The angel still tells the meaning of Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-14

Back in 1965, a man named Charles Schulz wrote a Christmas special for TV called, “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and he decided to include in it a reading from the Bible, Luke 2:8-14, which you heard a moment ago, read by Linus from a public school stage, after which Linus said, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” When asked if he was sure he wanted to include a Bible reading in his cartoon, Schulz said, “If we don’t do it, who will?” He had no idea how right he was! Because, fast forward 60 years, and, where would you turn, if you didn’t know the true meaning of Christmas? Where would you look? How could you find it? Certainly not on a public school stage, or classroom. A drive through the neighborhoods and streets of our city would make you think Christmas is about pretty lights, and ornamented trees, and reindeer, blow-up dinosaurs and Mickey Mouses, snowflakes and Santa Claus. Christmas movies tell of family gatherings, romance, cookies, presents, holiday cheer, and maybe also Santa Claus—most of which is harmless fun, but none of which gets at the true meaning of Christmas. Who even knows what it is anymore?

You do. We do. It isn’t complicated, but it is largely unknown in this world, whose adults have intentionally forgotten it and whose children, in many cases, have never learned it in the first place. But, for those who are paying attention, it’s all captured in the verses that Linus read in that old Christmas special, where an angel from heaven explained it perfectly well to a group of shepherds. Let’s review it together this evening and proclaim to the world again from this humble church building what the meaning of Christmas truly is, as revealed by God’s holy angel. And in proclaiming it, and in contemplating it, let us rejoice!

We start with just a little background that’s also relatively unknown to people today. The true history of the world starts only about 6,000 years ago, when God—the true God, the only God—created a beautiful, perfect world, including a perfect man named Adam and a perfect woman named Eve. He gave them everything, except for the fruit of a single tree, from which they, tempted by the Prince of demons called Satan, still decided to eat, knowing, and not caring, that it would ruin their relationship with their Creator and would place them and their descendants under God’s curse of death and condemnation. But God, in His mercy, promised to send a human child who would be more than a human child—a Child so powerful, so special, that He would be able to save fallen mankind from sin, death, and the power of the devil.

Some 4,000 years went by, and the more you study world history, the more you see just how violent and idolatrous and unjust mankind has always been, from the great civilizations down to the scattered tribes of men. Men lived in darkness and always in the shadow of death. But during those 4,000 years, God was getting all the world actors into just the right places, including the people of Israel, including a young woman of Israel, a virgin named Mary, and her fiancé Joseph. God sent an angel to Mary to announce to her a miraculous pregnancy and a virgin birth. She was to give birth to the Son of God, the Savior first promised 4,000 years earlier, and Joseph was to care for her, and for her Son. 9 months later, God turned the tides of history to cause Caesar Augustus of Rome to issue a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, which forced Mary and Joseph down to Bethlehem, where, 700 years earlier, in that prophecy you heard this evening from the prophet Micah, God had foretold that the Savior would be born. Well, Mary’s baby was born right there in Bethlehem, and wrapped in strips of cloth and placed in a manger, where animals feed, because all the inns in Bethlehem were full that night.

And then there’s the part that really gets to the meaning of it all, the part that Linus read from the school stage in the cartoon, the part about the shepherds, and the angel, and the brilliance of the glory of the Lord piercing the darkness of the night, and then a whole sky full of angelic soldiers in the angelic army.

The angel appeared to the shepherds and said, Do not be afraid. For, behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord. The Christmas message, is above all, good news! Joyful news! Because God had finally fulfilled a promise He had been repeating to mankind for 4,000 years—the birth of a human Child who was not just a Child of man, but also the Son of God. And the Son of God was not born into the world to destroy sinful men, or to shame us into obedience, or to model for us the way to earn our own way back into God’s good graces. No, the Son of God was born as a man to save sinful man, because we, by ourselves, are beyond saving. We, by ourselves, are godless, idolatrous people who love neither God nor man as we ought. But, instead of destroying us, instead of abandoning us, God became one of us, joining us in our hardships, choosing a manger for His very first bed. But that’s only one part of the good news. The awful, wonderful rest of the story is that God became one of us as a little baby, laid sweetly and tenderly in a manger, so that, one day, He might give His life for us on the cross, as the true price of mankind’s reconciliation with God.

The angels knew this. They knew the extent to which their God had lowered Himself, and why. They knew the height and the depth of God’s love for fallen mankind, which brought Him to earth as a tiny baby, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And so they sang, Glory be to God on high, and on earth, peace to men! Goodwill! God gave His Son as a peace offering to man, so that we might turn from our sins and find God’s goodwill toward us—God’s love and forgiveness—lying in a manger, that we might believe in Him, and be saved by Him.

That, as you know, dear Christian friends, is what Christmas is all about. That’s the meaning of Christmas, and it puts all the other fake meanings to shame. Who cares about Santa Claus or reindeer or anything else, when you have the truth of God’s love staring up at you from the manger at Christmas time? So rejoice in your God, your faithful God, your Savior-God, who came for you, and who wants nothing more for you at Christmas time than that you should know, and believe in, and rejoice in His only-begotten Son, and find rest for your soul in the true meaning of Christmas. Amen.

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Let John prepare the way for you, too

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Advent 4

Philippians 4:4-7  +  John 1:19-28

Last week we heard Malachi’s prophecy about John the Baptist: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” There it was Jesus identifying John as God’s messenger. In today’s Gospel, we hear John identifying himself in the same way from a similar prophecy found in the book of Isaiah: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD!” On this, our final Sunday of the Advent season, we turn to John the Baptist once more, examining his ministry to see how he prepared the people of Israel for Jesus’ first coming. Because the same preparations are necessary for us, as we await Christ’s second coming, and as we would seek to celebrate His coming at Christmas in just a few days. Let John prepare the way for you to meet the Lord.

John’s role in God’s plan of salvation was unique. As we just saw, he was more than just a prophet. He was the prophet who was to hold the door open, as it were, for the Messiah, as the herald of His arrival. And he began to perform that service even before he was born!

When newly pregnant Mary went to visit her relative Elizabeth, who was already six months pregnant with John, Elizabeth informed Mary that as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Yes, already in his mother’s womb, John was filled with the Holy Spirit, as the angel Gabriel had told John’s father Zacharias that he would be. There he was, already celebrating the arrival of the One who was greater than he, rejoicing in the salvation Mary’s Son would bring, and showing us that, even in his or her mother’s womb, it’s possible for a little baby to have faith in Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word.

Some thirty years later, John headed out into the wilderness to live by himself. But not to be alone! He traveled up and down the Jordan River, preaching to all who came by, and his powerful preaching attracted more and more people. In fact, St. Mark begins his Gospel of Jesus’ life with the ministry of John the Baptist: John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. John was fulfilling what the angel had foretold about him: He came in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord, waking them up from their spiritual slumber. They had forgotten about the Lord for too long, had neglected their souls for too long, had become too focused on this world, with its pleasures, and with its troubles. Here’s a sample of his preaching:

“Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. A strong warning to repent, to turn away from their sins before the Lord comes in judgment. But also strong comfort in this new Sacrament called “baptism,” which God had directly sent John to administer, through which God promised to forgive them their sins. Finally, a strong warning not to go on sinning after receiving God’s forgiveness, but to mend their ways and bear fruit consistent with repentance. In other words, if you say you’re sorry for living in adultery, then stop living in adultery! If you say you’re sorry for stealing, stop stealing! If you say you’re sorry for neglecting God’s Word, then stop neglecting it!

After preaching for many months to sinners who needed to repent and receive God’s forgiveness, John was surprised to see Jesus finally step forward to be baptized—the only man in history who had no need of repentance or of forgiveness. We’ll hear about that in a few weeks, during the Epiphany season. After He was baptized, Jesus disappeared for the next 40 days to face the devil’s temptations alone in the wilderness. The events of our Gospel apparently took place just as those 40 days were coming to an end, as Jesus was just about to return.

Well, the scribes and Pharisees (the religious leaders in Jerusalem) hadn’t yet heard of this “Jesus.” But they had heard a lot about John and were nervous about his popularity with the people of Judea. So they sent to ask him who he was and by whose authority he was preaching and baptizing—because they certainly hadn’t authorized it! As you heard in today’s Gospel, John didn’t for a moment claim to be more than he was. In fact, he came right out and denied being the Christ. But what he claimed about himself was still extremely important. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD!” That meant that the Lord was just about to appear on the scene. And, sure enough, the next day, He did!

But before we move forward, we should pause and consider what John meant when he said to the Pharisees’ envoys, “I baptize with water, but there stands among you One whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” John had said something similar earlier, Yes, I baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Evangelical churches tend to teach wrongly about “water baptism.” They make it something inferior to the “real” Baptism, which, according to them, has nothing to do with water. But was John’s baptism inferior to Jesus’ baptism because John baptized “with water”? No, it wasn’t inferior. It was a “baptism for the forgiveness of sins,” according to Scripture. Jesus would soon institute a similar water baptism “for the forgiveness of sins,” and it’s this “water baptism” that is a “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” as St. Paul writes. Baptism in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is and has always been “water Baptism.” So there’s nothing insignificant about it!

But, as John says, Jesus would also “baptize with the Holy Spirit.” In fact, after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus explained to His apostles exactly what that meant: For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. He was referring to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the believers on the day of Pentecost—the same Spirit who is now given in connection with “water Baptism,” as Peter told the crowds on the day of Pentecost: Repent and be baptized…for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!

As for the baptizing “with fire,” that’s referring to Jesus sending forth His Gospel into the world after the Day of Pentecost, a Gospel that would spread like wildfire as the Holy Spirit accompanies the Word of God and works through it to spread the kingdom of God. As Jesus once said, I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!

So John wasn’t minimizing his divinely-ordained baptism. He was simply confessing to the Pharisees that the Christ would do far, far more than he would. While John baptized a relatively small number of people in the Jordan River, the Christ, who was far superior to him, would send the Spirit of God to convert sinners to repentance throughout the world.

The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him, apparently returning from His 40-day fast in the wilderness, and John told some of his disciples, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! Finally, Jesus had arrived on the scene to begin His ministry, and John was the one holding the door open for Him, pointing people to the Christ who had come. From then on, John began to send his own disciples away to follow Jesus, the Savior of the world. From then on, John, as a faithful messenger, told people plainly, He must increase, and I must decrease… For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. In this way, John prepared the people of Israel to receive their Savior in repentance, in faith, and in joy.

His preaching prepares the way for us, too. “Christ is coming,” John declares. He’s almost here! It’s time to wake up from the daily routine that so easily lulls us to sleep. It’s time to hear the Word of God and truly pay attention to it. It’s time to recognize sin for the deadly snare that it is. It’s time to repent and, either be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, or cling to the promise God made to you when you were baptized, because Jesus is the Son of God, sent by the Father to save the fallen world, including you, the Lamb of God who took the sins of the world upon Himself and suffered for them on the cross, and who now holds out the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit of God. And, Christians, it’s time to bear fruit consistent with repentance, to live each day as the children of God, as the Christians you proclaim yourselves to be, because Christ is coming soon in judgment against the sinful world, and He’s given you this time before His coming to prepare, so that you may escape the judgment and go with Him, rejoicing, into a new and glorious world. This preaching, this message, is how John the Baptist prepared the people of Israel for the Lord’s first coming. May it also serve to prepare you, so that you may be a people ready to receive the Lord on the Last Day, and before then, a people ready to celebrate the Lord’s birth. Amen.

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Two different endings for two different groups

Posted on December 18, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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We’ve come to the end of our meditation on Isaiah’s prophecy. We’ve spent just over a year on it. I hope you’ve noticed over the past year that certain basic themes keep repeating throughout these 27 chapters, usually in contrasting pairs: Law and Gospel, judgment and salvation, threats and promises, comfort for the distressed, and distress for those who live in godless comfort, restoration and destruction, eternal life and eternal death, the end of Old Testament Israel and the beginning of the New Israel, the first advent of Christ in humility and the second one in glory. Back and forth Isaiah goes to those themes, repeating them over and over. We have them all before us in tonight’s reading as well. We also have a perfect example of the difficulty Old Testament readers must have had in recognizing the two separate advents of Christ, because Isaiah goes back and forth between them, foreseeing them both, as if they were just two sides of the same portrait, telling what he sees on one side, then on the other, back and forth. And just as there are two advents of Christ, so there are two messages and two outcomes for two very different groups of people, one for the faithful, the other for the faithless.

You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the LORD shall be known to his servants. Here Isaiah is describing the second Advent of Christ, speaking to believers, about believers. And with Christ’s arrival at the end of the age comes heartfelt joy, and prosperity, and, finally, revelation! Revelation of what God has been doing all along, behind the scenes, how He has been guiding the world and the Church and our own lives to get to that moment of eternal victory. The hand of the LORD shall be known to his servants.

Still viewing Christ’s second Advent, Isaiah then speaks about unbelievers on that day: And the LORD shall show his indignation against his enemies. “For behold, the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire will the LORD enter into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the LORD shall be many. “Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig’s flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares the LORD. “For I know their works and their thoughts. God is speaking here in the language of Old Testament Israel, including among their forms of rebellion how they thumbed their noses at God’s commands in the Law of Moses against eating pig’s flesh or mice or other unclean foods. Part of the idolatrous practices of Israel was intentionally breaking some of those laws, eating things that were forbidden. But since this is talking about the last day, it doesn’t only include Israel’s rebellion. It includes the rebellion of “all flesh,” as all men have thumbed their noses at God’s Word and God’s commandments, often making up their own invented forms of worship and expecting God to accept them. Those whom God finds still living in rebellion against Him on the Last Day will not escape the fire of God’s wrath and the sword of His condemnation. He will “slay” them all, which, as we’ll see shortly, doesn’t mean just putting them to death, but something much, much worse.

Now Isaiah turns his head to gaze at Christ’s first Advent. and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. There’s a subtle reference here to Jesus’ birth, when God first began to gather the nations to see His glory by bringing the wise men from the East to worship His newborn Son. The star was one of those “signs” that God set among them. But the cross was another one of those signs, as Jesus Himself said about His death on the cross, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified…And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will gather all peoples to Myself.”

Still looking at Christ’s first Advent, Isaiah goes on: And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. He’s talking about Jesus’ command to His apostles to Go and make disciples of all nations, to Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation. He’s talking about Pentecost, when the nations first gathered in Jerusalem to hear about the fame and glory of the God who had given His Son into death so that all men might take refuge in Him and be incorporated into God’s holy family.

Now gazing at the time between Christ’s first and second Advent, Isaiah foresees the New Testament era: And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.

This is the success of the Gospel among the Gentiles, the building of the Christian Church over the centuries. The “holy mountain Jerusalem” is no longer the literal mountain on which the literal city of Jerusalem is built, but the spiritual mountain of the Church throughout the world, the spiritual Jerusalem, in which you and I are also citizens, as St. Paul said to the Ephesians: For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The Lord even foretells the inclusion of the Gentiles in the New Testament ministry: And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD. Now, you can’t literally make a Levite out of anyone. A Levite is literally a descendant of Jacob’s son Levi. But this is a figurative way of saying that God will take, not all New Testament Christians, but “some” of them to be called and ordained ministers, sent out, just as the original apostles were, to preach the glory of Christ among the nations.

Now Isaiah’s gaze turns one last time to Christ’s second Advent and the eternal glory of the Church after He comes again: “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain. From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the LORD. Earlier, Isaiah saw the Lord slaying “all flesh” at Christ’s second Advent. Now, He sees “all flesh” coming to worship before the true God. The “all flesh” that was slain were the unbelievers. The “all flesh” that comes to worship are the believers, the sheep at the King’s right hand, from the parable of the sheep and the goats, the ones who are invited by the King to come and inherit the kingdom prepared for them since the foundation of the world, where we will worship our God forever and ever.

The Lord closes out Isaiah’s book of prophecy with a final word about the eternal destiny of those who are found in unbelief on the Last Day: “And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.” Imagine putting these verses on a Christmas card! Does it seem strange that Isaiah would end on such a sour note, describing the eternal suffering of “the dead” in hell? Well, it’s no different from Jesus’ own preaching, who always preached comfort and joy to believers, judgment and anguish to unbelievers. A wide open invitation to the penitent to come into His kingdom, while the doors to the kingdom are closed shut to those who refuse God’s gracious invitation. Forgiveness and joy and the adoption as sons is what God wants for all men. That’s why He was born in Bethlehem. That’s why we’ll celebrate His birth next week. Because God wants all men to find their Savior in that manger. But make no mistake. Mankind has already earned his own condemnation. And for those who won’t seek God’s salvation from that condemnation in the manger, and on the cross, in the Son of God named Jesus, there will be a day of reckoning and an eternity of suffering.

But even this bad news is preached as a gift from God. This age of Christ’s first Advent is the time of grace, the time to repent, the time to enter Christ’s Church before He comes again. This age of Christ’s first Advent, including its warnings about eternal condemnation, is meant to bring all men to repentance, that all may escape the judgment, through faith in Christ Jesus, that all may be prepared to enter with Him, when He comes, into endless, glorious joy. Amen.

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Yes, Jesus is the One who was and is to come

Posted on December 15, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Advent 3

1 Corinthians 4:1-5  +  Matthew 11:2-10

In today’s Gospel, John the Baptist asked the question for the ages. He asked Jesus, Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another? Jesus answered the question in two different ways, both of them crying out with a resounding, “Yes I am!” Yes, Jesus is the One who was, and is, to come. And if that’s true, and if we believe it, then it will change how we view…everything, including our troubles, including our suffering as we wait for Jesus to be revealed at His second advent.

As we’re told in the Gospel, John didn’t come and ask Jesus his question in person. He couldn’t. He was locked up in King Herod’s prison. In the course of his preaching, he had publicly denounced the king for committing adultery, so the king had put him in jail. And there he sat. There he would keep sitting, until Herod eventually chopped off his head. John didn’t know, at the time of our Gospel, exactly how it would turn out for him. But it looked pretty bad. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus the most important question of all: Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another? “Did I get it right, Jesus, or did I make a mistake? Are You the One I said You were, before they threw me in prison, when I preached about You and turned most of my disciples over to You? Are You the One whose winnowing fan is in His hand, and who will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire? That’s what I told people, Jesus. I have always believed in You, that You are the One who was to come. But most of what I preached about You, I haven’t seen fulfilled yet. So please, give me some assurance. Was I right? Or was I wrong? Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?”

Jesus could have just said, “Yes, I am.” But instead, He told John’s disciples, Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. In order to strengthen John’s faith, and ours, Jesus points John to His public works, works which John’s disciples could witness for themselves, incredible, miraculous works of healing, works of great kindness, always done in mercy, always done for free. He also points John to His public preaching, to His Gospel, the good news of God’s love and forgiveness for those who came to Jesus in humble repentance.

What’s more, both Jesus’ works and Jesus’ Gospel were foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures, which cannot lie. He was doing all the things that the Scriptures had foretold of the One who was to come.

Well, some of the things. Because the Old Testament Scriptures, and John the Baptist himself, had also foretold that the One who was to come would come with justice for the people of God and destruction for His enemies. The Scriptures had foretold that the One who was to come would come in judgment, would redeem God’s people from every evil and would lead them safely into new heavens and a new earth. The Scriptures had foretold that the Christ, the One who was to come, would bring great glory to His Church. Those things Jesus had not yet done, because those things are connected with His second coming, at the end of the age, not His first. As we discussed two weeks ago, the distinction between the Christ’s first and second advents was not made clear in the Old Testament. For that matter, Jesus hadn’t yet accomplished everything He would accomplish during His first advent, like offering His life on the cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, which John the Baptist had preached about, but which he hadn’t yet seen.

But that’s OK. John didn’t need to see everything in order to know who Jesus was. He only needed to hear about the many things Jesus was doing and preaching and teaching, in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. That was enough for John. It’s enough for you and me to know with the certainty of faith that Jesus is the One who was, and is, to come.

Jesus had one final word for John: Blessed is he who does not stumble over me. Many in Israel did stumble over Jesus. In fact, that’s recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures, too, where God says. Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. Many stumbled over Jesus’ teaching of free forgiveness to the penitent. Many stumbled over His claim to be the Son of God. Still others stumbled over His humility and His disinterest in politics and political solutions. They wanted the Christ to take over the government and free Israel from Roman oppression and make life on earth better for the people of God. And when He didn’t do that during His first Advent, they stumbled. John himself was on the verge of stumbling for the same reason. But Jesus calls him back and bids him to trust, to believe that Jesus was the One who was and is to come, and that He would eventually do all the things that were foretold about Him, but each thing in its own time.

After sending John’s disciples away with that answer, Jesus goes on in our Gospel to address the crowds who had heard this exchange. And to them He gave yet another proof that, yes, Jesus is the One who was and is to come. For that proof, Jesus turned to the Old Testament Scriptures, and to John the Baptist himself.

Jesus began to say to the crowds concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? No, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothes are in kings’ palaces. No, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’”

Everyone who heard John preach knew that he was a prophet. He lived in the desert, alone. Matthew tells us that John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Certainly not someone who was in it for the money, or to have a life of ease or comfort, certainly not someone who minced words or was afraid to speak the hard truth that the people needed to hear. Israel hadn’t seen a prophet like John for hundreds of years. In fact, Jesus explains to the crowds that the world had never seen a prophet like John. Because he was more than just a prophet. He was THE prophet whose coming was prophesied by the prophet Malachi: Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. John was “My messenger,” God’s special messenger who would be sent “before Your face,” to “prepare Your way before You.” Who is the “you” and “your”? Whose way is John preparing? Well, go back and read Malachi’s whole prophecy, and you’ll see: The messenger would prepare the way for the Lord God Himself, who would come, in person, to the land of Israel, to the temple in Jerusalem. So, if John was the messenger, then the One whose way he was preparing had to be Christ, the Lord. This was another way for Jesus to answer the question, Are You the One who is to come? “Yes, I am! Because the Scriptures point to John as the promised messenger, who pointed to Me, the coming Lord.”

If only John the Baptist could have seen the rest of what Jesus would do during His first Advent, how He would suffer, and die, and rise from the dead, how He would build His worldwide Church through countless New Testament ministers, who, like John, are ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, as we heard in today’s epistle! If only John could have seen the full impact of his own ministry, including the martyr’s death he eventually suffered, as, to this very day, we Christians rely on John’s preaching—and even on John’s question from prison—to guide us each year during the Advent season, to point us urgently to Jesus as the One who was and is to come! What a blessing John has been to every Christian for the last 2,000 years! But he couldn’t see that, couldn’t see the big picture. All he could see at the moment were the bars of his prison cell.

Most ministers can’t see the full impact of their ministries, and God hasn’t chosen to give any of us a detailed explanation of everything He is doing, and why, or of His plans for the future, or how we fit into them. We’re often left seeing a picture that looks like prison bars, that appears dismal, or confusing, at best. “How can I possibly harmonize what I’m going through right now with the good plan God says He has for me? How can this possibly turn out for good?” It’s easy to lose hope in such times, to lose sight of Jesus, when all we can see are the prison bars—our problems, or the problems of our families, or of our church, or of our world.

But today’s Gospel is like a light shining into our dark prison cell. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean Jesus isn’t out there doing everything He promised to do. He is! And just because you don’t know how your present difficulties can work out for your good doesn’t mean God will fail to accomplish it. He won’t! And just because you don’t know when He’ll come again doesn’t mean He won’t come. He will! In the Gospel, the Holy Spirit points you to the works of Jesus that you do know, to His works revealed in Holy Scripture, and to the preaching of Jesus, which you know as well, not only from the Gospels, but also from the preaching He still does through the mouths of His New Testament ministers.

Yes, Jesus is the One who was and is to come. That means you’ve been right to trust Him up till now. Don’t abandon ship before you reach the heavenly shores! Trust Him in times of joy and certainty. Trust Him even more in times of sorrow and doubt. Soon, soon He’ll come and show you the big picture, and how your life fit into it perfectly. Just as the words of Malachi were fulfilled in Jesus’ first advent, so they will soon be fulfilled a second time: And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” says the LORD of hosts. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

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The Lord preserves and prospers His true worshipers

Posted on December 11, 2024 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Advent 2

Isaiah 66:1-13

After ascending briefly into heaven in last week’s reading, where we heard the Lord’s promise to create new heavens and a new earth when Christ returns in glory, we come back down to earth for a moment as Isaiah begins the final chapter of his prophecy. Here the Lord makes His case one last time against apostate Israel, and extends yet another comforting promise to His beleaguered Church here on earth, made up of true believers, true worshipers of God. Even as the Lord threatens to reject the false worshipers in Israel, He assures the true worshipers that He accepts them, and also promises to increase their number abundantly, removing the apostates and replacing them with genuine Christians.

Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord.

Here it sounds like God doesn’t care about having an earthly temple in Jerusalem. He doesn’t need a building to dwell in or a place to live. He already inhabits all creation. What need does He have of an earthly building? None.

That doesn’t mean the temple in Old Testament Jerusalem was unimportant. On the contrary! God commanded Israel to build it and told them to use it for His worship. In fact, He forbade them from worshipping Him anywhere else. He chose to bind Himself to that building, to that place, so that Israel would learn to worship Him only in the place and in the way He instructed them. Because, contrary to popular belief, you can’t worship God “anywhere.” You can’t worship Him in any way you want. The only true, acceptable worship of God is the worship that He has established, in the place He has established. The Old Testament temple was actually intended to foreshadow the Person of Jesus Christ, because He is the only “place” where God the Father accepts sinners, where He is willing to listen, and ready to forgive.

But many in Israel missed the point of the temple. They became proud of it, secure in it, as if God couldn’t possibly bring judgment down on them, because, after all, they had the temple of God in the city of God! They ignored God’s commandments, they stopped trusting in Him, but they still were sure that they were going to be fine, because they had the temple.

Here God assures them that He does not need the temple. He does not accept people just because they show up in His temple, or because it sits in their city. He doesn’t actually need a place to rest. No, it wasn’t being near the temple or inside the temple that made Him willing to accept a person. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. That was the worship God was seeking, not maintaining a building—even the building He had commanded them to build and to use—but humility before Him. Contrition in a person’s spirit, that is, sorrow over sin. And trembling at His Word. In other words, when God speaks, a person actually listens, actually cares what He says and is careful to do what God says, instead of making himself the judge over God, instead of hearing God’s word and then saying, “That’s not for me. I’ll do as I please and believe as I want.”

But that’s how most of Israel responded to God’s Word. “I’ll do as I please. I’ll believe as I want. But, I’ll continue to bring sacrifices and offerings to God in His temple, and surely He’ll accept me, even though I’m not humble, or contrite in spirit, nor do I tremble at His word.” The Lord describes and condemns their faith-less acts of worship. “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations; I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight.”

Right now, as God’s Word goes out into the world, how many are actually listening? There are a few who listen, who take Him seriously, who repent and believe and care about His Word. But most are like Old Testament Israel. When I called, no one answered. When I spoke, they did not listen. Most people hear God’s Word today and laugh. And sit in judgment of it and of any of the “fools” who actually believe it. That’s how they’ve chosen to act, to sin against God’s Holy Spirit who calls out to them in His Word. But God threatens to choose harsh treatment for them, even eternal condemnation.

But God knows that there are some who have listened, and He comforts them with His next words. Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name’s sake have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy’; but it is they who shall be put to shame. “The sound of an uproar from the city! A sound from the temple! The sound of the Lord, rendering recompense to his enemies!

When you’re hated by people you don’t even know, or who aren’t close to you at all, it can still hurt. But the worst kind of hatred is the hatred that comes from a brother, from someone who claims to be a fellow Christian, but who has actually rejected the Word of Christ and now hates you for still believing it and for living according to it, maybe not with a visceral kind of hatred, but with the hatred of rejection and condescension. Those very haters often prosper in this life. They’re the ones with the big cathedrals and the megachurches and the full parking lots on Sunday, just as they were the church leaders back in Old Testament times. But here God speaks to those who still tremble at His word and comforts them: He’s coming against your enemies.

“Before she was in labor she gave birth; before her pain came upon her she delivered a son. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” says the Lord; “shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?” says your God.

Who is the woman in labor here? It’s the Church, often pictured as a woman, often referred to in the Old Testament as Zion, which is another name for Jerusalem. In the New Testament, she’s referred to as the Bride of Christ, or “the Jerusalem above.” To whom does she give birth? She gives birth to Christians from every nation, tribe, language, and people. But, as God says here, it’s really God who causes the Church to bring forth children, as His Holy Spirit works through the ministry of the Church, through Word and Sacrament, to bring sinners to faith in Christ and to make them children of God. Here God promises the birth of New Testament Christians from the Old Testament Church, after the Christ Himself is born.

“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance.” For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

There was good reason to love “Jerusalem,” that is, the Old Testament Church of God, because God created it and nurtured it, just as there was good reason to mourn over her, because she was in shambles and appeared about to die in Isaiah’s time, since there were so few true worshipers of God left in her, and so many false worshipers and non-believers within the Church of Israel. But God called on His true worshipers, on those who tremble at His word, to rejoice with Jerusalem, because He was going to make her the mother of a new Church, of the Holy Christian Church.

So give thanks to God for preserving His Old Testament Church long enough to get His Son born into the world, and long enough to give birth to those who believed in Him and proclaimed His Word in the world, so that you, too, could hear the word about the Child born in Bethlehem, humble yourselves, become contrite in spirit, and tremble at His word. In other words, so that you could be born again as true worshipers of God, whom He will preserve within His New Testament Church, just as He preserved the true worshipers in the Old Testament, until it’s time for the New Jerusalem to come down out of heaven. Amen.

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