Greetings in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10b)
The world loves darkness, and those who love darkness gather together because they are being attracted by the darkness. Thus, their eyes are blind to the truth, and their ears are deaf to the Good News of eternal salvation. The darkness has been always with human history, and even the religious leaders at the time of Jesus tried to kill Jesus simply because Jesus was the light. Jesus healed the sick, and taught the truth, which made them uncomfortable. Eventually they were pushed up to the point that they wanted to get rid of Jesus. Caiaphas, the high priest at that time justified killing of Jesus by telling, “You don’t know what you’re talking about! You don’t realize that it’s better for you that one man should die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed.” However, this fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Him:“Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen.
He is my Beloved, who pleases me.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
He will not fight or shout
or raise his voice in public.
He will not crush the weakest reed
or put out a flickering candle.
Finally he will cause justice to be victorious.
And his name will be the hope
of all the world.” (Matthew 12:18-21)
Jesus was the hope of all the world, but they did not realize He was the Savior who was bringing the only hope to the world. Jesus was always gentle, compassionate and merciful. He did not crush the weakest reed, nor put out a flickering candle. On the other hand, they plotted to kill the Jesus and persecuted the followers of Jesus. Many of them were also killed no long time later like Jesus. However, God made Jesus live again from the dead to be the only and eternal hope for all. This is our hope, and faith in Him. Thus, wherever Jesus went, people flocked around Him. In turn, Jesus healed the sick, drove out demons, gave hope, told comfort and peace that the world had not heard before. Most of all, for the people, Jesus kept revealing the truth and the secret of the kingdom of God for their eternal hope and faith. Here is one of the stories told by Jesus about the Kingdom of Heaven:
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.
When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.
“The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’
“‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.
“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.
“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’”
The people around Jesus including His disciples heard the story, but they could not understand. In fact, Jesus always used stories and illustrations like the above when speaking to the crowds. In fact, he never spoke to them without using such parables. This fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet:
“I will speak to you in parables.
I will explain things hidden since the creation of the world.” (Matthew 13:35b)
Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”
Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels. (Matthew 13:36-39)
Jesus, the farmer, spreads the good seeds (i.e., us, the children of God) to the world, but Satan also plants the weeds among the good seeds. Initially, both the good seeds and the weeds grow together. Their look and feel are also same. Especially, when both are young, it is very difficult to tell which one is which. That is, we cannot tell by just looking. How difficult to tell? In the parable, the farmer kept his workers from pulling out the weeds from the field because the farmer worried to uproot the wheat also while pulling out the weeds. The famer allowed for both to grow in the same field for the wheat.
This tells us one truth about this world. We are living together with the evil children. When we look them, they look just like us. They speak alike, and they behave alike. And they are also everywhere – our workplaces, gatherings, and even in churches and sadly even among families. Not just growing together with us, they also keep enticing us. After all, the world is theirs. Our citizenship is in Heaven not on earth. They also have all kinds of means to lure us because the world is naturally enticing. As a natural man or woman, we can be easily sucked into the world because we are of the world as we were born naturally.
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
Thus, we need to be born again in Christ. What’s the meaning of born again? Our natural birth is a just beginning of our life on earth, which belongs to earth. Unfortunately, as being born naturally, we cannot enter the Kingdom of God. In fact, according to Jesus, the person even cannot see the Kingdom of God!
Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life” (John 3:5-6)
One must be born again by the Holy Spirit. Natural humans give birth of natural humans, but the Holy Spirit gives birth of new spiritual life — the Holy Spirit become the center of the person’s life, and the desire of the Holy Spirit guides and transforms the person to live for the Holy Spirit. No longer please one’s own self naturally born, longing for the world, but please God, hoping for His Kingdom.
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
It is a rather lengthy list. Not easy to read either. However, is there anyone who is completely immune to the above list of the worldly and sinful desires? We all also naturally know all of them are neither good nor Godly because we are created by the image of God. We know what is good and evil, but our beings are so weak to be easily swayed by our earthly desire, pleasure, pride, and greed.
On the other hand, those who are born again with the Holy Spirit produce the fruit of Holy Spirit:
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 6:22-23)
How about us? Are we children of God born again with the Holy Spirit? Are we bearing these fruit in our live, everyday? We know we should, but we don’t. Why? Simply because we are still of the world, and being heavily influenced by the world. The world, we can see, touch by our own hands, but the Kingdom of God, we cannot see with our own physical eyes and touched by our physical hands born with. Which one is more real then? The world that we can see or the Kingdom of God that we cannot see and touch? Of course, the former is more real to us as long as we are in this world. Only can the Holy Spirit set apart us from this world. How then?
Being born again is the first step, and then continually dying on cross with Jesus every day and every moment. In other words, our natural being of the world needs to die with Christ every day and every moment. If not, our natural self takes control of us to be worldly.
My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
Then daily and moment by moment, we are being resurrected in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit as a new creation in Christ, holy and blameless to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The Bible continue tells that “There is no law against these things!” That is, the power of the Holy Spirit is so powerful that we can overcome the world and our desires for the world, and also produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Yes, this is a sheer impossibility according to the worldly measures, but the Holy Spirit in us does. This is the secret and the victory that promised by Jesus, which only comes through the power of our continual born-again process in our daily life. Yes, we are surrounded by the weeds of the children of evil, but we win over the world with an overwhelming victory. This is the promise, and our hope and faith. We have been winning and will continue having this overwhelming victory every day and every moment in Jesus Christ!
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. (Romans 8:37)