Approaching the Sun (Malachi 2:17–3:5)

Humans often inflate our own capacity to fix ourselves while also shrinking God down to a coach we call in when self-help stalls out. Malachi calls that out. And challenges us to identify ourselves on a list of sinners in 3:5 we'd rather not claim. In this sermon Austin Pfeiffer traces how a holy God who could rightly consume us instead sends his Son as both the refining fire and the sacrificial lamb, so that in Christ we're not just spared the heat — we're brought inside it. SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS: 1. Malachi's list of sinners in 3:5 can catch us off guard. Do you find yourself insisting "I think I will endure" instead of admitting you're on the list? 2. Jesus answers both Israel's cry for justice and God's charge against them. How do you see him doing both at once in this passage? 3. Are we able to admit our impurity and if so, how are we to make sense of Christ's covering us with his righteousness?