Saved by Kindness

Link to Audio

Text: Titus 3:4-7

St. Paul wrote to Titus, “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us…so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4, 7; English Standard Version) With just a few sentences, actually one in the Greek, St. Paul sums up the meaning of what has now come to pass. We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ today and every year because it means that we are saved. The goodness and kindness of the eternal God has broken forth into our own time and our own lives. By it, we have been made heirs of the hope of eternal life. Today we give thanks that, according to His kindness and love, the Lord has saved us for us eternal life, which He pours out on us in Baptism.

I.

The text begins, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us.” That English conjunction “but,” is present in the Greek and it signals us that what the Holy Spirit is telling us through Paul in this verse is building on something which he’s already said. So, in order to understand this passage today, we need to jump back a few verses, or maybe even just one. Remember that one of the rules for interpreting Scripture is to look at the context. Besides, in order to be saved, you need to be saved from something. That’s what “to save” means. From what has God provided salvation for us? 

Titus 3 begins, 

Remind them [the Christians in Crete] to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Titus 3:1-3

St. Paul encouraged Titus to remind the Christians in Crete how they were to behave in the world and from what God has saved them. St. Paul said that they were once lost in foolishness, disobedience, slavery to various pleasures, malice, envy, and hatred. These things may all be summed up in one word, sin. These words are also a valid description of how we once lived, and the temptations that we still bear as we live in the flesh. Each time we have given into the temptation to do these things, we have brought upon ourselves the righteous wrath of God and the eternal condemnation of hell.

II.

“But,” St. Paul said, “when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.” (vv. 4-5a) Rather than leave us to our own devices: being hated and hating in return, envying, slandering, gossiping; The Lord has had mercy. St. Paul literally praises God here for His gentleness and love of mankind. To be gentle means to be mild, tender, and kind. Rather than thunder against us in the fury of His of judgment, God has behaved gently toward us by granting us forgiveness. He has behaved so toward us not because we have deserved it – quite the opposite – but because of His own love for mankind. God is our maker, after all.

It has to be this way, too, because, even on our best days, all our goodness – whatever we may think exists in our hearts – counts as nothing before God. It says in the prophet Isaiah that all the things that we might on our own consider righteous are as polluted garments before God. (Is. 64:6) Everything we are and everything we have is tainted by the corruption of sin; everything, that is, except for the salvation that God grants to us by His grace. Rather than leave us in our sin and misery, He made His kindness and love appear before us in the birth of a savior: Jesus.

III.

This is why we are here, is it not, to celebrate the birth of the savior of the world. Jesus Christ is the eternally-begotten Son of God. Light of Light, very God of very God, He is the one by and through whom all things were made. Yet, in our time, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. For us, He stepped forth from His kingly hall and became an unborn child in her womb. For us, He was born and grew up. For us, He wandered in the wilderness and resisted the assaults of the devil. For us, He lived, died, and lived again. By His birth, His perfect life, His sacrificial death and triumphant resurrection, He has won for us the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.

This forgiveness which He won and the eternal life that is in Him, He gives to us in a profound, yet simple way. You heard it, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (v. 5) Here St. Paul clearly teaches how the salvation that is in Christ gets to us: through Baptism. Baptism is the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. In Baptism, the Holy Spirit takes what is Christ’s and gives it to us – faith, forgiveness, righteousness, eternal life. In short, everything that Jesus Christ did and won, you have received in your Baptism into Him. All the benefits of the birth we celebrate today are yours in Baptism, because God is good and kind.

For that, we celebrate. Though we ourselves were once lost in and given to sin and death, God has caused His goodness and love to be manifested among us. The eternal Son of God became flesh and blood, just as we are, so that as He lives, we might live also. He has saved us from death and sin by His own death and resurrection. By Baptism, He has poured out the Holy Spirit on us so that we now share in all that is His. We are heirs having the hope of eternal life. For all this, and more, we celebrate this day of our Lord’s birth. Thanks be to God.

Call His Name Immanuel

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: ‘Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.’ But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.’ And he said, ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’

Isaiah 7:10-14, English Standard Version

These words were given from the Lord through the prophet Isaiah in the time of King Ahaz. King Ahaz reigned in Jerusalem during a time of great distress and turmoil. There was war all around them on every side, and the nation that was leading most of the wars – a nation called Assyria – had their eyes set on Jerusalem.

The result was the whole city of Jerusalem, both king and people, were filled with fear about what was going to happen to them. And so, to comfort them, the Lord sent a prophet. He sent Isaiah to tell King Ahaz that things would be alright. He only need wait for the Lord, and the Lord would act to defend them from their enemies, to save and rescue them. This would be the sign that the Lord is with His people, “The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Immanuel, is Hebrew for “God is with His people.” 

In a number of ways, our times are not so different from King Ahaz’s. We also live in a time of conflict, of war and social upheaval – both around the world and in our own country; and we, likewise, are filled with fear. We’re afraid of what’s going to happen to the world, what’s going to happen to the country, what’s going to happen to us. Yet, the Lord gives to us this same sign He gave to Ahaz. “The virgin shall conceive and give and bear a son.” This prophecy, though delivered some 700 years before the birth of Christ, is fulfilled in Jesus.

We hear in the Gospel that this passage is about Jesus: that the Virgin Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the eternal Son of God. This is the sign to us that the Lord is with us – to forgive us, to bless us, to defend us,  and to save us from our true enemies of sin and death.

This is why we are here tonight. We recognize that the way of the world is not good. Neither are our own ways always righteous. We are here this evening to worship and sing praise to God, but if we reflect on our behavior this past year, we have not always behaved in God-pleasing ways. And by this, we mean we have sinned. We have deserved this year the punishment of sin, which Scripture says is death. 

But rather than pour out His wrath on us our God has poured out His mercy and His love. He has sent His Son Jesus Christ to take on our flesh and to be born of the Virgin Mary. He was born so that might also suffer and die for us. This is why we call His name Immanuel. Jesus Christ, even in the manger, is God with us to forgive us, bless us, to defend us, and to rescue us. 

In the name of the Father and of the ☩ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A New Prophet

Link to Audio

Text: Deuteronomy 18:15-19

The Apostle John offers us a short and sweet sermon on our Old Testament text today in the first chapter of his Gospel. We’ll hear on Wednesday how,

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…From His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 1:14-17, English Standard Version

St. John, and Sts. Peter and Stephan with him – because they also preach on Deuteronomy 18 in the book of Acts – shows us that there is a difference between the ministry of Moses and that of our Lord Christ. Moses stands for the ministry of the Law, while Jesus stands for the ministry of the Gospel.

Both the Law and the Gospel are God’s Word, yet they have different goals; they produce different effects in our hearts. The preaching of the Law produces fear of God’s wrath and brings to repentance. The preaching of the Gospel comforts and soothes our hearts by telling us that Christ has borne our sins on the cross. It is this preaching that the Holy Spirit foretells through Moses in the text today. Here, Moses promises a new prophet who would be like us and preach God’s Word of Gospel.

I.

In order for us to understand this text, it would be helpful for us, as Moses recalls, to turn back our minds to the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. When the Lord led the people up out of slavery in Egypt, they walked across the Red Sea on dry ground. Then, for about three months, the Lord led them through the wilderness until they came to Mount Sinai. Once there, the people fasted and prayed for three days. On the third day, the Lord came down upon the mountain in a thick cloud of smoke. There was thunder and lightning, a loud trumpet blast, and the whole mountain rumbled. The people were forbidden from touching the mountain or even going near it, lest they be put to death. Out of the thunder, lighting, smoke and fire came the voice of God, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Ex. 20:2-3) The people were terrified, and they begged Moses – as we heard – that he speak to them in place of God.

The people were right to be afraid, God said, because they were experiencing the preaching of the Law in its full sternness. By the preaching of the Law, we mean the preaching of the Ten Commandments. The Commandments have always been written by God on our hearts, but they were delivered vocally and in writing on Sinai. They tell us which things are right and pleasing to God and the penalty for disobedience. The penalty for breaking a Commandment is severe because each transgression against these Ten Words is treason and hatred toward God. Because human nature has been corrupted by the Fall, we no longer recognize our own evil. Therefore, the Lord instituted the preaching of the Law – so that we might know our sins and repent.

This ministry continues even today. Through pastors, teachers, parents and other authorities, the Law continues to be preached and applied in our lives. It may be in a sermon, for example, that a sin we ourselves have committed may be mentioned, along with its penalty. Perhaps the Holy Spirit will work through one of the readings, and we’ll realize that something God forbids is exactly what we have done or are now doing. The point of this is so that we would know our sin and repent. When the people of Israel heard God’s thunder, they were so afraid they could die; would that we feel the same. The fact is, you and me deserve to die. We have disobeyed God’s commands and taken pleasure in our own evil. The thunder of God’s judgment would be just to roar against us.

II.

Thankfully, however, the Lord does not just speak to us a Word of Law, but also a Word of Gospel. This is what the Holy Spirit promised through Moses when He said, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put My Words in His mouth.” (Deut. 18:18) Moses, in his ministry, stands for the preaching of the Law. The purpose of this preaching is to show us our sins and bring us to repentance. The Law has no power to justify, though – following the Law cannot make us right with God. It only condemns and kills. But the Gospel, makes alive. The preaching of the Gospel sets us free from the condemnation of sin and death. That’s what the Holy Spirit promises in this text.

When it says that the Lord will raise up a prophet from among our brothers, it is foreshadowing the Incarnation. The Incarnation is the time, including now, when the eternal Son of God bears our same human flesh and blood. We confess every week in the Creed that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. According to the flesh, Jesus is descended from Abraham and it is therefore true that He is included as a brother of the children of Israel. Yet, He is also our brother because He shares with us our humanity. The same trials and temptations we bear, He shared. The same needs we have, He also felt – yet without sin. Jesus came to us to preach a new Word from the Father. Jesus Himself said, “I have not spoken on My own authority, but the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told Me.” (Jn. 12:49-50)

What Word did Jesus come to bring us from the Father? The Good News that Jesus Himself is our life and our peace. The rumbling of God’s thunder against us for our sins would be just, but the Father has chosen to show His justice in another way – by placing our sins on Jesus. The Baptist said that Jesus is the Lamb of God. Jesus is the sacrifice for all sin, yours and mine included. By His sinless life, by His death, by His resurrection, He has redeemed you and purchased you back from the powers of sin, death, and the devil. This is the Gospel: Jesus was born for you, and He died for you. He has broken you out of hell and brought you into His eternal life. You receive all these things not by your own merit, but freely by His grace.

This preaching sets our hearts a flutter, and not the bad kind of heart flutter. No, the preaching of Gospel sets us free and gives us joy. Knowing that our sins are forgiven, we can now hear God’s Law for what it is: good, right, and true. The things that He commands are good, and we should do them. That is why we remain here in the flesh, to live according to God’s will in love toward Him and each other. The Law, with its thunder and lightning, was set in place to show us our sins and bring us to repentance. For these reasons, it must be preached until the Last Day. Yet, the Lord promised through Moses – and has made good on it – a new Word, the Word of Gospel. By the Good News of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, we are set free from sin and we will live eternally with Christ, our Lord and brother.

This last Sunday before Christmas is called, in Latin, Rorate Coeli. It comes from Isaiah 45 where it says, “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness.” We confess and give thanks this week, that our Lord has looked upon us from above and rained down on us righteousness and peace through the birth of His Son, the prophet greater than Moses. In His name.

A Revelation of Pardon

Text: Isaiah 40:1-11

A few weeks back, at our first midweek service, we heard how the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a priest named Zechariah. Gabriel announced that Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth, who was barren, would give birth to a son; and they were to name him John. Their son would be the one to go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah – to prepare people for Christ’s arrival. Now, Zechariah did not believe Gabriel and, as a punishment, was unable to speak until after John was born. While the neighbors and relatives were debating about what the child should be named, Zechariah wrote on a tablet, “He shall be called John.” (Luke 1:60, English Standard Version) Immediately, his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed. Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and praised God. These were his first words, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people.” (1:68) 

Zechariah confessed that John’s birth meant the same thing as Jesus’ coming birth would mean: God is visiting His people. He is revealing His glory in the sight of all people, as Isaiah said in our Old Testament reading. By the incarnation of the Son of God by the Holy Spirit through the virgin Mary, God has revealed Himself to us. He has shown us His glory so that we might be comforted in the forgiveness of our sins, the pardon of our iniquity.

I.

St. Isaiah prophesied by the Holy Spirit the words which we heard. He said,

In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low…And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Isaiah 40:3-5

The question for us this week is, what does it mean for the glory of the Lord to be revealed? What was it that God promised through St. Isaiah? Perhaps we should listen to the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Baptist himself, that Isaiah 40 speaks about John’s ministry. He is the voice crying out in the wilderness. John was sent to preach and prepare people for the coming revelation of God’s glory. About whom did John preach? Jesus.

Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. In the book of Hebrews it says, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son…He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.” (Heb. 1:1-3) St. Paul also wrote to the Colossians that Jesus Himself is, “the image of the invisible God…In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” (Col. 1:15; 2:9) We must also not forget that Jesus said he who has seen Him has seen the Father. (Jn. 14) St. Isaiah prophesied of a time when God would reveal His glory in the sight of all people, and that has come to pass in the incarnation of the Son of God. Incarnation means that the eternal second person of the Trinity has, in our time, become flesh and blood just as we are.

II.

Isaiah prophesied that God’s glory would be revealed in the Incarnation of the eternal Son of God. The Word of God became flesh for this purpose: as Isaiah sang, “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” (40:1-2) When Isaiah was sent to prophesy this, God’s people lived in a state of turmoil and great distress. We’ve spoken before of Jeremiah’s time; Isaiah prophesied some hundred years before that. In that time, Assyria was the nation in power and they conquered the northern kingdom of Israel. It seemed to the people that Jerusalem and all Judah would be taken with the next swing. In part, these words were a comfort to them – there would indeed be an end to their warfare and crying; God Himself would comfort His people and carry them in His arms as a shepherd does his sheep.

There is, however, a captivity that extends beyond the fear of the people in Isaiah’s time. Ever since the fall into sin, all people have been ensnared in the corruption and depravity of sin. We have plunged headlong into the mire; in fact, we were born this way. We were born dead in sin and, if left unchecked, would die eternally in the same. But, God has had mercy on us and sent us His only-begotten Son. In the Incarnation, God has revealed His glory to us in the forgiveness of our sins. Rather than doom to death a universe, He has had mercy. He has placed our sins and iniquity upon His own Son, with the result that, as Isaiah said, our iniquity is pardoned. Our sins are forgiven, they are cast into the depths of the sea, they are remembered by God no more.

III.

Hidden in this text, also, is another delightful truth. Let us hear verses 1-2 again. “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” There’s this little phrase where the Holy Spirit tells us that God’s people have received from His hand double for all their sins. The Spirit isn’t saying that we receive double punishment for our sins but double forgiveness. By the death of the Son of God on the cross, our sins are paid for to an infinite degree. We confess from Scripture that our God is superabundant in His grace. He shows this by proclaiming to us that, as great as our sinfulness is, His mercy is greater. Twice as great, in fact. We receive this double forgiveness not by our works, but by faith. If one is rewarded for his works, the reward must match the work. But, in fact, forgiveness is by grace, therefore it abounds far past what we do need.

The title for this Sunday in the church year is Gaudete, which is Latin for “Rejoice.” It comes from St. Paul’s words (which we’ll hear next week), “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” (Phil 4:4) It is with good reason we rejoice and light a rose candle, not a violet one. We rejoice because in the Incarnation of Christ, the glory of the eternal God is revealed to us. It is revealed to us for this purpose: that our captivity to sin be ended, our iniquity pardoned, and we receive from the Lord’s hand double forgiveness according to His great mercy. The Lord grant us this week, and always, to rejoice and give thanks for His steadfast love. In Jesus’ name.

Every Word is Possible For God

Link to Audio

Text: Luke 1:26-45

The angel answered [Mary], ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’

Luke 1

With these words, all the promises of God concerning the birth of the Messiah come to fulfillment. By these words, the Holy Spirit caused the virgin Mary to conceive in her womb the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God. He who created all flesh became flesh for us to redeem us from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil – for nothing will be impossible with God.

    That phrase which we heard, “nothing will be impossible with God,” is a good English translation of a Greek idiom. An idiom – for those of us who haven’t been to an English class in a while – is a word or phrase that really only makes sense in its original language. A couple examples for us would be to say, “It’s a piece of cake,” or, “kill two birds with one stone.” That phrase, “nothing will be impossible with God,” is an idiom that literally says, “Every word is not impossible to God.” In Greek, this is really an interesting way for Gabriel to phrase it because the word that he uses for, well, “word,” has a specific meaning. It means a spoken word and, often, a spoken word from God through a prophet. In essence, what Gabriel told Mary is that nothing that God spoke and promised through the prophets is impossible for Him to do.

    We heard an example of God’s promises in the Old Testament reading tonight. When David was an old man, and the Lord had granted him rest from all his enemies, he set out to build a house for the Lord. But the Lord said to him through the prophet Nathan,

The Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for My Name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. I will be to Him a father, and He shall be to Me a son.

2 Samuel 7

Another example we are reminded of tonight is this, from Isaiah 7, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (v. 14) What Gabriel said to Mary is that, when God makes a promise, He is able to keep it – no matter how impossible it may seem to us.

II.

    Often, God’s promises do seem impossible to us. Yet, that does not limit Him. We would never reach an end if we were to speak of all of His promises. But, remember now Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, and Elizabeth. Each of these women was barren, but the Lord by His Word of promise gave them great joy in the birth of children. They who were barren gave birth, because none of God’s promises are impossible for Him to keep. These miraculous births in Scripture point ahead to the true miraculous birth, of the Son of God from the virgin Mary. Gabriel said, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (vv. 32-33)

    He continued, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.” (v. 35) St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that all the promises of God find their “Yes” in Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20), and we see that beginning tonight. Here, in this text, at the moment Gabriel spoke these words – that is when the Son of God became flesh in Mary’s womb. The Holy Spirit worked through the Word to bring to fulfillment all of His promises through the prophets. But, it’s not just God’s promises of old that are easy for Him to keep – He also keeps His promises to us.

    He has promised to send us out leaping like calves from the stall, as we heard on Sunday. He has promised to cleanse us from all our iniquities and cause our sins to be remembered no more. He has promised to deliver us from all our days of trouble and be with us always, even in the midst of them. These promises are not difficult for God to keep, a fact He demonstrates in our text tonight. Just as He was able to cause a virgin to conceive and give birth without the intervention of man, so He is able to grant us the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and entrance into His eternal kingdom. All of that starts here, which is why John the Baptist leaped in his mother’s womb. He knew, as we are reminded tonight, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

The Sun Rises

Link to Audio

Text: Malachi 4:1-6

It was three Sundays ago, on the 2nd to Last Sunday of the Church Year, that we heard from St. Peter’s second epistle. He wrote to us, “[Know] this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days…they will say, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’” – referring to our Lord’s return. St. Peter continued, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you.” (2 Peter 3:3-4, 8-9; English Standard Version) Peter went on to explain that, although the Day of the Lord seems to us a long time in coming, it will certainly come – like a thief in the night.

St. Peter touched on an experience that has been common among the people of God throughout time: the experience of waiting. The Lord is not man like we are, who live fast-paced and time-conscious lives. We are bound and subject to the passage of time; we experience reality through it. But the Lord is not so bound. And, even though He is not bound, yet He chooses to bless us through certain events that happen in time. In our text, the prophet Malachi spoke of a Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. Friends, Jesus is that sun and He has risen upon us, even as we await His full shining on the Last Day.

I.

Like we said, the experience of waiting for the gracious activity of the Lord has been common to all His people throughout time. Scripture abounds with examples for us to learn from. Abraham, for example, waited 20 years from the time the Lord promised him a son until the time Isaac was born of Sarah. It was about 30 years between when David was first anointed by Samuel until he finally reigned as king in Jerusalem. Joshua and Caleb wandered in the wilderness with the children of Israel for 40 years. When Israel returned from captivity in Babylon after 70 years, it says that some men were there at the laying of the foundation of the new temple who had seen the original. Waiting is a common experience among God’s people.

The difficulty with waiting, though, is that you get tired of it. We will witness this among our children as Christmas nears. The prophet Malachi’s ministry was after the return from exile and, evidently, a decent distance from the temple being rebuilt and regular worship being reestablished. However, all was not good. The priests, in particular, had grown weary of waiting for the Lord, for the Messiah. In fact, they pretty much concluded there would be none. Instead of worshipping the Lord according to His instructions, they offered blemished and sick animals in sacrifice. They no longer made distinctions between true and false doctrine and were loose with the Word of the Lord. The people, in turn, behaved the same. Adultery and divorce, specifically, are called out among God’s people through Malachi. The laity robbed the Lord by refusing to give the whole tithe. Finally, this was the conclusion of God’s people: “It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping His charge?” (Mal. 3:13)

Last week we said that we are in the same position as God’s people of old. We always have this temptation to look back at God’s people then and pretend we’d be better. The fact is, we’re not. The same temptations the people had in Malachi and the sinful things they did, we have done and still do. Our commitment to the Lord’s teaching is not as strong as it should be. Our giving patterns show that we are not fully given to support the spread of the Gospel here and abroad. Our laxity as a whole when it comes to regular attendance at the Divine Service throughout the whole year is evidence, too, of our sinful hearts. Times change, we don’t; waiting for the Lord is hard.

II.

“Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts…But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” (Mal. 4:1-2) The experience of waiting is common to all of God’s people, as is bearing the weight of sin and battling against the temptations of the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh. The things that I mentioned just now are not things that we’re proud of. We know that our devotion to the Word fails, along with our zeal in giving and to attend worship together. And we know, from the Commandments, that these are sins by which we merit God’s present and eternal punishment. Let us not just know our sins, but repent of them also, that we might be comforted by the Sun of Righteousness.

This Sun promised by God, would be His own Son, Jesus Christ. The healing that He brings is the forgiveness He earned for us by His perfect keeping of the Law and by the giving of His life in trade for ours. The healing He gives is the free, full, and complete forgiveness of sins. No matter what sin you’ve committed, no matter how bad you think it is – Jesus died for it. That forgiveness, He gives to you freely through His Word, in Baptism, in the Absolution, and in the Holy Supper. When we hear His Word in faith and, by grace receive the Sacraments, we receive the complete forgiveness of our sins. By faith in His promise, we receive this great healing, and we go out leaping like calves from the stall when we realize that we are loosed from the bonds of sin and death. Christ is the Sun of Righteousness, and He has risen upon with the healing of forgiveness.

III.

But if the Sun has risen on us, what are we waiting for? I don’t think I need to tell you we’re waiting for something. We are all here, after all; living the lives in which God has placed us. A while back we talked about the concept of “now, but not yet.” This week is another reminder of that. The Sun of Righteousness has risen upon us in the life, death, and continued presence of Christ in Word and Sacrament. We have not yet reached the day where all who have despised the Lord and His Word are reduced as to stubble and ash, when they are left neither root nor branch. Even though we have forgiveness and life now, we have not yet tread Satan underfoot. As we have heard in recent weeks, that day will come. And, until then, we wait.

How shall we wait? Not like the people of Malachi’s time. The Lord said, “Remember the law of My servant Moses.” (v. 4) By this, He encourages us to be wholly given to His Word. In the Word we find the balm to heal all our ills of flesh and soul. It it we are reminded of all that Christ did and suffered for our sake. In the Word we are reminded of those things which are good and right. In it we learn how best to serve God and our neighbor. By the Word, we receive the strength to wait with patience for the coming of the Lord. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise; He is patient with us. Even still, the day is coming when the sun will fully rise, and we who fear and love God’s name shall eternally leap like calves from the stall. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

The Lord is Our Righteous King

Link to Audio

Text: Jeremiah 23:5-8

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded upon the seas and established it upon the rivers…Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” (Psalm 24:1-2, 7, English Standard Version) Such are the words of first Psalm we’ve spoken together in this new Church Year. With these words, we confess the Christian faith that God is the one who created and who continues to preserve all things. Because He is the Maker of all things both visible and invisible, all things belong to Him: the sun, the moon and stars, the land, seas, and rivers; ourselves. Yet, our God is not aloof or far away from us, but one who, in every respect, became as we are. He entered into His own creation to redeem it from its slavery to death and corruption and to be its true king. This Psalm also confesses the Incarnation with these words, “be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.”

This is our focus as we enter again into a new Church Year. Again, our Lord comes to dwell among us with His Word and Sacrament. Through these things, He gives us clean hands and pure hearts so that we may ascend His holy hill by grace. Especially this week do we praise Him as our true king. Unlike all the kings of the earth, Jesus alone rules with true justice and righteousness. He makes us dwell in peace and safety both here and in the life to come.

I.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” (v. 5) As we heard, these words were delivered from God through the prophet Jeremiah. If we think that the state of the world we live in now is bad, we should take a step back about 2,600 years. Jeremiah prophesied during the end of the divided kingdom. For some time, by his ministry, God’s people were divided into the kingdom of Israel in the north and Judah in the south, where Jerusalem was. The northern kingdom was much more worldly than the southern one and had long since fallen to the bloodthirsty Assyrians. By the time Jeremiah spoke these words before King Zedekiah, Babylon was on the rise. It had conquered Assyria and Egypt, and Judah seemed next. King Zedekiah, who should’ve sought the Lord’s help, instead looked for it anywhere else he could.

Zedekiah was just another unfaithful king in a long line of them. There were some good ones, Josiah, for example. But, overall, what started as a trickle with David turned into a downpour of unrighteousness. In the Bible, kings are meant to be as shepherds to their people. They were to look after them as a shepherd does the sheep, including in the spiritual sense; but the kings of Judah did not. Instead, they were selfish and arrogant. They worshipped idols and sacrificed their children to them. They were adulterers and liars. As the king so, also, the people. The one people called by God to be holy, was far from it. They were idolaters as well, gossips, cheats, murderers. Because of all this, there was no peace; there was no security. King Zedekiah did very little, if any, to help.

II.

When you look at it this way, it seems Jeremiah’s time was not that different than our own. Then, as now, nations rise and fall. They fight and bicker. Our leaders, rather, those who seem to be, turn anywhere but to the Lord. Especially in political seasons like this, the wheels of our country, and of our world, seem to be falling off. In this way, we are not so different from the people of Judah during Jeremiah’s ministry. For them and for us, safety is a moving target; peace is thinly-veiled contempt. And we tire of the world’s tumult and distress. But, in some ways, this is what we deserve. We deserve this chastisement of the Lord because our hearts, also, are the same as the people in Jeremiah’s time.

It’s easy to look back at Scripture and wag our heads at God’s people, at their continual backsliding and sinful behavior. We think that if we were in the same position, we would have behaved differently. Friends, we are in the same position. Our Lord dwells among us now, just as He dwelt among them then and, perhaps, maybe even to a greater degree now that we have received the written Scriptures and the Sacraments. St. Peter wrote that angels longed to look into the things that have now been revealed to us in Christ – things like the incarnation and the resurrection. The fullness of time has dawned upon us in Christ, and how have we handled it? Like sinners. We squander the good things God gives us. We put up outward shows of piety, while in our hearts we lust and gossip. When we make a measurement of the important things in our lives, we say that the Lord is first but our actions prove otherwise. And, so, the way that the world is, is what we deserve.

III.

In the midst of a sinful and crumbling world and people, the Lord sent a prophet. These were God’s Words to His people,

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

Jeremiah 23:5-8

With these words, we hear the Lord’s promise of a new king and a new way of the world. We hear of a true and righteous king who will make His people dwell in peace and safety. This king, my friends, is Jesus. He is the one raised up for David and us, the righteous branch and shoot of Jesse’s stump. He reigns and deals wisely; He executes justice and righteousness in the earth.

We must confess that we are corrupt and deceitful sinners. God would be and is just to punish us. But, Jesus shows God’s justice in another way – by fulfilling the righteous requirements of the Law in our place and dying, also in our place, to make satisfaction for our sins. He is the king, the maker of all that exists, and He entered into His own creation to redeem it – to save both you and me. When He died and rose, He put an end to death and brought us into the way of peace. This peace that He gives us, is not like the world’s peace. We know that, even when the waters roar and foam and the mountains fall into the seas, we have a king and a kingdom that will not end. At the moment it is being stored for us above until the time that all our enemies are beat down beneath His feet.

In this way, we have true peace and true comfort, even in this sinful world. We have a true and righteous king who dwells among us for our good, who reigns to our abundant blessing. Today He is with us, and He will remain with us throughout this new year and unto all time. He is our righteousness and our peace, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

He Provides for Every Need

Link to Audio

Text: Philippians 4:6-20

“Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:1-3, English Standard Version) We gather tonight separate from our normal Sunday assemblies to especially and specifically mark our thankfulness toward God. He has blessed and does bless us richly in both body and soul; words fail to describe His great love toward us. Though we often think of Thanksgiving as a purely civic holiday, yet it is fitting for us to praise the One from whom all blessings truly do flow. 

St. Paul wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit near the end of the Epistle reading, “My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:19) These words serve as our text.

I.

This passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians is one that is familiar to us. We hear from this chapter every year on the Fourth Sunday in Advent, and it is a well-used passage for comforting ourselves in our distress – both in life and in death. As to the occasion of the letter, we know that Paul wrote this during his imprisonment in Rome while he was awaiting trial. That trial would end in his acquittal, but that was unknown to him at the time. Just the same, he wrote with full confidence in Christ. He said, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me,” and, “rejoice in the Lord always.” (Phil. 4:13, 4)

The challenge with a passage that is so well-known is that we get so used to it and we sometimes miss the details. For example, we tend to focus on the first part of this text and not usually these words: “God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” God will supply our every need according to His glory in Christ. What does that mean? And, deeper down, what does it mean that our needs are provided for according to God’s glory in Christ? Maybe the first step toward understanding is to confess that often times, when we use the word “need,” what follows after doesn’t exactly fit the definition. If we take mental inventory of things we consider needs, how many of them might be things invented within the last 100 years? A little while ago the internet went out at the parsonage, and oh, how I paced. What makes you pace when you go without?

When St. Paul said that God will provide for our needs according to Christ, he’s talking about our true need – our need for forgiveness and salvation. When we make mental lists of the things we need, they’re almost always things for the body – and that betrays our fleshly state of mind. St. Paul said to the Romans that, “to set the mind on the flesh is death.” (8:6) By this, he meant how all mankind since the Fall, and ourselves included, have minds set only on ourselves. We are concerned above all things with our own peace and security and, really, fleshly comfort. What we truly need, though, is forgiveness. Because of the Fall we are by nature sinful and unclean. We are born, shovels in hand, digging not to China but to hell with our many sins. But the Father, rich in grace and mercy, has had mercy on us. He sent forth His Son into the flesh to bear our sins on the cross. By His death, He made atonement for our sins and brings us life through His Word. In this, our God provides for our true need. He provides forgiveness and salvation for us through the sacrifice of His Son.

II.

Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Mt. 6:31-33) Our good and gracious God provides for what we truly need and more in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Yet, when we confess the First Article of the Creed, we confess that God made us to have both soul and body. And, when we say that God is the maker of heaven and earth, we also mean that He is the sustainer and the one who provides, who provides for us.

Jesus comforts us, then, with these words: “Your heavenly Father knows that you need.” Beyond our need for salvation, because we are in the flesh there are other needs we have, such as, food and drink and house and home, and so on. These things, our God truly and abundantly has provided for us. We all have beds to sleep in tonight and food to eat tomorrow. We came here in cars or on our own two feet. We have these things, and all of what we consider to be ours, by God’s gracious hand. He knows what we need and well supplies.

It is true that, sometimes, what we think we need and what God knows we need are two different things. There are times that we are unsatisfied with how the Lord has ordered our earthly lives. If we should find ourselves thinking these things, let us not be deceived by the old tricks of Satan but instead, repent. Let us remember, as we have already noted tonight, and will tomorrow, that our God has all things in His keeping. He knows well how to bless us, most especially with the eternal life that awaits us in Christ. St. Paul said, “My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” This is true. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Watching for the Bridegroom

Link to Audio

Text: Matthew 25:1-13

Last week we heard these words of encouragement from St. Peter, 

Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

2 Peter 3:8-10, English Standard Version

With these words, St. Peter offers us the instructions of the Holy Spirit that, although our Lord’s return seems to us to be delayed, it will come like a thief in the night. That is, without warning.

In the Gospel reading, our Lord compares His coming to a bridegroom coming in the middle of the night to gather his friends for a feast. Those who were wise were prepared and ready for his arrival and went in with him to the feast, while those who were unprepared found themselves on the wrong side of a locked door. This is how our Lord’s return will be. He will come at an hour we do not expect. Therefore, lest we be found unwise and unprepared, He encourages us to keep watch and ready to enter His wedding feast.

I.

This Sunday brings us to the close of another Church Year. For most of us, this is not our first time here. In fact, we’ve had about as many ends of the Church Year as we’ve had of the secular calendar year. But, what does it mean that we’ve reached the end of the Church Year; and, what is the Church Year, anyway? At the moment, we don’t cover this topic in depth during Confirmation class, so it kind of has to be gleaned from different sources, including sermons like this one. The secular calendar year that we use throughout our lives is based on the sun and the earth’s rotation around it. The calendar, as we know it now, dates back to 1582. The Church Year, however, is based on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and it has its beginnings at Creation and from the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai. Just as the secular year has ebbs and flows, high points and low points, so does the Church Year – according to the events in the life of our Lord. Just as the secular calendar repeats it course, so the Church Year.  

In keeping with St. Paul’s instruction that everything be made holy by the Word of God and prayer (2 Tim. 4), we in the Church mark our days with Scripture readings and prayer. You might otherwise know this by the name, Lectionary. The lectionary is the system of readings that we follow on Sundays and whatever day. These readings fell into place and are time-tested by the generations of the faithful who have gone before us. In many cases, particularly with the Epistle and Gospel, we hear the same texts that were read on Sundays all over the world 1,600 years ago. We continue to follow this pattern because these readings help us to hear the full counsel of God’s Word. The lectionary leads us to the most-well loved passages of all time and into some of the most difficult. Just because a portion is difficult doesn’t mean we shouldn’t hear it. Rather, for athletes, the hard workouts are what lead to the greatest improvements. Same for Christians. We have one of those hard passages today, as we have for a few weeks: speaking about our Lord’s return.

II.

At the end of the Church Year, and in the leadup to the yearly celebration of our Lord’s birth, we hear His instruction concerning His return. The Gospel text today is a part of the same conversation we’ve been hearing. The Disciples asked Jesus back in chapter 24, “When will these things be…what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?” (Mt. 24:3) Our Lord taught them that, unlike the punishment coming to Jerusalem, His return would be without a sign. There would be general signs that we are in the end times, as we have been since the Resurrection; things like earthquakes, famines, and wars. Jesus’ return, however, will be plainly visible to all, like lightning flashing across the sky. The parable today teaches us part of how it’ll look on the ground.

Jesus said, “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.” (Mt. 25:1-2) The wise virgins, anticipating and being prepared for the bridegroom, took extra oil with their lamps; the foolish virgins took only what was in their lamps. Jesus said that, as the bridegroom was delaying his arrival, “all became drowsy and slept.” (v. 5) Then, in the middle of the night, there was a sudden cry, “Here is the bridegroom!” (v. 6) The foolish virgins were found unprepared. They had let their lamps run out of oil and were not ready to meet and celebrate with bridegroom. While they were away seeking to buy oil, the bridegroom gathered his wise friends and brought them into the feast. When the foolish virgins came afterward, they found the door locked to them. The bridegroom said, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.” (v. 12) Jesus Himself gives us the point of the parable at the end of the text when He says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (v. 13)

III.

This is why this is one of those hard passages. We confess, in keeping with our Lord’s teaching, that He will come again. As He ascended, so will He return – to raise the dead and for judgement. As He said, it will be at a time completely unknown to everyone. The time is only known to God the Father. Therefore, Jesus encourages us to keep watch and ready to enter His feast. The feast He speaks of in the parable is the feast: the eternal wedding feast of the Lamb and His bride, the Church, in the new creation. We will feast, for we have been redeemed from death and the devil through the blood of Christ and, at His return, those will be forever put away from us. But, we don’t know when that will be, and we are to be ready. How shall we do that?

We should avoid trying to over-interpret this parable, seeking to find what the oil and lamps represent, for example. Instead, with these words, our Lord encourages us, in general, to make faithful use of His Means of Grace in the days He gives us. We confessed earlier in this service that we are sinners worthy of the Father’s temporal and eternal punishment. Yet, in His mercy, God the Father has poured out His love on us sinners by giving us His own Son. In Baptism, we were each united to Christ’s death and resurrection. Just as He was raised from the dead to new life, so shall we be. In the meantime, as we confessed, we bear in ourselves the corruption of sin. In says in the Book of Concord, though, that Christ is superabundant in His grace. Rather than leave us in our sins, He extends forgiveness to us in many ways: through Baptism, through the Absolution, and in the Sacrament of His true body and blood. Through these things, He forgives our sins, strengthens our faith, and makes us truly alive; truly awake.

To keep watch and be ready for Christ’s coming is to make faithful use of these things, to receive them with joy as our true “daily bread.” In these, God Himself dwells within us and leads us to do those things which are right and pleasing to Him. Let us pray that, as our Lord has blessed us this year with His pure Word and holy Sacraments, He would continue to do even more in the new year. May the Lord increase in each of us, and in all of us together as a congregation, a divine love for Him and each other. Let us, according to His grace, then keep watch and ready. Jesus said, “‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)

Whoever Receives You, Receives Me

Link to Audio

Text: Matthew 25:31-46

Earlier in the Gospel, our Lord sent His Apostles out to preach among the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They were to travel among the cities and towns of the children of Israel, healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, and casting out demons. They were to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is at hand in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. When they encountered a house that would receive their preaching of Jesus, they were to remain there as long as they stayed in the town. But, if they encountered a town where they were not received, Jesus told them to shake the dust off their feet as they left as a judgment against that town. He said, “The one who hears you hears Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me, and the one who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” (Luke 10:16, English Standard Version) In a way, we see this playing out on a world-scale in the Gospel text today.

This text is another part of the same conversation we heard last week (and which we’ll hear next week). It takes place on the Mount of Olives, maybe even in the Garden of Gethsemane, during Holy Week. The Disciples had earlier asked Jesus about His return, and He used the opportunity to teach about the destruction of Jerusalem alongside the day of His return to raise and judge the dead. This is what our Lord is teaching about in the text today. Here we learn that our Lord will indeed return to separate the sheep from the goats, those who respond to His Word in works of mercy and love from those who don’t.

I.

Our Lord’s teaching today touches upon two subjects that are called fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. Fundamental doctrines are things that must be believed which, without belief in, one might easily find themselves outside the Christian faith. Some examples would be: the belief that all mankind are sinners, unable to merit salvation in anyway whatsoever, justified freely by God’s grace through faith in Christ’s redemption. A fundamental doctrine is something that, if you take it away, the Christian faith falls. The two in our text today are: Christ’s return for judgement and the resurrection of the dead. With the faithful Christian Church of all times and all places, we gladly confess our faith in both of these things. In fact, we do this every Sunday.

We believe that on the Last Day, our Lord will return on the clouds with the cry of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. At His return the dead bodies of all those who have ever lived in every part of the world will be raised. We heard from St. John last week, “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him.” Then, John adds, “even those who pierced Him.” (Rev. 1:7) Our Lord Himself once said, “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (Jn. 5:28-29) Our Lord spoke of what is happening in the text this week. At His return, He will raise the dead of all nations and gather them before Him for judgment. Though all the dead will be raised, their ends will be quite different.

Jesus said,

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.

Matthew 25:31-33

Our Lord’s judgment will not be some long drawn-out procedure, but an immediate pronouncement and separation of the righteous from the wicked. And this is the judgment, Jesus said, “whoever hears My Word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life.” (Jn. 5:24) However, how shall we reconcile this with what our Lord says in the text today?

II.

When we hear this text, and particularly the reasons for those on the right being on the right and those on the left, it’s easy to come away with a sense that Christ’s eternal judgment will be based on the works of each individual person – that each person will enter life or damnation based on their own merits. Well, that’s not really what the Scriptures say, is it? So, what are we to do? Maybe we should first recognize that a works-righteous reading of this passage is wrong. I’ll be the first to admit that I have, at times, read it that way; it makes sense to read it that way. However, because we are sinners, we should be suspicious when a text from Scripture inherently lines up with what we want it to say. Let’s try looking at this passage a little differently.

As Lutherans, we recognize that God works through means. God works through certain things to bring about our salvation; He doesn’t just snap His fingers. We see this first of all in the Incarnation. Our God provides salvation through the life, death, and resurrection, of the One who is both God and man – Jesus Christ. He works faith in Christ in us through certain things in creation. We call them the Means of Grace, the Word and the Sacraments. Through these, we receive the forgiveness of our sins and – dare we say – God Himself. To reject the Means of Grace is to reject God, actually. Just as God sends certain means to bring about our salvation, He also sends people. Chiefly Christ, but also the Apostles and the generations of faithful Christians who have gone before us. Our pastors, teachers, Sunday school teachers, parents, friends – all these, and more, have proclaimed Christ and the forgiveness of sins to us. Without their labors, perhaps we would not be here now.

Remember what Jesus said before, “The one who hears you hears Me.” God works through means and people in our lives, people whom He sends. How we receive and behave toward them is how we receive and behave toward Christ. The emphasis in our text is on how we behave toward other Christians. We care for other Christians because from them and in them we receive the love of Christ. How we treat those who’ve gone before us or who follow after us is, actually, how we treat Christ. If we, in faith, seek to love and serve those of the household of faith, we have the assurance that we are truly serving Christ.

III.

When we reflect on our behaviors and attitudes toward those fellow Christians whom God has placed in our lives, we see that we have not always been joyous in our concern for them. On a national level, our schools and universities suffer want. Rather than seeing it as a blessing to educate our children in the Christian faith and for faithful service to the world, we consider the cost of time and money more persuasive and let our school doors close. At times, our funding for missionaries and church planting falters as well. Consider the opportunities for works of mercy or to comfort burdened consciences with forgiveness of Christ that we have lost and avoided. Jesus said, “As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” (25:45) 

Our failures to provide and care for those who share in the Gospel with us reflects our failures toward Christ. We don’t just fail in whole, but as individuals. Let us consider how we have behaved in our own congregations. We bite and thrust at each other. We are quick to judge and slow to forgive, and we gossip. When we so behave against those who are our own flesh and blood, we do it to Christ; for He dwells in their hearts by faith, as in ours. Jesus also said, “As you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to Me.” (25:40)

The final judgment will not be based on our works as the deciding factor, but on how we receive Christ. These two are connected, though. How we receive Christ should be reflected in how we treat our fellow Christians. We must confess today that, we should be heaped into eternal damnation with those gathered on the left. We bite and tear and judge and hate. As we have behaved toward our fellow Christians, so we have toward Christ. St. Peter said, though, that “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise…but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) Let us, therefore, hear these words today in repentance. We deserve nothing but wrath and eternal damnation. If the scale were set with us and our sins on the one side, the bottom would fall out and the jaws of hell would swallow us up.

As it stands, we’re not in the scale alone. Jesus said that everyone who believes in Him has already passed from death to life. We who are baptized into Him are clothed in His righteous robes, and when the Father looks down at us, His own children is what He sees. We have the forgiveness of sins now, and we remain here awaiting the Resurrection with manifold opportunities to serve and love. St. Paul said, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Gal. 6:10) When we seek to serve those whom Christ places in our lives, we know that we are truly serving Him. Therefore, in repentance and faith, let us take confidence that our Lord – for His sake alone – will say these words to us, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (25:34)