Born to prepare the Messiah’s way

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Advent 1

Malachi 4:1-6  +  Luke 1:5-25

The Advent season always takes us to John the Baptist to help us prepare for Jesus’ arrival. And with good reason. Because that was always John’s purpose. It’s why he was born. He was born to prepare the Messiah’s way.

Six months before the angel Gabriel visited the virgin Mary in Nazareth, to announce to her the miraculous birth of a Son, he visited Zacharias in Jerusalem, also to announce the good news that Zacharias and his wife Elizabeth would have a son. Now, we’re told that Zacharias and Elizabeth were both descended from Aaron, from the tribe of Levi, the tribe of Levitical priests. And we’re also told that they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. That’s high praise for anyone in Israel. It doesn’t mean they weren’t sinners in need of a Savior. It means that they lived in daily contrition and repentance, that their hearts were set on keeping God’s commandments, and that they were well-known for their obedience and godliness. They were model citizens of Israel, and they had God’s favor.

But having God’s favor doesn’t mean everything goes well for you, or that all your prayers are granted. As Gabriel later informs us, they had been praying fervently for a child. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years. We don’t know how old they were, but they were well past the age when married couples usually had their first children, so decades had likely passed with those prayers going unanswered. Why hadn’t God rewarded their righteousness with that special but common gift that He gives freely to so many parents, even those who hate Him?

The answer is all laid out for us in this little story with which St. Luke begins his Gospel. God had a wonderful gift laid up for Zacharias and Elizabeth—just as He had made Abraham and Sarah wait decades before Isaac was born. A very special son would be born to them in their old age.

The setting for the announcement was the temple in Jerusalem. It was Zacharias’ turn to burn incense for a week on the altar of incense, inside the Holy Place, right in front of the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. It was a special privilege that fell to the priests by lot, according to their priestly order, to enter the Holy Place and burn incense in the morning and in the evening. It was during Zacharias’ service, while he was alone in the Holy Place, that the angel Gabriel appeared to him and said, Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. Now, as far as anyone knows, these are the very first words that came from God to man since the prophet Malachi died some 400 years earlier. During that whole time, not one prophet or angel had been sent to Israel to bring them a message from God. So of course Zacharias was afraid! But the angel hadn’t come to harm. He had come to deliver this wonderful bit of news. “Your prayers have been heard! God is going to bless you with a son!”

And more than that. He will be great in the sight of the Lord. In other words, the Lord has big plans for your son. He will accomplish great things. In fact, a few decades later, after John had almost completed his ministry, Jesus would say this about John the Baptist: Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist. Why would this child be so great? Because he would be given the special task of heralding the Advent of the Christ.

To mark him as special, to get people’s attention already from an early age, the angel adds that he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. We have to go back to the Old Testament law to understand what that’s talking about. It’s part of what’s called the Nazirite vow. It was a special vow a person could choose to take to dedicate himself fully to the Lord for a period of time. He wouldn’t cut his hair. He wouldn’t drink any wine or other forms of alcohol. And he wouldn’t allow himself to become ceremonially unclean for any reason. In only a handful of cases, like the judge Samson, or like the prophet Samuel, the Nazirite vow was imposed on a person for his whole life. That’s how special John would be, and it would get people’s attention.

And, Gabriel says, He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. Don’t let anyone try to convince you that an unborn child is less than human, or is unable to have faith. If John could be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, then he was both a living human being and a believer in the true God. In two weeks we’ll see an example of the Holy Spirit working in John’s heart even before he was born.

Then the angel revealed the most important thing of all, what John’s purpose would be, what he would accomplish for God, the reason for his existence: And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Remember how I just said that the last time a prophet had spoken to Israel was some 400 years earlier, the prophet Malachi? You heard in the first lesson Malachi’s last written words to God’s people, 400 years before Gabriel appeared to Zacharias—words which Gabriel himself quoted to Zacharias: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. John was the promised Elijah—not the actual prophet Elijah who lived some 800 years before Christ, but the prophet who would come in the “spirit and power of Elijah,” a no-nonsense kind of preacher, a powerful preacher, with a vitally important task: to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that, when the Lord comes, He doesn’t have to strike the earth with a curse.

In other words, John’s preaching would turn the people of Israel back to obeying God’s commandments, from the heart and not just with outward obedience, back to caring about their souls and about the coming judgment. His preaching would bring people to see their sins, and to repent of them. His preaching would put the people of Israel back on the path of obedience to God, and on the path of the “wisdom of the righteous,” which means the wisdom that comes from God, the wisdom of understanding that our righteousness itself comes from God, not from ourselves, that we depend on and live by God’s mercy alone, not by our own works, that all men are sinners who need the salvation that only God can bring, and will bring through His promised Messiah, who is, as John later proclaimed, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so John would get the people ready for the Advent of the Lord Jesus, so that, when He appeared, they wouldn’t sit back lazily and ask, “What do we need Him for?” but instead, having been shown their sins and their dire need for a Savior, they would go running to Jesus for the salvation He was coming to bring.

Sadly, Zacharias didn’t believe the angel’s words, and as a punishment, his tongue was tied, and would remain tied until his wife conceived, and the child was born, and Zacharias wrote down on a tablet the name that the angel had told him to give to the child: “His name is John,” which means, the LORD (Yahweh) is gracious.

And the LORD is indeed gracious, to us as well, because John wasn’t only born to prepare the Messiah’s way for the people of Israel at that time. No, God continues to use the ministry of John, recorded in Holy Scripture, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord—prepared to celebrate Christmas for the right reasons, prepared to live in daily contrition, repentance, and obedience to God’s commandments, and prepared to meet the Lord Jesus when He comes again in glory. Keep preparing! And keep rejoicing at the birth of the one who was born to prepare the Messiah’s way! Amen.

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Your King comes to you still in meekness

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14 + Matthew 21:1-9

Advent means arrival or coming. In less than four weeks we’ll celebrate the Advent of our King into the world when He was born in Bethlehem. But that’s what the Christmas season is for. During this 3-1/2 week Advent season, the Holy Spirit has much to teach us about the other ways in which our King comes to us. In today’s Gospel, you heard how the King of the Jews came to His people in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, five days before He would hang from a cross just outside the gates of the city. He came in meekness then. He came in humility. He came to give up His life as the payment for our sins. And until the day when He comes again in glory at the end of the age—the Advent we’ll focus on next Sunday—our King comes to us still in meekness, righteous, and having salvation.

Jesus had come and gone from the city of Jerusalem many times throughout His life. But this time was different, special. This time, Jesus chose to enter in a somewhat spectacular way, and yet, a way that was still humble. He sent His disciples to go fetch a donkey—two of them, actually, a mother and her colt, so that He could ride on them down the hill from the Mount of Olives, into the Kidron Valley, and up the hill again into Jerusalem.

Why this spectacle? It was all done to make the connection in people’s minds between this Jesus, who had been preaching, teaching, and performing great signs and miracles in Israel for the past three years or so, with the prophecy that the prophet Zechariah had written down some 500 years earlier: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. The one who rides into Jerusalem on a donkey is the promised King of the Jews, the Son of David, the Son of God.

Rejoice greatly!, Zechariah said. God intended Jesus’ advent into Jerusalem to be a joyful occasion. And, for many, it was. You heard how the multitudes cut down branches from the trees and took off the cloaks from their backs and lined the road with them. You heard how they sang, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Many did rejoice at Jesus’ Advent, because they recognized Him as the promised Christ, the Son of David, the King of the Jews, whose kingdom wouldn’t be restricted to Israel, but would extend to the ends of the earth, as the next verse from Zechariah’s prophecy says: I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.’

What the crowds didn’t yet understand—what many today still fail to grasp—is that the King’s “dominion” or “reign” has two distinct stages, two different forms, for two different times. The first form of His reign, and of His salvation, and of His peace, would be spiritual. The King would earn salvation for all men during this first Advent, but would do it through meekness and the apparent “defeat” of the cross. He would reign powerfully in the hearts of men while still appearing weak on the outside. He would bring about salvation from sin and guilt before God, but He would not yet bring about salvation from earthly enemies. He would make peace between sinners and God, and among all who would believe in His name, from every nation, extending His dominion, that is, His Church, to the ends of the earth. But He would not yet bring peace to the warring nations of the earth or the violent societies of the earth. Not during the time of His first Advent. Yes, King Jesus will accomplish all those other things externally and fully when He comes again. But when He came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the King of the Jews entered in meekness, and, for now, He still comes to us in the same meekness, without setting up any sort of earthly kingdom or Christian society, without appearing in glory—and, crucially, without destroying anyone.

People like to blame God for not wiping out evil people from the earth. Ironically, the vast majority of people who want God to wipe out evil people would find, to their horror, that they are among those evil people. Evil and wickedness, as God defines them, aren’t restricted to things like violence or mass murder or extorsion or genocide. Evil and wickedness include every breaking of God’s holy law, even the lawbreaking people do in their hearts and with their tongues. Evil and wickedness include people’s failure to worship the true God, to serve Him and to love Him with their whole heart. Evil and wickedness include every failure to live according to the moral law revealed in the Ten Commandments. When He comes again, King Jesus will wipe out all the wicked, which means all the sinners on earth will be destroyed by the coming of the King.

But He has delayed that second Advent until now, and may still delay for a little while longer, so that during this time of His first Advent, He may still come to us in meekness, not with a sword of iron but with the sword of His Word, calling out to all men: “Look! I came the first time in humility, out of love for you, to die for your sins and to suffer your shame so that you wouldn’t have to be destroyed in your wickedness, to become your King and to bring you safely into My kingdom through Baptism and through faith. Repent and come in! Confess your wickedness, and all your lawbreaking, and believe in Me! And you will no longer be counted among the wicked and the sinners. And then, once you have come in, learn My ways and walk in them. Turn away from evil and wickedness, with My Spirit’s help. Gather together with the members of My Church, who are now your brothers and sisters in My Father’s family. Use the ministry of Word and Sacrament that I have provided. And wait eagerly for My second Advent, for behold, I am coming soon.”

See how meekly Christ comes to you still! Yes, He condemns mankind’s sins with His holy law, but for now, He still gives people time to hear, time to repent, time to turn away from evil before He comes in strength, with destruction. Most people mistake God’s patience, or His meekness, for weakness, or worse, for tolerance, or even approval of their sinful behaviors. Do not make that mistake! Just because God doesn’t strike down people with lightning, it doesn’t mean He approves of them. Just because God sometimes allows the wicked to prosper, it doesn’t mean He isn’t keeping score.

But now, during the closing days of this era of Christ’s first Advent, He still comes, for a little longer, in meekness, through the simple preaching of lowly preachers and through the humble gatherings of lowly church members in lowly settings. We may be ignored by the world and discarded by the big and glorious churches of the world, but here in this meek and lowly setting, in this meek and lowly gathering of Christians, the King Himself comes, though you cannot see Him. Behold, your King is coming to you, here and now. Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them, He says. Where lowly bread and wine are blessed and received in remembrance of Him, there is the King, giving His body and blood to His grateful subjects, righteous, and having salvation, and bringing salvation to all who believe.

And that’s why, again today, we will add our voices of praise to the voices of the multitudes who praised their King as He came to them in meekness, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And just as the King gladly accepted the praises of those who loved Him then, so now He will accept our praises, too. Your King comes to you still in meekness, though not in weakness. Your King is still powerful to save, and eager to come to you in your own meekness, too. Amen.

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Offer your sacrifices of Thanksgiving

Posted on November 26, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Thanksgiving Eve

Luke 10:38-42 + Hebrews 13:10-16

You’ve all probably celebrated Thanksgiving since you were little children. It’s a national holiday, not a church holiday, so Christians find themselves celebrating it right alongside their non-Christian fellow countrymen. We have a shared national history in our country (for those who still care to acknowledge it). We share similar customs and menus for our Thanksgiving Day feasts. But the most important part of Thanksgiving is celebrated only by Christians in this country. Unlike our non-Christian neighbors, we Christians include Thanksgiving among the sacrifices that we alone can offer to the true God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—sacrifices that are pleasing in God’s sight, because they are offered through and by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Peter wrote in his first epistle, As you come to the Lord Jesus, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Let’s take a moment this evening and consider what these sacrifices of Thanksgiving include, and what they don’t include, based on the Scripture Lessons you heard a moment ago.

We’ll start with what they don’t include. No Christian would dare to offer God a sacrifice for sins. As we heard in the Lesson from Hebrews this evening, Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. We know very well that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It was His precious blood, shed on the cross, that made complete atonement for all sins. He is the One who sanctifies us and makes us holy through His own blood, not through any sacrifice we could offer. Nothing you or I could ever offer to God could make up for even one trespass, for a single offense against God. It’s impossible for us to atone for our own sins. It’s impossible for us to redeem ourselves. And it’s blasphemy against Christ if we should try. Jesus has already offered to God the only sacrifice for sin that was acceptable in His sight. So never try to do anything for God or to sacrifice anything to God in order to earn His favor or make up for your sins. That is not why we have come together on this Thanksgiving Eve.

But we have come together to offer another kind of sacrifice, a sacrifice of thanksgiving in the form of gladly hearing and learning what God has to say to us, and, of course, also believing it. That’s what we saw Mary doing in the Lesson from Luke 10, isn’t it? Mary, Martha, and Lazarus were brother and sisters, and Jesus visited their home in Bethany from time to time. Martha wanted to offer Jesus a nice meal and a tidy house, as a little sacrifice of her time, a way of giving thanks to Him for the salvation He had brought to their family. There was nothing wrong with that. But Mary offered a different sacrifice, and on this occasion, Jesus says it was a better one. Mary offered the simple sacrifice of sitting there by Jesus and eagerly listening to the things that Jesus wanted to teach. Yes, there are things we can do for Jesus to show our thanks to Him, as Martha was doing. But none of those things are needed for our salvation. The only thing needed for our salvation is to hear His Word by which the Holy Spirit creates and strengthens faith in our hearts. When we gladly hear His Word, we’re not really “giving” anything to God. Instead, we’re coming to Him with open ears and believing hearts in order to receive the good things He wants to give. That sacrifice of setting aside all the other things you could be doing in order to listen intently to the Word of God—that’s one of the things we’ve intentionally gathered here to do. First and foremost, to listen. You’re offering God that sacrifice right now.

But there’s more to the Christian’s sacrifices. The words you heard from Hebrews 13 mention two others. Therefore through Jesus let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. Since God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, since God has given You His Word and Sacraments and a church in which you can receive them, since God has given you your life, and all you need for it, and so many things in abundance, you come back to Him, regularly, with the sacrifice of praise on your lips.

Have you thought about Thanksgiving that way? As a sacrifice to God? You’ve been offering this sacrifice all throughout the service this evening, in every prayer you spoke in faith, in every hymn stanza, in every Psalm. You have been offering to God the fruit of your lips as a sacrifice to Him, a sacrifice of praise, an offering of Thanksgiving. Is that something you can do at home, alone and by yourself? Of course. And God accepts those sacrifices, too. But the combined sacrifices of Christians as they are gathered together, offering up their thanks to God the Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, are a public testimony to God’s goodness. It’s an act of faith in which we all say together, before the world, I am not afraid to acknowledge the name of God, because He is good and His mercy endures forever.

There’s one more sacrifice Christians offer to God. As you heard in Hebrews 13, But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Anyone can “do good and share” in an external sense. Christians aren’t the only ones who try to share with the poor and needy and who do good things for their communities. But understand that when the unbeliever does these things, it isn’t a sacrifice to God—certainly not one that He accepts or looks upon with favor. Apart from Christ, God looks upon sinners with wrath and anger, no matter how much good they do or how many things they share. But for those who are in Christ Jesus, every good deed is a sacrifice that God accepts. Every act of sharing is an offering made to our Father in heaven, upon which He smiles and with which He is satisfied. Your kind words to one another, your friendly greetings, your willingness to help, your intercessory prayers, your expressions of thanks and appreciation and concern, your willingness to put up with things that may annoy you but that don’t really matter—all these things that you do for one another, or for your family at home, or for Christians in other parts of the world, or for your neighbor in general—are sacrifices offered upon the altar that is Christ, who alone makes these sacrifices of ours acceptable and pleasing in the Father’s sight.

So let this Thanksgiving be added to the rest of your holy sacrifices, as you continue to listen, to speak and to sing words of praise for our God, and to do good and share. Remember that you do these things, not to please yourself, but to please the God who has given you everything by grace and has sanctified you through faith in the blood of His Son. Let your thanksgiving always be intentional, and your praise ever sincere. Because God has been good to you and to us all. He is worthy of our thanks, and of all the sacrifices we bring. Amen.

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Will you prepare for the Lord’s coming?

Posted on November 23, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the Last Sunday of the Church Year (Trinity 27)

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 + Matthew 25:1-13

The end of all things is near. But the question is, how near? I don’t know. No one knows, except for God alone. It could come at any time. The more important question is, when the end does come and the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, enters the wedding hall of eternal life, will you be among those who go in with Him, or will you be shut out forever among those to whom He says those tragic words, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you”? Jesus Himself is not indifferent to how you answer that question. He has no desire to shut people out of eternal life. On the contrary, He earnestly pleads with all who have ears to hear to hear, to prepare, to think ahead about the things you will need and to bring them along with you throughout this life, so that, no matter how long the Bridegroom delays, you will be found among the ready.

The parable Jesus tells in order to drive home the importance of thinking ahead is very simple. Ten virgins, ten chaste young women are assigned a task: “Go out and wait for the bridegroom to arrive at the wedding hall. When his wedding procession comes near, go out and meet him, with your lamps brightly burning, and join the festive procession into the wedding hall. The bridegroom is coming sometime tonight, but he hasn’t said at what time. So be ready!”

They all go out to wait, excited to carry out their task. But five of the virgins are wise, while the other five are foolish. The wise ones take along a jar of oil, along with their lamps, in case the bridegroom delays. The foolish ones take no extra oil—only the oil that’s already in their lamps. They wait, and wait, but he still doesn’t come, so they all drift off to sleep. Suddenly, the cry rings out in the middle of the night, Look! The bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him! The girls wake up and trim their lamps. The wise are ready, but the foolish are not, and it’s too late, at this point, to do anything about it. The wise join the procession and enter the wedding hall with the bridegroom, and then the doors are shut. When the foolish virgins finally arrive, they are denied entry. I do not know you, the bridegroom says.

The meaning is simple. Jesus, the Bridegroom who came the first time to suffer, to give Himself for the Church, that He might sanctify her and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that is, in Holy Baptism, is going to return at the end of time (once all the elect are baptized into his Church) to bring an end to this world and to bring His Church with Him into the new heavens and the new earth, the home of eternal righteousness, and joy, and peace. He’s told His people to be ready when He comes, with faith burning brightly, a living faith, a working faith, and He’s given us all the opportunities we need to have that brightly burning faith when He comes. He has warned us to be ready for a long wait. And He has also told us ahead of time that many Christians will not be ready when He comes, because they failed to take His warning to heart.

So the question before each one of you today is, will you take His warning to heart? If you’re determined to do that, then consider what you will need to be doing. Consider what wisdom looks like, how to be wise like the five wise virgins in the parable and not foolish like the other five.

When the trumpet sounds suddenly on the day of Jesus’ return, heralding His arrival, you will be surprised. Everyone will, because He will come unexpectedly, like a thief. But surprised doesn’t have to mean unprepared. Being prepared means being found with a penitent heart, a believing heart that is sorry for sins committed against God and clinging to Jesus alone for mercy and for salvation, a heart that is devoted to keeping God’s commandments. In other words, you will need to have a living faith. Not the faith you once had as a child, or that you once had years ago, but then wandered away from it. Not the faith that simply remembers who Jesus is but that no longer clings to Him for dear life. Not the faith of head-knowledge only, but of knowledge combined with confidence and trust in God’s goodness, mercy, and promise of forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.

How does a Christian prepare to have that kind of faith, not only now, in this moment, but in a week, in a month, or a year, or 70 years in the future? How do we live in a state of preparedness? Some people like to prepare for a future crisis with an emergency food supply, not unlike having extra oil on hand for an oil lamp. Emergency food storage is not a bad analogy, except that food storage is for a possible crisis, whereas what Christians are preparing for is a future certainty, even though we don’t know how far in the future it will be.

So how does one do “faith prep”? How do you bring along extra oil for the extended wait? You start by taking Jesus seriously when He talks about His second coming and when He urges you to prepare for it. That seems like a no-brainer, but, as the parable of the Ten Virgins reveals, many who initially go out to wait for the Bridegroom won’t take that extra oil along.

But, having determined to take it along with you, you do that by using the opportunities God gives you now, and for as long as He gives you such opportunities. Which opportunities?

Well, let’s start with the opportunities to read your Bible, the very Word of God that sits in every home and on every electronic device. Judge for yourself how often you have made use of those opportunities. If you have made good use of them, don’t stop. And if you find that you haven’t used them very faithfully, do better. There’s still time!

We can talk about the opportunities to not only read but to study God’s Word, even to commit some of it to memory. It’s why we have Bible class in addition to our weekly services. Judge for yourself how often you have made use of those opportunities. If you have made good use of them, don’t stop. And if you find that you haven’t used them very faithfully, do better. There’s still time!

We can talk about the opportunities to hear the preaching of God’s Word and to receive His Sacraments from the ministers who have been sent by God for the very purpose of keeping His people prepared for His coming. Are you not yet baptized? Don’t wait! Are you baptized? Remember it every day and think about what it means. Are you able to receive the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis? Receive it! Or, if you’re not able to receive it very often, being far away from your church, that’s okay, but as soon as you do have the opportunity, be eager to receive it, and, in the meantime, be sure to look for ways to use the ministry of God’s Word in whatever ways are available to you and your family. Are you planning a career, or a career move, or a physical move, or a family? Don’t let God’s Word and Sacraments become an afterthought.

Finally, let’s talk about the opportunities you have to pray—something we can all do throughout the day, every day. But do we? If not, let us all determine to do better—to do all these things better in the coming Church Year. That’s the wise thing to do. Prepare for Christ’s coming by making the most of every one of these opportunities. Prepare today. And when today turns over to tomorrow and tomorrow becomes today, prepare today again. And be assured that God is not leaving this all up to you. He knows what opportunities each person needs, and He knows well how to provide them. He has made you children of the light and children of the day and has given us all we need to be prepared for the day of His coming. And so, Paul urges us, Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order that, whether we are awake or asleep, we should live together with him. Amen.

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Enter God’s rest by believing His Word

Posted on November 19, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Trinity 26

Hebrews 4:9-13

Come, you blessed ones of My Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Don’t you long to hear those words from the King when He descends from heaven on the last day, with all the angels and saints accompanying Him? You heard a few descriptions of that inheritance on Sunday, from Peter’s first epistle: Incorruptible, undefiled, unfading. In this evening’s Lesson from Hebrews chapter 4, you heard another description of it: So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. “A Sabbath rest.” John speaks of it in similar terms in the book of Revelation: Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

To understand why the writer to the Hebrews speaks of it as a Sabbath rest, we need to go back a few verses, back into chapter 3, actually, where he quoted a Psalm in which God said about Israel: Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ” God rested from all His work of creation on the seventh day of creation week. But when He commanded Israel to rest on the Sabbath Day, it wasn’t only in memory of God’s rest during that week. It was also in anticipation of another rest, a future rest for the people of God, a rest from all the toil and labor of this sin-tainted earth, a rest from being constantly attacked by the devil and constantly buffeted by temptation, a rest from suffering, a rest from loss, and from every heavy burden we carry. It’s the rest that awaits the people of God after this life on earth is through.

But many in Israel failed to enter that rest. Why? Because of their disobedience to the Word of God, which was the result of the unbelief. Oh, they believed God was real. They even knew who the true God was. But they didn’t trust in His goodness, or in His promise to give them eternal life. They wanted a better earthly life, and so they rebelled against Him throughout the Old Testament period. And then, when Jesus came to them, calling out, “Come to Me, you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”…they remained in their unbelief. And so those people didn’t receive Jesus’ rest during this life. Their souls didn’t receive His rest when they died. And they won’t enter into His rest after the Last Day, either.

And so the writer to the Hebrews pleads with Christians, Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Strive to enter that rest! How do we enter it? It isn’t automatic. Israel had the promise, but then fell. And as long as we’re still in this world, we, too, could fall by the same sort of disobedience. Notice, there’s no such thing as “once saved, always saved” in Scripture. The writer to the Hebrews warns Christians that we could fall, if we follow unbelieving Israel’s example. But the good news is, we don’t have to follow it! Here we have God the Holy Spirit, through these inspired words, urging us toward that rest, which God wants us to enter and offers to us for free. And so He urges us to enter it, by hearing and believing the Word of God.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Living. Active. Sharp. Piercing. The Word of God cuts through all the defenses, all the excuses, all the false motives, all the lies. It exposes the sins in our past, so that no one can hide anything from God. No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

But the word of God does more than expose our sins. It also reveals where there is repentance, and where there is faith in the Lord Jesus who died for our sins. It’s living and active, and able to work repentance and faith in our hearts. It’s living and active, and able to guide us away from sin and temptation and disobedience, able to show us the disobedience of Israel and other unbelievers in the past, so that we don’t repeat their foolish errors, able to set God’s eternal rest before our eyes and cause us to yearn for it, and, finally, to enter it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, it says.

Keep hearing. Keep believing. And keep working and toiling and suffering with patience for a little while longer. Because rest is coming for all those who remain faithful until the end. Amen.

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