to live an influential life.
If we look at Matthew 28:19 and 20, Jesus said this as He resurrected and ascended to heaven.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things which I have commanded you.
The core of the command given by Jesus is to 'teach them to observe.'
It means to teach the core of the Gospel exactly as it is and have people keep it.
It means to provide training in the Word.
Therefore, with the arrival of the Friday-Saturday-Sunday era, we are preparing the Remnants to become the summit members who will save the future.
We are continuing the Friday-Saturday-Sunday era to teach the core of the Gospel to future generations exactly as it is and to ensure they keep it.
We are preparing future generations to become summit leaders who will save the future.
We are also conducting media missions through various online platforms.
We are preparing this interpretation as well for the sake of media missions.
Ultimately, all of this is the ministry of teaching and keeping God's word.
What is the Word of God?
The fact is that Jesus is the Christ.
The future depends on how deeply the core of the gospel—Christ, the Kingdom of God, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit—is imprinted, rooted, and internalized within us.
Therefore, we must continue to teach the core of the Gospel to future generations and ensure they uphold it.
The future of our descendants depends on how deeply this gospel is imprinted, takes root, and becomes ingrained in them.
This is extremely important.
Is that correct?
I hope that you will pour your hearts and prayers into this work, ensuring that the Gospel is imprinted, takes root, and becomes ingrained in the nature of our future generations.
Amen?
I hope that all saints will be fully equipped with the Word of God through worship and training.
I bless you in the name of the Lord to become a wonderful disciple with a mindset of evangelism and missions.
Our church will become a church where each and every one of such saints gathers together, where the hand of the Lord is with us and the grace of the Lord is with us.
This is the conclusion.
There is a saying about someone being in a different class.
A class refers to a hierarchy or grade, and saying that a class is different means that the level or standard is different.
Even a soccer player we know well, like Son Heung-min, is called 'world-class'.
'World Class' means having a world-class level.
Spiritually, the disciples of the Antioch church lived lives of a different class.
He lived a spiritual world-class life.
That is a Christian worthy of the name.
I hope you live a life of a different class.
You are people on a different level that cannot be compared to the world.
I hope you will be established as a Christian worthy of the name.
Please continue to train and repeat.
You cannot keep up with someone who repeats things.
If you follow the Word and continue to stay in worship, God will mold you into a true Christian.
I believe that God will raise you to become spiritual world-class.
I hope you move forward as a Christian worthy of the name, always staying with the message from the pulpit 24/7 with a mindset of evangelism and missions.
Therefore, I bless you in the name of the Lord that you may stand confidently as an evangelistic disciple summit who exerts spiritual influence.
God, please bless our saints as true Christians.
Please make us evangelistic disciples who have a mindset of evangelism and missions, always holding in our hearts what God desires and putting it into practice.
Please let me stand as a key player in the fulfillment of your word this week.
I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
