Things We Must Enjoy, Things We Must See (Acts 3:1-10)
Rev. Sang Bum Kim
“1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, 'Look at us.' 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, 'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.' 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them--walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”
Introduction
This is a very precious church and precious people of God here at this church. I am thankful that we are able to hold hands with this church and with RU (Remnant University). I feel very lacking as I stand before all these respected and renowned pastors. I am standing here because pastor Myung-Sin Choi asked me to stand here today. Pastor Choi asked me to organize the messages for the RU doctorate program. I think the RU messages were very hard to digest so I want to organize them for you all today. Acts 3:1-6 is a very well known Biblical passage. One day, I went to the Mexico Missions trip and you can drive to Mexico easily from Los Angeles. We went to Mexico and there were many American missionaries already there, and set up there. Not only were American missionaries there but there were missionaries from the Calvary Church. These missionaries would gather all of the homeless people and give out food. There was another church and they used a good strategy. They would send out five lay leaders and missionary families to do missions there. They get jobs there and support the missionaries there. The problem is the ministry itself. At night time, they would have a passionate praise night. They were involved with unhealthy mysticism. They would use a lot of fancy music and lights so many young people would gather there. They would not share the gospel at all but just use mysticism to move people. I don’t know if they were killing Mexico or helping them. There was another American missionary team, they would give out food. The conclusion is that these missionaries don’t know the fundamental problems of mankind. Through Acts 3, we will talk about these things.
1. Things We Must Enjoy (The Time of Prayer (Acts 3:1))
Things that happen when we pray
This means that they set a time to enjoy scheduled prayer. The first thing that happens when we pray is the spiritual facts. The power of prayer is quite great. We went on a mission trip to Indonesia and it was late at night. We were all so tired but at 4:00 AM I woke up due to loud noise and the loud noises were the sounds of the Muslim prayer time. I was so surprised. There are many religions in that country but the Muslims don’t care at all, and play that music. At that time, I started doing my scheduled prayer. That Muslim music started playing for an hour. The missionaries typically ask us to have training at night time because the people have work during the daytime. The missionaries said that the message needs to end at 6PM because many of these Muslims would hide at the shopping centers. There is no night culture in Indonesia and everything ends at 6:00 PM because 6:00 PM is the scheduled prayer time for the Muslims. They would all go to worship at 6:00 PM. They would do scheduled prayer six times a day. In Indonesia, they have 6,000 different idols and gods. Many religions reside in Indonesia but one day, Islam entered Indonesia. Indonesia used to be a Hindu nation but Islam completely conquered Indonesia. Now, 90% of Indonesia is Muslim. This is all due to their diligent scheduled prayers and worship times. I realized that we are losing to them. That is why we must restore and enjoy scheduled prayer time. There is something that happens when we pray. If we understand spiritual facts, then we can enjoy this. The first thing that we pray for is the power of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.' ” - There is an important promise that God has given to us. God told us to wait for His promise. God told us to hold onto that promise and pray until we receive that promise. The Holy Spirit worked in Mark’s Upper Room. God gave us the power of the Holy Spirit and gave us evidence to be witnesses till the end of the earth. The main characters of Acts were not the apostles because Jesus’ ministry ended in 3 years. The Holy Spirit started to work when the apostles went to the field. The forces of darkness are bound. If we turn off the lights, it will be dark. Even if we pray, the lights will not turn off. What should we do? We should turn on the light. Light and darkness cannot coexist. If we shine the light, the darkness will flee. This is the first thing that we must do when we go into the field. Paul met Lydia in the field and he met here when he was on his way to prayer. While he was on his way to prayer, he also met a demon possessed girl. The first thing that we do before we evangelize is to pray for darkness to be bound. The next thing that happens is the army of angels is sent out. At that time, the blessing of meetings took place. Important meetings like Lydia, Priscila, Aquila, and Jason took place. This is what happens when we pray.
2) Enjoyment of prayer
Verse 1 - How can we enjoy this? When we enter, the 777 prayer is out in the church front desk. I hope you pray with the 777 prayer. This is the method of enjoyment of prayer. We can set time to pray. You can also do 40 day concentrative prayer. It is important to do concentrative, scheduled, and continuous prayer but personal prayer time is important. Joseph died when he was young. His half brothers were jealous of him and sold him into slavery. Who can understand him? What kind of future did he look towards? But in Genesis 36, the Lord was with Joseph. If you are able to enjoy time alone in prayer and with God, then you can do world evangelism. What happens if you turn off the lights in a room full of children? They will play games or use the computer. All of them will do something with a screen. Instead of you looking at the screen and you start praying then you can do world evangelism. Then, what about your free time?
Psalm 119:164 “Seven times a day I praise You, Because of Your righteous judgments.” - David would pray and praise during his leisure time. I was in charge of the youth department in Korea. Other pastors would teach about scheduled prayer so we would teach them break time prayer. Any time they have a break between their classes, we would teach them to pray. We would encourage them to start scheduled prayer the moment they hear the dismissal prayer which means that they can pray seven times a day since there are various classes. They can become like Muslims and pray numerous times a day. When I first went to this church in Korea, they were having difficulties. God did send us many great workers at this church but later on, the youth department was filled with 250 children. Prayer and evangelism movements took place. There were times when our kindergartens would say that they would break down darkness whenever they passed by shamans’ houses. Every day at 9PM, we would do scheduled prayer time. Rev. Ryu was doing a new family retreat one time and he gave a testimony of his mother who was a senior deaconess. After his father passed, his mother served as a janitor in a district office since she had to raise 4 children by herself. She had no one to rely on. After she finished her work and put her children to sleep, she would go to the church and pray. She wouldn’t sleep much and go to early morning, and then go back to work. She would go back to the house and pray for her children before she went to work. Whenever she would pray on him and pray for him to be a pastor who would world evangelism, he would get mad at her. His mother would always pray. Her knees were always swollen but through her prayers, she raised up a great pastor who became a great evangelist. Prayer is not a laborious act or something that we do out of passion but it is much greater than that.
I am sure you know of this famous comedian, Lee Soo-Geon, and his mother is a shaman. I am not sure how they made this kind of program but it is called, “Ask Anything.” The guests will ask him anything and these guests tell him about his spiritual problems, and he would give the wrong answers. This woman appeared as a guest and he asked her what her job was, and she couldn’t answer at all. Later on, she had the same job as his mother, a shaman. This 23-year-old woman was a shaman too. She became a shaman but she was originally a figure skater. She dreamt of becoming a great and renowned figure skater. She was quite famous and she was very good at skating, and many people had great hopes for her. She would win many medals but one day, she faced a problem. There is a skill that gives you the most amount of points which is where you would spin in the air. Every time she would spin in the air, she would see demons. It was only when she was spinning in the air where she would see demons. She was so shocked. You have to concentrate a lot when you spin in the air and would do this numerous times, and you would do this on ice. But at that time, she would see demons and would fall all the time. She was preparing to go to the Olympics as a figure skater but every time she had a competition, the night before, Satan would not leave her at all. She was bound by her fate and couldn’t escape her fate. She had to retire and visited a famous shaman. She asked the shaman to be able to figure skate for another 10 years but the shaman tried to speak to the spirits but the shaman became demon possessed, and the shaman told her no and told this girl that she had to become a shaman. That is why this figure skater became a shaman. Why did she come to this Korean program show? After she became a shaman, she cut everyone out of her life. She even cut off her family as well. What happens if you have someone like this in your life? You are a figure skater and there is a friend like her around you. You should share the gospel to her. You should share the answer why this problem came to her and how to come out of this problem. Let’s say she accepts Christ and goes back as a figure skater, and she doesn’t see demons anymore. I am sure she will do an interview and give all glory to God. Imagine how glorious this would be and how much force evangelism will have. This is a problem of a family line. You need to tell that friend that she has to save her entire family line. The problems of mankind are a spiritual problem so we cannot use physical solutions to solve them.
One day, a disciple visited me and asked me if I saw this YouTube clip. On this YouTube channel he has 7 million followers. This channel is run by a photographer named Mark Laita and he is a famous photographer. He won many awards and a great deal of profit from his photos. He lived in a neighborhood that was full of Hollywood celebrities. When he drove down the road, he would see all of these homeless people and always wondered how he could help these people. He always thought that he made the rich richer and wanted to help the homeless people. He would interview homeless people. As he was doing this, he came to a conclusion and the commonality of these people was drug addiction. There was a homeless person who used to be a professor or a CPA. This is all because they fell into drugs. The more he interviewed them, he realized that it wasn’t the drugs that was the main problem. The main problem was the family problem. He thought that this was all because of family problems. Because their families were broken, they fell into drugs. Then, he joined hands with people who did family healing. The more he went into their lives, he realized that it was all a mental problem. There was a person that he met who used to be part of the mafia but one day, his mother came to visit him in prison. After he met his mother, he saw that his mother was the most happy at that moment. He asked his mother what was going on and why she looked so happy. She told him that she accepted Jesus Christ three months ago and so this prisoner asked his mother to help him accept Christ. Now, this person quit drugs and came out of prison, and he was going around to churches giving his testimony. That was when the photographer realized that beyond the mental problems, there is a spiritual realm at work. I think great works will arise if this photographer realizes the gospel. If he realizes that there is only one problem of mankind then the whole world can be saved.
2. Things We Must See “Look Straight At” (Acts 3:4)
1) Eyes to see the fundamental reason of the world’s failure - Fundamental problem
The crippled man thought that he was going to get money from Peter but Peter told this crippled man that he would give something else. Peter proclaimed in the name of Jesus Christ and this crippled man started walking again. The moment the name of Jesus Christ, all of his fundamental problems were solved. This man was born crippled and I am sure he was so happy, and praised the Lord. It is not really a miracle that Peter helped this crippled man walk. The miracle was that Peter saw this man correctly. Peter had a temper actually. When a soldier tried to approach Jesus, he cut off the ears of the soldier who approached him. He was also loyal and told Jesus that he will follow Jesus till the end. He was even at the point of Jesus’ death when Jesus was nailed to the cross. When someone recognized Peter as Jesus’ disciple, Peter started cursing Jesus out of fear. Out of 7 of 12 disciples went back to fishing. They all abandoned fishing to follow Jesus as a disciple. What must you look at right now? If you can see this, you can see the world correctly. There is only one real problem in this world. No one could solve the real fundamental problems of the crippled man. They couldn’t change his spiritual status and fundamental problems. What is the problem of the world? It is the spiritual problem of separation from God and being bound by Satan. It is not a drug problem.
2) Eyes to see the only solution (Jesus Christ)
In February, I went to Uganda. I watched a video about a genocide in Uganda due to a Civil War between two tribes. In 3 months, a million people died. Someone from the minority took over the government, the majority group felt oppressed. At that time, the president was kidnapped and they all arose, and started killing everyone. What is most astounding was that even families that were from different tribes, that families started killing each other. Pastors would gather in his church to gather for safety but the pastors would even kill their own church congregation. I wondered how this was all possible. They said that this is the work of Satan and not the work of man. There is a museum about this. These people from this nation had great scars and trauma. Everyone over 30, they were survivors of the Civil War. Under 30, they didn’t know what happened. I realized that only the gospel was the only solution for this nation. I was very passionate about the gospel and the pastors started crying. The only one answer is Jesus Christ. The only solution that God gave to us was Jesus Christ. The King of kings who broke down Satan is only Jesus Christ. He was the one who delivered from the law of sin and death. No one could help this crippled man. Nothing else could help this crippled man. This man was born a crippled and he was born separated from God. That is why Peter said that he will give what he has. He confessed of the name of Jesus Christ. After Peter met the resurrected Christ and experienced the Holy Spirit, he was able to make this confession. It is not what you are doing but what you see. If you can see the one and only answer, then that is all you need.
3) Eyes to see the power of the name of Jesus Christ
During my days as an assistant pastor, I was driving next to Seoul University and people were holding a protest. These famous professors were doing a protest and wondered why these Christians were doing a protest. They would proclaim that the words in the Bible were offensive especially towards crippled and disabled people. They were protesting that they should change the words in the Bible. We should see how important the name of Jesus Christ is. We should restore the power of the name of Jesus Christ first.
John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” - If we accept Christ, then we become children of God.
Romans 10:13 “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” - If we call on the name of Christ, we will be saved.
Verse 6 - All problems are solved through the name of Jesus Christ.
Acts 16:16-18 “Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, 'These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.' 18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, 'I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.' And he came out that very hour.” - When the name of Jesus Christ was proclaimed, the demon possessed girl was healed. This name of Jesus Christ rules over all of earth and heaven. All creators obey His name.
Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” - If you pray in this name, then your joy will be full. This name was given to us. We need to use this name. God gave it to us so that we can use it. Authority is not for reference or keeping, we need to use it for enjoyment. Let’s say that your spouse gave you a diamond ring and you think about how you can enjoy this diamond the most. Will you wrap up this diamond and keep it but if you end up passing away and someone finds it, is that enjoying it? You enjoy it by wearing it. Authority was given to us so that we can use and enjoy it. This authority comes from above. Enjoy and use the authority of the name of Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
What must we enjoy? Enjoy the mystery of prayer. After the RU doctorate messages, I felt oppressed. There were pastors who would not sleep and pray all night long. What I was determined was that I need to restore prayer. I need to restore 24 hour prayer. Now that RU is here in Dallas, we need to go into full scale prayer. When I went to seminary school, my parents threatened to abandon me as a son. All of my family members now are pastors and people of prayer who pray for me. When I became an assistant prayer, I didn’t have much prayer support but one day, I met this true gospel. I realized that we need to enter into continuous, scheduled, and concentrative prayer. There is only one problem and there is only one answer. We need to enter into unique healing by using the name of Jesus Christ. We need to break down the power of Satan within us. We need to break down the strongholds of Satan inside of us. We need to restore 777 prayer and establish a bartizan within us. There are 141 registered students in RU and 95 people are non-Koreans. There are many students from Africa, Mexico, and Spain. We also have 30 more students who will register next semester in England. There are also students who have been receiving training in Singapore. I request that you continue to pray for and help RU. What we must enjoy and see so that we can become main characters for world evangelism.
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