Sermons

Through the contrasting fates of Amaziah, king of the southern kingdom of Judah, and Jeroboam II of the northern kingdom of Israel, today's passage shows how God's work differs from human religious common sense. Amaziah, who did what was right in God's eyes, was carried away by small successes, grew proud, and in the end met a miserable death, while Jeroboam, judged an evil king, was used through God's compassion as an instrument to make the nation prosper. This shows that the logic of retribution, in which good people are always blessed and evil people always punished, does not always apply.

We easily tend to think that our good deeds or circumstances are evidence of God's approval or blessing. But visible success is not necessarily the result of God's approval, and having troubles does not mean we have been abandoned by God. This passage emphasizes that God leads history within a sovereignty far greater and vaster than human wickedness or goodness, and that God's complete grace and will matter more than our righteousness or effort.

Rather than focusing on the situation or circumstances we are in, it is important to look at what God has willed. How can we confess that our prosperity or suffering is not our own merit but God's grace, and take the attitude of standing humbly before God?

This passage deals with an episode between the prophet Elisha, as he neared death, and Joash, king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Following Elisha's instructions, Joash is told to shoot an arrow toward the east and to strike the ground, but he strikes only three times and stops. Because of this, Joash does not fully destroy Aram but wins only three victories, and Elisha shows sorrow and anger at his half-hearted attitude.

The sermon points out that Joash's actions mirror the way we treat Christ's salvation on the cross. Though we already hold the answer of salvation in our hands, we often cling to our own standard of ‘this is enough’ and offer God a hesitant obedience. It emphasizes that God gives grace in proportion to how much we have prepared and to our faith, and that to win a complete victory, we must throw away the standard of ‘that will do’ before God.

The work of God's love and grace goes on beyond human limits and the boundary of life itself. Despite our own shortcomings and weakness, we must have a faith that relies on God to the end and obeys the Word. If God did not spare his own Son but delivered him up for us all, how should we believe in and follow his endless love?

Noting how hard it is to finish well as the year draws to a close, this passage deals with the life of King Joash, who became king at a young age and repaired the temple. While he was under the protection of the godly high priest Jehoiada, he did what was right before God and accomplished the great work of repairing the temple. But after that protection was gone, he fell back into a compromising faith without removing the high places, the breeding ground of idolatry, and in the end met a miserable death.

The sermon points out that Joash's failure to remove the high places was not a simple failure but a half-hearted obedience that leaned on someone else's faith. Even behind the outwardly beautiful achievement of repairing the temple, he had not removed the idols in his heart, so his faith collapsed as soon as the protection from outside was cut off. It warns that this is no different from believers today who compromise God's commands for their own standards or convenience and live holding on to something like the high places.

True faith must have the staying power to stand alone and hold on to God even when the protection of those who went before us, or our circumstances, are gone. As the new year approaches, the sermon calls us to look back at whose spiritual protection we are sheltering under, and to check whether our faith is ready to stand on its own.

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 tragic consequences that began when Jehoshaphat, king of the southern kingdom of Judah, took a princess of the wicked northern kingdom of Israel as his daughter-in-law for the sake of a political alliance. He was overconfident that his own firm faith would keep him free from evil influence, but that choice led in the end to his son's corruption and to a crisis for the dynasty of David. It shows that sin does not begin with a resolve to do evil from the start, but with compromising and allowing it ourselves in the midst of conflict.

Once we set foot in the swamp of sin it becomes hard to get out, and the passage warns that one person's choice can bring deadly consequences on their descendants and community. But even amid human failure and the attacks of evil powers, God faithfully kept his covenant with David and secretly protected one life, Joash. This means that God's promise is far stronger than human mistakes or Satan's schemes, and it becomes hope for those who keep the faith to the end.

When we cannot tell whether our choices now are right, can we remember the final day of judgment and look at them objectively? And are we keeping an earnest heart that does not forget the pain and regret that follow sin, so that we can make right judgments?

Today's passage sheds light on the true meaning of thanksgiving through the feasts of Israel established in Old Testament times. In particular, it highlights the order by which the Day of Atonement had to be kept before the harvest thanksgiving feast, the Feast of Booths, showing God's order of requiring repentance before thanksgiving. This is not simply the arrangement of a calendar; it reveals the spiritual principle that unless a clean heart has been prepared, we cannot fully receive God's grace.

Through the lives of King David and Peter, the sermon explains how thanksgiving built on repentance leads to deeper grace and a new mission. Even after victory, David consecrated himself and stood before God, and Peter, rather than dwelling on the miraculous catch of fish, confessed before the holiness of Jesus that he was a sinner. These examples show that thanksgiving is not simply an expression of joy, but true worship that flows from a pure heart whose problem of sin has been dealt with.

So Thanksgiving helps us see that its meaning goes beyond joy over material abundance, and grows deeper when we first make sure of spiritual cleanness. Repentance is the act of leaving the place of sin, and thanksgiving is the process of restoring grace on that very ground. The sermon asks what true worship is, beyond formal words of thanks: looking back at one's inner life and standing before God with a clean heart.

This passage deals with the scene in which Jehu, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, judges the house of Ahab and wipes out the worshipers of Baal. Jehu was used as an instrument of God's judgment and pressed zealously ahead, wielding great power, but inside him, rather than true love for God, there was a pride that wanted to display his own might and sense of achievement. Rather than acknowledging that what he did came from God, he prided himself that it was the result of his own ability and zeal, and acted as though he had already received his whole reward.

Jehonadab the son of Rechab, a Gentile, by contrast chose a life of serving God alone rather than worldly security or power. He followed God without hesitation when Jehu questioned him, kept his distance from idolatry all his life, and charged his descendants to hold on to an eternal hope. Although Jehu seemed outwardly to be working for God, his motives came from human righteousness and boasting, so he did not receive true spiritual reward. Instead, he followed in the sin of idolatry that Jeroboam had committed and in the end fell into the way of corruption.

The sermon asks believers to reflect on their motives when they take up God's work. It points out that even if we look devoted and zealous on the outside, if pride and self-boasting are mixed into our hearts, that cannot be the faithfulness God delights in. It reminds us that we must lay aside our own righteousness and work with a heart that gives glory to God alone. The sermon puts questions to the reader, so that they can look back at the motives of their life of faith and devotion, and choose the path of faith that gains the true reward.

This passage deals with how Jehu, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, was anointed as an instrument of God's judgment and carried out judgment on the sins of the house of Ahab. Apart from any political ambition, Jehu obeyed God's command, judged King Joram and Jezebel, and saw to it that the prophecy Elijah had delivered was fulfilled without a single word failing. This process shows that God's word is surely accomplished regardless of human intentions.

Through Jehu's faithfulness and the miserable end of the house of Ahab, the sermon points to the truth that God's judgment will surely come. King Joram, who for a long time did not repent in spite of God's warnings and let down his guard, resembles us today, who grow used to daily life and live forgetting judgment even though the signs of the end are clear. It warns that God holds back judgment and waits for repentance, but that a fitting judgment awaits those who refuse to the end to leave the place of sin.

How should we look upon God's unseen work and the judgment that is close at hand?

Today's passage introduces Gresham's law, that bad money drives out good, and points to how, throughout society today, lies win out over truth and bluster over real ability. But God's work is the very opposite: he raises up one righteous person to overcome countless evils, and has believers take up the role of light and salt.

This passage begins with the story of the unnamed Shunammite woman. She obeys God's word at once, stays in a foreign land for seven years and keeps her household safe, and after returning receives the remarkable blessing of recovering the property she had lost, through Gehazi's testimony. In the story of Hazael, the Aramean commander, that follows, Elisha prophesies that he will become king, but through the way Hazael murders his master and seizes power apart from God's will, the passage shows that even under God's sovereignty, responsibility follows human choices. Finally, the record of Jehoram and Ahaziah, kings of Judah, who left God, did evil, and were judged, confirms that even in a chaotic age when evil is everywhere, God alone is the ruler of history.

However full of bad money the world may be, when we live the life of good money, devoted and obedient before God to the end, God works through that small lamp. We must ask ourselves whether, without using the dark world as an excuse, we remain good money that God can take up and use, and live as good instruments to the end.

This passage deals with the severe famine and the siege by the Aramean army that the people of Israel suffered for disobeying God's command. The city of Samaria was reduced to such misery by hunger that even an animal's head and dung, things not fit to eat, were traded at astronomical prices. The king, though he sees the people's suffering, avoids his own guilt, blames Elisha, the man of God, and tries to kill him. This shows the typical attitude of shifting responsibility onto outside factors or other people rather than looking within when a problem arises.

Elisha delivers God's word that prices will return to normal, but the officer does not believe it and mocks it. In the end God frightens the Aramean army into flight, and has the news of deliverance brought by lepers who were waiting outside the city gate. The king had the facts confirmed by scouts, but because of unbelief, though he saw with his own eyes the moment Elisha's prophecy was fulfilled, he did not enjoy that grace and met his death. This shows that a heart that doubts God's work and complains ends up bringing even greater loss on itself.

In the darkness and despair of life, how should we respond, without blaming God or judging those who are weak? Let us think about what a faith that trusts God's ways and timing and waits for them looks like, and what lessons we should learn from the results that unbelief brings.

Through two events experienced by the prophet Elisha and his servant, this passage deals with how to keep the faith and look to God in moments of crisis. First, through the miracle of raising a lost axe head out of the water, it shows that God himself saves us from a spiritual state that no human strength can pull us out of. Then, in the desperate crisis when the Aramean army surrounds the city, the servant is afraid of the enemy's visible numbers, but Elisha prays and opens the servant's eyes to see the army of heaven.

The sermon stresses that we must open our spiritual eyes and recognize God's protection, so that we are not overwhelmed by the crises we see with our physical eyes or by the world's power. It also contrasts the king of Aram, who trusted only in visible power and was defeated, with Elisha, who showed grace even to his enemies and revealed God's true character, and through this presents the call to share the grace we have freely received with our neighbors and our enemies. It points out that a life that relies not on the world's standards but on God's sovereignty, and gladly passes on the love it has received, is the true confession of faith.

With what eyes are we looking at the world now, and with whom are we sharing the grace we have freely received?

Today's passage tells how Naaman, commander of the army of Aram, suffering from leprosy, meets the prophet Elisha and is healed. A young girl taken captive from Israel tells him the only way his disease can be cured, showing how God reveals his power through the weak rather than through the powerful of the world. Yet Naaman tried to approach Elisha with his own authority and gifts, and the king of Israel commits the folly of missing God's opportunity.

To break Naaman's pride and his attachment to the world, Elisha gives him a command that is hard to understand. Naaman is healed only when he exposes his disgrace, bears the shame, and washes seven times in the Jordan River. This shows the principle that miracles happen only when we completely cast off the world's righteousness and our pride and obey, standing naked before God. By contrast, Elisha's servant Gehazi, though he had been at Elisha's side, is blinded by greed, tries to take the gifts for himself, and falls under a curse.

With what attitude should we stand before God in order to enjoy his blessing?