Malachi 4:1-6 | Sermon Resources | 29 December 2024
Sermon Summary
Every generation, including ours, is tempted to make ethical compromises and show up for public worship as a shallow ritual in an attempt to appease God and put Him in their corner rather than submit to God as LORD of all with true devotion from the heart. The prophet Malachi means “My messenger” and it seems that Malachi himself foreshadowed the ministry of the coming messenger he prophesies about here in chapter 4 whom the Lord Jesus identifies as John the Baptist. We will discuss the one grand distinction in the day of the LORD between those who are burned up like stubble and those who are healed by the sun’s rays. And we will see God pursuing not just our outward obedience, but our hearts.
Discussion Questions
- What struck you from the sermon?
- God’s prophets in the Old Testament have often been compared to prosecuting attorneys today. What charges does Malachi bring against the returned exiles? (See chapters 1-3, e.g. 3:5).
- We tend to distinguish people by wealth or class, by ethnicity or nationality, by gender, age, or education level. In the final day, what is the one grand distinction? See verse 2.
- Jesus refers to John the Baptist as the Elijah prophesied about by Malachi (Matthew 11:10). Read John the Baptist’s pronouncement about Jesus in John 3:35-36. How does he point to Jesus as the Sun of Righteousness?
- Charles Spurgeon said, “A dark season usually happens to [every child of God] somewhere between the new birth and heaven, perhaps to make the brightness all the brighter when the night shall be forever ended.” How does the metaphor of the sun help us understand Jesus’s ministry?
- How do the metaphors of healing and going out leaping (verse 2) help us understand what Jesus has come to do?
- Why is it important to remember the law of Moses?
- Every generation is tempted to make ethical compromises and show up for public worship as a shallow ritual in an attempt to appease God and put Him in their corner rather than submit to God as LORD of all with true devotion from the heart. How does this passage challenge you in this regard?
