Sermons

Before the prophet Malachi began his ministry, the people of Israel had returned from exile and rebuilt the temple. Yet a hundred years passed without the glory they had hoped for, and they began to doubt God. They held back their tithes and offerings, the priests fell into corruption along with them, and divorce and marriage to foreign women went on.

A God who did not give them plenty was no longer their king, so they mocked him without fear. Yet the judgment that followed was no sudden whim on God’s part. It was the fulfillment of the word he had spoken long before through Jeremiah as a warning. The story of Jacob and Esau is no different. Esau thought so little of grace that he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, and in doing so he threw away the blessing himself.

God always gives warning before he judges. His warning is given not to rebuke but out of a love that seeks to restore. Those who stop complaining that their present circumstances are not prosperous, who receive even hardship as God’s love, and who repent and give thanks, will find that very place turned into a place of blessing.

Ahab coveted Naboth’s vineyard and offered to pay for it, but Naboth refused, saying he could not sell the inheritance of his fathers. When Ahab took to his bed and would not eat, his wife Jezebel produced false witnesses and had Naboth stoned to death, and Ahab claimed the vineyard for himself.

Ahab’s greed was where the sin began, yet without Jezebel at his side urging that greed on, it would probably not have gone so far. Sin does not do its work alone; it comes to fruition where a person’s own desire meets the prompting of those around them. When Ahab heard the word of judgment, he tore his clothes, fasted and humbled himself, and God deferred the disaster to the next generation.

But Ahab bore no fruit in keeping with repentance: he neither restored Naboth’s good name nor gave back the vineyard. As a result, the sin passed down to his children’s generation, and the judgment God had pronounced came to pass just as he had spoken. Whoever comes to see their wrongdoing must turn from it at once and wholeheartedly, and bear the fruit of repentance.

Edom was set among rugged mountains, a stronghold from which it could drive back even the mightiest enemy. Yet on the day Babylon invaded the southern kingdom of Judah, Edom did nothing to help its brother nation. Instead, it joined in the plunder and handed over those who tried to escape.

Edom was judged not for any lack of strength, but because it did not love its brother. Ever since the Exodus, God had called Edom a brother and kept them under his protection. Once they prospered, however, they grew proud, sided with whoever held power and abandoned their brother. In the end they suffered exactly what they had done to Judah, betrayed by their allies and by Babylon alike.

Edom vanished without a trace, but God’s covenant with the descendants of Jacob remained unbroken even after hundreds of years. Standing by while a brother suffers is also sin. God repays each person according to what they have done, and that judgment leads on to the judgment that will one day come upon the whole world.

Ben-hadad gathers his army and lays siege to Samaria. At first Ahab is willing to give in to his demands, but they do not stop there; each one grows more unreasonable than the last. Twice God hands Israel’s paltry army a great victory, yet no sooner has the battle been won than Ahab makes peace with Ben-hadad, settling the matter as he himself sees fit.

The demands of the wicked never end with the first. Sin that slips in through the gap left by a small compromise grows until at last it takes hold of the very center of the heart. It was not Ahab’s obedience that saved Israel; God himself stood against pride and delivered his people. Yet even in the face of such grace, Ahab goes back to his palace troubled, with no repentance.

The prophet disguises himself and comes before the king, leading Ahab to declare with his own lips, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it,” and then pronounces judgment on him in those very words. Just as God chose us of his own accord when we had nothing that could qualify us for salvation, Ahab too was offered the chance to turn back, right to the end. As long as we live in the flesh, that same opportunity is held out to us again and again, and there we must not stop at grief but repent.

Jesus died on the cross, but by the power of God he opened the tomb and rose again. At that place of resurrection, those who had been held captive by death received great grace, just as the woman suffering from a fever and the widow had received grace.

What collapsed was death, not God’s promise. This was not a threat made by people but a purpose planned long ago, fulfilled just as it was, and those who have met Christ no longer have any reason to fear the world.

There was a disciple who shared bread in the temple and still betrayed Jesus, and there was a disciple who swore to follow him even to death and then denied knowing him three times. But Christ, who knows even that weakness, held on to them to the end, and those who believe in the resurrection come to live with boldness instead of fear.

As Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, the people spread their cloaks on the road, wave palm branches and cry out, “Hosanna!” The word is not a shout of praise but a plea: “Save us, please.” Yet only five days later those same people have become a crowd shouting for him to be crucified.

The salvation they longed for was worldly power to free them from Roman oppression, but the salvation Jesus meant to give was the restoration of a broken relationship with God. From the moment humanity was driven out of Eden for its disobedience, it stood under God’s judgment with no way of escape, and Jesus gave himself as a ransom to close that gap. The crowd that turned away as soon as Jesus’ path parted from their expectations is also a picture of ourselves, for whenever God’s work runs contrary to what we expect, we too can all too easily end up standing against him.

This is the time to ask whether we are holding on to success and prosperity in this world more tightly than to salvation. Each day we must lift our gaze from ourselves back to God, so that our thanksgiving and our lives do not go separate ways, and so that we do not quietly slip our own merit in alongside the merit of Christ. The salvation already received comes not from our devotion but wholly from grace, and within that grace all that remains is to live out with joy the Kingdom of God, which will be brought to completion with Jesus at his return.

In his youth Solomon turned away from God to chase after power and pleasure. Only as an old man did he see how empty those years had been, and he regretted them. He longed to go back, yet could not, and from that place he lays his own shame bare before those who would come after him as a warning.

Many people treat the church as a hobby, a religion that is nice enough to have. Yet Scripture says that eternal life belongs not to the act of attending church but to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Just as a boat makes headway only when it sits half above the water and half beneath it, so faith stays alive only when it stands unshaken, even while the body remains in the world.

As people grow old, their hands and feet tremble, their backs bend and their hearing dims, until at last they return to the dust. At that moment every person meets the Judge and must answer for how they spent the years God gave them. The word of God is like nails firmly fixed: whoever holds on to it will never fall into darkness.

A child in the mother’s womb grows in a way that only God can accomplish. Whatever the circumstances of its birth, that life is a blessing and a miracle; yet from the moment they are born, all people are sinners on their way to death. Making known the Christ who cancels that debt of sin is the responsibility of those who were called first.

The word to cast bread upon the waters means, even before the sharing of possessions, that the truth is to be spread diligently throughout the world. The world is ruled by the harlot, but only Christ can overcome Satan and give eternal life. So when Christians preach the gospel they may be bold, since what they speak is not their own knowledge but the truth. As Noah proclaimed judgment and built the ark amid people’s mockery, it is enough to sow the seed, trusting that salvation rests with God.

Some ask which of two paths is God’s will, but the choice is made by each person within the truth, and God is the one who helps them in it. Even when the fruit of salvation cannot yet be seen, God’s people should not lose heart or give up, but keep casting the bread of the gospel, sowing in the morning and not withholding their hand in the evening.

Elijah, who called down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel and defeated the 850 prophets of idols, crumbles at a single threat from Jezebel and sits beneath a broom tree, asking to die. God does not rebuke him; instead he gives him bread and water and touches him.

Even those of great faith come to moments when fear of the world’s power brings them to their knees. The moment God slipped from view, all that filled Elijah’s eyes was his own frailty and the size of his enemy. God was not in the great and strong wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in a still small voice; he chose to meet his people not in the outward miracles they long for but in a lowly place.

God upheld the discouraged Elijah to the end, giving him a new charge and telling him that seven thousand remained who had not bowed the knee to Baal. As he once waited for Noah, so God keeps hold of the weary and the fearful by the wrist and does not let go. The sermon calls its hearers to lay down the fears of this world, listen for that still small voice, and take the next step.

At the very moment Abraham is about to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, God’s voice is heard telling him not to lay a hand on the boy. The rich man dressed in purple and feasted every day, while at his gate lay Lazarus, covered with sores and left there to his fate.

Whether Abraham obeyed or not, God had already provided a ram to die in Isaac’s place. To obey is to receive that grace as a blessing and enjoy it; to disobey is to turn the very same grace into a curse. The rich man made a show of his faith in purple and fine linen, yet in truth he was a fool who did nothing to relieve his brother in need, while Lazarus, poor all his life, was carried at his death to Abraham’s side.

God’s purpose is not to make people’s lives go well but to keep them faithful. Since he hears everything, even the grumbling of the heart and the words whispered in the bedroom, the wise are those who are not idle but give thanks and obey his word.

Ahab blames Elijah for the drought the whole nation is suffering and hunts for him, but he has things backward. It was Ahab’s own idolatry that brought on the drought. The people waver between God and Baal, trying to serve both, and cannot answer Elijah’s question at all.

Baal is a god who promises material abundance and personal advancement, but fruitfulness, increase, and fullness are blessings that belong to God the Creator alone. To waver between God and the world is not moderation but unbelief that tries to serve two masters at once.

When Elijah prayed over the altar drenched with water, God answered with fire. So that no one could doubt it, God showed the whole world that Yahweh alone is the true God. God is the final victor, and when people keep him at the center of their hearts and set the order of their love right, he supplies what they need.

After proclaiming the drought, Elijah hid himself by the brook Cherith, but when the brook dried up, God sent him to a widow in Zarephath, in the land of Sidon. With the last handful of flour and a little oil, she was about to make one final meal for herself and her son and then die; yet she did as Elijah asked and made him bread first.

The miracle of flour and oil that did not run out gave her hope of living, but not long afterwards calamity struck: her only son died. She blamed Elijah, saying it had come upon her because of her sin. Yet this was God’s providence, meant to carry her a step beyond a faith content with the plenty this world affords. What God desires is not a faith that enjoys the things of the world, but one that comes to see that the world holds no hope and looks to God alone.

Only when her son was brought back to life at Elijah’s cry did the woman at last confess that Elijah was a true prophet and that God is the Lord of life. The God who chose this Gentile woman, the weakest and most unregarded in the world, and brought her to such faith, wishes to choose and raise up even the least of us as well. It is when we look not to people or circumstances but to God alone that true faith bears its fruit.