Mission Info 선교 정보와 계획

March 2, 2024 Leading verse 25: "As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, <Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?>”  Many people from different nations lived in the Roman Empire. There were different social classes among them. Among them, Roman citizens had privileged rights. For example, they had the right to protect themselves from unlawful mistreatment by the authorities. In contrast, people from colonies did not have such a right. This is why Jesus Christ was mistreated and crucified by the Romans, even though he had committed no crime. Crucifixion was a cruel method of execution for non-Romans. In contrast, the apostle Paul, who had Roman citizenship, was not crucified.  Paul had dual citizenship: as an Israelite citizen and as a Roman citizen.Today's Bible text tells us that Paul used his Roman citizenship to protect himself from being scourged by the Roman soldiers. We now want to learn how Paul used his citizenship as a Roman citizen to protect himself from the mistreatment of the Roman soldiers. Based on this report, let us remember that we have dual citizenship, e.g., German citizenship and heavenly citizenship. Those who do not yet have heavenly citizenship can apply for it straight away through Jesus Christ.   After the Roman centurion had arrested Paul, he wanted to beat him in order to find out the exact reason for the crowd's uproar. Then Paul said to him, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman citizen without judgment?" So the centurion went to the colonel and reported this. Then the colonel himself came to Paul and confirmed that Paul was a Roman citizen. The colonel was afraid because he had had Paul bound. This incident shows us that Roman citizenship functioned as a letter of protection for a Roman.   Crucifixion was the cruelest method of execution. Therefore, no Roman was allowed to be executed by crucifixion. But Jesus was not a Roman citizen. That is why he was mercilessly beaten and crucified without proper judgment. But thanks to his suffering, death and resurrection, we have received the forgiveness of our sins and the citizenship of the kingdom of heaven.  American blacks were granted freedom from slavery in 1863. It was declared that they were no longer subject to their master. They no longer needed to work towards the crack of the whip. They were granted all the rights and privileges of American citizenship.  Paul traveled from country to country, region to region, city to city to spread the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ. He used his Roman citizenship from time to time.  The question of citizenship is raised because people are treated differently depending on their nationality. People who were Romans were treated differently by the Roman rulers than if they were Israelites.  A citizen is a person who is entitled to the protection of the nation by birth or naturalization. We can find the following reports on the internet.  North Korean Christians in China, if caught by Chinese police, are black-stamped as gross criminals and sent back to North Korea with this paper, where imprisonment, torture, prolonged beatings, sexual assault and death penalty await them.  But South Koreans are viewed with envy by the Chinese because South Korea is a prosperous, democratic country and protects human rights. So Paul was not mistreated by the Roman centurion and colonel because of his Roman citizenship.  How could Paul have Roman citizenship?Apostle Paul was born around the year 3 AD in the Jewish community of Tarsus. Tarsus was the capital of the province of Cilicia in south-eastern Asia Minor. His parents already had Roman citizenship, so Paul had Roman citizenship from birth. When Paul was eight days old, his parents named him Saul, after the first king of Israel. Paul often called himself Saul, for example when he was blinded by a strong light of Christ on the road to Damascus. But he called himself Paul when he worked as a missionary abroad. I was born and grew up in Korea until I was 28 years old. My Korean name was Myeong-Hwan Choe. When I came to Germany as a student missionary, I introduced myself to German students with my Korean name to invite them to Bible study. When I met them again, they mumbled because they could neither remember nor pronounce my name correctly. So I introduced myself as Stephan. They were able to remember my name and call me "Hello, Stephan!". So the name change helped my mission. I later had my name changed to Stephan Myeong-Hwan Choe when I was naturalized. I made my Korean first name my middle name because our son is called Stephan Choe. Why did Paul travel everywhere despite the danger to his life?The reason was that he wanted to make people aware of the best citizenship so that they could obtain that citizenship. I explain here why I want to let people know about the best citizenship offer.There are North Korean citizenship, Chinese citizenship, South Korean citizenship, German citizenship and so on. If a North Korean visits a hospital in North Korea because of illness, he will be treated poorly because there is a lack of medicine and medical equipment. In China, the situation is somewhat better. In South Korea you can get proper treatment. Unfortunately, no earthly nation, including South Korea, can cure people of the disease of death and offer them happy, eternal life. There is only one nation that offers such a happy, eternal life. This nation is called the heavenly nation. When you enter this heavenly nation, you will neither be sick nor die. There, you will suffer neither sin nor strife, nor sickness nor death, but only joy, peace and eternal life.  While we are still on this earth, we are not free from sin, strife, sickness, and death. But when we get to the heavenly nation, we will enjoy joy, peace and eternal life.How can we enter this nation?If you want to enter the heavenly nation, you need a key to open the gate of the heavenly nation. This key is called faith in the sacrificial death of Christ and his resurrection. Anyone who believes that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the people and rose from the dead already has the key to the heavenly nation.Those who have not received the key for the heavenly nation must unfortunately enter the deeper nation of darkness after their physical death. This nation is called "hell". Those who do not want to enter this deeper nation of darkness must receive the key of the heavenly nation soon enough, at the latest before their physical death. This key is obtained through the faith in Jesus Christ.  Verse 22 of this Bible text tells us that when the crowd heard the good news through Paul, they began to cry out: "Away with this fellow from the earth, for he is not worthy to live." These would not accept the offer of the key to the heavenly nation. They began to tear their own clothes and throw dust into the air. They wanted to kill the messenger of the Good News for the heavenly nation. This scene reminds us that Stephen was stoned to death on the outskirts of Jerusalem. At that time, Paul had also been involved in this stoning as the overseer of the clothes of the stone-throwers. Now he himself was being pursued by the angry crowd. From time to time we are stopped on our journey towards the heavenly nation. But we are then to declare that we are citizens of the heavenly nation.Then we know that neither sickness nor death can prevent us from having heavenly peace and entering the heavenly nation safely. Our passport says that we are heavenly citizens and that we can enjoy love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.Isn't our heavenly citizenship wonderful? Our passport has been signed and issued by Jesus Christ with the blood of the Lamb. We are happy because we know that we have forgiveness of sins, eternal life and fellowship with God in the heavenly nation.We can continue our journey with joy and praise. Amen! Jesus - the lily of the valley.Jesus - the bright morning starJesus - the rose of SharonJesus - the great I-amJesus - the rock of the ages