Proclaim, the Year of the Lord’s Favor - December 17, 2017 - Third Sunday in Advent - Text: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Today is the third Sunday in Advent which means we are at the three-fourths way point in getting ready for our Christmas celebration. Before we celebrate we still have some preparation to do. Remember, when we do not prepare ourselves things do not necessarily go the way we expect. This morning we continue our Advent preparation with the words of the prophet Isaiah. These are the words Jesus read when He preached at His home church in Nazareth and of which Jesus said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). As we read these words from Isaiah we are reminded that the “me” of the text is the Messiah, that is, it is Jesus Himself who is speaking.
 

Our text begins with Jesus, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, telling us what He was anointed to do. (And yes, I know the words are not printed in Red, but Jesus is God and God is Jesus and these are Jesus’ words.) We begin at verse one, “1The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified . 4They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations” (v. 1-4).
 

Jesus came to preach good news to the poor. This way of saying it might be a play on words, for the word translated as “preach” comes from the word used for “skin.” In other words, Jesus came not only to preach, but He also came to be in skin, that is, He came in human flesh to preach the good news, to live the good news, to give His life as a ransom for all. And the poor is not necessarily those with little or no material possessions. The poor about whom he is speaking are the spiritually poor. Jesus came to be the good news to the spiritually poor. He came to live His life and give His life for ours.
 

Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted. You can almost sense a medical emergency with these words. Our hearts are broken. They are broken because of the sin and guilt that have infected our lives. Literally, we are crushed by the weight of sin that is upon us. Jesus comes to bind up our sin caused wounds. But not only does Jesus bind our brokeness, He takes our sins, our brokeness upon Himself on the cross.
 

Jesus comes to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. In the Apostles’ Creed we confess that Jesus descended into hell. This line comes from Peter’s epistle and reminds us that Jesus went to hell, not to suffer, but to declare victory over the devil. Jesus suffered hell on the cross. On the cross He suffered the eternal punishment for all people of all times and all places. He suffered the complete suffering for all. By His suffering and death we are free from the tyranny of sin, death and the devil. We are freed from our captivity and released from the darkness of the prison of sin.
 

Jesus comes to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Here we see the contrast of God’s Law and His Gospel. Notice that the Law, the vengeance of the Lord, is for but a day, “the day of vengeance”. On the other hand, notice that the Gospel, the Lord’s favor is for a year, “the year of the Lord’s favor”. That is a 365 to one ratio. God’s Gospel always far our weighs His Law.
 

Jesus comes to comfort all who mourn and to provide for those who grieve in Zion. Those who mourn or grieve do so because of the victories won over us by sin, death, and the devil in their own lives as well as in this world. Our lives in this world may often be a walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
 

Jesus comes to comfort and to provide for those in sadness and He will do so by bestowing on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. What a great contrast. With Jesus we trade in sorrow for joy, sadness for gladness and despair for praise. Obviously we get the better end of the bargain.
 

But there is more. Our text continues by telling us what Jesus has done, but notice, Isaiah is speaking of what has yet to take place and he does so in a tense that suggests that it has already taken place. The future is presented as being in the past. Isaiah proclaims for the Lord, “8For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 9Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. 10I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (v. 8-10).
 

We will delight greatly in the Lord. We will delight greatly because of the Lord’s plan for our salvation. The Lord is the one who prepared the plan. The Lord is the one who set His plan in motion. The Lord is the one who worked out His plan. The Lord is the one who gave His Son on the cross for us. The Lord is the one who did everything for us.
 

We delight greatly that the Lord has clothed us with garments of salvation. The garments of salvation with which we are clothed are Jesus’ blood and righteousness, made ours by faith in His work on the cross in our place. Our sin stained garments are covered by Jesus’ perfect garments of salvation.
 

We delight greatly because we have been arrayed in robes of righteousness. Again, the robes of righteousness are Jesus’ robes made ours by faith in His work on the cross. Our imperfections are covered by Jesus’ perfections.
 

In verse eleven we have an analogy. We read, “11For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations” (v. 11).
 

Isaiah’s analogy reminds us that the seed is the word of the Lord. Jesus told many parables about the sower and the seed. The seed is that Word of God which is planted in our hearts. It is planted either by our own reading of God’s Word, or by our hearing God’s Word read to us. Or it was planted in our hearts at our baptism. Notice, it is done to us, it is planted in us, we do not do it to ourselves, we do not plant it ourselves.
 

We are the soil. The seed is planted in the soil that is in our hearts. Our hearts are either fertile or infertile. We either are given the Word of God or we reject it. And again, notice that we are passively done to. The only active part we may play is to reject God and His Word, that is to reject the faith that is given.
 

All Christians together are the garden which is the Church. Together we come to hear God’s Word, to have it planted in our hearts. Together we come to hear God’s Word which waters that seed planted in our hearts. Together we come to hear God’s Word which works in us so that we spring up and bear abundant fruit. Together we come to passively be given to.
 

We are still in the Advent season. We are still getting ready to celebrate Christ’s Mass. As we read and hear our text for today we are reminded that we are not the ones who are doing anything, really. Rather it is God who does everything for us. He gets us ready for the “just the right time” that God will set His plan into motion. Remember, Isaiah is looking forward to what he is telling us has already happened.
 

God does everything. He is the one who sent His Son to give His life for us on the cross. He is the one who gives us faith through His Word and through the waters of Holy Baptism. He is the one who gives us strengthening of faith through His means of grace, as we remember our baptism, as we confess our sins and hear the words of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven,” as we come to the Lord’s table to eat His body and drink His blood. He is the one who gives us forgiveness of sins. He is the one who gives us eternal life. He is the one who gives and gives and gives and we are the ones who are given to.
 

God gives us grace through His Son. I am sure you have heard the definition of grace. Grace is God’s riches at Christ expense. God gives us His grace, His undeserved love, His good gifts and blessings. This gift of grace is shown in the giving of His one and only Son to die on the cross for our forgiveness. As we continue to prepare ourselves during this Advent season we do so keeping in mind that as we will celebrate the birth of the Savior, we do so in the shadow of the cross.
 

The bad news is that we are sinners and there is no way of getting around it. We daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. We daily break all the commandments. We are conceived and born in sin and every inclination of our hearts is evil all the time. The good news, the best news, the greatest news, the Gospel is that there is hope and as Christian we understand hope to be a certainty, not an iffy thing. Our hope, our certainty is that Jesus was anointed to give His life on the cross as a ransom for all people, and that is what He has already done, so that we might be given the righteousness that He earned. And we are moved by Him to give praise and glory, eternally, to His holy name. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Justification in the Apostles’ Creed - December 13, 2017 - Second Advent Midweek - Text: The Apostles’ Creed

This year, in keeping with the celebration of the 500 anniversary of the Reformation, for the Advent through New Year’s Eve services we will look at the main emphasis of the Reformation, which is the authority of the Word of God and the article of the confessions on which the church stands or falls, the article on justification by grace through faith in Jesus alone. We will look at justification in the way of the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism and prayerfully we will connect this justification to our Christmas, birth of Jesus celebration and our New Year’s celebration as well.

Last week we took up the first of the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism, the Ten Commandments. Today we take up the second chief part of Luther’s Small Catechism, the Apostles’ Creed. As there are some in our world who say they do not believe in creeds I would suggest that is because they do not know what a creed is. So we define a creed as nothing more than a statement or confession of faith or as some call it today a statement of faith. We might liken a creed to Jesus warning that if we do not confess faith in Jesus, He will not confess His dying for us.

Although we learn of the persons of the trinity each individually as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we must at all times remember that they are never separate, but are always one, just as the creed is one creed. With that reminder we want to being with the first article of the creed. In the first article we begin in the beginning with a confession of faith that in the beginning God created. God created all things out of nothing. In the beginning all was perfect because all was created by our perfect God.

Unfortunately, what God created as perfect, as good, man quickly made sinful through disobedience. It was the disobedience of Adam and Eve that brought sin and the need for a Savior which brings us to the second article.

In the second article we confess our faith in God’s promise of forgiveness, especially His promise first given in the Garden of Eden and reiterated to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and so on throughout the Old Testament, a Savior for all people.

We confess that we believe that Jesus is and had to be true God in order to be born in perfection. Because we humans have had our DNA, our genes tainted by sin and because only God can be born sinless, therefore Jesus was conceived by God the Holy Spirit in order to be born sinless and truly God incarnate, or in the flesh. We confess that we believe that Jesus is also truly human and He had to be a human in order to be our substitute, that is in order to trade His life for ours. Remember, the price for sins was death, one human death for another human death. All the sacrifices of the Old Testament did nothing to gain or earn forgiveness, they merely pointed to the one ultimate sacrifice of a true man, Jesus and His death for our death as a substitute for us.

We confess that we believe that Jesus lived for us. He lived in perfection, as we were reminded last week, never disobeying any of the commandments but perfectly keeping them all. He perfectly obeyed all God’s Law and perfectly fulfilled all God’s promises concerning His coming as the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ.

We confess that we believe that having lived in perfection Jesus then took our sins, all our sins and the sins of all people, of all places, of all times on Himself. The price for sin which was set in the Garden of Eden was death, physical death and apart from Jesus and faith in Jesus it would be eternal spiritual death. Jesus suffered death, physical death as well as hell, eternal spiritual death for us on the cross and He died.

We confess that we believe the Jesus did not stay dead but on the third day He rose from the dead. He rose bodily from the grave. Death and the grave had no power over Him as He defeated death and the grave. He rose and showed Himself to be alive for forty days so as many as possible might bear witness of His resurrection. He rose and because He rose we know that we too will rise again.

In the third article we confess our faith in the third person of the trinity, God the Holy Spirit who is one with the Father and the Son, undivided in unity. We confess that we believe that God sends the Holy Spirit just as He promised to bring us to faith and keep us in faith.

We confess that we believe the Holy Spirit points to Jesus and points us to Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not point to Himself and does nothing to point us to look at Him. We hear little of the Holy Spirit because He is doing His work of pointing to Jesus. He points us to Jesus because in Jesus is life and salvation.

We confess that we believe the Holy Spirit works through means to point to Jesus. God has given us a way or a means in which He comes to us to give us the good gifts and blessings He has to give and those means are His Holy Word, confession and absolution and His sacred acts or Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Through these very means, even ordinary means God comes to give us faith, to give us forgiveness, to strengthen us in faith, to keep us in faith, to give us life and salvation. As we read and hear God’s Word the Holy Spirit uses and works through that Word to give and strengthen us in faith. As we confess our sins and hear the pastor speak the words of absolution the Holy Spirit works through that proclamation to give us the forgiveness won, earned and paid for by Jesus. As water and God’s name are spoken on us at our Baptism the Holy Spirit gives us faith and forgiveness, writes our names in the Book of Life, and makes us His own. As we eat and drink Jesus’ body and blood in His holy meal the Holy Spirit connects us to Jesus so that we participate in Jesus’ life, suffering, death and resurrection so that they become a part of us and ours.

As we confess our faith in God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we confess our faith in our justification by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. On our own, our standing before God is that we have messed up what God has first given in perfection. Even as Adam and Eve brought sin into the world through their disobedience, we daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. God created all things in perfection and He demands the same from us that we live in perfection, which we cannot do.

God’s demand is perfection and we cannot regain perfection on our own, no matter what. As we were reminded last week, a drowning person cannot save themself but must completely depend on the life guard to save them. So even us, we cannot save ourselves but we must completely depend on Jesus to save us.

As we confess in this creed, God cleans up what man messes up, and He does so on a daily basis. As we heard last week and the reason for the commandments is to show us our sin so that the Gospel might lead us to repentance. The Apostles’ Creed is a confession of the Gospel, of God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created all things perfect and holy out of nothing; who took on flesh and blood in order to bring us back into a right relationship with Himself, who comes to us through ordinary earthly means, Word, Water, Bread, and Wine, to give us forgiveness, to strengthening and keep us in faith.

As I have reminded you time and again, we get it right when we point to Jesus. We point to Jesus as we confess that God makes us right with Himself because He loves us so.

As we continue to move through this Advent season we continue to prepare ourselves to celebrate the beginning of the end, the birth of the One sent to bring us justification to us and to all, Jesus. We are reminded of the reason for Jesus’ birth, our sinful and fallen nature. But more we are reminded of God’s great love for us so much that He did give His life so that we might have forgiveness and life.

And so we boldly confess, not for someone else, but for ourselves. We confess and profess our faith in God who is one God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We confess and profess pointing to Jesus, the author and Perfecter of our faith. We confess and profess as we reflect His love back to Him, as we echo His Word, that is as we say back to Him the very Words that He has given us to say and in so doing worship Him and give praise and glory to His Holy Name, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Prepare the Way for the Lord - December 10, 2017 - Second Sunday in Advent - Isaiah 40:1-11

Today is the Second Sunday in Advent and we continue to prepare ourselves for our Christmas Day Celebration. Preparation is something that is very important to us. When we do not take the time to prepare, things do not go the way we might want. It is very much like the old saying goes, “People do not plan to fail, they fail to plan.” God had a plan. His plan was to send His one and only Son to suffer the eternal consequences for the sins of the whole world. God did a lot of preparing to make sure His plan worked. At just the right time God set His plan in motion and His plan did work, because God prepared it and worked it. As we go about our daily lives during this time of the year, it is as if most people skip the part of planning for Christmas and just jump straight to the Christmas celebration. That is too bad, because the time for preparation brings more excitement and anticipation for the celebration.
 

Our text for today speaks of God’s preparation. We read about the sending of a Savior beginning at verse one; “1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 3A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken’” (v. 1-5).
 

In English a double negative is not a good thing. In Greek and Hebrew a double negative compounds and emphasizes the negative. Likewise a double positive emphasizes the positive. In our text we hear the prophet Isaiah emphasizing the positive when he says, “Comfort, comfort.” This word is one which means to breath deeply, to sigh in deep relief. These words remind us that our comfort, our real comfort, comes only from God. The prophet speaks words which prepare the people for God’s comfort, because the people had suffered enough.
 

The prophet announces the Savior’s coming. The Savior’s coming would be in Bethlehem, but His saving work, His dying on the cross would be in Jerusalem, the capital city of the children of Israel.
 

Before Jesus began His earthly ministry, His way, His path was prepared. John the Baptist is the voice of one calling in the desert. John the Baptist is the one the Lord sent to prepare the way for the Savior. In somewhat the same way as we prepare ourselves for our Christmas celebration, so the Lord prepared His people, those who continued to believe in the promise of a Messiah so that they would recognize Jesus as the One promised to save the world.
 

John came calling in the desert. Many years earlier the Lord delivered the children of Israel out of the desert into the promised land. This deliverance was a foreshadowing of what was now about to happen. Now the Lord has sent His Son to deliver the people out of their desert of sin into the promised land of salvation. How fitting that John came calling in the desert.
 

John came calling people to repentance. Jesus came to earn forgiveness for the world, but the world can refuse that forgiveness. John knew and understood this, thus he came calling the people to not refuse Jesus’ work of forgiveness by encouraging them to repent. John knew that some of the people were looking for a social-political savior, one who would overthrow those in power over them. He also knew that this was not the reason Jesus came into the world, as a social-political savior. The promise of a Savior was first given in the Garden of Eden, to Adam and Eve and to all humanity. The promise was for a Savior who would bring forgiveness of sins, a Savior who would bring humanity back into a right relationship with God the Father. Thus, John came calling, not a call to arms, but a call to repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
 

The prophet continues with his encouragement to repent because he knows the shortness of time. We pick up at verse six, “6A voice says, ‘Cry!’ And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’ All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. 8The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (v. 6-8).
 

We have talked about this before and we will again. Time is always relative. When you were a child, how long did it take you to go from one place to another? It depended on what you had to do to occupy your time. How long did it take for Christmas day to arrive? It depended on how much other stuff you had filling your time. Our time on this earth is short, especially when we fill it with so much earthy stuff and, even more so when we compare our short time here with our eternity in heaven. The prophet reminds us that our time is like that of the grass and flowers, that is, our time is but a season compared to the whole year.
 

Again, our time is nothing, our time is very short, compared to eternity. We tend to forget that in eternity our time here on this earth will be merely a blip on the screen, and yet we spend more time being concerned about the things of this world, often to the detriment of our eternal life. The Devil would have us contend ourselves with the pettiness of this world rather than being about the business of being God’s people, because if our time is time away from the Lord, if we die in sin and unbelief, then our time away from the Lord will be in hell for eternity.
 

If you have lived in this world long enough you may have come to the conclusion that there is nothing permanent in this world. The only thing that does not change is the fact that everything does change. As Christians we realize that everything in the world might change, but the Word of the Lord does not change. The word of the Lord stands forever.
 

God through the prophet proclaims the Savior’s first coming, but the prophet also reminds us of Jesus second coming. We pick up at verse nine, “9Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’ 10Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him’ and his recompense before him. 11He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (v. 9-11).
 

Jesus’ first coming was to live for us and to give His life for us. Jesus’ second coming will be to take us to live with Himself forever in eternity. Jesus’ second coming will also be at a time no one knows.
 

Jesus’ first coming was humble and in a manger. He came riding humbly into Jerusalem on a donkey. He humbled Himself and was crucified for us on the cross. He humbled Himself so that He did not always or fully use all His divine power. Jesus’ second coming will be with power and great might. He will come to judge the world. He will come to create a new heaven and a new earth. He will come to destroy the devil and all his works and all his ways and to lock him up forever in the abys. He will come in all His glory and all His divine power and all His majesty.
 

At Jesus’ second coming every knee will bow, those believing as well as the unbelievers. Unfortunately, it will be the unbelievers who will bow and yet blame God for their unbelief. They will blame God because they are going to hell. They will blame God because they still will not recognize that God does hold us accountable for our sins if and when we refuse Jesus’ work on the cross to grant us forgiveness.
 

Jesus’ second coming will be to judge the world. He will judge the world rightly. He will judge those with faith in His saving work on the cross to eternal life with Him in heaven. And He will judge those who refuse to believe in Him to eternal life in hell.
 

Jesus’ first coming was to give His life as a ransom for the world. Jesus’ second coming will be to take us to heaven to be with Himself for eternity.
 

As we move into this second week in Advent we ask, “how do we prepare ourselves to celebrate Jesus first coming?” We begin preparing ourselves by being in the Word, that is by reading and studying our Bibles. We begin in the Word, because the Word, the Bible is a word with power. It is a Word through which the Holy Spirit works to create faith and to strengthen faith.
 

We prepare ourselves by remembering our baptism. It was at our baptism that the Lord put His name on us, put faith in our hearts, gave us the forgiveness of sins, life, eternal life and salvation. There may be times during this Advent season that we do not feel very Christmas-y or very Advent-y for that matter. It is at these times that we put our minds in gear and remember that it is not our feelings that save us, rather it is God through Jesus who saves us.
 

We prepare ourselves by coming and confessing our sins and hearing the most beautiful words in the world, “Your sins are forgiven.” These are the most precious words because left in our sin we would be eternally condemned, but with forgiveness is life and salvation.
 

And we prepare ourselves by attending the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is that means where by the Lord comes to us through His true body, in, with and under the bread, and His true blood, in, with and under the wine, to give us forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins gives us strengthening to know that God has accomplished His work of salvation for us on the cross.
 

Our text for this morning reminds us, not of the messenger, but of the message and its fulfillment. It is not the messenger that is most important. What is most important is the message and its fulfillment. The message of God is the message of the sending a Savior to be born to save us and to come back to take us to heaven. The message and its fulfillment is given as we read, hear and experience it in God’s means of grace. As we make use of God’s means of grace, these means do what they say, that is they give the gifts God has to give, faith, forgiveness and life, even eternal life. And as we are given these gifts we are so moved to say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Justification in the Ten Commandments - December 6, 2017 - First Advent Midweek - Text: The Ten Commandments

This year, in keeping with the celebration of the 500 anniversary of the Reformation, for the Advent through New Year’s Eve services we will look at the main emphasis of the Reformation, which is the authority of the Word of God and the article of the confessions on which the church stands or falls, the article on justification by grace through faith in Jesus alone. We will look at justification in the way of the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism and prayerfully we will connect this justification to our Christmas, birth of Jesus celebration and our New Year’s celebration as well.

Today we begin with the first of the six chief parts of Luther’s Small Catechism, the Ten Commandments. We divide the Ten Commandments into two parts, the first table, commandments 1-3 and the second table, commandments 4-10. The first table of the commandments concerns our relationship with God and gives us direction in how we are to be in relation with God.

The very first commandment is indeed the key to all the commandments. The very first commandment reminds us that we shall have no other gods than the one true God. If we could get this first commandment right, if we could keep this very first commandment then we can get them all right. The problem is that because we are conceived and born in sin, because our very nature is contrary to God, we have a tendency and we actually place many people and things before God in our lives, thus breaking this commandment, thus breaking our relationship with God and therefore causing us to break all the rest of the commandments as well.

This very first table of the commandments does what all of history and all of Holy Scripture does, it points us to God and to Jesus in particular. God is the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier and the Preserver. He gives and we are given to, thus He rightly demands first place in our lives, He rightly demands perfection, He rightly demands our all, but because we are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God, in and of ourselves we are unable to keep this very first commandment and truly we are unable to keep all the commandments.

In these first three commandments we have God’s very gift of Himself and His desire to abundantly pour out on us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give. And He does give to us through the means that He has given to pour out on us all He has to give. We are to fear, love and trust in God above all which includes keeping His name Holy through our participation of the Divine Service Sabbath rest. It is only as we keep the Sabbath that we are given the gifts and blessings God has to give and we keep the Sabbath by not refusing and rejecting the gifts of God by absenting ourselves, putting something before God, but by making regular, every time service is offered, and diligent, paying close attention, use of the means of grace.

The second table of the commandments concerns our relationships with each other. This second table directs us in the way in which we should go in our daily lives so that we might have order and peace with each other in our world. Of course, as we realize that our relationship with God has been broken so this broken relationship puts a strain on our relationships with one another. Yet God in His infinite wisdom and mercy has given us this second table of commandments in order to direct our ways even if imperfectly.

The first commandment of the second table, that is, the fourth commandment sets the foundation for all authority, that is for all government. All government flows from God to us through mediators in particularly first and foremost through our parents. God gives parents the gift of children and the authority and responsibility to care for, raise and nurture children in the ways of the Lord, or as we say, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. As parents we extend this authority as we give some authority to those who rule over us for the common good of all, that is to those who teach our children, to those we elect into office, mayors, governors, presidents, also those in law enforcement and the like.

In the remainder of the commandments, which are often seen as simply God’s Law, we might understand the blessings of the commandments as God gives the gifts of authority, life, sexuality, possessions, reputation, and contentment. As we hear God’s law that we should not murder we can see that in this command God gives us the gift of life, that is we are to live and let live according to God’s will. As God commands chastity so we see God’s gift of sexuality and the good He gives us in leading chaste and decent lives. In God’s command to not steal we see God’s gift of possessions and care for the possessions of others as well. In God’s command to not bear false witness we see God’s gift of our reputation and the need to be careful of what we say and how we speak of others, always explaining everything the best way possible. And in God’s command to not covet we see God’s gift of contentment, that is to be content in all the good gifts and blessings He gives as well as to not be envious or covetous of others who have different gifts and blessings, rather to rejoice with them and to help them improve and protect what is theirs.

What does this mean? The main point of the commandments is to point out the fact that we are sinners. As we confess at the beginning of many services, “8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). How can we confess if we fail to recognize our sins and if we fail to confess then our sins remain on us and we would be eternally condemned.

 

The commandments were given and were not meant for us to find loopholes as some and even as we would sometimes seek to do, but they are given to show us our sins so we might repent. Indeed, how often do we find others and ourselves making excuses for our sins, pointing the finger of blame to someone else, “It was not my fault, after all,” or so we protest, “He/She/You made me do it.” “The woman you gave me.” “The serpent beguiled me.” And so it continues even today. This denial and loop hole finding is the work the Devil who would have us remain in our sin.

As we may need to be reminded, the Law shows us our sins, that is the point of the Law. And yet, ultimately it is also the point of the Law to point us to the Gospel. The Law does not motivate us to repent, only the Gospel motivates repentance. However the Law does show us our sins so that we see our need for the Gospel.

The Law and the Gospel together remind us that we cannot justify ourselves. We cannot make ourselves just and right in God’s eyes. We are conceived and born in sin. Every inclination of our hearts if evil all the time. The good that we would do we do not do but the evil that is before us, that is what we do, wretched people that we are. Just as a drowning person cannot save himself so we cannot justify ourselves.

Justification must and does come from outside of us. As a drowning person must have someone come to save them so we must have someone to come and save us. Just as a lifeguard will push away a drowning person attempting to help save himself so as to not have them both drown so too we cannot help God save us. He must do the work completely because He and He alone is without sin and He and He alone can take our sins and give us forgiveness.

As we prepare for the Advent of our King, we prepare to celebrate the birth of the One who came as true God, in perfection in the flesh as true man, we prepare for the one who justifies, Jesus. Jesus is true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and true man, born of the human woman. Jesus is perfection and He is God’s answer to our sin and imperfection. We owe our very lives because of our sins, remember, the wages of sin is death. Jesus owes nothing as He is the sinless Son of God even God Himself in human flesh. Jesus came as God promised, to reconcile us, to bring us back into a right relationship with Himself, a relationship that we broken in the Garden of Eden.

The fullness of the Gospel is the fact that Jesus came to live for us, to do for us what we are unable to do, to be perfect for us, and that perfection He fulfilled by keeping the commandments for us, in our place. When God looks at us, by faith in Jesus He no longer sees us as sinners, but as saints, as redeemed children. He sees Jesus in and through us.

Jesus makes us just and right in God’s eyes. We have no part in what Jesus has done, does and continues to do for us and in and through us. It is all Jesus and Jesus alone.

As we prepare our hearts and mind to celebrate the birth of Jesus, God in flesh, we do so by being reminded of the reason He was born, to live for us, to be perfect for us in our place, to obey all the commandments for us because we cannot. As we prepare our hearts and minds we do so by confessing our sins and our part in the reason for Jesus’ birth, especially as we are reminded that the ultimate reason for His birth was to give His life as a ransom for us all, not out of coercion, but because of His great love for us. As we prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate Jesus’ birth we do so with the joy of the faith given to us through the very means of the Word of God which is the ultimate authority in this Word, given to us by God because of His great love for us a love seen in His Son and His life for our forgiveness. Our response; to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.