Escape to Egypt - December 31, 2022 - New Year’s Eve - Text: Hosea 11:1; Jeremiah 31:15; Matt. 2:13-18

This year during the season of Advent through Christmas and New Year’s Eve we have been looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including the promise to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David as well as His birth place, His travel to Egypt, and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus. This evening we conclude with Jesus escape to Egypt.
 

God, through the prophet Hosea prophesied, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). And Jeremiah prophesied, “Thus says the LORD: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more’” (Jeremiah 31:15). So, Hosea named the place to which Jesus was escape to safety, that is to the land of Egypt. And Jeremiah lamented over the sorrow that would take place.
 

Indeed, both Hosea and Jeremiah prophesied of the devil’s attempt to kill the Messiah, by the hand of Herod, even before His work began. Jeremiah expresses expressly the weeping of Rachel over her children because it was in the vicinity of Bethlehem that Rachel died during childbearing, giving birth to Benjamin.
 

The Gospel writer Matthew gives the account of the fulfillment of these prophecies. According to Matthew, “1Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him’” (Matthew 2:1-2). The Magi or wise men from the East sought the Messiah, the Savior promised from of old by following the message of God in His heavens. Indeed, we are reminded when on the fourth day of Creation God created the heavenly lights and said, “14And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so” (Genesis 1:14-15).
 

Matthew continues, “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:3). So, the Magi revealed their quest to Herod and Herod, as Matthew tells, us was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. What Matthew means is that because of his  jealousy and paranoia, wicked Herod was afraid that someone may have been after his throne. He was known for killing any rivals even his own children and certainly as the Magi called Jesus the king of the Jews Herod would take this message as being the message of someone else wanting to take his throne.
 

Matthew continues, “11And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. ” (Matthew 2:11-12). And so after finding out where the Messiah was to be born, according to Scripture, the Magi continued their trip being advised of the probable whereabouts of Jesus by the chief priests and the scribes, as Matthew says, “4and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6“And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel”’” (Matthew 2:4-6). After visiting the Christ Child and after presenting their gifts, gold the gift for a King, frankincense the gift for a priest, and myrrh the gift for a prophet, recognizing Jesus as our prophet, priest and king, the Magi left by a different way.
 

Matthew continues, “Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. ” (Matthew 2:16). Certainly some time, probably not much, but enough time for Herod to think the Magi had found the king and would have returned, he realized the Magi would not return, and so he ordered the killing of those males two years old and under, according to the time of the prophecy.
 

And Matthew concludes, “13Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him’” (Matthew 2:13-18). God warned Joseph in a dream to depart to Egypt, perhaps to Alexandria, a Helenist, Jewish community in Egypt, where Mary and Joseph would find fellow Jews and relatives. And Matthew tells us this was all accomplished to fulfill God’s prophecy of Jesus coming out of Egypt.
 

What does this mean? As we rehearse the historic accounts of the life of Jesus we come to see even better that God is omniscient, that is that He knows all even before it happens and this is so because He lives in the eternal present. As we have been reminded and will continually be reminded, God knew that Adam and Eve would sin and that He would have to provide the propitiation for our sins even before He began creating the world, and yet, His great love for us is seen in that He created anyway.
 

God’s will is that all people are saved. The devil’s will is that all people suffer with him in his eternal condemnation. The devil hates everything that is of God and from God and all who put their hope and trust in Him. Thus, from his rebellion and being cast out of heaven, and having hell prepared for him, his whole existence is seeking to attempt to thwart God’s plan of salvation, beginning with his attempts at killing the Christ child.
 

So, we are reminded, once again, that we get it right when we point to Jesus. The world and the religions and philosophies of the world would point us to ourselves, to look inside ourselves, to attempt to appease God, etc., to seek to save ourselves by our good works or character. God’s plan of salvation does not depend on us, but on God; His promises, His working out their fulfillment.
 

Through one man, Adam, sin entered the world. God’s command and demand was simple, do not eat from the fruit. There was one Law, be perfect. We might say it in these terms which we often hear proclaimed by some who believe it is the way to be saved that is, “be obedient” and as we know, the man and woman could not be obedient. God gave a promise to Abraham, a promise with a heavenly eternal blessing without condition and an earthly blessing of being a great nation and people with a land with the condition of obedience. And they could not be obedient. God calls us to be perfect and to be obedient and we cannot. Through one man sin entered the world and yet, through one Man, Jesus, forgiveness has been paid for and given to all who believe. What Adam and Eve could not do, what the nation of Israel coming out of Egypt could not do, what we cannot do, Jesus did, perfectly, that is He was perfectly obedient for us, in our place. His obedience, His perfect life, suffering, death and resurrection purchased and won forgiveness and eternal life for us.
 

We are confirmed in our faith in Jesus as the Messiah as He and He alone fulfilled all that God promised. And now He sends His Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts. It is the Holy Spirit who works through the very means God has given us, His means of grace, His Word, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and His Holy Supper to give, strengthen and keep us in faith until Christ comes again.
 

As we conclude one year and are on the verge of beginning another so we rejoice in what a great and loving God we have. We see God’s great love in His creating us, in His redeeming us, in His giving us faith, forgiveness and eternal life. We see God’s great love in this fact that our salvation does not depend on us, but depends on Him and Him alone and indeed we know that He and He alone gives and does what He says. We may fail. We may fall for the temptations of the devil the world and our own sinful flesh, but Jesus never fails. He has won the victory and He gives His victory to us. And ultimately, He is the One who moves and stirs in us to rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Born of a Virgin - December 25, 2022 - Christmas Morning - Text: Isaiah 7:14; Matt. 1:8; Luke 1:26-35

This year during the season of Advent through Christmas and New Year’s Eve we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including the promise to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David as well as His birth place, His travel to Egypt, and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus.
 

As we have rehearsed time and again, in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve sinned and brought death and a curse into the perfect world, God promised a Savior. Later He narrowed the fulfillment of the promise of a Savior through the line of Abraham, then Jacob, Israel, then through King David and now in Isaiah He says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
 

Isaiah’s prophecy is that the Savior will be one who is born in a specific and unusual way. He prophecies that a virgin shall conceive but not in the usual way, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy is that the Savior will be truly God, conceived by God the Holy Spirit, thus conceived and born in perfection, without sin.
 

Isaiah’s prophecy is that by a human woman, the virgin Mary, shall this Savior, this child be born. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy is that the Savior will be truly human, born of a human meaning that He will be able to take care of and pay the price demanded in Eden for the sins of humanity. Being a human He will be able to trade His life for the lives of humanity.
 

Thus, Isaiah says that the child to be born, the Savior, shall be given the name Immanuel which He translates as “God with us.” So even here in His name we are given proof of His identity that is that He is true God and true man.
 

Luke’s, the great physician and historian gives his account of the fulfillment of this prophecy of Isaiah. Luke begins, “26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary” (Luke 1:26-27). Luke relates the facts of history which give proof of the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. Luke writes that Mary was a virgin and that she was betrothed, meaning legally married to Joseph. And both Mary and Joseph were from the house of David.
 

Luke continues, “28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be”.(Luke 1:28-29). Luke explains that the angel Gabriel came to Mary and announced to her that she had found favor with God and had been chosen for a great honor, to give birth to the One who had been promised of old, who would save all people. And Mary agreed.
 

Luke continues, “30And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end’” (Luke 1:30-33). Because Mary understood the usual means of conception and because she desired to better understand the words of the angel, the angel explained the conception, that is that Mary would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 

Luke continues: “34And Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’ 35And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God’” (Luke 1: 34-35). And so Luke confirms the words of Isaiah the prophet that the child would be named Immanuel, God with us.
 

Not only do we have Luke’s historic account of the birth of Jesus, so we also have Matthew’s account, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). In his account of the birth of Jesus Matthew simply states that Mary was a virgin and that she was betrothed to Joseph. As we said, betrothal was a legal act of marriage and could only be broken by divorce. Also, a couple could have been betrothed for even a year before the marriage and the consummation of the marriage.
 

Yet, Matthew explains that Mary was found to be pregnant. Her pregnancy before marriage was an offense that could be punished by stoning. Indeed, Matthew speaks of the great faith and risk that was taken by Mary, an unwed pregnant woman who had no relations with any man and who would believe her story?
 

What does this mean? This morning we come to celebrate what great love our God has for us. In His omniscience and according to His perfect will and timing, He brought about our salvation. God made a specific promise, that a virgin shall conceive, by the power of God. Thus the child would be true God and without sin. As true God He would be able to do what Adam and Eve could not do, what the whole nation of Israel could not do, what we cannot do, He was able to be perfectly obedient to the command of God to be perfect as God is perfect.
 

And the child would be truly human. As we are reminded that the price for sin was death, physical death and apart from Jesus it would be eternal death and hell, and that the price would have to be paid for by the sinner, thus, in order to be able to trade His life for ours, to be our substitute, Jesus had to be truly human.
 

In His omniscience and because of His great love for us, God chose Mary, the virgin Mary to be the mother of God himself, of God in human flesh. Mary was chosen and she agreed to and gave birth to Immanuel.
 

Again, as we have said, Jesus had to be God in order to be sinless. Jesus was true God and was sinless. He never sinned, even once. He suffered all the temptations we will suffer and greater temptations and never sinned. He fulfilled all the promises, all the prophecies concerning the Savior.
 

And, again as we said, Jesus had to be human in order to be our substitute, in order to trade His human life, His sinless human life for our sinful human lives. Thus, by one man, Adam, sin entered the world and by another Man, Jesus, God in flesh, our sin has been paid for.
 

So, this morning and for the next twelve days we celebrate and rejoice in the fulfillment of God’s Word, a Word which always does what it says and gives the gifts of which it speaks. We celebrate God’s great love for us, His creation, His creatures. We celebrate His perfect plan for our salvation, our forgiveness. We celebrate the gifts He has to give and the means through which He gives us all the gifts and blessings He has to give.
 

Today and every Sunday we celebrate our Lord’s gift of His Word, a Word with power to effect that of which is speaks, giving faith, forgiveness and life. We celebrate His Word which works through Holy Baptism to gives us faith and write our names in the book of life. We celebrate His Word which gives forgiveness in Holy Absolution. We celebrate His Word which gives us His body and blood in His Holy Supper so that He becomes a part of us, His life, His perfect life becomes our perfect life. His death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our resurrection and His eternal life in heaven becomes our eternal life in heaven.
 

Again, what a great and loving gift giving God we have. He gives all and we are given to. He does all and we are done to. At Easter we speak the response, “He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!” Might well we rejoice and speak at Christmas and as we look forward to Easter, He is born! Christ the Savior is born, indeed! Alleluia! To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Time of Birth - December 24, 2022 - Christmas Eve - Text: Daniel 9:25: Luke 2:1-7

This year during the season of Advent through Christmas and New Year’s Eve we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including the promise to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David as well as His birth place, His travel to Egypt, and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus.
 

Today we begin with Daniel’s prophecy of the time of the birth of the Savior. Daniel says, “Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time” (9:25). From the time of the order to restore Jerusalem, from the time of the decree of Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem, until the time of the Messiah, there shall be seven weeks, then shall be sixty-two weeks for the Temple to be constructed. In other words, following the restoration of Jerusalem, the promised Savior would be born.
 

Notice, however, Daniels last words, “but in a time of trouble.” Indeed, there was much trouble concerning the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem as well as the temple. A lot of history was taking place from the time the Jews were dispersed throughout the world and the time of Jesus’ birth. And as we know, at the time of Jesus’ birth the Romans were in power so that even through the Jews had some freedom, they were still being ruled by others.
 

As we move into the New Testament, today we read and hear Luke’s historically accurate birth narrative. Luke is a doctor, a physician and an historian. And Luke is meticulous in making sure he gets the facts and the history correct. And since we do not yet have a calendar with B.C. and A.D. he uses historic people to set the time frame. So, Luke tells us that the events of which he is writing were happening when Caesar Augustus was emperor meaning somewhere between 30 B.C. and 14 A.D. which is when history writes that Caesar Augustus was reigning.
 

But Luke is not done making sure we get the exact dates of Jesus’ birth. He also writes that Quirenius was governor of Syria. Quirenius was governor of Syria some where between 51 B.C. and 21 A.D. and most probably around 6 A.D. And he relates that a census or registration was occurring which history bears out as being around 6 A.D. as well.
 

Luke attests to the fact that Daniel’s prophecy has been fulfilled as history bears witness that Jerusalem has been restored, although it is now under Roman rule, in other words it was under troubled times. So, Luke gives us the date and he makes sure we are confident of the place. He relates that Mary and Joseph traveled from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, where Mary and Joseph were living, to Judea, to the home town where the great Israeli King David was born, which is Bethlehem. As we hear time and again, God’s timing is perfect timing and so all the events were taking place according to the will and command of God. Indeed, as God created this world He has never left it to run on its own and although from a physical point of view that God has created a closed system of nature and matter, the fact is that He continues to be God and at this time is preparing to enter into our human time and history.
 

Luke gives us the account as he tells us that Mary and Joseph traveled to Bethlehem, the city of King David, because they were from the line of David, and actually then we would know that as the promised Savior would be from the line of Jacob’s fourth son, Judah, they were also from the line of Judah. Thus we see that from a human perspective, according to the flesh Jesus is heir to the throne, that is the earthly throne of David. And certainly this heritage may have caused Him some bit of trouble as there was a question concerning His kingship. However, this earthly throne was not a part of Jesus’ birth nor plans because He came to bring salvation and to open the way for all to His heavenly, eternal life kingdom.
 

Luke informs us that Mary was with child. Please notice that he does not say that she was about to give birth even before they arrived, in other words he never expresses any idea of there being an emergency as they came into Bethlehem. As a matter of fact Luke tells us that “while they were there,” in other words, sometime after they arrived she gave birth. Remembering that this was their home town and that it was full of relatives who had also come to register, certainly there were family member who were there to bear witness of and help with the birth.
 

Luke speaks of the fact that Jesus was born and laid in a manger. As I have said before, and I am not trying to disrespect traditions of Christmas, but contrary to what we see depicted in too many movies and plays, as we look at the words of the text and as we employ common sense we might better understand the actual events while enjoying some of the “romantic” notions of tradition. Luke tells us, or rather it is translated that there was no room in the “inn.” The word used for an actual “inn” as we think in terms of a hotel today is actually a different word and is used in the parable of the Good Samaritan when he left the man at the inn. The word in our text that Luke uses is the same one he uses when Jesus asks His disciples to prepare the upper room for their Passover celebration. Luke infers that Mary and Joseph were in the main part of the house, not the kataluma, the upper room or guest room, or as it is translated, the “inn” as it was full.
 

Because the guest room was filled, because this was family and family would not be sent to sleep in the garage or barn, they were most likely staying with the family in the main part of the house. In the main part of the house there would be animals and thus there would need to be a way to feed the animals. Thus, Jesus’ first bed was a manger, a feeding trough for those animals that stayed in the house with the family.
 

What does this mean? As we have said many times, God’s timing is perfect timing. As some have suggested, God has given us the Old Testament in light of the New Testament which sounds backwards. In other words, even well before creation God knew what was going to happen because He is omniscient, knowing all, living in the eternal present. Because God knew what He was going to do to save us, He has given us the Old Testament and the events and history of the Old Testament to bring us into its fulfillment in the New Testament. Thus, following the history and promises of the Children of Israel, their failures, their dispersion and their coming back into the promised land, rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem, we have the ultimate fulfillment in the birth of the Savior.
 

According to God’s perfect plan and timing, when all of history was at just the right place and time, God proceeded with the main event, the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Jesus, true God, Son of God, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, thus making Him truly God and conceived and born sinless in order to live a sinless life in order to take our sins upon Himself. Jesus, true man, born of the human woman, the virgin Mary was a complete human being. He had to be human in order to trade His life, His perfect human life for our sinful human lives. The command in Eden was perfection. The price for imperfection, for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, death, human death, human blood had to be shed for human life and human sin. Because of Adam and Eve’s sin we are all conceived and born in sin, thus there is nothing we could do to save ourselves. Indeed, a dead person cannot bring himself back alive. Thus, Jesus took our sin, paid the price, died and rose and now gives us His forgiveness and life.
 

So, tonight we begin our celebration. We celebrate that our salvation is secure. We celebrate that we have forgiveness of sins and with forgiveness is life and salvation. We celebrate all the good gifts and blessings our Lord gives to us, that He gives us faith, that He strengthens us in our faith, that He gives us forgiveness, life and salvation and He gives us all these things through the means He has given to give us these gifts, His means of Grace. And so we celebrate the Word of God which He gives, we celebrate Holy Baptism, as well as Holy Absolution and His Holy Supper. We celebrate what a loving, gift giving God we have, a God who has done all that needs to be done for us and gives it all to us. So, tonight we begin our celebration, even more so in the morning and we will celebrate for the whole twelve days of Christmas. We begin with our rejoicing, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

His Place of Birth - December 21, 2022 - Fourth Wednesday in Advent (Midweek 4) - Text: Micah 5:2; Matt. 2:1; Luke 2:4-7

This year during the season of Advent through Christmas and New Year’s Eve we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including the promise to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David as well as His birth place, His travel to Egypt, and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus.
 

Today we hear the promise of the place of birth of the Savior, as Micah tells us. “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). God’s promise of the place of birth was Bethlehem, a small town in Judea. A town with a population of about 8000 at the time of Jesus’ birth. A town which was the birthplace and hometown of King David as well as Mary and Joseph.
 

As the Gospel writer Luke writes of the history of the time, “1In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria” (Luke 2:1-2). It was this registration, a census, probably for the sake of collecting taxes, during the reign of Caesar Augustus, when Quirinius was governor of Syria, that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Notice how meticulous Luke is in making sure he gets the facts straight and set in time and history. As was prophesied and as we have been told, at just the right time God set for His plan of salvation and that plan included Jesus being born in Bethlehem, thus, the decree, the census, the travel to Bethlehem, the small town in Judea. Here again, unlike many other religions which are fables, stories or myths, the Christian faith is a faith rooted in time, in history and Luke is meticulous in giving us these historic facts.
 

Now, I am not trying to undo your semi-romantic, traditional ideas of Jesus’ birth, but Bethlehem was the town of the kinsmen of Mary and Joseph. And although, according to records and as we said, the population was about 8000, it was probably not the case that they were turned away from one place after the other as they rushed into town with Mary about to give birth as we see depicted in may movies and plays. The actual word in the text that is translated as “inn” is translated as “upper room,” when Jesus is looking for a place to celebrate the Passover with His disciples. There is actually a different word for “inn” that is used in the parable of the Good Samaritan. So, this upper room was probably a guest room and because there were so many relatives in town and because no one would want to turn them away, and because the guest room was taken, Mary and Joseph probably stayed in the main part of the house with the rest of the family and the animals that were in the house with them, thus the manger.
 

Getting back to Micah and all the prophets of the Old Testament. The promised lineage of Messiah was that His birth would be from the family of Abraham, the original promise and we know that this is the land of Israel, thus the lineage of Abraham. And God’s promise was a birth from the line of David, probably the greatest king in all of Israel’s history. Luke is quite meticulous as is Matthew in his genealogy to trace Jesus’ ancestry back to King David.
 

And so, here we are with Mary and Joseph being compelled to travel to Bethlehem which was David’s hometown. Interestingly enough, the name Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Thus, we see that Jesus the Bread of Life was born, in the town which was the house of bread.
 

Matthew and Luke as well as all the Gospel writers write in order to “prove” and assure us that Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the promised Savior. Thus, they write using genealogy and using historic information in order to confirm the fulfillment of the prophets. Here we are given the account that Jesus was born of the kingly line of David.
 

According to Micah, Matthew, Luke, as well as Mark and John, Jesus is truly born as the one and only God/Man, that is true God born in human flesh. Jesus was born as the one promised from of old, even being the ancient of Days, God Himself. As we confess in the creeds, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, thus He was conceived in perfection, truly God, perfect and holy.
 

Although Jesus was born of the human line, the kingly human line of King David, his birth was not for an earthly kingdom but a heavenly kingdom. Knowing and understanding the history of the Children of Israel, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, their constant rebellion, their being given to be punished by God through other nations, even being dispersed, and then being saved, brought by back God into the promised land even if under Roman rule, it is little wonder that too many at the time of Jesus’ birth were still looking for a social/political Savior as that has been the way it was throughout their history. But that was not God’s intent and not the promise made to Abraham as we have heard in weeks earlier. God’s promise was for a nation and land, but according to their obeying His Laws, not their rebellion. But most important was the eternal, spiritual promise, that a Savior for all people would be born, a heavenly, paying the price for sins, shedding of blood Savior. And Jesus is that Savior.
 

While they were there, while Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, sometime after they had arrived and were settled in, again, not rushing into town as she is about to burst as depicted by many movies and plays, then Jesus was born. Most certainly His birth brought great joy to their kinsmen in that small town.
 

What does this mean? First and foremost it means that we can trust God’s Word, His promises and their fulfillment. We can know for certain that Jesus fulfilled God’s promise with His birth in Bethlehem. And lest we omit that one little part of Matthew’s Gospel that the “wise men from the east came” to see the new born King. It was not the religious experts in Jerusalem, but these Gentile star gazers who came to attest to Jesus’ birth as the King of the Jews, but even more so, as the King of All, our heavenly King eternal.
 

Later in his Gospel Matthew tells us that those wise men travel to their ultimate destination, to see the newborn King and they do see Him once they arrive in the little town of Bethlehem. Of course, as we have made note before and many times, by the time the wise men arrive Jesus is no longer an infant, but is close to being two years of age. We know this because of the atrocities of which Matthew relates a little later in his Gospel.
 

Certainly we are confirmed in our belief that Jesus was born of the line of King David, why else would King Herod make such a valiant attempt at squelching a rival except that He was born of the kingly line of David. Interesting as it is that the scribes and teachers of the law in Jerusalem attested to Jesus Kingship by quoting Micah’s prophecy concerning the Christ.
 

And Micah’s words concerning Jesus as the ancient of Days confirms also that Jesus is God in flesh. Indeed, the ancient of Days is one who is old or from of old. Jesus is truly God. He was there at the creation of the world with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. As John speaks in his Gospel, Jesus is the Word that was there in the beginning creating the world through His very Word spoken bringing all things into existence.
 

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4). Jesus birth began the fulfillment of God reconciling the world to Himself. What humanity could not do, what the nation of Israel could not do, what we cannot do God did. God sent His Son to live for us, to suffer and die for us, to rise for us, to give us forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

Jesus’ birth, true God born in human flesh, born in the small town of Bethlehem, born according to the decree of the governor, as directed by the hand of God, began the fulfillment of the salvation of all people. Yes, His birth fulfilled the earthly promise, but even more His birth fulfilled the eternal promise of a Messiah, a Savior, a Christ for all people of all places of all times. His birth began the fulfillment of salvation through the forgiveness of sins earned and paid for by Jesus and given to us.
 

Some have posed the thought that God said it, I believe it and that settles it. I would suggest that the thought is more correct when we get ourselves out of the thought, that is that God said it and that settles it. As we continue to see that nothing depends on us, but it all points us to Jesus. God promised a Savior and He fulfilled that promise, at just the right time and most certainly in just the right way, through faith, given, bringing forgiveness and eternal salvation. And ultimately stirring us to rejoice and say, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Promise Beforehand - December 18, 2022 - Fourth Sunday in Advent - Text: Romans 1:1-7

Today is the fourth and last Sunday in Advent. In just seven days we will celebrate what we have been preparing and waiting to celebrate, and I hope noone has jumped the gun and already begun celebrating. We will once again, as we do every year, celebrate the fulfillment of all the Old Testament as we celebrate the birth of God in flesh, Jesus, the Savior of the world. The world waited some four thousand years to celebrate. We have waited only eighteen days so far. Our Old Testament reading for this morning is another of God’s promises pointing to the one who was promised in the Garden of Eden as Isaiah tells us that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. And our Gospel reading gives us the historical account of Mary, the virgin mother giving birth to a son. Could all of this be a coincidence, I think not, rather this can only be the hand of God working in human time and history to accomplish what was first promised in Eden.
 

Which brings us to our text for this morning and our reading from Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome. Paul begins by introducing himself in verse one, “1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” (v. 1). Paul introduces himself as a servant, literally he says he is a slave, and an apostle. Paul considers himself to be an apostle, that is one who is set apart for a purpose. Paul also considers himself a slave of Christ Jesus, as opposed to being the opposite which he tells us later, that we are slaves, either to sin or to Christ.
 

Paul says that he was called by God to be an apostle and he was an apostle. An apostle is one who was set apart by Jesus, one who walked with Jesus, so that there were truly only twelve apostles, yet, Paul was called personally by Jesus on the road to Damascus making him truly the thirteenth apostle.
 

Paul sets out to briefly explain the Gospel picking up at verse two, “2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,  5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” (v. 2-6).
 

Paul speaks of the Holy Scriptures and here he means all of Holy Scripture, all of the Bible, the law and the prophets of the Old Testament. Paul was called by Jesus, the one first promised in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve disobeyed God, ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and brought God’s punishment and curse into the once perfect world He had created. This Jesus who was promised by God to reconcile His broken creation with Himself is the One who called Paul to be an apostle.
 

Paul explains that the One who would fulfill God’s promise of a Messiah, a Savior, would be from the line of David, King David according to the flesh. Indeed the promised Savior would be truly a human being and a descendant of King David. He would be one like the rest of His creation, except without sin. And this Savior had to be one like the rest of God’s creation so that He might trade His life as a substitute, taking our sin and giving us His forgiveness.
 

Paul continues explaining that this Messiah was also truly God according to the Holy Spirit, that is that the Savior was not conceived in the normal way, but God the Holy Spirit conceived this Savior in Mary’s womb. This Savior is truly God and He had to be truly God in order to be born in perfection, which is the demand of God and the law of God. And He had to be truly God in order to raise Himself from the dead.
 

Finally Paul explains the Gospel, the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is through Jesus’ obedience for the sake of, in the name of and in the stead of all humanity that we have forgiveness of sins. It is this Savior who through His perfect life, perfect suffering, perfect death and perfect resurrection that earned forgiveness and salvation for all people and you and me, that is the promise of Holy Scripture and the Gospel message.
 

Paul begins concluding his introductory words by reminding us of our part in God’s work, our calling. The first part of verse seven, “To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (v. 7a). Normally when I talk about God’s calling I begin by saying God first calls us to life and He calls us to life at our conception. Soon after calling us to life and very soon after our being born, God calls us to faith. God calls us to faith through the waters of Holy Baptism as water and His name are put on us. And God calls us to faith through His Word. God calls us to faith, to believe in Jesus as our Savior, and indeed He gives us that faith.
 

God calls to life, to faith and God calls us to our vocation, that is He calls us to serve Him through our service to others. In essence He calls us to obedience, to live God pleasing lives. Notice as always, God does not call us to do anything on our own, notice Paul’s words, to all who are loved by God. It is God who is the prime mover. It is God who loves first. It is God who works in and through us our obedience, our works of service, our serving Him by serving others, imperfect as that might be.
 

Paul says that God calls us to be saints meaning that God calls us to be given faith and forgiveness of sins. Jesus has already won forgiveness for us on the cross. Truly in and of ourselves all we can do is resist, refuse and reject that forgiveness, which we do when we fail to acknowledge and confess our sins. The desire of one given faith is to be given the gifts God gives. The opposite is also true, to refuse the gifts, to absent oneself from where the gifts are given is lack of faith. The same is true in all aspects of the Christian life. Faith shows itself in its desire to be where the gifts of God are given out. Faith shows itself in its response of thanks, its response of first fruits giving. And the opposite is also true, a lack of faith is seen in one’s absenting themselves from the place the gifts of God are given. A lack of faith is seen in one refusing to acknowledge the gifts of God by not responding with one’s first fruits.
 

Paul concludes his introduction with words of grace and peace in the second part of verse seven, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 7b). Grace might be described as God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense. Grace is a free gift from God. Now I know you have heard me say that God does not do math, at least He does not do fractions. God gives the whole lot of His gifts and a whole lot more. But we might think of grace in math terms. Grace is zero, that is that we own nothing. Zero plus anything is the anything. Zero plus one is one. Zero plus two is two, and so on. The same is true for Grace. Grace plus anything is the anything. Grace plus works is works. Grace plus all you gotta do is all you gotta do.
 

And peace, peace is not as we understand the peace of the world, a few moments, an evening of calm and serenity. True peace, true Godly peace comes from the forgiveness of sins and the removal of guilt. We can only have true peace through the forgiveness of sins, because with forgiveness of sins is life and salvation.
 

What does this mean? Paul begins his letter to the Romans and God’s Word to us today by reminding them and us of God’s promises and the fulfilling of His promises completely in Christ. All of Holy Scripture, all of history points to the one moment of Christ birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension. The Old Testament looked forward to this one event and we in the New Testament look back to this one event. God created a perfect world. Man spoiled God’s perfect creation. God promised to restore His fallen world and Jesus came as that restoration. Even today, as we continue to live in a fallen, sin filled world, we continue to spoil God’s reconciled world and yet, God continues to come to us to give to us, to bless us beyond what we think or imagine.
 

Because of our fallen nature all we can do in and of ourselves is refuse and reject God and yet He continues to reach out to us, to call us to faith, to give the gifts He has to give. God is the prime mover. Even though we refuse, reject and struggle against God according to our inborn sinful nature, God calls us, strengthens and keeps us in faith.
 

As we approach our Christmas celebration, the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promises, we look forward to celebrating these promises and their fulfillment in just a few days, seven days. We do not celebrate yet, but we wait until Christmas day and then we celebrate and we celebrate for twelve days, the twelve days of Christmas.
 

What an awesome God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have. Our God is not a God who is a far off, but a God who is near, who is with us, who is acting for us on our behalf. God gives and we are given to. God gives life at conception to each one of us. God gives faith and forgiveness of sins through the water’s of Holy Baptism. God strengthens and keeps us in faith through His Word. God gives forgiveness through confession and absolution. God gives forgiveness and strength through His Holy Supper. God loves you so much and He has so much He wants to give to you. In six days we will begin our Christmas celebration. We will have the opportunity to be given the gifts God gives at our Christmas Eve service. On Christmas morning we will again have the opportunity provided by God to be given His gifts in our Christmas morning Divine Service. Six days later we will again have the opportunity to be given to by God at our Year’s Eve service. Indeed in the next few days we will have four opportunities to come and be given to by our God, because He loves us so much. Indeed our desire is to be where the gifts are given so that we might be given the gifts. And indeed then we might well say of our great God, to Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Heir of David - December 14, 2022 - Third Wednesday in Advent (Midweek 3) - Text: Isaiah 9:7; Matt. 1:1, 6

This year during the season of Advent through Christmas and New Year’s Eve we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including the promise to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David as well as His birth place, His travel to Egypt, and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus.
 

Today we are looking at the Promise of a Messiah being fulfilled through the line of King David. Isaiah, the prophet, by inspiration of God writes, “Of 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. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this (Isaiah 9:7). Thus, according to Isaiah, writing by inspiration of God, in order to be the Messiah, Jesus had to be born as a King, as it were, through David. But please do not misunderstand Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus’ Kingdom was not a kingdom of this world as He so pointedly told Pilate when He was on trial. His was and is a heavenly kingdom, an eternal life in heaven kingdom.
 

If Jesus were simply an earthly king, as many in Israel were seeking, then His coming to earth would be one of revolt. His would be one of overthrowing the Romans, those suppressing the Children of Israel. His would be a kingdom in which the people were seeking an earthly peace, calm and serenity. His would be a kingdom in which His followers would follow, would revolt, would have an uprising in order to throw off the shackles of tyranny.
 

No, Jesus kingdom was not and never was intended to be an earthly kingdom. His was to be a kingdom of justice and righteousness forever, brought by paying for and giving us forgiveness of sins. And no, His was not to be an earthly justice as we hear the cry today for justice for so and so, for this cause or that cause. Too often the justice about which we hear a call today is simply a justice in one’s own eyes often amounting to revenge or vengeance.
 

As you recall, the price for sin was set in the Garden of Eden, the price being life. Human life, the shedding of human blood for human sin. The price for sin is death, physical death and, apart from faith in Jesus it would be eternal death and hell. Thus, Jesus came to bring justice, that is a heavenly justice, which is the giving of His life for ours, a human life for a human life, the shedding of His blood for us and for our sins. Jesus justice brings forgiveness of sins through the price for sins being paid by Him, for us, as our substitute.
 

And Isaiah even tells us that it is that “the zeal of the Lord will do it,” in other words, God will accomplish His purposes. Just as a person does not choose to be born. Just as we do not choose to be reborn through the waters of Holy Baptism. Just as drowning person cannot save themselves and just as a dead person cannot bring themself back to life, so our salvation, our forgiveness, our being brought from death to life must come from outside of us and it does. Our salvation comes from God who accomplishes our forgiveness and salvation from outside of us, through Jesus and Jesus alone.
 

And so we move into the New Testament into the Gospel of Matthew wherein he begins by tracing the genealogy of Jesus so that we can be sure that Jesus is the One promised by God, the one who is the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, even the Son of God Himself. As Matthew recites the genealogy of Jesus, “1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 6and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah” (Matthew 1:1, 6).
 

Notice first how Matthew traces Jesus line of descent through to David. David was the greatest king in Israel. He is the one who consolidated the kingdom giving the Children of Israel peace in their land and laying plans and gathering materials to build the greatest temple to the Lord in the land of Israel. He was known to be a man after the Lord’s heart. Yes, he was a sinner, but he repented and remained faithful to God all his life. Jesus is a descendant of King David making Him truly a king, but not an earthly king as the promise, as we said in week one, was always the promise of the ultimate fulfillment of an eternal life in heaven kingdom.
 

Matthew traces Jesus line of descent through Abraham. Interestingly enough it was Jesus Himself who told the Pharisees, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).  Jesus was at the creation of the world with the Father and the Holy Spirit. As John attests, “1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1-3 ). And Jesus fulfilled God’s promise, again as John attests, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 ). Jesus is true God in human flesh born from the line of Abraham, the one called by God and promised that through his seed the Savior of the world would be born.
 

God’s promises are always faithful and true. As you have heard me say many times, when humans speak we can never be sure because humans get it wrong. Human reason can not be depended on to be trustworthy and true. However, God’s Word is always faithful and true. When God says it we can depend on it. When God says it we know it will happen. God, speaking through the prophets foretold of how He would fulfill His promises and especially His first promise in the Garden of Eden. And now as we read and hear in our Gospel reading and in the other Gospels, God does fulfill His promises, all the promises that He has made have been fulfilled.
 

What does this mean? As we are again being reminded, it was sin that brought death into our world. Because of God’s great love for us He promised that He would take care of our sin, that is that He would pay the price, the death penalty, the wage and cost for sin for us in our place. When the time was right, according to God’s perfect timing He made and reiterated His promises. God’s promise was narrowed as for its fulfillment through Abraham as well as through David and others. And God’s promise always had two parts, the earthly and the heavenly.
 

The earthly part of God’s promise came with a condition. The condition of the earthly part of the promise, that is that God would make Abraham into a great nation and would give them a land in which to live was that they would be His people, that is that they would live according to His Laws. Unfortunately, because the Children of Israel failed, miserably, and often, as they rebelled and went awhoring after and worshiping other gods they lost the earthly part of God’s promise. They were disbursed throughout the world and their land was taken from them. However, their disobedience and loss of the earthly part of the promise never negated God’s eternal part of the promise and His bringing forgiveness and eternal salvation.
 

Thus, the heavenly promise, that is a heavenly kingdom of justice and righteousness, has been accomplished by Jesus. Jesus is true God in human flesh. Jesus is from the line of Abraham and King David. Jesus was born as our prophet, priest and king. As our prophet He continues to proclaim to us His Word which is done through the called and ordained servant of the Word, our pastor, through the means of grace. Jesus is our priest who offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins, shedding His blood on the cross, suffering the eternal death penalty of hell for us in our place, paying the price for our sins. He continues to be our priest as He is now seated at the right hand of the Father interceding, praying for us. And Jesus is our King where in heaven He is watching over us and ruling over us.
 

Notice, as always is it God who does and we are being done to. It is God who gives and we are given to. God created, man sin. God promised a Messiah, man rejected Him. God put man’s sin on His Son and He paid the price for our sins. Now God gives us faith, forgiveness and life and we are given to.
 

What a great, loving, gift giving God we have. Greater love can no one have than one would lay down His life for another and that is exactly what Jesus did for us. God made His promise in Eden and fulfilled His promise in Bethlehem and Calvary. Jesus won our forgiveness on the cross and gives it to us through His Word, through Holy Baptism, through Holy Absolution and through His Holy Supper. And He moves and stirs in us our response of faith to rejoice and declare, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Remain Steadfast - December 11, 2022 - Third Sunday in Advent - Text: James 5:7-10

In the Old Testament Lesson for today we are encouraged by Isaiah’s prophecy to be strong and not be afraid. We are encouraged with the promise that the Lord, the promised Savior will come and we are encouraged that the Lord will bring us, His faithful people, into His eternal kingdom. In the Gospel Lesson we are encouraged in our faith that Jesus is the one promised, that He is the Savior. We are encouraged to believe this, that Jesus is the Savior, even in the midst of John the Baptist’s doubt. We are encouraged to believe because Jesus shows Himself to be God in flesh, through the signs, wonders and miracles He has performed. As we come to this third Sunday in Advent we continue to prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate Jesus’ first coming into the world. We do not celebrate yet. We still have some time to prepare and that is how we spend our time this morning, continuing to prepare ourselves.
 

In our text for this morning, the epistle writer, James urges us to be patient. Can you imagine how difficult this is? Think about when you were a child, as Christmas approached. It seemed as if it took forever to get here. As we grow older it seems as if the time passes to quickly and one Christmas rolls into the next. And yet, James urges us to be patient. One thing I will tell you concerning patients, that is I would encourage you never to pray for patients. Maybe you have done that before. What happens when we pray for patients. When we pray for patients, the Lord gives us tribulation so that we will learn patience.
 

James urges us to be patient. He urges us to be patient as the farmer, in our wait for the Lord. James says, “7Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains”(v. 7). I remember as a child, planting a seed and then waiting and waiting until finally I could wait no longer so I dug it up to see if anything was happening. Yes, the seed was growing and in my impatience, I dug it up and killed it. It is difficult at times, being patient with the Lord. God’s time is not always our time. We rush and rush and get now where and we wonder where is God in all our rushing. Why does not God work according to our time and our schedule? James urges us to be patient. Easier said than done.
 

James even urges us to work on our faith as we patiently await. He says, “8You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (v. 8). Of course we understand that James is not speaking specifically about waiting for our Christmas celebration. He is actually talking about waiting patiently for Jesus’ return, His second coming. Remember, I told you before that the readings for the end of the church year and the beginning of the church year, the readings for Advent, often have a duel purpose and here we see this duel purpose. We are to be patient and to be ready for the Lord’s second coming even as we are to be patient this time of year as we await our celebration of His first coming.
 

James urges us to be patient and more, he also urges us to remain steadfast in our faith. While we await the coming of our Lord James urges us to not grumble against one another, he says, “9Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door” (v. 9). To wait patiently is difficult. Too often, while we attempt to wait patiently, we tend to get on one another’s nerves. Grumbling is easy. Remember, we are conceived and born in sin, so sinning comes easy to us, it is after all our nature. We live in a world where temptation and sin abound and so it is difficult to resist temptation and to not sin. As we are in the midst of the season of Advent and as our world and culture are in the midst of what is called the holiday season, people are busy running here and there, buying this and that, having this party and that get together, often so busy that it seems there is little time to stop and rest and contemplate what this season is really all about. And so our nerves get frazzled, our tempers shorten, our patients runs thin. Certainly this is the time of the year when it is difficult to “be still” and know that Jesus is the Lord.
 

Yet, James continues to urge us to be patient and to remain steadfast in faith. He uses the prophets as an example of suffering for their faith, as ones looking forward to, pointing to, but never enjoying the fulfillment of their prophecies, he says, “10As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (v.10-11). I believe the prophets had a very difficult job. Here they were blessed to be able to speak about the coming events of the Lord, yet they were never able to witness those things about which they spoke. James urges us to remain steadfast in faith and he gives us the example of Job. The Lord allowed for Job’s faith to be tested, beyond what you and I could possibly imagine and yet, he remained faithful.
 

Perhaps the key to Job’s steadfastness and the key to our own steadfastness might have been his eternal perspective of life. When difficult times come it is important to remember that they will last only for a while and as Paul says in his writings, the present sufferings are nothing compared to the glory which will be ours in heaven. Our life on this earth is but a twinkle of the eye compared to our forever life in eternity. One key to remaining steadfast in our faith, then is, to keep our focus where it needs to be, on our eternal well being, not on the difficulties of this present, short life.
 

James urges us to remain steadfast in faith. Certainly you have heard me time and again and you will continue to hear me time and again tell you that the way we keep the faith, the way we remain steadfast in faith is through making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. Unfortunately recent surveys among Christians has shown that this is another thing we are failing to do. Ever wonder why the world is in the mess it is in? Ever wonder why we struggle with temptation and sin? Making regular and diligent use of the means of grace is not simply a nice catch phrase, but it is what needs to be done and can only be done as the Holy Spirit has His way with us, moving us to be in the Word, to read and to hear His Word, to remember our Baptism, to confess our sins and hear His most beautiful words of absolution, and to partake of the Lord’s body and blood through His Holy Supper. These are the external means through which our Lord keeps us steadfast in our faith.
 

As James urges us, so he reminds us that the Lord is compassionate and merciful. We know that the Lord is compassionate and merciful because we know that our purpose in life is that God has created us in order to give all things to us. God has not created us in order to get anything from us, as if there would be anything that we could give to Him. God has created us in order to love us and to give to us all His good gifts and blessings.
 

Our Lord has shown His compassion to us through such events as the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, and the immediate promise to send a Savior. God has shown His compassion on us through the nation of the children of Israel, a people God chose and blessed, yet a people who continually rebelled against God. Even so, as our Lord has chosen us to be His people, we are a people who continually rebel against God and yet He continually calls us back to faith, forgives us, and showers on us all His good gifts and blessings.
 

Our Lord showed His mercy in giving the life of His Son on the cross. Jesus came, as one of us, on with us, one like us, except without sin. Jesus came to do what the nation of Israel could not do. He came to do what we, what you and I cannot do. He came to live perfectly. He came to fulfill all God’s laws and commands, perfectly and He did. He came to take all our sins, our sins of impatience, our sins of not remaining steadfast in our faith, our sins of omission and commission, our sins of thought, word and deed. He came to suffer the pangs of eternal death of hell for us, in our place.
 

Our Lord shows His mercy in giving us His Word and Sacraments, the means of grace. Our Lord continues to come to us to give us His good gifts and blessings, whether we want them or not. He sends His Holy Spirit to work in us, to stir in us to make regular and diligent use of these means through which He comes to give us all His good gifts and blessings.
 

Our Lord will show His mercy even as He comes again. Yes, there will come a day when we will meet the Lord, when we will stand before Him, face to face That day will come sooner than we know and sooner than we might expect. That day will come either when the Lord actually returns, on the day of judgement or on the day we die and go to Him, but it will come. Our Lord continues to shower us with His grace and mercy until that day.
 

So, what does this mean? James urges us to be patient and to remain steadfast. In and of ourselves we are unable to be patient and to remain steadfast, so, thanks be to God that our Lord works to help us to be patient and to remain steadfast. Our Lord works to get us ready. Our Lord works to get us ready for our celebration of His first coming as we celebrate Christmas and He works to get us ready to celebrate His second coming, either when He actually comes on the day of judgement or when we pass away from this earth in death.
 

Not only does our Lord work to get us ready, He also works to keep us ready. He works through the external means that He has given us, His Word, as we read and hear His Word proclaimed, through Holy Baptism, as we remember that water and His name were put on us and through this means He put His name on us, put faith in our hearts and wrote our names in the book of heaven. He works through confession and absolution and His Holy Supper to give us forgiveness and to strengthen and keep us in faith.
 

Our Lord gets us ready and keeps us ready because He will keep His promise, our Lord will return. Just as Jesus kept God’s first promise and came into the world to give His life as a ransom for us, so Jesus will keep His promise to come again to take us from this vale of tears to be with Himself and all the saints in heaven.
 

We are still fourteen days away from our Christmas celebration. Be patient, do not celebrate just yet. Remain steadfast in your faith in and in your resolve to not celebrate until that day. Because then, on Christmas Day we will begin our celebration and we will celebrate for the full time of celebration, the twelve days of Christmas. May the Lord get you ready and keep you ready. May the Lord work in you to be patient and most of all to remain steadfast in your faith until He comes again. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Promise to Abraham - December 7, 2022 - Second Wednesday in Advent (Midweek 2) - Text: Gen. 12:3; Acts 3:25; Matt. 1:1; Luke 3:34

This year during the season of Advent through Christmas and New Year’s Eve we are looking at some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming Messiah, including the promise to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David as well as His birth place, His travel to Egypt, and finding the New Testament passages that confirm their fulfillment in our Savior, Christ Jesus.
 

Today we are again reminded of our need for forgiveness because of the sin of Adam and Eve and the curse of our world. We need this constant reminder of our need for forgiveness and we actually need the history of our need for forgiveness because too many in our world today actually think they are good people and do not understand our need for forgiveness. Thus, we begin with Adam and Eve. God created a perfect world and a perfect man and woman, Adam and Eve. He placed them in a perfect Garden and gave them work to do to care for the Garden and in order to give them an opportunity to respond to all His gifts He gave them one Law, to not eat from the fruit in the middle of the Garden. Of course, we know that history as we have rehearsed it from time to time, and as we are doing so during this Advent season, they sinned through their disobedience by eating the fruit and so their sin is passed on to us all so that we are all conceived and born in sin (what we call original sin).
 

God’s curse was death, the body would grow old and die a physical death, but worse, unless He stepped in there would be an eternal death in hell, which He had created for the rebellious angel Lucifer. And the world was cursed so that there would be difficulty in work, including thorns and sweat, painful labor, times of struggles and troubles.
 

And yet, because of His great love for His creation and for us, God promised a Savior, One who would bear the price of the sin of death and bring forgiveness in order to reconcile man with God, that is in order to bring back that original perfect relationship between God and man.
 

Later in the book of Genesis God reiterates the promise and at the same time He narrows the line of the fulfillment of that promise. Out of His grace and mercy, out of His love for him, God called Abraham and promised Him grace and every blessing. God promised Abraham a physical blessing, that is He promised to give Him a land and make his family into a great nation, a nation of many people and known by many. The physical part of the promise, which would later be given to Moses and be known as the Mosaic Covenant however, had a condition attached. The condition was that the physical blessings would only last as long as his people remained faithful to God and His Law.
 

Yet, more important than the physical part of God’s promise to Abraham was the spiritual, eternal part of the promise, later known as the Abrahamic Covenant. God promised Abraham that through his descendants the Savior of all nations would be born. In other words, this spiritual, eternal promise was not simply for Abraham and his descendants, but was for all nations, all people of all places, of all times and this part of the promise was an unconditional promise. This part of the promise did not depend on Abraham nor on any of his descendants.
 

Thus, as one follows the history of the Children of Abraham, the Children of Israel that is, they will see that Abraham’s descendants were not always faithful, but rebelled time and time again. The children of Abraham were truly unable to keep the conditional part of the promise and thus forfeited all those earthly, physical blessings. Yet, while the people of Abraham were not faithful, God continued to be faithful. Because the eternal part of the promise did not depend on Abraham nor his descendants, but on God and God alone, we know that we and all people are recipients of those blessings.
 

The Gospel writers Matthew and Luke both trace the lineage of Jesus in order to give proof of His Messiahship. If you have ever wondered about those genealogies in the Gospels and throughout the Bible, those genealogies provide not only a time line of history, but also a traceable family tree so that we might rejoice in the fulfillment of God’s promises. Both Matthew and Luke trace the ancestry of Jesus and both show that He was born as a descendant of Abraham. As a descendant of Abraham He fulfills God’s promise that the Savior would be born through the line of Abraham.
 

Matthew also makes the point to trace Jesus ancestry through the kingly line of David, perhaps the greatest king in the history of the Children of Israel. As we will be reminded next week, through another of God’s promises we are told that the Savior would be from the kingly line of King David, but again, that is for next week.
 

When God created the world His one Law, His one demand, His one command was to be perfect. God has never rescinded that one demand. Indeed, the only way to get to heaven is to be perfect. Adam and Eve failed as they disobeyed God. The Children of Abraham, the Children of Israel, although chosen by God disobeyed God and failed. And even we today continue to disobey God and fail. We cannot be the people God would have us to be. We are conceived and born in sin. We sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission and commission. Which is why God promised a Savior, a Redeemer. Jesus was born to do what Adam and Eve, the nation of Israel and what we are unable to do, live in perfection.
 

Jesus was born, true God in human flesh. Jesus had to be true God in order to be born in perfection, because only God is truly perfect. If Jesus were not truly God then He would have been conceived and born in sin and would have been unable to be our Savior. He had to be truly God in order to live in perfection, to be fully able to completely be perfect obeying all of God’s Laws and commands.
 

Jesus was also truly human and He had to be a human in order to be our substitute, that is in order to be able to trade His perfect life for our imperfect life. Jesus had to be truly human because the cost, the price for sin was human death for human sin. No other price would pay for our sins. Even the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, the sacrifices of animals did not forgive sins, but only pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice of the Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
 

What does this mean? As we read and heard today and as you can read and hear many other promises and prophecies in the Old Testament, the promise of a Savior was always a promise of a Savior for all people. The promise of a Savior was made before there were any ethnicities, Jew or Gentile. While the promise to Abraham had a physical, temporal promise depending on the compliance of the people, which history bears out that they were not obedient, the eternal aspect of the promise was never dependent on anyone except God alone.
 

Jesus tells the Pharisees when they objected to His not recognizing their ethnic status, God can raise of children of Abraham from stones. Indeed, being a part of the family of God does not come about by birth, it is not in your genes or DNA, but it is by faith and faith alone. By faith in Jesus, the Christ we are Christians and children of Abraham.
 

God made His promises, His covenant and God kept and keeps His promises and covenant. Jesus was born of the woman, the Virgin Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit, true God and true man. Jesus was born from the line of Abraham and King David. Jesus lived a perfect life never sinning even once. Jesus was perfectly obedient and fulfilled all the prophesies concerning the Savior. Jesus took our sins and the sins of all people of all places of all times upon Himself and He suffered hell for us in our place. And yet, we know the rest of the history, death and the grave had no hold over Him as He rose victorious over sin, death and the devil. Jesus reconciled our account before God so that we owe nothing, rather it is God in His infinite grace and mercy who continues to give to us, pouring out on us and lavishing us with all His good gifts and blessings, faith, forgiveness and eternal life.
 

What a great God we have. What a gift giving God we have. We rejoice in our Lord’s gifts, in His means of grace through which He comes to us and pour out on us all the gifts He has to give. Indeed, as He comes to us through His Word, through Holy Baptism, through Holy Absolution, and through His tangible Word in His Holy Supper He gives us faith, strengthens our faith, forgives our sins, gives us eternal life and even stirs in us our response of faith, that is to rejoice and say, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Be of One Mind - December 4, 2022 - Second Sunday in Advent - Text: Romans 15:4-13

Today is the second Sunday in Advent and we continue to prepare ourselves for our Christmas celebration. Remember, we do not celebrate Christmas yet, not until December 25 and then we have the twelve days of our Christmas celebration, until January 6 and the day we celebrate Epiphany. We continue to get ourselves ready for our Christmas celebration by our text reminding us of why we have Christmas in the first place. In the Old Testament reading for today we are reminded of the promise of God to send a Savior from the line of Jesse, King David’s father. We are reminded that this Savior will bring righteousness and eternal peace. In the Gospel lesson we are reminded that God never forgot His promises as we see the fulfillment of His promises begin with the coming of John the Baptist to prepare the way for the Savior, Jesus Himself.
 

Paul is the apostle who calls himself one abnormally born. Paul was not an eye witness of Jesus like the other apostles, but he was an eye witness as Jesus revealed Himself to Paul on the road to Damascus. In our text for today we have a plea from Paul to live in harmony. We read beginning at four, “4For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (v. 4-7). Why do we need Paul to call us to live in harmony? Here is where we go further back into the Old Testament. Back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were given one word of instruction, to not eat from the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Because they disobeyed God and ate of the fruit they brought sin into the world and with sin came God’s punishment and curse, death, physical death and ultimately apart from Jesus and faith in Jesus eternal death and hell. This fall into sin broke the once perfect relationship between God and man and separated us from God. No longer do we have the perfect relationship and communion with God that Adam and Eve once enjoyed.
 

Not only did this fall into sin separate us from God, it also separates us from each other. Have you ever wondered why children are disobedient to their parents? Why teenagers fight with their parents? Why children fight with each other? Why adults, even husbands and wives have arguments? It is because we are all conceived and born in sin. We share in our first parents sinful nature. With our perfect relationship with God broken, there is no way we can have any good relationship with each other, because it is only as God first loves us that we are able to reciprocate that love toward others.
 

Now, here in our text, knowing and understanding our broken relationship with God and with each other, Paul would have us be reconciled to each other. It is Paul’s desire that we make amends for our sins and that we live in harmony, that we have peace with one another. Of course, Paul knows our nature. He knows that there is nothing we can do in order to be reconciled with each other. He knows that left to ourselves we would remain forever separated from God and from each other. He knows that we cannot look inside ourselves for the answer instead we must look outside ourselves.
 

Paul does not simply encourage us, he even gives us instruction in how we can be reconciled to one another. We pick up our text at verse eight, “8For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name.” 10And again it is said, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.” 11And again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.” 12And again Isaiah says, “The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.” (v. 8-12). First, Paul encourages us by giving us the answer to the problem of our being separated from God and that is that Christ came as one of us. Christ came as a servant in order to do for us what we are unable to do. Christ came to live perfectly for us in our place, because we cannot be perfect and remember the demand of God’s law is to be perfect, as He is perfect.
 

Going back to the Garden of Eden, God promised Adam and Eve that He would take care of their sin. He would send a Savior. He would send one who would reconcile the debt of their eternal life because of their sin. God reiterated His promise throughout the Old Testament. God reiterated His promise through the Patriarchs as Paul tells us. And God’s promise of a Savior for all people never changed. Yes, God did narrow the family line through whom the Savior would be born, namely through the line of Abraham, but the promise was never changed to be for only one ethnic group of people. God’s promise was always that He would send a Savior for all people. Jesus came to fulfill all God’s promises made in the Old Testament.
 

Remember, Paul is writing to the Christians at Rome. He is writing to Jew and Gentile alike. He is writing to those who were of physical descent of the patriarchs as well as those who were not. And he is writing to us today as well, most of whom are not physical descendants of Abraham. Jesus came, not simply to give His life for the Jews, but He came to save Jew and Gentile alike. Too often this was missed as the children of Israel believed that they alone were the ones to be saved and they believed this salvation was their birthright. As we look at the Old Testament texts Paul quotes we see that when God made His promise to take care of Adam and Eve’s sin and the sin of the world, there were no Jews and Gentiles, only people, so His promise was to save all people. We are reconciled with each other only as we are first reconciled to God who reconciles us to Himself through His Son, Jesus, the Savior.
 

Finally, Paul concludes with a benediction, “13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (v.13). Our God is the God of hope. And here, for us Christians, hope is not a wishy, washy, maybe, but a certainty. Our God is the God of certainty. For us the future may be unseen, but God knows all and sees all and He has a certainty of eternal life in heaven for us.
 

Our God is the God of joy and peace in believing. The peace which our God gives is a peace which passes all understanding. His peace is not simply a peace of mind, a peace of a few hours of relaxation. His peace is a peace of forgiveness of sins and the gift and promise of eternal life in heaven. Indeed, there is no greater peace for us than the peace of knowing our sins are forgiven because we also know that with forgiveness is life and salvation.
 

And our God sends the Holy Spirit to give, strengthen and keep us in faith. It is true, we do well on our own when it comes to sinning. We do not need God’s help or anyone’s help. We sin well all on our own and that is only what we are able to do. We cannot look inside ourselves to find the answer to life’s questions, to find a way to stop sinning, to find a way to bear up under temptation. We must look outside ourselves and we do that as we make use of the means of grace which our Lord gives to us and through which He comes to us to help us to bear up under temptation, to give us forgiveness and to help us to live God pleasing lives. Yes, it is the Holy Spirit who works in us to give to us, to strengthen us and to keep us in faith.
 

So, as usual we ask, “What Does This Mean?” As we prepare ourselves for our celebration of Jesus birth, we are reminded that God created everything in perfection and man ruined it. So, now we no longer live in a perfect world. We now live in a sin filled world. And we are sinners living in this sin filled world.
 

Thanks be to God that immediately after the fall into sin He promised to send a Savior and Jesus is that Savior and He is that Savior for all. God’s promise was not made to one person or simply to two people, but His promise was made to the parents of all people, so that just as their sin is born in us all, so through Jesus’ work on the cross, the giving of His life is for us all. This does not discount the fact that God chose the children of Israel to be the nation through which the Savior would be born, but the Savior was born not simply the Savior for this one nation, but for all and we see that in the Old Testament texts Paul quotes again and again.
 

And even today, God heaps His blessings on us. As we make regular and diligent use of the means of grace, reading and hearing the Word of God, remembering our Baptism, confessing our sins and hearing those most beautiful words of forgiveness, “your sins are forgiven,” and as we come to partake of our Lord’s body and blood through His Holy Supper wherein we are given all the good gifts and blessings our Lord has to bestow on us. Through these means we are given forgiveness and with forgiveness again we know we also have life and salvation. Through these means our Lord works to give, strengthen and keep us in faith until Christ comes again.
 

Paul’s Words remind us of our need for a Savior but even more they remind us that God has taken care of that need as well as all our needs. Jesus is the one promised by God and sent by God to do for us what we are unable to do. And we give thanks for all that He has done, for the giving of His life, for giving us faith and for keeping us in faith. And for giving us the words to say, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.