New York Retreat: "I Am the Resurrection and the Life"
"Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies ; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" - John 11:25-26
Leaders in New York gathered during Easter and held lectures for 2 days on the farewell sermon, the last prayer, and the arrest from John chapters 14 to 18.
"What are the works of Holy Spirit in our ministry? (John 14:26).
" When the Holy Sprit comes upon you, it brings everything good to you, even if things are not working out. The Holy spirit discourses Jesus with vivid feeling. The Holy spirit brings all supernatural powers to us. What is the Holy Spirit? First, (John 15:26) He is our Counselor. And He testifies about Jesus.
Third, (John16:8) When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. He proves sins controlling the world and judges all of them. A mere child may say "Father, What has you done for me until now?" Our own righteousness may block Jesus' righteousness. Sin doesn't let us believe in Jesus . But he has done all things for us on the cross.
The Bible says, "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about(Acts 1:4)" Waiting is very challenging work for the kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit is our helper, defender, counselor, comforter to strengthen (Matthew1:23) ...and they will call him Immanuel--which means, "God with us." And He also promised that "surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew28:20) God will be us whenever we are. You don't need to feel fear to making a decision. You are not alone."
"Cross - Where the love of God is, there Glory will be"
"In the farewell sermon, The most repeated words are 'father' and 'glory'. But the cross is death, tragedy, and curse. The Bible tells us we don't know His love through our wisdom.
The Gospel cannot be done by our wisdom. We had lost the image of God that must be recovered. But we don't know how to do that. We don't go up to reach the heaven for ourselves. Jesus is the only way to know God. He mediates us to God. Love is close related to patient to wait. True love doesn't find other way. There is no other way except for Jesus. If you have many backup plans in you besides God, the Bible says it is not love.
The cross is a scary place to put the Son of God to death. How is the cross glory? "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. (John 17:24)" Because where the love of God is, there glory will be also. Jesus wanted to mediate God's love in the end. We are truly the Community to see the cross of the precious blood. Look at the cross. When you look a the precious blood we can receive power. I hope this cross of the precious blood can be seen for us."
"My kingdom is Not of this world."
Jesus was captured and went on His own free will. It was a very sad image with large groups of soldiers coming to arrest our Lord. However, Jesus overcame this dark valley with faith in resurrection. Peter, however, did not overcome his fear because he didn't have faith in resurrection and eternal life. He denied the Lord three times in His hour of great need.
The high priest and leaders of the Jews were corrupt and arrogant. Their wicked was so strong that they brought Jesus to Pilate to be condemned to death. However, Pilate knew that there was no such charge to sentence him. However, the Jews demanded that Jesus be crucified. Pilate decided he would just wash his hands of the matter and give Jesus away. The Jews declared, we have no King but Caesar. They were once the people that proclaimed God was their King. This was the deep sin and wickedness that drove Jesus to the cross.
