Sermons

Going beyond the meaning of Christmas, this passage leads us to reflect deeply on the essence of love. It looks at what love is when it is proven by real action and not by words alone, and sheds light on the substance of the love God showed by sending his one and only Son.

The sermon points out that what sets God's love apart from the human sacrifices the world honors is that Jesus did not avoid suffering but willingly obeyed. It also emphasizes that God's love was confirmed when Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, and explains that this love is not a mere feeling but something revealed in reality.

Finally, it makes clear that if someone who professes to love God does not love his brother, it is a lie, and says that only when we love one another do we remain in God and can his love be perfected in us. The sermon asks us to think deeply about how believers can grow further, taking the birth of Jesus as an opportunity, and reveal Christ's love through their own lives.

This passage deals with the ways Satan deceives people to hinder their salvation, and why believers must discern this and stay awake. Satan attacks relentlessly, veiling the truth of the gospel and clouding people's minds so that the glory of Christ cannot shine. It also emphasizes the urgency of spiritual awakening in light of the signs of the end of the world, the spread of heresies, and deepening moral corruption.

Comparing it to an apple, the sermon explains Satan's strategy of making a small crack in a believer's heart, a 'knife cut' that brings awareness of guilt, so as to eventually make them rot spiritually. It shows not a life that looks fine on the outside while rotting within, but believers who withstand Satan's attacks and are protected by God. For this, believers must not be drunk with wine or with anger, but put on the breastplate of faith and love and stay spiritually alert.

The sermon asks what attitude believers should have in order to live holy lives as children of light without falling into Satan's deception.