Sunday Worship Service December 29, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Isaiah 32:15
Hymn JBC # 120
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 301
Offering
Scripture Acts 1:6～11
Prayer
Sermon “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 81
Doxology JBC # 679
Benediction
Postlude


　Today we are having the last Sunday (the Lord’s Day) Worship service of the year 2024. We would like to give thanks to the Lord God for continuing to speak to us through His Word, for continuing to support us, and for continuing to guide us in this year 2024 too.
Starting in April of this year, I (we) are undertaking a bold (and c?) attempt to cover the entire Bible from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament in one year's worship message.
By covering the Bible from beginning to end, even in broad strokes, we can see that the Lord God has great thoughts and plans that are beyond our human thoughts and plans.
The heart of the Bible is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Bible tells us that Christ became a man, was born into this world, and died on the cross for the atonement of our sins.
And with Jesus' resurrection on the third day, God's thoughts and plans, and above all, God's love, were clearly revealed to us.

Each of us has our own wishes, thoughts, and various ideas and make plans of our own.
But the Bible shows us that believing in Christ the Lord God of the cross and resurrection and walking in obedience to Christ’s guidance is the path we should choose.
This year (2024), our church is walking on the annual theme “Standing on the Word of the Lord”.
It will soon be a new year (2025) and it is our hope that we will continue to stand on the Word of the Lord and continue to be spiritually nourished by His Word in the new year too.
For the worship message schedule, we have reached up to the end of New Testament Gospels at last week’s Christmas worship service.
In the New Testament, there are four books known as the “Gospels” (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) that describe the time from the birth of Jesus Christ to his death on the cross and resurrection.
And after those four Gospels, “the Acts of the Apostles” follows, in which Jesus' disciples (also known as apostles) carry the gospel of Jesus Christ to various places after Jesus Christ's resurrection and ascension to heaven.

Today's Bible verse is from Acts Chapter 1.
In the verse immediately preceding the passage you just read from verse 6, in Acts 1:3, we read the following.

After his suffering, he (*Jesus) presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
Jesus suffered (died on the cross) and then resurrected to show the apostles with numerous evidences that “He is alive”.
Jesus rose from the dead and appeared before the apostles with a resurrected body so that the apostles could actually see and even touch him.
Jesus' resurrection was not a dream or a hallucination, but an event that was clearly demonstrated to people’s eyes on earth by God.
Jesus' disciples were very surprised to meet the resurrected Jesus, and some of them doubted though, but they saw that their Lord had risen and received great power and hope again.

In today's passage, the apostles ask Jesus the following question.
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

The disciples, like the rest of other Israel's people, had always believed that their Savior would rebuild Israel and free them from the country’s oppression (the Roman Empire) that ruled over them.
But that hope of theirs was completely cut off, they thought, when Jesus was cruelly crucified and killed so they were in despair.
But then the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ appeared before them. They must have rejoiced to meet the resurrected Lord, and at the same time, rejoiced to know that their hope of “Israel's deliverance” was not yet over.
So they asked Jesus.

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
　　Jesus responded like this. (verse 7)

It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
　It means that the decisive time when their nation will be rebuilt and liberated is when God the Heavenly Father determines it by His divine authority (Not by man, it says.)
　We, as believers, are required to follow the time God has set and wait for important day and timing.
　We have many wishes and thoughts. Today is the last Sunday service of this year.
Looking back on this past year, each of you may have various feelings about whether what you had hoped for this year came true or not.
　Some may say they are discouraged and disappointed that they did not get what they wished for.
But it is precisely in such times that we are taught, through the Word of Scripture, that we should know God's will, wait for His timing, and trust in His plan.
　There is a divine plan that goes far beyond our thoughts and wishes. And God will fulfill that plan at the time He has ordained.
　Therefore, let us resolve again today to seek God's will and walk according to it, believing that there is a time and a season that God the Father in heaven has appointed by His own authority.
　The nation of Israel will be rebuilt, which means that, faith-wise, the faith of each of us today as believers will be rebuilt, and we will be given the joy of deliverance from sin.

It is written in today's passage that it is accompanied by one sign.

That's what it says in verse 8, and I'm going to read verse 8.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
　　What kind of power is given by the descent of the Holy Spirit?
Paul, who wrote the Letter to the Ephesians, prayed in that letter as follows

 
Ephesians 3:16～17
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

　It says here that when the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, falls, our inner being is strengthened.
　To be strengthened in our inner being means that Jesus Christ lives in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
　And Christ's dwelling in us means that we become rooted in His love and become to stand firm in His love (built up by His love).
　So the giving of the Holy Spirit to us could be measured by the conviction that Christ lives in my heart.
　It is also the work of the Holy Spirit, that makes us convinced that Christ is in our hearts and how precious and loved are we by Christ.
　And it is through our being filled with the love of Christ and facing others and this society with that love, that the Kingdom of God will be extended to this world.
　The Lord, the God of the Bible, first chose the Israelites and showed them His work of salvation. Eventually, the Israelites came to believe that God's salvation was available only to them.
　But when the Holy Spirit falls on the apostles, they are filled with the love of Christ, and they become His witnesses, not only in Jerusalem, but throughout all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, as we are told in today's passage.
　Beyond the boundaries of Jerusalem and Judea, the forgiveness of sins and the Lord's love, clearly demonstrated by His cross and resurrection, will be conveyed to all nations and regions and all peoples, even to the ends of the earth.
　And the driving force for the gospel to be preached in such a way is not the force of arms that one nation usually use to dominate other nations or any power such forcefully holds them down.

The Bible tells us that it is the love of Jesus Christ given by the Holy Spirit.
　　When Christ's love truly fills us and we live and act on that love of Christ, we will truly be able to understand others and Christ’s love will spread through us.
　And when there is understanding and compassion between one another based on the love of Christ, rather than through forceful methods of forcing the other to give in to one's demands, then anything new or changes that comes from it, and that event, will be truly powerful one.
　In today's passage, Jesus ascends from the presence of his disciples into heaven with the promise, “In time I will return.”
　Now in our eyes, Jesus is invisible, but He lives in us by His Holy Spirit, as He promised, and fills us with His love.
　I believe that each of us and our churches have experienced various failures and setbacks this past year. On the other hand, I believe that there were also accomplishments and many joys and blessings.
　Let us have the confidence given us by the Holy Spirit. The Lord's great plan will be fulfilled at the time and in the season that He has appointed. Let us believe that we are alive in such a time of the Lord, such a time of God.
　And let us hope and pray that the Lord's Holy Spirit will be given to us more abundantly and that we, filled with His love, will be used more and more as vessels to convey His love to the world.

 

Sunday Worship Service December 22, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Isaiah 9:2 (NIV)
Lighting of the Advent Candle
Hymn JBC # 157
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 301
Offering
Special Hymn
Scripture Matthew 2:1~12
Prayer
Sermon “The First Christ Worship”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 167
Doxology JBC # 679
Benediction
Postlude

　In the Christian church, December 25th is commemorated and celebrated as the date of birth of Jesus Christ.
In today’s passage that was just read out, it says “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod”.
Actually, the month and date of Jesus’ birth is not recorded anywhere in the Bible. Because of this, we do not know whether the 25th of December is Jesus’ actual birthday or not.
It seems that the reason that the Christian church came to celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December has its origins in the time of the early Christians. At that time in Rome, the Cult of Mithras worshipped the sun god Mithra, and held a festival celebrating the “Invincible Sun God” on the 25th of December.

The Christians believed that Jesus Christ himself was the “true Sun”, the only one who brings new life to man and the true God.
As more and more people in the Roman Empire came to believe in Christianity, the Cult of Mithras declined
In this way, the 25th of December was no longer a celebration of the god Mithras, but came to be when Christians commemorated the birth of Christ.
As such, although the date December 25th is not recorded in the Bible, that date represents the history behind many people choosing to believe in the One God of the Bible (rather than believing in idols made by man), and coming to worship the true God.

　While there may be no accurate basis for the 25th of December being Christ’s birthday the Bible does clearly write about the time during which Jesus was born.
As I mentioned at the start of today’s message, the beginning of today’s passage says “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod”.
King Herod, known more commonly as Herod the Great, ruled as the King of Judea, as a vassal of the Roman Empire at the time. (It is said he reigned from 37BC to 4BC).
As written in the sections following today’s passage, he was disturbed by the news that a new king had been born that threatened his position as King, he had all the boys who were two years old or younger in Bethlehem and its vicinity killed, leaving none alive.
Because of this, it could be said that Herod was a ruthless person without mercy.

Yet, we should also know that it is possible that Herod’s upbringing and being in the position of King may be made him that way, and that anyone could become like him.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time that such a king was reigning over Judea (approximately 2000 years ago).
At that time the Magi (or traditionally “wise men”, as they have also come to be translated as), came to Jerusalem (the capital of Judea) from the east, and came to see King Herod.
In the New Interconfessional Bible (Japanese), the Magi are translated as “astrologers (scholars of astrology)”. Perhaps the reason for this is that they knew that a new King of the Jews (Messiah) had been born by looking at the movement of the stars.

They observed the movement of the stars (astronomical objects) and could interpret what they observed, making them the experts in astronomy of their time.
Their knowledge was relatively advanced for their time, so they must have been the leading experts (scholars or scientists) of their time.
　 They came from the east, all the way to Jerusalem. Precisely where in the “the east” they came from is not written, so we do not know.
There are theories that it may mean Babylon, where the Israelites had once been held captive during the Babylonian captivity, or from still further east. If that is the case, the journey they took would have been thousands of kilometers.
Since we do not know precisely we can only guess, however I think we can safely assume that the Magi arrived in Jerusalem after braving the dangers of a very long journey over the course of many days.
The gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus who was born at that time is someone who we need to meet, even if we have to take on so much risk, spend so much time, give so much (or everything) we own, He is the exalted One we should believe in.

Also, the Magi were not Jews, but were from a country to the East, and would have been seen by the Jews as gentiles.
It may be that these gentile Magi became familiar with the stories of the Bible from the Jews who were taken into captivity in Babylon.
The Magi believed the prophecy in the Bible that the true King of the Jews, the Messiah, would be born, and they would have been awaiting this event with great excitement.
The fact that King Herod heard the news of the birth of the Messiah, the King of the Jews, from the gentile Magi who were not Jewish, shows that the Messiah, Jesus, is not just the King of Israel, the land called Judea, and the Jewish people, but is the Savior of all of us, of all mankind.
Before I came to believe in Christ, I used to think “Christianity is a Western religion”, that it is not something for us Japanese people to believe in.

Certainly, it is true that historically the Christian church developed in the West (Rome and European countries), but Jesus Christ was born in Israel as a Jew, meaning that it is not necessarily true to think of Christianity as a Western religion.
I think that when I used to reject Christianity because I thought it was a Western religion, I now think that it was because I had a kind of bias or obstacle within me (it could also be called prejudice).
The truth transcends the borders, ethnic and racial differences of our human world.
Even though the truth of God transcends our differences in the human world, is it right that we often value partiality and take pride in our national and ethnic differences in the human world, particularly those of the nation we belong to, over that truth?
We are all God’s creation, and were each of us created by God to have different characteristics.

The Bible tells us that even though we were created by God to be each of us different, God wants us all to know Him as the One God who made each of us, to believe in the God that transcends the difference of nationality, region, race and ethnicity we find in our human world, and to live together.
Let us continue to open our hearts and minds to the truth spoken through the Bible and listen carefully to the words of the Bible.
And what is fortunate for us is that now, in order to seek the true God, the Savior, and meet with Him, we do not need to travel for hundreds or thousands of kilometers like the Magi in today’s passage.
To meet with God, we do not need to go to Jerusalem. This is because even now, God is with us here in this place. Can this be true?

This is true. The Bible says this.
　 In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 18 Verse 20, Jesus says:

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

It means that when we gather together in Jesus’ name, that is, believing that Christ is God, coming together in the faith, uniting in heart and mind, Jesus will be with us in that place.
When we the Christian church gather together not by human thoughts and desires, but are brought together by the grace and love of Jesus Christ, when we give glory back to Christ together, Jesus is with us in that place.
In other words, if we gather together with faith in Christ, no matter where that is, Jesus will be with us in that place. Isn’t that such a great blessing?
Let us all continue to walk in faith, sharing the grace that Jesus is with us where we gather in the name of Christ, hearing the Word of the Bible together and receiving the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God!
And, for those who do not yet have faith and have not yet made the decision, we hope from the bottom of our hearts that you will continue to come to church and experience meeting with the true God.
When the Magi went to Herod’s palace first, they found the King of the Jews (Jesus) was not there.

Jesus was born as the son of Joseph the carpenter and his mother Mary, as a boy in an ordinary Jewish family.
Herod said “Go and search carefully for the child” (verse 8), and the Magi set out in search of Him.
When they did so, the star they had seen from the East guided them, stopping above the place where the infant (Jesus) lay.
They were overjoyed, and entered the house.

Let’s read verse 11.

On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
The Magi bowed down to the infant they found there, worshipped Him, and presented Him with the treasures they had brought
Gold is said to symbolize an offering to the One who is King, and frankincense (a perfume made from the sap of certain trees) symbolizes an offering to the One who is the High Priest connecting God and man.
And myrrh was a preservative used to prevent the bodies of the dead from decaying, so it could be said to symbolize Christ’s eventual death on the cross for the atonement of sins for all.
In this way, at that time, the Magi presented the treasures they had brought to One who is the true King, the One who is the High Priest connecting God and man, the One who gave His life for us, that is who they gave their treasures to.

It could also be said that at that time, they were the first to give their worship to Christ.

In what way do we worship Christ? Do we believe in Christ with our hearts, praise Him, and present our treasures to Him?
The one who is God was born as a man. That One is Jesus Christ. He did this to forgive us our sins and grant us salvation.
Let us believe in, rejoice and be thankful that Christ was born into our world for us this way.
Let us continue meeting together in Christ’s name, offering to Jesus the best of what we have, starting with our whole selves, continuing to offer our worship to the true Christ,
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” The gracious blessing from Jesus in these words will always remain true and will continue to be a reality for us.

Sunday Worship Service December 15, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Psalm 32:11
Lighting of the Advent Candle (Joy)
Hymn JBC # 173 O little town of Bethlehem
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 301 Amazing grace ! how sweet the sound
Offering
Scripture John 3:22～30
Prayer
Sermon “He must become greater; I become less”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 160 It came upon the midnight clear
Doxology JBC #679
Benediction
Postlude


Today is the third Sunday of Advent before Christmas.
At the beginning of the service, the third Advent candle was lit. The fire of the third candle represents “joy”.
The event of Christmas, that Jesus Christ was born into the world as a human being, is our great joy. The source of our joy is Jesus Christ.
Where Christ is, there is joy. Where Christ is, and where He is recognized and praised by people, there is joy.

　Today in our church, through our worship, we want to acknowledge Christ as the Lord God, praise Him, and share the joy of His presence with us.
Today's Bible passage is from the Gospel of John 3:22-30.
Today's passage begins with the following sentence

22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized.

Jesus went with his disciples to the countryside of Judea, stayed there and baptized people.
Last week, a sister was baptized in our church. Baptism is a ceremony in which a person confesses and declares that he or she believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and that he or she will walk as a Christian.
We, the Christian church, are commanded by Jesus to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to people and to baptize those who believe.

In Matthew 28:19-20, it says

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
　
Thus, it is a command that the Church, as a community of Christians, has received from Jesus to preach His teachings to the world and baptize those who believe in Him. (It is called the “Great Commission.”)
In today's passage, Jesus by himself baptizes people. Jesus took His disciples and went out into the various regions of Judea to preach about the Kingdom of God.
There Jesus met various people, preached the Kingdom of God to them, and baptized those who believed as a sign of their faith.
Having seeing Jesus himself baptizing people, I think that his disciples would later remember Jesus’baptism when they themselves came to baptize people.
I believe that Jesus was preparing for the time when He would eventually be taken up to heaven and would no longer be with His disciples on earth.
I imagine that when Jesus was with his disciples, he was teaching them by actually showing them “how to preach the kingdom of God” and “how to baptize”.

I am now serving the church as a pastor. And my current work as a pastor is based on what I learned from my own pastors (pastors of churches I belonged to in the past).
　I believe that the way Jesus himself preached and baptized was passed on to his disciples, and that what Jesus' disciples learned in this way has been passed on to the Christian churches till today over the generation.
As believers living in the present time, I would like us to continue to study the content of evangelism and faith inherited from the past, while keeping our eyes firmly fixed on the reality of the present time.

Verse 23 says the following.

23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized.

This John was an evangelist known as John the Baptist. John the Baptist was one of the religious leaders of Jesus' time in the New Testament who also baptized Jesus.
John the Baptist was probably a very influential and popular leader in his day.
However, today's passage describes a clear difference between Jesus' baptism and the baptism of John the Baptist.
That is, Jesus was baptizing by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, on His own authority as the Son of God, while John the Baptist was baptizing merely by water.
In John 1:31 and following, John the Baptist says, “I baptize with water. But He (Christ) who sent me to baptize with water baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”

　John the Baptist's baptism was a baptism by human hands (whose real authority rests with God and not with man).
We, the Christian church, as God's agents, so to speak, still baptize with water. But it is Jesus Christ who truly baptizes by the Holy Spirit.
We want to keep in mind that when we believe in God and are led to be baptized, it is the God of Jesus Christ who is truly baptizing them with the Holy Spirit, it is not through the authorities of churches or pastors.

　Let's look at verse 26 of today's passage.
　 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

　John's disciples were apparently moved by jealousy when they saw so many people being drawn to the new leader, Jesus.
John's disciples must have seen Jesus as a rival to their teacher, and they must have thought of Jesus' followers as competing with them.
John's disciples must have been frustrated by that“our teacher was more popular, and more people would be following our group, but now many have gone to the new leader, Jesus”.
This kind of rivalry or vanity is something we too all have in our hearts. John’s disciples’ figure would be the figures of ourselves too.

But John's response to his disciples was as follows.
A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.

We receive various good things from God in heaven. We receive our abilities, talents, and all other good things from God in heaven.
John the Baptist was convinced that it was God the Father who gave him the gift of evangelism or the mission itself.
John the Baptist found joy in simply following faithfully the mission that God the Father had given him, using the gifts he had been given.
Because they are God-given gifts, there is no need at all(nor should there be) to compare them with the gifts given to others or to compete for superiority.
We want to be those who can appreciate and rejoice in what God has given to each of us according to His plan.
We also want to treasure the gifts we have received and use them to serve in the missionary work of the Kingdom of God.
Furthermore, John compares himself to the role of a bridesmaid (“the friend of the bridegroom”) who brings together the bride and the bridegroom (v. 29). Christ is the bridegroom, and those who believe in and follow Him are likened to His bride.

　John the Baptist was shown that his mission was to prepare the way for many people to believe in and follow Christ.
John was convinced that his mission was to lead people to believe in Jesus Christ, not to make them follow him (John).
Therefore, the fact that many people (brides) were going to Jesus Christ (the Bridegroom) and receiving His teachings was a joy that John could not be more pleased with.
John says, “I am filled with joy” (v. 29). He says that he is filled with joy at the coming of Christ and at the sound of His voice.
We, too, are filled with the greatest joy when we hear the voice of Jesus Christ, when we hear His voice as the Word of life that gives us life and leads us.
Let us always listen to the Word of God, the Word of Christ, which fills us with joy, nourishes us, and gives us strength to live our lives.

Let us read the last verse of today's passage, verse 30.
30 He must become greater; I must become less.”

That One” is, of course, Jesus Christ. The greatest joy for us is to see Jesus Christ flourish, His name be praised, and He believed.
When Christ is glorified in us, when He is magnified in us, we ourselves become small and weak.
We are self-centered, so the thought of “I, I, I (me)” inevitably comes first. Even if it is not so obvious, our honest feeling is “I must be first”.
Therefore, when our needs are not met, when people do not do what we want, we are dissatisfied.
When we don't get our way, we would complain even to God.
But when Christ becomes the greatest in ourselves, His thoughts, God's will, become the most important thing.
　If Christ grows and flourishes in us, His thoughts become far more important and precious than our own.
Our greatest concerns will be “What would Jesus think of this, and how would Jesus want me to live”.
Let us have faith that Christ is the one who flourishes most in each of us and in our church.
Christmas is coming again this year when we remember that the One who should be most glorious among us, the One who should be most praiseworthy, the Lord of glory, was born into this world as a little boy.
Let us welcome this year, too, with thanksgiving, the Christmas when we rejoice in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world.
And Let us pray and seek that Christ may always be the most praised and most glorified among us.

Sunday Worship Service December 8, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Romans 12:16
Lighting of the Advent Candle (Peace)
Hymn JBC # 149 Veni, veni Emmanuel
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 301 Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
Confession of Faith
Offering
Scripture Zechariah 6:9～15
Prayer
Sermon [There will be harmony between the two]
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 330 Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight
Doxology JBC # 679
Benediction
Postlude

Today is the 2nd Sunday of the Advent period (about 4 weeks before Christmas) before Christmas to commemorate, give thanks and to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
The second Advent candle was lit at the beginning of the worship service.
The 2nd candle of Advent is filled with the meaning and wish for “Peace”. Today, let us together listen to God’s words of peace from a passage in the [book of Zechariah] of the Old Testament.
It is written in verse 9 in the beginning of today’s passage [The word of the Lord came to me] This word “me” refers to the prophet named Zechariah.

Zechariah was a prophet of the era where the Israelites were allowed to return to Jerusalem at the end of the Babylonian Captivity (an event where countless Israelites were taken to Babylon when the nation was overthrown by the Babylonian Empire)
The Babylonian Captivity lasted for about 70 years. Due to the Babylonian Empire that overthrew Israel being overthrown by the Persian Empire, the Israelites that were exiled to Babylon were at length allowed to return to their country.
The beginning of the [the book of Ezra] is written as follows.

Ezra 1:1～4
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:
2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:
“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.
3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them.
4 And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’”

The bible says that the Israelites were allowed to return to Jerusalem from Babylon for God the Lord has moved the heart of Cyrus the king of Persia.
It says that the Israelites could return to their own country, so then were also allowed to rebuild the temple that was once destructed by Babylon because God has moved the heart of Cyrus the king of Persia.
Meaning, the end of the Babylonian Captivity was God’s grace and was not an event that the Israelites could accomplish with their own strength.
When we get across such a message of the bible, we come to know that the good things that we receive even to this day are all gifts and blessings from God.

When we think we get something good by our own effort and strength, and think that we have accomplished it, we are led to a humbling experience that “everything is given to us as God’s grace”, by His message through the bible.
Let us always continue to be grateful keeping in mind that the source of all blessings is the Lord God.
The reconstruction of the temple that was destroyed by Babylon has begun in Jerusalem. However, the temple reconstruction is obstructed by other inhabitants that were against its reconstruction by the Israelites (that matter is written in the book of Ezra chap. 4)
Hence, the temple reconstruction was suspended. But, written as follows in the beginning of the [book of Ezra] chap. 5, the temple reconstruction is resumed.

Ezra 5:1～2
1 Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them.

By conveying the words of God to the people by Haggai and Zechariah who were prophets, the people rose and could once again start the temple reconstruction.
The words of God encourage us human beings, it gives us courage, hope and strength when one time we had setback or are about to begin something new from now on.
Even as this, we listen to and share God’s Word together through the weekly worship service because we are living beings that receive spiritual strength and spiritual food through worship.
It is through the Word of God that we receive true life and can live. By firstly listening and sharing the Word of God in the worship service, we learn that it is God’s Word that strengthens us and makes live, let the Word of God be as our strength.

What is the reason that we are to listen to this passage of the book of Zechariah (chap. 6:9～15) today, the 2nd Sunday of Advent?
　It’s because the words of today’s passage, though it is an incident that happened hundreds of years (about 600 years ago) before Jesus Christ was born, the event of today’s passage is one that predicts the coming of the yet to be born Jesus Christ.

Verse 11 to 12 says as follows

11 Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jozadak. 12 Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord.

Through the words of Zechariah, the command [set a crown on the head (make this man king) of this man (refers to Joshua the high priest)] is conveyed here.
And it is written that that man who is to be king is [the Branch] It says that that man is a small Branch, king that is like a freshly growing young branch.
He is not a man of strong image as of a large tree, but his figure is one who resembles a small young branch. A man like sprout that has just sprouted from the ground. That is exactly, our Lord Jesus Christ.
We know that Jesus Christ was born to Mary and Joseph as a Son of man (an infant) on Christmas.
A newly born human baby cannot live not even a single day without a guardian’s protection and care, a weak existence indeed.

It is unbelievable that the One who is God was born to this world in such a figure. But it was the Lord God’s plan.
Let us welcome as our King, the Lord who is coming to us in a figure as a little infant, just like a newly growing sprout, and let us offer Him the crown.

We hold the sin of being self-centered. In other words, we are the king of our self.
With Jesus Christ that the bible conveys as our King, let us cast off our own crown and return the crown of that Worthy King, to Christ the King.

And today’s passage says that (v.12), that King will [build the temple] The reality is, this temple refers to the temple of Jerusalem that was destructed by the Babylonian Empire.
However, in terms of faith, here, the temple that that King builds refers to each one of us believers. It’s because Christ our King is the One who builds us as His temple.
Each one of us is God’s temple. In 1 Corinthians 3:16 of the New Testament is written as follows.

16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?

Christ our King, will again build each one of us believers, and our church as well as the Lord’s temple.
I believe for some reasons, that there are times when we ourselves seem like to be broken, we no longer believe in the things (or our own self) that we believed until then, and completely lose self-confidence.
There must be even a time when having failed on something, we feel despair that we can only think, “I can no longer recover, and hopeless for my life ahead”.
To my idea, there is also a time when we don’t know where to go. However, our Lord came to this world as the One who rebuilds us as His temple.
Therefore, though we fail many times or fall, let us trust God’s Word of the bible that Christ the Lord God as our King will rebuild us.
And let us never give up, and live having hope from God’s Word of the bible.

Let me read verse 13.

13 It is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be harmony (*peace) between the two.’
Christ builds the temple which is us the believers, and He reigns over us as our King.

It is written that [beside that throne is a (one person) high priest], and to my understanding this refers to Christ as King, and this fulfills His work as the High Priest connecting God and man.
Christ as the King as well as the High Priest leads and rules over us.
And when we are ruled by Christ, “peace” (translated “harmony” in English) arises between us people that time.
When Christ rules over us and we worship Him as our True King, listen to, obey His Word and live, true Peace (Shalom in Hebrew) arises between us humans.
In that sense, ahead of Christmas which commemorates the birth of Christ, His coming who is the True King of Peace, let us now once again give back all the glory to Christ the King.
Let us offer a heartfelt thanksgiving to the Lord remembering the Lord God giving us Himself and the One who brings us Peace even to this day.

Sunday Worship Service December 1, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Isaiah 7:14
Lighting of the Advent Candle (Hope)
Hymn JBC # 148 Come, Thou long-expected Jesus
Prayer Time
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 301 Amazing grace! how sweet the sound
Offering
Scripture Romans 8:18～25
Prayer
Sermon “Hope for what is unseen”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 491 Have faith in God
Doxology JBC # 679
Benediction
Postlude

　From today, we will begin the period known as Advent (the time of waiting for the birth of Christ) according to the church calendar.
Advent is the period of about four weeks before Christmas, and the Advent period begins today and ends on December 24 (Christmas Eve).
On Christmas, we, the Christian Church, commemorate and celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ into the world.
The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ came to this world as the Savior of all people.

In the New Testament, in ‘the First epistle of John’, chapter 2, verse 2, it says,
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”

The “our” may refer to Christians’ who believe in Christ.
Or perhaps it refers to the Israelites who were first chosen by God in the Old Testament, and to whom God's salvation was announced.
But with the birth of Christ, it became clear that forgiveness and redemption of sins extend to all peoples of the world.

　In the same “First Epistle of John,” chapter 4, verse 14, we read
“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son (*Jesus) to be the Savior of the world.”

Here, too, we are told that “Jesus Christ has come into the world as the Savior of the whole world.”
The Christian Church commemorates Christmas repeatedly each year so that we may always remember, appreciate, and rejoice in the event of the coming of the Savior of the world, and so that we may continue to carry the joyful news of that event to the world.

Christ's coming to our world as Savior means that we are in need of salvation.
From what condition do we need to be rescued?
In verse 20 of today's scripture, we read, “For the creation was subjected to frustration.” The English translation (NIV) uses the word “frustration.” (while in the Japanese version “subjected to emptiness”

I believe that “emptiness” or “frustration” can both be translated as “disappointment” or “discouragement” as well.
The Bible says that we all live in the world with disappointments, discouragements, and unfulfilled desires.
The Bible tells us that the reason we live with an unfulfilled heart, dissatisfaction, and anxiety in this world created by God is because of human sins.

Through sin, man has alienated himself from the glory of God, the Creator of our world.
Man was originally created to follow God and live for His glory. However, sin entered our lives because we became self-centered.
Because we have become self-centered, we have become separated from God and from others, and we live as beings who do not fully understand each other.
One of the reasons for our suffering is that we, who were originally created to live in abundance with the glory of God and to understand each other without hiding anything from others, have chosen to live in a self-centered way.
Because we have separated ourselves from God, we no longer understand God's plan, God's will. Therefore, we are troubled.
We also suffer because we do not fully understand others, and sometimes we even become angry and hateful.

We suffer from emptiness and frustration in our hearts, which cannot be satisfied by the things of this world.
But let us read the first verse of today's passage, Romans 8:18.

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Those who are suffering for various reasons and circumstances may not be convinced if told, “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us in the future,” or “it’s not a big problem” may be hard to accept.
However, I believe that the writer of Romans (Paul) expressed himself in this way not to downplay the sufferings of people, but to desperately want to emphasize the splendor of the “glory that will be revealed in us” in the future.
We all have suffering in this world, and we all suffer from incomprehensible and unreasonable misfortunes. Yet, “there is hope at the same time,” today's passage says (and the whole Bible says so).

Today's verse 21 uses the phrase “bondage to decay.”
It is a state of separation from God, a failure to receive God's glory, and a consequent inability to truly understand and accept others. It is a state of separation from both God and man.

However, today's passage tells us that there is hope to be freed from this bondage to decay.
Although the words “Jesus Christ” do not appear explicitly in today's passage, it is clear that the hope of freedom and deliverance through Jesus Christ is described in today's passage.
We have suffering in this world today, and we may not always be able to solve that suffering very well on our own.
But the Bible tells us that there is hope that our present sufferings will eventually be transformed into glory through God.
I said earlier that “today's passage does not downplay of human suffering”. I think that can be clearly explained through verses 22-23 too.

Verses 22-23
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

The verse says that everyone is groaning and suffering, even those who are believers in God now (and even those who are not believers).
Through these words, we can see that God, our Maker, truly understands and shares in our sufferings.
　Beyond our present suffering, beyond the unfulfilled hearts in this world, there is the hope that we can be partakers of God's glory. With that hope, we can receive the strength to live.
To be partakers of the glory of God means that we will be made sons of God and our bodies will be redeemed, that is, we will be made alive to eternal life with the resurrected Jesus Christ.
In this world, we are imperfect, limited, and flawed. We are kept alive in an unstable and insecure state apart from the true God.
But God, by sending His Son Jesus Christ into this world, has given us the grace that through Him we too can become children of God.
Romans 6:5, which precedes today's passage, says

5 For if we have been united with him (*Christ) in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We can receive the status of sons of God through Christ and by faith in Him. We become one with the resurrected Jesus Christ, and the power and hope of the resurrection are given to us as well.
Today's passage tells us that “in this hope we are saved from the sufferings of this world”. No matter how difficult things may be, nothing can take this hope away from us.
We are connected to Christ and to the Church in order to share this hope of becoming sons of God and being resurrected.
We are building up Christ's Church to continue to share this hope with the world.
This hope is not clearly visible (or fully understood) now.
But it is a sure hope, guaranteed by the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was indeed born into this world as a human being 2000 years ago.

I think we all know from experience how joyful it is to wait in anticipation for something.
　When we know that there is some joyful plan or appointment ahead, we are willing to work hard in the present to achieve it.
　Even in our studies and work, having a dream or goal ahead of us makes us do our best to somehow endure the pain of the present.
If we do not have such dreams and goals, it will be very difficult for us to face our current suffering.
Again, there are sufferings in our lives. We may even wonder if there is any meaning to this suffering now, or if we don't want to live this life if it is so painful.
　But God has given us Jesus Christ as our ultimate hope and has given us the promise of hope that we will be made sons of God with Christ and eventually be united with Him in His resurrection.
　Because we have been promised eternal life with Christ, we can live in hope even in this life.
　It is through this hope that we are saved. We are saved by this invisible but sure hope.
We can believe that because Jesus Christ was born as a human being, the life we live has a precious meaning, that our sufferings are not in vain or meaningless.

By believing in and connecting with the One who was born a human being, who died on the cross for our sins, and who rose again three days later, we can have hope.
Christmas is the event that marks the beginning of that sure hope. Let us remember Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ, and together receive the hope that is in Christ.
Advent is the season of waiting for the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us spend this Advent season together, remembering the blessing of waiting for the Lord and being kept alive by that hope.

Sunday Worship Service November 24, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Exodus 19:5
Hymn JBC # 1 Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty!
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC #236 What can wash away my sin?
Appeal for the World Baptist Prayer Week
Offering
Scripture Matthew 28:16～20
Prayer
Sermon “Make Disciples of All Nations”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 213 Tell me the story of Jesus
Doxology JBC #676
Benediction
Postlude

I am very happy that today, as we begin the first day of a new week, we can worship together like this.
The freedom to worship in this way is something we should never take for granted.
Today week is the World Baptist Prayer Week, an annual event held by the Japan Baptist Convention, of which our church is a member. Today, we join together in prayer to remember the mission works and missionaries who serve the mission work both at home and abroad that is supported by the Japan Baptist Convention.
Religious freedom is not always guaranteed outside Japan, and there are many regions and countries where it is difficult to have Christian faith. (Even within Japan, there are areas where Christian missionary work is very difficult.)
We’d like to pray that the work, safety and lives of the missionaries and evangelists working in such places will be protected.
Let us also join in prayer for revival in these areas and places; that many people will be saved through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The God we worship and believe in is the God who revealed himself through Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead on the cross and resurrected to new life.

　Today's Bible passage is the final part of the Gospel of Matthew.

Let us listen together to God's message from today's passage, where Jesus' disciples met the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's read the first verse, verse 16.

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

The eleven disciples were Jesus' direct disciples and were also called "apostles." Until then, there were twelve apostles.
However, one of them, Judas Iscariot, took his own life out of guilt for having sold Jesus to the Jewish authorities, leaving only eleven disciples left.
I imagine that the disciples were shocked and saddened by the fact that their teacher Jesus had been crucified, and also by the loss of their friend Judas.
Jesus was crucified (executed) and died in Jerusalem, Israel.
And Jesus appeared to two women (Mary Magdalene and the other Mary) who had come to see the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week (Sunday). This is what it says at the beginning of Matthew 28.
Jesus said to the women, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me." (28:10).
The two Mary must have told the disciples what Jesus had said, as instructed by Jesus. The disciples followed His instruction and went from Jerusalem to Galilee.
There, on a mountain, the disciples met Jesus, the one who had been crucified and died and had risen from the dead. The disciples bowed down before Jesus.

To bow down also means to "worship," as that is how it is translated in the New International Version (NIV).
Just like the disciples who worshiped Jesus at that time, we now meet the resurrected Jesus and worship the resurrected Jesus Christ in our worship services.
　The resurrected Jesus Christ is here with us, speaking to us and empowering us.
Jesus promised his disciples, "Go to Galilee, where you will see me after the resurrection," and indeed he did appear to them.
Galilee for us today is the church, where we can meet the One who died and rose again, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

In the church, we meet Jesus, who destroyed the power of death and the power of darkness through His resurrection. We pray and hope to be a church filled with the power of the resurrected Jesus Christ.
But verse 17 says, "But some doubted." Even after seeing the resurrected Jesus, some of the disciples still doubted.
The faith of Jesus' disciples was not perfect. Humans are naturally skeptical, and no one has perfect faith. The disciples were no exception.
But even so, even to us who have such imperfect faith, Jesus Christ has revealed himself and taught us through His words. We too are not able to have strong faith, without any doubts, all the time.
We may sometimes waver in our faith and even doubt, but even so, despite our doubts and weaknesses, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ meets us where we are and teaches us through His Word.
Verse 18 says, "Jesus came and said to them." Jesus came to His disciples.

God took the initiative to come to us. We did not reach Him from our side; that is impossible.
It is not that we go to God and receive His words, but rather that God came to us so that we could hear His voice. Let us give thanks to God for this grace.

Let's read verses 18 to the first half of verse 20.

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." The One who has all authority sends us out to "make disciples of all nations."
First of all, let us firmly believe that the One who sends out Christians on missionary work (Lord Jesus) has all authority in heaven and on earth.
The One who has all authority sends us out to preach the gospel, so nothing can hinder or discourage us except by His permission.
And Jesus commanded, "Make disciples of all nations." Christians today also live by this command.
But how long will it take to accomplish Jesus' command to "make disciples of all nations"?
This so-called “Great Commission” to make all nations disciples of Jesus Christ is a grand command that is yet to be fulfilled.

This mission has been imposed on Christian churches across places and generations.
The Christian church has existed in order to fulfill this Great Commission (God's grand vision): to make disciples (Jesus’ disciples) of all nations (although it’s not certain when this will be fulfilled).
Even though each of us is small, and our church is also small, don't you feel inspired and excited when you think that we live for God's grand plan and mission?
Let us follow Jesus' command to make disciples of all nations; trusting not in ourselves but in God, Jesus Christ, who has all authority.
And of course, we Christians too, as disciples of the Lord, let us continuously grow and walk together on the never-ending journey of faith.
What does it mean to become a disciple of Jesus? First of all, to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Bible teaches that there is one God in three person: God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit.

　The Bible tells us a very mysterious truth that cannot be explained by human logic: God the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons, yet they are one and the same God.
We have been clearly commanded by Jesus Himself to confess our faith in the Triune God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and for the church to baptize new believers (those who have made a decision) as evidence of that faith.
At our church the week after next, one sister will profess her faith and get baptized. We are extremely glad about this and thankful to God.
Let us once again remember that through Christ's command, we’ve been given the authority to baptize new believers and let’s also be aware of that responsibility.
And Jesus said, "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you."
Jesus taught us many important things.
It is our mission as Christians to constantly learn about each of these things and deepen our understanding and faith, while at the same time sharing all of Jesus' teachings with the world.

When we think about it, it seems like an incredibly heavy responsibility that we could never bear. Indeed, it’s not a responsibility and mission that we can shoulder alone.
But we do not need to worry because Jesus has promised us the following. Let us read the last words of today's passage in the second half of verse 20.

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." - Jesus has given us a great responsibility and mission, but he also promises us such amazing grace.
God's Son, Jesus Christ, will always be with us, even to the end of the world.
The work of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ is not something we do alone. Jesus is with us now and always until the end of the world, guiding and helping us in our work.
The resurrected Jesus Christ takes the lead in guiding our lives of faith and our evangelization ministry (preaching the Gospel).

Therefore, let us continue to look up to Jesus with the eyes of faith and continue to serve as ambassadors for Christ.
As we remember and pray for those who are currently serving in various missionary efforts both at home and abroad, I also hope that each of us and our church will renew our joy and determination in preaching the Gospel.
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age” - this promise of Jesus will remain true forever.

Sunday Worship Service November 17, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Isaiah 46:10
Hymn JBC # 105 There is sunshine in my soul today
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 236 What can wash away my sin?
Testimony
Offering
Scripture John 19:28～30
Prayer
Sermon “It is finished”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 379 We've a story to tell the nations
Doxology JBC # 676
Benediction
Postlude

All of us will eventually reach our final moment, the time of death. How should we face the inevitable death that will eventually come?
　I believe that facing our own death leads us to seriously consider “how to live now” and “how to make the most of this life that has been given to us and how to live our lives”.
I once had a time of learning with an elderly couple of our church about the end of life.
That is because they themselves had wished that not just what they wanted to do about funerals, graves, and remains (ashes) after death, but they wanted to learn what the Bible says about those things and how they should think and prepare about their own funerals and remains based on their faith.

I think our sessions took place a couple of times when I visited the couple, and we read the Bible together and we thought together about preparing for death, funerals, and remains.
It was a very good time for me to rethink how to prepare for death in light of our faith.
　To think about death is to think about life. And when we think about our lives, I think that we often wonder ``What was I born for?'' and ``What is the purpose of life?''
Don’t we wish somewhere in our mind that we want to “accomplish something” in our lives. Even if we don't think it as “accomplish”, at the end of our lives, don’t we wish to be able to say “at least my life had some meaning.”
Today we would like to think about what we really should do with our lives, based on Jesus' appearance on the cross and his last words at that time.

Let me read the verse 28.
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

On the cross, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” And by Jesus’ saying “I am thirsty” it is written “so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”
These “Scripture” are the words of Psalm 22:14-15 (15~16 in Japanese Bible).

Psalm 22:14~15
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted within me.
　　 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd (*a shard of pottery).
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

John, the author of the Gospel of John, interpreted that the Lord went through the suffering of “thirst” was that the Lord God Himself was facing, through Jesus, the suffering and agony as described in the Bible.
According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus cried out in a loud voice on the cross, “Eloi, Eloi, lema, sabachthani” (meaning My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?).
Those were also the opening words of Psalm 22. Therefore, Jesus himself was thinking of the words of this Psalm on the cross as he was dying.
Jesus found the meaning of his mission and suffering given to him in the words of the Bible. the words in the Psalm, and he drew strength from the words of the Bible.
We, too, can find the meaning and significance of our lives in the words of the Bible. In this way, we can receive the power to live from the words of the Bible.

　There would be times of suffering in our lives as described in the Psalm. But at the same time, as in Psalm 23, "I will fear no evil when I go through the valley of the shadow of death. You are with me." Like this we also receive the Word of God, which is truly our hope and strength.
So, we want to always be familiar with the words of the Bible, which sustain us, give us strength, and guide us in times of trouble.
And what is the meaning that Jesus said “I am thirsty”? It is God's “thirst” to save us all human. It means that “the Lord has given us everything”.
The Lord God has given us human beings everything we need for our salvation, so much so that the Lord has nothing else to give, nothing to spare. He gave us all through Jesus.

　　Jesus said in John 7:37, “Whoever is thirsty, come to me and drink. Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.
That is if we believe in Jesus, we will receive living water that never decays, flowing from within us like rivers.
But for this to happen, the Lord Himself had to experience the suffering of total “thirst” on the cross.
Jesus Himself, who said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink” was thoroughly thirsty on the cross.
The Lord Himself, more than anyone else, experienced the suffering of the thirsty. He did this so that we might be healed and filled (fulfilled).

　Seeing that figure of Jesus, what are we encouraged to do? We cannot give everything in the way Jesus did.
But we can try to live a little like the Lord Jesus Christ who said, “I an thirsty” and continued to give all that he had until the end.
We, too, can try to live a life of “giving” like Jesus. Let us look up to the Lord who said, “I am thirsty” and gave His life for us.
We, too, should be aware of the needs of others, and if there is anything we can do to help, we should “give” as much as we can.

I will read the verse 29 to 30.
29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

In the last part, it says, “he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” . The Greek words for “gave up his spirit” is “entrusted his spirit” or “surrendered his spirit”.
Lord Jesus entrusted his spirit with God the Father in heaven. This is a figure of “complete obedience to God the Father” and “complete trust in God the Father”.
　The people there offered Jesus on the cross “wine vinegar soaked in a sponge”. This wine would have quenched Jesus' thirst, even if only for a moment.
It is also said that the wine may have had an “anesthetic (kill the pain)” effect, relieving physical pain.

Jesus accepted the wine that was offered to him. Jesus Christ, who is God, does not need the help from people.
After giving all that He had for others and after saying, “I am thirsty,” He accepted the wine that was offered to Him who was suffering, as if God were receiving mercy from people.
And so, Jesus said, all that needed to be accomplished was “accomplished” there.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said, when he sent his disciples, “Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is my disciple, he will surely receive his reward.”
On the cross, Jesus himself truly became “one of the little ones” and accepted the wine offered by the people.
We humans have pride. Often, it is our pride that sustains us.
We like to think that we are “living on our own,” and we don't want to be dependent on others as much as possible. (I think I have a strong tendency of that).
we can get rid of or overcome this pride, many of the relationship problems among us will be solved and we will be able to respect others as better than ourselves, as the Bible says.
And I believe we will be able to gratefully receive the help offered to us by others.
Jesus Christ, the Lord God, accepted the wine offered to Him from people in the midst of His extreme suffering. Therefore, let us also extend to one another even the smallest help.

When we suffer, when we need help, let us gratefully receive the help offered by others.
　The figure of Jesus teaches us that we can and should live by the help of others. In this way we are made alive together.
　We may sometimes look back at the past and at our present selves and wonder, “What was and is my life all about?”
But if we look up to Jesus Christ on the cross, we do not feel as if something is missing, nor do we feel rushed (dissatisfied), thinking, “Don't I need to do more?”
Because the Bible tells us that the Lord “has done everything, accomplished everything” for us on the cross.
All we have to do is look up to the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and know and thank Him for the grace He has given us.
And we are to share this grace with others, confess our faith in our own lives and words, and put our faith into practice in the way we live.
And we are to support others and be supported by others at the same time. We are not to live in a one-way relationship where we are the only giver, but in a relationship where everyone supports each other.
　Let us give and receive (be supported), and let us follow the example of Jesus Christ on the cross, and let us live together in the days of the new week, thankful and hopeful that all that is necessary for us has already been “accomplished” by the Lord.

Sunday Worship Service November 10, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship
Hymn JBC # 618
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC #236
Offering
Scripture Luke 9:18～27
Prayer
Sermon “Prediction of Death and Resurrection”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 230
Doxology JBC # 676
Benediction
Postlude

I think it is a common belief among non-Christians that “Jesus Christ” is one of the greatest historical figures, or one of the most influential figures in history.
　As such, Jesus Christ is generally considered to be only one of the great human beings. Jesus was one of the great human beings who taught people to love their neighbors (and practiced it himself) and healed many people of their illnesses.
　In today's scripture passage, Jesus asked the disciples who were with him: “Who do the crowds say I am?”
　The disciples replied. Some say “John the Baptist”; others say “Elijah”; and still others, “that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
John the Baptist was the one who also baptized Jesus. He was a then great religious leader who strongly encouraged people to turn to God (repent).
　Elijah was one of the great prophets of the Old Testament era. Prophets were those who were entrusted with the word of God and were responsible for conveying it to the people.

　　“that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life”means that there were people who were saying “This man Jesus is doing such wonderful works that he must be a great prophet of old come back to life.
　To be precise, "come back to life" would mean that he is like the second coming of such a great prophet.
I don't think the people who said it actually believed that the prophets who had died hundreds of years before Jesus actually came back to life.
　　But John the Baptist, as well as Elijah and other great prophets, they all were only human. They were not gods.
　Like the general idea today, many people in Jesus' time too still thought that the man Jesus was great, but Jesus was only one man.
Then Jesus asked his disciples as follows.
“Who do you say I am?”(verse 20)

“I now know that people are saying things about me. So people are saying that I am one of the great but human beings. Then who do you say I am?” Jesus asked.
To this question, Peter answered. “God’s Messiah”. Messiah originally means ‘anointed (oil-poured) one’in Hebrew.
It is said to have originated from the special perfume oil that was poured on kings and priests in Israel when they were inaugurated, and eventually came to mean “God's savior”.
　In New Testament times, that era in which Jesus lived, it was believed that the Messiah (God's Savior) who would soon come would deliver the people of Israel from the Roman Empire that ruled over them.
Thus, in Jesus' time, people were looking forward to the coming of the Savior as a political liberator (military leader).

　When Peter replied, “You are the God’s Messiah,” Jesus admonished the disciples, commanding them not to tell anyone about it (v. 21).
Why did Jesus stop his disciples from making such a confession, confessing that “Jesus is the Messiah”?
Messiah was eventually translated into Greek as Christ, giving birth to the words of confession of faith, “Jesus Christ,” meaning “Jesus is the Christ (Savior).
The content of the saying “You are God’s Messiah” was not wrong. It was true. Jesus was without a doubt the true Messiah (Savior) sent from God.
However, in response to Peter's confession, Jesus commanded his disciples, “Do not tell anyone about it. Why?
This is because Peter and the other disciples did not yet understand what “Messiah” really meant and what Jesus was going to accomplish.

　The disciples were expecting a great Messiah who would reestablish the nation of Israel and free their nation from the Roman Empire.
　But Jesus did not come to be such a Messiah; in verse 22, Jesus said
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

　Jesus spoke of what was about to befall Him, of being rejected by the people, of being killed on the cross, and then of His resurrection on the third day.
　Jesus foretold His death and resurrection by saying that Christ would first be rejected by the people and killed, and then rise again.
　Jesus said that He is the Messiah who truly liberates people (frees them from sin) in the sense that He, who is equal to God, saves people by offering His life.
　Jesus was the Messiah as the One who leads people to true liberation through such a death, where he wholly takes the hatred, malice, and ridicule of people by himself, and then is killed in an unjust trial by men.
　To truly liberate a person, Jesus said, he must first die.
Jesus foretold His death and resurrection in advance so that His disciples would be able to face the reality of the event when it actually occurred.
　Who do we now confess Jesus Christ is? If Jesus asked you now “Who do you say I am?”, who would we answer?
　Are we not believing in and confessing Christ based on the image of the Savior that we have willfully imagined and created for ourselves?
We always want to listen to the Bible and be led by the Holy Spirit to understand Jesus Christ as the Bible tells us He is, in His proper form.
We, too, wish to confess our faith, “You are God’s Messiah (Christ, the Savior).”

Let us believe that with all our hearts, and let us believe and rejoice that “this One has saved us from our deepest sins,” and let us continue to confess as such.
Jesus also went on to say: read verses 23-25.

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

　　Jesus says to his disciples, and to us believers throughout the ages and now, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
What does it mean to “deny yourselves and take up your cross daily”? The word “cross” is usually thought of as a “burden” that each of us bears.
　However, I believe that some of you have already carried enough “burdens” and are living under very hard and difficult circumstances.
　All of us carry burdens in our lives. Does Jesus tell us to carry an even heavier burden, a cross in that sense, in order to follow Him?
　To me, it seems very unlikely. When Jesus said, “take up your cross daily and follow me,” I think he meant that we should first know that Jesus first carried the heaviest cross for us.
　That Jesus is walking with us even now. Therefore, I believe that Jesus is calling us to entrust the burdens of life given to each of us to Him and ask Him to carry them with us as we walk and live.
　It is possible through faith to walk with Jesus, trusting in Him who is with us day by day (every day). Let us be convinced again today of the blessedness of living in Jesus' love and mercy.

Let’s listen to what Jesus said in verse 24 once more.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.
　We must understand what Jesus meant by these words, not literally but what it truly means. It does not mean that we would give our lives for Jesus.
　Jesus does not need to be offered a life from us. Rather, Jesus laid down His life for the atonement of our sins.
　When Jesus said, “lose your life for my sake,” he meant that we place Jesus at the center of our purpose in life.
　It means that we do not put our own wishes and thoughts first, but live daily with the purpose of living God's will as revealed through Jesus.
　We feel unsatisfied and dissatisfied when things do not go the way we wish or envision. We may even think that “my life has failed” when things do not turn out the way we hoped they would.
　But if we place the purpose of our life in Jesus and turn our direction of life to Jesus Christ, then we will live true life.
　By placing Christ in the center of our hearts and changing our direction to a life lived toward Him, our self-centeredness instead of God-centeredness will be corrected, and our lives will truly be saved.
　We can receive true life by being freed (saved) from the sin of self-centeredness and the misery caused by that sin and redirected to a God-centered life filled with firmness and peace.
To receive such true life, let us live daily according to Christ, confessing Him as our Savior by both word and life.
　Jesus bore the heaviest burden, the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and died on that cross. Let us remember this daily and offer our hearts of gratitude and repentance to God.
　Jesus is with us, bearing the burdens of our lives. With eyes of faith, let us recognize Jesus' presence with us, and let us walk in days of hope and thanksgiving by faith.

Sunday Worship Service November 3rd, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Jeremiah 17:7
Hymn JBC #339 The church’s one foundation
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 523 Jesus loves me!
Offering
Bible Puppet Show
Special Praise
Scripture 14:1～14
Prayer
Sermon “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 338 To worship, work, and witness
Doxology JBC #674
Benediction
Postlude

I think people need something believe in and live by. But what does it mean to believe in and live by something?
　When a person lives by something, it means that the object of that belief is very important to them and is central to the guidelines and values that guide their life.
　In other words it is an object toward which people live. What is the object that you live by?
　Maybe it's some ideology, some belief, some other person that you respect, or maybe you think, “Honestly, for me it's money”. Money is a necessity for everyone, indeed.
　Or perhaps you believe that the only thing you can believe in is yourself. Or, maybe you think “What do I believe in and live by? Nothing in particular. Simply being alive is all there is to life.”
For me, the object that I live according to is God. For me, as a Christian, God is One who has revealed Himself to man through the person of Jesus Christ.

　But that does not mean that I always understand Christ my God and always live according to His ways.
Despite being a Christian and now a pastor and leader of a church, I am still a weak and flawed human being and am not always able to obey God.
　In many cases, I am not sure what is really God's will or what He wants me to do.
　Nevertheless, God to me is One who has revealed Himself to man through Jesus Christ, and I at least aim to live according to His ways.
Jesus Christ was crucified and killed on the cross about 2,000 years ago. Today, we usually cannot visibly see Christ nor can we audibly hear Him.
However, we can still learn about what Jesus Christ did and said through the Bible.
　There are many different so-called“gods” in the world, but Christians believe that the One who revealed Himself through Jesus Christ is the one true God.

　The phrase “revealed Himself through Jesus Christ” means that God Himself came into the world in the person of Jesus, a human being, and lived a human life exactly the same way as everyone else.
　The Bible teaches us that very clearly. Even in the Bible passage we just read (the Gospel of John), Jesus spoke on the premise that He is equal to God.
At the beginning of today's passage, Jesus says the following.
　　You believe in God; believe also in me.
　　After saying, “Believe in God,” Jesus followed up by saying, “Believe also in Me.” Jesus was saying, “Believe in Me as you believe in God,”so in other words, He was declaring Himself to be equal to God.

　Then, Philip, one of Jesus' disciples, says the following.
　“Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”(Verse 8)
“Show us the Father” means “show us God the Father.”

I think we can all understand what Philip is trying to say. People often say, “If I see with my eyes, if you show me some evidence, I will believe in God.”
We usually think that if we can see with our own eyes, and if the evidence is convincing enough, then we will believe.
Jesus responded to Philip as follows.

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father　(verse 9)
And Jesus continues in verse 10.
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

Jesus is saying that He is in God the Father, and God the Father is also in Him.
　This may be difficult or even impossible to understand or believe when you hear it for the first time.
What Jesus is trying to say with the statement is that“God the Father and Jesus are one and the same and that Jesus IS God.
And the Bible tells us that the God who revealed Himself through Jesus Christ is the one true God.
I know this is one of the reasons Christianity is not popular. There may be some Christians out there who say “Christianity is narrow-minded because it claims there is only one God.”

However, as a pastor entrusted with the Word of God, I cannot dilute or compromise that point (that there is only one God, Jesus Christ).
In verse 6 of today's passage, Jesus says the following words, which are coincidentally also the title of today's sermon.

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus never said, “I am a way, a truth, and a life (implying that there is another way to God, another truth, and another life besides Jesus).”
As long as you are going in the right general direction, no matter which road you take or which mode of transportation you use, if the destination and direction are correct, you will arrive at your destination.
If you are on the wrong road, you will not arrive at the destination you want. But Jesus asserted that He is the very road to God the Father (there is no other road).
If a mere human being had made such a claim, there would not be such more self-righteous and extraordinary.

So, we, as we hear Jesus’s claim, are presented with the choice of rejecting outright or believing Jesus' assertion that “He is the only way to God the Father, and He is equal to God.”
What kind of God would go to such lengths to self-righteously assert His uniqueness and urge us to follow Him?
In short, God is love. The Bible says exactly that. In 1 John 4:16, it says, “God is love.” I would love to read the verses before and after together if we had time, but I encourage everyone to pick up a Bible and read it for themselves.
“God is love” means ”You are important to God.” God loves you and you are important to Him.

In the beginning, I said, “For me, the object that I live according to is God (Jesus Christ).
Upon hearing that, you may think that God is like a master or manager who simply bosses around human beings.
No, it is not so. God, through Jesus Christ, through His actions and words, is the One who speaks to us the words, “You are precious and loved.”
And when we know that we are loved by and are precious to God, we begin to desire to follow Him.
And when we know that God loves us, we are able to love (care for) ourselves and others. At the very least, one will desire to love others. (I’d be worried if you don’t)
I would like to urge you all to be open to the possibility that there is such a God, Jesus Christ, who loves us and urges us to love ourselves and others as well.

Lastly, I would like to read a message that one of our members from this church who passed away six years ago, realizing that she was going to die, wrote to the church members shortly before her passing.
Sometimes I still look back at this little note, a sure sign that this believer truly believed in the loving God, lived in His peace, and ended her earthly walk in peace.
“I am grateful for the joy and peace that fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ has brought to my life. I have lived a very happy life. I now go to our Lord Jesus in the embrace of the Holy Spirit (*the Spirit of God). Please pray for me as I pray for everyone's happiness. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.”

There is another message by the same person that I will read as well.
“Dear Pastor, thank you very much for all you've done for me during my lifetime. Please pray that I don't let go of Jesus' hand.”
May all of us here today meet the Lord Jesus Christ. May the love and peace of the one true God fill each and other single one of us here today.

 

Church Fall Festival (Nov.2nd ~ 3rd)

Sunday Worship Service October 27, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Psalm 107:9
Hymn JBC # 124 This is my Father’s world
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Hymn JBC # 213 Tell me the story of Jesus
Offering
Scripture Mark 6:30～44
Prayer
Sermon “They all ate and were satisfied”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 21 Worthy of worship
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude


Today’s Bible passage shows Jesus’ disciples returning to Jesus’s side after completing their work.
It says that the Disciples report to Jesus all about everything they had done and taught to people that day.
These were the 12 immediate disciples of Jesus, who are called “the Apostles”.
In Mark chapter 6 verse 7 and onwards, the section before today’s passage, it talks about how Jesus sent them out to do works.
The work Jesus had sent the Apostles out to do was to tell others about the Kingdom of God, to teach, and to drive out demons, heal the sick, and more.
The Apostles were chosen by Jesus to become disciples, to receive power from Him and then to go out to many places and do works including to proclaim the gospel, heal sickness, and drive out demons.

Jesus hoped that through such work of the Apostles, people would come to know God’s Kingdom (the Gospel).
Listening to the Apostles (Jesus’ direct disciples), we might get the impression that they were exceptional people, different from us.
Certainly, the Apostles were chosen by Jesus, lived alongside Him and worked with Jesus in sharing the gospel, so we can say that they were special.
But, when we think about “being chosen by Jesus” and “receiving power from and being sent out by Jesus”, we as Christians living now are the same.
We have been chosen by Jesus and led to the Church. We have been chosen by Jesus, and been led to profess that Jesus is Lord.
I hope that as Christians, we recognize and are thankful for the honor of being chosen only by God’s Grace, and that we walk humbly in faith.

The Apostles each finished their work and returned to Jesus. They reported to Jesus all that they had done and taught.
When I think about this scene, what came to mind was us as Christians in the worship service, having been sent out to our daily lives, to do our works, then coming back to Jesus in worship.
For Christians, we come to this place of worship and meet Jesus, listen to Jesus’ Word, receive power from Jesus, and are sent out to our various works and everyday lives.
With gifts God has given each of us, we carry the Gospel (the Good News) with us as we are sent out from here each week.

And, just as the Apostles reported on all that they had done to Jesus, it could be said that we also look back on our lives and works during the past week, and tell Jesus about it here in this place of worship.
We can tell him things like “Over the past week, I did this. And this happened. This went well, but I also made some mistakes.” We can tell Jesus anything.
There would be some people here who do this every day at the end of the day in their prayer time to God.
When we tell Jesus all about what we have done, I imagine that he is looking on us with a gentle gaze, listening quietly to all that we have to tell Him.

In today’s passage, after Jesus had listened to the report from his disciples, he said this:
　　“Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”(v.31)
　Today’s passage shows us that they were surrounded by a great crowd of people (people wanting Jesus and the disciples to teach them and heal them), and they were so busy they didn’t even have time to eat a meal.
Just like in this passage, what Jesus gives to us is rest. Rest for our hearts and bodies, rest for our minds and souls in God’s love. This is the true rest that Jesus gives to us.
We receive this blessing of true rest from Jesus firstly through our worship.
We receive this true rest for our body and soul from worshipping God, and then we are sent out from this place to our daily lives.
The passage says that Jesus and the Apostles boarded a boat and tried to go to a remote location, however, the crowd of people realized this and went ahead, arriving there before Jesus and the Apostles.

This was how much many people needed God’s healing. Everyone needed God’s blessing, and when Jesus saw this crowd, he felt great compassion.
Feeling compassion is not just feeling a sense of pity. Jesus feeling compassion for the crowd of people can be taken as meaning that he felt the pain, sadness and suffering that surrounded each of those people as if it were His own.
Jesus, as God who became man, is able to take our pain, suffering and sadness as if it were his own, just as he did for the crowd.
I hope that knowing that the God who can do these things is with us as our God brings us joy and thankfulness.
The passage says that Jesus had great compassion on them and began to teach them “many things”. At that time, Jesus was teaching them His words (the Word of God).

It says that Jesus looked upon them and saw that they were “like sheep without a shepherd” and had compassion on them.
A “sheep without a shepherd” has no one to give them directions in life, so they don’t know where to go or what to do, but just wander aimlessly.
So that these sheep without a shepherd could be shown a clear way of living and direction, Jesus taught the crowd God’s Word unstintingly.
God’s Word supports us throughout our lives, and forms our guiding principles. This year, our church theme is Standing on the Word of the Lord. Let us always hold the Word of God as our guide, as we continue to walk this path of faith.
Jesus continued to teach the people, but it was taking a long time, and the disciples said this to Jesus:

“This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
　Jesus responded “You give them something to eat”.
The disciples said “Are we to go and spend that much (*two hundred denarii) on bread and give it to them to eat?”(verse 37). They must have thought “There’s no way we can do that.”
As an easy example for the present time, two hundred denarii would be about 2 million yen. The passage shows that just counting the men there were 5,000 people, and adding the women and children would make it about two or three times that number.
When we are faced with a difficult challenge, we use our experience or common sense to decide if we think something is possible or impossible.
Here and now, if we thought about spending two hundred denarii on bread and giving it to these people to eat, we wouldn’t even need to think about it, common sense says it’s impossible. (the common sense says such money is not available).

However, believers in God rely not on the world’s common sense (to begin with it is not as though common sense is always right), but on God’s word, living in faith and the hope that “If it is Your will, it will happen”.
What did Jesus do in today’s passage? Jesus asked his disciples to check what bread they already had.
The disciples checked, and found there were five loaves of bread and two fish. To the eyes of the people, there was no way this amount could feed this great crowd.
But Jesus saw things differently. Jesus saw these five loaves and two fish, and to Him, they were enough.

Jesus took the bread and the fish in His hands, look up to the Heavens and spoke a prayer of praise, then broke the bread and multiplied the fish and gave them to His disciples.
The disciples made it sure that this bread and fish would be handed to all the people who were gathered there. All the people there sitting in groups of fifty or a hundred ate, and all were full.
This is an amazing miracle. Yet, that great crowd was five thousand people counting just then men, and adding their families makes it about ten thousand or twenty thousand people.
In such a large crowd, many among them may not have realized that the bread and fish that they ate had been multiplied by Jesus’ prayer and blessing.
It may be that it was only the Apostles who and others who were close by would have known that it was really Jesus who had multiplied the food through a prayer of praise, and that it was originally only five loaves and two fish.
When we imagine this, we might think that we also often accept the many blessings we receive (blessings from God) without realizing that they are indeed God’s blessings.
The world around us is filled with God’s blessings, but isn’t it often the case that fail to realize that Jesus is blessing us abundantly and take these blessings for granted?
Let us open the eyes of our faith and consider the blessings that God is pouring out on us every day, even in this very moment.
If we believe this, these blessings from God become our own. Then, it is God’s hope that these blessings do not stop with just us, but flow through each of us and are passed on to others.
Let us go forward as believers and a church that is aware of God’s blessings that Jesus gives us, sharing these blessings with each other, and passing these blessings on to our neighbors and others abundantly.

Sunday Worship Service October 20, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship Isaiah 25:6
Hymn JBC # 26 We praise You, O God, our Redeemer
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 213 Tell me the story of Jesus
Testimonies
Offering
Scripture Luke 14:15～24
Prayer
Sermon “The parable of the great banquet”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 521 I’d rather have Jesus
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude


Today’s bible passage is Luke 14:15-24, and in the New Interconfessional Translation Bible (Japanese) it has the heading:“the Parable of the Great Banquet.”
A similar story to this is written in Matthew 22:1-20. In Matthew it mentions that the banquet was a wedding feast a king was holding for the prince.
In Matthew it mentions that those who were invited to the wedding ignored the invitations, and some cruel people seized the king’s messenger who brought the invitation, beat them, and killed them.
A common point between what is written in Matthew vs. Luke is that the banquet (or wedding feast) was prepared by the host (or king). Another point is that the people invited refused the invitation.
In each of the passages in Matthew and Luke, what exactly are the people who refuse the invitations to the banquet (or wedding feast) meant to portray? Let’s listen to what God has to say to us through this passage.

In verse 15 it states that someone says to Jesus,“blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”
At this time, it seems that Jesus and His disciples were invited to share a meal with someone. (In chapter 14 verse 1 we see that Jesus went to the home of a prominent Pharisee to eat)
There, one of the guests says, “how wonderful it must be to eat a meal in the Kingdom of the God, where we will be allowed to enter.”
This guest may have been imagining that, while the current feast they were enjoying was fun, how much more amazing must a feast in the Kingdom of God be.

In verse 15 we can see that it says, “when he heard this he said that….”
“This”of“when he heard this” refers to Jesus’s sayings written in verses 7-14 before today’s passage.

Jesus says there“when you are invited to a wedding, you should not seek the places of honor, rather you should take the lowest place”thus teaching them the importance of keeping a humble attitude of faith.
This, of course, is not just a surface level action. This is an important lesson from God to us that, as those whose sins are forgiven, with thanksgiving we are to have humility and serve others.
Then Jesus says, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid,” (verse 12).
“But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay it” (verses 13-14).

In other words, if you are blessed enough that you can host a banquet, invite those who are unable to repay the favor to you.
In other words, when you do something for someone else, do not expect anything in return.
When we ask someone to do something for us, do we not also think that we must give something suitable in return as thanks?
There are times when this comes from goodwill and courtesy. However, are there also not times when we think that we do not want to be indebted to someone and feel as though we must give in return to avoid that?
Therefore, God is telling us in this passage that if we invite someone to a banquet, do not expect anything in return.

In other words, I think this telling us to be free from the idea of “give and take”.

　This means that we are originally to live together and support one another. We are all unable to live without being supported by others and most of all we can’t live if not supported by the Lord our God.
I hope we can remember that we are not to live by normal “give and take”, but rather we always owe each other “gives” and “takes” in a sense that we are to support (live) with each other.
And the bible teaches us that the banquet that God is preparing for us (that includes a fellowship in the Kingdom of God, and the joy we are given in faith) is a truly great and wonderful thing.

God’s Kingdom where He allows us to enter is so wonderful that there is no way for us to give something suitable in return.
The reason we are able to know God, believe in God, and are allowed to enter His Kingdom, is because Jesus gave His life on the cross for us.
Jesus paid all the price for our salvation. Let us remember that this cost, which we could not have paid ourselves, was paid for by Jesus Christ.
We have been given an invitation to God’s Kingdom. However, in today’s passage we see that the guests who were invited to the banquet turn down the invitation when the banquet begins.

At the time, the Jews apparently had the custom of telling the guests about the coming banquet ahead of time, but the specific time and date would not be told until just before it began.
I felt that this was a rather sloppy custom. This may be because we are so used to having our lifestyles revolve around specific schedules.
The person who had prepared the banquet waited for the guests he invited to come. However, for various reasons, the people invited declined to attend the banquet.
One person said that he had just bought a field and needed to go see it. Another said that he had just bought five yoke of oxen and he needed to go inspect them.
Another said that he had just gotten married, so he couldn’t attend. Everyone had some sort of reason why they could not attend.

Why did these people decline to attend this great banquet? It is because they prioritized things that affected their own lifestyle or finances.
So does that mean that this passage is teaching us that it is foolish to prioritize our own affairs over the fellowship of the Kingdom of God and refusing the invitation to enter the Kingdom of God?
I believe that the main lesson to be learned from this passage is precisely that. When we center our lives around our own thoughts and plans, we lose sight of how great and wonderful the Kingdom of God is.
Another thing we can understand is that we view the invitation to the Kingdom of God as an obligation.
In reality, the invitation to the Kingdom of God is a great gift given freely. That is pure grace and a joy to us.

However, I believe today’s passage also shows us that we see God’s calling to the banquet as an obligation (burden) that must be fulfilled.
In today’s passage, the third person refused the invitation saying that he couldn’t go because he just got married.

In the Old Testament in ‘Deuteronomy’ 24:5 it says the following:

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

This means that if a person gets married, they are exempt from military and other official duties for one year to prioritize their marriage life.
However, if someone is to use this situation (being a newlywed) as a reason not to attend the banquet of the Kingdom of God, that means that that person is thinking of attending the banquet of the Kingdom of God as being military service or an official duty.
The banquet of the Kingdom of God will have its perfect form when we are called to heaven and Jesus Christ has returned.
However, the signs of the banquet of the Kingdom of God have already begun in our lives on this Earth.
Jesus came to this world as a man, died on the cross and paid for our sins.

Through this, our sins were forgiven, and since we have become able to return before God, His Kingdom has begun appearing on this Earth.
Through our fellowship with Jesus Christ, through our fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ at church as His body, and through worshipping Christ our Lord, we experience at least a foretaste of the banquet of the Kingdom of God.
　But we feel that this wonderful grace (worship), which is equivalent to a banquet in the Kingdom of God, is something like “a duty that we have to fulfill reluctantly,” then something is wrong.
If we find worship or attending other church gatherings to be troublesome (if you find yourself unmotivated to participate), then we must say that something is wrong there.
It may not be that that person is mistaken. It could be that the church itself, or the spiritual leader of the church, the pastor, has some spiritual or attitude problem.
However, this does not change the reality that the Lord, our God through the grace of Jesus Christ, is inviting us to His wonderful banquet.

This should be a great joy. If you find yourself unable to find joy in being invited to God’s Kingdom, then let us return together to the gospel of Christ and the message of the bible that teaches us that Jesus is with us.
Let us also trust that our faith in Jesus Christ, and our worship to Christ, which is a foundation of our faith, along with the fellowship of the church, are foretastes of the perfection that is to come in the great banquet of the Kingdom of God.
We have already received the invitation to the banquet of the Kingdom of God. There is no need to give anything in return (in fact we cannot give anything in return). Let us remember the joy of being invited to the banquet in the Kingdom of God and walk in faith of gratitude and hope.