Category: Sermons

  • Two Prayers, Two Answers, and an Ominous Ending

    Two Prayers, Two Answers, and an Ominous Ending

    How did God hear Hezekiah’s prayers for forgiveness and salvation? Only through the fulfillment of God’s promise to his father David: the Son of David who would sit on his father’s throne forever, whose kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom. Jesus the Messiah would teach us that he is the One who saves his people from…

  • Why Trust in Egypt?

    Why Trust in Egypt?

    Isaiah 19:23-25 anticipates the time when Assyria and Egypt will represent all people from all nations who will turn to God. All three nations will be connected by a “highway” through which God comes to his people and by which he leads his people to himself. Jesus, is the “new and living way” to God’s…

  • The Glorious Eternal Kingdom of the Lord

    The Glorious Eternal Kingdom of the Lord

    Isaiah 11:9 precludes sinners in the age to come. No one “shall hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain”—the new earth—deeds that only sinners are able to do. And if “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea”—indicative of universal righteousness—during the millennium, how could…

  • A Better Paradise Restored

    A Better Paradise Restored

    A river of humanity will defy gravity to worship in this lofty temple in heaven, “all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord’” (Isaiah 2:2-3).

  • A Sinner Before a Holy God: “Woohoo!” or “Woe!”

    A Sinner Before a Holy God: “Woohoo!” or “Woe!”

    Isaiah’s encounter with God is unlike that of most evangelicals—unbridled irreverence in sensual hip-swaying, discordant and noisy music, woohooing, shouting and clapping. For Isaiah, a direct encounter with God meant death and judgment. Why would an encounter with God evoke such terror? What did Isaiah see and hear?

  • The Unfruitful Vineyard in the Hands of an Angry God

    The Unfruitful Vineyard in the Hands of an Angry God

    Jesus told the Pharisees that God will evict the Jews, the old tenants, and bring in new tenants into the vineyard. The Jews perceived what Jesus meant: God will take the kingdom away from the Jews as his chosen people, and his new kingdom will now be expanded to include the Gentile nations. Psalm 118:19-24;…

  • New Sermon Series: Isaiah

    New Sermon Series: Isaiah

    This Lord’s Day, May 1, 2011, we begin a new series, this time from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Why study a book about events many centuries ago (8th-6th century B.C.), in lands far, far away, with cultures, languages, and societies so different from ours (ancient Near East)? What relevance could this large book…

  • The Servant Sets His Face Like a Flint

    The Servant Sets His Face Like a Flint

    “Therefore I have set my face like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7) “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51) A Palm Sunday Sermon on April 17, 2011 Download PDF sermon Text: Isaiah 50:4-9  • Readings: Isaiah 50:1-11; Luke 9:51-56; Matthew 21:1-9 Today,…

  • The Servant Who is the LORD’s Salvation

    The Servant Who is the LORD’s Salvation

    God called the Servant on this mission. But the Servant is not the Persian King Cyrus who allowed Israel to return to the Promised Land. He is the salvation not only of Israel, but of all nations of the earth. This salvation will be worldwide, bringing indescribable joy to all creation and glory to the…

  • The Servant Who Brings Justice

    The Servant Who Brings Justice

    Several interesting questions explained in this sermon: What is the sign of Jonah? Is Peter the rock? What are “the gates of hell”? What are the “keys of the kingdom”?