Subject 12 : The Faith of the Apostles Creed
● Sermon on the Holy Son 1 : Who Is Jesus Christ?
Why Did Jesus Come to This World?
Jesus came through the body of a virgin.
Reason: To save human beings from sin, He had to come in their flesh.
In what form did He come?
He came in a form that had nothing to be desired of.
Jesus
came to the nation of Israel in a flesh of a man through the body of
the Virgin Mary. It was to fulfill the Word of prophecy for all
humankind. Christ came to become the light for this dark world.
He
came to become and work as the Interceder between God and mankind.
After shouldering the sins of the world through the baptism received
from John the Baptist, He was crucified and shed His blood on the Cross.
Like this, He came to give the remission of sin and life to those who
believe.
Christ
came to enable us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by believing in His
baptism of the cleansing of sin and the blood of the Cross, and to allow
us to avoid the fiery hell.
This
world had been a dark and hopeless world. Before Christ came to this
world, there was no light of true salvation, but worse, it was locked in
pitch-black darkness. To such a world as this, Jesus came. Why did
Jesus come? He came to shine the light of salvation to this world.
Actually,
Jesus was not born in December. Rather, He was born in a season when
the fields of Israel were filled with green grass, when shepherds tended
their sheep out in the open field and let them graze there (Luke 2:8).
This verifies the fact that His actual birthday was not December 25.
Why,
then, do we celebrate Christmas on this cold day of December 25? This
was because from the mid 4th century A.D., the Western Church set this
day of December 25 as the birthday of Jesus to prevent the spread of the
pagan worship of a sun god. But this day was actually a day of
worshipping the sun god. Aiming to inhibit the participation in this
pagan celebration and to prevent the adulteration of Christians’ faith,
the same day of pagan festivity was proclaimed as the birthday of Jesus,
in a kind of strategy akin to fighting fire with fire.
We
are not sure exactly when Jesus’ birthday is, but we do know for
certain that the Son of God came to save the entire mankind, and we
therefore set aside a day of the year to celebrate His coming,
regardless of whether or not December 25 had actually been a day of
pagan celebration. Because the whole world celebrates the day when Jesus
was born to save us from our sins, we set a day, remember it, and thank
and praise Him.
When
Jesus came to this earth, all the people of this world had been
deceived by the Devil, their hearts were weighed down by their sins, and
they truly did not know the way of receiving eternal life. This is why
God the Father sent His Son Jesus to save the people of the world from
all their sins.
The
name Jesus is the name of the Savior, meaning He who will save His
people from their sins. This Jesus came to this world. By bearing the
sins of the world with His baptism, Jesus was condemned on the Cross and
has thereby blotted out all these sins.
Was Jesus God?
Yes.
Jesus was God Himself in His essence. Jesus is the very One who created
the whole universe with the Word of His mouth. This world, in fact, was
created by God. John 1:3 says, “All things were made through Him, and
without Him nothing was made that was made.” Jesus was God Himself who
came to save sinners. Jesus created this world and the whole universe in
the beginning. When Jesus said, “let there be light,” then there was
light. When He said, “let there be the sun,” then the sun came into
existence. It is by this command of Jesus, “let there be,” that all the
grasses, trees, the sea, the sky, and even mankind itself came into
existence. Jesus is God who created all these things in the beginning
(Genesis 1:3-15).
He
was fundamentally the God of creation. All things were made through
Him, and there was nothing that was made without Him. Why, then, did He
come to this earth incarnated in the flesh of a man?
He
came to save all the sinners of this world from all their sins. The
reason that God came to mankind was to shine the true light to each and
every one of sinner and thereby saving them all from their sins.
John
1:9-12 states, “That was the true Light which gives light to every man
coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made
through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His
own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave
the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
The
Son of God came to blot out all the sins that we have inherited from
Adam, the father of mankind, and to drive away darkness from this world.
His name is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the Son of God the
Father.
Why Did People Not Receive Jesus into Their Hearts?
Because He has saved sinners from their sins by coming as a lowly man.
Because people did not cast aside their own faith and their own thoughts.
Because they did not realize that they had been created by God.
Because they did not know that they are bound to hell because they have been sinners from the very moment of their birth.
Because people did not know that Jesus is the Savior.
Because they were ignorant of the truth.
Because they did not recognize the Savior who is God Himself.
Because they did not respond to the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Because they did not know Jesus, who is the way and the truth.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a small, rural town in Israel.
Why
was Jesus born in this world? He came to us to save those who are
ill-treated in this world and who are truly living lowly lives in this
world. Jesus came to save those who are tormented by their sins, who
want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and who want to be clothed in God’s
grace. This is why Jesus was born in a manger.
However,
when Jesus came to this world in the likeness of human beings, the
people of Israel did not recognize Him as God and the Messiah. They did
not realize that He was the Son of God, the very Creator God who made
the whole universe and everything in it. This is why the people of
Israel did not receive Him. This is true even now. Many people in this
world still do not know that Jesus is the God of creation and the Savior
who has saved human beings from all their sins.
Isaiah
wrote that when God looked down from Heaven, “He saw that there was no
man, and wondered that there was no intercessor [Savior]” (Isaiah
59:16). God Himself had to come up with salvation, and He Himself had to
come to this earth and make us sinless—that is, make the sinful
sinless. Coming to this earth, to bring down the wall that had sprung up
in our relationship with God the Father as a result of our sins and
separated us from Him, He took all the sins of mankind upon Himself with
His baptism and bore the condemnation of all these sins of mankind by
being crucified and shedding His blood on the Cross. He has thereby
saved those who believe.
No
matter how human beings have no righteousness of their own, no matter
how insufficient and weak they are, and no matter how many sins they
have committed, if they only realize that Jesus fulfilled all
righteousness by taking upon their sins with His baptism and shedding
His blood on the Cross, and if they accept this truth into their hearts,
they can all be saved from all their sins.
As
such, there is only one true Savior in this world, and this Savior is
only Jesus. The name of Jesus itself means “He who will save His people
from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
By doing what can we enter Heaven? Can we enter Heaven by doing good deeds?
No!
Being born into this world, can we live without ever sinning?
No!
It
is impossible for us not to ever sin. We cannot help but sin for the
rest of our lives until our own demise. Can people enter Heaven when
they have a sin as small as a penny?
No!
Is there anyone in this world, then, who can enter Heaven by his own strength?
No!
By whom can we then enter Heaven?
We can enter Heaven by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ.
“For
He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). God made us,
and when we fell into sin, He became a man and came to this earth to
make our sins disappear. The One who thus came to this earth, was
baptized, and died on the Cross is none other than Jesus.
When We Believe in Jesus, How Can We Receive Him Truly?
John
1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” To those who
believe that Jesus has become their Savior and blotted out all their
sins, He has given them the right to become God’s children. Have you
received the gospel of the water and the Spirit?
What
is receiving the truth? One can receive the truth only when he/she
knows the truth of the water and the Spirit. When someone is knocking on
the door, we open the door only slightly and first ask who it is, and
if it is someone whom we know, we then open the door fully and ask
him/her to come in. This is receiving.
Although
we have not actually met Jesus face to face, we still believe that He
accepted all our sins passed onto Him by being baptized at the Jordan
River. I thank God for this truth. I may not be able to extend any loan
guarantees, but what I can guarantee definitely is the Word that we can
enter the Kingdom of God if we only believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit. That you are made sinless is, in itself, becoming God’s
children. That you receive eternal life by faith is the truth.
The
faith that receives the blessings of Heaven is the faith in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit given by God. This means believing not only
that Jesus bore all your sins with His baptism, but also that He came to
this earth and took away once and for all every sin that you would
commit for the rest of your lives and until the end of the world. Jesus,
whom I believe, has made us sinless all at once by taking away our sins
of the world once and for all.
“Believe.”
Faith is a beautiful word. “Receive.” I accepted the truth that Jesus
is my Savior into my heart. I am no better than anyone else. Yet even
so, the reason why I can speak in confidence and at times even be proud
is because of my faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
By
all means, I hope that you would all know and believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. It is only when we know the truth of the water
and the Spirit and believe in it that we can finally be born again,
become sinless, and thereby also become God’s children.
Do
you know and believe in the truth that Jesus took all your sins upon
Himself when He was baptized at the Jordan River? Jesus accepted the
condemnation of all the sins that you have committed throughout your
entire lifetime and was vicariously punished on the Cross in your place.
He then arose from the dead in three days and now sits at the right
hand of the throne of God the Father. Even now, our God is alive.
John
1:9 says, “That was the true Light which gives light to every man
coming into the world.” This Light is the Light of Jesus who took upon
the sins of the world by being baptized by John and dying on the Cross.
All that we have to do is just receive this true Light shone by our
Lord. We must accept into our hearts the truth that Jesus came as the
Savior of us the sinners. We must believe that Jesus bore all our sins
by being baptized at the Jordan River. When we believe that He thus
fulfilled all the righteousness of God, we can then be saved from all
our sins.
In
our flesh, we are unable to believe in Jesus. But in our hearts, we can
know the righteousness of God, believe in it, and thereby receive it.
Once, we had been in pitch-black darkness. That this darkness is removed
by the true Light shinning in our hearts means the removal of our sins
from our hearts by our faith in the Word of truth. This true Light is
the Word of the truth through which we have been born again of water and
the Spirit, and the true Light gives us light because we have believed
in and accepted into our hearts the baptism that Jesus received from
John and His bloodshed on the Cross.
It
is appointed for men to be born once and die once. The Bible tells us
that our lifetime is about 70 years, or 80 if we are strong (Psalm
90:10). Every human being goes through the trials of life, and, at its
end, must stand before the Lord. How pitiful would it be if we were to
die without knowing the truth of the water and the Spirit? Even if we
were to live beyond 80, we must all die once at some point. But we do
not simply cease to exist after dying. Judgment follows our death.
Whether we are welcomed into Heaven or cast into hell is determined by
whether we have the faith that believes in the water and the blood of
Jesus Christ. While we are still living on this earth, we must therefore
receive the blessing of believing in Jesus’ baptism and accepting it
into our hearts.
Some
people say, “I am not someone who can believe in Jesus. Why? Because I
was born as a natural sinner, whose propensity to sin is boundless.” But
even these people need not worry. Their sins, too, were all passed onto
Jesus through His baptism and blood, and, as such, all that they have
to do is just entrust everything to Him by believing in this Word. I
beseech you to leave all your weaknesses and flaws of your hearts, which
you cannot ever control on your own, at the feet of God, for if you
would only entrust all your sins to Him, our Lord, being the Almighty
God that He is, has already solved all the problems of your sins through
His baptism and blood.
While
we live in this world, we must always believe in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit in our hearts. We must live with our faith always
prepared to enter Heaven. And when we believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit given by Jesus, we are then born again. When you do so,
you should realize, the blessings of God are then spread throughout the
entire world through none other than yourselves.
When
we believe in gospel of the water and the Spirit given by God, He then
protects us. We must receive Jesus by believing that He has become our
Savior. And let us also thank Him for being our Savior.
We Must Know and Believe in Jesus Who Is Both Divine and Human (John 1:14)
The Apostles believed in the Son of God our Lord as the Savior.
The
name Jesus means “the Savior,” and the name Christ means “the anointed
One.” This means that Jesus fulfilled His role as the Prophet, that He
is the King of kings, and, therefore, He also fulfilled the role of the
High Priest of the Kingdom of Heaven.
First
of all, the Old Testament clearly specifies that the Christ to come is
God Himself. A representative passage of this is found in Isaiah 9:6,
which states, “Unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the
government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
In
addition, our Lord’s own Word bears witness to this truth. To show just
a couple of examples, Matthew 5:17 says, “Do not think that I came to
destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to
fulfill.” No one else but the Savior God Himself alone can fulfill the
Law. Also, in Matthew 9:6, Jesus said, “But that you may know that the
Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.”
Paul
said in Philippians 2:5-6, “Let this mind be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery
to be equal with God,” and in Colossians 2:9, he said, “For in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”
Above
all, the signs that Jesus performed while on this earth clearly show us
that He is God. With only five loaves and two fish, He fed over 5,000
people, not counting women and children. On another occasion, He fed
4,000 people with just 7 loaves and 2 fish. Jesus also brought down
winds with His rebuke. He walked on water, and delivered Peter who sank
into water. Matthew 11:5 states, “The blind see and the lame walk; the
lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up.” All
these things cannot be done by mere mortals, but they can be
accomplished only by God. As such, Christ is clearly the living God and
the Savior.
What Is the Meaning of the Baptism of Jesus? (Matthew 3:13-17)
We
must believe that Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself by
being baptized by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:15). This baptism that
Jesus received from John was to bear all the sins and iniquities of the
sinners of this world. To realize this truth, we must first understand
the meaning of the word “thus.” This word “thus” is “οϋτως” (hoo’-tos)
in Greek, and it means: 1) just in this way; 2) most fitting; and 3)
there is no other way besides this. In other words, when Jesus came to
this earth, He had to be baptized to accept the iniquities of sinners
passed onto Him. If we do not believe so, our sins cannot be blotted
out.
There
are some people who have misunderstood the baptism of Jesus and
mistakenly think that He was baptized to show us His humility. But this
is not the case. The Word of the baptism of Jesus by John clearly bears
witness to the truth that He was thus baptized in order to take upon all
the sins of this world. Jesus could become the Savior of those who
believe in Him because He, coming to this earth, accepted all the sins
of this world passed onto His body in a single instance by receiving His
baptism from John once and for all.
We
cannot keep the Word of this truth of Jesus’ baptism covered. Why?
Because what Satan seeks after from sinners is to make them unable to
know the Word of the baptism of Jesus, the most important aspect to
mankind’s remission of sin, and to incapacitate them from believing in
it.
The Baptism of Jesus and the Blood of the Cross
The
baptism that Jesus received from John is the work of salvation through
which He took the sins of mankind upon Himself. 1 John 5:4-6 tells us
that Jesus’ baptism is essential to our salvation. The reason why Jesus
was baptized by John at the Jordan River is as the following.
That
Jesus was baptized by John means that He fulfilled all the
righteousness of God—that is, Jesus accepted all the sins of the world
passed onto Him. When Jesus was baptized, His submersion in water tells
us of His death, and His emersion from water tells us of His
resurrection.
Jesus’
baptism corresponds to the Word of the Old Testament found in Leviticus
16, where sacrificial offerings accepted the sins of the people of
Israel with the laying on of hands. That this was done so had the same
reason as to why Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. It was the same
reason for which Jesus commanded John, “You shall baptize me. Permit it
be so. It is thus fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” He
said, “By my being baptized by you, and by your baptizing me, it is
fitting to fulfill all righteousness.”
What
is it that everyone in this world desires and wishes the most? It is to
become sinless in their hearts, in other words, to become the sinless
children of God. The Bible tells us that for us to become so, we must
believe in the Word that Jesus blotted out all the sins and iniquities
of sinners by being baptized and shedding His blood on the Cross, and it
tells us also that it is by thus believing that we can receive the
righteousness of God. What, then, is all the righteousness of God? It is
the Word telling us that as Jesus was baptized by John in this world,
the iniquities of all sinners left them and were then passed onto the
body of Jesus.
“For
thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness (making all
sinner righteous).” Jesus told John, in other words, that it is by being
baptized by John that He would fulfill all the righteousness of God. To
fulfill God’s righteousness, Jesus had to be baptized and thereby
accept all the sins and transgressions of sinners passed onto Him. On
our part, what we must do is to believe in the baptism that Jesus
received.
Jesus
came to make all the sins and iniquities of sinners disappear. But
those who do not believe in the truth are bound in their eternal sins
forever and cannot escape from them at all. In the Bible, there is no
way by which sinners can be saved from all the sins of the world but
only to believe in the baptism of Jesus and the blood of the Cross
written in the Word of God.
Even
so, there are still many contrasting opinions as to the method with
which Jesus Christ has blotted out the iniquities of sinners. Some
people say that the Word of salvation from sin is only the Word of the
blood of the Cross. But the Word of God written in the Scripture tells
us that the Word of the baptism of Jesus is the most fitting for Him to
make all the sins and transgressions of sinners disappear, for Jesus was
thus baptized all at once and died on the Cross once and for all.
There
are others who ask, “Is there no other method but this, that Jesus
cleansed away the sins of the world by being baptized and shed His blood
on the Cross?” But our Lord has told us clearly that the salvation of
sinners comes only from His own providence, and that it is far from our
place for us to question or blame the Word for how Jesus chose to save
sinners.
There
is a saying, “A taffy peddler does as he pleases.” Likewise, when it
comes to God’s salvation of sinners from all their sins, if He Himself
tells us that He has saved them through this method—that is, through the
baptism of Jesus by John and His crucifixion—then all that we can do is
just believe in what He tells us as it is. Who can then possibly object
to the Word of God? People may refuse to believe in the Word of the
baptism of Jesus received from John and of the blood of the Cross, and
they may reject what God has told them, but they will certainly not be
able to avoid hell.
Do you believe in the Word of God?
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