6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:6-11
01Jesus Came With the Mission to Restore the World
The purpose of God wanting to save humankind is, as you all know very well, that He is trying to restore them to their original state. The countless prophets and sages who have realized the will of God have taken responsibility for the restoration.
While passing through each era, they have been striving toward one purpose: to realize the will. In other words, the 4,000 years of history before the coming of Jesus was this kind of history. The course of the conflict in the thirty years of his life was also trying to realize this purpose.
The history of the conflict that he carried on with the Holy Spirit by his side for 2,000 years was also an attempt to achieve this purpose.
The purpose for which Jesus came to the earth was to restore history. He came with the mission to restore himself and the world. Therefore, the words of the gospel that he spoke on the earth were for the sake of restoring the history of Israel and to restore himself in his life of thirty years.
Going one step further, it was for the sake of restoring the humanity of the world. Therefore, based on the words that Jesus left behind him, humankind has been passing through the course of history until today, taking responsibility for portions of the dispensation of restoration.
Not only that, today you must cultivate the mindset of a loyal subject who, centering on the words of the New Testament that Jesus spoke 2,000 years ago, can indemnify the 6,000 years of the past and represent the eternal life of the future.
At the same time, you should find the value of victory that can restore you and history. If you cannot do this, then the words of the gospel, the words of life to restore humanity, which represent the 4,000-year history and the thirty years of Jesus' life, cannot bear any kind of fruit.
Today must become children who remove the grief and suffering from Jesus, who represented a 4,000-year history. You must become children who complete Jesus' mission of restoration.
For the thirty years of his life, Jesus tried to establish a new ideology of restoration before humanity and lay the victorious foundation of Heaven. You must also complete the mission that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have labored to accomplish.
By doing so, as the representative of history, you should return the triumphant glory of restoration to the Father. You should return to the Father's honor, which has a value that surpasses the value of Jesus' victorious life.
If one were to ask whether Jesus reveals everything to humankind in his dispensation to accomplish the history of God's restoration, the answer would be negative. We know through the Divine Principle that until now, Jesus could not unveil details of the dispensation of restoration in his works.
He hid himself and, with symbolic words of testimony, has been leading the dispensation of restoration to accomplish the will of Heaven on the earth. He has been propelling the dispensation of restoration forward without fully divulging the glory of Heaven before humankind.
Consequently, we must come to understand the internal heart of Jesus, who has been driving the dispensation of restoration forward without clearly revealing the details.
02The Reasons Jesus Could Not Divulge the Feelings of His Heart
What must you understand to restore the glory of restoration today?
You must come to understand the concealed value of restoration that Jesus could not expose, first through your daily life and next through your mind. You must then understand the unknown inside story of the restoration of Jesus, who could not disclose the value of eternal life.
Thereafter, when God is trying to fully establish the glory of restoration on behalf of Heaven, what must we understand?
You must understand the content that Jesus had to hide deep inside his heart and could not divulge freely to humanity during the thirty years of his life. If you do not understand such matters, then you will not be able to manifest, from earth to heaven, the full value of the restoration that represents the universe.
If you closely scrutinize the words of the gospel that Jesus revealed, you will find that details of his daily life are not described. The way that Jesus suggested aspects of his undisclosed lifestyle is through the example of sacrificial service.
In other words, although he was a glorious son who could rise high, he lowered his glorious self. By going below the feet of sinners and living a life of sacrifice and service, he revealed the concealed aspects of himself.
Moreover, through his life of reticence, he revealed the hidden aspects of his life that he could not reveal to anyone. He could not divulge his inner thoughts even to the twelve disciples.
The reason that Jesus could not expose the secret is that he knew that, although he understood the secret of Heaven, if he made it known when no one could comprehend it, he would have been mocked by Satan.
In other words, he had the burning desire to convey to humankind the things that the Father had shared with him, but because no one fathomed his thoughts and came to listen to him, he could not proclaim the secret of Heaven to humankind. He could not reveal the hidden aspects of his heart to humankind.
As a result, he was pushed to walk to the cross and stand before the authorities and Pilate.
He was convicted of the crime of “claiming himself to be the king of the Jews.”
At that time, Jesus kept his silence, and only after Pilate asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” did he finally reveal his identity.
The good and righteous people on the side of God should have considered it their lifelong glory to serve and worship Jesus as their king. Instead, Jesus faced a trial before Pilate and was convicted as a criminal. When he faced the trial of Satan that could not be avoided, he broke his silence. Speaking on behalf of the agony of God, he spoke the truth as it was.
From this, we can learn that even in the works of Heaven, when Satan exposes the truth and inquires about it to God's side, God's side has no choice but to reveal the hidden heart. Conversely, when the saints on the side of God point out the hidden secrets inside the heart of Satan, he also has no choice but to tell the truth.
Jesus kept within himself the knowledge of restoration that he could not reveal to anyone. In his daily life, he not only propelled forward the dispensation of Heaven through silent deeds of service, but in the practical aspect of his life, he moved ahead of everyone to reveal the concealed truth about the restoration.
Therefore, you should penetrate the heart of Jesus, which can reflect the ideology of restoration, and ask, “Is your heart not like this?”
You Must Understand the Undisclosed Secret of the Dispensation through the Cooperation of the Holy Spirit
You must understand that unless such people emerge, no matter how much time in history passes, the secret hidden deep inside the heart of Jesus cannot be revealed on the earth. Moreover, you must comprehend the secret of restoration that was unveiled through the life of Jesus and the knowledge of restoration inside his heart.
Only after you do that can you confidently stand before God and stand proudly before Satan. In other words, only after you do that can you become one who has completed the restoration of a victorious life.
Jesus indemnified the 4,000-year history through the thirty years of his life. He perfected the center of the restoration on behalf of everything in the universe.
However, until today, there has not been even one person who could inherit the full value of Jesus, the value of the secret kept deep inside his heart and his undisclosed life. The person who appeared with his internal secret and the secret surrounding his life in his time and place is the Holy Spirit.
Although you believe in the words of Jesus' gospel, those words alone are not enough for restoration. What you need is the Holy Spirit cooperating in your life and living with you.
Therefore, just as Jesus walked the course of sacrifice and service, you must walk the same kind of course and go before the cross before the concealed secret of Jesus' life can be divulged by Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the internal secret of his heart will also be manifested in the same way.
Consequently, we must know today that unless our mind and daily life become one based on our unity with the Holy Spirit, achieved with her cooperation, and unless we can establish a relationship of oneness between Jesus and the Holy Spirit centered on ourselves, there can be no true life.
Similarly, with the help of the Holy Spirit, today we are undergoing an important process of realizing the truth of restoration locked inside the secret of Jesus' life and heart.
Accordingly, we who are in the middle of that process must become one with the Holy Spirit in the same way that Jesus and the Holy Spirit have become one and form a trinity centered on Jesus. This is the only way that we can securely lay down on the earth a plane or base on which the foundation of God's victory can be established.
Moreover, when you seek the concealed knowledge of true life, even if you are receiving the help of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, that kind of life only comprises a part of the restoration process for a whole life.
The reason is that the secret of the restoration of a whole life remains the secret of Heaven. Consequently, even if you have achieved something that has a value equivalent to life, with that alone, you will not be able to consummate it. There are still hidden aspects of life that God has not yet revealed through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
03The Things We Need
We must fully manifest the value of the restoration of the whole and show many people the value of the secret of the life of Jesus. At the same time, we must represent the value of the internal secret that Jesus kept. We must be able to obtain God's recognition for the value of the universal life that combines Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
What kind of state are you in?
Although you have the desire to love Jesus, you have not been successful in loving him properly. For this reason, you must learn about the continued service and devotional life of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, in which they persisted for the sake of causing humankind to love God. You must also learn about how God could not love Jesus as much as Jesus has exerted himself on behalf of all things.
Now, if you do not understand such contents of love and fulfill them, then there is no way you can resolve the deeply rooted grief of Heaven and bring to pass the remaining history of God's restoration on this earth.
What then do we need as we go forward toward the purpose of the restoration of life and the dispensation of restoration of life in the growth stage?
The growth stage came after the three-year course of public life, the course of crucifixion, and the course of cooperation, in which Jesus and the Holy Spirit have been toiling for 2,000 years since the ascension.
What we need to do is imitate the heart of goodness with which God has loved Jesus and the Holy Spirit and has embraced the whole universe in love for 6,000 years.
We must then establish the center of love in which our hearts can work in unity with the hearts of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. If you cannot accomplish these, then you cannot complete the restoration of your lifestyle, heart, and life.
You cannot make a relationship with the love of God, which has the power to fully manifest the value of the whole life and glory.
04To Make a Relationship of Love with God
What then do we need to do to make a relationship with the love of God?
We must pass through the central course that Jesus walked in his life and pass through his heart, which has exerted itself for the sake of humanity for 2,000 years.
In other words, we must go through the internal heart of Jesus, who has felt distressed about humanity during the historical course.
We must go through the internal heart of the Holy Spirit, which has been at work since the ascension of Jesus until now. We should sympathize with and deeply feel the anxious heart of God, who has led the dispensation for 6,000 years since the creation and is now exerting Himself to build the ideal world that is to come.
If you cannot do this, then you will not be able to fulfill the full value of the restoration centering on the love of God, which represents the eternal glory of life. You must not forget this.
Therefore, just as Jesus has walked the path, you must walk the same path that the Holy Spirit has walked. Moreover, you must take the course and example of the apostles, who forgot about everything, including even the awareness of their existence, and lived only for the sake of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
When you walk that kind of course, you can finally be able to dominate your mind and your lifestyle, and life will overflow within you.
You will be able to be linked up with the love of God. Moreover, the love of Jesus will be manifested through you, and the love of the Holy Spirit will dwell within different aspects of your life. You must clearly understand this.
END OF SERMON