Sermons

This passage deals with the events in which the Israelites who had come out of Egypt made the golden calf and sent out spies from Kadesh Barnea. God meant to lead them into the promised land, but out of fear and complaining the people listened to the spies' negative report. Seeing the giants before them, they regarded themselves as grasshoppers, expected defeat, and grumbled against God, and in the end they wanted to go back to Egypt. This unbelief and complaining led to forty years of wandering in the wilderness, and many perished along the way.

The sermon points out that this failure of Israel is happening to us in the same way today. We have received new life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, yet we complain and grumble in the face of small difficulties or fears. Even though God parted the sea to save us and provided spiritual food and drink, we are not thankful, deceiving ourselves that we live by our own ability. Complaints spoken aloud are especially dangerous, because God hears them and may answer them. God strives to the very end to turn his children back so that they do not fall into sin, whether by soothing them with love or by disciplining them with the rod.

We must live clothed in the righteous garment of Jesus Christ. Having put on this garment means that we must become free from the temptations and sin of the world. When we remember the deep love with which God chose us as his children and cares for us to the end, we can live not in misery but in thankfulness. If we want to be led by God's plans and ways even in the present darkness and difficulty, we must fix our eyes on God. Just as God has had no regrets about us, what question can help us, too, live trusting in God?

This sermon deals with the special standing of believers who have been set free from the law of sin and death through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. According to the gospel proclaimed by the apostle Paul, those who are in Christ are never condemned, and they enjoy freedom through the law of the Spirit. But this grace goes beyond mere religious activity; it is a blessing enjoyed only when we sincerely repent and abide in Jesus. Because the Law could not be fulfilled on account of human weakness, God sent his sinless Son in the likeness of sinners to fulfill its requirement.

This passage also shows God's sovereign plan through the way Moses designed the tabernacle and led the Israelites. Israel's four hundred years of slavery in Egypt were a time of preparation for the fulfillment of God's covenant, and their unbelief and complaining ultimately brought about their destruction in the wilderness. As the lives of Moses and Paul reveal, God sets aside human wisdom and power and uses people only through humble obedience. Only when believers lay down everything they have and entrust themselves completely to God can they take on the role of a true priest.

The sermon calls believers to reflect on the heart that takes the feast days for granted when they come around, and to meditate deeply on the suffering and love of the cross that Jesus bore. Remembering the deep love with which God gave his Son for us, with what kind of heart should we return our thanks and love to God?

This sermon reflects on the life of faith of believers today, drawing on the truth proclaimed by the apostle Paul in the New Testament era that faith comes by hearing. The passage emphasizes that true faith is formed not simply by reading the Bible or listening to sermons, but only when God's word is deeply engraved on the heart and life and brings about change. In the past, even when copies of Scripture were hard to come by, the people of Israel came to understand God's will by memorizing the word, murmuring it, and meditating on it, and that truth became the strength that firmly protected their families and communities.

The sermon points out that believers today should be thankful that they can access the Bible and sermons so easily, but at the same time should take care that the word does not merely make their ears grow bigger. In particular, it emphasizes that the head of a household passing on and teaching the word to the children is not a mere duty but a central spiritual practice through which the family becomes a vessel for receiving God's blessing. It presents turning back to God with repentance and thanksgiving, believing that God will work even amid unseen threats such as a virus, as the only way to endure this age.

The sermon asks what believers murmur and meditate on all day long, and what the focus of their lives is. It invites deep reflection on what kind of faith they will show so as not to forget God and to protect their families in a rapidly changing world, and on how that faith will be passed on to the next generation.

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.