Sermons

Through the deep meaning of the Lord's Prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, this passage deals with how our relationship with God is restored. Just as Adam set up his own standard of judgment by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and this led to separation from God, human judgment often puts our relationship with God out of joint. So the Lord's Prayer is not simply a form of prayer; it sets out a direction for life that heals the root of sin and restores our relationship with God.

Through his own precious blood, Jesus opened the only way to restore the broken relationship. When the veil of the sanctuary was torn, the way into the Most Holy Place was opened, and this shows God's will: he wants not formal sacrifices but a heart that sincerely loves him. At the center of this restored relationship is Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Lord's Day is not simply a day for keeping rules; it is the time when church members who come carrying spirits wounded in the world meet the Lord of the Sabbath and are restored.

Worship should not be something we attend out of habit, but a precious time of one-on-one fellowship with God in which our souls find peace. The praise and the Word offered on the Lord's Day are the place where we lay down the pain and worry of the past six days and take in spiritual food. Through the Lord's Day our relationship with God must be restored and the direction of our lives set right; without this peace, it cannot be called true worship. Today we should reflect deeply on how we are restoring our relationship with God through the worship we offer on the Lord's Day, and on what peace we receive through it.

Today's passage deals with the scene of Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a young donkey. The crowds at the time welcomed him eagerly, wanting a king who would solve their practical problems, but Jesus declares the way of glory, in which the nations are saved through his death. This shows that it was not simply a festival but the starting point of Jesus' journey to the cross to atone for the sins of humanity.

Jesus says that a grain of wheat must fall into the earth and die in order to bear much fruit, revealing that the kingdom of God works on the principle that only by dying do we live. This means that we must turn down the path of comfort and consolation that we want, and walk with Jesus the path of self-denial and the cross that he walked. Such a life begins not with some grand resolution, but with small training in which our first reaction when we face a problem changes from complaining to calling on God.

Before Jesus' call, we must not answer with our lips alone but answer with our lives and resolve to walk that path. Can our desire to walk with Jesus toward the kingdom of God, where only by dying do we live, lead us onto the path of true discipleship?

This sermon centres on the new commandment Jesus gave his disciples, ‘love one another,’ and asks what the true life of a disciple is. The passage does not simply emphasise service or giving; it calls for a love that sacrifices itself for the other, and says that this is the evidence by which all people will know them as disciples. Yet the sermon points out that believers in reality have dried-up hearts because of pride, and cling to a hypocritical faith that treats sin as fine so long as it can be hidden from God's eyes.

The sermon explains that the true character of believers is like a lamp that gives off light, and emphasises that the prayers of brothers and sisters who faithfully keep the faith amid hardship and persecution are God's instrument for changing the world. In particular, it says that humble love begins only when we acknowledge our human limits, that we cannot climb the mountain of sin, and realise that we are saved by the grace of Christ alone. It warns that outward show and pretence in the life of faith will vanish when tested by fire on the last day, and that what God remembers is the small devotion of sincerely loving our brothers and sisters and interceding for them in prayer.

The sermon asks what answer believers will be able to give when they stand before Christ on the last day and look back on their lives. It leads us to examine whether we are living the life of true children: casting off the world's boasting and a faith of pretence, obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit, and giving the Lord rule over our lives. Through this sermon the reader is led to reflect on whether their faith truly practises the commandment to love one another, or whether they are still living a hypocritical life with a dried-up heart.

Today's passage makes clear that Jesus Christ has received all authority to judge, and that those who believe have already received eternal life and escaped judgment. Many believers try to earn rewards through formal worship or good deeds, but salvation is not by human effort; it is settled the moment we hear and believe Jesus' word. So rather than fearing the judgment after death, we must live now as those who have received eternal life.

On the cross Jesus received all authority and glory from the Father and became King, and with this the power of death was broken. Believers can stand tall even before Satan's attacks and the sufferings of the world, because their salvation is already secured. Yet people tend to live by their own righteousness, rejecting the gospel or putting off the chance of salvation. Jesus' word is itself the standard of judgment, and those who do not listen to it and reject it are already judged.

Believers must follow the navigation system of the Bible without leaving the road, and persevere and endure. Why must believers who live with Jesus as their King work to share the gospel with more people, so that God's kingdom spreads?

This passage explains the purpose of Jesus' coming to this earth as God's self-revelation, going beyond salvation and redemption. Many understand Jesus' coming only as an offering to atone for human sin, but this is not the whole purpose of the incarnation. Jesus took on human nature and came in order to make the Father known and reveal him to people who had never seen the true God. In other words, the heart of the incarnation is to let sinners know God personally and relationally, so that they may enjoy eternal life.

We must realize that all of God's works and words, and even suffering and experience, are ultimately means of revealing God. Jesus' divinity, person, and attributes are the highest revelation of who God is, and in him the kingdom of God came, embodied and present. Believers must go beyond simply rejoicing as those who have been saved, and rightly understand the meaning of this revelation as the bride and the body of Jesus.

We must not stop at remembering only that Jesus died for me, but think deeply about how the eternal God wants to be revealed through our lives. What concrete direction can we take to live as mature believers, practicing the love of Jesus Christ toward our families and the world, right here and now?

This passage is the scene in which Jesus urges his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled and declares that in his Father's house there are many homes. Amid the sad reality of a world paralyzed by an epidemic and people avoiding one another, it leads believers to realize that the end of the world has drawn near and to prepare to welcome the returning Lord.

The sermon emphasizes that the suffering and persecution we are now going through are God's will to refine believers and make them into good grain. It says that just as the household of Obed-Edom was blessed by keeping the ark, we should make this time shut up at home an opportunity for blessing, worshiping and praying together with our families. It also preaches that we must overcome the fear of death, look toward our eternal home, and have the wisdom to judge by God's word without compromising with the world.

What prayers and supplications should believers offer so that they can boldly keep their faith without fear and go on toward the eternal dwelling place Jesus has prepared?

This passage reveals that behind the joy of Christmas lie the suffering and death that Jesus would have to go through. Jesus, who came as the offspring of the woman to fulfill the promise God made at the beginning of the world, knew in advance of Satan's harassment, the betrayal of countless people, and the pain of the cross. It points out that behind the Christmas the world treats as merely a festival lie the pain and the resolve that God had to bear.

Behind Jesus' birth were the obedience and trust of Joseph and Mary. Mary's faith in accepting God's will even in a situation as dangerous as death shows what believers look like who can trust God and endure even in situations they cannot understand. Immanuel means that God is with us, and those who believe this have no need to fear the world or Satan.

Through the birth of Jesus, believers must come to understand God's love and plan of salvation, and overcome the world by that faith. Just as Jesus walked this road in love even though he knew the pain of the cross and the betrayal of his disciples, believers too must cast off temptation and greed and obey God. The sermon asks what believers must hold on to in order to know the true meaning of Christmas and live by faith to the end without wavering.

This passage deals with the scene in which Jesus proclaims what the essence of true worship is. At the time, Gnostic ideas had spread within the church and were unsettling the faith of believers; the Gnostics claimed that salvation came through supernatural knowledge, or only to a particular class of people. The apostle John rejects these false ideas and stresses that Jesus Christ came as a fully human being and accomplished his atoning death on the cross.

The sermon points out that to be set free from Satan's temptation and the powers of darkness, believers must worship in spirit and truth. It makes clear that the work of God is not relying on the pleasures of the world or on human wisdom, but believing in the one whom God has sent. As in David's confession, it shows that listening for God's voice and pleading with him is what worship in spirit and truth actually looks like.

Believers must not stop at their own judgment or knowledge, but live in the assurance of the sacrifice and love of the cross. God listens to the prayers of believers and leads them into a safe and blessed life even in a dangerous world. It considers what special blessing and protection those who worship in spirit and truth receive from God, and how this worship changes the everyday lives of believers.