God, the Son of God, was born to all, received by believers

Posted on December 25, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for the Christ Mass

Isaiah 7:10-14  +  Hebrews 1:1-12  +  John 1:1-14

Christ is born. Today we celebrate His birthday.  It may actually be His birthday.  The early Church did some investigating into the records in Rome of the census that was taken in those days.  But whether the Church got the date right or not, Christ’s birth happened at a real place in time. Practically no one disputes that a baby boy named Jesus was born in Bethlehem to some descendents of King David named Mary and Joseph about 2018 years ago, and was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger.   This is He who, as Paul says to the Romans, “was born of the seed of David according to the flesh.” That’s the easy part, or the relatively easy part. The truth of Jesus’ humanity is undeniable.

But in order to see the other part of the truth, the truth of His virgin birth, the truth of His divine identity, the truth that this Child is the promised Christ who came to save the world from sin and condemnation—well, our eyes won’t do us any good.  Roman records and all the investigation in the world won’t do us any good, and you can bet that God had a very good reason for having His Son born at a time before any paternity test could be performed.  To see the truth of the divinity of that Child born in Bethlehem requires the work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart, and He does that work as we listen and pay attention to the Word of God.  This is the part that most of the world still denies, but it’s the part that makes Christians Christians and that makes Christmas worth celebrating.

According to His human nature, Jesus had a beginning, in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He was born in time. But according to His divine nature, Jesus had no beginning.  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 Word that was in the beginning is identified as the same Jesus who was born in time.  He is the only Person who is both without a beginning and with a beginning.  The Mormons have this unscriptural doctrine that every human soul was already begotten by God the Father before the world was made. But according to the Scriptures, human beings don’t exist at all before their conception, nor are they begotten by God the Father.  But then there’s Jesus, who, as a human being, didn’t exist before His conception, but as God, did exist since…always, the Only-begotten of the Father, begotten of His Father before all worlds.

Between the Apostle John and the writer to the Hebrews, there is no possible way to be faithful to the Bible and deny Jesus’ divinity.  Listen again to what the writer to the Hebrews says about Jesus:

He is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His (that is, God the Father’s) person… Christ is as intricately joined to God the Father as light is joined to the burning light bulb that produces it, or as the picture on the screen is joined to the projector that projects it.

Again, it says in Hebrews Let all the angels of God worship Him. But God absolutely prohibits in His Word the worship of any creature. Therefore, Jesus is God, together with the Father.

And maybe the clearest example of all: But to the Son He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands.” The Father Himself, speaking to Jesus, calls Him “God” and “LORD,” which in Hebrew is the very name Jehovah or Yahweh.

Now there’s plenty more for us to consider in the Christmas Day Gospel from John 1, but for this morning, let’s just focus on this one truth revealed in Holy Scripture, that the One born in Bethlehem was and remains true God, through whom all things were created, through whom all things in the universe are still sustained.  You and I and the entire sinful human race were so completely and utterly lost because of our sins that we could only be saved by God becoming flesh.

And that was His purpose in being born.  Not to give us a cute holiday story to remember once a year, or a reason for families to gather.  But to save us from sin.  To save all people from sin by growing up and telling us the truth about Himself, about God, about sin and grace, and by giving His life on the cross.  To save all people by faith in God, the Son of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us.  John the Baptist came to testify about God, the Son of God, so that, as it says, all through him might believe.  Christ was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.  Christ came into the world with human DNA so that everyone with human DNA might believe in Him as his or her Savior from sin.  He shared in our human DNA so that he might bear the sins of everyone with human DNA.

God, the Son of God, came to call everyone out of the darkness of sin to repentance and faith in His name.  But “the world,” as John says, did not receive Him. “The world” has preferred for the last 2,000 years to remain in darkness, to revel in its sin, to trust in its own works and its own gods, or to pretend that there is no God who needs to be appeased.

But some, who were once part of the world, have received the Light of God, the Son of God.  You have received Him by hearing His Word and believing in His name, and so John’s words apply to you, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And so we sing, Oh, come, all ye faithful.  We don’t sing, Oh, come, all ye hard-working, good and decent people.  We don’t sing, Oh, come, all ye sinless people.  We don’t sing, Oh, come, all ye white people or black people or Hispanic people. We sing, Oh, come, all ye faithful—full of faith—all you sinners from every nation, tribe, language and people, from every economic class and educational background, all who have heard the Christmas Gospel and believed in God, the Son of God, as your Savior from sin.  Christ came for all people.  But you are the ones whom God has blessed beyond measure by causing you to know Him rightly, in His humanity and in His divinity. You are the ones who have received Him, by the grace of His Holy Spirit working in the Gospel. And that means that you have been made children of God and coheirs with Christ of all things.  Your sin is washed away in your divine Brother’s blood. Your death has been vanquished in your divine Brother’s resurrection. God’s life and forgiveness were given to you in your Baptism and are given to you again today in the body and blood of God, the Son of God. Oh, come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Amen.

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Lessons and Devotions for Christmas Eve 2013

Posted on December 24, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Genesis 3:1-15

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

On Christmas Eve, as we celebrate the birthday of Jesus, we’re celebrating the fulfillment of a promise—a promise which is all that stands between us and death.  Death is the punishment for sin, and sin is what Adam and Eve, our first parents, chose over life with God.  They plunged our entire race into sin and darkness and slavery to the serpent.  We now know both good and evil.  But we don’t know them both the same. We know good from afar; we know good as that from which we have now fallen into evil, evil that lives all around us, evil that lives within us, for we are sinners who have fallen under the curse of death and condemnation from the moment we were conceived.  Adam and Eve chose death over life.  They chose the devil’s side.  We are born without a choice, born on the devil’s side, condemned to choose only evil, all the time, and to suffer the consequences for it.

But a promise was made to Adam and Eve—the Seed of the woman would be born. The Christ, the Enemy of our enemy the devil, would come and make war against that ancient serpent and bruise his head by becoming a curse for us, by being nailed to a tree and cursed with our sin.  And the fruit of His death on that tree would be life for all who believe in Him, even as the fruit of another tree brought death to all mankind.  The Seed of the woman was finally born, four thousand years after His birth was first promised.  The angel came from heaven above to earth with the birth announcement, and tonight we celebrate the birth of the Christ and the fulfillment of the promise, because that promise is all that stands between mankind and the eternal death we deserve for our sins. The promised Seed of the woman  grew up and deserved eternal life for us, and all who believe in Him are safe forevermore.

Genesis 28:10-17

10 Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. 12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. 14 Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

We follow the promise of the Seed some 2000 years from Adam to Abraham, and to his son Isaac, and to his son Jacob, later renamed as Israel.  God narrowed down the promise to one family, one line, one nation.  And in the vision in which God spoke that promise to Jacob,  He showed Jacob a ladder that connected heaven and earth. Christ, born of Mary, is that Ladder. Christ, the God-Man is the one who connects God to sinful man, so that every man who trusts in Him is reconciled to God.  The place where the heavenly Ladder first touched the earth was in Bethlehem. And a stable became the house of God. And a manger became the gate of heaven.

2 Samuel 7:5a, 11b-16

5 “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “The Lord tells you that He will make you a house. 12 “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. 15 But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”

Again, the promise of the serpent-crushing Seed is repeated, this time to King David, and thus narrowed down to a family line within the nation of Israel, within the tribe of Judah.  David loved the Lord and wanted to build a house—a temple—for Him. But the Lord, who doesn’t need man’s service, turned it around and promised to build a house for David—promised to give him a Son—not just a regular son, like Solomon, who would one day rule on David’s throne and build the temple in Jerusalem, but a very special Son who would reign over the kingdom of God forever, who would build the true house of God, which is the Christian Church.  The Seed of the woman would come, the Christ would be born, the Church would be built by Him, and Christians will forevermore call the Son of David their Lord and King.

Isaiah 9:2-7

2 The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. 3 You have multiplied the nation And increased its joy; They rejoice before You According to the joy of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 4 For You have broken the yoke of his burden And the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, As in the day of Midian. 5 For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, And garments rolled in blood, Will be used for burning and fuel of fire. 6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

By the time of the Prophet Isaiah’s writing, David’s earthly kingdom had been divided, and most of his sons had proven themselves unfaithful. David’s sons, the kings of Judah, would eventually lead their nation into brazen idolatry and impenitence, and as a result, God would lead Judah into captivity, to a land far away.  Isaiah sees the coming darkness. But he sees past it, too, to the coming of the light, to the birth of a Child, the Son of David, the Seed of the woman.  He would finally be born.  He would finally enlighten the people who walked in darkness as He revealed God’s love to them—a love so deep and wide that He enters our sinful race, to dwell with us in our darkness, to bear our sins and to pay for them all with His own death.  It is He who would establish the kingdom of David, not by demanding righteousness and obedience from sinners who cannot render it, but by being righteous for us, and by offering us His righteousness as a covering, as a garment. Unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given.

Micah 5:2-5a

2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” 3 Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel. 4 And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; And they shall abide, For now He shall be great To the ends of the earth; 5 And this One shall be peace.

The coming destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people of Judah in Babylon would seem like an insurmountable obstacle to God keeping His promise to send the Seed of the woman to David’s house.  And yet, Micah foretells that not only would God bring it about that David’s Son would be born somewhere in the world.  God would so govern the events of history that the Seed would be carried back from exile in Babylon to the land of Judah, and to the very city of David’s birth, the little town of Bethlehem, to be born there.  That little backwoods town would be forever honored by God as the birthplace of His Son, the Ruler in Israel, who was born in time, but whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.   And now, the One who was born in Bethlehem has become the Ruler, not only of the Jews who believe in Him, but His name has been preached to the ends of the earth so that we Gentiles, too, have come to know Him and hope in Him as our King, as our Shepherd, as our peace.

Matthew 1:18-25

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” 24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.

There they are, the offspring of David—Mary and Joseph, each from a different line of David’s children, but each able to trace his and her ancestry back to David.  Mary, the virgin-mother of God. Joseph, a righteous, godly man who would be a devoted father to Jesus, even though he himself  didn’t father Jesus.  Mary believed the angel’s word.  Joseph believed the angel’s word. And you, too, dear Christians, have come to believe the angel’s word about this Child named Jesus who saves His people from their sins.  His name is proclaimed to us—Immanuel, God with us.  God with us in our sin-filled world, and yet He Himself was sinless, so that He might suffer for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.  God with us in suffering and in death. God with us in the grave.  God with us in the resurrection. And by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, God with us has united us with God, and we will dwell with God forever.

Luke 2:1-20

1 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. 4 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. 6 So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. 7 And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” 15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

And so it was that the ancient promise was fulfilled.  God sent His Son, the Seed of the woman, in lowliness and meekness, into a dark world that is getting darker still.  God sent His Son to be born in a manger, to be despised and rejected by men, to be cursed on the tree in order to save us from the curse of the tree.  Now God has come to earth. Now God’s righteous decree to mankind in the Garden of Eden, “You will surely die,” has been fulfilled by our Brother Jesus, who surely died for all men and rose again. And God’s promise remains: everyone who believes in Him has eternal life and will not come into judgment.

Rejoice, people of God! Sing with the angels! Come and worship Christ the Lord with the shepherds! Glorify and praise God with them!   And you who haven’t been Christians before now, repent and put your faith in the Seed of the woman, born of Mary. For as small and weak as He appears on the night of His birth, He is strong enough to bear your sins, and the sins of the world.  He is mighty enough to bruise the serpent’s head and to stand between you and death.  Indeed, He has already done it for all who believe in Him.  Where His Gospel is preached, there light pierces the darkness.  Here light pierces the darkness again on this holy night as we celebrate our dear Savior’s birth. Glory to God in the highest! Amen.

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Make straight the way of the Lord

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Advent 4 – Rorate Coeli

Isaiah 40:1-8  +  Philippians 4:4-7  +  John 1:19-28

The fourth Advent candle is lit.  The four Sundays of Advent have passed, like the four thousand years of the Old Testament, the four thousand years between God’s first promise to Adam and Eve of the offspring of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head and the birth of Christ.  The four themes of the Advent season have been set before your eyes again this year: (1) Christ came in humility to give His life in payment for our sins.  (2) He will come again in glory to judge the earth.  (3) He sustains His Church in joy under the cross until He comes in glory.  And today, in the words of Isaiah and of John the Baptist, (4) “Make straight the way of the LORD!”

How do you make His way straight? How do you finish preparing for His coming? Listen to His messenger.  Listen to John the Baptist as he cries from Jordan’s banks announcing that the Lord is nigh.

John, remember, was about six months older than Jesus, and he likely started his ministry about six months before Jesus started His.  But we don’t know many details about John’s ministry, because John’s ministry wasn’t about John.  His ministry was about Jesus.  Only go to John if you want to hear about Jesus.

A delegation from the Pharisees came to John in the wilderness where he was preaching, wanting to learn more about John.  “Who are you?” they asked.

But rather than tell them about himself, John told them who he wasn’t, so that they could focus on the one they should be focusing on, which was Christ. He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”  I’m not the one you should be focused on.  Who I am will not determine where you spend eternity.  Don’t worry about me.  Worry about Christ.

Now, how opposite that is of the modern-day popular preacher, where it is all about who the preacher is, his charisma, his personality, his charm, his sense of humor, his engaging style of preaching, his cool clothing.  But it’s not supposed to be that way. The true preacher sent from God minimizes himself and emphasizes Christ.

John’s whole ministry was about who he was not.  He lived out in the wilderness and wore camel hair clothing and lived on the wild, because he was not a king, not a prince, not a ruler or a rich man. He was not a man who lived for honor or comfort in this world.  Nor was he a man who made the people around him feel comfortable.  He was, after all, a preacher of repentance. He told the people, you may not go on living as you are. You may not go on ignoring your sin, ignoring your soul, ignoring God’s Word and God’s kingdom, and ignoring, or even mistreating your neighbor. You may not.  You cannot.  Not because, I, John, am making up rules for you.  Not because I, John, tell you so.  But for one reason: For the kingdom of heaven is near! The Lord is coming!  Wake up from your slumber, from your apathy, from your self-security.  This “church-stuff” is serious business.  Christ is coming!

But who was John to preach such things?  The delegation prodded John. “Who are you, then? Elijah? I am not. Are you the Prophet? No.” See, the people of this world cannot comprehend a preacher who is not seeking fame and fortune.  They cannot grasp a preacher who actually points away from himself to Christ.  He must be claiming something greater for himself.  And surely, if John had claimed to be Elijah, that would have made him great. During Elijah’s time, some 800 years before Christ, there was no greater prophet.  If the people wanted to hear from God, they had to go to Elijah and listen to him. If someone wanted to hear from God, Elijah was the destination.  Elijah was God’s voice on earth at that time.  Not so with John. John was not the destination, but a mere road sign pointing to the destination, because there was a greater prophet on earth at the time of John—far greater.  The voice of God on earth at that time was the Son of God Himself.

And if John had claimed to be the Prophet—the one referred to by Moses in Deuteronomy 18, then he would have been claiming greatness for himself, because Moses told the Israelites that when that Prophet comes, “You must listen to Him!”  But that’s not John.  If nobody ever heard of John the Baptist, that would be perfectly OK.  But the Prophet—the Christ—if a person doesn’t hear about Him and listen to Him, then he or she will be lost eternally.

“Who are you, then?”, the delegation asked John.  But notice, he still doesn’t give them an autobiography. Once again, he defers their question away from himself to talk about Jesus, quoting from the prophet Isaiah: I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

Yes, they were to listen to John, but only as an arrow, as a road sign pointing them away from their sin and toward the coming Savior from sin. As he points away from himself to the coming Lord, he says, “Make straight the way!” That’s repentance. Stop worrying about yourselves. Stop living for yourselves. Stop trusting in yourselves and in your good works, which aren’t good at all if they are judged by God’s holy law. Stop making up your own right and wrong. Stop making God into an afterthought in your heart.  Put away your pride. Recognize your sin and turn from it. Seek mercy from the Lord, for He is merciful!  He brings with Him comfort and mercy and peace for the penitent. He comes with healing.  He comes to pay for your sins and give you eternal life. Here He comes! Here He comes!

The Pharisees were unimpressed with John’s quote from the prophet Isaiah. They obviously didn’t believe that he was the prophesied voice crying in the wilderness.  They didn’t see any need to repent. They were already living according to God’s law, so they thought. They weren’t interested in who John was pointing to.  Notice that?  They didn’t ask, “The way of the Lord? Where is He coming?  When is He coming?  Where do we find Him? Is He here? How do we make straight His way?” No. They don’t ask that. They don’t want to hear about Christ.

Why do baptize, then, John, if you’re nobody?  He replied, I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. John even points away from his baptism, because for as important as his God-given baptism was, it was still a pre-Christian baptism.  It wasn’t yet the baptism in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  It wasn’t yet the baptism that unites a person to the death and resurrection of Christ.  So, he says, don’t worry about my baptism. Worry about Christ. He comes after, and He comes before, and I am not worthy to untie His sandals.  In other words, He is a Man who comes after me—He is younger than I am and hasn’t even begun His ministry yet.  And yet, He comes before me.  He is God, far older than I, and infinitely greater and more important than I.  He is the one you should be looking for.  He stands among you!  You don’t know, you don’t realize.  Your God is already here.

Such is the ministry of the Word still today. Christ is already here among us. The world doesn’t know, the world doesn’t realize, Christ has truly come and stood among men in this world.  God’s Son has been born in Bethlehem.  And that changes everything.  Who would go on living in their sin and ignorance and apathy toward God and their neighbor if they realized that the Lord has come to earth, if they realized that God is with us?

And yet, the ministry today does not point to the One standing in your midst, but to the One who already stood among us, who was born, who lived and died and rose again and is coming again, and gave this ministry to the Church until He returns.  This is the ministry that points to Christ.  God still calls on all men to repent, to recognize and turn from sin, and to seek the forgiveness of sins through faith in the name of Christ. Christ now stands in your midst differently than He did at the time of John. He stands in your midst now by giving you His body and blood in the Holy Sacrament. And the best thing—the only thing a faithful preacher will do until Christ comes again in glory is to point you away from sin and toward the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for you for the remission of your sins.  Look there.  Go there.  Find Him there today.  And celebrate Christmas by coming to where Christ will be on Christmas, at the Christ-Mass, where He will give you the greatest Christmas present of all—His own body and blood. Amen.

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Augsburg Confession Article III: The Son of God

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Midweek Advent 3

Romans 1:16-25  +  Luke 1:39-56

If you’ve spent any time in Roman Catholicism, if you’ve ever prayed the rosary, or if you like classical music, then you’re probably familiar with the Ave Maria: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” Why don’t we Lutherans pray the Hail Mary?  Is there something wrong with the words? Well, the first sentence of the Hail Mary is a quotation of Gabriel’s words to Mary when he announced that she would be the virgin mother of Jesus.  You heard it just last week. The second sentence you heard just this evening; those were Elizabeth’s words to Mary when Mary entered her house.  The last sentence asking Mary to pray for us sinners was added much later by the Roman Church.

We don’t pray the Hail Mary because God never directs us in His Word to pray to any of the saints, or to ask Christians for favors after they die.  Besides that, in order for Mary to hear the prayers of Christians throughout the world, she would have to be omnipresent like God, and she isn’t.  She’s a humble human being, like us, a sinner who was saved by faith in Christ, just as we are.  So it would be foolish and contrary to the Scriptures for any of us to try to speak to Mary, to pray to her or to ask her for help.

But it was good and right for Elizabeth to speak those words to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”  She was speaking by the Holy Spirit! And when the Catholics refer to Mary as Mother of God, they aren’t wrong.  Elizabeth herself called Mary “the mother of my Lord.”

That brings us to our meditation for tonight on the third article of the Augsburg Confession.  Why was Mary blessed among women?  Why do all generations—including us—call her blessed?  Why is it right also for Lutherans to call Mary the mother of the Lord, or the mother of God?  Because of who Jesus is.  He is The Son of God.

1 Our churches teach that the Word, that is, the Son of God, assumed the human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 2 So there are two natures—the divine and the human—inseparably joined in one person. There is one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried. 3 He did this to reconcile the Father to us and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of mankind.

4 He also descended into hell, and truly rose again on the third day. Afterward, He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. There He forever reigns and has dominion over all creatures. 5 He sanctifies those who believe in Him, by sending the Holy Spirit into their hearts to rule, comfort, and make them alive. He defends them against the devil and the power of sin.

6 The same Christ will openly come again to judge the living and the dead, and so forth, according to the Apostles’ Creed.

Let’s consider a few things in this article.  The Word, the Son of God, assumed the human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  There’s the great truth of John chapter 1, which we’ll hear in the Gospel for Christmas Day, one week from today.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.  The Word, the Son of God, has no beginning.  He is God’s Son from eternity, not just when He was born of Mary.  God’s Son, and God—truly divine, truly of one essence with the Father.

But then, as our Confession says, He assumed the human nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That’s worded very carefully.  Christ didn’t change into a human being.  He didn’t go from being divine to being human.  He didn’t mix the human nature with His divine nature, like taking an egg, and then taking flour, and then mixing them together and baking it into a cookie that is now no longer either flour or egg, but a cookie.  No, Christ “assumed” the human nature.  He took it up into Himself.

So we say there are two natures—the divine and the human—inseparably joined in one person. That’s what Paul says in Romans 1.  Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh (that is, according to His human nature), and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness (that is, according to His divine nature), by the resurrection from the dead. So Christ remains fully divine and fully human, from the time of His conception and forevermore.  But He isn’t two separate people, or half God and half Man.  He is one Person.  He is one Christ who is God and Man.

There is one Christ, true God and true man, who was born of the Virgin Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried.  He did this to reconcile the Father to us and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of mankind.

So anything you can say about Jesus, you can say about God and Man.  Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary; God was conceived in the womb of Mary.  Jesus was born and laid in a humble manger; God was born and laid in a humble manger.  Jesus suffered and died for all the sins of mankind; God suffered and died for the all the sins of mankind.  Not God the Father—He was neither conceived nor born nor suffered nor died.  But God the Son—He was born and wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger; He hungered and thirsted and slept, and suffered, and died.

That’s why we can and must say, if we would be Christians, that Mary is the mother of God, because Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is God.  To call Mary “mother of God” is not to acknowledge the greatness of Mary, but the greatness of Jesus.

He also descended into hell, and truly rose again on the third day. Afterward, He ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. There He forever reigns and has dominion over all creatures. He sanctifies those who believe in Him, by sending the Holy Spirit into their hearts to rule, comfort, and make them alive. He defends them against the devil and the power of sin.  Christ, the God-Man went to hell and crushed Satan for us. Christ, the God-Man, rose from the dead. Even now, Christ, the God-Man, is not idle.  The Son of God reigns for us at God the Father’s right hand. And when we speak of the Holy Spirit working in us through Word and Sacrament to sanctify us and lead us into every good work of love and service to our neighbor, it’s Jesus actively sending the Holy Spirit to us to do all that.  When the bread and wine are blessed in Holy Communion, it’s the body and blood of God and Man that we receive.

The same Christ will openly come again to judge the living and the dead, and so forth, according to the Apostles’ Creed. This is the Christ whom we confess and worship as both true God and true Man.  This is the Gospel of which St. Paul says in Romans 1 (as we heard earlier this evening), “I am not ashamed, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

We must not be ashamed of this Gospel, either.  To confess who Jesus is, to confess what He has done for us, to confess our faith in Him, is to worship the only true God.   So we won’t go around, like the Roman Catholics do, talking to Mary or asking her for favors, because we already know and confess Christ as the one Mediator between God and Man.  We won’t pray the Hail Mary. But we Lutherans also won’t hesitate to refer to Mary as the Blessed Virgin, and as the Mother of God, because she brought Jesus into the world.  She was blessed to be His mother, even as we are blessed to know and confess Him as the Son of God, as our Savior and as our Brother. Amen.

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The joy of Christ’s salvation remains under the cross

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

Sermon for Advent 3 – Gaudete

Malachi 3:1-6  +  1 Corinthians 4:1-5  +  Matthew 11:2-10

So we’ve got Jesus’ first Advent in humility, when He was born in a lowly manger and rode into Jerusalem on a lowly donkey to face the humiliation of the cross and death.  Let the first candle on the Advent wreath remind you of that.  We’ve got Jesus’ second Advent in glory to look forward to. Let the second candle remind you of that. Then we have this time in between Jesus’ first Advent and His second. The vast majority of Christians live in this time in between.  It can be a dark time, a confusing time, a painful time as we wait and watch.  In today’s Scripture readings, God reaches down into our darkness and holds out to us, of all things, joy, of which we are reminded by the light of a pink candle. As we heard in the Introit today, and as we’ll hear again in the Epistle next week: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say (because it sounds so strange, given the circumstances): Rejoice!

The circumstances of Paul’s writing those words were that he was in prison for preaching about Christ, just like John the Baptist was in the Gospel.  John’s entire life, from the time of his conception, was set up to herald the Advent of Christ. From the time his mother Elizabeth was greeted by the virgin Mary, with the tiny baby Jesus in her womb, and John leapt for joy in Elizabeth’s womb, John was proclaiming, “Christ is coming! Christ has come!” From the time John began his prophetic ministry on the banks of the Jordan River, his entire message can be summarized, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, because Christ is coming! Christ has come!”

But then, as John continues to preach against sin and direct people to Christ, King Herod puts him in prison.  And it seems that, as the days passed in the dungeons, John began to wonder how Jesus could be the Coming One, because not much had changed in the world since His arrival. So he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?  It seems that even John didn’t fully grasp that the coming of the Christ is twofold, once in humility, and then again in glory. As the last prophet of the Old Testament, as the very forerunner of Christ, it seems that John was expecting the Christ to come and usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth in a visible way, to come and rescue His people—like John—from the hands of wicked men, to come and crush the devil under His feet and end the reign of wickedness once and for all.  Isn’t the coming of Christ supposed to mean the end of suffering for the righteous?

His second coming, yes! His first coming, no. At the first coming of Christ, King Herod remains on his throne of wickedness, and Caesar still sits on the pagan throne of Rome. At the first coming of Christ, John the Baptist remains in prison, Christ Himself is despised, rejected, and crucified, and His followers are promised more of the same.  The first coming of Christ means the cross, for Christ and for the faithful.

But, in the midst of this time of humility and the cross, look what Jesus is doing!  Or rather, listen to the report of His words and deeds, because John can’t go and see Jesus, just as you can’t.  But he can hear the word about Him, just as you can.  Jesus tells John’s disciples, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. It’s true, not all blindness in the world was wiped out with Jesus’ first coming.  But the blindness of those who came into contact with Jesus was removed. Not all the lame in the world were made to walk, but those who met Jesus were.  Not all lepers were cleansed, not all the deaf were healed, not all the dead in the world were raised, and none of the poor was made rich in a worldly way.  But every single one who was brought to Jesus for help was helped.  Every single one heard the gospel preached. No malady was too great for Jesus to cure.  No death was too powerful for Jesus to reverse. No sin was too big for Jesus to forgive.

And all of this was prophesied about the Messiah. Isaiah had prophesied long ago about the coming of Christ, In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD, And the poor among men shall rejoice In the Holy One of Israel.  You see? Not only did Isaiah foretell the healing.  He also foretold the joy Christ’s coming would bring.

But what kind of joy is this?  Is it the immediate ending of all earthly suffering for His people?  Is it the immediate end of the cross?  No.  The joy Christ brings to His people is that He will bear the cross for them.  He will humble Himself out of love for sinners and die for them, and by His death, provide sinners with access to God, peace with God, and entrance into His heavenly kingdom.  The joy Christ brings to His people is that you do not have to pay for your sins or make up for your wrongdoings in order to win God’s favor.  Christ has earned God’s favor for you, and along with it, the promise of God’s forgiveness now, and the promise of the end of wickedness and suffering soon.

In fact, it is for your joy that Christ has postponed His coming in glory. Jesus’ delay before coming again has meant salvation for you and for countless others who would have never known Jesus or come into His kingdom if He had come back on the clouds immediately after His ascension.  It is the patience of God and His desire that no one perish, but that all come to repentance, that has caused Him to allow this sinful world to continue in its sin awhile longer, so that His gospel can be preached, so that sinners can be brought to faith.  Isn’t God’s patience cause for rejoicing?

Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me, Jesus says. Jesus’ humble appearance, His patience toward sinners, and His cross are offensive to our natural reason.  We want a God who makes things right now, who comes in glory now, who satisfies our longings now.  But Jesus doesn’t offer that now.  All He offers is Himself now, and a cross.  To some, that’s cause for rejoicing.  To others, it’s a stumbling block over which they stumble and fall.  That truth threatened to become a stumbling block to John the Baptist in prison.  But Jesus calls him back from the brink, and speaks of the blessedness, the happiness, the joy of the one who does not stumble over Jesus—the one who still trusts in Him while bearing the cross.  Because even if you lose everything on this earth, even if King Herod lops off your head, you don’t really lose anything.  You keep God’s favor.  You keep the kingdom of heaven.  You keep Christ and His benefits.  You keep your soul, your future, and your inheritance with the saints in light.

Now, Jesus has some strong words of praise for John the Baptist in the Gospel.  Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.’”

John was the last and the greatest of the Old Testament prophets who pointed to Christ’s Advent.  “More than a prophet,” Jesus says, because John’s own coming was prophesied in the Old Testament, the messenger who goes before the face of the Lord Christ and prepares His way for Him.  No task given to men was ever greater.

Even so, you have something even greater than John had.  King Herod beheaded John the Baptist soon after Jesus spoke these words.  So John wasn’t there for Holy Week.  He wasn’t there for the institution of the New Testament in Jesus’ body and blood on Maundy Thursday.  He wasn’t there to see the true depth of the love of God as the Son of God dies on the cross on Good Friday.  He wasn’t there to hear the joyful news on Easter Sunday, “Christ is arisen!” Death, hell and Satan have been conquered!  Christ reigns at the right hand of God.  But you have heard all about these things from the testimony of the Apostles passed down to you through the ages.  The joy of Easter is yours!

And that joy has sustained Christians for 2,000 years in ways that even John the Baptist never experienced.  Compare John’s imprisonment with the Apostle Paul’s imprisonment, for example. John asked from prison, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for someone else?”  St. Paul says from prison, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…Rejoice in the Lord always!  You see how the joy of Christ crucified and risen filled Paul—and Peter and John  and James and all the martyrs—so that they could face whippings and stonings and imprisonment and death, without despairing, because they learned from Jesus Himself that after the humility of death comes the glory of resurrection; after the cross comes the crown.

That same joy is for you, believers in Christ.  Nothing can touch it.  Nothing can move it or take it away.  Even the cross you daily bear for following Christ only enhances this kind of joy, because it means that you’re being “counted worthy to suffer shame for His name” (Acts 5:41).

The joy of Christ’s salvation remains under the cross.  Let today’s pink candle and today’s Holy Gospel remind you that, in the midst of our waiting and watching for Jesus to come again, in the midst of the darkness of this world and the pain of the cross, there is also the gift of joy for the one who isn’t offended by Jesus but who embraces Him in His cross.  Let your joy be tied to Him and His victory over sin, death and the devil. Let His Word fill your ears and let His body and blood fill your mouth and your heart.  Rejoice in the Lord always! Amen.

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