44th International Bible ConferenceJuly 30th, 2012Jesus Christ, the Lord of the New Testament and the Old TestamentWe first focused on the letter to the Ephesians to examine the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles from the point of view of the Church. This letter was written by Paul (a Jew who became the apostle to the Gentiles) to the church in Ephesus, which was composed of Gentiles. The Israelites were people who served God and put their hopes in, and were waiting for the Messiah. Now, through the blood of Christ, they had drawn closer to those who were Gentiles according to the flesh and who were now in the position of listeners. Before this, the Gentiles had been far away, excluded from the covenant and called uncircumcised by those who were circumcised. They were people who were treated with disdain. Yet the wall that had arisen between them had been torn down and both came before God united in the Holy Spirit. Just as one man had been created by the hand of God, the Bible says that this body has grown in stature (see Ephesians 4:16) and is being fitted together; (see Ephesians 2:21) this is also an indirect explanation of the relationship between the Old and New Testaments.The letter to the Ephesians is about the Church. Ephesus is a port city in Turkey, and Acts chapter 19 talks about the gospel being spread in Ephesus. If you read this letter a little more carefully, you will see that you have become a member of the Church by being born again through the words of the Bible and that the Church has been growing, following the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. This brings us to think more deeply about our relationship with the Church.If we take the viewpoint of the apostle Paul who were Jews and look at the language and style he used in the letter to the church members in Ephesus who were Gentiles, we can see that the starting points of how the Jews view the Church and of how the Gentiles accept the Church are different. Even though it has been established that “the body of Christ … is the church,” the starting points of these two groups are different. Everyone is born as a sinner, born again through the same faith and united under the same truth, as expressed in the words “one Spirit, … one Lord, one faith” (see Ephesians 4:4-5). The Jews and the Gentiles are running towards the same finish line, but started off in different places.The Jews and the Gentiles all come from the body of Adam. The moment Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, however, God devised a plan involving the Jews as His words of prophecy were heard. He said there will be the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent and that the serpent will bruise the heel of the Seed of the woman. This nation, which God clearly chose, received God’s complete protection. As Gentiles, we are in no position to judge the actions of the Israelites or the way they served and disobeyed God. We cannot make rash judgements when it comes to this. The promise God made to Jacob and the ancestors of the Jews, saying, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3) continues to apply today. The Bible prescribes that everyone who learns about the Church and the Bible must have respect towards the Jews, the nation through which the Bible was recorded.I am speaking about these things for a reason. In this sermon, we will be studying the Old Testament. Yet, when we read the Bible after we have assurance of salvation and truly accept that Jesus Christ is the Lord of our spirits, we may become critical of the Jews. If we read the Bible with this attitude, we will cause problems for ourselves. There are also people who say they believe in the New Testament and in Jesus and yet have no interest in the Jews. They are only interested in their own Christian life and their own faith. In order to satisfy their faith, they pick out certain verses from the Bible and based on these, they determine whether or not they believe. This is not, however, how God recorded the Bible and has been governing the course of history. Through Adam, God had already seen the start of a nation. He decided in advance that through this lineage a nation would be born and that from this nation, His only begotten Son would come, in the body of a man. Even though there are many people who study and research the Bible, when it comes to the Israelites that appear in the Old Testament, the story of the Jews, their laws and lifestyle, the temple and tabernacle, the many judges and the numerous kings who arose after the judges, they consider all these merely as stories and as part of history. They treat the Old Testament as if it were a history book, such as the Korean The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. They think that God simply adorned the time before Jesus with such history. Even amongst Christians, there are many people who think such things.In the Bible, however, we can see in detail how God works through the Israelites. If we study and compare the Old and New Testaments, we can see that the Bible contains amazing stories that could not have been thought up by the human brain. If we read the Bible in such a simplified way, we only value the Bible verse through which we received salvation and disparage the rest of the Bible. “What is so important about the stories in the Old Testament? Jesus was born in the land of Judah, lived for 33 years, was framed by the Israelites and was crucified, and through that, my sins have been forgiven. All I needed to do is believe that.” Is this the way you see things? Of course, such thoughts are not entirely wrong.In the letter to the Ephesians, however, expressed in the words, “having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (see 2:20). Jesus Christ is not only the Lord of the New Testament but also of the Old Testament. Jesus scolded the Jews, saying, “You seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.” And when the Jews asked, “Are you greater than our father Abraham?” He replied, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (see John chapter 8) However, when Jesus spoke these words, they seemed to be presumptuous in the eyes of the Jews, as He was suggesting that He was equal with God. More reasons of a similar nature piled up and the Jews eventually brought about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.Yet, Jesus only spoke the truth concerning Himself in accordance with the Old Testament. When the Jews asked Him, “Who are you?” He answered, “Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning” (see John 8:25). Jesus also said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39). The Scriptures at the time are what we now know as the Old Testament. Jesus was born in the land of Judah and taught many people with His words before the New Testament was written. The Bible says, “This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise” (Isaiah 43:21). God formed one man, Adam, from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Then He caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and took one of his ribs from which He formed the woman. That was the start of the history of mankind, and the beginning of the human body. Within this history, Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thus became aware of their shame. Their eyes were opened and they came to know good and evil. Through Genesis chapter 3, we know that it was then that God promised the Seed of the woman.We know very well that the Church forms the body of Christ. The Church is also referred to as “the Lamb’s wife” (see Revelation 21:9). Through the concept of the Church, which has been revealed through the Bible, we can understand the reason God created Adam and Eve and the sequence in which He did so. Moreover, we can understand that the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Church is based on God’s laws of creation. This relationship is repeatedly presented to us in the Old Testament. There are many people, however, who do not want to connect such examples revealed in the Old Testament to the concept of the Church in the New Testament, nor do they have the power of insight that would allow them to do so.Furthermore, as Jesus spoke about the coming of the kingdom of heaven, He also said, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Matthew 19:30). Why did He say this? What does it mean to be first and what does it mean to be last?In Ephesians chapter 1, it says, “having predestined us.” God devised a plan in His heart, this plan has been manifested through the course of the history of the world, and we see this plan being carried out. There is, however, a difference in the order of these events. It is the Church that God predestined before the foundation of the world. God created the world in order to have a partner in love. God created the world and created man in His own image, but man was deceived by the serpent and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The ground was cursed as a result of the actions of this man and death became his fate. His spiritual connection to God had been severed. This is when God spoke to him concerning the seed of the woman. As we see in the verse that says, “the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1), Abraham, David and many others appear in the history of Israel. Yet the mystery of the Church which had been predestined before the foundation of the world was hidden from the eyes of man. So, when we look back on history, the Jews appear in the Bible first. Then, when the fullness of time had come, the mystery of the Church was revealed through the lips of the apostles, including Paul. Historically, the Jews existed first and then the Church, but God planned the Church first and its position is also first.Jesus came to this world in the form of a man and spoke of this briefly to His disciples. Yet, I am uncertain as to how much this was understood by those who heard this amazing truth. The verse that Jesus says, “Many who are first will be last, and the last first,” may be taken purely as applying to the individual. It is possible to think, “Since I was born again later, if I live my Christian life better than those who were born again earlier, I will have a higher position in the Church than they do”. When Jesus uttered the words in this verse, however, He was speaking from the position of God the Creator. People tend to speak randomly depending on their mood and their words tend to be shallow, but Jesus is not like that. Since He created all things, has known all things from the beginning and He holds all of history in His hands. When He came in the image of a man, people did not recognize Him for who He really was. This is evident in conversations that appear in the Bible as well as in the writings of the prophets.   The Formation of the Nation of IsraelNow let’s consider once again the verse that says, “This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My Praise” (Isaiah 43:21). How did God form the nation of Israel?Adam begot Seth, and the genealogy that continues after Seth is also recorded in the Bible. Later, Noah was born. Noah had three sons, and after the flood, people born through these three sons spread all over the world. The genealogy of Noah’s son Shem, which included Peleg, developed into a family. Terah begot sons in Ur of the Chaldeans, the land we now know as Iraq. His sons included Abraham whose name was originally Abram.God told Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, in other words, to get out of his country, from his family and from his father’s house to a land that God would show him. (see Genesis 11:31, 12:1) The Bible says that Abraham did so without knowing where he was going. (see Hebrews 11:8) This took place about four thousand years ago. You might think this has nothing to do with us today, but try putting yourself in this situation four thousand years ago. Suppose there were a land far away from where you live, a place about which the news always reports of terrorist attacks, wars, suicide bombers and so on. Abram departed from the land where he lived, having listened to the command of God, the God in whom we believe, the God who speaks to us in our own age.The more I think about this, the more deeply I am moved by it. One of the hymns we sing includes the line, “Long by the prophets of Israel foretold” (Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning by T. Hastings). This hymn refers to a certain blessing. In order to bring about this blessing, God commanded this one man, Abraham, to set out along a desolate path. Who is the One holding the thread and who is the One holding the needle? The One who commanded Abram to depart and the One who speaks to us now are the same.Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans and continued towards the northwest. When he arrived in the region of Haran, his father Terah, passed away there. In this way, Abraham parted from his own flesh and blood. As it says in the verse, “that our old man was crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6), Abraham was separated from his “old man” completely. He quietly walked and entered the land that God had told him to go to.How is the journey of Abraham which appears in Genesis chapter 12 related to us who live now in the era of the Church? ‘These things happened to the ancestor of a nation not my own and he thus began to live in a certain place. All that is in the past and what I believe in now are the doctrines of the New Testament.’ If this is how you consider this matter, you are mistaken. If it were not for the path Abram took at that time, we would not be sitting with a Bible in front of us now. Everything is connected. The thoughts in our heads are relayed through the nervous system to each of the joints in our bodies, causing our bodies to move. Our bodies grow and live. Similarly, from the time of Adam until the present day, the course of history governed by God has always been alive and active.God promised Abraham that “one who will come from your own body shall be your heir” (Genesis 15:4), and He said to him, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants” (Genesis 13:14-15). Abraham begot sons af

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