0:47: Welcome

1:51: CARP Bay Area Opening Song –  “Your Are Holy [Prince Of Peace]”

6:37: Opening Prayer – Rev. Edner Pierre-Louis, Pastor of District 2

12:18: Godible Reading

16:26: Eric Ross and Michiyo Nomoto Song Offering – “Who You Say I Am”

22:55: Dr. Ki Hoon Kim’s Opening Message – “Easter Sunday”

33:44: Dr. Luonne Rouse, Easter Greeting

38:18: Sermon – “All of Us Must Come to Understand the True Love of Jesus” by Rev. Demian Dunkley

1:10:48: Closing prayer – Rev. Jung Sook Moon, Secretary-General, Southeast Region

1:13:44: The Waldmann Family, Paramus, NJ Closing Song –  “Grace of the Holy Garden”

1:17:27: Unity Song

The following is the edited transcript of the message given by Dr. Ki Hoon Kim, International Vice President of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020 on Facebook Live [Family Fed USA].

The resurrection of Jesus connected us to God’s everlasting love. Through the resurrection of Jesus, God gave us great hope and said I am on your side. I resurrected my Only Begotten Son, and I gave you another great hope and miracle for the sake of humankind. 

In John 3:16, it says, God so loved this world, and God gave his Only Begotten Son for the sake of humankind. Whosoever believes in him will not perish but will join in God’s eternal life. 

So what is the mission of the Only Begotten Son,  Jesus Christ? It is none other than to save humankind and lead us to the kingdom of God. 

This is the reason Jesus first preached to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. This is the mission of Jesus. This was also the mission behind the resurrection of Jesus—to lead us to God’s Kingdom. 

According to True Parents, where is the kingdom of Heaven? True Parents say it is none other than where God’s love is all-round; true love is all around. This is where the Kingdom of God is on Earth and in Heaven. When true love is everywhere people can enjoy true love from the beginning of their lives to end; people can be born with true love, embraced by true love, die embraced by true love and then move on to the next world with true love. This is the teaching of Jesus’ life and of his resurrection, which shows us to have hope that God is on our side because God is love. 

True Parents taught us that the essence of God is true love. Where does this true love originate? None other than in the family. This is the reason True Parents teach us the foundation of God’s Kingdom lies in the family who practices true love. 

What is true love? It’s living for the sake of others. True Parents told us the kingdom is not just a special place—oh I must die to see the kingdom of Heaven—it’s not a special place far away from us. True Parents are very clear. The Kingdom of Heaven exists where people practice living for the sake of others. God’s 6000-year providence of restoration waited on this kind of family to arrive. We call this kind of family a true family. And how can we build a true family? By receiving the blessing by True Parents. True Parents’ greatest work is the Marriage Blessing. Perfected man and women, God’s ideal of creation, is blessed and centering on God practice true love—parents love, sibling’s love, brother and sister’s love, and children’s love—centering on God’s everlasting love. This kind of family is God’s desired outcome after these 6000 years of restoration and we call this family a blessed central family. This is the reason True Mother spent the last seven years going around the world and giving God-centered messages and officiating Marriage Blessing Ceremonies.

Without a God-centered family, we cannot build the Kingdom of Heaven. This was the mission of Jesus after his resurrection. Jesus preached and shared about blessed central families in his spiritual state of resurrection. Jesus experienced rebirth and resurrection. Likewise, True Parents taught us we have three stages of blessed central familyship: receive the Marriage Blessing, experience rebirth and resurrection, and at last, you will see God’s eternal love on Earth and in Heaven. 

This Easter Sunday service, I would like everyone to remember what Jesus’s mission was and to remember that after his resurrection was God’s way of showing us to have great hope. Please also remember what our dear True Parents have been doing here over the last sixty years. When we study their speeches and messages we find two important words: True Love. Everywhere, in every paragraph, they speak about true love and about the Marriage Blessing Ceremony. This Marriage Blessing—blessed central families—is the core elements needed for building the Kingdom of God on Earth and in Heaven. So Jesus’ resurrection connected us to God’s eternal love and True Parents’ love, which came after, continued that same mission through the Marriage Blessing, which can connect all people to God’s everlasting blessing on Earth and in Heaven. 

Thank you and Happy Easter, everyone.