Jesus Lost, Jesus Found
(Lk. 2:41∼50)
This passage is about Jesus absence on his familys return home after attending the Passover in Jerusalem when he was twelve years old. Considering that even Jesus parents lost him, how much more often can we lose him in our daily life? The most urgent issue of the Korean church is recovering Jesus lost. Without Jesus, millions of churchgoers in a huge church or great events or projects mean nothing. We all need to be a witness, proclaiming with all our heart, 'Im living because of Jesus.' For this, what do we need to do?
1. We need to watch the blind spot of our lives. Now that we are better-off than when the first church was built 130 years ago, with countless churches around us and the biggest one in Seoul, the spiritual red light is on because of the blind spots in our life. The only Lord of our single-shot life is Jesus. The goal of church is reviving and restoring a soul from despair onto the right track of new hope, focused on Jesus. Remember! People who dont believe in Jesus, the spiritually blind watch how we Christians hold on to the highest heavenly values in our daily life. Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago confessed in the church report commemorating its 30th anniversary that he failed in his ministry because he had only delivered the message that people liked to listen to, not what they needed to hear. A church is not a stagnant pond, but a spring of living water and a healing camp that revives us with Jesus blood.
2. We need to be wary of our self-complacent faith. Dont fall into spiritual delusion. We often think that we are walking with Jesus because we are a deacon or a senior deacon, or a pastor. True revival is not about how big our church is but about how we are living because of Jesus. After meeting Pastor Kim at the World Missionary Conference last year, I was touched by her maternal leadership, which influenced so many people in the midst of political chaos. We Christians need to have the right values and direction in life. Revival is like a seed, which contains life. Yet we are often distracted by the size of appearance, which causes us to contend with one another constantly. The direction of our life is more important than its speed. Thus we need to keep our healthy faith in Jesus.
3. We always need to be full of faith. After finding the lost Jesus, Mary demonstrated her apprehension instead of her joy and gratitude for Gods grace. We attend our worship service on the day that God consecrated in order to receive Gods blessing, which sustains another week of days rather than worldly prosperity. Church is the community of our spiritual expectancy, where we share our godly love of Jesus with others. So far, Pastor Kim must have had lots of difficulties on the byways of her ministry. I hope that she will get well soon and be used as Gods servant to restore the Korean church through her message of the gospel. And I wish I could devote my whole life to sharing the gospel of Jesus like a firework in the dark sky, set off at 9 PM on Independence Day in America. I believe that Wooridle Church is a true model of world evangelism, where lots of souls revive through the gospel. As a pastor of a small Korean church in the USA, whose chapel is rented, I feel for my church family. I say to them We may rent our church, but not our faith! Church is not merely a building. Each of us is a church. Sometimes, we can lose our health, dignity, our beloved, property or even everything in the world. However, we should hold on to our faith in Jesus at all costs.
'Why were you searching for me?' he asked. 'Didnt you know I had to be in my Fathers house?' (Lk. 2:49)
