Blessed are those who are willing to wait

Posted on December 12, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/655933825 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Advent 3 – Gaudete

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

The last two Sundays in Advent introduce us to the preacher of Advent, John the Baptist. In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls him a prophet, and more than a prophet. A prophet, because John prepared the people of Israel for the Advent of Christ, preparing the way of the Lord by turning men’s hearts to the things of God, to the readiness of repentance and faith. A prophet, because he foretold the coming of the Christ. More than a prophet, because John himself was prophesied by the Old Testament prophets. More than a prophet, because when Jesus was ready to begin His ministry, John proclaimed, not as a prophet, but as a herald, “The Christ is here!”

Next week we’ll look deeper into John’s ministry and preaching. But this week, the Gospel turns our attention to the final days of John’s life, after his preaching and baptizing were done. It shows us a minister of God who has done exactly what he was sent to do, who willingly set aside the comforts of life and society because he was thoroughly devoted to the mission God had given him. But now he sits in prison for doing what was right, for doing the very thing God had sent him to do, for preaching the truth to King Herod. He’s facing the end of his life, and he’s confused, because he spent his short ministry zealously pointing people to Jesus as the Christ, as the One who was to come, and yet to this day, Jesus has not done a single thing John said he would do, at least, not that John can see. But, again, he does exactly the right thing. Instead of trying to figure it all out on his own, or worse, giving up on Jesus, he sends two of his own disciples to Jesus, to ask Him for clarity and for help.

Through his disciples, John asked Jesus the question that was pressing on his heart and mind, Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another? Since the days of Adam and Eve, God had been announcing, through the Old Testament prophets, the coming of a Messiah, a one-of-a-kind Savior, a Man who would also be God, a Christ who would do a whole list of things: He would teach the people of Israel with divine authority. He would speak to them in parables. He would perform miracles of healing. He would preach good news to the poor. He would institute a New Covenant (or Testament). He would be rejected by the people. He would suffer and be put to death, as the Lamb of God, for the sins of the world. He would be raised from the dead. He would reign as a King and bring justice to the world and righteousness to Israel. He would gather people from all nations into His kingdom. He would pour out His Spirit on His Church. He would raise all the dead. He would create new heavens and a new earth. He would get rid of pain and suffering and sickness and death. He would gather His people Israel together to dwell in safety, and He would destroy the wicked forever. All of those things were prophesied about the coming Christ in the Old Testament, and many of those things were also preached by John the Baptist as things that Jesus, the Christ, would do.

But how much of it had Jesus actually done since He was baptized by John in the Jordan River? Not very much. And from Jesus’ words and actions, it didn’t seem like most of it was even part of the plan. Jesus was intentionally not running a political campaign, was not overthrowing the wicked, was not releasing His people, like John, from prison or from suffering at the hands of sinners. John had said about the Christ, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. But where was the fire? Where was the winnowing fan, or the cleaning out, or the gathering of the wheat, or the burning up of the chaff? John expected all of those things from Jesus, not only because he had proclaimed it, but because the Old Testament Scriptures had proclaimed it. How could Jesus be the One who was to come if He wasn’t doing what He was supposed to do?

Here was Jesus’ answer that He gave John’s disciples to bring back to their teacher: Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. You see, Jesus was doing some of the things that the coming Christ was supposed to do, and they weren’t little things. The miracles He was performing were unprecedented, and He performed them easily, usually with nothing more than a word. He performed them with grace and mercy—the grace and mercy that were so characteristic of God Himself. Even His preaching to the poor was in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the Anointed One: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.

But what were the good tidings Jesus was preaching to the poor? That they’re going to become less poor? No, Jesus never raised anyone out of poverty. The good news was for the rich and the poor who were poor in spirit, for those who admitted that they were poor, miserable sinners, that they had nothing to offer to God. To them Jesus gave the handout of the free forgiveness of sins, to all who believed in Him. And what about this “proclaiming liberty to the captives” and “opening the prison to those who are bound”? Even as John was sitting in prison! Ah, but that’s the thing. Many of the things that the Coming One was supposed to do were to be done in a figurative way, in a spiritual way. Those who had turned away from God had become captives of sin, slaves of sin, as Jesus puts it elsewhere. But the Son of God had come to set them free through the forgiveness of their sins, because having your sins forgiven by God is like having the prison doors thrown open, no longer held captive by guilt or condemnation, no longer destined to rot in hell, but made a child of heaven.

So some of the things the Christ was supposed to do, He was doing, either literally or figuratively or both. He was literally giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, cleansing to the lepers and life to the dead. But He was also doing those things for people on the inside, spiritually, removing spiritual blindness and deafness. He was preaching good news to the spiritually poor and freeing the spiritual captives from their slavery to the devil. These are the things Jesus wanted John’s disciples to witness for themselves and to go and tell John what they saw and what they heard.

And then He spoke a word of encouragement and of warning, Blessed is he who does not stumble over me. In other words, “I know I haven’t done all that you expected, all that I’m supposed to do. But I will, when the time is right and in the way that I intend. So don’t allow your expectations to dictate what I must do or when I must do it or how I must do it. The Scriptures will all be fulfilled wonderfully, perfectly. Don’t stumble over Me just because you don’t understand everything yet. You will be blessed if you don’t stumble, if you have patience. Because all will be fulfilled in due time.”

And more of it has been fulfilled since then. John proclaimed Jesus the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus hadn’t yet been offered up as that sacrificial Lamb when John sent his disciples. But within a year or two, He would be, at just the right time and in just the right way. He hadn’t yet been raised from the dead, but He would be. He hadn’t yet instituted the New Testament in His blood, but He would, soon. He hadn’t yet poured out the Holy Spirit, but He would. He hadn’t yet gathered the Gentiles into His kingdom, but He was about to begin that lengthy task.

As for the rest, the other things we are to expect in the Coming One, in the Christ—for those things we still wait, for the judgment of the wicked, for justice for the righteous, for the removal of pain and suffering and sickness and death, for the creation of the new heavens and the new earth. Jesus will do those things, too, just as He has already done all the other things that were rightly expected of Him. He’ll do it at His Second Advent, when He comes again at the end of the age.

What do you expect from Jesus? Be careful not to lump together all the good things He has promised to those who love Him, as if He had to give it all at once, and make everything better all at once, and do everything He has promised to do all at once, or else He won’t do it at all. He has done enough, hasn’t He?, to prove that He is the Christ, and that He’s faithful and trustworthy and good? Blessed are those who are willing to wait. Blessed are those who patiently wait for Jesus to do the rest of the things Scripture says He will do. Blessed are those who see all that He has already done and who take comfort in His promise to come again, as He said He would, to accomplish all that remains to be done for the good of His Church, for the good of each baptized believer. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Blessed are those who are willing to wait

The Lord’s Prayer: Sixth Petition

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon
Download Bulletin

Sermon for midweek of Advent 2

Small Catechism Review: The Lord’s Prayer, Sixth Petition

Including this evening, there are three Wednesdays left in the Advent season. And it so happens that we have three sections left to consider in the Lord’s Prayer: The 6th and 7th petitions, and the Amen at the end. So tonight let’s turn our attention to the 6th Petition. Our Father, Lead us not into temptation.

What does this mean? God surely tempts no one, but we ask in this prayer that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world and our flesh may not deceive us, nor mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and although we are troubled by these things, that we would, nevertheless, overcome and stand victorious in the end.

What is a temptation? In Scripture, there is a single Greek word that is sometimes translated “temptation,” sometimes translated “trial,” and sometimes translated “test.” It all depends on the context. For example, Scripture says that God does test people, as He tested Israel in the wilderness. At the same time, it says that God tempts no one. To test someone is to put him through some hardship in order to see what comes out on the other side, not unlike a test at school. More than once the Bible gives us the analogy of a lump of gold ore which is heated up in the fire to a very high temperature. All the impurities are burned away in the fire and heat, while the gold comes through it unscathed and purified. That’s testing. And a trial is just a time or an instance of testing.

So God does test or try people, and the purpose of that testing is never to harm, but only to help, to teach, to discipline. It’s never to drive someone away from Him, but always to drive them closer to Him, to depend on Him and Him alone.

So God tested Abraham when He told Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. His purpose was to put Abraham through that trial, through that hardship, so that, not God, but we could see the purity of Abraham’s faith (and Isaac’s faith, for that matter!) on the other side. As we know, it was never God’s intention for Abraham or Isaac to be harmed, but to be stronger in the end, to become examples of faith, and even to be praised by future generations for their devotion to God above all things.

God tests believers. But God doesn’t tempt anyone. As James says, Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

Temptation is the attempt to get someone to sin against God. The devil tempts us. The world tempts us. Our own flesh tempts us. These enemies afflict us with some hardship, or they entice us with some promised benefit held out in front of us like a carrot on a stick in front of a horse, with the intention of getting us to disobey God, to curse God, to give up on Him, to turn away from Him.

They use deception as their primary tool. Think of the temptation of Eve in the Garden. The devil deceived her, tricked her, told her things that were either only partially true or completely false. He held up a fake hardship in front of her eyes, as if she and Adam were lacking some good thing in the Garden because they had been deprived of the fruit of that one tree. His intention was obvious: to get her to disbelieve God’s Word and to disobey God.

They also attempt to lead us into false belief, either believing something about God that isn’t true, or even believing something about our neighbor that isn’t true. And you know how dangerous that is, to believe something that’s false, to rely on something that isn’t reliable, to lean on something that won’t support your weight.

Our enemies also attempt to lead us to despair. The devil would gladly deceive us so that we despair, so that we lose hope, lose hope in God, lose hope in His forgiveness in Christ, lose hope in His good and gracious will for us, lose hope in His mercy.

And then there’s the great shame and vice to which temptation leads, all the filthy sins of the flesh, idolatry, blasphemy, lawlessness, murder, adultery and sexual sins, theft, drunkenness and drug abuse, and the list goes on and on. These are things toward which the devil would lead us with his temptations, and the world and our flesh are his willing allies.

We are so weak in the face of all these temptations. But we have a Savior who is strong. As it says in Hebrews, We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so we pray, Our Father in heaven, lead us not into temptation! Spare us! Deliver us! Have mercy on us! Don’t punish us on account of our sins by allowing our enemies to be successful in their temptations.

But when you pray, Lead us not into temptation, don’t mean the wrong thing by it. Don’t ask God not to test you. He must test you for your good. And don’t ask Him not to allow you to face hardships, or to spare you from all earthly troubles, or to keep the devil, the world, and your flesh from tempting you at all. As the Apostle Paul said (after being nearly stoned to death), “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” And Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” What’s more, St. Peter says this about the devil: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

No, the devil is not going away until Christ’s second Advent. He will tempt you to sin against God. And you will face troubles and crosses and testings and temptations throughout your earthly life. But we pray in the 6th petition that although we are troubled by these things, that we would, nevertheless, overcome and stand victorious in the end. That’s what we’re praying for in the 6th petition, for God’s help to resist the devil, to resist temptation, to enable us to bear our crosses with patience. And our Father in heaven will certainly hear us when we pray. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. May our Father grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The Lord’s Prayer: Sixth Petition

Signs to keep you watching and praying

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/653479244 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Advent 2

Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

The Lord is coming. But we don’t know when. And not knowing when can be both a blessing and a challenge. If you knew He was coming in five years, would you really be too concerned with getting yourself ready over the next 4-1/2 years? Wouldn’t you wait until closer to His coming to get ready? If you knew He wasn’t even going to come back during your lifetime, how would that affect how you live? Your sinful flesh would surely take advantage of such knowledge. There would be no urgency to repent when you sin, or to confess the faith, or to help your neighbor. And by the time you decided you should start getting your heart and your life together, there would be no faith left to revive. And you would be caught unprepared, and the snare of Christ’s coming would close around you, and you would be eternally trapped. So Jesus’ decision not to tell us when He’s coming was really a blessing.

But it’s also a challenge, because there’s plenty going on down here on earth to keep our attention. We have homes here. We put down roots here. And it’s not easy to view our homes and our earthly lives as just temporary stops along the way to a greater destination. Our homes and our earthly lives can easily become our destination—the goal around which we make all our decisions, the things our hearts are tied to.

So to help us watch and pray, to keep us from being caught unprepared, to keep us from getting so bogged down here that we forget about our heavenly destination, Jesus gave us some reminders which He calls signs, to keep us looking up, to keep us watching and praying.

There will be signs, He says, in the sun and the moon and the stars. And He adds, The powers of heaven will be shaken. What does all that mean? It’s intentionally vague. But very simply, it means that every time you see something out of the ordinary in the sky, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

On the earth there will be distress and anxiety among the nations, and the sea and the waves will roar. And men will lose heart from fear and dread of the things that are coming on the world. Every time you see “the nations” distressed and anxious—worldwide distress and anxiety—whether it’s due to war or pandemic or fear and dread of climate change or asteroids, every time you hear of a hurricane or a typhoon or a tsunami, or an earthquake, or a famine, or a war (which Jesus mentions elsewhere as signs of His imminent coming), it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus adds this sign: Lawlessness will abound, causing the love of many to grow cold. It’s hard to watch lawlessness and injustice abound in the world. It’s hard to watch loveless people screaming about their right to kill unborn babies, gangs carrying out violence and destruction, sex traffickers and drug dealers and the streets of our cities being lined with filth. But instead of fixating on those horrors when you hear about them on the news and wringing your hands over them, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

Also from Matthew’s Gospel: They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Yes, terrible things will happen among Christians and to Christians. They’re already happening. But when you see the Church fractured and broken by false doctrine and the multitude of denominations that are the result of it, when you see the world coming for Christians to silence us and to marginalize us, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

A final sign recorded in Matthew: This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. That’s a good sign, isn’t it? And it’s happening, too. The gospel has been and is still being preached in all the world. In fact, sixteen children were baptized just last week in the tribal villages of the Amazon jungle in Peru. When you see that Christians are still gathering all over the world and that the gospel is being preached at all, it should make you pause and look up and remember what you’re living for, who you’re living for, how you’re living. It should urge you to repent, and to watch and to pray. It should make you think about Jesus, reigning at the right hand of the Father. It should remind you that Jesus is coming soon.

These signs may intensify as the Lord’s second Advent approaches. We expect that they will. But they’ve already been in place for a long time, so that Christians have never been without the constant encouragements to watch and to pray. That’s why Jesus said, When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near! These things began happening since almost the beginning of the New Testament era. And Christ’s coming is much nearer now than it was then.

Now, there’s another sign, or even two signs, Jesus gives to demonstrate the truthfulness of His words. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all this takes place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. “This generation” can refer to at least two groups of people. It could refer to the people alive at Jesus’ time, and that would make sense, because really the signs Jesus gives did already start happening in the first century AD. Or it could refer to the unbelieving race of the Jews. That’s how Luther took it, and that would make sense, because contrary to all probability, the Jewish race does continue to exist still today, and most sadly continue in their unbelief. Either way, the signs have been and are being fulfilled, just as Jesus promised. And the fact that Jesus’ words have not passed away, but are still being heard and read and fulfilled even today, is yet another sign that should lead Christians to watch and to pray.

And to drive home the urgency of constantly watching and praying, Jesus adds a warning: Be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Therefore, always watch, and pray that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man. Be on your guard. Why? Because earthly things are heavy. Like weights on the heart. Carousing is basically partying, and while it may seem uplifting, it can actually weigh a person down to avoid watching and praying for a while. Drunkenness puts you in a state of mind that makes it nearly impossible to watch and to pray and to be filled with the Spirit. Cares of this life are always there, but if you get wrapped up in them, they’ll consume you, body and soul. And suddenly Jesus will appear, and you’ll realize you hadn’t given Him a thought in quite a while. Believers in Christ are destined to be lifted up from this world. But if your hearts are weighed down and entangled in earthly things, you won’t be ready to be lifted up away from it. You’ll sink down into the earth like a rock sinks to the bottom of the ocean, never to be seen again.

That day will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. That’s an interesting analogy. A snare is hidden until the last moment, when an animal that was just running along, going about its business, runs right through it, and it traps the creature. The animal didn’t see the snare, how close it was. In the same way, leading up to the last day, people will be going about their business, doing harmless things like eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage, and also doing sinful things, thinking they’ll get away with it again, maybe thinking they’ll have time to repent later. And then, in the next moment, the snare closes around them. Christ will appear, and it will be too late to repent.

So always watch. Watch and pray. Pray that you may be counted worthy to escape “all these things.” Escape what? Escape the signs? Hardly. We’re meant to notice the signs. That means we have to live through them. No, pray that you may be counted worthy to escape being caught in the snare at the coming of the Lord, and pray that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man. To stand, not in pride, but to stand as in to pass the test, to pass through the judgment unharmed, uncondemned, righteous, innocent, to stand as one of those who will be allowed to accompany the Son of Man into His glorious kingdom.

How will you be counted worthy? By still believing at the end, by still mourning over your sins and relying only on Christ crucified as the One who paid for your sins and who offers you eternal life as a gift. So watch out for all those things that would entangle you in sin and keep you distant from Christ and His Word and His Sacraments. And as you watch, pray for God’s mercy, to keep you from going astray. And as you pray, recommit yourself to leading a holy life in the time you have left, a life of love and service, a life that confesses Christ before the world, a life that testifies to your hope in the Lord Jesus.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Signs to keep you watching and praying

The Lord’s Prayer: Fifth Petition

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/652324594 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for the Festival of St. Andrew

Romans 10:8-18  +  Matthew 4:18-22 + Small Catechism Review

This evening we’re combining our celebration of St. Andrew’s day, which was yesterday, with our study of the Lord’s Prayer. As usual, there’s a connection to be made between the Small Catechism and just about any lection in the lectionary.

Let’s start with the Lord’s Prayer. In the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, we’ve asked our Father in heaven that His name may be hallowed among us, that His kingdom may come to us also, and that His will may be done among us. Those three petitions dealt mainly with our spiritual needs. Then we were taught by Jesus finally to ask for something we need for the body, for today’s bread. But why should God listen to us at all? Why should He grant these first four petitions? Because we’re worthy of the things for which we ask? Because we’ve earned them or deserved them? Have we, as God’s children, done all our chores according to God’s Law? Have we loved Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Have we loved our neighbor as ourselves? No, in fact, if we look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Law, we’ll find that we have absolutely no right to expect any good thing from God. He has every right to deny us the things we’ve asked for because of our sins.

But the Lord, in His mercy, has taught us to go ahead and ask for those first four things first. “It’s all right,” He teaches us. “I know you’re sinners. But you are penitent sinners, aren’t you? You are sinners who have put your faith in Me, Jesus Christ, who have been baptized, who have been made children of God the Father. And so, for that reason, it’s all right to approach Him and to ask for those first four things and to expect that your Father hears your petitions and is attentive to them. But that doesn’t mean you’re sinless. And lest you begin to think too highly of yourselves, lest you start to depend on your own goodness or think of yourself more highly than others, there is a fifth petition you must pray: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

What does this mean?

We ask in this prayer that the Father in heaven would not look upon our sins or deny these petitions because of them; for we are not worthy of anything for which we ask, nor have we earned it; but we ask that He would give it all to us by grace; for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. We, in turn, will also truly forgive from the heart and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

Let’s say a word about the translation “trespasses” and “those who trespass against us.” If you read Matthew 6, it says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” That’s the equivalent of how Luther translated it into German. But William Tyndale, the first real translator of the Bible into English in the early 1530’s, translated that phrase, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive our trespassers.” And that early translation stuck (more or less) when the Anglicans put together their Book of Common Prayer in 1549, where many of our liturgical phrases still come from.

Now, trespasses aren’t exactly the same thing as debts, but the debts we’re talking about here aren’t financial ones anyway. They’re the spiritual debts incurred when one person sins against another. When that happens, the sinner owes a debt—a payment, or a punishment, or both—to the one sinned against. A trespass is just another picture of sin. It’s to go where you don’t belong, to violate someone else’s property or person, to do harm where you had no business doing harm, to fail to help where you owed help. If our trespasses against our neighbor are serious, our trespasses against God are far more serious, because the only payment that satisfies that debt is suffering and death—not just the death of the body, but the eternal suffering of the soul. There is no forgiveness of the trespass or of the debt, there is no letting the trespasser or the debtor off the hook, without that payment.

But along came Christ Jesus to the Jordan River, to where John the Baptist was baptizing. And John called out to everyone listening, “Look! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Like the Passover lamb, which was spotless and innocent, but which was put to death, so that its blood could save the Israelites from the destroying angel. Or like the lambs that were sacrificed constantly on the altar of sacrifice—innocent creatures who paid with their death for the sins committed by the Israelites. That’s what Jesus was, according to John the Baptist. The Lamb of God—offered by God—to pay for, to make atonement for the sins of the world. As Isaiah prophesied about Him, The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

So He is the payment, the atoning sacrifice, the Mediator, the Lamb. Now there is a basis for God to forgive any sinner in the world. All that is needed now is faith in the Lamb. But where does that come from? As Paul wrote to the Romans in the First Lesson tonight, Faith comes by hearing what is preached. But where does preaching come from? It comes from preachers. And where do preachers come from? They must be sent. They must be called by God to preach and to be His instruments of forgiveness.

Do you remember what happened the next day, after John the Baptist declared Jesus to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Jesus walked by again. And two of John’s disciples were standing next to John, and he pointed to Jesus and then spoke privately to those two disciples, “Look! The Lamb of God” One of those disciples was likely John, the brother of James, since it’s recorded in his Gospel and he often doesn’t identify himself by name. The other disciple was named Andrew.

Andrew, a fisherman like several of the Apostles, was Simon Peter’s brother. But Peter wasn’t there that day. It was Andrew who first went to Jesus, with that other disciples, and spent the day with Him, listening to Him, hearing the Gospel preached by Jesus Himself. And then Andrew brought the good news to his brother Simon Peter. We have found the Messiah!

So Andrew was one of the very first to hear Jesus’ preaching, and he then became the first to invite another to hear it for himself. At that time, Andrew wasn’t yet preaching the gospel; he hadn’t been sent to preach the gospel. But having heard the gospel, first from John the Baptist, then from Jesus’ own lips, and having believed the Gospel, he did what every believer is called to do: he confessed Christ with his lips.

Isn’t that how St. Paul summarizes the Gospel in Romans 10? If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For if a person believes from the heart, he will be justified; and if he confesses with the mouth, he will be saved. See, the Gospel doesn’t say, “Here’s what you must do in order to be saved!” No, the Gospel says, “Here is the One in whom you must believe in order to be saved! Here is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All who believe in Him will be forgiven, justified, and saved. So follow Him! Believe in Him! And then confess Him before men.” That’s the Gospel call that goes out to all men.

Some, like St. Andrew, are called to do more than that. They’re called, not only to follow Jesus, but to be “fishers of men,” as you heard in the Second Lesson. Preachers, like Andrew, who preach the Gospel in the name of Christ and who administer the Sacraments and forgive sins in the stead of Christ, who point sinners to Christ and cry out, “Seek forgiveness in Him!”, who point sinners to the Word and Sacraments and cry out, “Find forgiveness here!” And in this way, they bring people out of the sea of condemned sinners and into the boat of forgiven sinners, believers in Christ Jesus.

But even forgiven sinners still commit sins. Even though believers in Christ carry the status of “forgiven” at all times, as long as we remain in the faith, Jesus still teaches us in the Fifth Petition to continue to ask, daily, for the forgiveness of our trespasses, for “we daily sin much.” And He attaches both a warning and a comfort to that prayer. Father, forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us. God has not withheld His forgiveness from us poor, miserable sinners but has freely granted it for Christ’s sake to us who have repented and believed in Christ, though we provided no atonement of our own. So we are not allowed to withhold our forgiveness from those who trespass against us. We may not require our neighbor to make atonement for his sins against us, to make up for what he did before we forgive him. No, as Jesus teaches Andrew’s brother, Simon Peter, If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.

The one who is unwilling to forgive his neighbor who repents has broken away from Christ and should not expect God to forgive him his sins any longer. What wretches we would be if we were to say, “I want free forgiveness from God for my countless sins against Him, but I’m unwilling to show even a fraction of that forgiveness to my neighbor.” No, the one who believes in the free forgiveness God offers in Christ will also truly forgive from the heart and gladly do good to those who sin against us. That doesn’t mean your sinful flesh enjoys it or finds it easy. But the New Man will fight against the flesh and forgive, genuinely and sincerely.

And that’s the comfort. When we notice that there is a New Man within us, who treasures God’s forgiveness and wants to be like God in forgiving others, who struggles against the sinful part of us that wants to hold a grudge and remain bitter and angry—when we notice that the New Man is alive and trying to put to death the sinful desires of our Old Man—then we have evidence that we are, in fact, forgiven children of God, because only children of God have a New Man. And when the New Man forgives the one who sinned against us, we have God’s assurance that He will forgive us our sins in exactly the same way.

And so tonight we give thanks for St. Andrew, the first disciple of Jesus, who was later called to be an Apostle, a fisher of men, and who willingly faced death for his confession of Christ. He could only do that, and we can only do that, because of our Father’s promise to hear and grant our petition: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on The Lord’s Prayer: Fifth Petition

An Advent in humility, an Advent in glory

Posted on November 28, 2021 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
Sermon (audio)
Download Sermon

Service(video)
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/650895245 w=540&h=360]
Download Service Download Bulletin

Sermon for Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

Come, Lord Jesus! Come, Emmanuel! That’s still our every-Sunday prayer, but especially now, in the Advent season. During this short season, we first place ourselves in the shoes of the Old Testament believers, whose earnest prayers for the coming of the Christ were first answered at Christmas. But we would be foolish to look forward to Christmas without, at the same time, looking back at the purpose of Christ’s birth and the fulfillment of His first Advent, which was His coming into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as He prepared to offer up His precious life on the cross. And then there’s that other Advent that we New Testament believers are especially waiting for, Christ’s second Advent at the end of this age. Today’s Gospel helps us to understand both Advents, to celebrate the one while anticipating the other.

Christ’s first Advent reached its fulfillment during Holy Week as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. That coming was in fulfillment of the famous prophecy from Zechariah 9, Tell the daughter of Zion, See, your King comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the foal of a donkey. Meek. Lowly. Humble. That’s how Jesus came the first time, not just on Palm Sunday, but from His conception and birth to His burial on Good Friday. We call it His state of “humiliation” for a reason. He came, not to condemn the world, but to save the world. Not to judge, but to call sinners to repentance before the Judgment that will take place at His second Advent. Not to force anyone onto their knees by the power of His might, but to persuade sinners through preaching to bend the knee before Him willingly, to receive not punishment but forgiveness. He came in humility, allowing wicked men to ridicule Him and to torture and kill Him, so that, by His suffering and death, sinners might have a valid plea before God—the blood of Christ as the price of their atonement, already paid, once for all.

But Christ’s Advent in humility also meant that He did not come the first time to save mankind from sickness or from suffering or from oppressors (though He did that on occasion as a foretaste of what He will do at His second Advent!). He didn’t come the first time to reform society or to mete out justice for the righteous or against the unrighteous. Those things await His second Advent at the end of the age.

It’s relatively easy for us to see that distinction as we live in the time between the two Advents of Christ. It was much harder for the people of the Old Testament. When they prayed, Come, Lord Jesus! (or perhaps Come, Lord Messiah!), they didn’t always realize they were praying for two Advents. They thought Christ’s first Advent would be His only Advent, that it would accomplish everything God had prophesied in the Old Testament, that He would come and both make atonement for sin and restore justice to the earth all at once, that He would both rise from the dead and bring about the resurrection of all the dead at the same time.

But, no. First, He had to address the root problem underlying all the other problems we face in the world, the root problem of sin, mankind’s sins against God that brought God’s curse on this creation in the first place, which includes everything that’s wrong with this world, and with you and me. First, He had to make payment for sin and send out preachers of the Gospel, the Gospel of forgiveness through Baptism and faith in Christ. And then, He had to give the world time to hear the preaching and be converted by the working of His Spirit. He had to give at least two thousand years’ worth of sinners, in every nation, time to be born and reborn of water and the Spirit. He had to give us, here, a chance to live so that we might come to know Him during this life, during this time of grace, and so become heirs of eternal life.

Even though the people of Jerusalem didn’t understand all that as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, they did recognize Him as their King. They did celebrate His coming, waving their palms and singing their Hosannas and their Psalms, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Those who wanted Him for a Savior from sin got what they wanted, while those who weren’t interested in that kind of Advent, who were unwilling to wait for Christ’s second Advent, didn’t miss out on a little thing. They missed out on the chance to be reconciled with God, to have Him as a Father, to have Christ as a Savior, to escape from death and hell and to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The same is true for people today. If you want Jesus for a Savior from sin, who allows you to stand before God forgiven and accepted, you have it! If you want Him for some other reason, if you celebrate Christmas for some other reason, if you’re in church for some other reason, then you will miss out on all the benefits Christ came to bring at His first Advent, and all the benefits He will come to bring at His second.

And there will be many! Those who trust in Christ for what He did at His first Advent have much to look forward to when He comes again. Then the King will not be meek or humble or lowly when He comes riding into His Church, which is the New Jerusalem. No, then He will come with power and great glory. No one will mock or oppress Him or His people ever again. No one will be allowed to cause suffering for Him or His people ever again. Then the King will come with power and great glory—glory that He will share with His saints. Then the King will finally bring justice to the world by ridding the world of all evil and of all evildoers and by recreating everything, with no devil, no sin, no troubles, no sorrow, no pain, no death.

Until then, we live in the age of Christ’s first Advent, which means that the Church on earth resembles Jesus as He was in His state of humiliation. Meek. Humble. Lowly. Subject to pain and suffering. Subject to death. But because of what Jesus accomplished at His first Advent, we also have the forgiveness of sins and peace with God and His promise to be with us and to strengthen us all the way up until Christ’s second Advent. And that’s no small thing. It’s what enables you to suffer here with patience, because you know that you who resemble Jesus in His humility will also resemble Him in His glory, on the day when He comes.

That day is not here, but, as St. Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, it’s almost here. The night is almost over; the day is almost here. So how shall we prepare to meet the Bridegroom? Paul tells us that, too. By taking off the deeds of darkness and by putting on the weapons of light. By behaving as children of heaven and not children of hell. One day we will rule over all things with Christ. For now, we serve everyone in love. In lowliness. In humility. Just as Christ came the first time in meekness and humility, with love for a world that hated Him for the sake of the few who, by His Spirit, would embrace Him.

Embrace Him now in your hearts. Embrace Him with repentance, with faith, and with zeal to imitate Him in His goodness, in His love, and in His humility. Embrace Christ in His humility, and embrace His Church in her humility, too. But prepare to meet the Lord at His second Advent, not to face another age of humility and suffering, but to enter an endless age of glory and of joy, with songs of Hosanna and a with a Psalm that is like a sigh of relief, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Amen.

Posted in Sermons | Tagged , , | Comments Off on An Advent in humility, an Advent in glory