Sermons of Rev. Moon, Volume 1

by Rev. Sun Myung Moon

 

The Pledge That Must Be Fulfilled
Luke 22:14-34
July 8, 1956
Former Church Headquarters

Prayer 1

Father of love! Please grant the love of compassion. This group, who did not have a place to lean on, has come to You to lean only on You, Father, forgetting everything else. Please allow all of our hearts to picture the sung-sang of the Father, and please allow our bodies to adore the hyung-sang of the Father. As a result, please let us become one with the love of the Father, which was immersed in Heaven, and allow the glory of Heaven that You seek to be manifested.

Father, please take care of these people who have gathered here. Cling onto their minds and bodies, and convert the concepts they have into concepts that are suitable for the dispensation and which You can control. In the last days, please allow the holistic concept that the Father demands from all humanity to be implanted deeply in their hearts.

Father, please take charge of the children who have gathered in this hour, and if there are any elements that are at fault, Father, please eradicate them with the power of the Holy Spirit and of the Trinity and by penetrating into them with Your eyes full of fire. Please guide them to offer all that they have before the dignified Father. Let them become liberated from sin and evil, and let them receive the blessing of freedom so that they can go before humanity and all things to boast about the Father alone. Also, loving Father, I pray sincerely that You would allow them to serve the True Father, and raise them to become children who can return joy to that Father.

Please reign over those who have gathered here, and on the countless altars that represent the people. On the altar of the whole that represents the humanity of the world, Father, please bestow the same works of miracles, and allow the altars to manifest the central will of the dispensation in the last days. Beloved Father, I earnestly wish and hope that this will be done.

We have put down our minds and bodies on the altar of the Father, so please separate the positions of Cain and Abel. Please lead them not to become the Cain-type sacrifice, but let them become the purified Abel-type sacrifice. Just as You are pleading with humanity until the day the dispensation comes to a conclusion, beloved Father, we sincerely wish and desire that You will make this altar the representative altar that can make the appeal to Heaven until the day that all of Your will concerning the world is fulfilled.

Father, who commands all the grace and blessings of today, please appear before us as You will. Please grant the blessing that You are going to allow, and lead us to avoid that which we must avoid. In this way, Father, please guide us to become children who are capable of taking on the eternal will that You entrust in us. I prayed all the words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer 2

Father! Please reveal Your commands and will to those who want to uphold them, and please guide us to uphold the will of the dispensation and materialize Your wishes on Your behalf. Father, I sincerely pray this. The words that are going to be given today did not appear today. Rather, it took a long period of history for them to be revealed. Moreover, because hidden in these words are the sad and unforgettable stories of Jesus and his beloved disciples, we know that our ancestors who also thought about this walked toward the path of death without hesitation. We know very well that to endorse the new pledge left behind, the apostles of Jesus and all the believers in the 2,000 years since then did not hesitate in their fight to realize the promised will and earnest wish on the earth.

Father, please consider us with pity. Please allow us now to open our minds and act for the apostles who attended Jesus 2,000 years ago. Please let our footsteps pass through the ordeals that the apostles of the past have experienced, so that in the last days, we can fulfill the purpose of the dispensation of the whole.

Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You govern over everything that follows, and realizing the will of the whole that You are going to pursue, receive the glory of ushering in the day of rejoicing. I prayed all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.

The topic of the sermon I want to give you is "The Pledge That Must Be Fulfilled." I will speak briefly on this topic.

The Meaning Behind Jesus' Giving the Bread and Wine

You must know very well that God, who has been carrying on the work of salvation through the dispensation of resurrection for 4,000 years, has established a new promise. The dispensation of resurrecting Jesus alone could not combine the will of Heaven and the will of earth and bring completion, so He has used the new promise to combine the will of Heaven and the will of earth and has tried to claim back the original garden that He promised.

When you look at this, it is written that the cup that Jesus passed and the bread that Jesus gave are the new promise. After Jesus left, we have received the flesh and blood of Jesus. You must know that this represents the life of the whole and the truth of the whole, which must be realized soon.

What do the blood and flesh of Jesus symbolize? They do not symbolize the flesh and blood of one individual, Jesus. From a broad perspective, they symbolize heaven and earth. In a narrow sense, they represent the center and the individual. Moreover, the flesh symbolizes the truth and the blood symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

Jesus has given us all this unconditionally. Jesus, who has been so giving, did not limit himself to his own problems. All the problems of any being connected to him, the center, were his problems.

What blocks the relationship between God and men? Heaven's will should be manifested on the earth, and all situations on the earth must be concluded as to the will of Heaven, moving with the same purpose. This process has been thwarted. Accordingly, Jesus, the hero of love, symbolizes the one will that is going to emerge for the glory of the victorious Heaven, and he has been working hard until now.

The fact that God has found one man, Jesus, after 4,000 years of suffering, symbolizes that He can possess the whole of heaven and also all of the earth. Consequently, those who believe in Jesus can possess all of heaven, as well as all of the earth. However, we are entrusted with the will of the dispensation, which requires us not to permanently possess what we have as our own, but to return it back to God.

Because Jesus left after establishing the new promise, ever since there remains the unfulfilled condition that the spirit world and the physical world must communicate with each other centering on the apostles who follow Jesus. If Jesus had not passed away, then heaven and earth could have communicated with each other centering on Jesus, but because he passed away, Jesus came to represent the conditions of heaven, and the Holy Spirit came to represent the conditions of earth.

The Person Who Represents the Will of Jesus and the Holy Spirit

Who then is the person who can stand as the mediator and act on behalf of the will of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit? You must never forget that it is the apostles and we who have believed in the new words of promise on the earth.

Where is the unfulfilled wish of Jesus? The wish of Jesus is not found in heaven. Where is the unfulfilled wish of men? It is not found on the earth. The wish of Jesus must be linked to the will of the earth while the wish of humankind must be linked to the will of heaven. Accordingly, centering on Heaven, as the holy body that replaces the blood and flesh that Jesus gave, you must become the sacrifice representing heaven and earth.

If this is not accomplished, Jesus and the Holy Spirit can never become one. The Holy Spirit will continue to work on the earth by herself, while Jesus cannot but continue to work in heaven by himself.

What is the meaning of the words that Jesus said to his disciples, "You must drink my blood and eat my flesh?" You must never forget that implied in those words is the earnest heart of Jesus that pleads, Even if I were to go, you must come to own everything that falls within the sphere of the dispensation and materialize my unfulfilled wishes.

The blood that the disciples received from Jesus symbolized the spiritual aspect. The flesh, which symbolizes the physical aspect, signifies the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Jesus and the Holy Spirit wanted to form a holy body through the flesh and blood and hoped to be established as the central figure who can head toward the one purpose. What is more, the blood of Jesus symbolizes heaven while his flesh symbolizes the earth. Accordingly, you must know that the great hope and aspirations of Jesus are manifested in that.

Now, after having become a sacred body through the Holy Spirit, your mind has to become connected to the holy body of Jesus. This symbolizes the course of the history of restoration. When God created Adam and Eve, He first created the body and then created the spirit. After creating the physical body, He blew life into the nostrils and created Adam and Eve. Similarly, just as the two principles are combined to create one man, in the course of restoration, since the Holy Spirit centered on Jesus had established the new promise, from then until now, the works of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, which combine heaven and earth, are being carried on in conjunction. When you think about this, you have to realize how important is the responsibility we bear.

You must understand that insignificant apostles like us determine the fate of heaven and earth. You represent the apostles! You have been born with the holy body of Jesus and must manifest the power of the life of Jesus that can act on behalf of God. Inspirational works of the Holy Spirit must emerge which can act on behalf of Heaven. When you move as one before the will of Jesus, which seeks to restore the whole world of creation, Heaven will move according to the direction you move.

If you do not fully establish the condition based upon which Heaven can act through men, Jesus and the Holy Spirit will protest against you. The universal mission that Jesus left behind will also protest against you. When you think about this, you have to realize that through us who amount to nothing, Jesus is trying to fulfill the great universal will in which he can move heaven and earth at his will.

Jesus does not have the authority to make decisions without the aid of men. The Holy Spirit also does not have the authority to decide. Only we have the authority to decide.

Recompense for the Flesh and Blood Received from Jesus

Until now, the history of the New Testament was based on the concept, "Lord, please do it for us." It was a history with a limitation, which made a demand for the fulfillment of a wish. The history of the New Testament could not free itself from this limitation and remained stagnant. We must transcend the words of the New Testament. We must transcend that history and receive the grace and blessing of Heaven. We must obtain the whole merit of Jesus, who tried to possess everything in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, transcending the limitation of the New Testament, we must be able to say, "Father! Please grant us a new promise."

You must manifest in your life the appeal that Jesus was making with his blood as his flesh was being torn on the cross. The responsibility of humankind, which must be completed before we can go to heaven, is made a part of the promise by Jesus. However, it must go beyond just fulfilling the promise itself. You must carry the grace of the whole, the wish of the whole, and the life of the whole within yourself. Exceeding the limit with the ideals of your life, you must set the standard on the earth to give freely and bring it to perfection. If you cannot achieve this, there is no way to resolve the suffering and grief of Jesus. We dwell in the middle of the process of realizing the wish right now. We are heading toward the goal and achieving the wish. If you move within this process, you can bring the promise of faith that you have made to a conclusion. You must understand that one who steps over that kind of limitation recompenses for the flesh and blood of the Lord that he received in that ultimate moment.

In this sense, what are we going to do? We must be able to dare to represent Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God in front, back, left, right, up and down. If you cannot establish on the earth the day when the final results are brought by men, which is the will of heaven and of earth, then the will of God and Jesus cannot be accomplished. What is more, when we think about that will, we must realize that insignificant as we are, our value is enormous.

What is the one thing Jesus demanded as he was giving out his flesh and blood to the disciples? He said, "Take this and divide it among you." You must never forget this. Since we have received the flesh and blood of Jesus, as long as we take responsibility for the problems in Heaven on behalf of Jesus, then the will of God will be fulfilled. This is the wish of Heaven.

Today we have the responsibility of the last days, which calls upon us to build relationships among ourselves and to seek the altar of victory as a condition of having received the flesh and blood of Jesus. You must feel deeply that we bear such a responsibility.

The Will of the Lord Who Requested Us to "Love One Another"

The principle that comes down from above does not change. Who is going to find the immutable relationship that will link the principles of high and low, as well as left and right? You must find it. Though history and the era might change, Jesus and the Holy Spirit have remained as the unchanging center and have persisted in the same direction. Just as Jesus and the Holy Spirit gave and received, we also must form those kinds of relationships among ourselves. You must understand that if we cannot build such relationships, then the altar upon which God can operate on the earth cannot be constructed.

Do you understand the heart of Jesus, who distributed his own flesh and blood? It was an unspeakably bitter and sorrowful heart. In the world today, those who know the will and are trying to live for its sake must try to manifest the will, even if that means that they have to be in a bitter and miserable situation and go through crushing ordeals that are comparable to the melting of bones. Accordingly, you must be able to fathom how it must be for Jesus to look down upon those who have not felt this and do not understand the will.

If you do not understand this kind of historical circumstance, then you cannot even hold a horizontal holy banquet among yourselves. Therefore, what we need today is the way of life that can allow us to share with each other the heart of love that we feel when we communicate with God and Jesus. In other words, we need a way of life that manifests the love of the holy body. Linking people with people and connecting denominations with other denominations, we have to understand the request of Jesus, who asked us to share the heart of love with each other for the sake of transcending denominations and entering one sphere centering on the love of Heaven, without paying attention to the external forms. You must understand that those among you who do not have a friend to whom he can give himself and in return receive all of his friend is a truly miserable person. What is more, because the Holy Spirit does not change before Jesus, even if humankind changes, Jesus has been carrying on a relationship of giving and receiving with her. Accordingly, you must stand on the foundation to give and receive with her and fight on behalf of the history of the spiritual world.

Now the time has come when we must bring to a conclusion the one final wish that Jesus left behind for us. If you want to link this wish to the left and right, then what should you do? You must first become one who can serve on the earth. You must fight on the earth and become a martyr. You must be able to serve the righteous people on the earth.

Today you must take to heart the words that Jesus spoke. He said, "Those who serve everyone will be served by others," and "Those who try to elevate themselves will decrease." This is the center of our life today, which we feel on the horizontal plane. Therefore, we must learn to serve any and every person and learn to become friends to everyone and learn to protect them.

To Fulfill a New Promise

Since new words of the New Testament have been promised, we must feel the internal heart from which Jesus gave commands. While we fathom that heart, we can comprehend the ideals as well as the practical aspects. By doing so, we are to fulfill the will of Jesus and the Holy Spirit in their place. If that will is not realized through us, then in the last days, the works of Jesus and the Holy Spirit will be terminated. Should the works of Jesus and the Holy Spirit be terminated, on the day of termination you should stand alone and understand the wishes of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and become a person who can walk the practical course that Jesus had walked, championing the new ideals on behalf of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

We have received Jesus' new flesh and blood of promise. What is the mission left for us? It is fulfilling the new promise. To do this, we must be able to easily win over Satan without the help of the Trinity in the last days. What then is the center of the victory we can bring over Satan? It is doing things that Satan is incapable of doing. We must do deeds of which Satan is incapable.

The essential nature of Satan is arrogance. The essential nature of Satan is jealousy. The essential nature of Satan is living only for his own sake. Therefore, the lessons that Jesus and the Holy Spirit emphatically stress are, "Be meek and humble; sacrifice; be the sacrifice." These are the things Satan cannot do. If Satan were to become meek, he has to first repent for all his sins before God and turn around. If there were no jealousy in Satan's heart, then this world today would turn quickly toward Heaven.

Therefore, you must first nurture those elements that are diametrically opposed to Satan. Moreover, you are not to stagnate in that realm of limitation, but you must exceed that limit and enter a new sphere of promise. When you establish an immutable center by doing that, you can fulfill the new promise made as one who has received the flesh and blood of Jesus. If you cannot be in the position to discuss the things that God could not discuss with Jesus and Jesus could not discuss with the Holy Spirit, in other words, if you cannot stand as the central figure who represents all the standards of heaven and earth, then you must know that while the promised will of Jesus cannot be materialized, at the same time the promised will that God desires also cannot be fulfilled.

Today, even if we do not possess anything of the world, we must fully possess the mind and body of Jesus. We must be recognized for our value as the center that represents heaven and earth. Yet our recognized value must not stagnate in any one sphere of limitation. We must become invaluable beings whom the creation and heaven cannot but welcome.

The flesh and blood of Jesus do not affect only the earth. It is not the case that it can only be applied on the earth. Just as the course of faith is applicable in heaven, they are applied also in heaven. Therefore, if we totally receive the flesh and blood of Jesus, our wishes will be completed in heaven and on earth. What is more, the completed wishes will replace the wishes of Jesus and the wishes of the Holy Spirit on earth.

In this way, the two must become one and take charge of the work that Jesus and the Holy Spirit has been doing. We must go forward until we reach the state when we can let Jesus and the Holy Spirit rest and make another promise with God. You must not forget that only by doing so, the new dispensation of God, the whole history of the dispensation of Heaven, will finally reside on a victorious foundation and move forward.

Prayer 3

Father! We know that on the earth, the battle for truth is taking place, while in heaven, competition for love is going on. We know that the one purpose of the fight for truth on the earth symbolizes the body of Jesus and tries to bring that to a conclusion. We also know that the reason we make our wishes toward Heaven and long for love is to consummate the will of the flesh of Jesus.

We have realized that the crossing point of love and truth is the victorious foundation in which Jesus can dwell, where the Holy Spirit can dwell, and where God can operate. The victorious foundation of the Father is not to be settled centering on Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Let it be solidified through us who are on the earth.

Father! Please allow Your beloved children who have gathered here to stand now before the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and call out, "Oh! Father! Lord! Holy Spirit!" and let Heaven be shaken by that voice. Please let the earth move. Father, I earnestly hope and wish that You would grant that which our hearts desire. Let our voice calling out, "Father," penetrate through Heaven and wrap around and move all things on the earth.

Please allow the purpose behind Jesus' giving of his flesh and blood to us be accomplished through us, and allow us to earn the dignity of children who can serve the Father and live eternally in the garden of victory that represents the character of Jesus. Father, we earnestly wish and hope for these things.

Now, please allow the blood of Jesus to soak through our minds, and let our minds become entangled with the flesh of Jesus. Please allow our wishes and will to represent the hope and will of Heaven. Because we could not free ourselves from the sin of having killed Jesus, which we inherited through the lineage, we could not totally eradicate today the elements of Satan's essential nature. Father, please indemnify all the elements of sin and evil, and fill us only with the grace of life.

Father, we hope from the bottom of our hearts that You will govern over everything and manifest through us the value of the blood of Jesus, which represents life, and that You will manifest Jesus' victorious garden of glory that represents the body. Offering gratitude for Your grace in having taken care of everything, I prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Download entire book in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information