Sermons

This passage covers the persecution and imprisonment that Paul and Silas went through after healing a slave girl possessed by a spirit in Philippi. As they preached the gospel they were driven into extreme circumstances of insults, beatings and prison, yet even at midnight they offered prayers and praise, revealing God's presence.

When an earthquake opened the prison doors and gave them a chance to escape, Paul stayed to save the jailer's life. His honest and holy choice drew from the jailer an earnest question about salvation, and in the end the jailer and his whole household received Christ. And Paul's boldly exercising the authority of his Roman citizenship and making his status known shows wisdom and courage for the spread of the gospel.

We look at how these hardships and choices led to the salvation of souls and the growth of the church. We must think deeply about what choices we will make now, and how we must live to stand on a rock of faith that the world cannot treat lightly.

Reflecting on the meaning of Christmas, this sermon deals with the birth of Jesus not as a mere historical event, but as the starting point of faith in the invisible God. Through the example of the Roman official Theophilus, the passage explains how faith that sees the invisible God through the gospel passed on to us, even without seeing anything with our own eyes, leads to salvation. Such faith calls for an attitude that accepts God's covenant and the work of the Holy Spirit as fact, over the reality in front of our eyes.

Also, recalling how the people of Israel made images, served them as idols and suffered for it, it points out that believers must guard against invisible idols, putting the world's standards or their own pride ahead of God. Just as David, led by the Holy Spirit, foretold the resurrection of Christ and was not shaken even in suffering, believers living today must take suffering as refining and deepen their trust in God. It stresses that when the waves of the world crash in and hardships come, we need perseverance and prayer to hold our place as believers, trusting in the rest and victory God has already prepared.

Believers today, who testify that the prophecy has been fulfilled and that Jesus has risen, must live proclaiming the gospel even more boldly than David. It puts the question of living a humble, devoted and thankful life, holding on to the promise that on the last day he will repay each according to what they have done. It leads us to reflect on what we must hold on to in order to hope for the invisible, eternal kingdom as if we saw it with our eyes, and to go beyond the suffering of this earth to joyfully enjoy the reward God has prepared.