29 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! 33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. 37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
Matthew 23:29-39
Prayer
Father! Today we are historically distant from Jesus. History has distance, but there is no distance in the world of the heart. Let us not become people who believe in the historical Jesus. Let us become people who know and believe in Jesus in our hearts.
Since we have already seen Your word, let us be able to picture Jesus' humble image. Let us grieve in our hearts and bow to that countenance. Let us be filled with the anguished, sincere and awe- stricken mind that can hear Jesus' words of appeal to his people at the time.
Let us be able to call You Father without self-consciousness. Let us be able to feel the rapture of Jesus' grace without our noticing and be thankful. Make us grieve over the fact that the Heavens were supposed to protect and support the Messiah You sent but that he went through a miserable course upon his appearance on earth. Let us be able to care for the work he did. Let us feel anguished at the mistreatment he received. Let us be able to inherit in our hearts today the works that our ancestors did not fulfill. Let us be able to comfort and console Jesus in their place. Make us his reciprocal objects of hope.
We know how miserable Jesus was. He had to lament when he looked at his people. He could only weep bitterly when he saw the state of the religious body. People did not recognize the fact that he had to take responsibility for Heaven's dispensation.
No one knew his heart as he wandered the mountains alone at night, leaving humanity behind. They should have felt the pain of his circumstances. He had to leave behind the church that should have shared his heart and the people who should have lived with him. Today let us not become like those who follow and believe in Jesus without knowing him. Let us be able to cry infinitely for him, holding onto his heart. Let us be concerned for him. We know that we must become people who do not refuse even death for his sake.
Why did Your sons and daughters come to this place today? We do not teach any knowledge or scholarship of the world here. We have gathered here to find the resting place for our minds. We have gathered to connect with Your original heart and to become people who must go the way of Your will, who must bow to You, and who must share our hearts with You. If we have gathered here to repent to Heaven and to cleanse ourselves, let us not claim to have come here by our own efforts alone.
Make us know that without Your hands of compassion and sympathy, we would inevitably fall prey to Satan. Let us be grateful and thankful. We know that you have approved of this place so that it can create sons and daughters who are filled with the heart that says, "Father! Have compassion on us." Let the speaker as well as the listeners be filled with that kind of attitude.
We know that we have met here today as a result of Heaven's work to connect us to generations of ancestors and to build the one day of victory. If we feel something in our minds, experience something in our hearts and have a new determination, let us realize that effect was not produced in an hour. Make us feel that each person here was shaped by our ancestors, by the prophets and righteous people who made bridges and connections through the historic achievements of their work.
Even though each of our hearts and countenances toward You is different, let our minds move together. Let our hearts all be the same when connecting with You. Mold us into one likeness.
Let the speaker and listeners not have two minds. Make us realize that Satan is aiming at that kind of base, and that he is attempting to put up a wall of death in front of us. Give us strength and ability. Give us the protection of the Holy Trinity. Allow us to be shaped only by the glory of victory, the glory of re-creation, the glory of nobility, and the elements within us that we can be proud of. Let us feel only these aspects.
Please give the same blessings to each place, spread out in the districts where lonely members are kneeling and praying. I pray all this in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
God's Purpose in Setting Up Jesus
The short speech that I want to give today is on the topic of "Jesus Whom God Wanted to Find."
We know that Jesus is the only begotten son of God. God wanted to find Jesus for four thousand years. God found Jesus after the Israelites went through all kinds of conditions of hard work. Jesus was a person who worked hard to fulfill the will of God and the will of the people who wanted to attend him. Thus, the fate of Heaven, the historic fate of the chosen people of Israel, the fate of the age and the fate of the future were all entangled centering on Jesus. When God found Jesus, His purpose for choosing Israel was to be fulfilled. When God embraced Jesus completely, He was embracing the chosen people of Israel. When God could dwell joyously with Jesus, He could dwell with the people of Israel. It was the work of God to find Jesus in total fulfillment. Moreover, attending Jesus completely is the hope of the fallen descendants and of mankind, who are anticipating salvation.
To find Jesus Heaven went through all kinds of hardships from after the Fall until his arrival. In order to attend this one man, the chosen people went through a road of unspeakable persecution and the road of death in their historic course. They repeated numerous times the history of struggle where they fell down, stood up, stood up and fell down, and stood up again. This historical sorrow of the chosen people of Israel would have been removed by their clinging to Jesus. The sorrow of God, who had suffered to send Jesus, also would have been removed.
Jesus did come. Jesus came to this land and worked hard. Jesus fought for us in this land. He endured and fought for Heaven. He even went the road of death alone. Jesus actually did come for the age and the future.
But he is in a position of not having removed the sorrow of history and not having removed the sorrow of the age. For that reason today, two thousand years after Jesus' coming, he has to come again. This age needs Jesus to come again. The future also needs Jesus.
When we think of this, how much would God have longed to see Jesus as a person who had completed God's hope? How much would Jesus have wanted to stand in a position representing the dignity of Heaven on the one hand and the dignity of earth on the other? But Jesus never got to establish that dignity in its totality.
Jesus, having appeared to his people, probably longed to reign as King of Kings, the governor of all people and the crown prince of Heaven. Even if that did not happen, the Israelites, who had been prepared for four thousand years, should not have abandoned him, even at the risk of their lives. He would not have let go of the Israelites even at the point of death. But with death at hand, they divided and separated. Thus, he disappeared from the people, and he was in a situation where he had to depart from this earth. We should know this clearly. Jesus was filled with a sense of his historic mission and a sense of the mission to the age. Moreover, he was filled with a heart of wanting to save mankind, who were crying out as they were swept away by the wave of death. Was there a person who attended this Jesus, the Messiah, the only begotten son of God? There was no one.
If there is something that Heaven looked for from Jesus, what would that have been? If there was something that Heaven wanted to find, it would have been someone who knew Jesus. The person who truly knows him is a person who knows God. The person who knows God knows him. The Israelites, who considered that they knew God, were supposed to attend Jesus. But mankind lost Jesus. Heaven lost him, and he had to die, leaving his mission behind on this earth. We should recognize this fact again.
God Longed for the People to Attend Jesus
Today, after two thousand years have passed, what would the desire of God be? It is to find Jesus again on earth. We think that Jesus fulfilled the purpose of his coming on earth, went to the right side of God, and with the glory of God, bowed to Him in victory. But that is a big error.
When Jesus was departing, he sent the Holy Spirit to this earth. After sending the Holy Spirit, he has prayed ever since in the spiritual world to represent the heart of Heaven and to appear as God's original desire. He is praying to take responsibility for his uncompleted mission.
What was the content of Jesus' prayers? What was the purpose of his praying? What was Heaven trying to find through Jesus by preparing for four thousand years and sending him? It was victory, not the Jesus of the cross but the Jesus of glory. Jesus prayed to fulfill that will of God.
The question is how does Heaven perceive Jesus? How does Jesus perceive Heaven? How should the people of the future face Jesus, who wants them to believe in him? The way a believer receives Jesus, the way Jesus receives God, the way God meets Jesus, and the way God meets the people should all be the same. The place where people fulfill their purpose by moving with one goal is a place of victory and glory, not a place of sadness and pain. It is a place where all of Heaven and earth can rejoice. Heaven is longing for that one day, for Jesus to progress to that day, and for citizens who can attend God and Jesus as their greatest pride. This was the reason for God's sending Jesus to the earth and the reason for making people believe in him. But that purpose has not been fulfilled on this earth even now.
Therefore, he must come again. He must come again. Where is the garden of glory that Jesus built with his victory? Where is the world where God can rejoice? It only remains in the hearts of God and Jesus.
Jesus came as the King of all Kings. He came to deeply love, to embrace and to make an unbreakable relationship with the chosen people of Israel, the nation of Judah. He came to form an iron connection with them, where, if they died he would also die. If they lived he would also live. To form this relationship, he shouted and cried. But the people violated that relationship and abandoned him on the cross. When this happened the mutual goal of Jesus and the Israelites was not fulfilled. God tried to establish a turning point of life and death through Jesus, but that standard was not fulfilled in the physical world. Thus, Satan again invaded the world of men.
Therefore, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are spiritually leading this world. They have battled innumerable times for two thousand years. God's work was to find Jesus. But because Jesus and the chosen people did not become one, they lost him. Thus, Heaven abandoned the Israelites and God established a spiritual Israel and promised them a Messiah. After Jesus departed God promised to send the Messiah again spiritually, and He carried out a movement of restoration for the failed Israel. That is the two-thousand- year history after Jesus until now.
Then what kind of time is now? They say that these are the Last Days. What are the Last Days? The Last Days are a time when the day of Heaven's hope is near. The Last Days are a time when God establishes Jesus again and fulfills His desire. What is God's desire? It is the world that He originally intended. God longs for the fulfillment of the world of the original ideal on this earth through Jesus. Then, in these Last Days, are you who are living in the satanic world of sin prepared to attend Jesus whom God is looking for? God is hoping in the Last Days for a world where Jesus can have full dominion. The world should become a world God would want to show to Jesus. God has persevered for six thousand years, longing to be able to show off His chosen people and chosen children to Jesus. But this world became a world God could not show off to Jesus.
If Jesus comes to this earth again, he should reign as King of Kings, leading the people of this earth, and he should return glory to God. Moreover, we should liberate the historical sadness and sorrow and attend Jesus as the prince of victory. We should give glory to Heaven representing him. But the people of this earth do not know this.
God Wanted to Expose Jesus
What is the desire of God? He is hoping that a world of goodness will appear when Jesus comes. Then what is the desire of Jesus? As the victor of a good nation, he would want to rule over good citizens. By fulfilling the purpose that God desires, he would want to return victory and glory to Heaven. But we who are living on earth do not know that Jesus and God desire these things.
The Last Days, when Jesus has to come again, is the same as the time when God sent him to the Israelites two thousand years ago. The reason that God worked hard for the pitiable, chosen people for four thousand years, the reason why He guided them and led them when other nations were persecuting them and then handed them over to Jesus, was not so that they might betray him. The reason that God established the Jewish religion was not to make it into a religion that spearheaded the rejection of Jesus. In the same way that Jesus was like a lamb in front of God, the Israel people should have been the most obedient lambs to Jesus. Not only the Jewish religion, but also the whole race of Israelites should have said, "East," when Jesus said, "East," and "West," when Jesus said, "West." They should have been a race that died or lived with Jesus. God worked hard for four thousand years to create that kind of people.
When the dignity of the chosen Israel crumbled, and when God saw that Jesus could not find the children or disciples whom he wanted to find, raise up, and love, God grieved and wailed bitterly.
The citizens of that time did not know that the anxious heart of Heaven, which had endured for four thousand years, had exploded. But Jesus knew Heaven. He knew that God, who grieved looking at his situation, was a God who had persevered for four thousand years. Who ever knew the heart of Jesus as he comforted God, saying, "Father, do not resent my death. Do not resent my sorrow. Do not resent my agony," even as he was being chased, persecuted and driven away without a place to stay or a place to lean on?
The moment that Jesus died, the Israelites whom Heaven had prepared for four thousand years became Satan's prisoners. That was the moment when the chosen Jewish religion fell down the trap of Satan. Jesus, who respected the historical labor and historical achievements of the prophets, was appalled and mortified that God's labor had come to naught. He asked for God's forgiveness even while his body was being torn to pieces. But who knew that heart?
There were so many people who said that they were chosen, that they were attending God, but there were none who knew Jesus' heart and situation, his painful cries and his heartbreaking shouts. You believe in this Jesus who could not share his situation with anyone. You believe in Jesus without knowing that he fell down, grabbing his chest, as if his heart were being ripped to pieces. In the Last Days we must show this Jesus. We must show this Jesus to the Jewish religion. We must show him to the Israelites. We must disclose him to the seven tribes of Canaan who betrayed him and to the satanic world. This is the hope of God. Was there anyone in history who revealed Jesus in this way? No one. God's hope is to expose the true Jesus. Our hope is to manifest Jesus on this earth as the prince of victory and to attend him. This is also Jesus' hope.
There are numerous religions today. There are many people who claim that they believe. Do not boast. History has progressed through a course of contradiction. The flow of history judges from a disinterested position. History is connected with you even in a flash of thought. In this time when fear is invading you, when you are in chaos and are losing the center, with what heart, with what relationship, and with what value are you worrying about the sorrow of Heaven? Are you prepared to remove the great sorrow of Heaven? That is the issue.
Jesus Stood Alone Because of Betrayal
Jesus came and went and two thousand years passed. The Israelites and the Jewish religion exist. The betraying form remains, but where is the betrayed one? He disappeared. The words that Jesus left behind while dying because of the betrayal remained. Yet where have the heart and circumstances of Jesus gone? Despite the fact that Jesus was supposed to lead the fight in place of Heaven and to decide victory or defeat in place of the earth, what shouldn't survive remains. Jesus' foundation, which should have survived, does not remain. Meanwhile, the Last Days have come again. What do you think about that?
Numerous Christians all over the world will follow the precedent of Israel if they are not careful. Who can be confident this will not be the case? Who can guarantee that they will not repeat the same blunder as Israel? Nobody can guarantee that.
They say that these are the Last Days. The Bible says that in the Last Days people should anoint themselves, go into a secret place and pray. Groping after what appears to be true is not the will of Heaven, and prayers bound by formalities do not attend God. Jesus, whom God installed a long time ago, appeared out of nowhere. He appeared like a thief. The prince of glory appeared like a thief. He was not born in a luxurious castle. Who would have imagined that he would be born in a stable which smelled of manure?
Where did the Wise Men of the East, who exhorted people to believe in Jesus, go? Where did the holy men who testified that Jesus was the Messiah go? Where did Anna and the group under John the Baptist go? They all disappeared. Since the people Heaven sent all disappeared, the Israelites, who were ignorant, went away as well. The Jewish religion also declined. Thus, Jesus remained alone, all alone. God had attempted to establish Jesus by laboring and fighting for four thousand years, but Jesus remained alone. The numerous soldiers whom Heaven had led, the prepared religion and people were lost to Jesus.
The words of the Bible that you believe in today are the words of a betrayed Jesus. The apostles betrayed not only Jesus but also his words. His words were betrayed and Jesus was also personally betrayed. Did Heaven labor for four thousand years to establish Jesus just so he might be betrayed? No, not at all. Why do you believe in Jesus? You must believe in Jesus in order to fulfill the hope of God and to ease the pain of Jesus. Without caring whether you go to Heaven or hell and even if you go to hell, you should fulfill Jesus' hope. Even if you become the prince of hell, you should believe in order to fulfill God's hope. But people say, "Even if Jesus perishes and Heaven fails, all that needs to happen is that I go to the Kingdom of Heaven." This attitude is worse than criminal. This kind of faith is faulty in essence. Today the road of the Unification Church members is the road of setting this kind of Christianity straight.
We must find the historical Jesus. That Jesus is the Jesus of the age. That Jesus is the Jesus of history. The history that Jesus wanted to create was destroyed. The age was severed, and the future was also curtailed. Did you know that Jesus had nowhere to go? The Israelites should have laughed and cried with Jesus, holding onto Jesus, who came as the fruit of their historic connection to God, for whom God had persevered for four thousand years. The Israelites were lost to the Messiah. After Jesus passed away, did the Jews become true descendants whom Jesus could rule? This age is also losing sight of Jesus. Jesus came with the mission of Heaven, bearing with him the connection of the past, the present and the future. The fact that he even lost the past is regrettable.
If Jesus appears again in this age, in these historic Last Days, he must establish a historical connection. Christianity today must make a historical connection. How should they establish the historical connection? Christians of today must become the second Israel which can support Jesus with God's standard, not like the Israelites or the Jewish religion which betrayed Jesus. Christians know about the Bible, but they do not know the essential spirit of the contents of the Bible. They do not know the heart of the Bible. No matter how much they dig up genealogy or discuss things, if they cannot treat that genealogy with true dignity and value, they do not have the qualification to compile it.
Jesus' Real Parents and Siblings
Jesus came to uphold God's dignity and to liberate the numerous saints who had sacrificed themselves to follow God's will for four thousand years. He came to liberate the resentment of the people whom Satan had infringed upon in this world. He did not complete that work. He came to liberate that resentment, but he did not fulfill that goal. Therefore, he has to come again. We must know this clearly.
What does God want to find? What does Jesus seek with his heart's longing? He seeks the nation of goodness. He seeks the nation of victory, glory and happiness. Did Jesus meet good people? No. His brothers and sisters chased him out. His parents drove him out. Think about that. Did God establish the Israelites so that they could do that to Jesus? Did God set up the Jewish religion in order to persecute Jesus? Did God transmit the will of the providence for four thousand years and send Jesus to Joseph's household so that Joseph could treat him that way? Did John the Baptist eat locusts and wild honey for thirty years in order to serve Jesus in that way? Everybody passed away. Everything passed.
When Jesus came to this earth, the people abandoned him. Therefore, Jesus had to collide head on against Satan, who was following behind the people who had been prepared to welcome him. The chosen people should have welcomed Jesus and turned around and attacked Satan. But Jesus had to fight alone on the battle ground. The cross is the road where Jesus died fighting.
Jesus was supposed to give commands to the heavenly soldiers in the forefront to march against the world of Satan. But he was the only one left. Everybody disappeared. Where did the three Wise Men from the East go? Where did Anna disappear to? Where did the shepherds go? Where did John the Baptist vanish to? Where did Joseph's family go? Where did Jesus' brothers, sisters and relatives go? Where did the religion, the people and the nation disappear to? They all passed away. Since they all left, Jesus is praying again for the sake of his people, bearing the cross in order to make a connection, saying, "I have died for you." Jesus thought that even though everything passed and the nation perished, God would watch over him. Therefore, he went up to Heaven and is praying again for those people.
If these are Jesus' circumstances, what is his desire? He wants to find true disciples. The true disciple of Jesus' desire is also the disciple of God's desire and the disciple whom Jesus will testify to.
Did the disciples ever make a comfortable environment where Jesus could rest? Did Jesus have a family? When Jesus' mother and younger sibling came to him, he said to them, "One who lives by the will of God is my mother and my younger brother." In this sense Jesus did not have any relatives or kin. He did not have a family or brothers and sisters. Right? Thus, even after he passed away, he has been seeking in the spiritual world a mother, brothers and sisters, a clan, a race, a church, a nation and a world. That is the two-thousand-year history of Christianity. Because Israel was lost to Jesus and left behind nothing on this earth, he must come again. Jesus did not establish his family, his tribe, his race, his nation, or his world. Therefore, he must come again.
Is there anyone who worries that in the Last Days when Jesus comes again, he will suffer the same sorrows as before? Have you ever been his younger brother? Heaven wants to ask this question. The elderly people here, have you ever thought of loving Jesus as if you were his father and mother? Have you ever cared for the beloved son of God with the same heart that Jesus had for his people? Have you ever lived a life of faith where you lived for God's sons and daughters, not minding whether your bones melted or whether exhaustion and hardship came upon you? Someday Jesus will come to this earth again. Why would he come? He comes again to find his disciples, whom he loves. It is the sorrow of God and of Jesus that in the course of history Jesus did not find his disciples again; he could not gather them and establish the will centering on them. It is the shame of our ancestors and the shame of history that they left behind this kind of sorrow.
Today we attend the apostles and think that they are the ones who are receiving the deep love of Heaven, but that might not be the case. In fact, it is not true. Representing all mankind, they should have comforted Jesus, but they did not. They were people who had to ask for forgiveness after Jesus died.
The True Family Members of the Kingdom of Heaven
After Jesus resurrected, whom did he find? He found a party of disciples who had betrayed him. Who knew Jesus' heart when he had to forgive his disciples and receive them with happiness in order to carry out the providence of salvation? No one. This caused infinite sorrow for Jesus. Even though he was sorrowful, he had to go find them. He had to make at least a spiritual base on earth. Therefore, he had to find them again.
The apostles, who were chosen as representatives, betrayed Jesus; the disciples, who represented mankind, also betrayed him. This meant that all mankind betrayed him. That is why Jesus stopped Mary Magdalene when she tried to hold onto him. Humankind betrayed a sorrowful Jesus. Among the apostles, whom we regard as great people, was there anyone who did not betray Jesus? You who believe in them are of the same race of betrayers. Is there anyone who did not betray Jesus? No. Because we are a race of betrayers, we live a life of faith that repeatedly commits betrayal. We live a life of sin.
Since we have become a group of people who must be forgiven by Jesus when he comes again, when will the sorrow of Heaven end? We must know Jesus. Jesus tried to establish an historical relationship and a relationship with the age and the future. Jesus left behind a sorrowful story of tribulations on earth. It is the mission of the bride to carry the burden of that sorrow.
You long for Jesus to come, crying, "Come, oh Lord! Take my bag full of sin! Come, Jesus." Why do you long for him? Isn't it for your own wealth and well-being? He who establishes his own viewpoint or his own objectives when dealing with Heaven will one day become a betrayer. No matter what the viewpoint of a faith or ideology is, unless God and all things of the cosmos deem that viewpoint to be correct, no religion, no person can say, "Follow me." No one can say, "You must believe in our religion. You must follow this Church." Go ahead and pass by the Unification Church however much you like. We are in this kind of situation.
We must know the circumstances of Jesus. We should know the Jesus of God's hope and the Jesus of His original desire. We should know who we are, we who seek Jesus. We should not endeavor to display ourselves but should become younger brothers or sisters of Jesus who can receive the love of Jesus before our death. In order to join Abel, you must become a younger brother. Before we die we must become beloved disciples to whom Jesus can open up all of his heart. We must become disciples to whom Jesus can hand over everything and who can inherit everything. In the Bible Jesus said, "I still have a lot to tell you, but you are not able to handle it now." Today we should long for the coming of Jesus, the Jesus whom God wants to find, the Jesus whom we must attend, and the Jesus who wants to find himself. We should know and serve that Jesus.
You should not just become a disciple of Jesus. You must become his sons and daughters. Even the apostles will bow their heads to the victorious sons and daughters of Heaven. If there is a person Jesus can embrace, saying, "My beloved younger brother, my beloved family," the apostles will become his servants. You must come to the level where even the apostles can kneel down to you and bow. Some people might say that it is heretical to say these things, but those are the words of people who do not know. The word "bride" does not pertain to the apostles. It is not a word that is approved for the apostles. If Jesus had approved that, why would he come again? It is a word designated for people of the future. Think about it. The term "children" is not the designation of the apostles but of the sons and daughters of the future who do not betray Heaven.
Many saints have come and gone since Adam, but none among them could be a son of Jesus. There is none who can become the true, direct descendant of Jesus. That only happens after Jesus comes again. You should know this.
Who will Jesus look for when he comes to this earth again? He comes to look for younger brothers and sisters. He comes to find parents. He comes to find his tribe. He comes to find a race. He comes to find citizens. He comes to find a world. But he does not want to find the world as it has been until now. That is why Unification Church uses the term "family." We are not church members but family members.
You Cannot Follow Jesus Unless You Exceed the Standard of the Apostles
What is the sorrow of Jesus? Where did the three disciples who were with Jesus in the hills of Gethsemane go? Where did his beloved parents and younger siblings go? Jesus longed for them all. If Jesus' tribe had attended him centering on Joseph's family, Jesus would not have died, but he was chased out by his family, by John the Baptist whom God had prepared, by the religious body, by the race, and by his disciples. Thus, he had to die. Without knowing these circumstances, people say that Jesus came to die. If what I say is true, people who have been believing that Jesus came to die are crucifying Jesus a second time.
Jesus is looking for people. He is seeking beloved younger brothers and sisters. Where did my beloved parents go? Where are my brothers? Where are my relatives? Where is my tribe? Where is my church? Where is my religion? In order to dissolve this sorrow, Jesus has been praying for two thousand years, "Heavenly Father, please forgive us again. I did not complete my mission as the representative of the world. I did not complete my mission to lead the Israelites. I did not complete my mission to lead the church. I did not complete my mission to lead the tribe and family. Therefore, please forgive us." This is the truth.
What is the sadness of God? When God saw that Jesus was being betrayed by his own blood brothers, how much did He grieve? When God saw that even Jesus' parents, who had brought him up, did not know him but separated themselves from him, how much did God grieve? After preparing for thousands of years, God sent Jesus to Joseph's tribe. What did He feel when that tribe, which was supposed to rejoice and attend Jesus, betrayed him? What did God feel when the Jewish religion expelled Jesus? What did He feel when the Israelites betrayed Jesus? You should realize that God's heart burst in pain when Jesus was rejected by individuals, by his brothers and sisters, by his family, by the people He had prepared, by the church, by society and by the nation.
God promised to send Jesus again. He will surely come, and he will take responsibility for this age. You who are facing the Last Days share the common fate of attending the one who comes. If the age of attending him is coming, what frame of mind should you have in order to attend him? You cannot attend him by merely believing in the Bible. When Jesus came the people of his time believed only in the Old Testament and thus failed to attend him. Moreover, you cannot attend him just by blindly believing in God. People failed to attend the prophets in the Old Testament age as well as in the New Testament age. Who is to say that the same thing will not happen in this age? We must reach the position of sons and daughters. We must become a family of Jesus. Without that we cannot attend Jesus.
Thus, we must be sons and daughters of the historical God. We must reach the position of binding a relationship with God's heart. In this age do you think you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven just by going to Church with a Bible in your hands? Let's see where you will go. I have often seen this kind of image. Ministers who have been boasting that they will go to the Kingdom of Heaven are in a desolate place spiritually. There are lots of people like that. Do not boast. Even if they are devoted to making their church prosper, it doesn't mean that they are sons and daughters of God. Even if people respect you, saying that you have a Ph.D., it doesn't mean that you are a son or daughter of God.
Similarly, if even the apostles could not become Jesus' sons and daughters or his family members, who among the people on earth would be able to claim that he or she is Jesus' son or daughter, that he is Jesus' brother or sister? Why couldn't the apostles take those positions? It is because they did not recognize the historical Jesus. They did not recognize the Jesus of the age.
Thus, for us to become his sons or daughters today, we must know the God of the six thousand years of history. We must know the historical Jesus. We must believe in the God of the age, who is leading the 2.7 billion people who comprise mankind. We must believe in the Jesus of the age. Moreover, we must believe in the Jesus of the future, the future that is unfolding from this moment into a form that is 180 degrees different from what we now know. Do you think that Jesus will come and lead people just the way they are? No. He will overturn them. At that time the spoken words, the written words, and everything will be different. That is the essential point here. You must become a better disciple than the apostles were, a better bride than the apostles, and a better brother to Jesus than the apostles were.
God Wants to Establish Jesus' Family
The apostles who did not know the historic heart of Jesus betrayed him. They betrayed Jesus who moved according to the historical will. They did not know him and betrayed the man who moved with the will of the future in his heart. Therefore, for us to block and cleanse this history of betrayal, we must become younger brothers and sisters of Jesus, and we must become brides whom Jesus can love. We must become Jesus' family members who are able to live eternally with him. If not, you should at least become a citizen who can fight on Jesus' side on the battlefield.
God sought members for Jesus' family. After sending Jesus to humankind, God looked for people who could become Jesus' younger brothers and sisters and who could become members of Jesus' family. Heaven wanted this and had worked hard to accomplish it for four thousand years. Joseph's family should have loved Jesus and lived with him with the will of God through life or death. Joseph and Mary should have reached the level of the bride before Jesus arrived, but they didn't. Among Jesus' younger brothers, there were none who said, "Brother, where are you going? I will go with you." What happened in the Gospel of John? Jesus' brothers and sisters did not understand or believe in Jesus. (John 7:1-9) Moreover, did John the Baptist, who testified that the Holy Spirit came down as a dove from Heaven and manifested herself upon Jesus, ask, "My Lord! Where do you wish to go?" Did he ask, "My Lord! Where do you wish to live?" Did the chosen people of Israel ask that? Because no one asked Jesus these questions, he went to the spiritual world carrying much sorrow.
The Last Days are the time of removing this sorrow. The day when Jesus resolves this unresolved sorrow is the judgment day. Those who want to survive the Last Days, open your minds, and examine yourself with a composed heart. Have I become someone who can find that Jesus of God's hope? Am I qualified to become a member of Jesus' family? Am I qualified to become a citizen of the nation of that ideology? You do not know that Jesus is praying with this kind of an anxious heart.
We who are gathered here are traveling a difficult road. We are pioneering that road. We are doing things that never existed in history. We are saying words that are not in the New Testament. We are experiencing truths that spiritual people have not experienced. Our purpose is to become members of Jesus' family, members of his tribe and citizens who can dwell in his bosom. We have gathered here to fulfill that purpose.
Who should stand closest to Jesus? His bride, his siblings and children, that is, his family should stand closest to him. This is the family God longs for. This is the family Jesus sought. It is the historical desire of God to set up this family on earth. In order to fulfill that desire, we must become Jesus' siblings, his children and his brides. At least we should enter his tribe. In that way we can join the 144,000.
God and Jesus were miserable. Our ancestors also were miserable. They passed away one by one, but they could not hail the day of liberation. The day of liberation was lost. Our ancestors followed God's will, dying without seeing the day of liberation. We must know all the facts of sorrow, and we should be able to attend Jesus whom God sought, whom God wanted to establish, and whom we want to attend.
We are following the providential course. If we look at the history of the Korean people, we know that they were a pitiable people. Despite the fact that they went through so much misery, world attention is centering on these people. Moreover, Christianity today is turning around centering on these people.
The Procedure of Prayer
The time is coming for us to prepare our minds and bodies. A person should not do this preparation for himself. People who are spiritually experienced pray for themselves only at the end of their prayer. When someone prays in a spiritual state, he should first pray for God. Since it is time to meet the owner, he must pray for the well-being of the owner. Then he must pray for Jesus. When someone prays for God, he will know the historical heart of God. If he prays for Jesus, he will know the historical heart of Jesus. Then he must pray for the numerous people in Christianity who have fought for the will of God until now.
Searching through the footsteps of so many prophets from Adam's time until now, a person should pray, "Let me become an offering to liberate them." Then he should be able to shed tears, saying to the prophets, "I know that your sorrow still survives on earth. I want to liberate that sorrow; therefore, please support me." After that he should pray for his sons and daughters and then for himself. That is the law of Heaven.
Before he prayed for his people, Jesus prayed for the Father. For thirty years of his life, Jesus comforted God and prayed for Him, saying, "Heavenly Father! How sorrowful You must be." Then he prayed for the numerous prophets. "I was sent as the representative of your longings, your prophecies, your promises. I will do my utmost to live up to the standard that you have desired."
Jesus prayed for the age with a historical heart. He prayed for Israel, which had departed from the will of God. He prayed for the Jewish faith, which did not know the will of God. He prayed for John the Baptist, who did not follow him even after testifying on his behalf. Jesus never prayed for himself. Jesus prayed, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But do as You will, not as I will," and he passed away without fulfilling his desire.
In the Last Days Jesus can pray for himself. The Last Days are when Jesus can praise himself. The day when Jesus' sorrow dissolves and he comforts and returns glory to God with his heart full of joy is the Last Day. Jesus has not seen that day. He could not welcome that day because of you, because of humankind, and because of Heaven and earth. This is how miserable he is.
After seeing that our ancestors had this kind of fate, it is inappropriate to pray, "Please save me." That is not right. I don't know how you pray, but I do not pray like that. The prophets shed tears for the suffering of their race. Jesus cried for his people. Jesus shed tears for the Jewish faith. Therefore, if there is a person who is living the right course of faith, he should shed tears for the world, shed tears for Heaven and earth, shed tears for his race, shed tears for the church, shed tears for his family members, then at the end pray, "Give me the responsibility."
No one knows the situation of Heaven, which has not yet welcomed the one day of liberation, the day of fulfillment. Even though many say that they are seeking the will of God, no one knows the heart of Heaven and gives his utmost to uphold that will.
Now even if everything is taken away from us and even if the world rejects us and we are in the most miserable situation, if we can become a brother of Jesus whom he recognizes, a member of his family whom he acknowledges, his bride whom he recognizes, and his children whom he recognizes, then we will have fulfilled our highest desire.
Those Who Are Hated by the Sinful World Can Meet Jesus
Jesus wants sons and daughters to appear on this earth whom he can bless and who can receive his blessing as he says, "My beloved! I have worked hard for two thousand years to find sons and daughters like you on earth. My death was for that purpose, and the hardship and pain I suffered were also for that purpose. Now that I've found you, I'll pray to God to give you the blessing of Heaven and earth."
If there is that kind of person on this earth, he will be filled with longing to see Jesus, who has not appeared yet. He will not be able to look at the world without tears. He will be filled with sorrow, pain and anguish. He will be filled with sorrow when he looks at Heaven and earth. He will think that he has the responsibility to remove the anguish of Heaven and earth. He will call on the Lord, feeling unworthy even after sacrificing everything he has. This kind of person is very close to Heaven.
When Jesus was carrying the cross, his mother was heart-stricken and shed so many tears, following him. In the same way, when you think of Jesus, he who suffers for us even today, your eyes should be filled with tears. You should be filled with pain deep down in your bone marrow and flesh, pain that constricts your chest. You should say in every situation, when seeing something or feeling something, "I am unworthy. I am sorry." Is there anyone who has this kind of heart on this earth? No. Jesus stood in front of Heaven, saying, "If this race has sinned, forgive them with me as the offering. If the world has sinned, forgive them with me as the offering." Heaven is longing for a brother of Jesus to appear who can present himself to Jesus in the same way.
Heaven wants to see Jesus rejoice with his family. Jesus longs for the place where he can say, "My beloved bride, my beloved children, my beloved brother, my beloved kin! I have fulfilled my desire; therefore, let us rejoice. Let us rejoice with Heaven and earth, with history and with the age. Let us rejoice for the future. Heavenly Father, bless us." He must come to earth in order to find that place. But he could not, and so he prays in the spiritual world. We must know this pain that he suffers.
He is not alien to us. He worked for us. He suffered mistreatment for us. He died for us. Even in the secular world, people cry and shed tears for their older or younger brother. Then if the prince of Heaven has come to this earth, died in order to make the most lowly people into his brothers, can anyone not come to him, not cry for him? When will Jesus come and cleanse the great sorrow in his heart, saying, "My beloved bride, my beloved sons and daughters, my beloved brothers"? When he can cleanse that sorrow, the desire of Heaven, the desire of Jesus and the desire of humankind will be fulfilled.
If there is a family member of Heaven, he is probably isolated from the world. If there are sons and daughters of Heaven, they are probably ones who are hated by the secular world. You are responsible for annihilating the enemy's nation and the city of Satan. Therefore, you will be persecuted in the family when you enter a family. You will be persecuted by the society when you go out to the society. You will experience the sorrow of receiving persecution that the nation and world, Heaven and earth, and spiritual world will mobilize. Jesus received the same persecution. God received that persecution, and people who died for Heaven received that persecution. Therefore, the historical hill of sorrow also waits in front of us. We can attend Jesus after going over that hill. Therefore, Jesus comes to become friends with people in that kind of persecuted place. Troubled by pangs of conscience for rejecting and killing Jesus, one should be able to say, "Lord! I am totally grateful for Your infinite grace." Jesus is longing for and looking for a group, a church, a nation and a world that can say, "We are grateful that you have granted us the right to participate in the path where generations of our ancestors shed blood, to participate in the path of the future."
You can sacrifice your bones and flesh in order to find a lost child even in the world of human love. How about the heart of Jesus, who came representing the love of Heaven? Let us compare the most loving relationship that a person has in the human world and the relationship between God, Jesus and I. The relationship between God, Jesus and I must be greater than the most loving relationship between myself and any other person.
Adversity Is the Grounds for Heaven's Grace to Come
The world of heart transcends the distance of history. It transcends time and space. No matter how great an authority is or how fearful a power, it cannot block that road of love. Even the highest mountain and the whole of Heaven and earth cannot block that love. In traveling that path of heart, there cannot be any obstruction.
The central being of heart is Jesus. Therefore, he said that love will survive to the end. Because Jesus came representing God's heart and lived in the world of the heart, his influence today is expanding. Only by becoming a group who can say that Jesus' heart is our heart, that his mind is our mind, that we cannot separate from him for eternity can we go over any condition of the secular world with him. Then we can become his disciples and family. In the early church, Jesus' disciples could not become members of his family. The most important problem that we must solve in this hour is to ask whether we have become people who can freely go over that boundary line into being of Jesus' family; who can go over any obstacle and go forward for Jesus' sake.
Where will Jesus, whom God wanted to establish, go? Where will Jesus, whom God wanted to establish on earth, stand? If this is not solved, Jesus will have nowhere to stand. Jesus, who is supposed to come to earth, will have nowhere to stand. He must come and do the will of God, but he will not have any companion. They will kill him again. They will drive him to the cross again. They will cause him anguish again. That is why we must go through the heart of the family, the heart of children, and the heart of a bride. We must be filled with longing. Since the day of promise has yet to come, we must be filled with longing and possess a desperate heart. If a person can master his feelings, transcend any awareness or any concept and experience a certain force that leads him in one direction with infinite power, he will enter the Kingdom of Heaven without fail.
Jesus came two thousand years ago. He came to this earth. But who met Jesus? A person might have met Jesus centering on Jesus himself. But there was no one who met the Jesus who had crossed over the level of the individual, then the family, then the society, then the nation and the world and who could rule over all of Heaven and earth. In order to solve this kind of problem, you must be filled with a certain heart. You cannot solve this problem without entering the world of the heart. If there were something that could solve that problem, if there were something that could move your heart, you would be pulled into it. If you see a person coming out of a church totally vexed, do not go to that church again.
Our mind seeks the world of the heart. Even radio waves do not just operate anywhere. They operate where there is a receiver. They operate where there is a reciprocal relationship. It is the same with people. If there is a person with a true conscience, a true loving standard, and a foundation of Heaven's heart, then wherever or whenever he goes and even in an unfair and sorrowful place, he will have a way to survive and prosper without his knowing how he did it. He will prosper even when he is misunderstood. That prosperous way does not come about in a comfortable place. No one achieved an historical revolution, an historical discovery, or an historical success in a comfortable place. They began from a place where they met with death face to face. God comes to you in that place.
Therefore, when someone is about to face God, he will meet an incident. He will collide with a material problem, a problem with other people and a problem of the heart. At that time if he can turn and shout, "This is the path I will go" and goes forward, he will be able to lead people who are agonizing over numerous problems and affairs. Jesus was able to do that. When he was helping with the carpentry work of Joseph, he did not lead a comfortable life. His heart passed through a course of infinite hardship and sorrow. In a course that was historical, connected to the age and connected to the future, he crossed over in his mind all the hills of hardship and pain that mankind had gone through. Because he was able to establish a victorious standard in a showdown against Satan, he could proclaim that he was the Messiah. This is not written in the Bible.
The Value of Love Cannot Be Compared to Anything in the World
In the world of the heart, there is no variance from the heart of God. What does the "Alpha and Omega" mean? Because God is the substance of and the central being of love, He does not have an alpha or omega, a beginning or an end. True love cannot have a beginning and an end. In the course of the providence of restoration, heading toward the world of the heart, the ideology that searches the background of history and shouts, "God's heart is hidden here. Oh! This is the path that our race must take," is the ideology which will save that race. If there is a person who finds God's heart which flows behind world history and who shouts out that this is the way for mankind to prosper, that person will be able to pioneer the way for the salvation of this world. Moreover, if there is a person who can proclaim that the heart of the cosmos, Heaven and earth, the spiritual world, and everything is his, that person would be the Christ who has come again. Then the beginning and re-creation of Heaven and earth, the history of completion will unfold.
It is our hope and our life of faith to seek out this world. Since you must travel that path, you must decide the direction of heart. Ultimately, you must decide the direction of your heart. You must love God and Jesus more than you love anything else in the world. You must love the world that Jesus loved. You must be able to love the people that Jesus loved. After loving something bigger than oneself, if there is anything left, then one should think of oneself. But the opposite trend is happening today. People think that it doesn't matter whether the nation collapses, the world perishes or Heaven grieves. "As long as my children and I do not perish, it's fine." This is upside down thinking.
In order to cut away from this, Jesus said that the members of your family are your enemies. For the sake of the public will, you must abandon private feelings. The person who acts for the sake of the group that he belongs to more than he acts for his family is a loyal subject of that group. Furthermore, if he sacrifices for the group as well as for nation, he is a loyal subject of that nation. Moreover, if there is a person who dies for the sake of the public ideology of the world instead of just his nation, he might be a traitor to his nation but he is a loyal subject of the world. Furthermore, if there is a person who goes over the world and lives for the sake of God, he is the greatest loyal subject. Jesus is an example of that kind of person.
The greatest standard of the happiness that is granted to man is being a true servant of God, a true loyal subject of God and a true, filial son and daughter of God. These are the words of God's grace. What do you think? Have you become God's loyal subject, filial sons and daughters whom He can recognize? You must step over your family, your nation, and this world and seek God. You must go with high spirits. Jesus went that course with a commanding spirit.
If my family opposes me, I must thrust through that family. If my people oppose me, then I must dig through that people. If my nation opposes me, then I must go through that nation. If the world opposes me, I must go through the world. If numerous evil spirits in the spiritual world oppose me, I must have the desperate heart to dig through that opposition. The problem is whether we have that heart. Even Satan's iron net will be withdrawn when it faces that heart. Only the sons and daughters who can shout, "Father! I love You more than anybody. I love You more than the world. I love You just as Jesus loved you," can become Jesus' brides. If those kinds of sons and daughters appear, will Jesus say, "Hey, why are you doing that?" Will that happen? No. Jesus has longed for two thousand years for those kinds of sons and daughters to appear. Only a person who longs for that kind of family, that kind of brother and that kind of children, and who strives to become that kind of person will be able to become the citizen, the family, and the kin who can support Jesus, whom God wanted to establish.
Even the failure to take on the historical mission can be restored if we possess a heart of love. Therefore, we must seek that kind of place. Love cannot be compared to anything in the whole of Heaven and earth. A person will not trade a handkerchief that was given to him by his beloved for a million pieces of gold. No matter how small the number, how great it would be if there are sons and daughters of God who are connected in their hearts with Jesus; sons and daughters who can even move Jesus to the bone, who can comprehend the world of hope that Jesus desires, who can make God rest and who can bow to Him.
Jesus longed for family members who can bow to God alongside of him. He fought for two thousand years to establish that standard on earth. God sent Jesus so that He could watch mankind living together with Jesus. We must ask ourselves whether we have become people with hearts bursting with the desire to go over the level of the individual, go over the sorrow of the people, go over the hill of worldwide sorrow and connect with Heaven for this purpose. Whether we have that heart or not will determine whether we attend Jesus correctly and whether we will be able to support Jesus to become the Jesus God wanted to find.
Prayer
Father! We are unworthy to receive Your grace. As time passes, man should discover more and more that he is unworthy and weep bitterly about the sorrow of Heaven. But the love of Heaven remains the love of Heaven, and the heart of the people remains only as the heart of the people. Each person goes through a course of life where he fights with others and lives an upside down life. Please forgive us.
We realize that Jesus established a connection of rejoicing, centering on the love of Heaven, going over the love of men. We beseech You that we may become Jesus' true disciples, true family, true children, and true brides who can find that relationship with Heaven.
In that way we can support Jesus whom You wanted to establish. We can dissolve Jesus' historical sorrow, and we can cleanse the mistakes of the generations of our ancestors in one generation. We pray that we can become family members of Heaven and children of Heaven who attend Jesus with this attitude.
Father, if what we feel began from Heaven, let it not disappear from our mind for eternity. Let it linger in our heads forever. Let that life force stay with us. If we must surely go this way, please guide us vertically, transcending time and space. Please take direct control over us.
Be with us forever with Your words. Bless us that in the course of battle to win victory we can keep pace with the providence; that we can give our utmost effort and devote our utmost loyalty to You. I pray all these things in the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.
