A Christmas story for the mature

Posted on December 28, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas

Galatians 4:1-7 + Luke 2:33-40

Is the Christmas story for children? Yes. Absolutely. It pains me to know that many children don’t know the Christmas story that we heard repeated this past week. Everyone should know it, and we should all approach it with child-like wonder and awe, as we gaze at the baby in the manger who was born to us, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. But the story is not for children only. Far from it. For example, if we had gathered on the 26th, we would have heard about the stoning of Stephen. If we had gathered on the 27th, we would have heard Jesus prophesy the execution of Peter. Today, on the 28th, we could be observing the feast of Holy Innocents, when all the baby boys of Bethlehem were slaughtered (and we will consider that next week). As it is, our Gospel takes us to Simeon and Anna, two mature believers in Christ, who point us onward from the children’s story of the manger to the future of the Christ Child, to the parts of the story that are intended for mature audiences.

Our Gospel picks up the story of Christmas 40 days after Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph have brought Him to the temple in Jerusalem for the presentation of the firstborn son, and for Mary’s ceremonial purification after childbirth, both of which were required by the Law of Moses. An old, respected man in Jerusalem named Simeon has been directed by God the Holy Spirit to the temple on this same day and has been enabled by the Holy Spirit to recognize baby Jesus as the promised Christ. He has just taken the baby in his arms and has spoken the words we know as the Nunc Dimittis (Lord, now You let Your servant depart in peace), which we sing every Sunday after Communion, where Simeon praises God for allowing him to see the long-awaited Savior with his own eyes, the Savior whose purpose is to be a Light—a Light to enlighten the Gentiles and to bring glory to the people of Israel. (We’ll talk more about all that in February when we celebrate the Festival of our Lord’s Presentation.) Having heard Simeon’s words about their newborn Son, we’re told that Joseph and his mother were amazed at the things which were spoken about him.

But Simeon isn’t done talking to them yet. He has some very mature themes to present to them. Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel. Simeon knew the Old Testament Scriptures well. He knew that, if this little baby was the promised Christ, then much of His future had already revealed, had already been “appointed” by God. He had a divinely programmed purpose. What was it?

This child is appointed for the fall…of many in Israel. Here Simeon shows how well he understands the Scriptures. Most Israelites thought that the coming of the Christ would be the salvation of Israel, and it would, but not in a political sense, and not for all Israel. As the prophet Malachi had foretold, for example, Behold, He is coming, Says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap. The Child in Simeon’s arms would cause many in Israel not to stand but to fall. Think of the high and mighty Pharisees and priests in Israel who fell from favor in the eyes of the people as Jesus revealed them for the hypocrites and frauds they were. Think of Judas, who fell from grace all the way down to betrayal and suicide. Think of all the people in Israel who fell away from the faith of Abraham, and from the inheritance promised to Abraham, by rejecting Jesus, the true Son of Abraham. Think of that whole people group known as the Jews, who were once God’s chosen people, but who have fallen from grace and have made themselves enemies of the Gospel of Christ, because they didn’t want the kind of Christ God gave them.

But think, too, of all people who still live in sin and impenitence, and in willful ignorance of the doctrine of Christ, refusing to repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus, refusing to listen to His Word. They’ve all fallen, and they will fall even harder when Christ comes again in judgment.

But, Simeon also says, This child is appointed for the rising of many in Israel. Think of the lowlife tax collectors and sinners who encountered Jesus and were brought to repentance and faith, and who were lifted up through the forgiveness of their sins, and who went on to live a new life of obedience to God. Think of the apostles, many of whom began as lowly fishermen but rose to become God’s holy apostles. Think of Mary Magdalene, and of all who had already fallen, because of their sin, or who fell when they heard Jesus, but then, like the Apostle Paul, eventually found God’s forgiveness and salvation in Christ. Think of all those among the Jews and Gentiles who have been rescued from idol worship and from eternal condemnation and brought into God’s family by hearing and believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All of that lay hidden in the future of the child that Simeon held.

He also says, This child is appointed…for a sign that will be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Already as an infant, Jesus’ future was clear. If He was the Christ, then the Old Testament foretold His future clearly, as the Psalm says: The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. Or in the words of the prophet Isaiah, He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. The Christ was appointed for rejection, for being spoken against. And many in Israel did speak against Him, calling Him Beelzebub, even crying out for Him to be crucified.

Still today, Jesus is spoken against, by both Jews and Gentiles. Every expression of belief in a different god, or in no god at all, is speaking against Jesus. Every suggestion that you don’t have to believe in Jesus in order to go to heaven, or that you don’t have to listen to Jesus, or believe His Word in order to be a child of God—that’s speaking against Jesus, too.

Finally, Simeon points Mary to her own future in relation to her newborn Son: (yes, a sword will pierce your own soul, too). Simeon knew those prophecies that speak of the Christ’s suffering and death, even the prophecy that pointed to His crucifixion. And so, since Mary’s Son was the Christ, he began to prepare her for the difficult path ahead, for the pain of sitting at the foot of her Son’s cross, watching Him suffer and die.

In all these things, God used Simeon to point not only Mary and Joseph but you and me to the whole life of Christ, including the difficult parts and the parts that require wisdom and understanding, so that we can celebrate Christmas intelligently, maturely, so that we’re pondering who the baby was who once lay in a manger, and why He came, and how it will affect our lives.

As Simeon finishes describing Jesus’ future, Anna comes along, another mature saint who gets to meet her God in person. Luke tells us a little bit about her.

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well-advanced in years and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity, and was a widow of about eighty-four years, who never left the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

The fact that Luke is able to give us so many details about Anna speaks to how highly regarded she was in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ birth. She practically lived at the temple for at least five decades of her life, and she didn’t spend that time gossiping with the people who came to the temple. No, she spent her time fasting, praying, and speaking about God to those who came. She had devoted her whole life to God’s service, and God chose to reward her faithfulness by revealing His Son to her in the flesh.

She came at that very moment and gave thanks to the Lord and spoke about him to all those in Jerusalem who were looking for redemption. Now we have two elderly saints, Simeon and Anna, gushing over the infant Jesus, not because of how cute He was, but because of who He was and the salvation He would bring. Anna immediately gave thanks to God for this little baby, and she also made sure to tell others in Jerusalem about Him.

And what did she tell them, exactly? She spoke about Him to “all those in Jerusalem who were looking for redemption.” Redemption is one of those big words in the Bible. It means being rescued, at a price. Redemption is what God did when He brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt, where the blood of the Passover lamb was the price that “bought” Israel’s rescue. That’s what the Christ was coming to do, to pay the price in blood for mankind’s rescue from the slavery to sin and death. The prophet Isaiah wrote, The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” says the LORD. This is what St. Paul was talking about in today’s Epistle: When we were children, were enslaved under the principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those who were under law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. This is the word that Anna so faithfully spread to all in Jerusalem who would listen, to the mature in Israel who looked to God, not for Zion’s redemption from the Roman Empire or from earthly oppressors, but for redemption from sin. To all who trusted in God to send the Redeemer, to rescue them from their sins and to make them acceptable to God, Anna proclaimed, “Good news! Christ, the Redeemer, has come!”

Yes, good news! Christ, the Redeemer, has come! Keep celebrating His birth in Bethlehem with child-like wonder and awe. But, as you celebrate, keep growing in your knowledge of Him and in a mature appreciation of who He is and of why He came, and consider how it affects your life to believe in Him. That Child is your Redeemer. That Child is your Lord, and your King. He didn’t come to make your life easy or to give you earthly security or riches or power. Those are childish things, and those who seek them remain children, in a bad sense. Those who are mature recognize that Christ came to give us life, and life to the fullest, because without Him we have no hope in the world. But with Him as our Redeemer, we have the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, and a future of our own as beloved children of God, who, in all things, grow up into Him who is the Head, that is Christ. Amen.

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The background of the true & wonderful Christmas story

Posted on December 25, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Christmas Day

Hebrews 1:1-12 + John 1:1-14

Luke’s Gospel set the stage for us last night for the true and wonderful story of Christmas, with the shepherds of Bethlehem out in the fields, and the angels greeting them from the sky, Mary and Joseph huddling together in a cave, or a stable, or a barn, and the newborn baby Jesus wrapped with strips of cloth and lying in a manger. Keep all those images fresh in your minds as we add to them the true and wonderful background to the story, provided by John in his Gospel.

The background to the Christmas story goes back a thousand years before Jesus’ birth, to the time of David. It goes back another thousand years to the time of Abraham. It goes back about another two thousand years to the Garden of Eden. All of that history, along with the parts in between, set the stage for Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. But John takes us back even further, to the very creation of the universe, and beyond.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. The identity of this mysterious “Word” isn’t a secret. John drops hint after hint about who he’s talking about, until he spells it out in v.14, And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

“The Word” is John’s unique name for Jesus. Only he uses it, here in his Gospel, and in his first epistle, and in the book of Revelation. The Word—the “Logos”—is the best word the human language has for the eternal, divine Person of Jesus before He was born and named “Jesus,” before He ever had a human nature at all. He isn’t just “a” word, but “the” Word, the exact expression of the Father’s essence. Or as the writer to the Hebrews put it in the Epistle, He is “the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person.” The Word was already there in the beginning, when God the Father chose to bring this creation into existence. The Word was with God (that is, God the Father), and the Word was God (but not God the Father). He was God the Word, or God the Son. Why not mention the Holy Spirit here? Oh, John will talk about the Spirit at length later in his Gospel. But he wants to begin by focusing on Jesus. Because Jesus is the One whom John saw, and physically interacted with. And just as Jesus is called the Son, not of the Holy Spirit, but of the Father, so Jesus is also called the Word, not of the Spirit, but of the Father. Jesus is the One who was made flesh, who reveals the Father to us, and the Spirit. Jesus is the One whom Mary bore and placed in a manger. Not the Father, not the Spirit, but the Word.

All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. When the Father said, “Let there be light!” it was His Word that created the light. When He commanded the earth to bring forth living creatures, it was the Word of the Father’s command that brought them forth and brought them to life. That same Word is called both “Life” and “Light.” All very lofty terms, all very mysterious. But the point is clear: Jesus is no blip in the radar of history, no minor figure, no mere teacher or prophet. He is the God of all creation, the One who gives life to everything, and the One who reveals all truth to men, because He Himself is the Light and the Truth.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.  He came to bear witness, to testify concerning the Light, that all people might believe through him. He was not the Light, but was sent to testify concerning the Light, that the true Light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. Unlike Matthew and Luke, John the Evangelist doesn’t begin his Gospel with the story of Jesus’ birth. He begins the story in eternity, to reveal the true identity of the Word, then jumps ahead to John the Baptist, and describes his purpose: to testify concerning the Light, to tell all who would listen, the Christ is coming! The Light is coming! And whoever wants to see the truth, about anything, must see it through Jesus, because He is the Light that enlightens every man. No one truly sees the light, or knows the truth about anything apart from Him.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. This is the tragedy of the Christmas story. The Creator of the world was born into the world, and the world did not recognize Him, refused to recognize Him, refused to accept that He was their God, their Creator, refused to come to God through Him. Even His own people, the chosen nation of Israel, whom He had been preparing for His arrival for 1,500 years, did not receive Him. And neither has the world today. You know how few there are who care about the true and wonderful Christmas story. You know how few people actually believe that Jesus is God, the Word, and that the Word of God is true. You know how few people acknowledge their sins and seek to be saved through the blood of the Word made flesh. God sent His Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved! But the world, for the most part, didn’t want to be saved, still doesn’t want to be saved. And that’s why the Christmas story has always been, from a worldly perspective, a tragedy, ever since the Christ Child was born.

But we Christians don’t view it as a tragedy. Far from it! Because alongside the tragic result of most people remaining in unbelief stands the wonderfully happy ending to the story for some—a happy ending that’s still available and held out to all. But all who did receive him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God. Some have received the Word, have believed in His name. And they didn’t do it by their own will. They didn’t choose to believe, or to be born again. Their earthly birth-parents weren’t responsible for it either, for as much as parents may do what they can to expose their children to the Word of God. No, God alone gets the glory for bringing people to believe in His Son. In fact, here is the hidden role of the Holy Spirit, who hasn’t been mentioned so far in John’s Gospel but who is the very Person of the Godhead who is directly responsible for enabling sinners to believe in the Lord Jesus and for giving them new birth as children of God.

You who have heard and believed the true and wonderful story of Christmas, and of Good Friday, and of Easter, are the success stories that make this story a hero story, where the Hero’s birth in Bethlehem is just the beginning of an epic tale that leads to a cross, and an empty tomb, and a kingly reign at the Father’s right hand, culminating in a return for judgment and for eternal vindication, not just of Himself, but of all who have believed in His name. You Christians, you believers in the Lord Jesus, are the ones for whom the story of Christmas was written. And, until the Lord returns in glory, the story must still be told, by you, by me, by all who have come to believe it, so that others may believe it, too. No other story compares to this one, the story of shepherds out in the fields, and the angels greeting them from the sky, Mary and Joseph huddling together in a cave, or a stable, or a barn, and the newborn baby Jesus wrapped with strips of cloth and lying in a manger. It’s true, and it’s wonderful, and more than that, it carries with it the power to create and strengthen faith in the hearts of men, because it reveals our God to us in the person of the Word who was made flesh and placed in a manger, so that we sinners might be eternally saved. Merry Christmas indeed! Amen.

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The true and wonderful story of Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Christmas Eve

Luke 2:1-20

We’ve come together again this year to hear the Christmas story, the true one, the wonderful one. The story of Christmas begins with a census. Oh, of course, it actually begins way back in the Garden of Eden, 4,000 years or so before Christ was born, when God first promised to send the Offspring of the woman to crush the serpent’s head. But Luke, having already set the stage by reporting on the angelic birth announcements made to Zacharias and then to Mary, picks up the story, as you heard it this evening, with a census, which sounds kind of boring, until you realize just how important that particular census was.

Mary and Joseph knew that Mary’s Son was the promised Son of David, because the angel Gabriel had already told her: The Lord God will give 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. That was the fulfillment of the first lesson you heard this evening, from 2 Samuel 7, when God first made that promise to King David a thousand years before Jesus was born, that a special Son would be born to him, from his own body, who would never be abandoned by God (as many of David’s other sons were because of their stubborn rebellion against God), but whose kingdom would endure forever. Now, it’s possible that Mary and Joseph knew the prophecy from Micah that you heard a little while ago, saying that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem. But it’s also possible they didn’t know it; it’s not as if everyone had a Bible in their homes to study such things. Either way, it never came to a decision on their part whether they should travel down to Bethlehem. They were ordered there, by Caesar Augustus himself, because Joseph was of the house and lineage of David, whose hometown was Bethlehem, meaning that all those who could reliably trace their Jewish lineage back to David had to show up in Bethlehem to be registered.

But do you see how important that is? It means that Joseph could reliably trace his lineage back to David, and that his lineage, and that of his legal Son, Jesus, were actually documented, publicly, in the records of Israel. It was public knowledge. Now, all of the official records of Israel were destroyed about 70 years later when the Romans invaded Jerusalem. But during those 70 years, anyone who wanted to verify that Jesus was a legitimate descendant and legal heir of David could have done so. And, just as importantly, since no Israelite has been able to reliably trace his ancestry back to David since the destruction of those records in 70 AD, it puts a final nail in the coffin of anyone else ever claiming to be the Christ, the Son of David. That’s the importance of a census, in that God wanted His prophecies about His Son, not only to be fulfilled, but to be verifiable, because our God, and the story of His interactions with mankind, including Christmas, are not myths or legends, like Santa Claus or the toy shop at the North Pole. Our God is the God of history, truth, and wonder.

And so it’s as a historical event that we approach the story of Christmas, when God, the Son of God, actually stepped into human history, clothed Himself in human flesh, and allowed Himself to be born of a virgin, and wrapped in strips of cloth, and placed in a manger, where animals feed. It’s a story filled with wonder, when you accept that it really happened.

Isn’t it a wonderful thing, to know that heavenly beings known as angels appeared in the sky to a group of lowly shepherds, who were out in the fields, tending their flocks by night? They had to come, not just to let the shepherds know the good news, but because they had to worship God for this wonderful thing He had done, as the writer to the Hebrews confirms: When God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: Let all the angels of God worship Him!

But what was the good news that the angels brought? Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all the people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Those two sentences convey so many wonderful things! Let’s take a moment and break it down again, as we do every year.

I bring you good tidings. Literally, I preach the Gospel to you! It’s a Gospel that brings with it great joy, and that joy is intended for all the people. By extension, it’s intended for “all people everywhere,” but specifically the angel was talking about all the people of Israel, because it was to them and only them that God had been promising for 2,000 years that He would fulfill His promise to Abraham, to send the promised Savior, not just into the world somewhere, but into and among the people of Israel, in the land that He had given them for this very purpose, that His Son should be born there, grow up there, carry out His ministry there, be crucified there, conquer death there, and have this Gospel preached first to the Jews, to bring joy to all the people of Israel. Not that they all rejoiced in it, but they all could have and should have, because this birth announcement was for all the people to embrace and believe, even as it’s now for all people everywhere to embrace and believe.

For there is born to you. To you—to you shepherds and to all the people, and, ultimately, to the entire human race. A human Child was born to stand in for the rest of humanity, to live and to die as the great Substitute for our whole human race. This day. Imagine a nation waiting for 2,000 years for a promise to be fulfilled. In a way, we can imagine it, because it’s been almost 2,000 years since Jesus promised to return, and believers have been waiting, waiting, waiting for that day, never knowing how much longer it will be. Imagine how it will be when the trumpet finally sounds, and the cry again rings out from the angels, “This day your Lord returns to you!” That’s kind of how it must have been for the shepherds. “This day” had finally come.

In the city of David, in Bethlehem, just as Micah had foretold, just down the road from Jerusalem, in order to make it clear to the world that this Child truly was the special Son of David whom God Himself would anoint, not as an earthly King, but as the divine King over all creation.

A Savior. This baby would be many things: Teacher, Healer, Example, and, in the end, also Judge. But how wonderful—that the angel identified His primary purpose as Savior, to save us first from sin, death, and the power of the devil, and finally, from all the corruption and evil of this world. Who is Christ. The angel of the Lord was the first to proclaim this wonderful truth, that the Child born of Mary is the Christ, the Anointed One, sent to suffer, die, and rise again to reconcile sinners to God.

And wonder of wonders, the most wonderful part of this true story, the Child who was born as we are born, the Child who was placed in a manger as His very first bed, was, as the angel said, the Lord. The Lord Yahweh, or Jehovah, the only true God, the Ruler and Creator of all. The Lord was born as one of us to bring us to the Lord.

And then the song rang out into the night, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill to men. On this wonderful, wonderful night, heaven and earth unite to sing praise to God for the goodwill He has shown to mankind by giving us His Son, to make peace between God and men, through the One whose name is Wonderful, and Prince of Peace. Glory to God, for this true and wonderful story of Christmas! Amen.

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Prepared through preaching, baptism, faith, & Spirit

Posted on December 21, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Advent 4

Philippians 4:4-7 + John 1:19-28

Prepare for the coming of the King! We’ll celebrate His birth on Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll see Him coming again with the clouds sometime soon. And God is determined to make us ready for His coming. As we’ve talked about throughout this Advent season, John the Baptist was God’s original preparer of God’s people. Last week we heard Jesus apply Malachi’s prophecy to John the Baptist: “Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me.” In today’s Gospel, we hear John identifying himself in the same way from a similar prophecy found in the book of Isaiah: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD!” On this, our final Sunday of the Advent season, we turn to John the Baptist once more, examining his ministry to see how he prepared the people of Israel for Jesus’ first coming. Because the same preparations are necessary for us, including the preparation of understanding how preaching, baptism, faith, and the Holy Spirit are all connected in God’s great plan of preparation.

Let’s start with John the Baptist himself. John’s role in God’s plan of salvation was unique. As Jesus later said about John, John was more than a prophet. He was THE prophet, the messenger who was to hold the door open, as it were, for the Messiah, as the herald of His arrival, and as the one who was to prepare people for His arrival. And he began to perform that service even before he was born!

As we saw on Wednesday, John was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and it was the “preaching” or at least the word of Mary that prompted that unborn believer in the Lord Jesus to leap for joy in his mother’s womb in the presence of God his Savior, showing that he already had the indwelling Holy Spirit, and faith in the Son of God, even though his tiny body and his developing heart were not yet fully formed. Already we see the combination of preaching, the Holy Spirit, and faith.

Now, for John, that gift of the Spirit never led to a single miracle performed by him. What did it lead to? It led to John being able to recognize Jesus, to rejoice in Jesus, and then to preach the Word of God that pointed to Jesus, which, in turn, led many people in Israel to repentance and to faith, and to baptism and the forgiveness of their sins. It produced in them hearts that were ready to receive the Messiah.

Here’s a sample of his preaching: “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. A strong warning to repent, to turn away from their sins before the Lord comes in judgment. But also strong comfort in this new Sacrament called “baptism,” which God had directly sent John (and only John) to administer. And then, John’s message was also a strong warning to believers not to go on sinning after receiving God’s forgiveness, but to mend their ways and bear fruit consistent with repentance. The same preaching goes out still today, even to you.

After preaching for many months to sinners who needed to repent and receive God’s forgiveness, John was surprised to see Jesus finally step forward to be baptized Himself—the only man in history who had no need of repentance or of forgiveness. (We’ll hear about that in a few weeks, during the Epiphany season.) After He was baptized, Jesus disappeared for the next 40 days to face the devil’s temptations alone in the wilderness. The events of our Gospel apparently took place just as those 40 days were coming to an end, as Jesus was just about to return and start gathering His first disciples.

Well, the scribes and Pharisees (the religious leaders in Jerusalem) hadn’t yet heard of this “Jesus.” But they had heard a lot about John and were nervous about his popularity with the people of Judea. So they sent to ask him who he was and by whose authority he was preaching and baptizing—because they certainly hadn’t authorized it! As you heard in today’s Gospel, John didn’t for a moment claim to be more than he was. In fact, he came right out and denied being the Christ. But what he claimed about himself was still extremely important. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD!… I baptize with water. But there stands among you one whom you do not know. It is he who comes after me, who is already ahead of me, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to untie.” John had said something similar earlier, Yes, I baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Let’s talk about this “water baptism” vs. “Spirit baptism.” John baptized with water. So did Jesus’ apostles, under Jesus’ supervision, after Jesus began His ministry. And then, after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus specifically commissioned His apostles to go and preach to all nations and baptize them in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That was still referring to “baptism with water.” But notice that, even there, Jesus connects water baptism with the name of the Spirit, and the Father, and the Son. Water baptism has God’s name attached to it, together with His command and promise. It’s not just plain water, but the washing with water by the Word, the water that washes away sins before God because God says it does. It’s the water that saves a person from eternal death, that clothes a person with Christ, that unites a person with Jesus’ own death, burial, and resurrection, that grants a person new life, and the new status of “child of God.” Baptism with water, in the name of the triune God, does all that, according to Scripture. So don’t let anyone ever convince you that “water baptism” is unimportant or inferior to any other baptism. It gives the most important gifts of all.

Of course, it gives all this to those who believe. If a person doesn’t want God’s salvation through Christ, or God’s forgiveness, or God’s adoption, or God’s eternal life, or if a person doesn’t believe that God gives these things in Baptism, as He promises to do, then such a person shouldn’t be baptized in the first place. Such a person rejects God’s gift of faith along with God’s gift of baptism. Faith comes by hearing the preaching of God’s word, both by itself and as it’s preached in connection with the water of baptism. But not all who hear believe. John didn’t baptize the unbelieving Pharisees (or their messengers who came to him), because they made it clear they didn’t believe, whereas the crowds who came to him for baptism, he baptized, just as Peter and the apostles baptized (with water!) some 3,000 people on the Day of Pentecost.

But that brings us to “Spirit baptism,” or “baptism with the Holy Spirit.” It’s true, John’s baptism didn’t include it; it isn’t the same thing as water baptism, but, ever since the Day of Pentecost, it’s connected with it. After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus explained to His apostles exactly what “Spirit baptism” referred to: For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. He was referring to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the believers on the day of Pentecost—the Spirit who emboldened the believers, fortified their faith, and enabled the apostles to preach boldly, the Spirit who made His presence known with outward signs of fire and sound and speaking in foreign languages. And then, after Peter had been baptized with the Holy Spirit in that way, he preached about Jesus, and then connected His preaching to repentance and faith and baptism and the Holy Spirit, all at once. Repent, he preached, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit! The promise is for you and for your children, for as many as the Lord our God will call.

Oh, and that baptizing with fire that John talked about? Here’s what Jesus had to say about that: I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! He’s referring to how He would send forth His Gospel into the world after the Day of Pentecost, a Gospel that would spread like wildfire as the Holy Spirit accompanies the Word of God and works through it to spread the kingdom of God. So the baptism with fire is really nothing else than what we’ve been talking about. It’s Jesus, after His resurrection, sending forth His Gospel, in Word and Sacrament, and sending His Holy Spirit with it, as He promised, to convert, enlighten, and sanctify a Christian Church on earth, to prepare people for the coming of the King.

John’s ministry prepared the people of Israel to receive their King in repentance, in faith, and in joy. His preaching prepares the way for us, too. “Christ is coming,” John declares. He’s almost here! It’s time to wake up from the daily routine that so easily lulls us to sleep. It’s time to hear the Word of God and truly pay attention to it. It’s time to recognize sin for the deadly snare that it is. It’s time to repent and, either be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, as little Joseph Waid was yesterday morning, or cling to the promise God made to you when you were baptized, because Jesus is the Son of God, sent by the Father to save the fallen world, including you. He is the Lamb of God who took the sins of the world upon Himself and suffered for them on the cross, and who now holds out the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit to all the baptized. And, Christians, it’s time to bear fruit consistent with repentance, to live each day as the children of God, as the Christians you proclaim yourselves to be, because Christ is coming soon in judgment against the sinful world, and He’s given you this time before His coming to prepare, so that you may escape the judgment and go with Him, rejoicing, into a new and glorious world. This preaching, this message, combined with baptism and faith and pointing ahead to the gift of the Holy Spirit, is how John the Baptist prepared the people of Israel for the Lord’s first coming. May it also serve to prepare you, so that you may be a people ready to receive the Lord on the Last Day, and before then, a people ready to celebrate His birth. Amen.

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A blessing from two blessed women

Posted on December 17, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for the week of Advent 3

Isaiah 11:1-5 + Luke 1:39-56

Tonight we pick up the story, one last time before Christmas, of the events leading up to Jesus’ birth—as Mary herself probably recounted it to Luke, so that he could include it in his Gospel.

After Mary heard the angel’s announcement of her miraculous pregnancy, and after also hearing from the angel that her relative Elizabeth was now six months pregnant in her old age, Mary decided to make the journey from Nazareth down to Judea, to visit Elizabeth and surely to compare notes about what the angel had said.

As Mary arrived at Elizabeth’s house, she called out a greeting—maybe the same word the angel had spoken to her, Hail! Greetings! You remember how the angel had told Zacharias that his son would be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb? We see the evidence of that here, because as soon as Mary’s greeting reached John’s ears, even within his mother’s womb, he jumped for joy, because, by the Holy Spirit’s working, he knew he was in the presence of his God, growing in the womb of that woman who had just greeted his mother. As people rightly point out, the very first human being to recognize Jesus as Lord and Savior, apart from Mary herself, was an unborn child.

That wasn’t a wishful guess on Elizabeth’s part. Luke says that she herself was filled with the Holy Spirit at that moment, prompting her to call out to Mary with these inspired words: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.

Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” calling Mary the “mother of my Lord.” Last week we talked about those who go way, way overboard in honoring (and, in fact, worshiping) Mary. We are not taught by the Christian Church to practice any kind of devotion to her, nor are we taught to pray to her, or to seek help from her. But we certainly don’t deny the words of Gabriel or the Spirit-inspired words that Elizabeth spoke to Mary. We rightly speak of Mary as being “blessed among women,” because God had given her a greater gift than He had given to other women. She was the only one in history whose womb gave human life to Him who is the Life. She was the mother of Elizabeth’s Lord, and hers, and ours. Her womb and her descended-from-King-David genes were the Holy Spirit’s raw material for crafting a human body and soul that was taken up into the Person of the Son of God, so that there is now one Christ who is both true God and true Man, God incarnate as a man, to save men from their sins. Mary was given a vital, intimate role in the incarnation of Emmanuel.

And both Elizabeth and her unborn son knew something else: that the incarnation of God’s Son was something to rejoice over. Why? Not for any earthly reason. Jesus wouldn’t make life on earth better for most, certainly not for John the Baptist, who would one day be put to death for his faithfulness to Christ. But now the Lord God was finally present, not as He is always present everywhere, but tangibly present in human flesh. Not “God-out-there-somewhere,” but God-right-here-in-the-midst of us, to dwell with us in our darkness, to reveal God to us, and most importantly of all, to carry our sorrows, to receive our stripes, to die our death, to make atonement for the sins of all men, and to grant eternal life to all who believe.

Finally, Elizabeth said to Mary, Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord. Mary was blessed—fortunate, enviable—because when the Word of God came to her, she simply believed it. And in believing God’s Word, especially about something that was humanly impossible, Mary was walking in the footsteps of her forefather Abraham, who believed the Lord, against hope, that he and Sarah would have a son in their old age. Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. Mary believed the Lord, and she, too, was blessed, credited with righteousness, and held up as an example for all generations to follow.

Then we have the beautiful words of Mary, which the Church has echoed for millennia in the Magnificat. It begins: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. Mary’s worship—and ours, if it’s genuine—comes from the heart, or the soul, or the spirit (it’s hard to distinguish among such terms). Her worship magnifies, or “acknowledges or proclaims the greatness of” the Lord. Not of herself, but of the Lord. And she’s truly joyful that God has finally fulfilled His promise to send the Christ, her Savior, into the world, and that He chose to do it through her, a “nobody” in the world, who now, by God’s grace, has become, as Elizabeth called her, the mother of the Lord. And because God showed such mercy to her, she also knew that she would be called blessed, that is, remembered fondly by all generations, not because she deserves our honor, but because God had shown her favor, and so we recognize and give thanks for her.

Mary goes on to bless the Lord for how He treats the rest of His believers. And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. Mercy, on those who fear Him, in every generation, from Adam and Eve to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to David, to Mary, to you and me, to our children and grandchildren…who fear Him, who listen to Him, who believe in Him, and who obey Him. It’s the same thing God said when He gave the Ten Commandments: For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. In one sense, God’s mercy extends to all men, in that He is moved by man’s wretchedness to help. But this mercy that Mary’s talking about is different. It’s is the special, personal, fatherly mercy for those whom God has brought to faith and who continue now in faith and the fear of God, who fear and revere, not just any god, but the God who sent His Son into the womb of the blessed virgin.

In this sense, God treats those who fear Him differently from how He treats those who don’t fear Him. Mary goes on to show the great contrast: He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty.

It’s very much like Jesus often said, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. How has God “scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts”? How has He “put down the mighty and sent the rich away empty”? By telling them the truth: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You want to take pride in yourself? No human being has any reason to do that. God doesn’t let anyone trust in their own works, in their own strength, or in their own riches. God says to the proud, You will surely die in your sins, unless you repent and look to Me for mercy.

That mercy is not far away. God’s mercy entered the world in human form, in the person of Mary’s Son. So despair of yourselves and trust in Him. He has mercy on those who fear Him. He has exalted the lowly and the poor and the despised. He has filled the hungry with good things. As Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

And He does all this, as Mary confessed, out of faithfulness to His own promises—promises which He first made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—the fathers of the Israelite people—and to their seed forever. He promised those patriarchs that, through their Seed, all nations on earth would be blessed. That seed was Christ Himself, the Rod from the stem of Jesse, as Isaiah called Him, the Branch from Jesse’s roots, from the house of David, through David’s daughter Mary. This is the only reason why the nation of Israel has ever mattered in the world, that God, in His faithfulness, gave His Son into the world through that nation, according to His promises made to them long ago. Jesus is the fulfillment of all God’s promises to Israel.

Of course, the same Isaiah to whose prophecies Mary had been alluding in her Magnificat prophesied about how God’s kingdom would extend through the virgin’s Son far beyond the nation of Israel, how the Christ would be a light to lighten the Gentiles, for the creation of one great Church to fill the world, the New Israel that proclaims the God of the Old and New Testaments, the Church made up of sinners only, who recognize their need for mercy, and God’s merciful gift of the Savior who visited Elizabeth long ago, still in His mother’s womb, and in whose presence John the unborn child leapt for joy.

The same joy is for all the humble and lowly who look to Him for salvation. Learn that from Elizabeth’s words, and from Mary’s, and receive the same blessing that those lowly, blessed women received. Amen.

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