[The Problem to by Solved by the Holy Spirit]
Acts 18:12-17
Even if we become the people of the Holy Spirit through the advice of the Holy Spirit, problems keep occurring. What is the problem of the Holy Spirit?
First, a problem of unification.
The Jews could not be united ever, but to attack Paul, they used their social ranks, powers, talents and even the laws of Roman Empire. Justice cannot be found in this. Everything will fall when the power is wielded at home and work. A famous political philosopher Michael Sandel pointed out that the values of meritocracy had problems. He said that an ideal democracy must pursue an equality of opportunity which starts when a public place for many classes of people including the wealthy and the poor could meet is reserved. However, without being aware of ones sin, there cannot be any meetings without discrimination. I think the small groups at Wooridle church is the place where Sandels theory is practiced: people bring their problems of the Holy Spirit here and share with others. The poor, the wealthy, the educated, and the ignorant all have problems continuously, but the only way to understand each other is to know that one, himself or herself, is a sinner. The community where people give and receive love in any situation and remind a person how valuable he is continuously is following, I want to name it, the communitarianism of the Gospel, not just communitarianism as Sandel calls it. Elusive problems are unable to reveal our sinful nature ever. Only when all the problems come together, united, can we realize our sin. All the problems that attack us are the problems of the Holy spirit. We can be saved if we repent or be destroyed if we do not repent in the same problems. If we hear the Word among the problems, they will be problems of the Holy Spirit. The accusations of the Jews on Paul were untidy. When we look into the problems attacking us, we will find out that they are nothing of greatness. It is not about the severeness of the sin but about if we have met Jesus through the problem.
Second, God will send an unexpected help.
Paul was about to speak for the new believers in Corinth and the churches of Achaia and Macedonia, not for himself. Then an unexpected figure, Gallio, came up and answered in place of Paul. When we try to speak for the salvation of others, not to prove our righteousness, God sometimes sends a speaker in our stead. And surprisingly, Gallio dismissed the case and claimed Paul to be innocent. This became an important precedent. We see that God let Paul be beaten and imprisoned but also be found innocent. Is getting beaten a curse and being found innocent a blessing? The reason we read the Bible in order is that we would know that everything is Gods plan and order. It will not be a problem of the Holy Spirit if we continue to think good is good and bad is bad. It is not an exaggeration to say that the role of Gallio on this earth was to dismiss Pauls case. This surprising ruling of Gallio became a great help to Paul in evangelizing. In this evil and corrupt generation, Wooridle Church has been running the race to carry out the mission of meditation on the Word and keeping the families together for 18 years. And I think that God sent us unexpected help from time to time to help our meditation and the families. We only can be silent when we put down ourselves, and that is the martyrdom in this generation. To put down our ego, we have to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and then all of our problems will be turned to that of the Holy Spirit.
Third, it is not about words and names and law.
This means that if the problem is about our own words, names, and law, it is our problem. But if it is about the words, names, and law of salvation, the Holy Spirit will take care of it. If we are aware of this, we will discern if a problem is about the Holy Spirit or us. But we are obsessed with the words, names, and the law. We divorce because of a word, we become furious for a name, and we become enraged for an unreasonable law. This is a testimony of a deaconess whose husband had all sorts of addictions, used violent languages, violence, and had an affair with a barmaid at a karaoke. The words barmaid and karaoke are forbidden at their house. But last week, her husband drank for the first time in two years and spent a huge amount of money on a barmaid, and he did not show even a bit of regret. So the wife accused him of betraying her, and the husband threw a chair and a fan, enraged by her words. He even hit her and threatened her with a knife, and the police investigated him. However, when she was taking THINK training, she realized that she was the one to apologize as she had a bit more faith than he did. So she gathered up her courage and apologized to him, telling him that she was sorry for disobeying the given order in the family and for nagging. Then the husbands heart was softened so he also apologized. After that, for the first time, he read several books of mine and confessed that he wanted to shed tears of true repentance. In the end, the equality of opportunity is about seeing our sins and filling the problem with the Holy Spirit. As this deaconess spoke in the language of salvation and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit intervened and solved the problem. Another small group leader came back to Korea from his mission field because of his young daughters pregnancy, and he works as a janitor at the age of fifty. But he is still grateful for two grandsons, his house, his leadership as a small group leader, the indifference son-in-law finally coming to see the grandsons, the son-in-law who left the house sent a fried chicken coupon to her daughter, the son-in-laws will to get a divorce being weakened, and his daughters resolution to keep her family. His problem really became the problem of the Holy Spirit. While we have these testimonies every week at small group meetings, the problems of regionalism, political differences, the wealthy and the poor are solved. I think this is the solution for the world. I think that the small groups of Wooridle Church are examples of the communitarianism of the Gospel. Nothing in the world is fair and just but only Jesus is. Therefore, realizing our problems are problems of salvation is wisdom. Then the Holy Spirit will help us effectively with all His might.
