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July 23, 2023
Acts 2:38: "Peter said to them: Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (38, Luther translation)
Acts 2:17: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." (17, Luther translation)
We will celebrate the summer conference starting next Thursday and then an international conference in Korea.
Our conference is for the salvation of the unsaved and the renewal of our vision.
That is why I have chosen the 2nd chapter of Acts as the sermon text.
From this text, I have chosen two verses, verses 17 and 38.
1. Saving message (38)
Our conference is first to be a saving conference for the seekers and non-believers. For this purpose, those who do not yet believe in Jesus Christ should believe Jesus as their Savior and God's Son, experience the forgiveness of their sin, and receive eternal life.
The listeners of Peter's sermon were actually not directly responsible for the death of Christ on the cross.
But Peter said to them:
"Know therefore all the house of Israel assuredly, that God had made this Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ."(36)
Peter made the listeners of his sermon responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. In today's mindset, we cannot well understand his accusation. But because they did not believe in Jesus as God's Son, they thought that Jesus was only as a victim of unrighteousness. So their unbelief in Jesus as Christ and God's Son was their sin.
Peter proclaimed to them forgiveness of sins and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And 3000 people accepted this offer that day. They repented, believed in Jesus Christ, and were baptized.
So Peter calls on each of us to repent of our sin and believe in Jesus as God's Son and Christ (v. 23b. 38). Whoever does this receives the Holy Spirit from God (v. 38b).
At our summer conference and also at the conference in Korea, there will be some who think that they have no complicity in the death of Christ. Outwardly, they may be right.
But if we think carefully, we can understand that we also belong to those who thought that Jesus died only as a man because of the unrighteous people, and they themselves had no complicity in his death on the cross.
In reality, Jesus was crucified because of the unbelief of mankind, which was represented by Pilate and the high priests.
Therefore, every person should repent of his unbelief and sin and believe in Jesus as God's Son and Savior. Then he will be saved and have eternal life.
We are to pray that some conference participants who have no consciousness of guilt for the death of Christ may realize their guilt during this conference and experience forgiveness and salvation through faith in Jesus.
Although I tried hard to secure my professional future through my studies, I occasionally fell into the nihilistic thought when I thought about how I would have to die someday anyway. But when I believed in Jesus Christ, I rejoiced that God forgave my guilt and gave me eternal life. To me, my surroundings seemed like paradise. I was very happy. That is why I became a missionary and came to Germany.
2. Prophecy, visions & dreams (17)
Peter and Jesus' disciples experienced the fulfillment of the vision of world evangelization, because numerous pilgrims from many nations came to them, heard Peter's preaching and became Christians.
Therefore, Peter declared that the prophecy of Prophet Joel was fulfilled.
Let us now consider verse 17.
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."
The sky roars, a mighty wind comes and fills the house. The Christians begin to speak in foreign languages they had never learned! They proclaim the great deeds of God.
People listen and watch everything that happens. But what is the cause of such extraordinary behavior? Are the Christians drunk? Why are they behaving this way? When Peter notices that the people begin to question and mock like this, he takes the floor. In a powerful speech he shows them that God is the doer: he gave his Son (v. 23a), raised him (v. 32) and exalted him (v. 33). This Jesus sends the Holy Spirit from heaven to earth (John 16:7).
But what makes Peter think that the Spirit of God has come upon Christians in the first place? Peter quotes from the book of Prophet Joel. Two features of this passage are important for the current situation:
Joel speaks of the outpouring of the Spirit "upon all flesh," that is, upon all people.
Joel further shows that the outpouring of the Spirit is associated with divine "signs and wonders" - and not with the influence of alcohol!
I will explain the meaning of this verse.
In the Old Testament times, only certain people like king, prophets, or priests received the Holy Spirit.
But from that day of Pentecost, all who sincerely repented and believed in Jesus Christ received the Holy Spirit.
In particular, the 120 disciples of Jesus received the Holy Spirit and were fully filled with this Spirit, so that they could even speak various foreign languages.
Also, the mentioned judgments, the transformation of the sun into darkness and the moon into blood, are still future. Thus, Bible prophecy often has such a double meaning as here.
We can understand the promise through the prophet Joel thus: God will send His Holy Spirit upon us during our summer conference and fill us all with His Spirit so that we can prophesy, see visions, and have dreams.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can prophesy (i.e., prophesy), see visions, and have dreams.
Prophecy predicts what will happen in the future.
Prophecies are not of human origin, but come from God. The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:21, "For no prophecy has ever been produced by human will, but driven by the Holy Spirit, men have spoken in the name of God."
Christians know what will happen in the future through Jesus' word.
For example, in 70 AD, Christians knew because of Christ's prediction that Jerusalem would be conquered by the Romans. That is why they fled Jerusalem to the mountains when the Romans began to besiege Jerusalem. In contrast, unbelieving Jews stayed in Jerusalem because they thought that the fortress of Jerusalem would be safe against the attack of the Romans. As a result, Christians survived the destruction of Jerusalem, but the unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem did not.
In a sense, all of us Christians are prophets, because we believe in the prophecies of Christ and continue to tell them. Some Christians have received the specific prophetic spirit and can prophesy.
Our prophecy has a close relationship with our visions.
"Vision" means what God shows people something Divine. There are specific visions. For example, Peter saw a vision of all nations without Jewish closets becoming children of God through the gospel (Acts 10).
There are also general visions that Christians can receive through the Bible. For example, through the last book of the Bible, "Revelation", we can see that in the Kingdom of Heaven we will see Christ and all the redeemed such as Abraham, David, Martin Luther, Esther, and so on.
We can divide these visions into two groups: The visions that we will already see on this earth, and the visions that we will see in the Kingdom of Heaven.
First, the visions that we can experience on this earth: Young people will preach the Gospel in Germany and in the world, so that numerous people of the world will believe in Jesus Christ.
Andreas, Renate, David, Mariela and Ann-Kristin will fly to Korea after our conference and participate in the international conference for young people. God will fill all the participants of this conference with the Holy Spirit and do miracles.
When I was still in Korea in 1977, I translated an English book into Korean. The original English title was “Student power in World Evangelism”. But I gave the translated book the title “Visions to Young People!”
Through this translation work and God's word, I got a vision of God's great work through our small effort for world mission.
Now I realize that God has partially fulfilled that vision.
In Germany, we were able to plant student churches in Dortmund and then in Bochum and lead many students to faith. And we sent missionaries and shepherds to Cologne, Aachen, Darmstadt, Duisburg, Essen, so that they founded new churches there and led many students to faith.
Walter Nett, whom we sent from Dortmund to Cologne, worked there for many years as a preacher and leader. We sent Ulrike Brinkmann from Bochum to Cologne, and she married Eberhard Groß. Eberhard became the successor preacher of Walter Nett.
Not only in Germany did our former co-workers start new churches, but also in China and Korea. Samuel Kim, the former co-worker in Bochum, planted churches in China. Samuel and Rebekka Park, former co-workers in Bochum, planted a church in Gongju, Korea.
I helped students in the early 70s through personal Bible study while I was in college. David Lim was my very first Bible student and the follow-up leader of our student Bible group. He was actually a non-Christian. But through our Bible study, he came to faith.
During my trip to Korea last May, David Lim invited me to his church in Pazu (or: Paju) as a faith witness presenter. Pastor David Lim had a vision to raise young people as disciples of Jesus and send them out into the world.
But he had difficulties at the beginning of his ministry as a pastor. Because of that, he had to leave his church once. After that, he visited different churches and institutes internationally and tried to learn secrets of their success. However, he came to the conclusion that he should practice disciple-making, which he had learned during his study time in Dajeon, adapted to his church situation. So he did not do mass evangelism but disciple-making through small groups. There he was successful. He is now pastor of three churches in Seoul, Ilsan and Pazu. Church attendance is about 10,000. The majority of visitors are young people. And many of them are good disciples of Jesus. He himself lives as an example of them. He sleeps 24 o'clock and gets up at 4 o'clock to attend the church's 5 o'clock prayer hour. His church in Paju has a seating capacity of 4500 and has services 4 times on Sunday (9am, 11am, 1pm and 7:30pm). He gave me two books he had written about his church. Unfortunately, they are written in Korean.
His example shows us that having vision is very important for us Christians. People without vision are lifeless.
Old people will have dreams - so Peter says. We Christians who believe in the resurrection have dreams.
Old people generally cannot fit like young people. That's why they can't do many things like young people. What they can do well is dreaming. There are dreams that are fulfilled on this earth. For example, the apostles dreamed that the gospel would be spread throughout the world. We should have such dreams and pray for world evangelization.
The Bible also tells about the dreams that will be fulfilled in the Kingdom of Heaven.
For example, Apostle John dreamed of the Kingdom of Heaven on the island of Patmos. Parts of his dreams read:
"After this I saw: a great multitude from every nation and tribe, people and language; no one could count them. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb in white robes, carrying palm branches in their hands.
They cried out with a loud voice, <Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb.>
And all the angels stood around the throne, around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne and worshiped God, saying, <Amen, praise and glory, / wisdom and thanksgiving, / honor and power and might / to our God forever and ever. Amen>" (Rev. 7:9-12).
"And I heard a great voice from the thorn, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God with men! And he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and he himself, God with them, shall be their God; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away!" (Rev. 21:3-4).
I dream of my own future beyond my physical death. These dreams have helped me to believe in Esther's resurrection and my own resurrection, and to overcome my sadness because of Esther. I believe that she lives, and I will not die even in eternity, as Jesus Christ said:
"I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live: and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26).
I pray to God that non-believers will experience their salvation, and that all of us will have such visions and dreams through the summer conference and through the international conference in Korea.
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