2014년 1월 26일 주일 영어예배 설교
마태복음 6:25-33

(Matthew 6:25~33)

Last time, we confirmed the content that if we seek His kingdom and righteousness, all these things on what we shall eat, what we shall drink, what we shall wear will be added to us. And I emphasized that this is one of the number one principle of Christian people’s lives in this world. Now then we need to know what his Kingdom and righteousness are and how we seek them.

To begin with, let’s even briefly investigate this enormous concept of God’s kingdom that flows throughout the Bible by quoting Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ definition. The kingdom of God means the reign of God. It means that God’s plans and justice are completely realized. In one sense, the kingdom of God has already come. It came when the Lord Jesus was here. He said, “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you”. He said in effect, “The kingdom of God is here now; I am exercising this power, this sovereilgnty, this majesty, this dominion; this is the kingdom of God”. The kingdom of God is also here at this moment in the hearts and lives of all who submit to Him, in all who believe in Him. The kingdom of God is present in the heart of all those who are truly Christian. Christ reigns in such people. But the day didn’t come yet when His kingdom shall have been established here upon the earth. That day is coming. The whole message of the Bible looks forward to that. Christ came down from heaven to earth to found, to establish, and to bring in this kingdom. He is still engaged upon that task and will be until the end, when it shall have been completed. When we pray, “Your kingdom come,” we are praying for the success of the gospel, its sway and power; we are praying for the conversion of men and women; we are praying that the kingdom of God may come everywhere in the world. It means that we should be anticipating the day when all sin and evil and wrong and everything that is opposed to God shall finally have been routed, and that the name of God may be glorious and magnified over all. And the reason why we can pray like that is God promised and declared that he will finally complete his Kingdom through the churches and the true members of the churches such as us.

Then, what does ‘seeking the Kingdom of God’ mean? In other words, how can we seek the Kingdom of God? Above all, the first step of seeking it is to believe in itself, the Kingdom of God. To be specific, it is to believe that as explained above, the Kingdom of God has already come here, it is still in progress, and it will be completed by God, and we Christians are the people who are deeply involved in the Kingdom of God. The very first step is to believe in this fact. Do you believe the Kingdom of God itself and the concepts of it explained above that the Bible demonstrates and declares? I briefly discussed the concepts and contents of the Kingdome of God revealed in the Bible. As a Christian, the first thing in order to seek the Kingdom of God is to believe it as the absolutes. In order for us to believe, or see the kingdom of God as the truth, we definitely need to be reborn by the Holy Spirit. It means that we have to have the new life, new sense, and new nature as human beings through regeneration by the Holy Spirit. In John 3, a rich and competent official young man, Nicodemus, came to Jesus to ask how he got an eternal life. Jesus first said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born againhe cannot see the kingdom of God.” I hope you believe God’s words and have the eyes to see the Kingdom of God.

Second, to seek the Kingdom of God is to live out our lives from the perspective of the kingdom of God. This is a matter of world view. The point is that you, as true Christian people, have to not only believe in the existence of the kingdom of God, but also build your world view and values based on the Kingdom of God, and live out your lives according to the principles of this Kingdom of God. What kind of world view or values do you have living your lives as Christians? From what do you find your identity and value of existence as men? What promises or guarantees do you trust in living your lives as Christians? You must and need to find all these things from and in the Kingdom of God. Therefore, to seek his Kingdom means to live out our lives from the view-point of his Kingdom that has already come, is in progress, and will be completed. Let’s look at today’s text again. Jesus said that we must stop being anxious about ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ As he mentioned, these are things which gentiles, or non-Christians who have their own values respectively in chaos seek. Jesus full-heartedly promises to his people that He will give you all these things when you seek His kingdom and His righteousness, “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Why? They are just necessity, needs, not an end itself of life, in this world in seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And ‘His righteousness’, Jesus commands to seek ‘his righteousness’, not ‘our righteousness.’ First, it means to do what is good according to Jesus’ teaching entirely based on ‘His righteousness’, not your righteousness. Second, it means that we are able to enter the Kingdom of God only through ‘His righteousness’, not ‘our righteousness.’ This is because in fact, there is no righteousness in depraved and unable human beings themselves, sinners. This is because without the righteousness of God there is no way for human beings to survive the death caused by sins, that means that without it, we cannot be member of the Kingdom, that is, we cannot seek the Kingdom of God. This is because the righteousness of God saves sinners like you and me, and enables men to do what is really good in the eye of God. So Jesus directs us to seek ‘His righteousness.’ It means that we should lead our lives humbly and totally based on the righteousness of God. This is directly connected to seeking the Kingdom of God. God has manifested his own righteousness by imputing or crediting that righteousness to sinners and pronouncing them righteous or just with his own righteousness through Jesus Christ. It is to have faith in the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel, or Jesus Christ our Lord. It is always to acknowledge our unrighteousness and unworthy, and acknowledge the righteousness of God, and trust in it in our daily life. That is to seek ‘His righteousness.’

Of course, in doing this, Jesus Christ our Lord is the only agent for us. It is to hold the merits of Jesus Christ by faith. It is to rely on only Jesus’ righteousness being imputed into us by faith. It is to be united with Jesus Christ by faith. Don’t even try to seek the righteousness from you through any religious manners and ceremonies or cultic ways or good behaviors and mind-sets. Seeking His righteousness will never be accomplished based on these human beings’ attitudes or emotions. The origin and bare source of all of good in this human world is the righteousness of God. If human beings can do any good not only in terms of general but also in terms of Biblical in this world, its first and ultimate cause is the righteousness of God. That is the reason why we first need to seek His righteousness. No churches, popes, pastors, or any great persons ever have an influence on this righteousness in the least. No discipleship, efforts, attitudes and mind-set of men ever have an influence on this righteousness at all.

Jesus Christ our Lord directs us to seek first this Kingdom and righteousness of God, and is saying that you, Christian people, don’t have to anxious about the necessities of life. Why? The Kingdom and the righteousness of God are the only main issue and matter of the world and history. That is, the world is running for them, and is marching toward the completion of the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as Romans says, “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). Again why? All the necessaries of life, what we eat, drink, and put on, are not the issue or end of life but just means for the main issue, the Kingdom and the righteousness of God. Again remember the fact that we are restored into the originally designed status from the alienation from relationship with God by believing in Jesus Christ. We are called ‘Christians.’ Now, we became to have the new values, strictly speaking, the original proper values that human beings must have before God. To seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. That is why Jesus directs Christian people this, today’s verse, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

I hope you do not become just religious people who never taste the essence of Christianity and its blessings, just waiting for earthly fragments to fall to him opening his mouth in the fringe of Christianity. I hope you seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness first, and enjoy the blessings given to you to better perform the tasks from God as true Christians.