Today’s Scripture passage is about the prophecy on John, the son of Zachariah. Zachariah was married to Elizabeth but she couldn’t have a baby before she became old. Having a child was their heart’s desire, so they had been always praying to God for a child. In the meantime, Zachariah’s turn to give sacrifice to God came around. When he was burning incense in the Temple of the Lord, an angel appeared said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13). That is how Zachariah heard and saw an angel. In the past our Lord Himself and His angels used to appear in person before people and His servants. This was a common case in the Old Testament days before Jesus came to this earth as Savior.

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After Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River to take over the sins of mankind, He was tempted by Satan before He began His ministry of preaching the Truth. Satan tempted Him by asking Him if He was really the Savior of mankind and the Son of God, and whether He really believed in God. Through this account, Jesus Christ is teaching us about the temptations that may come in our way—that is, He is teaching us how to overcome the temptation of Satan by showing us how He Himself was also tempted by Satan, and how He overcame it.

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Christmas is upon us. It would be truly wonderful if all Church members were doing God’s work with one faith and one heart, but my heart is troubled when this is not the case. Throughout his lifetime of ministry, the Apostle Paul also struggled the most when he found some people in God’s Church who did not believe in the righteousness of God even as they claimed to believe in it. Referring to such people, the Apostle Paul said that they were interested only in their own greed. That’s because even though these people professed to believe in Jesus as their Savior, they actually cared only about their own flesh rather than believing in the righteousness of God.

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I am very happy that I have come up to this metropolis to preach God’s Word to you today. You were always in my mind, but this place feels like a little Heaven because I came to Seoul this morning and met the Pastor Youngwha Lee and his wife, the assistant minister, and all the members of the Church and also met the coworkers from our branch Churches throughout the country.
I must start with talking about soccer today. I played soccer with the brothers here and it was good because the wives of the pastors cheered us on a lot. I was able to show my soccer skills to them. I scored one goal today. I usually score a goal or two whenever I play a soccer game and I think that is because of God’s blessing and help. Actually, I could have scored five more goals, but it is regretful that I could not score any more because the brothers of my team did not pass me the ball. Next time, I think I could score not just one goal, but a few goals, because I believe the brothers will pass me the ball more.

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You probably have heard the Word from today’s Scripture passage many times, but I do not think there are many people who know the meaning of this Scripture passage clearly. Really, there are not many people who think they are the main characters of this Scripture passage here.
One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to the dinner. The Word from the passage states that a woman in the village who was a sinner visited Jesus when Jesus was sitting in the home of a Pharisee. It is written, “a woman in the city who was a sinner,” and it means that the woman was a sinner that everyone knows. There were all kinds of rumors about her as a sinner throughout the village. How prevalent the rumors about the woman must have been for it to be recorded like that here? In the past, there was a tendency for rumors to spread rampantly when a person did something special. These days, there is not much interest whether someone is a sinner or not.

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Jesus has forgiven all the sins of you and me all at once through the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Those who know and believe the righteousness of God cannot have sin in their hearts. The people who have received the remission of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are those who know and believe Jesus correctly. It is because our Lord came to this world and received the baptism from John the Baptist and shed blood on the Cross in order to remit all the sins of the world once and for all. People who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit do not have sin because the Lord blotted out all the sins of the world at once by receiving the baptism and shedding blood on the Cross. Jesus said to the woman who poured the fragrant oil on His feet, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” People who believe the gospel of the water and the Spirit that is the righteousness of Jesus do not have sin.

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My fellow believers, it is now fall. The weather and my mood are good because it is cool. You may fall asleep because of the good weather and doze your time away. But that’s no excuse to sleep during sermons. Brethren, you, too, are very glad that it’s fall, aren’t you? We don’t mind working and thinking it would be great to play soccer. Exercising is hard in the summer because it’s so hot, but we want to do so now that fall is here.

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My fellow believers, what kinds of results and rewards of faith are there if we believe in Jesus’ righteousness? That’s what I’m going to speak about today. First, the result of faith in Jesus’ righteousness is salvation from sin. People are saved by faith in God’s righteousness. What kinds of gifts do they then receive if they are thus saved from sin by faith? They receive God’s Spirit as a gift. And they obtain the Kingdom of God. They come to possess it. In regards to the results of faith in Jesus’ righteousness, they aren’t just obtaining salvation from sin; they also come to obtain the Kingdom of God. My fellow believers, what kinds of results and rewards of faith are there if we believe in Jesus’ righteousness? That’s what I’m going to speak about today. First, the result of faith in Jesus’ righteousness is salvation from sin. People are saved by faith in God’s righteousness. What kinds of gifts do they then receive if they are thus saved from sin by faith? They receive God’s Spirit as a gift. And they obtain the Kingdom of God. They come to possess it. In regards to the results of faith in Jesus’ righteousness, they aren’t just obtaining salvation from sin; they also come to obtain the Kingdom of God. 

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The passage of Luke 8:40-52 tells us that Jesus healed the daughter of Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, and I am going to share with you the grace of God shown in the Scripture. Jairus fell down at Jesus’ feet and begged Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years of age, and she was dying. His desperate plea led Jesus to heal his daughter right away. That was the Lord’s mercy that saved the dead and healed the sick so that they could live well on this earth.

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To live out our faith is to follow the Lord denying our own human thoughts regardless of whether we did well or not before God. A genuine life of faith starts from denying our fleshly thoughts. Our Lord said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23). This Word of God contains the core of our life of faith. A life of faith is following the righteousness of the Lord by denying ourselves after we receive the remission of sins. Just as we received salvation by denying our human thoughts, we can follow the righteousness of the Lord wholly by denying our human thoughts after we receive salvation from sins.

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