Now is the time to watch and prepare

Posted on December 10, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Advent 2

Romans 15:4-13  +  Luke 21:25-36

The King is coming! Believe it or not! Like it or not! The King is coming! Jesus is coming! And He will come with judgment for the world and with deliverance for His Church—deliverance from this rotting world, with its violence, with its injustice, with its rampant idolatry and its incessant worship of self, deliverance from sin and from every evil. So, in order for the King to come with deliverance for you—instead of judgment—you need to be found within His Church. You need to be prepared. You need to be living in daily contrition and repentance, watching out for anything that might weigh your heart down and keep it bound to this life, to this rotting world and to the sin that infects it like gangrene. And so, long ago, the King gave His beloved Church certain signs to keep us watchful and ready, signs that point to His imminent arrival, which will bring an end to this world as we know it.

Jesus says in today’s Gospel, And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. That’s what comes at the end of the signs, the Son of Man coming with power and great glory. The King, the Lord Jesus, came in His first advent, not in glory, but in humility. He came the first time to live as one of us, to live under His Father’s Law as our Substitute, to suffer and die in our place, and to offer sinners a time of grace, a time during which sinners are not immediately judged and cast away and destroyed. That time is now! Now is the time to come into the Christian Church and to remain here! But that time will run out. It could run out at any time! And it will be exactly the opposite when Jesus comes again. He’ll come in glory, not to live as one of us but to be King over all. He’ll come, not to offer sinners one last chance, but to put an end to all chances to repent and to escape judgment. When the King comes, there will be no more time to change, to be born again, to turn from sin, and to receive His free forgiveness through faith in Christ Jesus. That means that now is the time to watch and prepare!

But the longer you watch for something that doesn’t come, the harder it is to keep watching. So the King gave us signs—repeating signs, negative signs, for the most part—to keep us from getting caught up in this earthly life. There are three categories of signs given to us by Jesus. Some are given in Luke’s Gospel, others in Matthew and Mark: Signs in nature, signs in society, and signs in the Christian Church.

The signs in nature are these: There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. The sea and the waves will roar. There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. The powers of heaven will be shaken. We see irregular things like these happening all the time in nature, in the heavens, in the weather, in the climate. Unbelievers interpret them very differently, though, don’t they? They turn to fallible human science for causes and for solutions. They use every climate event to promote an agenda that will actually bring further harm to humanity. We Christians, on the other hand, should take all the irregular, frightening events that happen in nature as signs of the King’s imminent arrival. Are those events happening more often now than they did in the past? Will they get worse and worse leading up to the end? Will there be more spectacular signs in the heavens than what we currently see? Maybe. Or maybe not. The point is, whenever you see or hear about irregular events in nature, don’t be frightened. Instead, remember that Jesus is coming soon! And make sure you’re ready!

The signs in society are these: On the earth there will be distress and anxiety among the nations. —how much has the suicide rate increased over the last several years? Men will lose heart from fear and dread of the things that are coming on the world. Doesn’t it seem like people are constantly filled with fear over…something that’s coming, fear that the next shoe will soon drop? You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Israel, Syria, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, China—wars and rumors of wars are a recurring theme in human history, right up to this day. They will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. Christians have been hated and persecuted since the days of the apostles. Now, when Christians behave badly or teach falsely, they bring some of that trouble on themselves. But often it’s just the routine speaking and living the truth of the Gospel of Christ that gets Christians hated. There have been times of reprieve in various places. Most Christians in the United States weren’t hated for being Christians—until more recently. Now, to uphold Christian values and the Bible’s teachings and, more importantly, to confess the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ makes a person practically an enemy of the state. Lawlessness will abound, and the love of many will grow cold. This is happening throughout the world. Here in our country, how many thousands are lawlessly streaming across the border now every single day? How much lawlessness fills the streets of our cities, with drugs and crime running rampant? And the politicians often lawlessly support the lawlessness. And, because of it, many people grow jaded and cynical and, tragically, loveless themselves.

Finally, there are the signs within the Christian Church: Many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Jesus is talking there about Christians. Many who once confessed the Christian faith will stumble, will fall away, and then betray one another and hate one another. The outward, visible Christian Church, by all standards of measurement, is a huge mess and is in a steep decline. There has been much stumbling, much falling away, and much betrayal and hatred. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Every different denomination within Christianity exists because of false prophets and false doctrine, and because many, many people have been deceived by them.

Now, when you see all that, you’re tempted to throw up your hands and say, “What’s the point of joining a Christian church at all, then?” But listen to what Jesus says. These things are not signs that He has lost control of His Church, or that the Church is pointless. He told us ahead of time that things would be this way—in the world and in the Church. And His message to us is not, “You might as well give up!” or, “Don’t bother with the Church! Just stay home!” No, His message is, When these things begin to happen, stand up straight and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near! Now, yes, it’s true, most of these things have been going on here and there during the entire New Testament period. But it seems to me that they are more widespread and more frequent now than they have ever been. So, Christians, stand up straight and lift up your heads, because that’s where the Lord Jesus will come from! Let Him be your focus, and not anything here below! Notice the signs! And use them for their divinely intended purpose: to shake you out of your slumber, to cause you to watch and to prepare for the Lord’s coming!

Jesus adds a saying that has a few possible interpretations. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all this takes place. That could mean that all the signs Jesus talked about would begin to take place already during the lifetime of “that generation” of people, and on a small scale, one could say that they did. But in the Gospels, especially in Matthew’s Gospel, when Jesus uses the term “this generation,” He’s referring to the group of unbelieving Jews. And some have interpreted this saying as a prediction that the unbelieving Jews, as a distinct group, would remain on the earth until Jesus comes again. So, the existence of modern Israel, far from proving that they are still God’s chosen people, actually serves as a sign of its own, as a warning to all people not to forfeit the gift of salvation as they have, as a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy concerning their perpetual unbelief, proving that, though heaven and earth pass away, Jesus’ words will never pass away.

But Jesus issues a more direct warning in our Gospel: But be on your guard, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you unexpectedly. For it will come like a snare upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Jesus doesn’t want His Christians to get caught in the snare. He doesn’t want us to be caught unprepared when the King comes and to be caught up with the rest of the world in the judgment and the punishment that is coming. So He warns us: Watch out! Be on your guard! Because, what can easily happen, even to Christians? Your hearts can become weighed down, either with indulging in sinful pleasures, like carousing and drunkenness, pornography and adultery and sex outside of marriage, or with the “cares of this life,” which may not be sinful in and of themselves—tending to your job, or your education, or your family, or your house, or your clothes, or your diet, or your health, or the news, or the next election, or your car repairs, or—well, the list of cares is endless, isn’t it? There’s a lot that can weigh your heart down and turn your attention away from the Word of God, away from living in repentance, away from seeking God’s forgiveness in Christ, away from preparing for His coming.

Therefore, always watch and pray, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.

Always watch and pray. That means that now is the time to watch and pray, to watch and prepare. Now, today. And tomorrow. And the next day. Take Jesus’ words to heart! He has sent them to you today as a gift! Repent and believe in Him for the forgiveness of sins! And every time you see or hear any of the signs we’ve talked about today, let it serve as another reminder to repent, to believe, and to look up! Amen.

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Comfort in God’s coming to deliver

Posted on December 6, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Advent 1

Isaiah 40:1-14

By God’s grace, we successfully walked through the whole book of Revelation in the last Church Year. This year, I’ve chosen to walk with you through the book of the prophet Isaiah. Not the whole book, but the last 27 chapters, chapters 40-66. Those 27 chapters form a tightly knit unit, a beautiful work of divinely inspired prophecy and poetry. The 27 chapters are thematically divided into three main triads or subunits of 9 chapters each, with each set of 9 chapters divided into three smaller sections or discourses. On Sunday, we’ll take a look at that general outline in Bible class. For now, what we need to understand from the beginning is that the three 9-chapter triads of Isaiah 40-66 have three main messages of deliverance: (1) Deliverance from Babylon, where Isaiah foresees the Jews sitting in captivity; (2) Deliverance from the guilt of sin; and (3)  Deliverance in the new Church made up of Jews and Gentiles. In all three instances of deliverance, there are literal prophecies mixed with spiritual prophecies, earthly prophecies mixed with heavenly prophecies, and types of Christ and of His Church throughout. We’ll do our best to unpack as much as we can during our Wednesday Vespers, not just to understand it better, but to take to heart God’s message throughout, which is both for the Old Testament Church as well as the New Testament Church: Repent and believe the Gospel!

This evening, we begin that first major section, chapters 40-48, focusing on the deliverance God promised Israel from Babylon. As we’ll see, it’s not just about that already-accomplished deliverance. There is also a message here to the Church about the coming Christ and about deliverance from the spiritual Babylon—the antichristian forces that threaten the Church till the end of the world. So let’s begin our walk through Isaiah with those words that overflow with the spirit of Advent: Comfort, comfort my people!

“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”

Remember, Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus was born. He lived and preached in the Southern kingdom, the kingdom of Judah. His main work took place soon after the Assyrians came in and destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. Isaiah was dead almost a hundred years by the time the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and took the Jews captive to Babylon. In fact, Isaiah died about 75 years before the Babylonians even became a world power. And yet, his whole prophecy in this part of his book deals with the time after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. It’s as if he’s been transported 170 years into the future. He is writing to a people not yet born, with the future landscape of a Jerusalem lying in ruins and the people of God having sat in captivity in Babylon for nearly 70 years.

Now he begins with this abrupt command from Jerusalem’s God: Comfort My people! God is calling out poetically and prophetically to all prophets, including the prophet Isaiah. The people of Jerusalem had suffered greatly because of their idolatry and rejection of God’s Word—the Word that Moses had given them originally and the Word that the prophets had brought to them time and time again. Most of Jerusalem had become impenitent unbelievers. But even the small number of faithful Israelites had had to suffer this exile. But now God calls out earnestly for them to be comforted!

Comforted for three reasons: First, “her warfare is ended.” Her time in captivity is about to come to an end. Take comfort in the end of your exile! Your war with men is over! And, more importantly, your war with God is over, because, second, “Her iniquity is pardoned.” The reason for the afflictions the Jews had suffered was their sin, their iniquity. But God speaks of a coming atonement for that iniquity. That would be a better translation, actually. Her iniquity is atoned for. He’s pointing them all the way forward to the future atonement that the Christ would make, not only for the sins of the Jews that earned them the punishment of exile in Babylon, but of all the sins of all men. Take comfort in the atonement that the Lord Himself will provide for you! And third, “She has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” In other words, God caused the people of Jerusalem to suffer for a time, but the deliverance He was going to bring about for them was worth twice as much as that suffering was, because, not only was He going to restore them to their homes; He was going to prepare for them a heavenly home of perfect peace and rest and safety. Take comfort in the restoration God will bring about in the new heavens and the new earth!

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

You probably recognize these verses from the New Testament, where they’re applied directly to John the Baptist as the “voice crying out.” But they don’t only apply to John. They apply to every faithful prophet, before and after John, whom God has sent to prepare the way for His coming: His coming to deliver His people from Babylon, His coming in the Person of Christ, to deliver people from their sins, and His coming at the end of the world to deliver His Church from all their enemies. In every case, it was and is essential that God’s people prepare themselves for God’s coming with repentance.

That’s what it means to “make the way straight,” to “exalt the valleys,” to “bring the mountains low,” to “make the crooked places straight and the rough places smooth.” Wherever there is unrepented sin, it serves as an obstacle to the Lord’s coming for deliverance. So, remove it! Repent of it! Turn from it so that the Lord may come to you with salvation and not with judgment. We’ll talk more about these verses on the Fourth Sunday in Advent.

The voice said, “Cry out!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

Part of the prophets’ message is this somewhat depressing reality: all flesh is grass. All people are here today, gone tomorrow. They thrive and flourish for a short time, and then the Lord brings that time to an end. That’s the result of sin for the human race. But even though we are dust and will return to dust, the Word of God stands forever. And that includes His Word of deliverance, even from death, His Word that promises comfort and a future even to those who are dying, because of the work of the coming Christ. His Word of deliverance cannot fail.

O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

God first calls His Church in exile, His Church in general, “Jerusalem,” and He has His prophets speak good news to Jerusalem. Now He calls on Jerusalem, the Church in general, to become the herald of good news to the “cities of Judah,” to spread the word to all the individual members of the Church. “Behold, your God!” God seemed to have been absent during Jerusalem’s destruction and during their 70 year captivity. At least, He wasn’t present to save them from that destruction and exile. But now He wants His believers to know, He’s here! He’s here to help and deliver!

Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.

The Lord God will come! Again, He’ll come to deliver His people from Babylon. He’ll come to deliver them from sin, death, and the devil. And He’ll come, at last, to deliver His people from every evil when He comes at the Last Day. This image of God coming as a Shepherd to His flock of sheep, is exactly the image that Jesus applied directly to Himself as the Good Shepherd and to His Christians as His dear sheep.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, And taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, And showed Him the way of understanding?

The answer to all these questions is, no one. No one can fathom the immensity or the complexity of the creation God put together all by Himself. No one can comprehend the power involved in God’s reshaping of the earth at the time of the flood to bring the mountains up and to create the canyons in all their splendor. No man was there to teach God how to do all these things. And in the same way, no man should dare imagine that he knows better than God how to rule this earth, how to carry out judgment on the earth, or how to bring about deliverance for people. No matter what the Lord says He will do, He knows how to fulfill it, how to bring it about, even if you don’t, even if it seems impossible to you.

So the Lord promised, through the prophet Isaiah, to come, to come for those three purposes we’ve been discussing. The first two comings have essentially been fulfilled, at least in their literal fulfillment. The third was fulfilled only partially in the physical descendants of Israel. These promises to “come” make this part of the book of Isaiah perfect for Advent, but also for Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and the entire Trinity season, too. May God bless our meditations on the Book of Isaiah throughout this coming year. And may you all receive again this evening the comfort that comes from God’s promise to come and deliver His people from every evil that threatens us. Amen.

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The King first came to save the world

Posted on December 3, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Advent 1

Romans 13:11-14  +  Matthew 21:1-9

The King is coming! That was the Advent preaching of all the Old Testament prophets, from the Garden of Eden onward. Christ, the King, Christ, the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Son of David, is coming! But prophecies are rarely simple and straightforward. The prophecies about the coming Christ were all over the map. Some foretold His humanity, others foretold His divinity, and many foretold both at the same time. Some foretold Him coming in humility, others in glory; some pictured Him being despised and rejected, others pictured Him being loved and worshiped; some pictured Him as a King coming on a donkey, others on a cloud; some foretold that He would come to save, others that He would come to judge; sometimes He’s pictured establishing peace and prosperity on earth, sometimes bringing war and destruction.

Which is it, dear Prophets? It’s all true! But many of the prophecies mix together literal events and spiritual events, literal truth combined with spiritual truth. Many of the prophecies mix together both literal and figurative references to Israel and Judah and Jerusalem. And one of the biggest things we have to understand about the prophecies of Christ’s coming is that they throw all of this information together in a future heap, from the prophets’ perspective. Only after Christ came and suffered and died and rose again and commissioned His apostles and ascended into heaven do we finally grasp this essential truth of Old Testament prophecy: There are two distinct, separate advents of Christ, with different things being done to Him and by Him at each one, and with a long period of time separating His two advents—the time during which His Holy Christian Church is to be built throughout the world.

This morning our Gospel from Matthew 21 points us to a prophecy made through the prophet Zechariah, some 500 years before Jesus was born, a prophecy about a King riding on a donkey. It’s a prophecy that was already fulfilled literally in some ways on Palm Sunday; but other parts of the prophecy are still being and will be fulfilled in other ways figuratively or spiritually. May God grant us His Holy Spirit to teach us to understand this and all prophecies rightly.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

If you look up those verses in Zechariah chapter 9, you’ll see that they’re sandwiched between other prophecies about judgment and salvation. But verses 9 and 10 are specifically about the coming Christ, and we have the Holy Spirit’s own interpretation of those verses as applying directly to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

All this happened in order that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘See, your King comes to you, meek and riding on a donkey, and on a colt the foal of a donkey.’”

God refers to His Old Testament people as “daughter of Zion” and “daughter of Jerusalem.” It’s a tender way for God the Father to refer to His people, as His beloved daughter, as the Bride who is being prepared for His Son, for Christ, the Bridegroom. 500 years before Jesus was born, God spoke through the prophet Zechariah, announcing the coming of His Son, Jerusalem’s King, to Jerusalem, “meek and riding on a donkey.” This prophecy doesn’t include anything about judgment, nor does it include anything about the King’s glory. On the contrary, He’s called “meek.” Nothing is mentioned about war or destruction. A donkey wasn’t an animal fit for war; it was a farming animal, a sign of the King’s humility in this advent.

And that’s exactly how Christ came to Jerusalem at His first advent: meek, lowly, and humble, “righteous and having salvation,” as Zechariah added. Later that week, the Christ would meekly allow Himself to be betrayed, and arrested, and beaten, and judged, and condemned, and tortured, and crucified, with no hint of refusal or of retribution. Zechariah doesn’t mention that in chapter 9, but he does mention it in chapter 11. That’s where we hear about the handsome price of 30 pieces of silver for which the Christ would be sold by one of His disciples. And in chapter 12, where we hear of the Christ’s crucifixion and death.

Why did He come the first time in such humility, to endure shame and suffering and death? Because that was the price of salvation for Jerusalem—and for the world! As Jesus says in John chapter 3, God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Mankind’s biggest problem isn’t the injustice in the world, and the violence that men do to one another. Mankind’s biggest problem isn’t the climate. Mankind’s biggest problem isn’t sickness or even death. Our biggest problem is that our sins had alienated us from the God who gives life. And because of that, there was no hope of anything better, even in the future—no hope of fixing the world, no hope of fixing ourselves, no hope of life beyond death. So the Christ had to come, the first time, to take our sins upon Himself and suffer for them and die for them. He had to come, the first time, to call sinners to repentance and faith, to send out His apostles into the world to preach the Gospel, to use this time in between His first and second comings to gather a Church from all the nations, to bring His salvation to the ends of the earth.

That’s what Zechariah was talking about in the rest of his prophecy in chapter 9: I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth. That prophecy, the next verse after the prophecy about Jesus’ Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, was never fulfilled in a literal way. Never has war been cut off from Jerusalem and from the land of Israel. It has always been a place of fighting and contention. Never has Christ spoken peace to the nations literally. He never even went, in person, to the nations of the world. Never has Christ had earthly, visible, literal dominion over the whole earth. So what is Zechariah talking about?

He’s talking, first and foremost, about the atonement that Christ would make through His death. He’s talking about the proclamation of the Gospel of peace which Christ sent out into all the world, to be preached to all the nations. He’s talking about the dominion, the reign of Christ over the whole earth, that He would carry out, not visibly, but invisibly, as He sits as the right hand of God the Father. Even now, the King continues to bring that message of peace and reconciliation with God to all nations through the preaching of the Gospel, through the work of His Spirit, through the ministry of His Church.

But, as so often is the case with those Old Testament prophecies, there is another fulfillment of it coming further down the line at Christ’s second coming at the end of the age. Then the chariot will be cut off from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be cut off—no longer talking about the literal land of Israel, but about the Church of Christ throughout the world. Then He’ll bring perfect peace to His whole Church, and He will reign over all things in a new heaven and a new earth.

Next Sunday, we’ll focus on Christ’s second coming in glory, and on the signs leading up to that advent. That’s the advent we’re waiting for, preparing ourselves for. But for today, rejoice in the first advent of Christ the King. To those in Israel who had been eagerly waiting for the King to come to Jerusalem, it was a day of fulfillment, a day to wave palm branches and sing, Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! —a quote from Psalm 118, tying Jesus’ arrival together with other prophecies of the coming Christ.

As for us, we live in the age in between advents. The King has already come, and yet He is still coming again. Atonement has already been made for the sins of the world. The Gospel of peace is going out right at this very moment, calling sinners to repentance while there’s still time. The King hasn’t yet come to judge. He hasn’t yet come to destroy. He hasn’t yet come to end our time of grace. Right now, in this moment, there is still time, for anyone and everyone, to be saved. The King first came to save the world, and that is still His desire, that all men should come to repentance, that all should come to Christ’s beloved Christian Church during this time between His advents, and that those who come to His Church should remain in His Church, with a steadfast faith, with purity and works of love, with a readiness to suffer for His name, and always with an eye toward His second coming. The King first came to save the world. The King is coming again to save the Church from the world. So celebrate His first advent, and prepare for His second, so that you may always be found within His Holy Christian Church, prepared to worship the King when He comes. Amen.

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Jesus is coming! Come to the Lord Jesus! Come, Lord Jesus!

Posted on November 29, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 27

Revelation 22:7-21

In these final verses of the Book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit ties it all together for us—the encouragement to Christians to lead holy lives in this world and to persevere through the dark days of the end of this world, the assurance of Jesus’ coming, the invitation for sinners to come to the Lord Jesus and to remain with Him until He comes, and the encouragement to patiently but eagerly wait for the coming of the Lord.

“Behold, I am coming quickly!, Jesus says. You wonder how the Christians at the end of the first century interpreted that promise. They probably took it to mean that Jesus would come back within the next few months or years. They probably didn’t expect that Jesus’ coming would be delayed another 2,000 years. But that’s okay. The promise made them ready in the same way that it makes us ready. It gave them what they needed to know about the times ahead, even as it gives us what we need to know. It forced them as it forces us to trust in God’s timing and in God’s providence and in His interpretation of what “quickly” ought to mean. If we leave the present and the future up to God to govern, then this promise still holds all the comfort God intends for His people, because even if He delays His coming a little while longer, He cannot break His promise to come quickly, as He defines quickly for our good.

Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. It’s good that we’ve taken the time to walk through Revelation. It has always been God’s will for His Church to study and to learn from this book, and He promises a blessing for those who hear it and take it to heart.

Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. (or better, Be careful! No!) For I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” To us, it’s somewhat confusing as we read John’s words, because it’s hard to tell if it’s the angel talking or if it’s Jesus talking. (If you have a red-letter edition of the Bible—red to indicate which words are spoken by Jesus—they don’t all agree on which words should be in red!) But even when it’s Jesus talking to John, it’s really the angel conveying the words of Jesus. To John, that was clear; it was an angel standing before him, not the Lord Himself. And yet he tells us that, after hearing and seeing such great things from this angel, he thought it was appropriate to bow down to the angel in veneration. But the angel warned him not to, to worship God alone and to recognize the angels as fellow servants of the apostles, of the prophets, and of all the members of God’s holy Church.

And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.” Publish the words of this book, so that all may know about the things that are coming, so that the world may be warned and the Church may be prepared.

He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still. He seems to be talking about the status of people after all the prophecies of Revelation have been fulfilled, their status after the Last Day. After the Last Day, people will be confirmed, either in their unbelief or in their faith, either in their unrighteousness and filthiness or in their righteousness and holiness forever. It’s hard to imagine now, but in eternity you won’t have to worry about falling back into temptation and sin. The wicked who are cast into hell will be wicked forever, and the righteous who are welcomed into heaven will be righteous forever.

And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. There’s Jesus speaking again. Another promise to come quickly, with the added promise to reward the righteous when He comes. Obviously those whose works are evil will be rewarded with evil. But to those who are righteous by faith in Christ, their righteous works will also be recognized by the Lord, and that should spur us on to carry out all His commandments, including His commandment to endure suffering without losing hope, to bear the blessed cross joyfully, in service to Him who will reward us when He comes.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Here’s another “I am” statement from Jesus. It was the apostle John who recorded all of them in the Gospels. So, too, he records this “I am” statement. I am the Alpha and the Omega—the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. No matter how out of control this world appears, Jesus was there before the world was, and He’ll be standing at the end, too, while all His enemies are forced beneath His feet.

Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Not that anyone earns a right to eternal life by keeping God’s commandments. But, those who are justified by faith in Christ Jesus will take seriously the blessing Jesus pronounces on them for keeping His commandments, and that blessing will propel them toward obedience. If it doesn’t, if so-called believers aren’t seeking to obey Jesus’ commandments, then they show that their faith is a sham, while the faithful will seek to do His commandments and will be welcomed into the City of God with open arms, through open gates.

But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. That describes everyone else, everyone who has not repented and believed in the Lord Jesus. John mentions a few specific and obvious sins that keep people out of Christ’s kingdom: sorcery, sexual immorality, murder, idolatry, and living according to lies and not according to the truth. Look around you in the world! Aren’t these very things overtaking the societies of the world? Those who fail to repent will be banished forever from the presence of God and of His people.

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” Another “I am” statement from Jesus and a reference to a prophecy about the Christ in Isaiah 11. It’s a reference to His royalty which is both human and divine, inherited both from King David in time, and from God the Father from eternity.

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. I’ll admit, I used to understand this verse differently. The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” And I always thought the Spirit and the Bride were talking to Jesus, asking Him to come, and to come soon. But they aren’t talking to Jesus here. The Spirit and the Bride, that is, the true Christian Church, are calling out to sinners, to anyone and everyone who hears, “Come! Come to the Church of Jesus Christ! Come to the heavenly banquet that He is preparing for you!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” That is, let the one who has come to the feast, who has believed in Christ, go on to invite other sinners to “come.” Just as Jesus invited “all you who labor and are heavy laden” to “come to Me,” so He now invites everyone who thirsts and everyone who wants the water of life to come and receive it freely from Him, in His Christian Church on earth, while there’s still time.

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. A stern warning from the Lord Christ, isn’t it? It applies directly to the book of Revelation, and it’s a sobering condemnation of the Millennialism that is taught so commonly among Evangelicals, where they add teachings about a rapture, and a coming of Christ to this earth prior to His coming at the Last Day, and an earthly reign of Christ before the Last Day. But it’s a warning to all of us to treat God’s Word as something sacred, to listen to it, to believe all of it, and to interpret all Scripture in context, or else forfeit our place in the City of God. That’s how serious He is that we keep His doctrine pure!

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen.

What a fitting way to end the Church Year! What a fitting way to end the Bible! God saw to it that this Book of Revelation was not only written and published but that it was written as the last, or at least one of the last books of the Bible and was placed at the end of the Bible, so that the whole thing ends on this note. The same Jesus whose coming was prophesied in the first book of the Bible, whose first and second coming were prophesied throughout the Old Testament, whose first coming to make atonement for sin was described in the Gospels, whose teachings were explained and spread in the Epistles, now leaves His beloved Church, His Bride-to-be here on earth, with a final word to get us through the rest of this time leading up to the great wedding day: “Surely I am coming quickly!” And the Church, the Bride, calls back to our heavenly Bridegroom, “Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” And then the apostle chosen by Jesus to record this message utters one final message: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen. And Amen.

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Fueling your faith for the long wait

Posted on November 26, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 27

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

We’re waiting for the Last Day, as Jesus told us to do—waiting for Him to come back, although He hasn’t told us when it will be. Last week in the Gospel, Jesus pictured the Last Day for us as a day of judgment, when the Lord will highlight the good works done by His people, for His people, and the lack of good works done by unbelievers for His people. But the verses of today’s Gospel actually come before those verses, and with good reason: today’s Gospel doesn’t highlight our works at all. It highlights our faith, which is where the works come from in the first place. It highlights our faith, and the necessity of preserving it, fueling it, all the way up until the Bridegroom’s arrival, even if our wait for the Bridegroom is long.

Then the kingdom of heaven—that is, the Christian Church—will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. The Church will be like a group of virgins—girls who are keeping themselves pure for their future husbands, just as the Church keeps herself pure for her Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, by avoiding all forms of idolatry and willful sin. The virgins’ task is to sit out near the road and wait for the bridegroom to come by, and then to join him with the light of their lamps for the final leg of his procession to the wedding hall. It’s not a practice we’re familiar with in our culture, but it was obviously common enough at Jesus’ time for this parable to make perfect sense to the hearers. They say, in that culture, the bridegroom would pick up his bride along the way and that the two would go together to the wedding, accompanied by these virgins with their lamps. But Jesus’ parable doesn’t include the bride, and maybe that’s because of how confusing it would be to consider the Church, which is the Bride of Christ, separately from the individuals who make up the Church, represented by the ten virgins. In effect, the ten virgins in our Gospel make up the Church and are all supposed to go in with the Bridegroom, into the wedding hall, into eternal life. But not all end up going in with Him.

All ten virgins are invited. The Gospel invitation has reached them. “Repent and believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified and risen from the dead and coming again!” Now, we know that many who hear the Gospel invitation turn it down. They spend their lives refusing to repent of their sins, refusing to look to Christ for forgiveness. We aren’t talking about them here. We’re talking about sinners who hear the Gospel and believe it, who make a beginning within the Christian Church. They have been baptized. They walk in communion with the Holy Christian Church. And they’ve all been given a task. Watch! Watch for the coming of the Bridegroom! Be ready to greet Him when He comes! Let that be the overarching goal of your life, to watch and be ready, because He will surely come, and He’ll come at a time, at an hour, that no ones knows.

Also, we’re not talking about those who might be called “nominal Christians,” the people you meet on the street who may say, (if you ask), “I’m a Christian,” but who never darken the doorway of a Christian church. No, these are the ones who actually go out to meet the Bridegroom and wait for His coming—at least for a while. They believe in Him. They believe He’s coming again. And they’re all eager to meet Him and to go in with Him. In other words, Jesus is talking about people like us in this room.

What’s the difference between the five wise and the five foolish, then? The five wise virgins think to themselves, “You know, He told us He’s coming tonight, but He didn’t tell us at what time. In fact, He told us He might be delayed. It might be late. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to bring along enough oil to last late into the night, in case He doesn’t come early, at 7 or 8? Wouldn’t it be smart to make preparations, not only for an early arrival, but also for a midnight arrival? That way, we’ll be ready, no matter when He comes.”

The five foolish virgins didn’t think, didn’t listen when the Bridegroom informed them that He might come late in the evening. They went out to wait for Him, figuring He would come soon—soon by human reckoning, soon enough that they wouldn’t need extra oil for their lamps, at least.

But what does it mean to bring along extra oil for their lamps? And what is that burning flame that they must all have in order to accompany the Bridegroom into the wedding hall? The burning flame is faith. Faith in Christ crucified and risen again, faith in Christ as the Savior from sin, faith in Christ as the sure refuge against wrath and condemnation, faith in Christ for the free-of-charge forgiveness of sins. It’s more than a knowledge of Christ. It’s a genuine reliance on Him, true confidence in Him and in Him alone, that for His sake alone, God will show mercy to you, who deserve only His wrath and punishment. Today’s Gospel gets at the heart of the matter, the source of the good works, and the actual thing by which we are justified before God and so permitted to enter His kingdom: faith.

But as Jesus warns in our Gospel and in the rest of Scripture, faith is not and has never been self-sustaining. The Holy Spirit kindles it in our hearts through the Word of God and brings us to trust in Jesus for entrance into His eternal kingdom. Faith comes by hearing! But if it’s then left alone, it will die out, like any flame will eventually die out if it’s not given the fuel it needs to keep burning.

That fuel, the oil for the lamps, the spiritual milk that sustains and feeds our precious faith is the Word of God—the Word as it’s read, as it’s preached, and taught, and spoken in connection with water and bread and wine, according to Christ’s command; the Word as it’s then meditated upon and pondered.

The wise virgins are the Christians who make wise use of the Means of Grace now, while it’s available to them, as much as it’s available to them. They use the ministry of the Word regularly, and as they do, their faith sends down roots that grow deeper and deeper. Their knowledge of God, and of His workings in the world, and of His plan of salvation grows richer and richer. Their understanding of their enemies—the devil, the world, and their own sinful flesh—grows keener and keener. And their ability to stand in the face of hardship, trial, persecution, and opposition grows stronger and stronger. You will need all those things in order to endure the last times of this world before the Bridegroom comes. And they only come from the ministry of the Word. How much strength and knowledge and understanding and faith will you need to make it another year? Another ten years? How about 20 or 30 or 80—to make it all the way to the end, holding onto Christ by faith? The answer is, as much as possible. As much as the Lord provides. Even if you think you have a pretty strong faith now, it’s wise to make as much use of the ministry of the Word as possible, while you still can.

Just as it’s unwise not to. The foolish virgins are the Christians who think they stand firm. Who may be very excited, at first, to hear the Gospel, to have been baptized, to learn the Catechism, to receive the Lord’s Supper. They see the filthiness of the world and they’re ready for Jesus to come back. But then He doesn’t. And they keep waiting. And He doesn’t come. And so, instead of continuing steadfastly in the use of the Means of Grace, they come to church less often, and when they do come, they listen half-heartedly, or not at all.

And so plays out the tragedy. So many around the world don’t have ready access to the pure preaching of the Gospel or the right administration of the Sacraments. But many who do, take it for granted and don’t use it—even though they’ve been warned! They foolishly assume that what they already have in their lamps will be sufficient to keep their lamps burning when the Bridegroom finally comes.

But that’s not how it turns out in Jesus’ parable. The cry came at midnight, Look! The bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him! And only the five wise virgins, who had brought along extra oil, had enough left to keep their lamps burning. Only those Christians who will have used the opportunities the Lord will have provided to fortify their faith along the way will be able to meet Him and to enter eternal life with Him. The five foolish virgins found that their supply of oil was running out. It was insufficient. And it was too late to do anything about it. Those Christians may try running to those who sell oil, to the ministers of the Word who might yet preach the Gospel to them. But when Christ finally does comes down from heaven, He tells us ahead of time, that, at that time, there will be no more time, no more chances, no keeping the dying flame of faith alive, and thus no entrance into eternal life, only the bleak reality of the Lord’s answer, Truly I tell you, I do not know you, followed by an eternity spent in outer darkness—the same fate as all those who never believed in the first place.

Half of the ten virgins don’t make it all the way to the wedding hall. Is it possible that half of those begin as devout Christians won’t end up in the eternal kingdom of God? It’s a sobering prospect, at least. But the fact that you’re here listening to the Word of God, if you are listening, means that it isn’t too late. Jesus sends out this warning, and sends His Holy Spirit to bring it home for us. And by the very act of listening to it, pondering it, considering it, you are adding a little more oil to your reserves, so that you can last a little while longer as you wait for Christ to come.

Take advantage of these opportunities to add extra oil—as many opportunities as you’re given, because you don’t know how soon or how late Christ is coming, and you may need every bit of strength from His Means of Grace that’s He’s provided you with in order to make it to the end. Never take what you have for granted, because there are Christians all around the world who would give every last penny to be where you are, to have the access that you have to the ministry of the Word. Learn the Bible. Learn the Catechism. Learn the Christian Confessions contained in our Book of Concord. Learn it a little better in the coming Church year than you did in this past year. As Paul wrote in today’s Epistle, Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order that, whether we are awake or asleep, we should live together with him. Amen.

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