The Christ Candle as Baptismal Candle - December 31, 2018 - New Years Eve - Text: Luke 2:22-23; 3:21-22

22And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) (Luke 2:22-23).
 

21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22).
 

So, what is left? We have learned the lessons even the history of that first Christmas from the candles of the Advent Wreath. We have followed each week, lighting one candle per week, counting down the weeks and days until Christmas. We have learned the meaning and the history from the Advent Wreath. What else is there? What other part of the Wreath is there that remains. New Year’s Eve is not simply the last day of the current year, and New Year’s Day is not simply the first day of the New year, rather New Years Day is also eight days after Christmas which is the day of the Jewish sacrament of circumcision and the naming of the child, which brings us to what happens to the Advent Wreath with its center being the Christ Candle.
 

But, before we get ahead of ourselves we need to make sure we have our history and facts in order, which takes us back to the beginning and the Garden of Eden. In the beginning God created all things and all things were created good and very good indeed all things were created in  perfection. God created a perfect man and woman and put them in a perfect garden and then when we move from the history of God doing and creating to the history of man, that is to what humanity is doing, that is when sin entered the world.
 

God gave Adam and Eve one rule, if you will, and here as an aside we would say this rule, this command is a third use of the law command, and that was to not eat from the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s demand and threat of punishment was that the day they might eat of the fruit the punishment, the price for that sin was death, human death, physical death and without God stepping in and promising a Savior, it would also mean eternal spiritual death and separation from Him.
 

We know the history, Adam and Eve did eat of the fruit and their disobedience brought God’s punishment. Of course they did not immediately die a physical death but they did grow old and die, however they did bring upon themselves the threat of eternal spiritual punishment of hell and separation from God. Except that God immediately stepped in with a solution, that is the promise to send a redeemer, a Savior, a Messiah.
 

When God chose and called Abraham to be the one through whom the Savior would be born He set Abraham apart and He did this in a physical way and in a sacramental way, through the sacrament of circumcision. God told Abraham that on the eighth day of a boy’s birth they were to be circumcised marking them and making them sons of the covenant of the promise. This sacrament of circumcision continued on until we get to Jesus giving us the new sacrament of Holy Baptism, but again let us not get ahead of ourselves.
 

Abraham was followed by his sons, Isaac and Jacob who brought his family to Egypt. After some five hundred years in Egypt God delivered His people from their bondage of slavery in Egypt and at that time gave the sacrament of the Passover celebration. When God was ready to deliver his people the price was to be that the first born of every family that belonged to God. Yet, the first born could be redeemed as later the first born was redeemed by Jesus.
 

We move ahead to Jesus’ birth and circumcision and ultimately His baptism. Eight days after Jesus’ birth He was circumcised according to the Jewish law. This was the Jewish Sacrament of Identification if you will. Circumcision marked one as a son of the covenant and Jesus was the Son of the covenant.
 

At the age of 30 Jesus was public ordained and began His ministry at His Baptism. At His baptism Jesus identified Himself as one of us, a human being, except that Jesus was perfect and holy. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was holy and righteous and thus needed no baptism, but He was baptized for us and His baptism was the beginning of the new covenant, marking one as a son or daughter of the covenant of His Holy Church through the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
 

In His baptism we hear the voice of God the Father declaring Jesus to be the Son of God. In our baptism, using the mouth of the pastor, God declares us to be His children, putting His name on us, forgiving our sins, writing our names in the book of heaven, and giving us faith.
 

Now, back to the Advent Wreath which has now been turned into the Christ Candle, so to speak. The Advent Wreath and the time of preparation, has ended, indeed, we are now in the days of celebrating. And, again, remember we celebrate for a full twelve days, until Epiphany.
 

All the candles of preparation, all the candles of the history, all the candles of counting down are gone, removed, except the Christ Candle which remains and points us to Jesus. And remember, we know we get it right when we point to Jesus. The Christ Candle will continue to be lighted while we celebrate Jesus’ life here on earth. It is only after we celebrate Jesus’ ascension that we will cease to light the Christ Candle and then we will light it only on Sundays and times when we will have a baptism reflecting God giving us the sacrament of Holy Baptism in baptizing His Son.
 

At Baptism God calls to faith, gives faith, robes us with Jesus’ robes of righteousness. At our own baptism we celebrate God’s call to each one of us, His call to faith, giving us faith. His writing His name on us, and this putting of God’s name on someone or some group was very important in the Old Testament, for to have God’s name put on you meant you belonged to Him, you were His. To have God’s name put on us at our baptism means we belong to God, we are His.
 

At Baptism, because we belong to God and because all others who have been baptized belong to God, so we become brothers and sister in Jesus and brothers and sister of Jesus. Of course, we are thinking we often fail to act like brothers and sister. Well, that is just our sinful nature rearing is sinful head. Indeed, even though we are brothers and sisters in Christ we still continue in our nature as sinner/saints and will continue as such until we reach heaven. And we will continue to be tempted by the devil himself to divide and fight as his way of hating everything that is of God and from God.
 

At Baptism we light the Christ Candle as He becomes one with us and we become one with Him. He washes us, He robes us, He claims us, He makes us His. He forgives us, and He marks us.
 

Today we celebrate the name of Jesus, His baptism, our forgiveness, life and salvation in Him. I might suggest, what a wonderful way to end our current calender year, but even more so, what a wonderful way to begin a new year and even to begin every year. Ending a year and beginning a new year in the name of Jesus, being reminded of His gifts and blessings, and as they say, it cannot get any better than that.
 

Many people take the time at the end of a year to reflect on the previous year. Some make resolutions as to how they might live differently, even better in the coming year. More often than not these attempts tend to focus inwardly on self and as we know, we cannot depend on ourselves. So, let me focus your attention back on Jesus. Let me remind you that our present sufferings are nothing compared to the glory that will be ours in heaven. This world and our time in this world will be a mere blink of the eye when we get to heaven. You may not remember much at all of this world. Well think about it. Heaven is a place of perfect joy and happiness. So, how much of this world, this living in a valley of the shadow of death do you think you will want to remember. So, we focus on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. We focus on Jesus who gives us life at conception, new life through Holy Baptism, marking us as His own, giving us faith, forgiveness and life. We focus on Jesus who robes us with His robes of righteousness. We focus on Jesus who paid the price for our sins, who gives us life, even eternal life in heaven. We focus on Jesus and are moved to say, to Him and to Him alone be all the glory, for His name sake. Amen.

The Consecration (And Setting Apart) of the Firstborn - December 30, 2018 - First Sunday after Christmas - Text: Exodus 13:1-3a, 11-15

Who is doing what? Who is choosing who? Or as you hear me say, “Who is running the verbs?” In our Gospel reading for this morning we bear witness of the consecration, the purification of Jesus, true God born in human flesh, born under the law, fulfilling the law for us, in our place. This rite of purification has its roots in our Old Testament lesson, which is our text, for this morning. It was not Israel who chose God, nor was it Israel who did something for God so that He would do something or give something to them, rather it was God who chose them and God who delivered them, and God who continued to promise to redeem them through an Offspring of the line of Judah. Because we are conceived and born in sin, because every inclination of our heart is evil all the time, as God says, so we are not able to redeem ourselves, we are not able to do anything for ourselves, we are not even able to choose or accept Jesus. We do not run the verbs; we do not run the show. God is running the verbs. God is running the show. He has chosen us. He has redeemed us. He has called us to faith, given us faith, forgiveness and life.
 

In our text for this morning we have the giving of the Lord’s command concerning the consecration of the first-born, which is what is being fulfilled in the Gospel lesson and which is the heart of our celebration of this first Sunday after Christmas. We read beginning at verse one, “1The Lord said to Moses, 2“Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.” 3Then Moses said to the people,” (v. 1-3a). To “consecrate” means to set someone or something apart for a specific purpose. In the Old Testament people, places and things were consecrated or set apart, such as a city, the temple, the items used in the temple, prophets, priests and kings.
 

The setting apart or consecrating of these people, places and things meant that they belonged to the Lord. God put His name on them so they were His. Today we are consecrated at our Baptism when God chooses us, puts His name on us, gives us forgiveness of sins, writes our names in the book of life and gives us eternal life. God is the One running the show. God is the One running the verbs. God is the One doing the doing.
 

God gives His command, and He reiterates His command. Picking up at verse eleven, “ 11“When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanite’s, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the Lord’s. 13Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem” (v. 11-13). The command included every male animal. No animal was excluded.
 

And the command included every male human. Every first born son was to be redeemed or ransomed, bought back from the Lord. God is the prime mover. God is the giver. He gives and we are given to. He gives the gift of children and with the gift of the firstborn it is expect that the firstborn is redeemed, ransomed or bought back from the Lord, because He is the Lord and children are gifts from Him.
 

So, why this buying back? As we continue in our text, the command is explained. Picking up at verse fourteen, “14And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 15For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem’” (v. 14-15). The root and the heart of this buying back, this redeeming is in the fact that it was the Lord who delivered the children of Israel from their bondage of slavery in Egypt. As we began saying, God is the One running the verbs. God is the One running the show. The children of Israel could not save themselves. The Lord saved them, thus they belonged to the Lord.
 

Because the children of Israel belong to the Lord, because, as we remember, it was the firstborn that was saved from the angel of death that passed over Egypt, so that firstborn son must be redeemed and bought back from the Lord.
 

So, what does this mean to us today? How does this parallel to us today? It was not simply that the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt that they belong to Him. They belonged to Him because He is the One who chose Abraham and promised that through his Seed, through His Offspring the world would be saved. They belonged to the Lord because He gave Abraham a son, and a grand son, and twelve great grand sons, the children of Jacob, who was given the name Israel. It was the Lord who brought the children of Israel out of bondage of slavery in Egypt. It was the Lord who brought the children of Israel into the Promised Land, giving them the land that was flowing with milk and honey. It was the Lord who made Israel the great nation she had become.
 

The Lord made Israel. They belonged to Him. Yet it was not simply that the Lord created Israel that they belong to Him. They belonged to Him because He put up with them. He put up with their constant straying. He put up with their chasing after other gods and idols that were not God. He continually called them back into a right relationship with Himself. He invested His life in them.
 

The same can be said of us. We are not our own. We were purchased with a price. We have been delivered from slavery to sin. We belong to the Lord. And it is not simply that the Lord has delivered us from slavery to sin that we belong to Him. It is the fact that the Lord has created us. At our conception He began our creation. He formed us in the womb. He knitted us together. He created us and gave us life, giving us a soul at our conception.
 

Yet it is not simply that the Lord created us that we belong to Him. After we were born, He chose us and put His name on us through the waters of Holy Baptism. Through the means of simple water and the Word of the Lord, that is, God putting His name on us through the means of the mouth of the pastor, He claimed us  as His children. He gave us forgiveness of sins. He put faith in our hearts. He wrote His name on us. He made us His own and so we belong to Him.
 

Israel belongs to the Lord and we belong to the Lord because He has chosen us and made us His own. We are constantly reminded that God is the One who is running the show. God is the One who is running the verbs. God chose us. God called us. God put His name on us. God redeemed us, buying us back, paying the price for our sins.
 

And truly, we understand that the Lord chose us even from before the world was created. Because God does not live in time as we do, because God lives in the eternal present, when He began creating the world, He already had us in mind and He already had our salvation secured in Christ.
 

Thus, when God had completed all His creation it was good and even very good. Yet, when man began running the show, sin entered the world and God’s perfection became imperfect. Thanks be to God for His great love. God immediately stepped in to restore what Adam and Eve broke. God promised to send a Savior, a redeemer. This promise was made in the Garden of Eden before there was a Jew and a Gentile. This promise was made to all people of all places of all times.
 

And now we know that God has redeemed all people to Himself through the shedding of His own blood in the person of Jesus on the cross. We just celebrated, once again, the birth of the Messiah, Jesus, God in human flesh. This morning we celebrate His putting Himself under the law by being brought for purification in the temple. We celebrate His identifying Himself as one of us. Even more, we celebrate His taking our sins upon Himself and paying the price for our sins so that we have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness we know that we have life and salvation.
 

I believe our text for this morning so well helps us to understand that God is the prime mover, that God is running show, that God is running the verbs. I also believe this text reiterates what Luther says in his explanation of the Third Article of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason our strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.” This morning we celebrate that God runs the show. We celebrate that God has called us, that He has consecrated us, set us apart, redeemed, ransomed and bought us back. We celebrate that through the simple earthly means of water and His Word He gives us faith, through the simple act of confession and absolution we are forgiven, through the simple means of His Word He strengthens and keeps us in faith and through the simple means of bread and wine connected to His Word He forgives and strengthens us. We celebrate that He gives and we are given to. We celebrate, we rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(Using the Catechism)

“The only book we use is the Bible.” That statement is made with the insinuation that to use any other book other than the Bible would make a church less Christian. That statement is also made by those who, more than likely, do read other materials, devotional materials and the like. That statement also shows a misunderstanding of other books such as our Catechisms (Large and Small) as well as our confessional writings contained in the Book of Concord.

What we call our confessional writings, those writings which detail what we believe, teach and confess according to the Word of God is what they describe, writings that confess what we believe, teach and confess according to the Word of God. Our confessional writings are what we call a systematic approach to understanding the Bible.

In particular, the Small Catechism is a book with questions and answers along with Bible passages as “proof” texts to the answers that are given. In other words to the first question of “What is Christianity?” The answer is given, “Christianity is the life and salvation God has given in and through Jesus Christ.” And the “proof” passages listed are, John 14:6, John 17:3, Acts 4:12, Acts 11:26, and 1 John 5:11-12. When these passages are read, they give proof of the answer to the question.

Also note concerning these “proof” passages that while these passages may be printed by themselves they have not been taken out of their original context in order to make it look like they say what they do not say. In other words, when these proof texts are read in the passage cited they mean what it is said that they mean.

Thus, the catechism is a tool to help one understand the various teachings of the church. The catechism is tool to help a person learn about what we believe about God so that rather than searching all the Bible narratives one might find in one place what we need to know about God. The same is true for the chief doctrines of our church in the rest of the catechism.

48 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)

The Christ Candle - December 25, 2018 - Christmas Day - Text: Isaiah 1:18

18“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool (Isaiah 1:18).
 

Let the celebration begin, or if you are like most people the celebration actually began last night, so let the celebration continue and continue for twelve days, the full twelve days of Christmas.  And what an awesome celebration it is, celebrating the birth of our King, not any earthly royal king, but our heavenly King and our Savior, Messiah, Christ, Jesus. Today we light the last candle of the Advent Wreath, the center candle, the White Christ candle.
 

The Christ Candle is the center candle, the candle we have been waiting to light. The Christ candle is the white candle as in pure, holy and righteousness. Indeed, Jesus is the righteous, pure and holy son of God, indeed God Himself in human flesh and blood.
 

The Christ Candle is the last candle, the candle of fulfillment. God’s promise made some four to six thousand years earlier in the Garden of Eden was now coming to fruition. God’s promise to take care of Adam and Eve’s sin, and the sins of all mankind, of all ages, of all nationalities, indeed the sins of all people, of all places, of all times was now beginning to be fulfilled in this baby born in Bethlehem. And this child who would ultimately be seated on His throne in heaven. How can we not celebrate and celebrate with a great and grand celebration, even an eternal celebration.
 

All the candles on the Advent Wreath are lit, our waiting is over, it is finished and now it is time to celebrate. Yet, in about three months we will hear the voice of this newborn baby say, “It is finished!” Jesus birth, perfect life, taking our sins, suffering and death, for us, in our place as our substitute will have been completed. The church year cycle reminds us year in and year out, day in and day out of God’s great love for us. Each year we begin the year celebrating Jesus’ birth. And Jesus was born for a purpose, to live for us, to take our sins, and to die for us, in our place as our substitute, to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves.
 

Of course, we are living after these events have already taken place, so we know the rest of the story. Although we may celebrate this birth in the shadow of the cross, we do not celebrate in sadness, but because we know the rest of the story we do celebrate with great joy. We know that Jesus did not stay dead, but He rose from the dead, victorious over sin, death and the devil. We followed along as He showed Himself to be alive before He ascended back to the place from which He descended in order to pay the price for our sins, His life for our life. And now we know that He is watching over us, ruling over us, interceding for us.
 

And we await His return in glory. We are living in the last days of our time on this earth. Yes, God waited some four to six thousand years before fulfilling His first promise to send a Savior and Jesus has promised to come again to take us to heaven. So far He has only waited about two thousand years. Does the mean He will wait another two or four thousand years. We do not know. What we do know is that if He does not return during our life time, we will go to Him. We will pass on from this world and so the most important thing for each one of us while living in this world is to be ready for our meeting Jesus. Indeed, all of this world, all the ups and down, all the everything will be merely a blip on the screen, a snap of the fingers compared to our glory and life in eternity. So, why do we spend so much time and energy on the spats, fights and feuds of this world? Because that is how Satan distracts us from what is truly important, our faith in Jesus. And our celebration of our salvation.
 

Let the celebration begin. We have heard the history as reminded by the candles of the Advent Wreath. The base of the Advent Wreath is the green circle, reminding us that the foundation, the base of our world is our living, infinite God. In the beginning God. God created all things out of nothing. God is our living eternal God. God lives in the eternal present, all knowing, all powerful and everywhere present.
 

We were reminded of the promise God made in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree from which they were forbidden to eat. Their disobedience brought sin and death into the world and God promised to take care of their sin and separation from Him.
 

We were reminded that God’s promise was that in the city of David, in the royal city, in Bethlehem the one who would take care of our sins, would be born. This small insignificant town would be the birth place of our eternal king.
 

We were reminded of the lowly, humble servant shepherds out in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Indeed, as Jesus is our Good Shepherd who watches over us, guards and protects us, and as Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, how fitting that these shepherds were the first to hear the good news of the birth of our Savior and king.
 

We were reminded of all the work of the angels during that first part of Jesus’ life. They announced to Zechariah that his wife would give birth, in her old age, to the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah and prepare the way for the Savior. They announced to Mary that she would be the mother of God and to Joseph that he would be Jesus’ adoptive earthly father. They announced to the shepherds the birth of Jesus. They protected the infant Christ child from the evil army of Satan. The protected Mary, Joseph and Jesus to and from Egypt.
 

And finally we are being reminded of the culmination and fulfillment of all these events in Jesus. The Old Testament pointed to Jesus. The New Testament points us to Jesus. Our calendar, B.C. and A.D. centers on Jesus. All history and all time point us to Jesus. How can we not celebrate Jesus!
 

Let the celebration begin and continue. We celebrate God’s promises fulfilled. We get it right when we point, not to ourselves, not to our own doings, not to our own obedience or good works, or anything, but when we point to Jesus and Jesus alone. When we rejoice in Jesus’ work in and through us.
 

When we point to ourselves, when we look inside ourselves all we see is our sins and it is because of our sins that these events had to take place, that Jesus had to be born. But because of God’s great love for us, He sent His One and Only Son to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. And that is what Jesus did. So, we celebrate, we rejoice because our sins have been paid for, we have forgiveness and with forgiveness we have life and salvation.
 

We celebrate because our redemption procured. We have been reconciled. Our negative balance has been paid and balanced by Jesus paying the bill, giving His life for ours.
 

We celebrate because we have forgiveness of sins and we know that with forgiveness is life and salvation. By faith in Jesus, His white robes of righteousness have been placed on us so that when God looks at us He sees us as being perfect and holy which is what He demands of us. The white center Christ candle reminds us of God’s great love for us.
 

We celebrate. We rejoice and sing. What else can we do? How can we not celebrate? God gives and we are given to. God gives us life at conception; new life, faith, even eternal life through the waters of Holy Baptism; forgiveness of sins through confession and absolution; forgiveness and strengthening of faith through His body and blood in His Holy Supper. God gives and gives and gives and we are given to and we rejoice and give thanks and praise.
 

Today we celebrate God’s fulfillment of all His promises. We celebrate what a great God we have, what a loving, gift giving God we have. We celebrate, we rejoice and sing and we say, to God be the glory, forever and ever, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Angel’s Candle - December 24, 2018 - Christmas Eve - Text: Luke 2:13-14

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:13-14)
 

Well, this evening we actually have completed the lighting of our Advent Wreath, yet we have not finished our discussion of the meaning of all the candles. This evening we will talk about the fourth candle on the outer ring and tomorrow morning we will move on and talk about the center candle, the Christ Candle which, obviously we have lighted tonight. So, this evening as we celebrate the birth of the One promised, we talk about the work of the angels.
 

God created angels to be His messengers. God created angels for the work of proclaiming His message to those to whom He would send, as well as their work is to watch over us as God’s people. Personally I believe we each have at least one or two angels watching over us and I am sure that oftentimes children can actually see their angels. During the time of preparation for the birth of the One promised back in the Garden of Eden, the time of the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world the angels did a lot of work. One of the first works of the angels was to deliver God’s message to Zechariah that he would be the father of the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah, the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah, that message of the birth of John the Baptist. This proclamation came about six months before we hear of the work of the next angel.
 

The next work of an angel, namely the angel Gabriel was to deliver God’s message to Mary, the one favored by God, that she was favored by God, that she was chosen by God to be the one who would be the earthly mother of the One promised. Because of her youth, her not being married, and her understanding of the biology of the birth of children the angel went on to explain to Mary just how this immaculate conception would take place, that is that she would become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit so that the child to be born would be truly God in flesh. And as we know, she consented to be the mother of Jesus.
 

The next work of an angel is that of appearing to Joseph, but not in person as the angels appeared to Zechariah and Mary rather in a vision or a dream. The angel explains to Joseph why Mary is pregnant even though they were merely betrothed and not yet married. The angel had to explain that Mary had not committed adultery or been unfaithful. The angel proclaimed to Joseph that he was to be the adoptive father of Jesus. And of course, Joseph also consents.
 

Finally, we have the work of the angels as we hear in our text, that of announcing the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds. Last week we heard about the lowly, humble shepherds who were the first to hear of the birth of Jesus and the first to see the new born king. It was the angels who declared this wonderful news to the shepherds.
 

But why are there all these angels and what are all these angels doing there at the birth of Jesus? The angels were created to be messengers of God, to do His bidding and also to be protectors and defenders. Thus we might rightly understand that the angels, this host of angels, intimating an army of angels, were there at Jesus’ birth to work as defenders of the helpless baby Christ child. The angels were there to protect the vulnerable child, especially from Herod’s execution of the children in Bethlehem. The angels appeared to Joseph just in time for him to escape Bethlehem and flee to Egypt to save the baby Jesus. The angels were also there to protect the baby from any attacks of the devil.
 

Also, the angels were there to protect the child and His parents going to, while in and coming back from Egypt. Although the children of Israel had spent many years in Egypt and had fled from their slavery in Egypt, Mary and Joseph were foreigners in Egypt, thus they needed the protection of God’s angels.
 

The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels are real and that they are messengers from God. God created angels and although Satan, or Lucifer was once one of God’s good angels we know that he rebelled thinking himself to be god. Thus God created hell for all those evil angels. God separated the evil angels from His good angels and although the devil, the evil foe himself roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour the Lord has His pure, good and perfect angels always guarding and protecting us. And they deliver to us the good news God would have them deliver.
 

The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels do God’s bidding. As has been the case many times in the Old and New Testaments, to see God’s angels is a remarkable experience especially as described in our text when we are told that a whole multitude of heavenly hosts praised God.
 

The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels protect God’s children. Again, I believe that little children and babies can actually see their angels, at least at times. Little children have not yet been tainted by the skepticism of the world and so have no problem seeing these supernatural beings.
 

The Angel’s Candle reminds us that angels rejoice in God’s goodness. Some of you have heard me say it before, but when we come to the Lord’s Table, when we come to Divine Service and sing praises, we are not alone, but the whole company of heavenly hosts is with us, praising God.
 

So, this evening we say, let the celebration begin. We have been preparing for just this moment, for this evening. We have been preparing for this moment for our celebration of the birth of Jesus which and who is the reason for the Advent Season. The Advent Wreath has helped us count down to this day. The Advent Wreath has reminded us that it was the angels who announced to the shepherds that in Bethlehem our eternal, living God fulfilled His promise, the prophecy to send a Savior, Christ the Lord.
 

We are ready to celebrate and remember we celebrate for twelve days. We do not simply celebrate tonight and tomorrow, but we continue to celebrate. Certainly we have heard the carol of the twelve days of Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas lasts until the day of Epiphany, that is the day we celebrate the visit of the Magi or wise men, the first non-Jewish visitors to see the child Jesus. There are actually some families who celebrate the twelve days by opening a new present each of the twelve days as a reminder to continue on. We leave our lights up to bear witness of the continued celebration.
 

We celebrate and we rejoice in God fulfilling His promise to send a Savior. God loves us so much. We see His great love in the fact that He knew what all was going to happen even before He began creating the world, that is He saw Adam and Eve’s sin, His need to be born in human flesh in order to be our substitute so that He might live perfectly for us, take our sins and pay the price of sin, death for us in our place. He knew His suffering and yet, because of His great love for us He created us anyway. And so we rejoice.
 

We rejoice in Jesus our substitute and His gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Thanks be to God that Jesus is our substitute. What we could not do, live perfectly He did for us in our place. How can we not rejoice and celebrate.
 

Jesus was born for a purpose, to live perfectly, to take our sins and to suffer and die. Indeed, we do celebrate but we celebrate in the shadow of the cross. For some, the Christmas tree, after it has lost all of its leaves, is taken and made into a cross to remind us that this baby was born to die. That may not be the most happy thought or a thought that would make us want to celebrate, except that this baby is God in human flesh. This baby is one who loves us so much that He was willing to do anything and everything that needed to be done for us to save us. How can we not celebrate such great love for us, His children. So, we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord. We celebrate that God has fulfilled His prophecy, His promise, with the angels announcing to the shepherds that in Bethlehem the One who lives for us, takes our sins, suffered and dies for us, rose from the dead and gives us forgiveness, faith and life and we say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Ruler Will Come - December 23, 2018 - Fourth Sunday in Advent - Text: Micah 5:2-5a

First Corinthians chapter thirteen is often referred to as the “love” chapter of the Bible. It describes true Christlike love. The last verse of chapter thirteen concludes, “Now these remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” These three words, faith, hope, and love, are very important words for us Christians. Faith, hope and love have been described in the following way: Faith is based on the things of the past, hope is based on the things of the future, and as Christians when we talk about hope we do not talk about an uncertainty, an iffy, maybe thing, as Christians when we speak of hope we speak of a sure and certain hope, something that is a definite. And so we have faith and hope and last we have love which is based on the present. Thus, our past is important, because it is the foundation of and shapes our present and strengthens our look to the future. With that in mind, we continue our Advent preparation as we look at Micah’s prophecy of the coming Messiah. As we look at this prophecy, our faith is strengthened, because we have seen the fulfillment of these things, our love is deepened, because we are reminded of the great love our Savior has for us, so much that He was born to give His life for us, and our hope is increased, as we look to the future and our eternity in heaven.
 

Our text begins by telling us that the Savior will be born in Bethlehem Ephrathah. We read verse two, “2But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days” (v. 2). Bethlehem Ephrathah, the name literally means: Bethlehem means “house of bread” and Ephrathah means “place of fruitfulness.” This city is important because this is the birth place of King David and as our text says, this will be the birthplace of the Messiah, Christ the Lord. This prophecy also means that anyone not born in Bethlehem has no claim on being the Savior. As we read in the New Testament we see that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, thus He passes this test of being the Messiah.
 

Another requisite to be the Savior is that this person must be born to be king over Israel. Jesus is from the line of David, the kingly line, making Him a true king. But there is more to this king-ness than being an earthly king, for Jesus is not just king over the nation of Israel, and indeed, He did not come to be an earthly king over the earthly nation of Israel. You might remember He told Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. Rather Jesus is the true king over the true Israel. He is King over all believers in Him. And He is King even over all unbelievers. He is King of Kings. Jesus is the true heavenly King, the King of which this prophecy rightly speaks.
 

According to the prophet Micah, the Savior to be born is truly man and truly God. He is true man, born of the human woman, even the virgin Mary and He is true God, as Micah describes Him, from ancient times. Jesus told the Israelites, “before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus was with the Father and the Holy Spirit at the creation of the world, as John reminds us, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). As we confess in our creeds, Jesus is true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born in human flesh, of the Virgin Mary. And we are reminded that Jesus had to be true God in order to born in perfection, in order to live in perfection, in order to do for us what we are unable to do, obey God’s first command of being perfect. And Jesus had to be truly human in order to be our substitute, that is in order to trade His life for ours. Remember, the price for sin was set at death, physical death and apart from Jesus it would be eternal spiritual death or hell. All of the Old Testament sacrifices, animal sacrifices did not forgive sins, but only pointed to the one ultimate human sacrifice of the Lamb of God, Jesus, to take away our sins.
 

Our text continues by telling us that Israel will be abandon at the time of the birth of the Savior. We pick up at verse three, “3Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel” (v. 3). Up until the time of Jesus, Israel had been abandon, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that Israel had abandoned God. A couple of weeks again I mentioned that from the time of the prophet Malachi until John the Baptist there was no word from the Lord. That means that from Malachi to John the Baptist, for almost five hundred years there was no word from the Lord, no prophet in Israel. It was a sign of their being abandoned by God.
 

Our text also reminds us that it will be a virgin who will give birth to the Savior. This virgin we know is Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was a very young girl who had no relations with any man, however, she did conceive, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and she gave birth to a Son, a human Son, the Savior, Christ the Lord.
 

Our text tells us that the rest of His brothers will return meaning that all those who believe will be saved. We are not saved because we were born Jewish. We are not saved because of our DNA, because of our family background and family tree. We are not saved because we are members or at least have our names on the rolls of any particular church. We are saved because we are believers in Jesus. We are Jesus’ brothers and sisters by God’s grace, through faith in Him. We are the new Israel. As we have talked about in Bible class time and again, the tree of religions in the world begins with Christianity. When Jesus is born, those Israelites, those of Jewish descent, DNA, who denied Jesus as the Messiah, branched off into a new religion, today called Judaism, while the Christian Church with its roots in the promise of a Savior in the Garden of Eden, continued on with faith in the fulfillment of that promise in Jesus. The true family of God is the family of faith, the Holy Christian Church, the Communion of Saints.
 

The last part of our text reminds us that Jesus is our good shepherd. He is always with us, guarding, guiding and caring for us and bringing us peace. We finish the text with verse four and the first part of verse five, “4And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5And he shall be their peace” (v. 4-5a). Jesus, our Good Shepherd is always with us keeping us safe from all harm and danger. He cares for us like a shepherd cares for his sheep. Jesus is our Lord and King. He is in heaven ruling over us, watching over us, and interceding for us before His Father. At the same time He is right here with us. Jesus brings security, and peace on earth. Faith in Jesus gives us a peace the world cannot understand, a peace which comes only from the forgiveness of sins.
 

As we begin our fourth and final week in this Advent season we continue to prepare ourselves, our hearts and minds, for the coming of our Messiah, for our Christmas celebration. We continue to think about the prophecies of old. Our faith is strengthened as we see how these prophecies have been fulfilled. We continue to look forward to once again celebrating Jesus’ birth. Our love for our Lord and for each other is renewed as we reflect the love He has first given to us. And we continue to look forward in hope and certainty to His second coming, when He will come to take us to be with Himself and all the saints in heaven for eternity.
 

Today we are reminded once again that Advent is a time for us to respond with exceeding great joy. Advent is a time to prepare our hearts and our minds to celebrate the Christ-child born in a manger in Bethlehem, just like the prophets foretold. It is a time for the child in us to recall those days of old when we got all excited about the coming of Christmas morning, not that we merely revel in that excitement, but that we let that excitement stir in us an increase of faith, hope, and love as we see the promises of old fulfilled, as we rejoice in God’s love and as we look forward to Jesus’ second coming.
 

As we prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate this child that is born, that is given to us, so also we prepare our hearts and minds to understand that the reason for this child’s birth was so that He could give Himself as a sacrifice on the cross for our sins. We prepare our hearts and minds for this great wonder, God taking on human flesh, but even more we look ahead to the greater wonder of our God sacrificing Himself on the cross for our forgiveness, and still even more we look forward to our God returning to take us to heaven to be with Himself in perfect peace for eternity. We look forward, because the Lord Almighty has accomplish this, continues to accomplish this, and will accomplish all these things.
 

As of today there are only two more days until Christmas. Are you ready? When I ask that question certainly some of you are thinking, “are you kidding?” Some of you are thinking about all the things that you still have to get done, presents to buy, presents to wrap, candy and cookies to make, cleaning to be done, so many things and so little time. I have to tell you, the day is coming, whether you are ready or not. But are you ready? I hope that some of you are thinking, “sure, I am ready.” For the last four weeks we have been preparing ourselves. We have looked at the promises. We know of their fulfillment. And we know the Savior. We have already been given the gifts and we continue each and every Sunday to be given the gifts; faith, strengthening of faith, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. As you exchange presents this Christmas season I pray that you will be reminded of that gift, the greatest gift of all, the gift of forgiveness, faith, life and eternal life. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Shepherd’s Candle - December 19, 2018 - Advent Midweek 3 - Text: Luke 2:8-11

8And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:8-11).
 

So, two weeks ago and last week we have been reminded of God’s promise to send a Savior to be born in Bethlehem through the lighting of the first and second candles on the Advent Wreath. Today we move on to the third candle, the rose colored candle. Yes, it looks pink, but it is rose colored. The rose-color signifies joy and reminds us of the joy of the shepherds who were the first to hear the good news of the birth of the Savior of the world. And not only were they the first to hear the good news they were the first to come and see the new born King.
 

So, what is it about these shepherds? Although shepherds took care of sheep which was a source of milk, meat and wool, shepherds were not the most favorite people as they spent most of their time in the fields keeping watch over their flocks meaning they were probably not the nicest smelling group of people. The work of the shepherd was a work of service. They were not out in the fields being served but serving by tending the flock of sheep.
 

The work of the shepherd was that of caring. They took care of the sheep. They would lead the sheep out into the green pasture so they might eat. They would lead the sheep by the still waters so they could drink. They would lead them back in at night into a safe place so they might sleep and then next day they would do it all over again.
 

The work of the shepherd was at times a dangerous job. There were no fences or boundaries. The places that the shepherd would lead the sheep may have been places where there were wild animals, even animals that were carnivorous and would like nothing better than a nice juice sheep dinner. So the shepherd would have to guard and protect the sheep even placing his life in danger to keep them safe.
 

The work of the shepherd was a life giving job. The shepherd did not have a nine to five job and then come home, get a shower, take it easy and wait to go into the office again the next day. No, the shepherd’s job was a 24/7/365 job, a twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week, three-hundred-sixty-five days a year job. The job of shepherding was a life.
 

King David speaks of the Shepherd in what is a favorite Psalm of many people, Psalm twenty-three as in the Lord is my Shepherd. The Gospel writer John quotes Jesus speaking of Himself as the Good Shepherd. Just as the work of the shepherd was to serve, care for, watch over and protect the sheep, so Jesus is our Good Shepherd, He is the Lord who serves us, watches over us, cares for and guards and protects us.
 

Jesus, the Good Shepherd watches over us as His sheep. We need not have any fear in this world as we know that Jesus is always with us, always watching over us, always guarding and protecting us. Jesus is the Lord, my Shepherd. As God, Jesus is omniscient, all knowing, omnipotent, all powerful, and omnipresent, at all times everywhere present. Indeed, we can rest assured, even in difficult times and difficult situations, Jesus is with us.
 

As our Good Shepherd Jesus cares for us, feeds us and protects us. We are born into this world with nothing and we will take nothing with us when we leave this world. All that we have while we are in this world is on loan to us from God, thus all that we have may be attributed to Jesus caring for us. God gives us life, gifts, talents and abilities. He gives us work, jobs, perhaps a career wherein He gives us the abilities to take care of ourselves, so that we have clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, and all that we need to support this body and life.
 

And the greatest gift Jesus gives as our Good Shepherd is that He lays down His life for us. The very reason Jesus was born as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptists points to Him and says, is so that we might have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

In his prophecy Isaiah speaks of Jesus as the Suffering Servant. Indeed, Jesus came not to be served but to serve. Although He was born of the royal line of King David, He did not come to take over and rule on this earth as an earthly king. He came and He served, caring for people, preaching the good news of salvation, feeding thousands, healing, casting out demons and even raising some from the dead.
 

The greatest service of Jesus is that He served by obeying all God’s Laws perfectly. God’s demand from the beginning was our perfection. Because we failed, Jesus came to be perfect for us, in our place as our substitute. And He was. He was perfect. He obeyed all God’s laws and command perfectly.
 

Jesus served by fulfilling all God’s prophecies perfectly. As we heard in the first week of Advent about the Prophecy Candle, the first candle, all the prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Jesus. Certainly the odds of any one person fulfilling some of the prophecies would be tremendous, but Jesus fulfilled them all showing Himself to be the one promised from Genesis.
 

Jesus served by being our substitute. The price for sin is death, physical and eternal spiritual death. Jesus lived perfectly for us in our place, took our sins, and paid the price for our sins as our substitute, as a human.
 

This week we have lighted the third candle, the Shepherd’s Candle. The Shepherd’s Candle reminds us that Jesus came, lowly, humbly, as one of us to live for us. All the animal sacrifice of the Old Testament did nothing to gain or earn forgiveness because the price for human sin was human death. All the Old Testament sacrifices merely pointed to the one ultimate human sacrifice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
 

The Shepherd’s Candle reminds us that Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Jesus cares for us. Jesus watches over us. Jesus guards and protects us. Jesus lays down His life for us defeating all sin, death and the power of the devil.
 

The Shepherd’s Candle reminds us that we are over half way to Christmas. We have lighted three of the four candles, yet we do not jump the gun so to speak, we do not start celebrating yet. We continue to prepare our hearts and minds. We continue to be reminded that Jesus is the reason for the season. We continue to be reminded that it was for us that Jesus was born.
 

Finally the Shepherd’s Candle continues the history of our Advent preparation before our Christmas celebration. We do not need to get ahead of ourselves, after all, we will be celebrating for twelve days, from Christmas morning until Epiphany. And I hope and pray we do celebrate for the full twelve days. It will make your friends and neighbors wonder about you.
 

This third candle reminds us that God does not always do what we think He should do nor act in the way we think He should act. He is not God who came to over thrown the Romans and set up an earthly kingdom, as a matter of fact that was never His plan nor is it His plan as some might think, to return to earth and set up and earthly kingdom before some final judgement. We are living in the end times and when Jesus returns it will be for judgement. This third candle reminds us that Jesus is our Good Shepherd who took our judgement for us and paid the price for our sins so that we have forgiveness and with forgiveness, life and salvation. So, a quick review, today we are reminded that God announced to the Shepherds that in Bethlehem He fulfilled His promise to send a Savior, Christ the Lord, the Good Shepherd. And with the shepherds we bear witness of the Savior and we rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(Giving An Answer - Free Will)

“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14 ). “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Romans 8:7).“8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3b).

According to the Word of God, we are conceived and born in sin (Psalm 51:5) and every inclination of our heart is evil all the time (Genesis 6:5), thus since the fall into sin and the curse humanity has lost its free will so that no longer are we able to choose good, only the evil that is before us, that is what we choose (Romans 7:16ff). Thus according to our inborn sinful human nature we are unable to choose good nor do the will of God.

Yet, there is hope at least according to our newborn spiritual nature. As God gives us faith, the Holy Spirit working through the means of Holy Baptism and His Word, so He also stirs in us to make choices that are good and pleasing to God understanding and giving thanks to God who is truly doing the good work in and through us.

Thus, as we have said before, we get Justification right when we point to Jesus as indeed He is the one who makes us just and right before God. And now we get sanctification and free will right when we point to Jesus as well. He is the one who gives us faith and He is the one who works in us the good works that He would have us to do as Paul reminds us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

If I am not saved, it is my own fault for rejecting the Lord. As I am saved, God gets the credit for saving me. To Him be the glory.

47 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)

The Lord Is with You - December 16, 2018 - Third Sunday in Advent - Text: Zephaniah 3:14-20

I am glad I live in the age of technology. The advancements in technology have made many things in life so much easier. Yet, at the same time, because some things are so much easier and can be accomplished at such a faster pace, we then want to add two or three more things to our schedule to squeeze as much out of a day as we can and then we wonder why we feel so drained. And I would suggest that most of you would agree that this is even more true the closer we get to Christmas. I will tie this together in just a minute, but I want to get back to our advancements in technology. I will admit that English was always one of my most difficult classes, at least the grammar part of English. With advancements in technology, I now have a computer which will correct my grammar for me, if I want it to or let it. Now, at first that sounds great, but the problem is, good theology is not always the best grammar, at least not the best English. Today’s text is one good example. Today’s text reminds us that our sins have been taken away, it is an accomplished fact and it has been done for us, what is referred to as passive voice. This passive voice reminds us that we are passive and are having our sins taken away with no effort on our part. The words of the text are in this passive voice and that is good theology but not necessarily good grammar. According to my computer and good grammar my computer wants me to put things in a more active rather than a passive voice and say that our sins are being taken away, inferring that it is something that we are looking forward to happening, and our being a part of making this action happen, when the fact is, our sins have already been forgiven and with no effort on our part. It  is an accomplished fact. Now to get back to my tie in about our having so much to do to get ready for our Christmas celebration. During the hustle and bustle of getting ready, or should we say, of getting all the outward trappings ready, we feel like we have so much to do that we forget that the most important things have already been done. The baby has been born, the baby has given His life, our sins have been forgiven. What is left is the celebration.
 

Our text for today exhorts the children of Israel to sing, “14Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! 15The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil” (v. 14-15). Unfortunately, the children of Israel are in exile and have no reason to rejoice, yet they are exhorted to rejoice and sing. That sounds like a lot of people at Christmas time. Pardon the pun, but we get so wrapped up in the trappings of Christmas that we forget the gift. We get so involved in getting ready for Christmas that we miss it. We feel like we have so much that has to be done that we wind up getting frustrated, even angry at those around us and we end up not being too joyful.
 

The reason the children of Israel are exhorted to rejoice is because their punishment has been removed. Now notice that this is a prophecy pointing to the future, yet it is spoken of as if it has already been fulfilled. Their punishment, their eternal punishment, has been removed because it will be put on the Lord, on Jesus, the Messiah who is in the midst of them, who came as one of them to give His life for them. For us, this means that our judgement, our punishment, our eternal punishment is also removed because Jesus gave His life for us as well. Notice how we keep having that awful reminder placed before us, that because of our sins there is a judgement, a verdict and a punishment, and that punishment is a punishment of death, physical death and, apart from the Messiah, it would be eternal spiritual death, hell. The awful truth of Christmas is that the baby was born to die. The baby, Jesus, was born to give His life for ours so that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
 

Thus, for the children of Israel, with the threat of punishment removed and the enemy turned back now there is no fear of harm, rather there will be only rejoicing. Likewise, because the baby was born to give His life for ours, we have no fear of harm. The enemy of the devil has been defeated. Sin and death have been defeated. All that is left for us is the rejoicing.
 

The second part of our text is really the Christmas part of our text. In the second part of our text the day of salvation is described, “16On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. 17The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. 18I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. 19Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. 20At that time I will bring you in, at the time when I gather you together; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord” (v. 16-20). The children of Israel are told that the Lord is in their midst. We are reminded that Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior has come. He has come to defeat, sin, death and the devil and He does so, resoundingly, on the cross. Again, the reminder that the baby was born to die.
 

Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, He will stir in the people to be renewed in His love. That means that once Jesus has restored our relationship with the Father, that relationship that was broken in the garden of Eden, now He will help us restore our relationships with each other. The reason we have struggles with each other in life, parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, is because of our sin which separates us from God. Jesus came to restore our relationship with the Father. With our relationship with the Father restored, now Jesus helps us to restore our relationships with one another. That does not mean that now things will be perfect, but it does mean that we have a better chance of restoring and building our relationships with each  other. And notice as well that it all begins with God. God is the prime mover. God begins, He forgives, He restores our relationship with Himself and then He moves and stirs in us and helps us to restore our relationships with each other.
 

Sin separates us from God, the sin of Adam and Eve that is born in us, what we call original sin, the Old Adam, and our own sin, what we call actual sin. By ourselves, we are unable to overcome either sin. It is Jesus who removes the threat of punishment and hell from us, through His death on the cross. And this removal of the threat of punishment and hell is something that is an accomplished fact, not by any doing on our part, but by God’s doing. Again, God is the prime mover, God does first.
 

Because Jesus has already won forgiveness for us, we are able to better prepare ourselves for our celebration of the first coming of the Messiah, on that first Christmas day. We know what the gift is. We might think that may take a little away from the surprise, but really there was no surprise from the start, because the Lord told us from the beginning what He was giving, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
 

This morning, this third Sunday in Advent we continue to prepare ourselves by remembering that it was because of our sins that Jesus had to come. It was because of our sins that Jesus had to die. That fact may be the difficult part in our preparation, admitting that it was because of my sins that Jesus had to come. And not just our sins of doing something wrong, what we call sins of commission, but also our sins of not doing the things that we should be doing, what we call sins of omission. It is our sins of thought, word and deed that have separated us from God the Father. It is our sins of thought, word and deed for which Jesus gave His life.
 

Remember, we are looking back at events that have already taken place. Jesus has already come. He has already lived perfectly for us in our place thus fulfilling God’s first demand on humanity, to be perfect. He has taken all our sins upon Himself. He has suffered the eternal spiritual death penalty of hell for us in our place. He has died a physical death which was brought about because of the disobedience of Adam and Eve. And He has risen from the dead, ascended into heaven where He sits at the right and of the Father watching over us, ruling over us and interceding for us. All of this is an accomplished fact. And He came, not just for a certain people of a certain time and a certain place. He came for all people of all places of all times. He came for you and for me.
 

As we continue to prepare ourselves for our celebration of Jesus first coming, His birth in Bethlehem, we also continue to prepare ourselves for Jesus’ second coming, when He will come again to take us to heaven to be with Himself and all the saints forever in eternity.
 

Advent is a time to rejoice and sing. Yes, the Law reminds us of our sinfulness. The Law reminds us that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The Law reminds us that we can do nothing to save ourselves. Thanks be to God that we do not rely on the Law to save us. Thanks be to God that we have the Gospel and we even have the Gospel in our Old Testament text written for us in the passive voice reminding us, as I always tell you, we get it right when we point to Jesus who has already accomplished everything for us, and as the children of Israel were reminded even before it happened. Indeed, we rejoice in the Gospel which reminds us that Jesus has already come. He has already given His life. He has already risen. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, watching over us, ruling over us, guarding and protecting us, praying and interceding for us. Sin, death and the devil have already been defeated. We might say, all that is left is the rejoicing and singing. Again, this week I want to end with Paul’s words in the Epistle lesson, because they are so fitting. Paul exhorts us to: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7). May the Lord’s transcendent peace by yours through Christ. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Bethlehem Candle - December 12, 2018 - Advent Midweek 2 - Text: Micah 5:2

Text: "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days (Micah 5:2)."

Last week we began our look at the Advent Wreath as a teaching tool, and as a way to prepare ourselves, our hearts and our minds for our great and grand Christmas morning celebration. Last week we talked about the foundation, the base of the Advent Wreath being a circle with greenery. The circle, which has no beginning point and no ending point reminds us that the foundation of our upcoming celebration is our eternal God who lives in the eternal present and has no beginning and no end. The green reminds us that our God is also a living God. Although we celebrate Jesus, God in flesh, His life and death, we also celebrate His resurrection and the fact that we do worship a living God.
 

Today we move on to the second candle. The second candle reminds us of the place of birth of the one prophesied last week. The second candle is the Bethlehem candle. The name of the town, Bethlehem, means house of bread or bread of life. Bethlehem or Bethlehem Ephrathah was a small town in the southern part of Judea. According to the Prophet Micah, Bethlehem was considered “too little to be among the clans of Judah,” yet was big enough to be the place for the birth of the Savior of the world.
 

So, although we may not know much about this small Judean town of Bethlehem we do know what we are told. Bethlehem is a town of the clan of Judah. And Bethlehem is as this Prophecy states, the town of the promised line of descent. Remember God’s promise to Jacob that through the line of Judah the Savior of the world would be born.
 

We also know that this town of Bethlehem was the home town of King David. Throughout the Old Testament we are also told that the Savior would come from the royal line of King David and thus, since King David was from the town of Bethlehem the Savior would be born in this town as well.
 

Finally, again, the town of Bethlehem was a little town. After doing a little research the estimates of the size of Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus are from 300 to 1000 people. Most historians believe the population to be under a thousand. Personally I believe the population to be on the low side even around 300 especially the way the town is described by the Scripture writers.
 

Micah prophesies that the one who will come forth from Bethlehem, the Savior, will be the Ancient of Days. What does this mean to be the Ancient of Days? As we understand that Jesus is true God with no beginning this would well qualify Him to be considered and called the Ancient of Days. As Jesus tells the Pharisees at one point, “before Abraham was I am.” Indeed, that Jesus is true God born in human flesh He is from even before the beginning of our earthly creation and time.
 

As we confess in our creeds, Jesus is true God conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. As true God, as we said, He has no beginning and certainly He has no ending which, again, would also qualify Him to be considered the Ancient of Days even an eternal ruler.
 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem the town of David. He was born from the line of David, and although He was not born to be an earthly king, He is King, our eternal King in heaven. Jesus was born of the line of David, but He did not come to be served but serve and give His life as a ransom for us all.
 

As we are told in the Revelation of John, ultimately every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. Indeed, Jesus is our heavenly King, our eternal King whose rule will be forever and ever.
 

As we move to this second week in Advent, the Advent Wreath history lesson continues. We have the foundation of our wreath as we have the very foundation of our lives as Christians in our eternal, living God. It is God, the Ancient of Days who lives outside of time in the eternal present who, knowing all that would happen, because of His great love for us, created all things out of nothing, knowing that the perfect world He would create would fall into sin and knowing that He would have to redeem the sin infected world by giving His life.
 

And so God promised to redeem, buy back, pay the price He set for sin by promising to send a Savior, a Redeemer, One who would redeem, that is trade His life for ours. We have heard the promise of the coming Savior a promise which could only be fulfilled in God taking on human flesh and blood, because only God could be born and live in perfection, which was God’s first command to all His creation and which command Eve and Adam broke.
 

We have heard the promise of the place of birth of the Savior a small town, a town considered to little to be of the clan of Judah. Although the Savior was born of noble blood that blood line no longer meant anything, at least anything while living in this world. But of course, we are clued into the fact that this Savior was not sent to be a social/political Savior as many heros of the Jewish faith had been throughout the history of Israel. Indeed, time and time again as Israel rejected God He allowed for them to suffer the consequences of their sin and to be disciplined, and time and time again He would have pity on them as they would repent and He would send an earthly, a social/political Savior. But all these actions merely pointed to the One ultimate fulfillment, the One ultimate Savior a spiritual Savior from sin and eternal spiritual punishment and death.
 

So, this week we continue to prepare ourselves, our hearts and our minds. As you continue to hear me say, we do not celebrate yet, not until December 25. In order to have a joyous, great and grand celebration we take the time to plan so that we do not fall short in our celebration. We take the time to prepare, to be reminded of our part in these plans. We take the time to be reminded that all that we will celebrate will be for us and for our good, for our spiritual well-being.
 

And when we do celebrate we will celebrate for the full twelve days of Christmas, from Christmas Day until Epiphany, the day we will celebrate the visit of the Magi, the first Gentiles to see the newborn King.
 

We will celebrate the fulfillment of all history in the person of God in flesh, Jesus. The purpose of the prophecies of old are that they point us to the One to be born. The One to be born must be the One to fulfill all the prophecies. Should the One born not fulfill any one of the prophecies then He would not be the One promised. Indeed, the odds of one man accidentally fulfilling all the prophecies concerning the coming Savior are rather astronomical. Yet, Jesus came fulfilling all the prophecies of the Old Testament so that we can know for certain that He is the One promised from of old, the Ancient of Days.
 

Finally, when we celebrate we will rejoice in God’s gifts; faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. God’s love for us is seen in that knowing what would happen, knowing what He would have to suffer for us His children, He created us anyway. God’s love is seen in His giving up the glory of heaven in order to take on flesh and blood, in order to be born under the law, in order to obey all the laws and commands of God, perfectly for us, in our place. God’s love is seen in Jesus living perfectly for us in our place and then trading His perfection for our imperfection. What we deserve Jesus took for us. What Jesus deserves He gives to us, freely because of His love for us.
 

We have lighted the second of the four weekly candles. In essence we are half way to our Christmas celebration. We rejoice in God’s great love for us. We rejoice in God’s gifts of forgiveness, faith, strengthening of faith, life and eternal salvation. We rejoice, bow down and worship our eternal God and King, Christ the Lord. We rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Lutheran Vocational Evangelism

(Giving An Answer - About the End Times)

The millinialistic theology that is being espoused and taught by some churches today is a theology that is about one hundred years old and flows out of the Darby and Scofield translations of the Bible. The Christian Church since the time of Jesus understands that we are living in the last days and we have been living in the last days since Jesus’ birth which is what ushered in the last days.

Taking God’s Word as His Word we are reminded that the covenant of salvation was first given in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve who were neither Jew nor Greek. The covenant of salvation was narrowed when God chose Abraham to be the family through which the Savior would be born. Part of God’s covenant to Abraham was the earthly promise of being a great nation and having a land as a great nation. This part of the covenant was based on their faithfulness, which history has proved they were unfaithful and have forfeited that part of the promise.

The main part of the covenant of salvation was the spiritual, eternal part of the covenant which was the salvation of all people through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Savior. And the eternal promise is the nation of the New Israel, all believers in Jesus in heaven. Being a child of Abraham is not a case of genetics but faith. All who believe in Jesus is a child of Abraham.

The Christian Church began in the Garden of Eden. The Jewish faith of today began in Jerusalem with those who rejected Jesus as the Savior of the World. Just as a person today is saved by faith that Jesus is the Messiah so in the Old Testament a person was a part of the covenant and saved by faith in the coming Messiah.

There is one Holy Christian Church made up of all people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Anyone who does not believe is not a part of the Christian Church and is not a person of the covenant, a child of Abraham, no matter their DNA.

46 of 52    © Rev. Dr. Ronald A. Bogs (2018)

I Will Send My Messenger - December 9, 2018 - Second Sunday in Advent - Text: Malachi 3:1-7b

Friendships come and friendships go. If you are a person who moves around from place to place you will understand how true it is that when you leave from some place that is when you find who are your real friends. Do you have friends that live any distance from you? Do you hear from them or do you write or call them regularly? Keeping up friendships with people who are near is hard enough, distant friendships are even more difficult to keep up. Just like many things in life, friendships take time and energy. Having said that, I would suppose social media of today might make it a bit easier with distant friendships, yet, there is still the need to invest in such relationships. Without an investment of the necessary time and energy a friendship will begin to fade. Maybe you know someone who was once a good friend, yet for reasons unexplainable, you are now not the friends you used to be. I do not want to get too carried away with this analogy about friends, but our relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ is very much the same way. Is Jesus our friend, even our best friend, or is He, or has He become just another acquaintance? If we do not invest our time and energy in our relationship with Jesus, that friendship fades. The difference between our relationship with Jesus and with others is that when our relationship with Jesus fades, it is not because He moved on, but because we moved on. A more important difference is the difference of eternity. We can lose earthly friends, but if we lose our friendship with Jesus, we lose our eternity.
 

This morning we focus our attention on continuing to prepare for our celebration of the birth of the best friend we could ever have, Jesus. The context of our text is one which shows us what happened when the children of Israel moved away from their relationship with the Lord and what could happen to us.
 

Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi was the last prophet to speak to the children of Israel until the birth of John the Baptist some 400 years later. At this point in time, the children of Israel have been waiting for many years for the Messiah and He has not yet come. Added to that is the fact that the priests, the tribe of Levi, has become corrupt. All this makes it appear that God has all but given up on the children of Israel. Again, between the prophet Malachi and John the Baptist, God is, for all intents and purposes, silent to the children of Israel.
 

Our text tells us that the messenger is coming. We begin at verse one, “1Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts” (v. 1). The Lord will send His messenger. This messenger is John the Baptist. John is the one who is the child announced to Zechariah and Elizabeth six months before the announcement to Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus. John is the one who was born to prepare the way for the Messiah.
 

About this messenger we are told, “2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord” (v. 2-3). John is the one who was born to confront the children of Israel and especially to confront the religious leaders of Israel. The message John was to bring was one that reminded the people to look at their relationship with the Lord and see how it had faded. The purpose of John’s life was to call the people to repentance. He is the one who was to call for a baptism of repentance.
 

John called the people of his day and he calls us today to look at our lives and to see if we are living as God would have us to live. We pick up at verse four, “4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. 5Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts. 6“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them” (v. 4-7). The purpose of the life of John the Baptist was to point out the sins of the people, to point out our sins so that they, so that we, might see our need for a Savior and then to point them and us to the coming of the Messiah.
 

This Old Testament text is seen being fulfilled in the Gospel reading for today. John is the one who came calling in the desert to prepare the way for the Messiah, the Savior of the world. John is the one calling the people back into a right relationship with Jesus.
 

What more fitting texts can we have for this the second Sunday in Advent than these that call us back into a right relationship with Jesus? Is our relationship with Jesus what it was a few years ago? Is it what it should be? Where are our hearts? Are we prepared to celebrate Jesus first coming? Are we spending all of our time buying presents and working overtime to pay for the presents, or are we spending time on our friendship with Jesus? And I guess the borage of questions could go on, but I think you get the idea.
 

Before I go on, I might also remind you that as we prepare for our celebration of Jesus birth, His first coming, we also continue throughout the year preparing ourselves for Jesus second coming and we could ask the same borage of questions concerning our readiness and our relationship with Jesus about His second coming.
 

Again, the main questions before us this morning are, are we prepared for our celebration of Jesus birth? And how is our relationship with Jesus? And we could ask, how do we know if we are prepared and how do we know what is our relationship with Jesus? We could put it in logical terms. I could ask you to think about your other relationships; your relationship with your spouse, your relationship with your mother and father; your relationship with your brothers and sisters; your relationship with your children; your relationship with those with whom you would consider close friends. How are those relationships? How much time, effort, energy, even money do you spend in those relationships? Now, compare that to how much time,  effort, energy, even money you spend with your relationship with Jesus? We see how the law always reminds us that we come up short.
 

Thanks be to God that we do not rely on the law to make sure that we are in a right relationship with Jesus. The law reminds us that we can never do enough to make sure that we have a good relationship with Jesus. That is why we do not rely on what we are doing in our relationship with Jesus, rather we rely on what He has already done for us. Because Jesus knows that we fail in our relationship with Him, He gives His all in His relationship with us. Jesus gave His all, even His life for us.
 

As we prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of our Savior, we do so by focusing our lives on Jesus and on what He has done for us, and still does for us, instead of focusing on what we have failed to do for Him and instead of focusing on the outward trappings of the season and the things of this world.
 

We focus on Jesus and we spend time with our relationship with Jesus by going to the place where He comes to us, His Word and His Sacraments. If you want to deepen your relationship with a friend, you meet them somewhere where you can talk and share. If you want to deepen your relationship with Jesus you meet Him where you can talk and share, His Word, the Bible and His Sacraments, Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Meeting Jesus in His Word means spending time reading His Word and praying about what He says to you in His Word. Meeting Jesus means making use of confession and absolution, confessing all our sins, even those we do not know that we have committed, and hearing His great and awesome words of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven.” Meeting Jesus in the Sacraments means remembering your Baptism. Remembering that at your baptism Jesus put His name on you. He put faith in your heart. He made you His own. Each day is a day to praise the Lord for the gift of baptism through which we were given faith, forgiveness and life. Meeting Jesus in the Lord’s Supper means partaking of His body and blood in, with and under the bread and wine, participating in His death and resurrection, and being given forgiveness, strengthening and life.
 

Today we are reminded that on this Second Sunday in Advent, we are to continue to prepare the way for the Lord. We must be prepared for Jesus our Lord is coming. We continue to prepare ourselves for the celebration of the birth of Jesus as He continues to come to us through His Word to prepare us. We continue to prepare ourselves for His second coming, or our return to Him through our physical death from this world. This morning I want to end with Paul’s prayer from the Epistle lesson. “9And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” Phil. 1:9-11). To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Prophecy Candle - December 5, 2018 - Advent Midweek 1 - Text: Isaiah 9:6-7a

Our text for this evening is from Isaiah chapter nine, 6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7). This is our text.
 

Every year during the season of Advent I invite the children to come forward during the children’s message and we talk about the Advent wreath. Each Sunday we talk about the different candles and the meaning of each one. This year during the Wednesday services we will talk about the Advent wreath and what each candle represents, but we will do so for the rest of us, the adults of the congregation. We will learn to use the Advent Wreath in our own preparation to celebrate the greatest birth and gift to mankind.
 

We begin talking about the advent wreath by recognizing that it has a circular base reminding us that God is Eternal. Just as a circle has no beginning and no endings so our God has no beginning, He was not created and no ending, He is eternal. Indeed, as we know our God does not live in the past nor in the future, but He lives in the eternal present, as His name is I Am, thus we might use the circle to symbolize His eternal existence.
 

The greenery of the advent wreath reminds us that God is alive. As we might look at a lawn that is brown or a tree that has brown leaves and surmise that it is dead, so as we look at a green lawn or a green tree we might surmise that they are alive. So it is with God, the green of the Advent wreath reminds us that we worship, not a dead God, but a living God.
 

The four candles of the advent wreath, along with the middle candle count for the four Sundays of Advent, counting the weeks and days till Christmas. Each week of Advent we light another candle until we reach Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the night and day we light the center candle celebrating the birth of the One Promised, the Savior, Jesus.
 

The first candle that we light is called the Prophecy Candle. I often call this the promise candle because that is what God’s prophecy concerning the coming Messiah, Savior, Christ, is God’s promise to send a Savior. Thus, the first candle points us back to the Garden of Eden and man’s sin. In the beginning God created all things out of nothing and everything that God created was good. On the last day of creation God looked at all that He created and said that it was very good. Indeed, all that God created was perfect.
 

The first candle points us back to God’s first prophecy, His promise of a Savior, for all people. Although all that God created was good, very good and perfect, when we get to Genesis chapter three and the account moves from the history of God’s creating work to the history of human beings we hear how Eve and Adam fall for the lies of the father of lies, Satan himself. They disobey God and sin, eating from the forbidden fruit the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil  in the midst of the Garden. Although God’s command and warning was that they were not to eat of the fruit with the punishment of death, and by death God meant physical, bodily death and apart from Jesus death would also mean eternal spiritual death, or hell. Although God had given them His command and warning they did eat and they brought death into the once perfect world. Thanks be to God that He immediately stepped in and promised a solution, to send a Savior, a Messiah, One who would suffer the punishment for their sin for them, in their place, as their substitute.
 

The first candle also points us to Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Judah, David, and so forth. We are pointed to these men of faith throughout the Old Testament as God reiterated His promise to them that the Savior, the Messiah would be born through their line of descent.
 

The first candle points us to Isaiah and our text. 6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7).
 

The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Savior promised in the Garden of Eden, reiterated to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and so on, would be born as a human being and born under the law. In other words, the Savior would be born to be our substitute doing for us what we are unable to do, be perfect. As God’s command in Eden was perfection and because Eve and Adam sinned and brought imperfection, so the Savior would come and live in perfection for us, in our place, as our substitute, thus fulfilling God’s first command.
 

Not only would the Savior be born as a human He would also be born as God. Isaiah points not only to the Savior’s earthly life but also to His heavenly, everlasting rule. The Savior would be truly human to be our substitute, but truly God to be perfect, holy and eternal.
 

The Savior would be of royal blood, yet not in order rule on earth, but to rule in heaven for eternity. The Savior would be born and live under the Law, perfectly obeying the Law, for us in our place. The Savior would bring, establish and uphold justice and righteousness which He would do by shedding His blood for the sins of the world. Remember, the price for sin was set at death, thus the Savior would have to suffer death in order to reconcile us for the price for our sins.
 

Finally, ultimately the Savior will rule in heaven for eternity. The promised Savior would be born of the earthly line of King David and King Solomon, indeed born of royal blood. Yet His was not to be an earthly kingdom. He was not born as a social/political Savior, but a Savior from sin, a spiritual/eternal life Savior. His birth was never for earthly rule, but always for heavenly rule.
 

Advent is the season and the time for getting ready. We are getting ready for a great and grand celebration. As someone once said, we do not plan to fail but we often fail to plan. When we are having a grand celebration we begin by planning and the better we plan the better the celebration. The Advent Wreath helps us in our planning. The Advent Wreath helps us remember the history and reason to celebrate Christmas.
 

The Advent Wreath helps us prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate. The Prophecy Candle, or as I like to call it, the Promise Candle and I like to call it the Promise Candle because not everyone knows or understands what prophecy is, and what it is, is God’s promise of future event, anyway the Prophecy Candle reminds us of our first parents and their sin. It therefore reminds us of our sin and the reason Jesus had to be born, for us. We are conceived and born in sin. Every intention of our heart are evil all the time. Yet, because of God’s great love for us He sent a Savior to live for us, to take our sins and to suffer and pay the price for our sins.
 

Preparation and taking time to prepare is important. Just as God took time to prepare to send Jesus so we take the time to prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth. From the time of God’s first promise to send a Savior, God waited some four to six thousand years. God wanted to make sure everything was just right and it was. Jesus was born at just the right time. All history that pointed to Jesus was in just the right place. So, we take the time. We plan. We prepare. Especially we prepare our hearts and minds for our celebration.
 

And finally, we will celebrate. We will celebrate the birth of the One promised so long ago, the One promised immediately after Eve and Adam sinned, the One promised and the promise reiterated throughout Old Testament history. We celebrate the birth of the One who would live for us, a perfect life, perfectly obeying all God’s Laws and Commands. We celebrate the birth of the One who took our sins and suffered the punishment which should have been ours, for us, in our place so that we do not have to suffer. We celebrate the good gifts and blessings He has earned for and given to us; faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. And what a great and grand celebration it will be a celebration lasting twelve days.
 

As we have lighted the first Advent candle may we be reminded once again of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore (Isaiah 9:6-7). We rejoice and give thanks to our great God for the gift of His Son, our great God and Savior, Christ the Lord. To Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.