For the last four weeks, we have been sharing God’s word on one topic – “Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Today is the fourth session and I will be talking about “Christ.”

In the passage we read, Jesus said,  “I do what the Father commanded Me to do.” This explains very well the duty of Christ. The Greek word χρῑστός (christos) means “the anointed one.” It means “the anointed one.” But where was this derived from? The Jewish people who wrote the Old Testament used a word, which means “the anointed one.” Have you heard of “Messiah”? You’ve heard the phrase “The Messiah has come,” right? The word “Messiah” means “the anointed one.” Later, that word was translated into Greek as “Christos,” from which the English word “Christ” is derived. And believers of Jesus are called “Christians,” aren’t they? “Christian” means a person who believes in Christ. “Christ” came from the Greek word “christos,” which means “anointed one.” Therefore, Jesus whom we believe in is Christ. In other words, Jesus is the anointed One. During the Old Testament times, the people among the Jews who were anointed included kings. When a person was anointed as king, the prophet would pour oil on his head according to God’s command. Then that person became king. Also, when a priest was appointed, oil would be poured on him. Priesthood was an important duty given by God. Lastly, a prophet was a person who conveyed God’s word. Thus, prophets were anointed also. In this way, men used by God honorably are called “Christ.” So Jesus is also the One who was anointed by God to do His work. To people, He could become a King, a Prophet, or a Priest. But to God, He is a servant God uses. A servant.

In that sense, to say, “Jesus Christ” is, in a way, an oxymoron. Jesus is the name of God—it is like God’s official seal. And God gave that seal to His Son. The name Jesus is the seal given to the Son. With that name, the Father’s authority is fully upon Him. So if His name is Jesus, it signifies that He is equal to God the Father—that He is God’s Son. As well as being the Son, what did we say He is? Christ. That means He is a servant. So Jesus is not only God’s Son but a servant at the same time. This notion is conflicting. If you are a son, you’re a son; if a servant, that’s what you are. The son is given good things and is well provided for, whereas a servant is given hard work and labor—that’s the usual way of things. However, whom did God use as His servant? His own Son. He used His most beloved Son as a servant.

So to what degree was Jesus used a servant? When Jesus was on earth, everything He did was what God had commanded Him to do. What did He do when He came? Before He was baptized, nobody knew He is equal to God nor the Christ. But one day, He was baptized. As He came out from the water, a voice said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” What this means is, “He is My Son, who is equal to Me, and the One I am most pleased with, who does everything I command!” It means He is the Christ.

After that, what kind of life did He live? That marked the beginning of His suffering. After God said of His Son, “My beloved One!” Jesus didn’t live a life of happiness, but rather a life of suffering. How great was His suffering? First of all, He started fasting. He fasted for forty days, during which there were many temptations, Also, the works of God He carried out didn’t involve being entertained in a palace or meeting with diplomats. Rather, He moved about and helped the sick, widows, the so-called sinners who were despised by society, and people shunned as traitors of their country.

For example, a man’s little daughter had died, and Jesus brought her back to life. A person was blind but Jesus opened his eyes. When a paralytic man came, Jesus healed him and made him to stand. In this way, Jesus did many good deeds. Therefore, large crowds always followed Him. People heard the reports about Him and came to be healed. Sometimes, He worked all day without even having a chance to eat.

Such a life continued for three years. During that time, He suffered a great deal. Though some praised Him for His good deeds, some men were jealous and took offense. “Who does He think He is? He is not even a religious leader. What does He know? He’s just a Nazarene.” With such words, they begrudged and reproached Him. Yet, more and more people went to Him and even a dead person was raised to life.

Once, a friend of Jesus died. Even though He heard the news that His friend died, He didn’t go right away but went a few days later. And He said, “This is for God’s glory!” Then He stood in front of the tomb and said in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” Now, you might be picturing a grave mound splitting into two, the coffin opening, and the person jumping out of it. However, the tomb Jesus went to wasn’t of that sort. It was a cave. In those days, caves were used as tombs, and inside, large jars held the remains of dead ancestors for many generations. Each jar contained bones. But before they could place the bones in a jar, a dead body was first laid inside the tomb on a rock. Once the body decomposed and only bones were left, they placed the bones in a jar and put it to one side. Hence, there were jars for the fifth great-grandfather, the fourth great-grandfather, the third, and so on. All the ancestors were buried in the same tomb.

That is why it is said that Jesus was “raised from the dead.” Why does it mention “from the dead” in the plural instead of simply saying Jesus rose again? All the dead were all inside those jars. They were all dead. Nobody had ever come out from there. But Jesus came out from among them—He rose again from the dead. So this was the kind of tomb Jesus was standing in front of. When He said, “Lazarus, come out!” Lazarus, who was lying inside the tomb, got up and walked out.

Because Jesus did such remarkable things, many people came to Him and believed that He is the Son of God, the One whom God sent. Nevertheless, other people couldn’t just sit and watch. They knew that a great change could come about in the complicated politics between the religious leaders and the governing authority. There was so much at stake for them. For this reason, they framed Jesus and ultimately had Him put to death.

What was their charge against Him that deserved death? According to their faith, they were not allowed to blaspheme God. But Jesus had often said, “I do only what My Father commanded Me! Everything I do is in accordance with My Father’s command!” And by saying “Father,” He meant God. Thus, after healing the sick, He said, “This is not My doing but My Father’s.” After healing the paralytic, also He said, “It is My Father who is in Me doing His work!” Jesus never boastingly said, “Hey, isn’t My power incredible?” Actually, people would’ve applauded Him if He claimed the works as His own power. They would’ve marveled at Jesus. However, after everything He did, He said, “It is My Father who is in Me who is doing His work!” That is why the people took offense. “What? You’re saying that God is with You? How about us? Isn’t God with us?” That is why they killed Him. When they did, they accused Him of charges that were deserving of the death penalty so that He would be crucified. They incited the people to crucify Him, and with the help of the Roman Empire, which ruled them at the time, they had Jesus killed.

However, Jesus said, “You have no authority to kill Me! Even the Roman governor doesn’t have authority to kill Me! Unless God the Father grants you the authority, you cannot do anything to Me! I am not dying helplessly— My death is a commandment I received from God! I received the command to die! The Father commanded me! But what is more, I received the command to rise again! For the Father commanded Me to die, I will die. But He will command Me to rise, and I will rise again!” Jesus prophesied this already. And because He believed that God would raise Him to life, He didn’t run away but let them kill Him. Since there was a great crowd that followed Him, if He had told them, “I can’t let Myself be killed like this! Attack!” He might’ve escaped. However, He accepted it without resistance.

At the time when men came to arrest Him, one of His disciples, Peter, was with Him. When the Roman soldier grabbed Jesus, Peter drew his sword and struck a Roman soldier and cut off his ear. His ear fell on the ground. If Jesus had chosen to rely on men like Peter, He could’ve easily escaped. Nevertheless, Jesus said, “Peter, put your sword away. All who take the sword will perish by the sword.” Then He picked up the ear and probably shook the dirt off it and put it back on the man. And the ear was attached. It was marvelous. I believe perhaps the man whose ear was put back on him struggled at first but later came to believe in Jesus. Through many signs, He demonstrated that He was God to the people that came before Him.

So Jesus accepted it—He accepted death. Why? Because He believed He would resurrect. We can understand then that everything Jesus did was not done because He wanted to, but because the Father commanded Him. But something doesn’t seem right. If Jesus is equal to God and He is God’s beloved One, why did God make Him die? Why let Him be crucified? Why let Him be scourged after He was arrested? Indeed, to human eyes, Jesus appeared to be an ill-fated man. Normally, when someone was sentenced to death, they didn’t torture a person who was sentenced to death but simply executed him.

The process of His sentencing was as follows. Pontius Pilate was the governor at the time. When the people demanded, “Crucify Jesus! Crucify Him!” Pilate thought, “Look at those frenzied Jews…” Because Jesus did nothing wrong, but they continually requested Him to be crucified. The only sin he could perhaps find was that Jesus broke the Jewish Law. But even that wasn’t anything unlawful according to the Roman Law. To call God His Father? That cannot be counted as sin for the Romans although it was a serious sin for the Jews. So Pilate was feeling annoyed, trying to find a way to release Jesus somehow. But people were incited—some even paid to join in. Together, they all demanded Pilate, saying, “Crucify Jesus! Crucify Him!”

However, Pilate wanted to let Jesus go. His sleep had been restless, and his wife had a terrible dream the night before and told him, “I don’t think that man should be executed. Please let him go.” So for this reason too, he didn’t want to execute Jesus. But as the people were so aggravated, he had no choice. So he decided to impose a sentence lesser than the death penalty—being whipped nearly to the point of death. This penalty wasn’t supposed to kill the person, but some did die from scourging. The purpose was to beat a person nearly, stopping just before death.

Yet for a person sentenced to death, scourging was not imposed. After all, they were going to die anyway. Even in South Korea, do they torture criminals on death row? They can’t. In fact, they are treated nicely. On the day before execution, do prison officers bully and beat up the prisoner, saying, “You’re going to die tomorrow!”? No, they show respect to the prisoner. Probably, they are afraid too. The prisoner will be executed the next day, and who knows if he will become a ghost and haunt them? Even if it’s not for that reason, since the prisoner is facing death the next day, they should treat him kindly. They even ask, “Is there anything you’d like to eat?” and try to comfort him.

Since Pilate didn’t intend to execute Jesus, he ordered Jesus to be scourged—a punishment that would leave Him almost dead. So the soldiers took Him and beat Him. When we say, “Jesus was flogged!” it’s easy for us to think that He was beaten a few times on His back. However, in the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” we can see that the whole body torn and lacerated and left unrecognizable. The portrayal in the movie is more in line with the Bible. Because later, Pilate said, “Behold, the Man!” Do you know what that meant? They could barely recognize Jesus. Pilate was saying, “Look, this is the same man from before! I’ve had Him scourged and He is half dead! Are you happy? Can I release Him?” Pilate thought the people would be satisfied and not request Jesus’ execution after He was scourged. And it was unreasonable to execute Him after that severe beating.

Yet the people shouted louder, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him! If you don’t crucify Him, you are a traitor! Jesus claims to be a king, so as the governor, you will be a traitor if you let Him go!” Pilate’s blood ran cold. “Those Jews are a nuisance…” So he told them, “Fine! I am innocent of this man’s blood. It is on you! You see to it!” Then the Jews answered, “Yes! Let His blood be on us and on our children!” Then, Pilate washed his hands in front of them and said, “Take Him away.” That’s how He was crucified. And truly, His blood did fall upon the Jews and their descendants.

Pilate washed his hands and had Jesus crucified, which is the most unjust decision for Jesus. He was scourged almost to death, and then He was crucified. Crucifixion was certainly not an admirable spectacle. The condemned person was stripped naked and humiliated. It was to be humiliating and debasing. Despite the humiliation, He probably had no chance to even consider the humiliation because it was excruciatingly painful. Perhaps He was in so much agony that He couldn’t feel the pain anymore. After that He was crucified, His body strained under His own weight while all of His blood dripped out. Since He was nailed, His blood probably dripped gradually, and His body slowly dried up. Crucifixion was not intended to kill quickly, but slowly. Usually, it took more than a day for a person crucified to die. Sometimes it even took two days. Have a think about it—-hanging on the cross and waiting two days to die. One would want to die quickly. But crucifixion was intended to provide a slow and painful death. Yet Jesus died quicker than other people. How come? He was already scourged. He lost a lot of blood. He was severely tortured, and since He wasn’t well-nourished either, He died so quickly. He passed away in six hours.

The next day, however, was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a day when the Jews didn’t do any work. And according to the Law, bodies were not to be left on the crosses. They had to be brought down. The Jews needed to bring the bodies down before the Sabbath began. But the two men crucified alongside Jesus were still alive. So the Roman soldiers broke the legs of those two men. Their legs were broken so that they wouldn’t be able to escape but slowly die.

But when they came to Jesus, who was in the middle, they saw that He was already dead. They didn’t need to break His legs. It is quite difficult to break the legs. They confirmed His death by piercing His side with a spear. They pierced His side. Suddenly, all of His water and blood flowed out. It was the end. He was dead. He shed all of the water and blood that were in Him. Nothing was left. He had given everything.

This is the outcome for the One whom God loves. Isn’t it strange? Aren’t we Christians also strange? Why do we serve such a Man as our Master? Why do we serve this accursed Man as our Lord? All people like to follow respected men, successful men, prominent figures, and powerful people. Yet we Christians follow the One who died a wretched death. But this death was exactly commanded by God to Him. One might feel that God is cruel. God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” And yet from that moment on, Jesus suffered a great deal from then on and finally died in this manner. But all of it was commanded by God to Him.

So why did God do that to His own Son, His most beloved Son? For this reason, people thought, “God doesn’t love that Man! He’s been forsaken. There’s no way God loves that Man!” However, God clearly said that He loves Him. Why did God let the One He loves so dearly suffer this way? There is a reason. And to that reason was prophesized from a long time ago, spoken of by Jesus Himself, and testified by those who came after Him. What was the reason that Jesus was scourged? It was to heal us of our diseases, our pains, and our infirmities. We acknowledge this. God commanded Jesus to be scourged so that He can heal us of our sicknesses. And Jesus didn’t reject—He obeyed.

Hence, wouldn’t God burn with anger if we don’t acknowledge Jesus’ meritorious works, saying, “Jesus was flogged and scourged for His own faults of course!”? What if we despised God’s sacrifice of His beloved Son, saying, “No, I don’t need Him! I don’t need Jesus”? God put His beloved Son through all that suffering despite His love for His Son. How distressed and angry would God have been at that time? But to whom will that wrath be poured out? To whoever doesn’t believe in His merits. It’s as if God is saying, “How dare you trample on this wonderful gift I gave you!”

But thankfully, there is a chance right now. Even if one didn’t accept this until now, if he accepts it now, God will not question his past. God is saying, “I won’t question your past. Just accept and acknowledge what I have done!” This is what it means to say, “Believe and be baptized!” Because when one is baptized, his old self—the one who was disobedient and ungrateful— gets buried, and from that moment on, God treats him as a whole new person.

Furthermore, Jesus was not only scourged but He died on the cross. He is God’s Son, yet why was He executed like a sinner? The reason is that He did this to pay the price of somebody’s sin. Who’s sin? Your sin. The sin of all mankind. I am not saying you, in particular, have committed some great sin, but the whole mankind is sinful. Once I told someone, “You are a sinner,” and he said, “I am a good person!” He is a good person, yes, however, he is a sinner. He is already so far from God. In God’s eyes, he is ungrateful, and although he may think himself as good, others may not judge him so. I also think I am a kind person. However, others don’t say that I am. Some even say I am a very bad person. I might think I am good, but in God’s eyes, I am utterly evil. What should be done about a person like me? He is deserving hell.

That is why God sent Jesus—to pay the price of our sins. Yet if someone refuses to believe this and says, “No, Jesus died of His own sins! I am not a sinner!”— that is not just evil; such a person is God’s enemy. If you don’t accept the merits of Jesus, you become God’s enemy. You are already His enemy. And it’s not the end when you die, because you have a spirit—God will revenge His enemy eternally. How does God take eternal vengeance on His enemies? In hell. Inasmuch as God loves His Son, hell is a terrible place. If God’s love for His Son can be measured a thousand, then the pain of hell would be a thousand. If His love for His Son were ten thousand, then the curse of hell would be ten thousand also. So we can see just how much God loves His Son. For that reason, whoever rejects Him will be subject to a terrible curse. That is why we urge people to believe in Jesus.

Personally, I find it hard to tell others to believe in Jesus because I know what it’s like to be evangelized. When I was in school and somebody came up to me, saying, “Believe in Jesus!” I would run away from them. If they tried to hand me a tract, I got annoyed. And that’s a natural reaction—because it feels like you’re being compelled to do something. But after I met God and came to know of His living existence, I couldn’t help but tell others. How could I let the others go to hell when I am going to heaven? That’s why I want to tell them something more, hoping that they might be moved in their hearts. Of course, in many cases, it comes to nothing. But I still want to tell them despite the opposition. Why? Jesus loved us when none of us knew about it. When all people rejected Him, He loved us. And when the time came, people started to know about His love. Since I don’t know who among you will accept His love, I have to preach to you all.

There might be some here who might find church as boring and decide to cut ties with the church. However, this is not just a matter of attending church or not. What God accomplished through Jesus Christ was completed 2000 years ago. It’s a historical fact. The whole mankind knows this— only they don’t believe that Jesus is God’s Son, sent by God. But we believe this. And when we believe this, God will not be still but send His Spirit, and through God’s Spirit, we can experience many wonderful signs that we never imagined before.

However, in this present time, Christianity has become merely a religion. People consider it to be one of many religions and therefore disdain it. Even Christians regard it as merely a religion. A long time ago, when I first evangelized my father—who is now a believer—he said, “Since there are so many religions, if I have to choose one, I’ll go to a Buddhist temple since my mother used to go there back in my hometown.” He was saying that he would rather go to the Buddhist temple if he had to choose a religion. Later on, he changed his mind a little and said, “If I have to choose Christianity, I’ll choose Catholicism! Since Catholics are a bit gentle, they still let you drink alcohol, and they don’t bother people so much. So I’ll rather go to the Catholic Church!” Why did he say this? It was all because he considered Christianity as just another religion.

But right now, I am not telling you to have a religion. I am telling you to receive salvation by accepting what God has done by sending Jesus. Salvation is not only that of your spirit; your flesh can be saved while you are on earth also. As I just said, Jesus was scourged, but it wasn’t without reason. He was scourged so that we may be healed of our diseases and not be ill from sickness. Hence, if we acknowledge and accept this, we can be healed. And just as physical healing is something we can witness, so is the forgiveness of sins. Although we have not yet entered into heaven, we are certain of our sins being forgiven. People who believe in Jesus have such incredible experiences.

I hope all of you here will experience Jesus, who came as Christ. Please don’t reject God’s love but receive it in fully. I bless you in Jesus’ name.

Please repeat after me.

“Jesus is the Son of God! Jesus is God’s servant! Jesus’ works were commanded by God! I acknowledge everything Jesus has done!”

Now let’s pray together.

“God, I will acknowledge what You have done. I will acknowledge Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I will receive healing. I will receive the forgiveness of sins. Help me! I will serve You as my Master from now on!”

Thank You Father God for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, for us. You allowed Him to be scourged and crucified to display Your love for us. Help us all to receive that love. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.