The Grace of Redemption History
(Rev 6:1-6)
Pastor Gi-Cheol Jeong
Facing trials in our life, we often wonder why we should be in a stalemate without peace. Its because we are not yet ready to enjoy Gods blessing and are instilled with allergic reaction to the word negation. However, just as double negation leads to affirmation, trial and tribulation leads us to our inner reformation. As a diamond sparkles after enduring the high pressure and temperature for a long time, our scars, our healing herbs make us into a twinkling star. In the Scripture, there is no word overcome, but the phrase like pass through. We fall when we try to overcome by ourselves. Lets see how we can pass through our trials, instead of overcoming them, by meditating on the seven seals in Revelation 6 and the grace of redemption history reflected in them.
1. The grace comes through a conqueror. When Jesus the Lamb breaks the first of the seven seals, the rider of a white horse comes wearing a crown and carrying a bow. The white stands for victory and the horse and the bow stand for war. So the rider means a conqueror. In the age of Pax Romana, the conqueror bent on conquest was Rome, the persecutor of the church. Thus God trains the church through the smelting furnace of trials. We also have the same conqueror bent on conquest within us. We have a special craze for the victorious rider of a white horse. Yet, as our senior pastor Kim says, our craze for a conqueror makes us envy and chase him, like Lamech, who sang the Song of the Sword, which leads us to nothing but Gods woe. I once did my ministry both for a hospital and a church. One day while I was busy preparing my sermon for the church, another full-time pastor of the hospital made an issue of my double ministry and I had to quit the hospital. I got furious out of my victim mentality. Later, being trained in Wooridle Church, I saw my ambition and lack of discernment. I also realized that I offended to my fellow workers. I repented of my sins. After understanding the grace of Gods redemption history, I was able to accept my previous trials as what must happen to me.
2. The grace comes when our peace is gone. When Jesus breaks the second seal, a red horse comes out. The red color stands for blood and war. The mission of the red horse rider is removing peace and bringing a war. The rider symbolizes our evil nature bent on conquest. Senior pastor Kim said that we should build the eternal peace with God through the temporary loss of our earthly peace. As for me, I lost my earthly peace after hearing that I should deliver a Sunday sermon, but at the same time I began to enjoy the essential peace in God. My second mission is to visit the churches whose pastors attended our Bathhouse Seminar, have an interview, and update the news of their spiritual growth. Through this ministry, I heard a pastor confessing that his church members, against whom he hold a grudge after losing his peaceful relationship with them actually helped him face the reality of his faith and his prosperity gospel. After realizing his sins, he thanked them for taking all the trouble for his salvation. What bountiful fruits of our QT ministry! This is the grace of Gods redemption history.
3. The grace comes through our famine. When Jesus breaks the third seal, a black horse and its rider come. The black color stands for extreme famine, as specified by a quart of wheat and three quarts of barley for a days wages on the scales. Despite this extreme famine, however, God lets us survive by keeping our oil and wine untouched. When I was young, my family moved from Incheon to a small village in Daegu because of my fathers bankruptcy. We lived in a container. It was a shock to me, an adolescent boy. In school, I was an outcast. After coming back home, I had to help my parents work. Exhausted, I used to pray desperately to God. In those days, I was entirely deprived of my peace, yet through that famine, I was able to make a peaceful relationship with God, which was a great blessing to me. If we come forward to God in the midst of famine, He will surely hold our hand and walk with us through the tunnel of our trial. We Christians life journey is on the course of Gods redemption history. On that track, we might encounter cruel conquerors, miserable loss of peace, and extreme famine. But its neither a curse nor a fatal wound. May God bless us all to enjoy the essential and eternal peace with our Lord!
Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, 'A quart of wheat for a days wages, and three quarts of barley for a days wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!' (Rev. 6:6b)
