First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

Text: Matthew 1:18–25

Theme: A message in the midst of fear of the unknown (Joseph)

A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
B. Matthew 1:18-25 serves as our sermon text for this evening, which was
read a few moments ago.
C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
LSB 900:1-3 Jesus! Name of Wondrous Love
1
Jesus! Name of wondrous love,
Name all other names above,
Unto which must ev’ry knee
Bow in deep humility.

2
Jesus! Name decreed of old,
To the maiden mother told,
Kneeling in her lowly cell,
By the angel Gabriel.

3
Jesus! Name of priceless worth
To the fallen of the earth
For the promise that it gave,
“Jesus shall His people save.”
Amen.
Introduction

A. Fear of the unknown.
1. In the spring of 2020, our world was upended by an unseen enemy.
2. Our lives were changed by a virus we little understood and couldn’t see.
3. We had no cure, and many faced it with a sense of terror and dread.
4. Sickness increased.
5. Hospitals overflowed.
6. Medical personnel strained to hold up under staggering loads of care.
7. Shortages abounded.
8. Deaths mounted.
9. The world seemed under siege.
10. Months passed.
11. A year passed.
12. What would come next?
13. Does it ever end, or do we just wait for the next variant?
14. Fear of the unknown.
B. But this was not the first time in recent history such a cataclysmic
event turned our world upside down.
1. Most of us still recall 9/11.
2. Many of us stood that day transfixed before our TV sets watching the
unthinkable happen.
3. Terrorists took a most useful and friendly machine, the airplane, and
turned it into a deadly missile of mass destruction.
4. Nearly three thousand people perished as two towering skyscrapers
collapsed in burning heaps of rubble and death.
5. Security immediately tightened everywhere.
6. And a war on terror commenced around the world.
7. But these enemies could not always be seen or easily found or identified.
8. When would the next event occur?
9. Would a terrorist attack come to my neighborhood?
10. Fear of the unknown.

3. Joseph faces fear of the unknown in Mary’s unexpected pregnancy and
whether or not to marry her.
A. Joseph lived with his own fear of the unknown.
1. In our current culture, it may seem minor, but for him the dilemma was
serious.
2. He was betrothed to a lovely young woman named Mary, legally married in
a union that was yet to be consummated.
3. It would be about a year before the final celebration, but their
marriage was real and binding.
4. Joseph surely dreamed of a wonderful life with his new wife and possibly
even a large family supported by a thriving carpentry business.
B. But all these dreams seemed in serious question when Mary was suddenly
“found to be with child” (verse 18).
1. She was pregnant, and Joseph knew he wasn’t the father.
2. Obviously, someone else was.
3. But what should he do?
4. A future with Mary was now fraught with complications socially.
5. He could continue with the marriage, but it was not so simple anymore.
6. The Old Testament law called for an adulterous woman to be stoned if her
guilt was confirmed (Deuteronomy 22:23–24).
7. This was unthinkable for the woman he loved.
8. So he couldn’t go there.
9. An option within the law allowed another solution:
A. “Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put [Mary] to shame, resolved
to divorce her quietly” (verse 19).
B. A quiet divorce.
C. The shame could be avoided, as well as the punishment for
unfaithfulness.
D. He loved her and did not wish any of this hardship upon her.
C. As Joseph deliberated all this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in
a dream.
1. A special divine messenger from heaven.
2. And a needed one too.
3. As the first words from the angel reveal, Joseph’s struggle involved
more than just hesitation and concern:
A. “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife” (verse
20).
B. Joseph was struggling with fear.
C. The word in the original language (phobeo) can carry the idea of
panicked flight, even terror.
D. And it was a terror, fear, of the unknown.
E. Fear of going through with the marriage despite the unknown of Mary’s
pregnancy.
F. And the unknown of the consequences of breaking the holy law of God.
G. If word ever got out that Mary was pregnant before the actual ceremony
and celebration, the whole community would know.
H. She would be branded with an A for adulteress.
I. Joseph’s friends and neighbors would probably expect, maybe even
pressure him, to divorce Mary and possibly even carry through on the rest
of the law’s provisions and punishments.
J. And what about his reputation as a responsible businessman of Nazareth?
K. He couldn’t know how this would all play out.
L. Undoubtedly he even had more painful personal questions he wished could
be answered.
M. Why had she done it?
N. Who was the father?
O. How would she make it alone—well, with a child to raise?
P. Would he ever be able to trust someone again?
D. One can imagine such things keeping Joseph up at night.
1. A heavy burden so filled with worry and fear when he should have been:
A. Excited about the future,
B. eagerly planning and preparing the home he and Mary could have had
together.
2. God comes along and answers that fear with the promise of the birth of
Jesus, Immanuel.
A. Fear is a true enemy of hope.
1. It robs us of the assurance:
A. that God is in control,
B. that God has a plan,
C. that even the darkness of the present might yet become the light of a
better day.
2. God’s solution to Joseph’s fear, however, was not just the assurance
that all things might work out in the end.
3. He must have been surprised by the amazing promise he heard from the
angel:
A. “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that
which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and
you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”
(verses 20–21).
B. Mary was not just pregnant; the child in her womb was conceived by the
Holy Spirit.
1. God was his Father!
2. And the name Joseph was instructed to give this new child may have
seemed ordinary in one way—it was a relatively common male name for
Hebrews—yet, on the other hand, this name was forward looking of something
incredible and world-changing.
3. Joseph was to name this child Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves,” for as
the angel declared, “He will save his people from their sins.”
4. Here Joseph was concerned about:
A. his immediate personal circumstances,
B. his reputation,
C. Mary’s welfare,
D. his own questions . . .
E. and God was planning something much grander.
F. He was planning to deliver mankind from sin itself, and thus from death,
even hell.
G. What fear could be worse than a fear of death itself?
H. If hope could survive death, it could survive anything.
C. And even this was not the end of the message from heaven.
1. There was another name.
A. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his
name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (verses 22–23).
B. Just as the prophet Isaiah had declared.
C. In the darkness of fear, we often feel alone and isolated, even
forgotten.
D. Yet this baby in Mary’s womb would be God’s very tangible and visible
presence among his people.
E. Joseph was not alone in his concerns.
F. He was not left to work this out by himself.
G. God was with him.
H. God would strengthen him and guide him and protect him each step of the
way.
D. As the story unfolds in the Gospels, we know that many more challenges
faced Joseph.
1. Traveling with Mary so close to her due date must have given some
concern.
2. Then struggling to find a place to stay in busy Bethlehem.
3. The night of the birth without a midwife or any others to assist.
4. In all this, God was with him.
5. And the story’s twists and turns would not end.
6. Joseph would have to flee with the mother and child to Egypt, for an
enraged Herod sought to kill the child to remove a possible contender for
his own fragile rule.
7. Again, an angel from heaven, a divine messenger, brought a timely
warning, as well as needed guidance and direction (Matthew 2:13).
E. So much change in Joseph’s life.
1. So many unknowns in the future.
2. How could he possibly entertain any real hope for tomorrow when he
hardly knew what tomorrow would bring?
3. But God was with him, Immanuel.
4. And the one over which he watched as a new foster father would be the
true promise for all mankind:
A. the one who by his future death on a cross would be the deliverer from
sin,
B. from death,
C. from the very power of evil itself that animated murderous and dangerous
men like Herod.
D. Joseph had everything even when at times it felt as if he had so little.
1. As we face our fears of the unknown, God answers with the same message
of hope in the Savior, God with us.
A. Late into the pandemic, our world tried to reemerge and find its
footing.
1. It’s still trying. The economy has wobbled as inflation has taken a
heavy toll.
2. Violence and terror have continued to leak into our cities.
3. Our communities have become polarized in hateful rage.
4. It’s hard not to worry about what tomorrow might bring, whether we’re up
to the challenges just around the corner.
5. The world around us changes faster than we can comprehend and adjust.
6. The world beneath our feet shifts and shakes.
7. We worry for our children and their future in this torn up and broken
world.
8. We worry for our own futures as we age.
9. Fear grips with the clamp of an icy cold hand of terror and pins our
hopes to the ground.
B. And then we hear that word again.
1. Right from God’s own messenger.
2. Straight from the very throne room of heaven itself.
3. The angel now turns to us and says:
4. The one born of Mary is “Yahweh saves.”
5. This one delivered you from your sins and your certain death.
6. You do not have to fear.
7. This one born of Mary is “Immanuel,” God with us.
8. He is with you too.
9. You do not have to fear.
10. And so, you can hope again.
11. Hope not just:
A. for this fleeting moment,
B. for today,
C. but for tomorrow,
D. for next year,
E. for all eternity.
F. Your hope is grounded in God’s promised presence sent to save us and be
there for us.
C. As Paul declares to the Romans (Rom 8:31–39), no one can stand against
us if God is for us.
1. No one can frustrate or stop God’s plans.
A. Not Herod.
B. Not the worst tyrants of our time.
C. Not the terrorists.
D. Not any enemy.
E. No one can bring a charge against us.
F. Not even Satan, the accuser of the brethren. And he has been working
overtime lately on all of us!
G. God has declared us right with God through Christ.
H. No one can condemn us, for this Jesus intercedes for us at the right
hand of God.
I. And no one can separate us from the love of Christ.
J. Not tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or
danger or sword.
K. For in all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who
loves us.
L. No one can tear us from God’s presence.
M. Not life, not death, not angels or demons or rulers.
N. Not things terrorizing us in the moment, or fears of what is to come.
O. Nothing in all of the created order.
P. Nothing.
Q. For the one born of Mary is the deliverer from sin, Immanuel, God with
us.
D. And with that, we have hope.

Conclusion

A. The Angel’s Message of Hope to Joseph in the Midst of His Fear Gives Us
Hope as We Fear Our Unknowns.
1. A hope that cannot be disappointed.
2. A hope grounded in God’s assuring promise.
3. A hope that survives time itself.
4. An eternal hope. Amen.
B. Let us pray:
LSB 900:4-6 Jesus! Name of Wondrous Love
4
Jesus! Name of mercy mild,
Given to the holy Child
When the cup of human woe
First He tasted here below.

5
Jesus! Only name that’s giv’n
Under all the mighty heav’n
Whereby those to sin enslaved
Burst their fetters and are saved.

6
Jesus! Name of wondrous love,
Human name of God above;
Pleading only this, we flee
Helpless, O our God, to Thee. Amen.
Text: Public domain
C. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
D. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

Text: Isaiah 11:1–10
Theme: The kingdom of peace
Other Lessons: Psalm 72:1–7; Romans 15:4–13; Matthew 3:1–12

A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

B. The Old Testament lesson serves as our sermon text for today.

C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah
He’s roaring with power and fighting our battles
And every knee will bow before You
Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain
For the sin of the world, His blood breaks the chains
And every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb
Oh every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Amen.
Introduction

A. For many of you, our text from Isaiah 11 conjures up a very clear image.
1. You can just see a wolf and lamb playing with each other,
2. a lion grazing contentedly,
3. a baby laughing near the hole of a cobra.
4. Such a strange, enchanting picture of nature at peace may have been in
your children’s Bible or hung in your childhood bedroom.
5. But how many nurseries are adorned with an artist’s rendering of how
“the lion will lie down with the lamb”?
B. Because of the association with those romantic illustrations from our
youth, the Old Testament Reading today may come across more like that of a
fable or fairy tale, a sweet but ultimately mythical description of the way
life really is or ever will be.
1. But far from it!
2. In beautiful, vivid, memorable picture language, God is giving us here a
very real promise about both Jesus’ coming and the salvation he brings.
C. In Christ, the Kingdom of Peace Isaiah Pictured Is Here and Now.
I. Isaiah sees Jesus coming as the King of peace.
A. As with so much of Isaiah’s poetry, the key is context.
1. If we understand the surrounding verses, we’ll better understand what
Isaiah is pointing to when he tells of vegetarian lions and domesticated
bears.
2. In the very first verse, Isaiah says that “there shall come forth a
shoot from the stump of Jesse” (verse 1).
3. What is this but a prophecy of Jesus’ line of descent and birth?
4. When Jesus was born, the line of Jesse, King David’s father, had been
reduced to a stump.
5. The Davidic monarchy had been routed and kept down by the empires of
Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome.
6. Yet, “Lo, how a rose e’er blooming From tender stem hath sprung! Of
Jesse’s lineage coming As prophets long have sung” (LSB 359:1).
B. About this same Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord rests. Isaiah writes:
1. “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge
and the fear of the Lord” (verse 2).
2. Jesus, the Son of David, went forth “full of the Spirit” and manifested
himself before all Israel.
3. At his Baptism, the Spirit of God descended on him like a dove and came
to rest on him.
C. On Jesus rests the Spirit of wisdom and understanding.
1. During his humble ministry, he demonstrated a wisdom which had been
hidden from the beginning of the world;
2. he spoke and gave insight into heavenly things which only he knows (John
8:14).
D. On Jesus rests the Spirit of counsel and might.
1. By his suffering and death, David’s Son, the King of Israel, loosed the
bonds which held people captive and overcame the enemies of the human race:
A. sin,
B. death,
C. and the devil.
E. On Jesus rests the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
1. He was obedient to his Father’s will, even unto death, to lead the lost
children of the world back to God.
A. Now through the Spirit, the Lord plants:
B. the knowledge of God,
C. true love and true fear of God,
D. into the hearts of men.
F. His work completed, the Son of David now sits on the throne of his
Father.
1. “And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by
what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with
righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek
of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and
with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall
be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins” (verses
3–5).
A. Christ bears the scepter of peace, not judging by what his eyes see or
deciding disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness judging the
poor, deciding with equity in the interests of the meek.
B. To us troubled sinners, Christ gives us justice.
C. He makes poor, miserable sinners like us right with God by covering our
sin and presenting them blameless to God the Father.
G. At the same time, the godless, those who reject the scepter of this
king, who reject his peace and grace, are put to shame.
1. They behold him glorified but receive the punishment due their rejection
of him.
2. Again as Isaiah puts it:
A. “He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the
breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked” (verse 4).
H. This, in short, is what the first five verses are all about.
1. Some 750 years before the fact, Isaiah foretells the coming of Jesus,
the King of peace.
2. What Isaiah now goes on to describe is the kingdom of peace—the domain
that Jesus will rule.
II. Isaiah sees Jesus ruling over the kingdom of peace.

A. We read at the end of the passage that the root of Jesus will stand as a
signal for the peoples (verse10).
1. The nations shall inquire of him, and his resting place will be
glorious.
2. And here is the wonderful surprise for us:
A. This holy time has already come!
B. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary, has come.
C. His name and his cross have been set up as a signal on the earth.
D. It is visible everywhere.
E. Those near and far have salvation and peace preached to them.
F. The nations, sinners from all over the earth, acknowledge it.
G. They confess that in no other is salvation to be found, that no other
name under heaven is given among men by which they must be saved.
H. They come and kneel before the crucified Christ.
B. We all know that not all believe in this Christ.
1. This same Christ is also a sign that is spoken against, as Simeon
foretold in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:34).
2. Christ has been appointed for the fall of many.
3. But many also come—from all peoples and lands.
4. There are always new flocks who stream to
A. the signal on the mountain,
B. to the manger in Bethlehem,
C. to the cross at Golgotha,
D. new flocks who find peace and rest for their souls.
5. They inquire after the one who has redeemed them.
6. And as the waters cover the sea, so numerous are they who acknowledge
the Lord and serve him.
C. Watch what this means for the community that trusts in Jesus.
1. “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with
the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their
young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned
child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain” (verses 6–9).
2. In the kingdom of Christ, there is no malice.
3. Those who acknowledge the Lord renounce the works of the devil.
4. And although we sinners still sin, there remains an ever-flowing
fountain of mercy.
5. Day to day, we receive from Christ grace upon grace, as well as peace
and strength for all good works.
D. This then is what Isaiah means when he says the wolf shall dwell with
the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and so on.
1. The prophet is painting a picture of paradise.
2. Wolves, lions, and bears dwelling alongside lambs, calves, and young
goats.
3. The wild animals not feeding on flesh and blood but instead going into
pasture and eating straw like the oxen, no longer feral and ferocious but
tame.
III. This kingdom of peace that Isaiah sees we live in even now!
A. This is not a fairy tale or one of Aesop’s fables.
1. Nor is it primarily a description of what life will finally be like in
heaven.
2. No, this is the kingdom of grace in which we live now!
3. This is what the Church that Christ built, even now being assembled from
out of all the nations, looks like now!
4. These scenes from the natural world are a metaphor, an allegory, for the
peace that the Christian Church enjoys this very moment:
A. a peace in sharp contrast to the world’s lack of peace,
B. its continual conflict and war,
C. everyone looks to take advantage of his neighbor,
D. the sons of men do not know the way of peace,
E. people are quick to shed innocent blood,
F. and yes, there is poison on their lips.
B. Lions eating straw and wolves lying down with lambs?!
1. The Gospel makes possible even greater things than that!
2. The wild beasts are a picture of how human beings really are—just as
given to sin by nature as a wolf is to eating meat.
3. But a lion deciding to go vegan is nothing compared to God taking a
sinful human being, releasing him from the guilt of all his or her sin, and
giving them a heart that no longer wants to sin but wants to do only the
will of God!
C. As new creatures in Christ, united with the One who alone is holy by
nature but who shares his holiness with us, this is exactly what has
happened to us.
1. God has created in us new hearts so that, while sin still clings, we
truly want to please God and serve our neighbors.
2. This is completely unnatural from the perspective of our old sinful
selves!
3. The disciples who out of fear abandoned Jesus in his hour of need did
what came naturally.
4. But transformed by the power of the resurrection and by the risen Jesus’
own word to them, “Peace be with you,” they went on to suffer persecution
and imprisonment and even martyrdom for the sake of his name.
5. You and I likewise have been transformed by the Holy Spirit’s
intervening in our lives and making us into the kind of people we would
never possibly be without him.
D. To be sure, even the Church, the Bride of Christ, still has her spots
and wrinkles.
1. But she washes herself daily in the blood of the Lamb and is made a new
creature.
2. We who have been:
A. won by the Gospel,
B. who believe in Christ and serve Christ,
C. where we deny our worldly lusts,
D. we lay aside our wild nature and habits
E. in all this, we daily strive to put down our inborn wrath and bitterness
and jealousy.
F. Only with the help of the Spirit, we are careful to maintain unity in
the bond of peace.
G. Instead of doing harm to one another, we do good to one another whether
it’s convenient or not.
H. For here there is no more Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman
(Galatians 3:28).
I. We are all one in Christ.
1. Today, we have guests from Community of Faith Lutheran Church, with
Pastor Randall Lewis, their pastor. Welcome!
2. We are all ONE IN CHRIST!!
Conclusion

A. The well-established convention of expressing historical dates as BC or
AD is gradually being discarded in favor of BCE and CE.
1. In an attempt to be sensitive to non-Christians but is a blatant effort
to cause further division and strife, more and more textbooks, instead of
BC, which stands for “Before Christ,” are using “BCE,” which stands for
“Before the Common Era.”
2. And instead of AD, which is short for a Latin phrase (Anno Domini) that
means “in the year of the Lord,” various publications are now using the
initials “CE,” which stands for “Common Era.”
3. It’s a bit like replacing “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays.”
4. And it’s just as laughable, because while saying BCE and CE does manage
to avoid referring to Christ or suggesting that Jesus is the Lord, the
numbering system remains the same!
5. The birth of Jesus is still the anchor date.
6. After all, with what event does the so-called “Common Era” begin?
7. The birth of Jesus Christ, of course!
8. The current year is 2022 CE, but 2,022 years since when?
9. The birth of Jesus Christ, of course!
10. Scholars may change the letters, but the substance remains; the world’s
own calendars continue to bear witness to the fact that what Isaiah
prophesied (whether in 750 BC or 750 BCE) has come to pass: the “signal for
the peoples” has come (Isaiah 11:10).
B. This peace the Lord speaks of through Isaiah will be perfected in the
world to come.
1. At that time, Christ’s kingdom and reign will become true glory and
honor.
2. But the kingdom of peace has come already and is now, just as surely as
the King of peace has come already and now lives and reigns to all
eternity.
3. God grant that we recognize anew and afresh the great blessings he has
already bestowed on us in his kingdom!
4. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.
C. Let us pray:
So open up the gates, make way before the King of kings
Our God who calls the saved is here to set the captives free. Amen.
D. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
E. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

Text: Isaiah 2:1–5

Theme: The mountain of the house of the Lord

Other Lessons: Psalm 122; Romans 13:(8–10) 11–14; Matthew 21:1–11 or
Matthew 24:36–44

A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
B. The Old Testament lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
Psa 122:1-9
(1) A Song of Ascents. Of David. I was glad when they said to me, “Let us
go to the house of the LORD!”
(2) Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
(3) Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together,
(4) to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as was decreed for
Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
(5) There thrones for judgment were set, the thrones of the house of David.
(6) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!
(7) Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”
(8) For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, “Peace be within you!”
(9) For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good.

Introduction

A. Isaiah 1:2 “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has
spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled
against me’ ”
B. So begins the Book of Isaiah.
1. With the heavens and earth as jurors, God the Almighty Prosecutor
presents his closing argument against the defendant, his own people,
Israel:
A. They have abandoned their Maker and Redeemer.
B. Their worship is insincere.
C. Their rulers are corrupt.
D. They lack mercy.
E. They oppress the weak and live solely for pleasing themselves.
2. The just sentence for their crimes?
A. Their land shall go desolate,
B. they shall be burned with unquenchable fire.
C. Similar words of judgment and condemnation immediately follow our Old
Testament Reading for today.
C. But here in Isaiah 2 verses 1–5, the prophet abruptly shifts to words of
mercy and a description even of Israel’s future glory.
1. Verses 2-4 “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain
of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the
mountains. . . .
2. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem. . . .
3. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war anymore” What does all this mean?
4. From the prophet’s day to the present time, Isaiah’s prophecy about a
mountain that God would one day establish high above all other mountains—to
which the peoples would stream to hear the Lord’s teaching and out of which
God’s Word would flow to the rest of the world, bringing peace and
harmony—has been misunderstood and abused.
5. Where then Is the “Mountain of the House of the Lord”?
I. Jews, Muslims, and even many Christians have mistakenly identified the
mountain of the house of the Lord according to their own worldly
expectations.
A. For many of the Jews living during Jesus’ humble ministry, the mountain
Isaiah was talking about was Jerusalem.
1. That’s where God would come and deliver his people from their physical
enemies and establish a literal kingdom on earth that would rule all other
kingdoms.
2. Convinced of this, they rejected Jesus, thinking he couldn’t possibly be
the Messiah, the one sent by God to bring about such an earthly kingdom,
since Jesus brought not glory but a cross, not political freedom but
forgiveness.
B. Where then is the mountain of the house of the Lord?
1. For Christian millennialists, such as the authors of the popular Left
Behind books, the answer is much the same as the old Jewish one.
2. They, too, believe the mountain of the house of the Lord refers
literally to Jerusalem and that one day, before the resurrection of the
dead, Jesus will come to set up there a central government and rule all the
nations of the world for a thousand years.
3. The godly of the world will be in charge and the ungodly will be
suppressed.
4. No wonder our Lutheran forefathers rejected such teachings as “Jewish
opinions” (Augsburg Confession Article 17, paragraph 5).
C. Where is the mountain of the house of the Lord?
1. For modern Judaism, it is the land of Israel.
2. However, unlike the picture Isaiah gives us of the nations of the world
streaming to Jerusalem, those who hold on to modern Judaism treat Israel as
the exclusive possession of the Jews.
3. The conversion of Gentiles to Judaism is hardly a priority, and to the
extent that there are Gentile converts to Judaism, distinctions remain.
4. A Gentile is still a Gentile.
D. Where is the mountain of the house of the Lord?
1. For Muhammad, the mountain was Mecca, the center of the Muslim empire
and the future capital of a world converted to Islam.
2. But unlike the pleasing picture of peace that Isaiah paints, Islam has
always been a religion of bloodshed.
3. When Muhammad first received his “divine revelations” in the early 600s,
few in his hometown believed him.
4. So, he took his new religion north to Medina, where he found converts
willing to wage war against his enemies back in Mecca.
5. Thus began Islam, the so-called religion of peace.
E. Where is the mountain of the house of the Lord?
1. For many of the medieval popes:
A. it was either Jerusalem, the holiest of pilgrimage destinations,
B. or Rome, the center of Christendom and home of Christ’s representative
on earth, the pope himself.
2. Yet unlike the voluntary streaming of people and the conditions of peace
which Isaiah describes, the popes sought to establish the kingdom of God by
force—during the Crusades through war and during the Inquisition through
instruments of torture.
II. Christ, by his first Advent, has inaugurated the latter days, in which
the peoples of the world are brought into God’s kingdom.
A. Where then is the mountain of the house of the Lord?
1. A key to help us unlock the mystery is the phrase “in the latter days.”
2. The error of first-century Jews and modern millennialists lay in
thinking that the “latter days” to which Old Testament believers looked
forward are still way in the future.
3. How did the author of Hebrews put it?
A. Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to
our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by
his Son”.
4. Did you catch that?
A. “In these last days.”
B. Every day since Christ’s resurrection and ascension until his second
coming is one of the last days.
C. There is nothing yet to be accomplished for our salvation between now
and our Lord’s coming again in glory!
D. As St. Paul said in our Epistle this morning: Romans 13:11 “You know the
time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep.”
E. We do know the time!
5. We are living even now in the last days.
B. Isaiah also spoke of people freely streaming to the mountain of the
house of the Lord to be taught by God and to walk in his paths.
1. So much for an earthly kingdom brought about by force of arms.
2. Remember what Jesus told Pontius Pilate: John 18:36 “My kingdom is not
of this world”.
3. Jesus said that from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven,
instead of committing violence, suffers violence, and he warned against
those who would try to “take it by force” Matthew 11:12.
C. The mountain of the house of the Lord is the place where God dwells and
is enthroned and reveals himself to his people.
1. The mountain of the house of the Lord is where God gathers his people
around his Word and Sacrament.
2. In short, the mountain of the house of the Lord is here, in this place,
God’s Church, where two or three have gathered in his name.
3. You and I are part of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s 2,700-year-old
prophecy!
D. Imagine a first-century Palestinian, thanks to some time-traveling
technology, transported into the present.
1. He might argue that today’s world hardly resembles Isaiah’s picture of
peace—swords being beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
2. But what did the Christmas angels declare?
A. Luke 2:14 “Peace on earth and goodwill toward men!”
3. A modern millennialist might argue that understanding Isaiah 2 in terms
of the Christian Church does not take the text literally or seriously
enough.
4. But Isaiah says:
A. Isaiah 2:3 “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem”.
5. Must the nations make pilgrimage to Jerusalem to hear the Word of the
Lord, or does the Word itself go out from Jerusalem to the nations?
6. The risen Christ commanded his disciples to proclaim repentance and
forgiveness of sins:
A. “to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).
7. And that’s exactly what happened:
A. The Word—the promise of salvation through Christ’s atoning sacrifice on
the cross—went out from Jerusalem, starting with the apostles, and spread
to sinners around the world.
B. Even today, around the world, people of every nation, language, and
tribe come to the house of the Lord and are being converted to faith in
Jesus Christ, taught by God and walking in his paths.
III. Still waiting for the consummation, we rejoice that even now the peace
between God and sinners and among the redeemed is a reality.
A. That Word which began in Jerusalem comes to you today.
1. Although you and I fall under the same judgment which God spoke to his
people in Isaiah, God has graciously pardoned us.
2. He has issued a stay of execution.
3. He has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. Why?
4. For the sake of the one who was condemned in our place—his Son, Jesus
Christ.
5. Risen from the dead, God’s Son declares to you this day, “Peace be with
you.”
6. Your sins are forgiven.
B. It’s true that, just as did the believers of Old Testament times, we
still look forward with a sure hope to that Last Day, when God will put an
end to all earthly war, remove all sin, wipe away all tears, when there
will be only peace and joy in the presence of our Lord forever.
1. But unlike the Old Testament believers, we know that the age of Christ’s
second coming is the culmination of what has already begun.
2. Isaiah got to view the mountain from a distance.
3. We’re actually dwelling on it!
4. These are the last days.
5. The Light has come into the world!
6. Even now there is forgiveness of sins and peace, peace with God and
therefore with one another.
7. And the Word of the Lord draws the nations to itself.

Conclusion

A. In the 1960s, having outgrown the space in which its members had
worshiped since 1941, the leaders of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in
Dallas, Texas, set out to find a new location for their church.
1. They chose for their site what was, according to surveyors, the highest
elevation in the city of Dallas.
2. Now, for the relatively flat prairie land of Dallas, this wasn’t saying
much.
3. Some members jokingly say that Our Redeemer Lutheran Church is “a city
shining” not so much “on a hill” as on a knoll, that is, a small hill or
mound.
4. Still, the slightly higher position relative to its surroundings serves
as a visible reminder that the mountain of the house of the Lord:
A. where God’s Word is preached and the gifts of salvation are given
B. It has been established as chief among the mountains (Isaiah 2:2)!
B. What a note on which to begin a new church year!
1. Today, on the First Sunday in Advent, Isaiah reminds us that the Lord is
faithful to his promises.
2. Though we still live in a world ravaged by war and disease and other
calamities, a world still in bondage to sin and death and far from glory,
God dwells even now in his house—this house!—and reveals himself to us.
3. “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isaiah
2:5). Amen.
C. Let us pray:
Our hearts are glad and our souls rejoice before You, Lord, our God,
because by Your Word of truth You have made us members of Your Holy Church,
in which You daily and richly forgive the sins of all those who build their
trust on Jesus Christ. Grant us grace to abide in the love of Your Word, in
purity of faith and in piety of life, even to our end. Amen.
D. The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
E. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

Text: Deuteronomy 8:1-10

Theme: “What a Thanksgiving treat”

A. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
B. The Old Testament lesson serves as our sermon text for this evening.
C. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our heavenly Father through
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
D. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
E. LSB 823:1 May God Bestow on Us His Grace
May God bestow on us His grace,
With blessings rich provide us;
And may the brightness of His face
To life eternal guide us,
That we His saving health may know,
His gracious will and pleasure,
And also to the nations show
Christ’s riches without measure
And unto God convert them. Amen.

Introduction

A. Gabriel Ruth, a Globally Engaged in Outreach (GEO) missionary for the
LCMS, wanted to show her Czech students something typical of an American
celebration of Thanksgiving.
B. She couldn’t provide turkey for a hundred, so she made the
next-most-Thanksgiving treat:
1. green bean casserole.
2. Cream of mushroom soup.
3. Crispy fried onions.
C. Mmmmm! Surprisingly, she was able to find all the ingredients in Prague.
1. Baked.
2. Transported two hours on the train.
3. Sprinkled.
4. Happy American Thanksgiving!
D. Her students’ reaction? “Eww! Gross! What’s that?”
E. “Come on, try it!” she said.
1. Not many takers.
F. The only ingredient of the recipe most of Gabriel’s students would taste
were the crispy fried onions.
1. They picked them off the top, and they were a universal hit.
2. But the whole casserole, the main event?
3. They’ll never know what they missed.
G. Jesus presented ten lepers the greatest reason for thanksgiving.
1. And it wasn’t that they were healed of their leprosy.
2. That was just the crispy fried onions on top.
3. It was the fact that the Messiah, the Savior, was right there, offering
himself.
4. All ten loved the crispy fried onions, being healed of their dreaded
condition.
5. But only one tasted the whole casserole.
6. Only one realized how delicious was the treat he’d actually been given
(Luke 17:11–19).
H. We’re given so many reasons to give thanks, and the turkey and pumpkin
pie and green bean casserole we’ll enjoy tomorrow are among them.
1. So are health and friends and family we’ve enjoyed all year.
2. But every blessing we receive is only because Jesus, the Savior, has
made us God’s dear children again by dying for us, taking away the sin that
once separated us from all of God’s gifts.
3. For that, I say Happy Thanksgiving!
I. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, 1 Chronicles 16:34 proclaims:
1. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!”
2. Christians are urged to give thanks always to our Lord, who loves us.
3. Look at all that God has given to us! He has given people in our lives
who love us.
4. He has given us a country to live in, safety, good medicines, and all
kinds of daily bread.
5. Our Father gives us so much good that we should give thanks to God for
all that he has given us just this year alone.
J. At this point you might be saying:
1. Wait a minute. Pastor, did you just say we should give thanks for all
God gave us this year?
2. This year has been horrible!
3. The year 2022 is surely going to go down as one of the hardest, most
frustrating, and divisive years in U.S. history!
4. With the:
A. loss of loved ones due to death,
B. to inflation showing its ugly head every time we look to buy something,
C. to people losing the ability to be decent and civil toward one another:
1. How Can Anyone Be Thankful This Year?!?
I. We can be thankful that this year God taught us we do not live by bread
alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
A. Dear fellow redeemed of the Lord, remember what our text for our
consideration says:
1. “You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you
these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you
to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or
not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which
you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know
that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that
comes from the mouth of the Lord” (verses 2–3).
2. Think how the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for decades.
3. Do you think they were thankful?
4. Many were not.
5. Many grumbled against God and Moses.
6. God gave:
A. daily bread miraculously,
B. from manna to water pouring from a rock to quail,
C. so the people could eat something else.
7. Other times, God angrily took lives, like when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
led a rebellion against Moses (Numbers 16),
8. or when God sent snakes to bite people and many of them died (Numbers
21:4–9).
9. So compare what the Israelites went through compared to what we have
gone through in 2022.
10. We’ve only had one bad year.
11. The Israelites had forty.
B. God sent the Israelites to the wilderness out of love to humble their
hearts.
1. God’s ways are not our ways.
2. He knew the Israelites could not yet properly receive his gifts—not the
Promised Land and especially not eternal life through faith in the coming
Savior.
3. He knew the people trusted in their own wisdom and abilities.
4. By humbling them, he meant to show them their utter hopelessness apart
from him.
5. By humbling them, God might show his beloved people that they needed his
salvation.
6. This is why God says he humbled his people:
A. that “he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but
man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (verse 3).
C. Whatever else 2022 has brought us, we can still say that God’s fatherly,
divine goodness and mercy are infinite and boundless.
1. God’s wisdom is greater than ours.
2. His understanding is unsearchable.
3. In this year that few people have liked for one reason or another, God’s
Word that proclaims Jesus, our Savior, has still been preached.
4. In this awful year, our heavenly Father has not taken his Word away from
us.
5. While other comforts were taken away, God’s Word still comforted us as
only God’s Word can.
6. This Word proclaims you righteous, right with God on account of Jesus,
even if reason disagrees and senses don’t detect it.
7. Like the Israelites, so you and I also can learn by that during this
humbling time, we do not live by bread alone but by every word that comes
from the Lord’s mouth.
II. And we can be thankful—this year as every year—for all the blessings
that the Word of God promises are ahead for us in Christ.
A. God’s Word is a Word of both Law and Gospel.
1. It first shows us the perfect way to live; and because we have not lived
this way, it also shows us Jesus, who did.
2. God in his Word desires that we would:
A. “keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and
by fearing him” (verse 6). Yet God’s Word also proclaims Jesus, whose
footsteps never strayed and who for our sake laid his perfect life down at
the cross.
B. God’s Word promised the Israelites a good land overflowing with
blessing.
1. That promise sustained the faithful as they trekked through the
wilderness.
2. With little pleasant in their day-to-day life, with frustrations as they
moved from place to place, the promise of God’s gift of an overabundant
land encouraged the faithful.
3. Certain of God’s promise, they forgot the past and pressed forward to
the great goal God was giving them.
C. The same thing is true for us too.
1. In this year:
A. when conveniences have been taken,
B. when fears have abounded,
C. when family customs had to be changed,
D. when worries for our older friends and relatives consumed us,
E. when we are frustrated at the political battles in our country (which I
think every side would admit to)—we have a sure Word of comfort.
F. That Word is the salvation promised in Jesus, who delivers us from this
valley of sorrows to himself in heaven, based solely upon his love for us.
G. So we believers can forget what lies behind and set our face joyfully to
the blessings that lie ahead.
D. By God’s Word, believers learn how to be content in all things—in normal
years and even in times when things are anything but normal.
1. By God’s Word, believers learn to trust him daily in all challenges, and
we see how richly those who also trusted him in Scripture were blessed by
it.
2. By God’s Word, believers are:
A. comforted in affliction,
B. helped in distress,
C. fed when spiritually hungry,
D. strengthened when weak,
E. loved when loveless,
F. set at peace when terrified,
G. and forgiven for Christ’s sake when guilty.
3. For that Word of our Savior and God’s undying mercy for us poor sinners
sustains us through even the hardest of years.
E. This year, I’ve seen people challenge others to come up with good things
God gave them in 2022.
1. It’s good to do, to stop and count our blessings.
2. What good things has God done for you this year?
3. What blessings did God bring you?
4. I think you could find quite a lot that God gave you this year that you
can be thankful for.
5. Even the hard things you’ve seen this year may be blessings in disguise,
blessings that will open up sometime in the future in ways that we just
don’t see now.
6. But we do see what God’s Word says.
7. And we see how God is good and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love.
F. There is much to give thanks for.
1. Greatest of all is that 2022 has shown us that this world isn’t that
desirable of a place. The year 2022 has taught us to set our eyes on that
which lies ahead and to forget what lies behind. For this world is not the
home of believers.
Conclusion

A. Our true home is in heaven, in the new creation and the resurrection of
the body.
B. Jesus has come to save us from this valley of sorrows, and he has done
everything we need.
C. He has gone to prepare a place for us in the new promised land of heaven.
D. He has secured that place for us by his blood, and he communicates this
to us by his Word and Sacraments.
E. For this, and for all God’s gifts, we give thanks. Amen.
F. Let us pray:
G. LSB 823:2 May God Bestow on Us His Grace
Thine over all shall be the praise
And thanks of ev’ry nation;
And all the world with joy shall raise
The voice of exultation.
For Thou shalt judge the earth, O Lord,
Nor suffer sin to flourish;
Thy people’s pasture is Thy Word
Their souls to feed and nourish,
In righteous paths to keep them. Amen.
Text: Public domain
H. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds in the true faith in Christ until life everlasting. Amen.
I. In the Name of the Father…Amen.