Sermon 08-03-2026

Today, Martin had the opportunity to preach at a joint church service in Schwerin. Not my hobby, honestly; I’m not really a stage person. But what do you talk about in a sermon like that?

Multiple congregations, all with their own “church culture.”

I started with a joke—which isn’t actually a joke—that they shouldn’t just believe anything I told them. (you can read why here: click)

And then we moved on to the sermon… well… actually 4 sermons:

Beforehand, we let them “choose”:
1: The most terrible Bible verse ever
2: The most beautiful Bible verse ever
3: What is grace, really?
4: Evangelism, the full picture.


Stimme direkt per Formular ab (das hat unseren Vorzug!) oder sag's uns persönlich: Welche Option wählst du (1, 2, 3 oder 4)?

  • Der schönste Bibelvers aller Zeiten (32%, 23 Stemmen)
  • Der schrecklichste Bibelvers aller Zeiten (27%, 19 Stemmen)
  • Was genau ist eigentlich Gnade? (31%, 22 Stemmen)
  • Evangelisieren – das ganze Bild (10%, 7 Stemmen)

Totaal aantal stemmers: 71

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What the voters didn’t know… was that no matter what they chose… it was all about the same Bible verse:

“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” Hebrews 8:12

Only for Christians

This Bible verse is only for you if you are a Christian. Only if you believe who Christ is, what He has done for you, and why He did it, does this verse belong to you. Then God forgives your sins, and He will not even think about them anymore! Wow! But… if you are not a Christian… then that verse turns around:

“For I will NOT be merciful to their iniquities, and I will NEVER FORGET their sins and their lawless deeds.” Martin 8:12

So for a non-Christian… it is actually a terrible Bible verse. And yes, Martin 8:12 is not in the Bible, but this is:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Romans 1:18

WOW! Then suddenly you see that Hebrews 8:12 also has a completely different… very scary side… for non-Christians… oh my.

What is grace, really?

“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” Hebrews 8:12

In the first part, you see that God will be merciful, but what is “grace”? In the second part, we see what that grace is: “God will not even think about your sins anymore”!

In the Greek text, the verb used is μνησθῶ (mnesthō). That means:

  • to no longer remember
  • to no longer recall
  • to keep something in memory.

If we were to say that God can no longer remember it, we could jokingly say that God has brain damage (which is not the case). It is God’s own choice not to remember it anymore. Not brain damage, but a conscious “forgetting”! Wow!

Another translation is that He no longer thinks about your sins. So when you stand before God and say, “But Lord, I’ve made such a mess of it,” God says:

Sins? I can’t even remember them!

That is true grace. So if you are lying in bed thinking, “Oh no, I have a huge problem with God because He knows all my sins and that is going to be a problem,” then you know now… God has already forgiven them… and He has forgotten them. He doesn’t even think about them anymore. BAM!

The most beautiful Bible verse ever:

And that is why Hebrews 8:12 is the most beautiful Bible verse ever:

“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” Hebrews 8:12

Evangelism, the whole story:

And when we evangelize… for that reason, we tell the whole story. Because God is not only love… He is also justice and allows NO sin in His heaven. When we understand that… we tell our neighbor, our colleagues, our friends the whole story behind Hebrews 8:12 very quickly, both sides:

“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” Hebrews 8:12

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a well-known German, murdered in 1945 in the Flossenbürg concentration camp) said the following about this in 1937:

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without living, incarnate Jesus Christ.”

So to you, reader, listener, the question: does your neighbor already know who Christ is? And not half of Christ, but the whole story? And what are you going to do with that this week?

“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.” Hebrews 8:12