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Our Call to Universal Love (Jeremiah 1:4-10; Luke 13:10-17). GPS. Driving with GPS: When I lived in a city, I used to enjoy my driving without any worry because I know my GPS will take me to my destination. GPS is my Shepherd…. Driving without GPS
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GPS Driving with GPS: • When I lived in a city, I used to enjoy my driving without any worry because I know my GPS will take me to my destination. • GPS is my Shepherd…
Driving without GPS • I have been nervous if I have to drive somewhere I am not yet familiar with because my GPS doesn’t work in our country. • A few weeks ago, I was invited to one of our church families, which only takes 10 minutes from my house. • But I had to spend almost one hour to be there because I got lost and couldn’t find the right road.
Life is a journey! • We feel safe and secure if we have a clear map of our life. • But we often feel nervous and even scared of our life’s journey because we don’t know where we are going and what will happen tomorrow. • To be worst, it seems like death is the final destination of our journey.
The Divine Providence The Good News to God’s children • 1) death isn’t the destination of our journey but the entrance to eternal life in heaven. • We may sometimes get lost and even confused with other ways that we may forget about who God is and what Jesus did for us. • 2) The Lord will look after us, deliver us from evil, and lead us to the way of God’s salvation.
Jeremiah’s Calling: • Jeremiah says, “I do not know how to speak, for I am only a child” (v. 6). • God replies to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (v. 5). • “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you” (vv. 7-8). • God knows who we are, where we are supposed to go, and what we need, and what we are going to do in the future.
God controls all things by divine providence • God has a clear plan for our life’s journey from the beginning to the end. • I can’t do it but God can do all things for the sake of God’s own faithfulness and glory. • God is our rock, our fortress, our shelter, our Shepherd, our GPS, and our heavenly Father, who always guides, protects, and governs all creation towards its ultimate perfection by divine providence. • Therefore, what shall we fear and who can fight against us?
The Doctrine of Predestination • Emphasizing God’s divine providence, John Calvin (1509-1564) brought the theology of “predestination” in Christian doctrines:
Predestination • Someone is elected to heaven, and someone is dammed to hell. • God knows everything that has happened and everything that will happen: God should know who will be saved and who won’t be as well. • All we can do is only to receive Jesus as our Savior, praise the Lord, and make holy lives as good Christians.
The Doctrine of Universal Love • John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of our Methodist Church, had a different idea to see God’s salvation plan: “universal love.”
Universal Love • “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). • God sent Jesus Christ not to certain groups of Christianity but to all people in the world, and so everyone is called to believe in Jesus and deserves God’s grace and love. • Salvation is God’s grace freely given to all human beings.
The biblical version of predestination and universalism • Before Jeremiah was born, God had already chosen and consecrated him, which is about “predestination.” • And yet, God chose Jeremiah to send him over to all the kingdoms to witness to God’s righteousness. • Luke’s Gospel: Jesus healed a woman who had suffered from an infirmity for 18 years. All the Jewish worshipers just let her be destined to her suffering because she was a sinner according to their religious law. • Jesus broke down the law, came into her life, touched her body, and healed her infirmity. Jesus didn’t judge her as the cursed but called her as God’s daughter.
“Christians are destined…” • We Christians are proud that we are God’s children (like the Pharisees). Every Sunday (Sabbath) we come to Church (Synagogue) to worship the Lord. • Yet, it is God’s will for us to have mercy on the lost, touch and heal the afflicted, and set people free from the bondage of sin regardless of who they are. • As we are destined to be God’s children in Jesus Christ, we are also destined to follow Jesus Christ as his servants. • As we are destined to come and worship the Lord in our church, we are also destined to reach out and take care of those who are in need.
Destined to God’s workers What Methodists believe… • Who is destined to be saved, and who is dammed to hell? • Christians are destined to be God’s children and destined to be God’s partners who are called to go out and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the nations. • How can we know we are forgiven and saved in Jesus? 1) by faith; 2) salvation evidences itself in good works. • Our Methodists believe that our salvation must be shown by our good works that people praise our Father in heaven (Mt. 5:16).
In Christ… • In Christ, God has set us free from bondage, that we are destined to inherit God’s kingdom. • In Christ, God has made us whole, that we are destined to reach out the lost and touch every wound in the world. • The Spirit is always present on our life’s journey. Therefore, let us go with the confidence of God’s anointed and love and care for all people.
