Tag: Rev. Jaebok Gu

1 Kings 19:8-15a; Psalm 42 and 43 Luke 8:26-27, 32-39

 

I would like to express my special gratitude to all those who prepared and actively participated in the Inter-generational Service. When we listen to the Bible today, we can imagine many scenes. When I look at the book of Kings, I see the prophet Elijah fleeing after accomplishing amazing things. His enemies threatened him. It was life-threatening. At that time, he prayed like this: “He prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” He prays that God may take his life because of how hard it was. Then God sent an angel to him. The angel comforted him and gave him bread and water to eat. The angel was worried that he might not be able to escape far enough. He fled on foot for 40 days, day and night. Finally, he arrived at Mount Horeb and went into a cave. What might have been in his mind? “I am the only one left.” It is 1 Kings 10 and 14. In his words, we can sense great loneliness and defeat. I believed in God so much that I attacked God’s enemies, prophets, king, and queen. But now, I have no friends around me, only enemies. They are after my life. There is no other prophet who believes in God and follows Him. We, too, may feel this deep loneliness and isolation at times.

But the important thing is that God came to Elijah. He did not leave him alone. The Creator sent an angel to encourage him. On Mount Horeb, God spoke to him directly. The Creator gave him several missions. Elijah was given meaningful work to do when he thought he had nothing better to do. That very God is with us all. There will be times when we feel lonely. God is with us. God will send His people directly to you. God works through your family or friends, just as He sends angels to guide and protect us.

Second, God is faithful and speaks to us through the Psalms. The descendants of Korah, who composed Psalms 42 and 43, were in charge of music at the Temple in Jerusalem. Some of them played important roles in the army during the time of King David. There were also people guarding the gates of the king’s palace. But you can feel sadness if you read this psalm from beginning to end today. So scholars analyze that the psalmist expressed despair when a powerful country invaded Israel, and the country was destroyed. But the important thing here is that he is not buried only in sadness and despair. The poet expresses: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” He repeats this phrase three times, as if he were making a pledge to himself, and sometimes as if he were persuading himself. Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. It’s a wonderful expression. It is a word from the poet to himself and an invitation to all of us. Put your hope in God!

Dear beloved, I hope that you will place your hope in the Lord through His mercy and grace. I especially want Emmanuel God to be with all of our growing children every day. And we too want to experience God’s help every day and live in praise of the Creator. So, I hope we become people who proclaim the gospel and sing of hope. Amen.

Psalm 8; John 16:12-15, and Romans 5:1-5

 

Living in Canada, I continue to learn a lot. I am learning about the shape of the house and the culture of the people who live in it. I also feel differences in interpersonal relationships, social life, and employee hiring culture. Among them, when looking at the hiring culture of employees, in the background where I grew up, tests were a fundamental criterion. Because many people agreed that it was fair. What I experience in Canada is the power of recommendation and the power of trust that comes from human relationships. But strangely enough, in the church world, regardless of whether it is the East or the West, the power and position of the references have a significant influence.

When I was a seminarian candidate in Korea, a retired pastor once explained to me the reason he had called the current senior pastor. The former pastor was impressed by the fact that the invited pastor’s father served a church faithfully as an elder. The elder had a very good character and had the talent to bring peace to places of conflict. He also cooperated well when serving the presbytery as a church representative and played an essential role in promoting various projects positively. So, the emeritus pastor did his best to call the elder’s son as the senior pastor, having seen his faith and character. On the other hand, the senior pastor has been faithfully serving in that church for over 30 years. Now, the son looks forward to retirement, carrying out a ministry that reflects his father’s faith and character.

Today is Trinity Sunday and also Father’s Day. The words of John 16 well express the character of God the Father, who sent the Holy Spirit of truth, Jesus Christ, who revealed God, and the Holy Spirit, who revealed the glory of Jesus Christ. It is the words of verse 13. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” Here we see two roles of the Holy Spirit. One is to guide and the other is to tell what will happen in the future. The Holy Spirit guides us to the truth. God’s guidance for humanity is made clear through Jesus, our way and truth. The Holy Spirit is also our guide and light, illuminating our path. God led the people of Israel to the Promised Land by grace. Likewise, the Holy Spirit guides humanity into the life of Christ. How does the Holy Spirit make this possible? It is through all of us who believed first. The Holy Spirit is with us and guides us, and through us, He continues to guide unbelievers.

Second, the Holy Spirit informs the saints of future events. The Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, reveals to us our future every day. We can contemplate God’s providence by observing the rising and setting of the sun and the grandeur of nature. I can think about God’s plan for me. And it helps us understand the words of the Bible in the most simple and effective way. It gives us faith and revelation to understand the life of Jesus Christ. Many people in the world read the Bible. Even many religious scholars and believers of other religions read the Bible from time to time. But they do not reach the stage of faith. So we can understand the role of the Holy Spirit.

Third, the Holy Spirit reveals the glory of Jesus Christ. We often see relay races at the Olympics. Or, if after I run hard, the next runner who takes the baton runs very well and crosses the finish line, we are more than happy. Likewise, Jesus carried out the mission God had given him well. Through this, the seeds of the gospel are well planted in this land, and the gospel and the church expand through the apostles and believers. After Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit now takes up the baton. And to this day, we are reaping the abundant fruit of the Holy Spirit on this earth. In this way, the work of the Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus continues without interruption. Jesus gave glory to God by obeying God’s will until the end of his life. Now the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by revealing the meaning of His ministry to each person’s heart and mind. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us confess Jesus as Lord. So we can all meditate more deeply on Jesus Christ through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

In this way, the Father reveals the Son, the Son reveals the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit reveals the Father. And God invites us all to join in this continuation of God’s work. Dear friends, we are all someone’s precious children. And you are someone’s parent, someone’s grandparent, and a child of God. Right now, through all of us, someone might think of our parents or grandparents. When we visit a farm with over 100 years of history or see the precious records of devotion engraved throughout our Knox church, we are expressing something without saying a word. It is the history of the gospel, a testament to love and dedication. I invite you to live for the next week like our predecessors in faith who were justified by faith. Through that faith, many of our predecessors in the faith received grace and revealed the glory of God. Sometimes we all go through hard times. In the midst of all this, we can persevere with the help of the Holy Spirit. We can finally produce wishes. Let us live in the hope of God. So, may we become people who proudly display God’s glory before the world. Amen.

Psalm 104:24-34, 35b; John 14:8-17, 25-27, and Acts 2:1-21

 

Today is the day of Pentecost. This day is significant and thankful. Because we know that two of our attending members are participating in the Confirmation of Faith today, we welcome them as members of our Knox community. What is even more heartwarming is that after the service, I am going to visit Laura’s home and baptize her son.

In Acts 1, Jesus overcame the power of death and rose from the dead. He gave the disciples a great mission. He also promised them the coming of the Holy Spirit and then ascended to heaven. So, the disciples elected Matthias as the new apostle to replace Judas. Now God shifts His ministry from centered on Jesus to spreading the gospel through the apostles. Their first steps in spreading the gospel throughout the world, including Israel, are listed in Acts. This expansion of the gospel confirms why we are gathered here today. It is truly a blessing. The believers who had previously followed Jesus now began to form a community of faith centered around the apostles. The church was established in Jerusalem, as the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus, was with this community. That very beginning is the message from today’s Acts 2.

Pentecost was a holiday held seven weeks after Passover at the time, and it coincided with the barley harvest. In Old Testament times, this day was known as the Feast of Weeks. It was one of the three major feasts of Israel. If Passover commemorates the Israelites’ freedom from Egypt, the Feast of Weeks commemorates their entry into the land of Canaan, which was promised to them by God. It commemorates the end of a long life in the wilderness and a new beginning as God’s people in the promised land given by God. The significance of the Pentecost celebration continues today with the beginning of the new kingdom of God and the establishment of the church in the New Testament era.

This is verse 4. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” Dear beloved, I hope we are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised came upon the disciples who had gathered together to pray. God promises to pour out His Spirit upon us. The disciples received this, and today we cannot discern the Holy Spirit with our eyes, but we believe that the Holy Spirit is with us. Now is the age of the Holy Spirit, and so we gather together, just as the disciples did two thousand years ago, to pray, share the Word, welcome new believers, share the Communion together, and remember Jesus. Together with the Holy Spirit, we remember: “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Peter confessed. We also confess this by faith, because the Holy Spirit has made this truth known to us and has helped us to believe it.

Sometimes, we witness church members who have attended a famous pastor’s revival meeting experience miracles and receive grace. What I am thankful for is seeing believers continue to live this kind of life filled with the Holy Spirit. However, during my ministry, I have often witnessed many people lose the grace and gifts they received within a short period. Just as you have to keep refueling your car so it can continue running, we must keep walking with the Holy Spirit.

We cannot see the presence of the Holy Spirit in the upper room of Mark, but we can see the results of Her ministry. The work of the Holy Spirit appears in various ways. People who haven’t changed for decades change. Sometimes, she makes the seemingly impossible possible. The work of the Holy Spirit continues today in our Knox Presbyterian Church. The Holy Spirit makes us love our fellow believers. She opens our hearts to a deep love for Knox Church. Our elder and I visited our members at the Senior Home this week and could feel their love and trust. The Holy Spirit invites you to be generous to newcomers and new pastors, and encourages us to be more inclusive of our neighbors and the communities we serve. You are only a little older than I, but you are doing the Lord’s work as if you were younger than I.

Dear friends, let us praise our God. Let us rejoice in our God. Let us firmly trust in the Lord and practice what the Lord has done, just like the apostles. Advocate, let us spread the peace of the Lord to this world together with the Holy Spirit. Let us proclaim salvation by calling on the name of the Lord and spreading the gospel of the Lord to the whole world. Just as the 120 disciples gathered in the upper room on Pentecost day have led to hundreds of millions of Christians following Jesus today, let us do the Lord’s work together with the Holy Spirit today. I believe we will eventually see the works of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

John 17:20-26, Psalm 97, and Acts 16:16-34

 

I would like to share with you a missionary story that took place in a small rural area in Asia approximately 130 years ago. Missionary William Leander Swallen (1865-1954), a graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, visited Korea during that time. He came to the Seoul Mission Station with his wife, Sallie W. Swallen, as a missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. After learning Korean there, Swallen was appointed as a pioneer missionary to Pyongyang and the western provinces in January 1893, along with Samuel A. Maffett and Graham Lee (1861-1916). Sometimes they went on missions to the east with the Reverend James Scarth Gale, whom the Presbyterian Church in Canada sent.

One day, he and his wife, Sallie, were diligently preaching the gospel in An-ak County, below Pyongyang. Sallie handed out posters of the Bible Conference Movement at the market. William preached revival conferences and baptized many people. At that time, a very famous gangster in the area received the advertisement that Sallie had delivered. He blew his nose as soon as he received it. She warned him, “You’re going to get a sore nose” for carelessly handling the piece of paper with the Bible on it. Strangely, the fearless young man took her words very seriously. Then he attended a revival conference with Pastor William Swallen, and that day, his life changed. He repented, graduated from Joseon’s first seminary, and became a student minister. His name is Ik-du Kim.

After that, when Ik-du Kim was passing through various villages to preach the gospel, a drunk man beat the pastor for no reason. But Pastor Kim, who was a famous gangster and was still strong and tall, did not move and was hit. Then he said, “I believe in Jesus, but you received the blessing. Later, he became a famous revivalist, and the man who had beaten him became an elder of that church. Through the efforts of Presbyterian missionaries from Canada, the United States, and Australia, Korea has become a country where many Presbyterians practice their faith.

Today’s Acts 16 concisely shows us the many experiences that believers have. Saul, who persecuted those who believed in Jesus, became Paul. He casts out demons and performs many miracles, but is persecuted by others. Sometimes they are severely beaten and suffer hardships. He was also imprisoned. But Paul was a man who could not be beaten for no reason. As a Roman citizen, he could not be imprisoned without a trial. Nevertheless, he obediently waited for God’s guidance. He waits in anticipation for what God will do, and we see the results in verses 25 and 26. “²⁵ About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. ²⁶ Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

But Paul and Silas didn’t run away. Instead, he stopped the jailer from committing suicide because of this incident. Because of this, the jailer accepted the gospel and was saved. Not only that, but Paul and Silas invited everyone to their home, including their family, and they heard the gospel and were baptized.

The work of preaching the gospel can be challenging at times. Results may not appear immediately. When we preach the gospel, they persecute us. We may be persecuted like Paul and Silas. There are many upsetting moments, such as when Sallie W. Swallen first met a gangster named Ik-doo Kim and shared the gospel with him. We may experience rejection again. And yet, God works. The Lord saved prisoners and their families through the ministry of Paul and Silas. God transformed gangsters into pastors through the Swallen couple. And he preached the gospel to tens of thousands of people. Through the above two episodes, I see the image of God in me, and I am in God.

Next, John 17 is about Jesus praying before he was arrested. Before parting with his disciples, he asks God for help in the many hardships they will face. Every single phrase is a very precious and touching prayer. “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” This is a lovely Lord’s Prayer.

In fact, how anxious must Jesus have been towards his disciples? I find this hard to imagine. When I first came to Canada, I was very nervous about sending my two children to school and daycare, even though they didn’t know the alphabet. However, I suppose Jesus was much more concerned than I was. But we all know. We know that God is in us and loves us very much. Though the world does not know God, we know the Creator, and they know that we are Christians. So we will continue to make God known so that the love God has for us may be in them and that we may be in them.”

Dear beloved, the Lord reigns over this world, and all peoples see the glory. Let us rejoice in the Lord. When we proclaim His name and glorify Her to the world, God rejoices. When we are united in love, the Holy Spirit within us will work in every place we walk. May you be blessed in the love of the Lord this week. Amen.

Luke 24:44-53; Psalm 47 and Ephesians 1:15-23

 

Today is Ascension Sunday. These Bible verses allow us to meditate on Jesus Christ and his disciples. Several characters appear in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles: Jesus Christ, the disciples, Paul, and the Ephesians.

First, in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus appears to the eleven disciples and says many things. He says of himself that all things must be fulfilled that are written about Jesus Christ. “Then he opened disciples’ minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” Jesus once explained the Scriptures in detail to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. As a result, their hearts became warm. There are several conditions to realize spiritual truth. First, we must understand the Bible, and second, we must have an open mind. Here, the original biblical meaning of open means to help achieve complete understanding. That is, Jesus completely opened the closed spiritual and cognitive abilities of the disciples so that they could understand. So, the disciples could understand the meaning of the prophecy in the Bible. They experienced dramatic moments of understanding the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus ultimately emphasizes repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is the word of Jeremiah 31:34: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” The promise made through the prophet is now being fulfilled as the procession of repentance and salvation spreads worldwide.

Chapter 24 thus concludes the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. So, Jesus says that the repentance and gospel of forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed from Jerusalem to all nations. Because it is our mission, the disciples’ mission, to spread the gospel. The emphasis here is on “preaching in his name to all nations” rather than “beginning at Jerusalem.” This is a declaration that denies the exclusive sense of chosen people that the Jews had at that time. He proclaimed human salvation, including all humankind. In the subsequent book of Acts, missions to all nations soon become the theme.

Dear friends, we are witnesses of all these things. Witnesses testify to what they see and hear. We are responsible for sharing the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit that we have experienced with the world. However, spreading the gospel is not easy in modern society. Non-believers find this uncomfortable. So we need to be wiser. We must pray that God will help us in all these things. Evangelizing to family and friends is challenging. Many people profess God, but whose faith stagnates there. We must encourage them to actively attend worship services and work together to build a community of faith and a missionary community. We are called to all this. When we faithfully complete all these things, God will give us greater grace and bolder faith than before. So, when the disciples saw Jesus being taken up into heaven, they were no longer sad. Instead, they began to do Jesus’ ministry with great joy. They always praised God. I hope this joy will fill your lives.

Next, we are all the body of the Lord. The Apostle Paul writes a prayer letter with the Ephesians in mind. He explains God’s plan and the history of salvation through Jesus. He emphasizes the gifts and work of the Holy Spirit toward each member. In this process, Paul is thankful that the saints receive wisdom and revelation, their hearts’ eyes are opened, and they experience God’s grace. But going further, he wanted church members to know God more deeply. He proclaims the excellence of Christ, the head of the church. He proclaims the omnipotent power of God to explain the reality of the power God has bestowed upon the saints. It means that Christ became the head of the church and the saved saints became the body of Christ, all by the same power of God’s resurrection.

Therefore, all of us, as the church itself, the body of the Lord, must stand firm on faith, hope, and love. Just as the Apostle Paul heard about our faith and love from hundreds of kilometers away, we hope that our Knox members will also become a church known for love. In this regard, we are grateful that our church can lovingly serve the Korean Presbyterian Church and River Lutheran Church, which worship together in one sanctuary. The denomination of River Church is Church of the Lutheran Brethren Canada. Interestingly enough, Lutheran churches are also diverse, with Lutheran churches of various denominations in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Missouri Synod, Asia, and Africa. Among them, the denomination to which River Church belongs has been very active in missionary work in the Asian and African regions. So, as you often see, on Sunday evenings, you can meet a lot of Christians from Africa. And for their needs, we are now gathering household items, mostly kitchen items, that are needed to settle down. I am pleased that church members are joining us to share our love and mission within our capacity and resources. In addition, two weeks ago, members of the Korean Presbyterian church who worshiped in the afternoon went on a two-week mission trip to Europe with their senior pastor. But since not everyone can attend, a few church members attend worship on Sunday, and they asked me to preach in Korean. So, for the first time in a long time, I could worship in Korean and deliver a sermon with joy. I am so grateful that all of us can volunteer and donate in this way.

We are now in a time when our missionary capacity is the smallest in several decades. But we are reviving and growing again, both externally and internally. As each of us grows, we bring about the church’s growth. Our church also expands as my faith, hope, and love expand. God tells us through the Apostle Paul that we are the body of Christ. And our head is Jesus Christ. We need to think and act like Jesus. From small acts of service to extensive missionary work, let us dream and pray together and live in hope until Jesus returns. The abundant grace of Jesus Christ will fill our lives. Amen.