Sermons of Rev. Moon, Volume 1

by Rev. Sun Myung Moon

 

Jesus Is the Hero of the Universal Revolution
November 11, 1956
Former Church Headquarters
John 14:1-21

Prayer 1

Beloved Father! It was God's purpose of creation to look down upon the garden of life. The garden of truth that sings the glory of the Father was the ideal garden. The original garden was the place where, centering on the eternal and unchanging love, the whole becomes harmonized before Your holy presence. While manifesting the internal sung-sang and the external hyung-sang of the Father, everyone was to live in intoxication.

Beloved Father, please allow us to feel in this moment the garden of hope for which we long. Allow us to experience the original garden. While yearning for it in our minds, allow us to put our bodies into action and bow before You. While we elevate the will of the Father with our minds, please allow our bodies to be offered as the sacrifice. Please hand over to us all the ordeals You have undergone to find us. As for You, we hope that all You will receive is glory.

Father, please do not forsake even one life among the sons and daughters of Yours who have gathered here in loneliness. Please allow their minds to be caught on fire in the eternal life of the Father. Please allow our minds and bodies to become one with the life of the Father. Allow this to be the time when the whole congregation can become one in heart and offer themselves as the sacrifice. By doing so, please allow us to become impeccable sacrifices. Father, this is our sincere wish.

Father, please protect us. Take charge of the work of purification. Please do not let Satan invade in this hour. Please allow us only to be captivated by the will of the Father. Centering on the will that You have commanded, allow us to act in response. Please allow us to obey with our minds and bodies.

Loving Father, I earnestly pray that we can honestly reveal before You all our deficiencies and undesirable elements and repent. At the same time, let us receive the Father's love in this moment.

Father, this day is a holy day in which You have promised to bestow blessing upon us. Bless the countless altars that have gathered on behalf of the people. Since there are many who are fighting on a lonely altar representing the will of God, please grant them the same grace.

Please prophesy to us, reveal to us and let the reality that You testified to be manifested through us. This people are in the bondage of darkness, so please bring forth Your direct miracle, which has the power to awaken them. Through the churches and Your children, please let it appear. Beloved Father, this is what we earnestly hope for.

The promised last days have come near us and the time of permitted grace has come. Yet since we are still imperfect, inadequate and deficient, please lead us. Please lead us not to become ones who cannot uphold the will of the Father which we must advocate.

Please allow us to mourn about our own deficiencies and bow before the Father. By doing so, please let many loyal children who uphold Your true will emerge amid the denominations that represent the people.

In this way, please allow the divided denominations to be tied together as one, and lead them to act on behalf of the whole grace of the Father. Please manifest the concealed will of Heaven. Allow the dawning of the day of blessing in the near future, when, before the 2.4 billion persons of humanity, the Father can rejoice and take pride in that will. Father, we earnestly hope and wish for this.

Father, please look with sympathy upon the children who have gathered here. They are the ones You have called together, and they are the ones whom You have driven out to the lonely path and gathered together. Govern them in the front, back, left, right, above and below. Now, please let nothing else but the Father's desired will remain in your minds and bodies, and let there be no traces of Satan and no roots of sinfulness there. Through a repeated process of purification and centering on the impeccable goodness, allow our minds and bodies in this hour to lie prostrate as humble and meek people before the original nature of the Father.

Father, we believe that Your children, who are carrying on the fight with Your words, are lying prostrate before You everywhere. Please protect them and grant to them the same grace as this hour.

Father, You have put us in the front, advised us and cooperated with us for the sake of the people. Please allow us to demonstrate proudly that we are indeed the children of the living Father, we are indeed the children who are standing in the center of life.

Father, please testify to the realities grasped in Your hands. I earnestly hope that by awakening this people, you will allow them to be saved from the yoke of Satan. By doing so, raise us to the point where we can sufficiently live up to the expectations of the Father's will to grant grace on the level of the people. Allow us to lead them to the Father.

Please allow our minds and bodies to be moved by the joyful will of the Father and the Holy Spirit from the beginning to the end of this hour. Please accept this whole gathering as the glorious offering. This is our sincere wish.

Govern us from the beginning to the end. I prayed in the name of the Lord. Amen.

Prayer 2

Father! To find the one center of Zion, many ancestors have been fighting and shedding blood until now for the sake of paying indemnity for the debt they owe the Father and the concern they have caused the Father. Father! Please allow the glory of Zion to come upon our minds and bodies in this hour. Please let our minds be overwhelmed by the joy of Zion, in which You can dwell for eternity.

If we can be the children of glory whose minds and bodies You can govern, then there is nothing else we want more. There is no greater wish. Nonetheless, if we cannot be grasped inside the loving hands of the eternal Father, then on the earth there are none who are more lonely, pitiful and miserable than we.

Father! With life and love, please protect and nurture Your sons and daughters, who have suffered in a difficult environment. These wounded minds and bodies have come forth before You in the shape they are in, Father. Please consider them with compassion. Even for this moment, please allow us to heal our wounds, inflicted during the fight. Even for this hour, please allow us to taste the love hidden deep inside Your mind. These things being accomplished, please allow us to resemble the heart of Heaven. Allow the whole to sing and rejoice, centering on the glory of Heaven. Let this be the hour when the whole congregation can bow their heads for the sake of Heaven's will. My Father, this is our sincere wish and desire.

Father! It was You, Father, who drove us, the lonely ones, here and there. It was You who caused us to be in a miserable position and to make an appeal toward Heaven without the awareness of others. Please allow these people to be comforted in this hour. Behind the course of tribulation that Your sons and daughters who are prostrated before You have walked, there can be found footsteps soaked in blood. The tears of bitter mourning are helping them. Father, please look upon them with sympathy.

Please allow us to be touched by the hope we will gain from today, the grievance that we will understand from today, and the Father's love we will feel from today, so that we can cross the pass of the future fight with hope. Please allow us to step over the wall of hatred of the many enemies we will encounter in our course of life. This having been accomplished, please allow only the mind of peace to be the center of our minds. Let the urgent heart yearning for the victory be the only center of our life, so that we will be sufficiently prepared to uphold the flag of the fight and step forward on behalf of the people.

Please allow us to be adequately prepared to go forward, holding up the words of victory that Heaven has granted as the shield. Lead us not to become ones who set their hearts on the causes of the long- standing sorrow both in the present and in the future. Loving Father, from the depth of our hearts, we desire that You will ignite the fire of Your eternal love and allow us to become sons and daughters who are more than qualified to eradicate the enemy Satan, who is making the accusation.

Father, who guides this lonely pulpit, those children who are following in Your footsteps are also in a lonely and miserable situation. Please be the whole of their life, the whole of their goodness, and the whole of their hope again today. Please comfort them, lead them and love them.

We know that being the last days, this age does not need the words of men, the words spoken through men, nor the will centered on men. We know the only thing needed is the Father's words of love, which move inside the pulses of eternal life. Even if Your children who have gathered here stand in precarious positions where they cannot experience love, please work Your miracles on them. Inspect them with Your fiery eyes. Please manifest the nucleus of glee hidden deep inside our hearts. We who are in bondage to all kinds of fears, please allow us to step forward before the Father and repent.

If there is anyone who is held in the Father's hands and is returning gratitude to the Father for Your grace, then please allow them to safeguard such a heart without changing. Father, I earnestly wish and hope that You will allow us to become worthy children who are more than qualified to win the seal of acknowledgment for being sons and daughters of love before the sacred Father.

Please bless the countless altars gathered for the sake of the people. I know that the protesting voices of the saints, who are in agony because they do not know the will, are penetrating through Heaven. Please resolve their grievances and suffering. Take charge of their hearts so that You can lead them to uphold and realize the will that You desire in the last days.

Moreover, among this people there are many unknown brothers who are pioneering the lonely path and fighting with the darkness for the sake of the will, without others being aware of their actions. Let the day that the darkness recedes before them dawn upon them in the near future.

The movement of life, the movement of grace and the manifestation of glory are all one. Father, please testify through them. Father, we wish from the bottom of our hearts that using the scattered altars as the barriers, You can drive them centering on the Father's will and build the altar of happiness that will bring the people together as one.

Even today, lonely sons and daughters are spread all over the countryside fighting with Your words. Please be with them. With the spirit that they must prevail over the ultimate enemies of the 6,000- year history, they have built the altar of victory. Based on Your directives, they have been fighting for the day when the Father can rejoice with Your sons and daughters. Father, please be present with them, so that wherever they are, Your personal works of miracles can take place. Father, we fervently desire that You would allow the influence to reach the whole through that kind of environment.

Now, in this hour, please bestow only the Father's grace of bliss. Hoping that You will accept us, we prayed all these words in the name of the beloved Lord.

Amen.

Today, in this hour, I am going to speak on the topic "Jesus Is the Hero of the Universal Revolution."

God Desired that Man Perfect Himself as a New Substantial Being

When you observe the process of a new thing being created, you can say that it is a revolutionary process. When you look at all the things created in the six days, from the trifling insects to man, God created gradually newer and better beings. At the very end, He created man. You probably all know that by creating man, God could fully realize the higher form of God's internal sung-sang and external sung-sang. The Father's desire for a new, yet unchanging, substantial being that He could be proud of for eternity is the ideal of the Creator.

Similarly, God created humankind as the eternal, new substantial being in whom He could take delight. God made them in such a way that when He compared them to any other created being He could say, "They are beautiful and indeed very good." You know that the ones who were created like this were Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve should have felt joy by feeling the original goodness and the internal glory of God through their actual daily life. Nonetheless, due to the fall, Adam and Eve could not realize that will. Fallen men are those who remained stagnant in the position where they, as the representative of all beings created by God, were unable to manifest the new glory.

More important than the fall of man is the fact that, because the will of God is an unchanging will, unless it is accomplished at whatever cost, God cannot be dignified as the Creator and cannot command His authority. Therefore, as you know from the Divine Principle, the history of restoration and the history of salvation are attempts to restore this situation.

When God faces all things of the universe with this perspective, the following questions arise: when is the day of the appearance of one precious being who cannot be found in Heaven, on earth and among all things? When is the day a new substantial being of a higher realm, who can manifest anew the whole sung-sang concealed deep inside God, will appear and fulfill the will of God? To usher in such an inspiring and shocking day, God has set His one purpose. Until today, He has been carrying on a ceaseless course of tribulation in the dispensation of restoration.

When would the day come when, among all the created beings, God can find a new universal being who can bring Him the joy that did not exist until then and cannot be exchanged even with all of the creation? God is over-anxiously longing for that one day and that one being.

God has already completed the design for the world of the ideals of creation in which He can rejoice, enjoy Himself and harmonize with humankind and all things. He has even mapped out the aspects of the ideal lifestyle. When He can rejoice with the one hero with whom heaven and earth, created as the internal and external symbols respectively, can also share their joy, then heaven and earth can feel happiness together. You probably know well that Heaven has been exerting itself for the sake of erecting this one standard.

What then is the will that the Father demands of us? If there is one will that cannot be abandoned, even if everything in heaven and earth must be shattered, it is the perfected human being. Until human beings become perfected, they are to follow the principled laws of the creation and become the substantial embodiments of truth. Because of the fall, they became embodiments of the unprincipled. Therefore, although human beings have the external shape of a human, their internal characters and external forms could not manifest themselves as the incarnations of the eternal substantial being of God.

Because of this, although fallen men have the shape of human beings, they have lost the ideal form of the creation. God has been injecting again the ideal form of creation into human beings. You all know very well the work of Heaven, which is toiling to find the one new substantial being.

Jesus Came to Realize God's Ideals of Creation

The person who came as the original being, the one center and being of hope, is Jesus Christ. God suffered for 4,000 years until He sent Jesus Christ. Although after the creation, He sent Jesus as the one new being who could bring harmony and be presented before all things, humankind did not serve Jesus as the signpost of God's hope, but unfolded the opposite course of the fall.

God, who strained to find the lost standard of goodness, gathered the people who were under the accusation of Satan while He was going through the 4,000-year history. He laid the foundation on the level of the people. This foundation on the level of the people should have served Jesus, who was raised as the one master representing all things in heaven and earth. Yet Jesus and the people went their separate ways. Here, our mission and God's were determined.

The Jewish people could not see that Jesus was sent as the representative of the whole, whose purpose was to restore the universe into a new world centering on God. Because they could not serve him as the master of the whole as they should have, Jesus and the people had to fade away to separate ways. You must understand this greatly increased the grief of God.

The words that Jesus spoke to the Jewish people then and all the things he manifested were not based on his own will. It was the will of Heaven. Jesus was acting on behalf of the will of God's dispensation. However, there arose a bitter conflict between Jesus and the people within the realm of the fall, who should have received the will of God through Jesus.

The Jewish people of the time did not realize that when the words of God appear before a people in this fallen world, they can revolutionize the people. If they appear before an individual, they can revolutionize the individual. If they appear amid the world, then they can revolutionize the world. Furthermore, they did not realize that the words can newly revolutionize heaven and earth.

The Jewish people thought for 4,000 years that the laws given through Moses and the covenant bestowed on Jacob could enable them to realize their ideals and that they could replace the whole. God, however, began from the lowest level and had been gradually elevating them. The Jewish people did not realize that after passing through the Old Testament history of the formation stage, history was taking the Principled course of the creation of the universe, whereby it passed through the New Testament era of the growth stage and proceeded forward until the completion stage. Consequently, the people of the time could not accept the words of life of Jesus. The people then could not recognize that they were new words higher than those of the Old Testament and that they could forge a link with higher, new values.

What Jesus wanted was to accomplish all of God's ideals of creation. Accordingly, on behalf of heaven and earth, he has been continually walking through the revolutionary course to complete the universal mission. Therefore, you who are living in the last days must understand that when Jesus appeared on earth and marched on the path of the universal will, he went through the course of elevating fallen humankind back to their original position. In that course, there were numerous vicissitudes of conflicts and courses of revolution.

The Hope of Jesus and the Unfaithfulness of the Jewish People

What then is the extent of the hope of this revolutionary Jesus? His hope is not the type of hope that one would possess on this mass of earth that we live on. It is hope that can transcend the world and connect with the limitless kingdom of God. While this is the hope of Jesus, it is also the hope of God, who is one with him. Therefore, humankind must understand that God placed all hopes in Jesus and tried to manifest His will through him.

What then were the words that Jesus spoke before the Jewish people? What was the form of Jesus, who was the demonstrative proof of God's whole will? He emerged as the hero of the new truth who had not existed in history until then. Although countless people called out for truth, they were merely on the individual level. Although they might have claimed that their truths could represent the people and all nations, in actuality, they could not become such embodiments of truth. It was Jesus who appeared with the truth that can shed light on heaven and earth. Accordingly, the words that Jesus spoke were the most valuable, new and revolutionary words in that era and that world. Had the Jewish people, who had longed for the will of God, known these revolutionary words of truth, they would have forsaken their personal lives and pursued the truth.

Since the Jewish people, who should have stood in this position, shattered this one day they should have accomplished, we must step over this. We have the mission to resolve that which is deep-rooted. The sacrifice has to be made because the truth of Jesus is not upheld.

God raised one people. Among the one people, He tried to find the one center. Through that one center, He tried to manifest His internal heart as the universal words of truth. Nonetheless, the Jewish people did not understand this. Jesus was supposed to manifest the eternal words of truth during the thirty years of his life. Due to their unfaithfulness, he was abandoned. Therefore, until the moment they find the embodiment of truth, humanity must seek the universal new truth that Jesus tried to disseminate on the earth on behalf of the will and heart of God.

The faithful believers of today must fulfill the wishes of Jesus. The words that Jesus testified to should have been brought to light at his time on the level of the people and the world. However, because they could not be shown as the words on the level of the world, Christianity became a religion of tribulations. If the words that Jesus spoke were demonstrated then as the central words that could have saved the land, then the powers of God could have been exhibited. If there were individuals and people who had followed Jesus, and if the world had followed Jesus, then Jesus, who was responsible for the will of God, would have fulfilled that will on the earth. Yet there were no such individuals, people nor such a world before Jesus.

What is more, centering on the words of Jesus, the beloved disciples who had to represent him, the beloved family, the beloved sect and the beloved nation should have become one with him to experience the heart of God and uphold the will of God. Because they were relating with Jesus with the truth they held on the level of the sect, they took different paths than the words of Jesus. What then is that which Jesus is demanding of you, the believers in the last days? Hoping that we, the shameful ones, would become universal individuals, he proclaimed the universal truth.

Although Jesus came to earth as one individual, he was not an average individual. He represented all the created beings of the universe. He represented the whole truth contained in the creation principles of the created world.

What Jesus Demands of Us

Although he came as such precious being, he could not become the valuable hero, the master of the universe. Therefore, you yourself must accomplish this purpose of universal value. If we believe in Jesus, we can come in contact with truth on the individual level through the spirit of Jesus. If unlimited grace and blessing are bestowed upon you as you undergo the spiritual works of Jesus, you must not think that this is just individual grace. In time, it must become grace on the level of the environment and the sect; then it must finally reach the level of the world. Only then can he return.

When grace is granted us, you should not be caught up in your own individual thoughts and think that it is only your own. If you received the blessing and the truth through Jesus in the individual position, then while you digest them as your own, you must also be responsible for disseminating this truth to the world. If you march forward with the world side by side, then while it becomes your grace, it also becomes the grace for heaven and earth. Nonetheless, if your concept of faith seeks only to save you, if you stagnate in the concept of individual salvation, then you will meet your end there.

If the blessing that is overflowing in your hearts remains merely as yours, then you will repeat the mistake of the Jewish people who nailed Jesus on the cross. If the truth you obtained remains in the religion that seeks only to save your life, then the hope of Jesus can never be accomplished.

The words of Jesus are spoken based on the center of hope. They reach the dispensation of Heaven by passing through the individuals, family, society and the world. Through the individual grace granted to you, they will produce the miracle of resurrection and rebirth. The salvation on the level of the individual, the people, the nation and the world must be realized through you.

You must clearly understand that before you the salvation of the individual level, the level of a people, the level of the world and the universe remain unfulfilled. When you express gratitude to Father, you must be able to do so not just on the level of the individual, but also on the level of the family, the society, the nation and the world. What is more, when you repent, you should begin with individual repentance and move up to repentance on the level of the family, the nation and the world. You should repent on behalf of heaven and earth.

Now is the time when you must transcend the concept of individual salvation, the concept of the salvation on the level of the family, the society, the nation and the world. Only then can you begin the indemnification of the world. If the Jewish people had the concept of salvation on the level of the people and on the level of the world, then Jesus would have saved humanity through the Jewish people.

The Words of Jesus Are the Words of Universal Revolution

Jesus' words of the gospel, which bore fruit through the course of history, are words of truth. They can transcend history and the lives of the ancestors and grant salvation to you. You must understand that these words of Jesus are indeed the words of universal revolution.

Jesus came to earth and put up opposition to all the laws that people had believed in until that time. He proclaimed, "Through me, all laws must be perfected." Because the Jewish people did not understand these words of Jesus, which contained universal perspective on faith and universal value, they killed him. These words at that time were universal words. Pertaining to love, he also spoke universally revolutionary words.

Jesus said, "Those who do not love me more than anything else are not acceptable. Moreover, if you do not love me more than anything else, then you cannot become my disciple." When we see this, we can understand that until God creates the one perfected universal body that He sought after as the ideal of creation, the path toward the truth involves a universal course.

Universal love is extremely important for forming the relationships between people and the relationship between God and human beings. Because humans could not form a relationship with God based on universal love, they formed a relationship with the archangel. Accordingly, human beings lost the power to penetrate through the door of love and rise up centering on the ideal relationship of love with God. If they are to penetrate through this door of love again, they need power.

The reason Jesus said, "You must love me more than anyone else," is not because he wanted to receive love for himself. If human beings believed in those words and loved Jesus, he could grasp them with a force stronger than the force that is holding them in the realm of Satan and elevate them to the position where they could give and receive the original love with God. For this purpose, he said, "Love me more than anyone else." These words are revolutionary words of prophecy.

However, the love in today's world is self-centered love or love centered on the nation. Until now, at best it was loving one's own nation or one's own family. There was no love that transcended the national sphere.

What God and Jesus hope for is not one people or one nation. It is constructing, centering on God, the ideal world that can bring unity to heaven and earth. Therefore, the love that Jesus presented was love on the level of the world. It was not self-centered love on the level of the people and nation, but love that transcends the world and links heaven and earth.

The Revolution of Truth and the Revolution of Love

What then is the true path that Jesus paved through the words of the gospel? How much love have you been giving today? Jesus Christ did not stand before an individual. He also did not stand before a family or a nation. To do this, Jesus, who was the master of universal love and the bridegroom, received persecution on the level of the family and the nation.

The countless created beings of heaven and earth, all the created beings that could not feel the love of God until now, finally formed a relationship of love by virtue of Jesus. It was the responsibility of Jesus to form these kinds of relationships.

What kind of love is the love that Jesus pioneered and established? It is love that is counter to the love of this world. Although the love of human beings is at best for the sake of the nation, the love of Jesus was universal. In other words, it was love that transcended individuals, people and nations. It penetrated deeply into Heaven.

What kind of love is the love of God? It possesses both sides. It does not just love itself, it even loves the enemy. Therefore, while we love God, we must also love our enemies.

The love of Jesus was such that it even embraced Satan. Because he knew that the love of God embraces even Satan, Jesus set that as the standard and said, "Love even your enemies." (Matthew 5:44) Therefore, we must establish this standard of universal love on earth. We must have the mind-set that if we cannot complete this task before our death, then we will establish the standard through our descendants.

Moreover, now you must lead a life of gratitude. You must have the attitude that you are alive by virtue of the grace and love of Jesus and Heaven, and lead a life of offering gratitude to Heaven. Your salvation merits gratitude. The grace that allows you to carry on the universal mission of Jesus and perfect the love of Jesus also merits gratitude.

You must understand the universal love of Jesus who, representing his family and clan and holding onto the people, forgave and loved his enemies even while he was dying on the cross. You must fathom the heart of Jesus, who overcame sorrow and looked down upon the enemies with a loving heart.

While he took his last breath on the cross, Jesus said, "All is fulfilled." (John 19:30) Until he could say that, he cast out of his mind all his sorrow and bitter grief and suffered in an attempt to accomplish the will of Heaven. Because the mission of claiming back the universal life through his one self was on the verge of total failure, Jesus forgot even his own agony and affliction and overcame all kinds of ordeals. Therefore, the life of Jesus was not a life lived to save only himself; it was lived for the sake of building the nation and people of God.

The Faithful Followers of the Last Days Must Awaken

Today you are carrying on a movement to claim back the life of Jesus Christ. In the democratic world, they are carrying on a movement to resurrect the name of Jesus Christ. On earth, the gospels of Jesus remain, and the new universal truth, love and life not previously found here remain. Such universal truth, love and life can become yours.

As the one who came to save humanity and strained his every nerve toward that end, Jesus was the most pitiful person ever. The words of Jesus were spoken for the world. They were the words of truth that should have been sown on earth, the words of Heaven that should have been upheld on earth, and the universal words of life that should have been implanted on earth. They were not upheld on earth, and Jesus who came was rejected. Because the people then did not believe in the words of Jesus, Jesus was deserted.

God exerted Himself for 6,000 years. Yet if the master of life and truth, who can alleviate the burden of God, can come to this land, then all the conscientious people on earth will love him. If there are people who are seeking the way on earth, if there are people who seek the path of life, they will walk on his side. Although this is the standard that Heaven hopes for, human beings today lead a life based on the standard of individual love and the concept of individuality. Because the believers of Judaism in the past lived with the same mentality, they hung Jesus on the cross. We must come to grips with the fact that such phenomena have continued since the time of Jesus.

Now what we need are new words, new life, and new love that can represent heaven and earth. However, what we need are not just conceptual words, but words that can be substantialized in practice.

Therefore, in these last days of today, you must awaken. Possessing the new truth, life and love, you must save the people and the world. You must eradicate the bitter grief and spite of the 6,000 years.

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