Wait for the King! You won’t be disappointed

Posted on December 14, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Advent 3 – Gaudete

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

Today’s Epistle spoke of the stewards of the mysteries of God—the ministers whom God has sent to preach, and teach, and administer His Sacraments, to prepare people for the coming of the King. Paul was such a steward, as were the other apostles, as were the other ministers who were called by the Church, as am I for that same reason. The New Testament ministers are preparing people for Christ’s second coming, while the Old Testament ministers were preparing people for His first coming. Such was John the Baptist, whom we encountered in today’s Gospel, who was not just a prophet, but more than a prophet, as Jesus said. For this is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I am sending my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you, the prophet sent to prepare the world for Jesus the first time.

But we New Testament ministers have some big advantages over the Old Testament ministers like John. We who live on the other side of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, who have seen how God has upheld His Church and prospered His Word these past 2,000 years, are able, by God’s grace, to see Jesus and His purpose a lot more clearly than the Old Testament prophets could, and that certainly includes John the Baptist. Because, for a moment, toward the end of his ministry, he had trouble seeing Jesus clearly, as you heard in today’s Gospel. He began to wonder, Is Jesus the One who is to come or not? And the struggle of this prophet, or at very least the question of this prophet, is as relevant to our situation as anything else in Scripture. Because after everything John had preached, after all the faithful service he had rendered to God, he was still faced with two problems, which we also face in the world today: The problem of suffering, combined with the problem of not understanding Jesus and His purpose. In this Advent season, when we focus on the coming of the King, let’s consider this account from Matthew’s Gospel and receive the Holy Spirit’s encouragement to wait for the King! You won’t be disappointed!

John had carried out his ministry faithfully. He had done everything God had given him to do. He preached against the sins of which everyone was guilty, from the king down to the peasant, whether it was big outward sins like violence, adultery, and theft, or whether it was the secret, inward sins of lustful thoughts, greed, discontentment, apathy toward one’s neighbor, or indifference to God’s Word. He called them all to repentance, and those who listened, he baptized for the forgiveness of sins, as God had sent him to do, and taught them to amend their sinful lives, and to expect the Christ’s coming at any time. And then, when Jesus was ready to begin His ministry, John faithfully pointed the people away from himself to Jesus, the Lamb of God.

What was his reward for such a faithful ministry? He was thrown into prison, not for any crime he had committed, but for simply doing what God had sent him to do. He was suffering, unjustly, and that was a problem.

But it wasn’t just his own suffering that was a problem. The nation of Israel was still suffering under Roman oppression, a year or so into Jesus’ ministry. The people were still suffering under the spiritual oppression of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and priesthood in Israel. The poor were still suffering in their poverty. The sick were still suffering in their illnesses. And people, including believers in the God of Israel, were still dying.

But the reality of suffering wasn’t the worst of it. For John, the biggest problem was that he thought the Christ was coming to change things, to fix things. He thought that Jesus would put an end to all this suffering. The Old Testament prophecies foretold it, after all. And John himself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had told the people of Israel, 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. That’s not what John saw, though. He didn’t see any of this baptizing with the Holy Spirit, and fire. He didn’t see Jesus cleaning house in Israel, or bringing the poor out of their poverty, or bringing justice to the earth, or releasing anyone who was unjustly imprisoned (like himself), or putting an end to the suffering of His suffering believers. The problem was, John didn’t fully understand Jesus, or His purpose, and so he found himself disappointed, or at least, very confused. Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?

The answer was given, but not with a simple yes or no. In the midst of John’s suffering, the King didn’t pay him a visit in person, but He did come to John with a message, with His word. Jesus answered and said to John’s disciples, “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.” No, not all the world’s problems were being fixed yet. No, John’s own suffering wasn’t over. Jesus hadn’t come, the first time, to bring justice to the world. But what was He doing? He was doing great miracles, here and there, alleviating the suffering of some, even raising the dead in a few cases—a foretaste of the great healing that will take place eventually, on the Last Day. As for the poor, Jesus wasn’t ending their poverty, but He was preaching the Gospel to them, the good news that God hadn’t forgotten them, that they were precious to Him, that the Savior had come to fix a much bigger problem than material poverty: the problem of the sins that separated them from God, the problem of their slavery to sin and death. The Christ had come to bear the sins of the world, to enter into mankind’s suffering completely, and to die so that we might live forever. He had come, the first time, to set the prisoners free, not from their earthly jail cells, but from their imprisonment in the devil’s kingdom.

This was Jesus’ answer to John’s question, with one final word: Blessed is he who does not stumble over Me. He’s encouraging John here and calling him to faith: “Don’t stumble over Me because you can’t fully see My plan and My purpose. Trust the Holy Spirit, who inspired the prophets before you to prophesy the very miracles I’m performing, and the Gospel I’m preaching. Trust the Holy Spirit, who inspired you to proclaim Me the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Trust the Holy Spirit who inspired you to recognize and proclaim that I am indeed greater than you, John, because if that’s true, that means, you won’t be able to fully understand everything I understand. You won’t be able to grasp all that I can grasp, or all that I came to do. But if all these things are true about Me, then you can most certainly trust Me to do what needs to be done, for you, for the rest of the Church, and for the world. Wait patiently for Me! You won’t be disappointed!”

Just as the King came to John in the midst of his suffering, by means of His word, so the same King, now risen, ascended on high, and already reigning invisibly at the right hand of the Father, comes to you, too, by means of His word. The King comes to us in our doubts, in our struggles, in our suffering, and in our ignorance, and gives us the answers we need. Not all the answers to all the questions, but the answers that we need right now, and the insight and understanding that we need right now.

The answers that we find in God’s Word come down to four basic things: First, God has a plan in which you play a part, and His plan is good and gracious. Looking back, as we now can, on the life of Jesus, including His suffering, death, and resurrection, it’s obvious how Jesus fulfilled the first part of all those Old Testament prophecies about the Christ during His first advent, how He came to pay for our sins and to rescue mankind in a spiritual way, from spiritual enemies, to bring us into His kingdom, which is hidden from view but altogether real. You can see how God has prospered His Word and even included you in the hearing of it, how He saw to it that you were baptized, and that you have the opportunity to keep receiving the ministry of His Word and Sacraments. You may not see everything clearly about God’s plan, but that much you can see.

Second, you have God’s promise to accompany you and preserve you throughout whatever valley of the shadow of death you may be walking through. You aren’t alone or on your own. God will help you to bear up under whatever He sends, and will even help you to behave as a child of God in the face of adversity.

Third, God has promised to turn all things to work out for your good, teaching you and disciplining you as a loving father teaches and disciples his child. He has something to teach you in the midst of your suffering.

And finally, you have God’s assurance that, for believers in Christ, nothing that you suffer will last forever. It has an end, whether it’s deliverance still in this life or when the King returns. Because while Jesus didn’t come the first time to fix all the problems of earth, that’s exactly what He’s coming to do when He comes again in glory, when He will finally fulfill all those Old Testament prophecies about the Christ coming to deliver His people from all their enemies, judge all the wicked, and establish a perfect home of righteousness and healing for all His battle-scarred believers.

To summarize, remind yourself of these four things when you’re suffering and unable to see God’s purpose clearly: God has put me here, according to His good and gracious plan. God will preserve me and help me to bear up and to behave as His child. God will teach me the lessons He wants me to learn. And God will release me in His time. In the midst of your suffering, your King still comes to you, to comfort you until He comes again. Rejoice! Trust! And wait patiently for the King! Hold on a while longer! And you will not be disappointed! Amen.

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Giving thanks for Mary without blaspheming God

Posted on December 10, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Advent 2

Jeremiah 23:5-6 + Luke 1:26-38

Last week we heard how the angel Gabriel stepped into our earthly realm to bring Zacharias the good news that he would have a son, and that his son would prepare the way for the Lord, the King. Today we heard how the holy angel Gabriel stepped for a second time into a world that was unholy, with all its hardship and filth, war and injustice, oppression, poverty, and sin. He only stepped in for a moment, though, to deliver a very important message. Then he stepped back out again. He wasn’t the holy One who was coming to live with us in this dark place. But he did come to announce the birth of that holy One, to a virgin named Mary.

What do we know about Mary? It’s important that we know what the Bible says about her, and what it doesn’t say, so that no one can deceive us into believing things that men have invented about her. For over a thousand years, the devil has been deceiving Christians to believe the wrong things about Mary, to focus their attention on her in a way that God hates and that she herself would have despised. Just two days ago, president Trump joined the Roman Church in celebrating the false belief that Mary was immaculately conceived, that is, conceived without the stain of original sin, a holy girl who was sinless and perfect from birth, who didn’t have to struggle with a sinful flesh like the rest of us, because she had no sinful flesh to begin with. Over the centuries, Mary has been credited with saving our nation, and many nations, from their enemies. She has been called the protector and refuge of the native American tribes (in both continents) and of other nations. She has been credited with one miracle after another, and one apparition after another. She has been called the Queen of heaven and earth, the mother of all Christians, and the one to whom we should pray if we truly want to be saved. She has even been set forth by many as the co-redeemer of the human race. But, I tell you, none of that is taught in Holy Scripture. None of that is consistent with the teaching of Scripture. And, therefore, all of that is blasphemy against God.

Of course, the worship or “hyper-service” that’s given to Mary has gotten so extreme that some have shot, like a rubber band, to the other extreme of ignoring or even badmouthing Mary. But that’s not right, either. The false teachings about Mary are wicked. But Mary herself was far from wicked, and far from insignificant. She was a sinner, like the rest of us, but she is also held up for us as a role model, in many ways, as a believer who was righteous by faith and righteous in the way she put her faith into practice. So let’s consider Gabriel’s words to her that you heard a moment ago, that we may give thanks for Mary rightly, without blaspheming God.

Mary, like Joseph, appears to have been descended from King David. We also know that she lived in Nazareth in Galilee, where Joseph also lived, and that she was somehow related to Elizabeth, Zacharias’ wife, who lived down in Judea. Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but they weren’t married yet, they weren’t living together yet, and they had never slept together, either. Mary was a virgin.

The angel Gabriel startled her with his greeting: Ave, Maria!Hail, Mary! But “Hail” isn’t a term of honor, or of dishonor. It’s just an old form of greeting in English, and Gabriel used the typical word in Greek for saying, “Hello!” or “Greetings!” So, “Hail, Mary!” is okay, but, “Greetings, Mary!” is better. Imagine if all those people who pray the rosary with its “Hail Mary’s” understood that they’re really just saying, “Greetings, Mary!”, which doesn’t even make sense, because Mary isn’t here for anyone to greet.

Greetings, O favored one!, he said or “graced one,” one who has been shown grace. Not “full of grace.” That was always a bad translation. The angel called her “favored one,” one who has been shown grace, who stands in God’s favor, or who has been given a gift of grace. St. Paul uses the same word for all believers in Christ when he writes to the Ephesians in chapter 1, “to the praise of God’s glorious grace, with which he has ‘graced’ or ‘favored’ us in the Beloved,” that is, in Christ. There’s nothing more to the angel’s greeting than that, and nothing less.

The Lord is with you, said the angel, and some Greek manuscripts add the phrase, Blessed are you among women!, which is something you’ll hear Elizabeth say to Mary in next week’s Lesson. To this day we still sometimes refer to Mary as the blessed virgin, not because she has any blessings to give, but because, above all women, she was given a special blessing from God. She would play a unique and special part in His plan to save sinners. Not that she would save or redeem anyone, or have any ongoing role in our salvation, but she would blessed with being entrusted to carry God’s Son in her womb for nine months, give birth to Him, take care of Him until He was an adult, accompany Him at various points of His ministry, accompany Him at the foot of His cross, become an early witness of His resurrection, and find a place among the early disciples in the early Church, who would pass on to the Church all the details we know about Jesus’ early life, now recorded in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels. No other woman in history has had a blessing or a gift like that, and Mary later acknowledged it gratefully.

Of course, Mary knew none of what was to come at this moment. She was confused and frightened by Gabriel’s greeting and by the very sight of an angel. But Gabriel quickly explained: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (Which is just another way of explaining what “favored one” means.) What does it mean that Mary “found favor with God”?

First, it tells us that Mary was one of those believers in the God of Israel and in His promise to send a Savior, the Christ, to redeem Israel. Many of the Jews had given up waiting for the Christ by that time. But Mary hadn’t. She had faith in God; she trusted in God, “her Savior,” as she would later sing in the Magnificat. And by faith in Him, she had received grace and favor and the forgiveness of her sins.

That faith had also produced in her a willingness to submit to God’s Word and to God’s will. That’s already demonstrated in her proper behavior with Joseph, her “fiancé.” She is engaged to a man, but doesn’t come together with him, or with any man, until after they’re married (until after Jesus is born). Seems so simple, and yet the rest of the world outside of Israel was just as promiscuous as our world has become, and even within Israel there was plenty of adultery going on. So we shouldn’t dismiss Mary’s chastity. She is held up for all young women (and young men) as an example to be followed, an example of faith, humble obedience to God, and chastity. And just to be clear, Mary’s chastity, including her celibacy, mattered until Jesus was born. After that, it’s useless and potentially harmful to claim that Mary remained a virgin for the rest of her life, because it can’t be established from Scripture, it would have no effect whatsoever on our salvation, and it turns into another one of those pointless distractions and into an unhealthy infatuation with Mary’s private life, which God chose not to reveal to us.

Then the angel told Mary the amazing plan God had for her: And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

This is the wonder that Isaiah had prophesied: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and will call His name Immanuel.” Note several things about Him. He would be the Son of God as well as the Son of Man. He would be born with a pre-determined name that would characterize His entire life: Jesus, Savior. He would be a “King,” the Son of David, but His kingdom would be so much bigger than David’s kingdom ever was. David reigned over the physical nation of Israel. Jesus would reign over the true “house of Jacob,” the Holy Christian Church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles, whom He would bring into His kingdom through faith. And, unlike David’s kingdom, the kingdom of Mary’s Son would have no end, either in extent or in time. It would stretch throughout the universe, and it would last forever and ever.

Mary then asked the obvious question: How will this be, since I do not know a man? Now, unlike Zacharias’ defiant question to Gabriel, for which he was scolded, Mary asks in all honesty, “How will this be?” The idea may have even occurred to her that God wanted her to do something about becoming pregnant. Because otherwise what the angel had told her was humanly impossible.

Ah, but it was not divinely impossible. Nothing is impossible with God, the angel said. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy child that will be born of you will be called the Son of God.

Here we see the proper role of the Holy Spirit: He is the Bringer of God’s Word to the world. He did it first in creation. He did it through the words of the prophets. But now He will bring the very Word who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, into the world through a great miracle, causing the eternal person of the Word to take on human flesh in Mary’s womb, so that He is truly the Son of God and the Son of Man in one united Person. And holy, because unlike every other human being born into the world, this one would be “immaculately conceived.” The Roman Church blasphemously claims that for Mary, but it truly belongs only to Jesus. He is the “immaculate conception.”

And so, yes, Mary is the “Mother of God.” Not the mother of God the Father, or of the Holy Spirit, but of the Son of God, who is also true God, and therefore, if the focus is on Jesus, Mary is rightly called the Mother of God. But if the focus of that title is on Mary, as if being the mother of God gave her some kind of authority or position of honor between Jesus and the rest of us, then the same title that is true in and of itself becomes another example of blasphemy against God.

But Mary doesn’t exalt herself at all. She gives us another beautiful example of humble submission to God’s will: Here I am, the Lord’s servant. May it be done to me as you have said. She could only begin to imagine the hardships such a pregnancy would create in her life, how it would change every plan she had ever made. But whatever would come, whatever the Lord’s will was for her, she was ready to accept it. And for that, we give thanks to God, who worked in Mary “both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (cf. Phil. 213). Her words are a model for all Christians of all times of what it looks like to simply believe the seemingly unbelievable promises of God, and to hand one’s life over to Him completely. If you remember Mary like this, then you will remember her well, and do well to remember her, and the blessed role God gave her in bringing His beloved Son into the world! Amen.

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Watch for the signs of His advent

Posted on December 7, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Advent 2

Romans 15:4-13 + Luke 21:25-36

You see leaves beginning to bud on the trees in the spring and, even if you don’t know on what date summer begins, you know summer is near. Not right on top of us yet, but near. You see Christmas trees and lights and ornaments and decorations being put out on display at Walmart, you know November is near. You see those same decorations going up around your neighborhood and city, you hear Christmas music playing on the radio, and in the stores, you know Christmas is near. Not right on top of us yet, but near. Even if you didn’t know what day Christmas fell on, you could tell by all those signs that it’s coming soon. But, the truth is, even if Christmas came upon you suddenly and you weren’t ready, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, would it? Life would go on. There are things we like to do on Christmas day, but nothing, nothing that must be done.

Oh, but you must be prepared for Jesus’ second Advent, for His coming at the end of the age. You must get yourself and your house and your heart in order, before He arrives, because once you see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory, either you’re ready or you’re not. Jesus, the Son of Man, wants you to be ready. And so, in His mercy, He has mentioned certain signs to be looking for that will let Christians know He is coming very soon.

I say that He’s letting Christians know, even though the signs will be there for all to see. It’s just that only Christians will care what Jesus has to say, and will interpret the signs correctly and prepare for the day of Christ’s coming. That day will come upon the rest of those who dwell on the earth like a snare, Jesus says, that suddenly snaps shut on an animal when it steps on the trip-wire. So listen to what your Lord says, and watch for the signs of His advent.

Earlier in Luke 21, Jesus speaks of wars, rumors of wars, nation rising up against nation and kingdom against kingdom, famines and earthquakes and pestilences in various places. Fearful sights and great signs from heaven, leading up to His advent. Those things existed even before Jesus’ first advent, and they have been around on and off for this entire New Testament period. Does that keep them from being signs that He is coming soon? Of course not. Because, every time you hear of a war, or a famine, or an earthquake, or a pandemic, it should now serve a new purpose. Instead of striking fear in the hearts of God’s people, instead of causing you to wonder whether or not God is in control, all these things have been turned into reminders and signs that Jesus is coming back, and that this world is not meant to be Paradise or our permanent home. The creation groans all around us, as in birth pains, and it’s only going to get worse until the moment when the Son of Man comes in a cloud with power and great glory. Everything you see here will pass away. So don’t get too attached to it!

Then we come to the signs in the heavens and on the earth that Jesus mentions in our Gospel. There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. And 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, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

In another place Jesus describes the signs in the heavens this way: The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. The stars of heaven will fall. What exactly is Jesus talking about? Is it natural but uncommon things like eclipses, and comets, and meteorites? It could be. He could be talking about natural, regularly occurring phenomena that believers are to see as something more. Or, He could be talking about extraordinary phenomena in the heavens that no one has seen yet, or even miraculous phenomena where God does something entirely unnatural and contrary to nature up there in the heavens. Which is it? I tend to think that we have yet to see some of the greater signs in the heavens. But each and every thing that happens up in the sky that’s out of the ordinary should cause us to pause and remember, all this will pass away, so don’t get too attached to it. Jesus is coming soon.

Jesus mentions some signs on the earth as well. In our Gospel He talks about 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. In another place, He says that lawlessness will increase, and that the love of most will grow cold. These things have all been going on for a long time, here and there, but it seems to be increasing as the numbered days of the earth become fewer and fewer. I think we haven’t seen the worst of it yet. But whenever you see distress among the nations, or hurricanes, or tsunamis, or people dreading the future, or people behaving wickedly and celebrating wickedness—don’t be disturbed by these things. Let them remind you that all this will pass away. Jesus is coming soon.

There are other signs Jesus talks about in other places that we won’t spend much time on today, things that will happen within the Christian Church itself before He returns—false doctrine running rampant throughout the Church, false teachers everywhere, a great rebellion within the Church against the doctrine of Christ, the rise and the revelation of the Antichrist. Can anyone claim that these things haven’t happened yet? As for the Antichrist, remember that he isn’t a single man who will appear somewhere as a secular leader or as a government official. The Antichrist arises within the temple of God, within the Church. He pretends to follow Jesus, but in reality, He creates a fake version of Jesus while leading people away from the true Jesus, claiming that his own words and his own teachings are infallible, and that he is the head of all Christians. All the descriptions of him in the Bible can be reasonably applied to the Roman papacy, but also to the widespread rebellion against the Word of God that has captivated most of the Christian churches in the world, where the word of man trumps the Word of God, where Jesus is turned into a political activist for whatever agenda men might have, where the good news of justification by faith alone in Christ is substituted with a different kind of message.

Even if we can’t say with certainty that some of the signs Jesus foretold have definitely happened, what we must not do is interpret the signs in such a way that someone might say, “Oh, Jesus can’t come yet, because such and such hasn’t happened yet.” That’s very dangerous. The signs are not so clearly stated that we can say for sure they haven’t happened yet. They’re given in prophetic, somewhat mysterious terms for a reason, so that we don’t dare allow the devil to convince us that it’s safe to sin for a while longer, safe to ignore God’s Word for now, since Jesus surely won’t come back today. The fact is, He may return today. So be ready!

And even before He comes, when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near! When you begin to see any of the signs Jesus has talked about, rejoice! Your redemption is near!

Let’s talk about redemption for a moment. The Bible talks about redemption in three different ways. It talks about our redemption that was accomplished by Jesus’ death on the cross, where He paid the price of His holy, precious blood for our release from sin, death, and the devil. Then it talks about our redemption when we are brought to faith in Christ and are actually brought into His kingdom. Finally, as in today’s Gospel, it talks about the redemption that is still to come, when Jesus returns to take us, body and soul, out of this dying world into His eternal kingdom. That’s what the signs in the heavens, and on the earth, and in the Church, are all pointing us to. So don’t be disturbed by them. Be encouraged by them! When you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near…Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

But, a final 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. Be on your guard. If Jesus’ word is the only thing that won’t pass away, why allow yourself to be weighed down by everything that will? If you’re not looking up, looking up at the signs of Jesus’ coming, looking up to heaven from where He will come, then you’ll be caught looking down, focused on the things of this world, like fun, like pleasure, like all the things we have to do to get by in this life. “I can’t go to church, or listen to God’s Word, or take the time to learn His teachings, because I have to work, all the time, because I have all the cares of this life to attend to.” Well, there are plenty of cares to attend to. But if they all come before God and His Word, and, ultimately, before your own soul, then, as Jesus says, “that day will come upon you unexpectedly.” And then many will realize with eternal regret, “In my pursuit of happiness here on earth, I neglected the most important thing of all: the pursuit of happiness after this earth is destroyed.”

Therefore, Jesus concludes, 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. Always watch. Always pray. Always trust in the Lord, and yearn for His coming. And the Son of Man will see to it that, when He comes in glory, you will not be destroyed with the rest of mankind. You, together with all believers, will be standing before Him safe and sound, forever. Amen.

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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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