The Gospel of John-26 – Beyond the Signs, Behold the Lord

John 4:46–54.

 

“Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’ The royal official said, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ Jesus replied, ‘Go, your son will live.’ The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, ‘Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.’ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.” Amen.

 

Beyond Signs to the Lord of Life

The passage we share today is a record of a royal official, a dignitary of Galilee at the time. Having heard rumors that Jesus healed the sick, he came and pleaded for his son's healing, eventually receiving the grace of his son being restored. A unique point of this event is that Jesus did not go in person to raise the child but healed him simply by His word. This progression is very similar to the faith of the centurion who confessed, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word,” and was praised by Jesus.

 

Furthermore, there are several important features to note in the text. Verse 46 states, “Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine.” This suggests that today’s event is deeply connected to the miracle in Cana of Galilee shown in John chapter 2. You are well aware of the event where Jesus turned water into wine when the wine ran out at the wedding feast in Cana. Sometimes, those who have faith but feel heavy-hearted whenever they come to church due to their usual drinking habits especially like this verse. I occasionally hear people say that since Jesus' first miracle was making wine, we shouldn't be too strict about alcohol—and that isn't wrong. Indeed, the first miracle Jesus performed was creating wine to restore the joy of the feast.

 

The Correlation Between the Wedding at Cana and the Royal Official

How does it seem to you? At first glance, do today’s text and the wedding at Cana not seem entirely unrelated? John chapter 2 was a record of a wedding feast, while today’s text is about a royal official’s son being saved from the brink of death. Let us briefly recall the wedding at Cana. That day was a day of festival where everyone mingled in joy and pleasure. However, the wine ran out. The place of the feast, which should have been full of joy, instantly began to turn desolate and embarrassing. Right then, Jesus breathed life into that place. By making wine, He transformed this feast into God’s feast, presided over by Jesus Himself. And through the feast, He revealed that Jesus Himself is the Master of the wine and the wine itself. The water turning into wine is a testimony of Scripture that Jesus Christ came to this earth to personally become the wine and bestow upon us the wine of heaven.

 

The royal official appearing in today’s text was a person of considerable social status. If we look for a connection between the two events, the feast symbolizes joy and the royal official represents a successful figure. In other words, both situations began with positive appearances. However, a problem arose in the life of this successful official. Just as a problem occurred when the wine ran out during the feast of joy, a crisis struck this official. Like the wine running dry, this time the flame of life for the royal official’s son was fading away. The Lord saved this son. So, does the story end here? Is the fact that Jesus Christ saved a dying child truly everything this text intends to convey?

 

The Focus of the Event: The Messiah Who Came Among Us

Friends, to understand the text more deeply, there is a fact we must address. First, we need to reconsider why the wedding at Cana was recorded. Why was the wedding at Cana recorded? Is it simply to inform us that the wine was insufficient but was miraculously replenished to finish the feast without issue? It is not. The purpose of that feast, as mentioned earlier, is to show what the true wine is and what the "better wine" than the first one is. Furthermore, the core purpose is to testify who Jesus Christ is, who is that better wine Himself. Therefore, the true protagonist of the text never changes.

 

Please do not lose this perspective in the event we are handling today. The fact that the royal official’s son was healed from sickness or how great the official’s faith was is not the essential focus of the story. The true focus is on who Jesus Christ is, who entered into the very middle of the problems we face. Who on earth is He, that He comes into our suffering to proclaim His Godhood and Messiahship? This is the true content the text intends to deliver to us.

 

Stages of Faith: Sign-Faith and Word-Faith

We intend to track the repeated words in the text. A very important word appears here: the word "believe." If you look at the text, you can see that the word "believe" appears three times, in verses 48, 50, and 53. First, look at verse 48: “Jesus told him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.’” Here, the phrase "never believe" appears for the first time. Following this, verse 50 says: “Jesus replied, ‘Go, your son will live.’ The man took Jesus at his word and departed.” When Jesus said, “You may go now, your son lives,” the royal official believed those words and set out on his way.

 

But the issue lies in verse 53. It says, “Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and his whole household believed.” It was clearly recorded in verse 50 that he believed; why does the expression “all believed” appear again only when we reach verse 53? Then what was the belief he had before? If we explain it as him believing vaguely at first and only after seeing his son actually healed did he think, “Ah, it’s really true,” and finally come to believe, then it would be difficult to call the prior belief true faith. This is because only the later belief would be the genuine one. Why, then, was he—who clearly believed and set out in the beginning—described as believing again in the end? Did his faith suddenly become stronger? It is truly a difficult passage. It is not easy to define this as faith in its complete sense or to fathom its original meaning. Now, we will start from verse 48, where the word "belief" first appeared, and examine the true intent of this content step by step.

 

Two Perspectives on Seeing Signs

Let’s look at verse 48 again. “Jesus told him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.’” The situation preceding this is the official coming and pleading, “Come down and heal my son.” Instead of saying He would heal him or simply telling him to go back, Jesus says, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you absolutely will not believe.” These words sound like a scolding, so they are usually understood as a rebuke: “Why do you always have to see signs and wonders to believe? Do you have to confirm things with your eyes to believe? Can’t you just believe in Me?” However, if we interpret this verse only in that way, some contradictions arise when connecting it with other parts of Scripture.

 

Look at John 6:26. Jesus answered them, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” This is a point that “the reason you follow Me is because you ate the bread I gave and were full, not because you saw the signs.” Here, the tone rather implies that "you must see the signs." Yet in chapter 4, He said, “Why do you follow Me only if you see signs?” so the two sayings seem opposite. I wonder if I am making things difficult by digging too deep into a part that could be easily passed over. However, in the former He seems to rebuke the attitude of needing to see signs and wonders to believe, and in the latter He tells them to see the signs and follow Him; so how should we understand the gap between these two teachings?

 

The Purpose of Signs: The Cross and Resurrection

Therefore, we have no choice but to engage in a slightly deeper meditation on this verse. Recalling the words of John 6:26, we clearly must see signs. Thus, rather than interpreting the content of the earlier text simply as a rebuke meaning "Do you believe Me only after seeing a sign?", we can understand it as an exhortation: "See the signs and wonders. And believe." In other words, it is as if Jesus is saying to the royal official who is asking Him to heal his son: "Since you are one who cannot believe without seeing signs and wonders, now see these signs and wonders and believe in Me."

 

If interpreted this way, one question may arise: “Pastor, is every problem solved just by seeing signs and wonders? Should we just chase miracles?” In a previous sermon, I clearly stated, “We do not live by miracles.” I emphasized that miracles themselves cannot save us, so it might seem contradictory to now say "see the miracles." The reason this misunderstanding occurs is that the expression "seeing a sign" is used in two different senses in the Bible.

 

The first case is a faith that is buried in the sign itself and follows only that. This is in line with the earlier mentioned phrase, "because you ate the loaves and had your fill." If we look at John 2:23, it is recorded that in Jerusalem during the Passover, many people saw the signs Jesus was performing and believed in His name. Up to this point, there seems to be no problem. However, in the following verse, it says that Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, and because He knew all people, He did not need human testimony. This means that even if they believed after seeing many signs, that belief was false. Just because the word ‘belief’ appears in the Bible does not mean it is all true faith. One must grasp the reality of that faith through the context. The reason Jesus did not entrust Himself to them was that they saw the sign only as a sign and followed it. That is, they were not looking at the true Savior but were following the Lord because their hearts were stolen by the "bread crumbs" that would drop immediately.

 

The Opportunistic Hospitality of the Galileans

There are those who witness a miracle and, seeing that power, follow Jesus saying, “It’s truly amazing that the sickness was healed.” Seeing Him walk on water, they follow Him in admiration, saying, “He is truly a remarkable person,” and seeing Him make the sea calm and still, they flock to Him, saying, “How is such a thing possible? This man is truly great.” We might think that following the Lord in that way is enough, but the Bible places all those who believe in Jesus only because they saw signs into the category of false faith.

 

Such instances are not confined to just one place. If you look at verse 43 of chapter 4, just before today’s text, a very interesting expression appears. “After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)” But the following verse 45 says: “When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.” If you savor this verse deeply, you can immediately tell that the front and back do not match. Jesus said a prophet is never welcomed in his hometown and entered His hometown, yet the people of His hometown are welcoming Him fervently. It might seem like Jesus' words were wrong, but why did the Bible bother to record this contradictory situation?

 

Actually, this verse loses its true meaning if not read in connection with the preceding words. Jesus said, “A prophet is never welcomed in his own country,” and in reality, He was not truly welcomed in Galilee. Although the Bible records that the Galileans welcomed Him, it adds the reason in a very cynical tone. It says they welcomed Him not because they knew who He was, but simply because they had seen the miracles and signs He performed. In other words, just like the people who believed after seeing numerous wonders in Jerusalem, the Galileans also merely flocked to Him because they were fascinated by the miracles Jesus performed. They welcomed Him like a returning hero, saying, “They say He heals the sick! The star who became a big topic in Jerusalem has come!” Jesus declared of this, “A prophet is not honored.” This is because their welcome was based only on human curiosity and expectation, not a confession of true faith arising from the depths of the soul.

 

The True Sign: The Sign of Jonah and the Cross

Therefore, friends, the fact we must address is that following the sign itself is never the correct faith. However, there is another group here. It is the people who follow the "reality" that the sign points toward. A sign is originally like a 'signpost.' Think of the signposts that appear when we drive on the freeway. If we see a sign saying ‘Los Angeles Street,’ we follow the arrow indicated by that sign toward our destination. No one thinks the sign itself is the destination and crashes into it. Likewise, signs have a separate reality that they indicate. Following that indicated direction correctly—the Bible expresses this as truly ‘seeing the sign.’ Thus, the phrase ‘seeing a sign’ contains two different meanings.

 

In Matthew 12:39, the Lord says: “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” This is a declaration that the essence of all signs Jesus performs lies in the sign of Jonah. Jonah, the Old Testament prophet, was a figure who was trapped in the belly of a large fish for three days and then returned alive to preach the gospel to the city of Nineveh. In other words, Jesus is now saying: “I too, like Jonah, will be swallowed by death for three days and then be resurrected. I have no sign to show you other than My cross and resurrection.” Ultimately, the ultimate point that all signs point to is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the Pharisees and teachers of the law boasted that they would believe if He showed them a sign from heaven, the Lord presented only the single sign of the cross and resurrection.

 

Because of this, friends, the purpose of all signs is to testify to the event of Jesus Christ being crucified and resurrected. The act of healing a disease or the miracle of parting the sea and making it calm cannot be the purpose of the sign itself. The mysterious miracles we experience in our daily lives are also not purposes in their own phenomena. Rather than stopping at healing a disease, the true purpose of a sign is to make us look at Jesus Christ, the ‘Lamb of God,’ who took all our infirmities upon Himself and moved toward death. Through Christ bearing our sins, sicknesses, and all our pain in our stead, He grants us the joy of the kingdom of heaven—this is the true meaning the sign conveys. This is precisely why the Lord mentioned the sign of Jonah and spoke of having to die for three days.

 

The Apostle Paul clearly proclaims this truth in 1 Corinthians 1:22 and following: “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” These are truly great words. People of the world seek only visible signs, but the true sign is specifically ‘Christ crucified.’ Please remember that He alone is the one and only true sign granted to us.

 

Jesus, the Resolver of Fundamental Problems

Sometimes, when we attend healing rallies and the like, we often place all our purpose only on being healed from disease. However, that is a great misunderstanding of the essence that the Bible and Jesus Christ intend to convey to us. It is a state of coming before the Lord only with a heart to heal my sickness and resolve the immediate problem at hand, without realizing the true reason Jesus performed miracles on this earth. Jesus is certainly the one who resolves our problems, but He is by no means such a "shallow" fixer. This is because He is not someone who merely puts a Band-Aid on our bodies or prescribes painkillers for a painful area.

 

Friends, the physical illnesses that appear in our bodies or the numerous hardships of life we face are actually just phenomena derived from deeper problems within us. Simply removing the external symptoms does not fundamentally change our lives. For example, suppose a person who died came back to life. Even so, he will eventually face death again. This is because the fundamental problem of life was not resolved. The mystery of ‘eternal life’ promised by the Lord can never be reached in such a way. One might confess, “Thank you, God,” because their cancer is healed right now, but healing itself is not the entirety of the sign. A sign possesses value as a sign only when it reveals the reality it is truly pointing to.

 

If you have understood up to this point, now look at verse 48. Jesus says, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.” This statement is ultimately equivalent to a declaration that “without the event of the cross and resurrection, you can never reach faith.” In summary, because the reality of ‘signs and wonders’ is the ‘cross and resurrection,’ it means that without this decisive event, a human being cannot have true faith even if they were to die and wake up again. So how could the royal official have understood this deep spiritual meaning? He did not understand at all why the Lord was saying such things at this point. Thus, he only continued to repeat the same words: “Lord, I do not know what you are talking about. Please just come down and heal my son first.”

 

The Proclamation of Truth and Our Child-like Pleading

If you or I were in the position of Jesus or God, how would we have reacted in such a situation? While He is currently expounding eternal truth and sharing solemn words about how true life obtains salvation, if the counterpart is just pestering for a single 'jawbreaker' in front of their eyes, how frustrating would that be? Think of when you teach your children at home. If you sit a child down and talk seriously about the deep and momentous issues of life, but the child doesn't understand and keeps asking, “Mom, when are we eating?”, how would you feel? While the parent is giving advice with all their heart on how the child can live life correctly, if the child only repeats the words, “Mom, when are you going to give me food?”, it would be quite frustrating and perhaps even annoying. If you try to give a cool lecture to a child about the age of a high school junior, saying, “Life is such and such, so you must live like this,” but they are just staring at you talking about food, the bleakness would be indescribable.

 

How frustrated must Jesus have been? Standing at the point where life and death are divided, He is trying to make him realize that while the son's healing is important, there is a much more essential and urgent issue—but the official does not realize it at all. He is merely staying at the level of clinging and coaxing like a child. If it were me, I might have given up then and there. I might have turned away saying, “Fine, I’ll explain it again next time.” However, Jesus speaks words to us that are truly so amazing.

 

The Limits of Blessing-Seeking Faith and Sign-Centeredness

It is the word of verse 50. “Jesus replied, ‘Go, your son will live.’ The man took Jesus at his word and departed.” What does it mean that he believed here? As mentioned before, there are two aspects to faith that sees a sign; what kind of faith did the official hold onto? He probably thought like this: “Finally, this Miracle Healer, this person with extraordinary talent and power, has granted my request. Now my child will survive.” The moment this man heard Jesus' words, he trusted Him as a worker of miracles and began his journey. Ultimately, what the official followed was the sign, and the reality of that sign was the phenomenon of his son's sickness being healed. He moved his steps looking only at that sign.

 

Friends, a faith that chases only signs like this is bound to reveal its limits before long. If we examine the tracks of the royal official shown in the text, several characteristics are immediately revealed. The distance from Cana to Capernaum is about 20 to 25 miles. I checked several biblical geography books, and though I haven't walked it myself, they say it is a path that takes roughly 4 hours on foot. Since his son's life was at stake, this official would have run those 20-odd miles for 4 hours without stopping to meet Jesus. The way back, if he hurried, would also have been enough in 4 hours. According to verse 52, the time the official met Jesus was the ‘seventh hour,’ which is 1:00 PM in today’s time. Since he met Jesus at 1:00 PM and heard the words, “Your son will live,” he should have departed for home immediately.

 

Delayed Obedience Buried in Signs

Then, what time should he have arrived home? If he had normally quickened his pace, he ought to have arrived around 5:00 PM. However, the record in verse 52 reveals a surprising fact. When he asked when the boy began to get better, the servants replied, ‘Yesterday, at the seventh hour.’ This means he spent an entire day on the road. The father, who had come running saying his son’s life was in danger, suddenly wasted a day.

 

Friends, the characteristic of people who follow signs is that their initial resolve and passion are truly grand. They show great zeal without regard for fire or water and look as if they will achieve something great immediately. This official also made a resolution, saying, “You are indeed a great person. I believe in your power,” and set out. A person fascinated by signs feels a hot heart and shows considerable enthusiasm because they see a miracle before their eyes. That might be natural. It is because they confirmed it directly with their eyes. Rather than me preaching here for an hour to “believe in Jesus Christ,” if I were to split this ground open in a single miracle, wouldn't you immediately kneel and seek the Lord? If I had such power, our church would already be overflowing with huge crowds. It is because people want exactly that kind of visible power. When facing a miracle, passion arises and some hot religious confession begins to burst out.

 

However, what is the most fatal flaw of a faith that chases only the sign itself? It is that it seems to follow, yet it is incredibly slow when it comes to true obedience. Jesus clearly said, “Go, your son will live.” Then, believing those words, he should have headed home without delay. He might have started with great momentum at first, but where on earth did he spend his time? We do not know if he slept somewhere in the middle or attended to other business, but he spent a full day and met the servants who were coming to meet him only on the next day. He hadn't even reached the destination yet. The appearance of him crying out that his son was dying was nowhere to be found, and he was strangely lazy in his obedience.

 

Beyond Self-Centered Prayer to True Obedience

Friends, what does this appearance signify? Of course, we could view it as the royal official, even after hearing Jesus' words, inwardly doubting, “Could it really be healed?”, and giving up or being discouraged. However, looking at the overall flow of the word, it seems rather to be a typical characteristic of those who seek signs. People who seek signs often lose their desperation and interest in the subject as soon as they get what they want. Once they receive an answer to prayer, the answer itself held in their hands becomes more important than God. Then they go looking for a new object to satisfy another desire.

 

"Since business went well after I prayed last time, this time let's pray for the child; and once the child's problem is solved, let's find another problem as a prayer topic." It's a way of saying, "I heard there's a difficulty in the church lately, so let's pray to solve that problem." In this way, prayer degenerates into a means of collecting a debt, as if God were entrusted with one. This is the characteristic of blessing-seeking faith. The moment one gets what they want, the heart has already moved on to the next goal. The official also, once he was certain his son would be healed, became negligent in the task of completely obeying the Lord’s word and running home. Thus, it seems he wasted a day by attending to other business or being distracted on the way home.

 

Passion in Appearance and Neglected Holiness

Friends, this is a very important fact. First of all, that official was a person who believed in miracles. He was by no means a person without faith. He firmly believed, “Surely such a miracle will happen.” Unfortunately, however, his faith stopped right there. He was more desperate than anyone when seeking the Lord, but at the moment when complete obedience was required, he did not obey. What is our appearance today? If a famous revivalist comes and says he will pray with laying on of hands, a scene unfolds where people stick their heads in first to receive it. People show truly great zeal in trying to enjoy a blessing by receiving laying on of hands even just once. If a spiritual gifts meeting is held, they put in all their strength, vowing to receive a gift. On the outside, it looks as if they long for grace so much.

 

Also, if it is a matter of making their name known, they take the lead regardless of the means or methods. They are faster than anyone at informing others that they are dedicating themselves this much. However, if told to do the Lord's work silently with their name hidden, they quickly become angry. They protest, “Why should I go down such a path of suffering?” When exhorted to fight fiercely to maintain holiness, there are few who actually step out into that spiritual battle. The reality is that we do not obey in the essential areas where we truly ought to. We send off missionaries grandly and stylishly, but we are indifferent to the pain a member of the community right next to us suffers secretly while sick and dying. How on earth did this happen? Where is our faith heading now? Are we truly doing the things God has entrusted to us? In fact, we have no interest in that essence. It is because we only follow the visible signs. You are sitting here now, worshiping and calling on the name of God, but what are you truly chasing? Where is your heart's center right now?

 

Remembering the Word: The Moment of Meeting the Lord of Life

The story of the royal official does not stop here but enters a more essential phase. Verse 53 marks a very important turning point in his faith journey. “Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and his whole household believed.” True faith finally appears, and the process is very interesting. Within this short verse, precious spiritual principles are recorded one after another.

 

First, the word of God began to be remembered in the official's spirit. This was not due to his subjective experience, a manifestation, or personal judgment, but only the word proclaimed by Jesus coming back to life. Friends, the word of God is not remembered simply by intellectual ability. The one who makes the word remembered within us is none other than the Holy Spirit. The work the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, performs is not limited to simply healing our diseases or praying for worldly blessings. The Holy Spirit makes the work performed by Jesus Christ—whom God sent—and the words He spoke vividly come to mind in our hearts. Now, the work of the Spirit is occurring in the official's heart, and the word is beginning to be remembered.

 

Having remembered the word through the guidance of the Spirit, he immediately quotes it: “The exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’” Here we must pay attention to the expression ‘will live.’ Scripture does not simply record that the sickness was ‘healed’ but emphasizes that he ‘lived.’ The reason I emphasize this is because the beginning of the text described the son's condition as a situation of being ‘close to death.’ That is, the son who was as good as dead came back to life. Beyond a simple event of a disease being cured, the Lord is showing a symbolic history of salvation where a dead life comes back to life through this work.

 

Captivated by Christ, Who is Life Itself

The official, reciting that proclaimed word once more, deeply realizes that Jesus is the very Master of that word of life. Friends, it was only then that this man truly met the Lord, who is ‘Life itself’ giving life, rather than just Jesus as a performer of miracles who healed his son's sickness. The realization hit him: “At the very moment He said ‘he will live,’ my son came to life. Ah, this person is the one who governs life!” Now, he is not coveting some power Jesus possesses, but he has come to long for Jesus Himself. He is not keeping his eyes on the incidental benefits the Lord has, but he is captivated by the existence of Jesus Christ Himself. It was because He was life.

 

And here, an important truth that we all cannot help but deeply empathize with is revealed. He finally comes to realize how foolish he had been. However, despite such foolishness, he faces the Lord who still works by proclaiming, “He lived.” Only now has he seen the true ‘sign.’ His beginning was certainly erratic and his purpose was also deviated from the essence. He was wandering the path of wrong faith, no different from us.

 

However, the Lord never gave up on him. To him, who only tried to get something from the Lord, He personally came and led him into the life of Jesus Christ. The Lord did not leave him as one who only eats the bread falling from the feast table but invited him as a protagonist of the feast itself. He pulled him deeply into the living water of life.

 

The True Joy of Being with the Protagonist of the Feast

Friends, how about us? Having come to seek something from the Lord, once the problem is resolved, are we not following the sign instead of the Lord, saying, "As expected, the Lord is one who listens to anything"? Then, around the time our passion cools, do we not fall into the worry, "I thought I believed quite hotly in the past, but why isn't anything exciting happening lately? Why has my faith become so suffocating?"

 

Saints, you are not people who visit the Lord’s feast, wrap up a little food, and go out the door to sit in a corner and eat it. You and I are people who are directly invited to the place of the feast the Lord provided, to break bread with the Lord inside. Is the bread important to you, or is the Lord who provided the feast important? Is staying with the Lord your true joy, or is only the bread the Lord gives your joy?

 

I want to ask the same question to those of you being commissioned today. Is the office you receive important, or is Jesus Christ important? Is the act itself of 'my worship and praise' offered at church important, or are Jesus Christ and God, the objects of that worship, your ultimate goal? I hope all of you experience the Lord’s feast fully. Do not stay like a guest trying to pack food outside the feast, but enter the center of the feast and face the countenance of Jesus. I pray that you become the protagonists of true fellowship, deeply feeling His love, talking with Him, and sharing the table of life with Him.

 

The Table of Life Enjoyed with the Lord

Friends, when does food taste best? It is when you are very hungry, but doesn't the taste also change entirely depending on who you eat with? If you sit across from an enemy and eat, what taste would there be? But what if we eat and drink with Jesus? If it is certain that you are walking this life with Jesus Christ and living your every day within the Lord, that life will be a festival.

 

There is true joy when we live a life where the Lord guides, intervenes, and leads me, and when we fully obey His word. When you are not wandering away to live according to your own will at a decisive moment like this official, but are fighting with all your body for holiness, you will be the one who rejoices within the Lord’s feast. I hope everyone joyfully participates in this wonderful feast of life provided by Jesus Christ.

 

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, abundant in love and grace, we have received Your grace and love and have heard and seen Your word. We were originally those who sought only our own happiness and profit, coming before the Lord only according to our greed. However, despite our wrong motives, the Lord granted us life by saying, “Go, your son will live.” Also, through the Holy Spirit, You have awakened us and made us know where we truly ought to stay. Lord, grant us a correct faith. Now that we have known the truth, let us be Your people who delight only in Jesus Christ and love the Lord with all our hearts.

 

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.