Matthew 19:3-12



“They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. . . .’”

Because sin and transgressions have permeated this world, there is not a place on this earth that can give us comfort no matter which cardinal direction we may head toward. There is no peace. There is no relief and our minds are constantly afflicted. Husband may be ill, children are disobedient, and the livelihood never seems good enough. Nowhere in heavens or the earth is hope found.
In attempt to cut down worries, people bow down and beg before idols that were cut and shaped by human hands, but it is all useless.
How vain is it that a human being in his dignity would beseech to a piece of wood or a boulder that cannot see or hear!

To such human beings, God speaks of the “beginning.” The beginning! In dictionary the word beginning is defined as “the point of time or space at which anything begins,” “the first part,” and “origin, source.”

People are capricious. People can be betrayed even by one’s own kinsmen when their interests conflict. However, God remains as He has been from the beginning.
His heart is always the same.
There is no variation or shifting shadow in Him (James 1:17, Malachi 3:6). He is the same, whether 10,000 years ago or 10,000 years from now (Hebrews 1:12). He is the same in the past, present, and future. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
There is not even an inch of deviation.

Today’s main passage narrates an event that occurred after Jesus departed from Galilee and came into the region of the Jordan River, southern part of Berea. The Pharisees, known for their contentious ways against Jesus in His whole life, came before Jesus to challenge Him once again. To ensnare Jesus, they tried to offend Him with ridiculous questions. The subject was on the matter of divorce.

“Is it right to marry a woman and then cast her away like a worn-out shoe? Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
Jesus answered: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

The Pharisees who claim to be well-versed in the law began to refute Jesus: “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
They used the words of Moses as recorded in Deuteronomy to find fault with what Jesus was saying.
"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes
and becomes another man's wife, and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house . . .” (Deuteronomy 24:1-3).

Then, Jesus taught them as the following: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way” (Matthew 19:8).



Yes, it is so. In actuality, this law of Moses was not used to encourage divorce but to place restrictions upon it. Jesus answered based on the fundamental principal of the “beginning” in which God created the heavens and the earth.

Although the law said that a spouse’s intimacy with someone else could serve as a justification for divorce, the original will of the law was “forgiveness.” God forgave us, to the extent that He had His own Son crucified on the cross. He put His Son on the cross and settled the payment of our sins by placing all of them on the cross. He gave His righteousness to us so that we can be righteous and become God’s true sons and daughters. However, the Pharisees did not comprehend the will of the “beginning.”
They were caught up in trying to find any fault in Jesus.

When Jesus dealt with matters, He always thought about the “beginning” ? namely, the foundation and the origin of the world.
He closely observed the progression of events based on the “beginning,” and from it He found the basis for the solution. Even the ultimate resolution of a case was focused on the “beginning.” All His answers to problems were strongly rooted in “the beginning.”

Let’s say that someone lost his job and it became difficult to make living. Having three children and yet being unable to work due to a physical ailment, this man ends up deceiving his friend. The friend says to him, “How could you do this to me? I have helped you for years; do you not have any gratitude? How can you be like this?”

If, however, the friend thinks back to the “beginning,” he will have a generous heart and be able to forgive his friend. Although his friend has grieved him, he can remember that his friend was a good man in the beginning.
If he gently admonishes his friend with a forgiving heart, then the friend will come to a realization. However, people do not solve problems this way. It’s because they try to solve problems by only focusing on the situation instead of considering the beginning. Their method is to send a sinner to prison. But this does not resolve the sin itself. The person who is condemned and ostracized will live the rest of his life dishonored and stigmatized as a thief.
All of these are needless to say if we don’t believe in God. However, God is love (1 John 4:7). He forgives all kinds of sinners. Therefore, believers must view all people based on the “beginning” ? namely, the Word of the Bible. There is none righteous on this earth (Romans 3:10). Man’s throat is like an open tomb, and his hands and feet are quick to shed blood. We begin to understand that we are also sinners when we read the Bible. We will acknowledge that, should we fall into similar circumstances, we might even commit a greater sin than what our friend had done. In the world of the Bible, we find not only our beginning but also the very end. This is why humankind must return to the beginning.



When Sadducees proposed a question concerning resurrection, Jesus pointed out their misunderstanding by bringing their attention to the “beginning.” The Sadducees asked, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother or next of kin shall marry his wife and raise up children for his brother.’ However, if the first died, and having no children left his wife to his brother ? and so also the second, and the third, down to the seventh ? then in the resurrection, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her.” Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the scriptures nor the power of God.” He meant that they did not know the beginning.
Jesus taught them that originally a man’s life is eternal and he was created to live eternally without seeing death. Hence, he pointed out that marriage does not reflect the entirety of the happiness in heaven (Matthew 22:23-33).

When Jesus appeared to His disciples who had become disheartened and were returning to their hometown after Jesus’ crucifixion, He expounded on the scriptures with the word of the “beginning.”
As they heard this, their hearts burned within them (Luke 24:13-35). Our hearts will always burn within us when we return to the beginning.

When we return to the beginning, we can understand one another.
When we lack in understanding, misunderstanding and arguments begin. Believers should be able to understand with generous heart.
They must become spiritual waste baskets that hear and take in all the criticisms from this person and slandering from that person.



And as spiritual waste baskets, they must no longer spread those words elsewhere but bundle them up and toss them out when a garbage truck passes. We should bear such tolerance and broad-mindedness.

God forgives no matter who the sinner is or what type of sin he may have committed.
Parents’ heart is the alpha and the omega, that is, the beginning and the end. Despite knowing the sin that their children have committed, parents perpetually cover it up.
Such is the heart of the parents, the heart of the “beginning.” Parents love, protect and embrace their children in their hearts with unchanging compassion, mercy and sympathy.
God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who forgave our sins by being hung on the cross, are always the beginning. He regards us always in the same way. God?who created us and is the Master over us?is even more distressed than ourselves when we suffer, fall into debts, or cannot go to the hospital despite of being ill because we have no money (Isaiah 63:9). God’s will is not for us to go hungry, to suffer, or to have no one to lean on (Lamentations 3:33). There will never be such problems as long as we return to the beginning.

The original world that God created was not like this. It was exceedingly beautiful. But because of man’s sins, the world was destroyed and filled with thorns and thistles, curses and lamentations. After God created the heavens, the earth, and all things in the universe, He saw that it was very good. This is why we must return to the beginning.
To return to the beginning means to believe in God. It is returning to the origin of history, the beginning of religion. Jesus Christ is the only way, the truth, and the life to which we must return (John 14:6). God loves the original state of man the most. He seeks to find our beginning. Yet, we live our lives having forgotten that beginning. It is time for us to restore the beginning. We must reclaim the beginning that we have lost.

The way to find the beginning for man is in the Bible. It is a record inspired by the Holy Spirit for the redemption of mankind. “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me” (John 5:39).
“You shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (Matthew 4:7). “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).
Man’s beginning can be seen and found through the mirror of the Bible. The Bible teaches us that we are people of the beginning, and thus our minds and lives must all return to the beginning. God has even said to bring a com-plaint against Him if there ever is a person who believed and lived according to the Bible and yet came to ruin. When we believe in the Word of God and follow the Bible, we will return to the beginning before we even realize. God sent Jesus Christ as our example so that He could help us find our original image. Jesus Christ shows us our image in the likeness of God before the fall.

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Beloved Saints.
Believers must love their enemies.
God said that if our enemy is hungry, show hospitality to him. He said that when we do so, He will repay us. I hope that the saints of Pyungkang Cheil Church will not be hostile toward one another but live as brothers and sisters until the day we enter the kingdom of heaven.
The citizens of Korea are all brothers and sisters. In fact, people in other countries are also our siblings.
May you believe that the power of evil will retreat when we love our brothers and sisters and that the sun of righteousness will shine brightly upon the dawn of South Korea’s future and drive the darkness away.
Do not blame others. Blame yourself first. It is because we haven’t found our beginning that we feel hostile toward everything that we see and hear. When we return to the beginning, we will be blessed whether we go out or we come in.
Do not slander others. Always be upright and faithful. Think thrice before you speak to someone. Assist the poor and unfortunate neighbors. I hope you become the people of God who are zealous for good deeds.
Have truthful hearts with nothing to be convicted by your conscience
before God, men and all creation, and lead a life of faith that regards
one another more important that yourselves. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you may find your beginning and receive the blessings of the beginning.

September 23, 2012, Lord’s Day 2nd Service
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