Sermons

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 sermon deals with the life and the attitude of faith of the apostle Paul after he met Christ. Paul was transformed from a legalist into an apostle of the gospel, and he never forgot the grace he had received and remained faithful until death. The sermon emphasizes the importance of the Jewish view of time, in which the past lies in front of us: an attitude of remembering grace and trusting the future.

Because the present immediately becomes the past, when we live by faith without forgetting the grace we have received from God, the future that follows is secure. Paul grew spiritually through a time of isolation, praying for three years in Arabia, and came to realize that God's power is made perfect in his weakness. Even amid illness and chains, he boldly proclaimed the gospel before the powerful of the world.

Today's passage asks believers to live a life rooted in the truth and the cross rather than in the world's standards or splendor. It leads us to examine whether the church is compromising the truth by dressing itself up in the world's abundance, and whether we have the courage to stake our lives on preaching the gospel even when we look humble.

This passage deals with what the apostle Paul was like before he met Christ, how he changed after his conversion, and the essence of faith revealed in the course of his ministry. Paul was originally a Pharisee who kept the Law strictly, and he displayed his pride in his faith by harshly persecuting Christians. But after meeting the living Jesus in person on the road to Damascus, he counted all his boasting and power as loss and began a new life devoted to the gospel.

Through the episode in Paul's conversion in which Ananias received a command from God and prayed for Paul, who had been an enemy, the sermon points to God's sovereignty and a grace that goes beyond human understanding. From the way Paul rebuked false troublemakers and exalted Christ alone, it also presents the humility and obedience that believers should have. Paul's confession, in which he lays down worldly learning and power and counts the knowledge of Christ as the most excellent thing, calls us to the same decision.

Consider what the life of Paul, who laid everything down after meeting Christ, means for us today.

This passage deals with the meaning of two of Israel's feasts, the Feast of Firstfruits and the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost). Behind the command to count the days, eagerly waiting forty-nine days from Firstfruits, when the barley is harvested, to the Feast of Weeks, when the wheat is harvested, lies the fact that the success or failure of the crops depended on the northwest and southeast winds, which God governs. The people of Israel had to depend on God alone for the weather and for the whole process of the harvest, and to offer thanks and prayers with earnest hearts.

But the people forgot God's grace, trying to set up a human king more powerful than God. The event in which God sent thunder and rain at Pentecost, when the wheat should have been harvested, to punish their pride is a warning that makes them realize they cannot live without God. We must guard against the foolishness of forgetting God and following the world's standards precisely when we enjoy abundant harvests and peace, and remember that everything is under God's sovereignty.

Do we acknowledge that everything we now enjoy is not chance but God's grace? Rather than living a life of bringing offerings freely with thankful hearts, are we not taking it all for granted and trying to leave God?

This passage deals with the story of the prophet Jonah, who refused God's command and ran away. Jonah rejected God's call to announce judgment to the people of Nineveh, his enemies, and fled far away by ship. In doing so, even though Jonah already knew God's intention to judge, he did not want Nineveh to repent and be saved.

To help us understand Jonah's heart, the sermon presents the parable of the prodigal son. It explains that the hurt of the older son, who is asked to love his younger brother who squandered their father's property, resembles Jonah's aversion. God wanted the older son to become a large vessel able to embrace even an enemy, and this was ultimately for the older son's own growth. Jonah, too, could grow into a large vessel able to understand God's love fully only by embracing Nineveh.

Through Jonah feeling greater sorrow over the withering of the vine, the sermon also points to selfish human nature. Jonah cared about the vine that served his own comfort, yet turned away from the lives of the people of Nineveh, who numbered one hundred twenty thousand. God points out this heart of Jonah's and asks how important it is to save lives, and how important God's compassion is. The sermon emphasizes that believers must live lives of realizing God's love and obeying, rather than insisting on their own righteousness. The sermon asks whether believers can become people who do not, like Jonah, judge in advance and put themselves at the center, but who look to God's will and devote themselves.

This passage deals with the scene in which the Israelites faced a life-or-death crisis, with the Red Sea blocking the way ahead and the Egyptian army pursuing them from behind, and Moses commanded the people not to be afraid but to stand still and see the salvation that Yahweh would work. The people were full of hardship and complaining, but Moses urged them to believe and acknowledge that God himself would fight, not through anything they did. Here, 'stand still' means the faith that gives up human methods and acknowledges God's work.

The sermon explains that this event of the Exodus foreshadows the salvation of Jesus Christ. All people are sinners and fall short of the glory of God, but we have been justified freely by the blood of Jesus. Believers must acknowledge by faith the salvation that God prepared on his own initiative, not by their own merit. It is like putting a seal on a contract: the moment a person acknowledges Jesus Christ, a house in the kingdom of heaven becomes that person's own.

The sermon emphasizes that receiving the body and blood of Jesus at Holy Communion is becoming one with him. But it warns against having a heart like that of Judas Iscariot, who meant to betray Jesus even while receiving the bread and the wine. Believers should regard everything they eat and drink as communion, immediately repent of the sins they cannot help committing in their weak flesh, and live each day as though dying daily. The sermon asks what believers are holding on to, and what kind of life they should live by that faith.

This passage deals with how Nehemiah, while serving as prime minister in the Persian Empire, heard the news of the broken walls of his homeland Jerusalem, pleaded with God, and led the work of rebuilding the walls. After returning home with the king's permission, in the midst of a fierce spiritual battle of Satan's opposition, the people's laziness, and attacks by foreigners, he organized the people and led them with devotion to build the walls firmly.

The sermon emphasizes that the walls are not merely a physical structure but an important fence that protects our souls, the temple where the Holy Spirit dwells, from evil spirits and the temptations of the world. The power of prayer Nehemiah showed, his humble devotion as a leader, and the way the people each took on their own part and worked together show how believers today should build spiritual walls and hold off Satan's attacks.

What decisions and practices must we make to build firm walls with the word and prayer, so that worldly greed and lust cannot easily come and go in the lives of believers?

This passage deals with the scene of Jesus entering Jerusalem riding on a donkey. At the time, the crowds welcomed Jesus and shouted Hosanna out of a desire for worldly power and liberation, but Jesus was heading into the city to lay down his life and bear the cross. People followed Jesus expecting miracles and gain, but when faced with the way of suffering and the cross, they turned away in fear and betrayal.

Through these crowds and disciples, the sermon leads believers today to reflect deeply on their motives for offering worship and praise. It asks whether shouting Hosanna and spreading garments on the road only outwardly is true devotion, or emotional excitement for worldly gain. It also points out the human weakness by which, when one's life does not match God's word even though one has learned much of it, one ends up betraying Jesus in a moment of crisis. It emphasizes that when we truly meet God, we must move from the place of the world to the place of faith, and from the place of disobedience to the place of obedience.

The sermon asks whether believers are carrying out their mission with a heart that shares in the suffering of the cross, without letting their hearts be captured by the world's wealth and power. Remembering the bitter weeping of Peter, who ran away before Jesus' very eyes, it reminds us that we must become true people of faith who acknowledge our sinful nature and repent. It raises the question of what the praise and prayer we now offer are meant to gain, and how we will face the fact that we are nowhere to be seen beside the cross.

This passage deals with the scene in which King Ahab of northern Israel seeks the prophets' predictions before going to war with Syria. The four hundred false prophets who take Ahab's side promise victory and say only what is pleasant to hear, whereas the prophet Micaiah prophesies judgment and death, exactly as Yahweh has spoken. Even under threats from the king and the threat of death, Micaiah proclaims God's truth without wavering, showing what a person of faith looks like who stakes his life on speaking the truth.

The sermon emphasizes the wisdom of turning oneself around through words of rebuke and wrath, rather than the foolish attitude of believers who want only pleasant praise. King Ahab, even after hearing Micaiah's prophecy, did not give up his own desires but compromised and went out to the battlefield, which ultimately brought his ruin, while Micaiah stood as one dead to the world and delivered God's will completely. Through the example of David, who knew in advance that the people of Keilah would betray him and yet obeyed God's word at once and left the city, the sermon also points to the importance of an obedience that believes and acts on what has not yet happened.

Satan attacks those who are content with pleasant words and remain in the place of sin, but he cannot approach believers who obey God's word absolutely. Looking at how Micaiah's bold confession and David's immediate obedience lead to spiritual victory, readers are led to consider whether their own faith stops at a formal confession or goes on to real obedience that follows God's word.

This passage deals with the story of Job, who suffers the loss of everything through Satan's testing. When God, speaking to Satan, calls Job 'my servant' and acknowledges him as a man so blameless and upright that he is worthy of respect, Satan claims that Job fears God because of his material blessings and tries to break his faith by taking away his possessions.

The sermon points to why Job worshiped God without resenting him even in the extreme situation of losing his wealth and his children. Contrary to Satan's calculation that he would leave God if he lost his worldly possessions, Job's faith did not waver, because his relationship with God itself had sunk down deep like a root. In addition, the way Job laments his own shortcomings and remorse and repents in the midst of suffering shows the process of maturing, beyond the mere performance of religious duty, into a true faith that gives glory to God.

The sermon asks whether believers, as they pass through the tunnel of suffering, can rely wholly on God without being shaken by the world's standards or by the condemnation of their friends. It also leads us to consider, from the attitude of Job, who laid down his own righteousness and came to meet God more deeply through suffering, how believers can walk toward eternal blessing.

This passage deals with how Noah built the ark at God's command just before the judgment of the flood. Even though the corrupt world had reached a point beyond recovery, God had already made a plan of salvation and called Noah. On the basis of the truth handed down to him through his ancestors, Noah believed that judgment was coming, and he went on to complete the ark despite people's mockery and persecution.

The sermon points to the deep loneliness and anguish Noah experienced while building the ark. It conveys how lonely and hard it was to live believing in a judgment that could not be seen, and Noah's grief as he saw the people he could not save before the door was shut. It also points out that the isolated life inside the ark connects with the reality of believers, and explains the weight of a life that is separated from the world's values and obeys God's word.

Finally, the sermon speaks of the emptiness and discouragement Noah felt when he came out of the ark and faced a desolate land, and of the grace with which God forgave him and waited for him when he briefly fell. Along with the comfort that God does not rebuke believers but embraces them when they waver in suffering and loneliness, it reminds us that the line between inside and outside the ark is still clear.

Through the event in which Jesus raised Lazarus from the tomb, this passage reveals that he is the Lord of life. By coming only after Lazarus had completely died, Jesus shows that human beings cannot escape death on their own. This proclaims that he is not one who merely solves our hardships or needs, but the one who holds absolute sovereignty over life and death.

The sermon points out the attitude of believers who regard God only as a tool that fits their own wishes or plans. Just as Martha and the Jews, even in the face of Jesus' words and power, were trapped in their own limits and common sense and complained and doubted, it is hard to grasp the truth unless human righteousness and pride die. God is not an idol shut away in heaven but a Father who knows all things and helps, yet only when human beings, who are dead, first receive Jesus and come to life can they see his glory.

Believers must live not by the works of the Law or by human devotion, but as living people who have died on the cross and been born again. When we know this truth that we must die in order to live, we can be set free from the bondage of death. The sermon asks believers to reflect deeply on what it means to cast away their own righteousness, rely wholly on God's grace, and believe in and follow the Lord of life.