CNN carried a dramatic story about a pastor in South Korea who used to be a trained killer. That’s right--I said a trained killer. His name is Kim Shin Jo.
We have been reading much the past couple of years about North Korea. This is a state that has caused the world many headaches over the years. Kim Shin Jo was originally a North Korean assassin.
In January of 1968, Jo and a team of other assassins slipped into South Korea from the North in a daring attempt to kill the president of South Korea. The team of 31 commandos made it to within a few hundred yards of the president’s residence before they were intercepted. A fierce battle followed, killing 30 South Koreans. All of the North Korean soldiers were killed, except one who escaped and Kim Shin Jo, who was captured.
After months of interrogation, and through a surprising friendship with a South Korean army general, Kim Shin Jo turned over a new leaf. Later he would confess, “I tried to kill the president. I was the enemy. But the South Korean people showed me sympathy and forgiveness. I was touched and moved.” And so Jo started a new life.
The South Korean government eventually released Kim Shin Jo. Over the next three decades he worked for the military. After a while he became a citizen, and then married and raised a family. Finally, he became the pastor of a church. Reflecting on the day of his arrest, Kim Shin Jo commented, “On that day, Kim Shin Jo died. I was reborn. I got my second chance. And I’m thankful for that.” (1)
Sometimes we forget that by the wondrous grace of God, people can be changed in a miraculous way. Our lessons for the day tell about three men who experienced God’s grace in extraordinary ways. It’s interesting how similar their stories are despite their different stations in life. Let’s begin with the prophet Isaiah.
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne,” writes Isaiah, “and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’
“Woe to me!” Isaiah cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.
“Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’
“And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”
What a marvelous piece of Scripture! Keep it in mind--especially the words, “Woe to me! . . . For I am a man of unclean lips,” as we turn to the New Testament to a similar episode in the life of Simon Peter:
Early in his ministry Jesus was preaching on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. The crowd was pressing in on him. He noticed two empty boats that were standing at the water’s edge while the fishermen cleaned their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push out a little into the water so that he could sit in the boat and speak to the crowds. When he finished speaking, he turned to Simon and said, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Simon was weary and he answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
And this time the nets were so full of fish that they began to tear. In fact, it was not long until both boats were so full of fish that they were about to sink. Then the Scriptures tell us that when Simon realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
Again, what a beautiful and memorable story. Now you have two verses I want you to remember, “Woe to me! . . . For I am a man of unclean lips,” and Simon Peter’s words, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”
But, I have one more. Paul relates it to us in I Corinthians 15. It is the story of how the resurrected Christ appeared to the disciples‑‑first to Peter and later to the rest of the twelve, and then to five hundred more followers‑‑most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote‑‑and finally Paul writes, “Last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” Listen as Paul continues, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them . . .” Here is the third verse for you to remember, “For I am the least of the apostles . . . because I persecuted the church of God.”
Do you see the similarities in these three stories? The progression of the faith experience of these three important biblical figures is almost identical: First, they are made aware of their sinfulness and their inadequacy. Secondly, they experience God’s grace. And finally, they are called to a great ministry. Let’s consider for just a moment how these three stages of development came about that we, too, might become great men and women through our own faith development.
Note, first of all, how they were made aware of their sinfulness and their dependence on God. Consider Isaiah’s experience. He writes: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple . . .” What a majestic vision of God that Isaiah was privileged to behold. But also notice Isaiah’s response to beholding God’s majesty. “Woe is me!” cried Isaiah, “for I am a man of unclean lips!”
Now Isaiah had fancied himself to be a good man, and a righteous man. But suddenly, in the presence of God, he saw himself as he really was: he saw that much of his righteousness was merely a sham, a show; something to parade before the world, but too superficial to build a satisfying life on.
Simon Peter probably thought he had it made too. After all, he owned his own fishing boat. He was a successful small businessman. He had his work, his family, and his health. What more could anyone ask? Peter didn’t know the answer to that until that fateful day when he crossed paths with Jesus of Nazareth. He allowed Jesus--whom he was just getting to know--to use his boat as a floating platform from which to teach. When he had finished his teaching, Jesus turned to Simon Peter and told him to turn his boat out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.
As we noted, Simon was weary and he answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
And this time the nets were so full of fish that they began to tear. In fact, it was not long until both boats were so full that they were about to sink. Simon was astounded as were the fishermen who were with him. Suddenly they realized that Jesus was someone special. What was Peter’s response? Almost exactly the same as Isaiah’s. He cried out, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Suddenly Simon Peter realized just how empty and meaningless his life had really been. He was made aware of his sinfulness and his dependence upon God.
Now let’s consider St. Paul. St. Paul, like Simon, was called by a different name before he met the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus. He was Saul, the dreaded persecutor of the early Christian community. But he had a blinding experience of Christ on the Damascus Road and a radical change took place in his life. Suddenly he was aware of just how misguided, how cruel, how vindictive his previous life had been. It’s hard to believe that Saul the persecutor could become Paul, the author of I Corinthians 13‑‑the greatest living document on the subject of love ever penned. Only Christ could make that change in a person. How did Paul describe his experience? “I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle,” he later wrote, “for I persecuted the church of God.”
Friends, this is stage one of the development of a faith that will change the world. It is to behold the awesomeness of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and to be made aware of our own need of God. If we are going to become what God means for us to become, we are going to have to see ourselves as God sees us. That is the first step for growth. The first reason many people do not give their lives unconditionally to God is that they never really come to a realization of their need for God. And so they live bland, mediocre lives. Because they never feel a need for God’s amazing grace, they never experience it. But that is step one in developing a vital faith. It is a realization of our need for God.
Step two is the blessed experience of divine grace. When Isaiah cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips,” the seraphim touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal and said, “Lo, this hath touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin taken away.” When Peter acknowledges his guilt and falls on his knees before Jesus, immediately Christ tells him, “Don’t be afraid.” And St. Paul writes, “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Then Paul adds, “But by the grace of God I am what I am . . .”
Each of these three men was made painfully aware of their sinfulness in the face of the holiness of God, but they were also made wonderfully aware of God’s grace. They knew their sins were forgiven and they were restored as children of God.
Those of you old enough to remember the 1960s might also remember the so‑called “Jesus people” of that time. The Jesus people were former hippies who came out of that world of drugs and free sex to become dedicated believers in Christ. One of these Jesus people in Los Angeles gave her testimony over the radio sometime back.
She was a pretty girl who had gone to Hollywood hoping to achieve a career in films. She met a man who assured her that he was a producer who would soon get her a major part in one of his productions. You can imagine what happened: she slept with him in exchange for the promised part. But it got worse. He introduced her to drugs. And when she became completely dependent on him for her daily “high,” he began selling her body to several men per day.
In moments of relative sanity she was horrified at what she was becoming. She was bitter with shame and shocked with fright. One day she stumbled into a Christian coffeehouse, where a group of Jesus people understood her plight. They took her with them to a house in which they lived as a community of faith. They stood by her as she dried out, singing hymns and praying as she screamed in the agonies of withdrawal. But in the depths of her suffering she suddenly had a wonderful sense of peace and love. Jesus, she felt, was by her side. She believed in him. From that point on she recovered quickly, and she knew beyond doubt that her moment with Jesus was the moment of her conversion. (2)
Most of us have not reached the depth of degradation this girl experienced, thank God. However, if we are to have a faith that transcends the ordinary, some time in our life we must also come to realize our absolute dependence upon God, and we must experience his power to make us into a new creation. Such a realization will deliver us from living lukewarm lives, half-committed and only partially satisfying.
Seeing ourselves as we really are, experiencing God’s grace to make a new start in life‑‑those are the first two steps. But there is a third. That is the call to a purposeful life.
The Lord asks, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?” And Isaiah cries out, “Here am I, send me.” Jesus says to the frightened Simon Peter, “I will make you a fisher of men” and immediately he follows after the Master. And St. Paul acknowledges that because he persecuted the Christians, he was the least of the Apostles, but, he adds, that by God’s grace, he worked harder than any of them. That’s what happens when we have an encounter with the living God. And it is the most important encounter we will ever have--giving our lives completely to Christ.
It is said that hymn writer Charles Wesley wrote his first hymn just three days after his conversion to Christ. That hymn was “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” That was how exuberant he felt after his encounter with God. “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing my great Redeemer’s praise . . .” As the years passed, Charles Wesley is said to have written 6,500 hymns and gospel songs. It’s ironic. Wesley asked for “a thousand tongues to sing,” and through the singing of his hymns throughout the Christian world, God gave him millions of tongues to sing God’s praise--and we’ve been singing them for more than 200 years.
Not everyone is going to have the kind of experience that Charles Wesley had, or Isaiah, or Simon Peter or St. Paul. But each of us in our own way can have an experience of God that transforms our life into something more beautiful. First of all, we need to see ourselves as we really are--totally dependent on God. Secondly, we need to pray that God will help us in our daily lives to experience His amazing grace and power. And finally, we need a sense of direction, lives patterned after the life of Jesus. Then, and only then, will we become the kind of people God has created us to become.
1. “South Korean pastor is also a trained killer,” CNN Religion. Cited by Pastor Barry L. Davis, 52 Sermons From the Book of Acts (Pulpit Outlines 4) (p. 173). GodSpeed Publishing. Kindle Edition.
2. Ernest Gordon & Peter Funk, Guidebook for the New Christian (New York: Harper & Row).