First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

Sermon Outline

Introduction: By the First Sunday after Christmas, by and large, our culture has completely finished with its observance of the holidays. As Christians, though, we realize that the celebration of our Savior’s birth goes on and on, and we remember that with a full twelve days of Christmas, a celebration that only ends then by transitioning to Epiphany, a further celebration of the incarnation.

In some parts of the world, there’s another custom that can help us celebrate the ongoing feast. December 26 is—or at least was—observed as Boxing Day. I understand that our English friends joke about Boxing Day as the day you box up all the Christmas decorations and put them back up in the attic. But actually, the tradition is that on Boxing Day, December 26, masters would present gifts to their servants. At least in this small way, the roles of master and servant were reversed, with the master rendering a sort of service to the servants.

In our Epistle this morning, we hear about the Master giving a gift to his servants that truly does reverse the traditional roles. The Master gives his Son so that the servants—slaves even—actually become sons, heirs, themselves. We might think of this First Sunday after Christmas as a spiritual Boxing Day. By the Master, God the Father, sending forth his Son, you are no longer a slave. Instead,

Christ Was Born to Deliver Us from Slavery for Sonship.

I. We were all once slaves.

    A. Paul says immediately before our text that we were “enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” (4:3).

        1.  If you want to get elementary about things, here’s the way the world works: if you want something, you have to earn it. (Give examples: a pay­check, groceries, affection from another person.)

        2.  But if you can’t pay whatever it costs, you’ll always be a slave to trying.

        3.  If we had to cut our own deal with God, that’s the way it would be. We’d have to do or pay whatever it took to earn God’s favor and a ticket to paradise.

    B. We were, in fact, under the principle of the Law and therefore slaves.

        1.  God’s Holy Law declares what we are to do and not do, the price of holiness.

        2.  But we can’t pay up, can’t fulfill the Law’s holy demands. (Give examples of sins that are common among your hearers.)

    3.  That left us, by nature, always trying, never achieving—slaves to the Law.

II. But Christ, God’s Son, came to redeem us from our slavery (vv 4–5).

    A. He came in “the fullness of time.” (Elaborate from Textual Notes section.)

        1.  When God had prepared receptive communities throughout the Mediterranean.

        2.  When the temple had been rebuilt.

        3.  When the region shared a common language.

        4.  When Roman rule led to fulfillment of the mes­sianic prophecies.

        5.  When the pax Romana facilitated the spread of the Gospel.

    B. At the incarnation, God, the Master, sent the eternal Christ to reverse roles with us.

        1.  He was God, the Son, from all eternity.

        2.  But he was born of the Virgin Mary, becoming truly one of us.

        3.  And he was born under the Law, taking our place as a slave to keeping the Law.

    C. For us, then, Christ rendered obedience to the Law.

        1.  He kept the Law perfectly, fulfilling what we had failed to do.

        2.  But he endured the curse of the Law anyway, taking our punishment upon himself.

        3.  He took this curse as the price necessary to redeem us (Gal 3:13).

III.    Therefore, we now live as sons and heirs of God (Gal 4:5–7).

    A. Christ’s reversing roles with us—taking our place under the Law, fulfilling it, and paying the price for our breaking it—has put us in his role, adopted as sons.

        1.  This adoption is given by way of Baptism (Gal 3:27–29).

        2.  This adoption is ours through faith in Christ (Gal 3:26).

        3.  This adoption is demonstrated by the gift of the Spirit.

    B. So we have the full rights as sons.

        1.  The right to make requests of God.

             a. We pray as sons, not as slaves.

             b. We have the closest possible relationship to our God. As Jesus taught his disciples to call God “Father,” we have the privilege of calling him “Abba.”

             c. The Holy Spirit even helps us to pray.

        2.  The right to an inheritance through God.

             a. We have our share in the inheritance now—this privileged, forgiven relationship.

             b. We look forward to an eternal inheritance.

Conclusion: For one day a year, Boxing Day makes a fine tradition—the master reversing roles with his servants. But our Christmas celebration isn’t one day a year, or two, or even twelve. Because Christ reversed roles with us, taking our place as slaves under the Law, we can celebrate every day as our spiritual Boxing Day. Amen.

Jesus: The Son of Mary

Matthew 1:16

Sermon Outline

4. God’s way of sending the Messiah wasn’t the world’s way.

3. Rather, God works through and exalts the lowly.

2. Just so, the Son of God humbled himself by becoming the Son of Mary.

1. And God exalts us, the lowly, by humbling his Son.

God Turns the Ways of the World Upside Down by Sending His Son to Be Born of a Virgin and to Exchange His Life for Ours.

Sermon

And Jacob [was] the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. (Mt 1:16)

There is nothing clean about the list of Jesus’ ancestors. People are left out, and the numbers of generations Matthew counts don’t quite add up. Did Matthew leave things out intentionally? Could he not count? Was he simply not as good a historian as Luke? All of those questions are raised when one reads the genealogy that’s recorded in Matthew 1. The names and the numbers simply don’t add up.

4.

This is true! The birth of Jesus to Mary doesn’t make sense. Since he was expected to be born in King David’s royal city of Bethlehem, a pregnant girl in Nazareth couldn’t seem right. One would expect the one called Lord by King David to be born in a palace, not in a stable. He should have been wrapped in the finest of fabrics, such as silk or cotton rather than swaddling cloths. Perhaps the most shocking part of the angels’ birth announcement to the shepherds was the fact that they would find the Savior, Christ the Lord, lying in an animals’ food trough. None of it made sense at all, right down to a young, unmarried girl giving birth to the promised Messiah.

But Mary understood that God does not operate the way the world does. From the time that the angel Gabriel appeared to her, she learned how differently God would be at work. While she wondered how she, a virgin, could bear the Son of the Most High, her response was, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Her seemingly barren cousin Elizabeth also conceived in a way that seemed unimaginable. But nothing is impossible for God.

3.

When Mary went to visit her cousin, her song was one of praise to the God who does the impossible. For he is the God who brings down the mighty and exalts the humble, who fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty, and for whose sake all generations will call this humble servant, Mary, blessed. Martin Luther wrote of the Magnificat: “When the holy virgin experienced what great things God was working in her despite her insignificance, lowliness, poverty, and inferiority, the Holy Spirit taught her this deep insight and wisdom, that God is the kind of Lord who does nothing but exalt those of low degree and put down the mighty from their thrones, in short, break what is whole and make whole what is broken” (AE 21:299).

Dear friends, on account of our sin, we, too, are the humble and hungry, the lowly. We are spiritually impoverished without any possible hope to reverse our fortunes. Since we cannot restore things on our own, we need someone to come and save us. That was God’s plan from the very beginning. God spoke words of promise as he banished Adam and Eve from the garden by promising that one of their own descendants would bruise for them the serpent’s head. The Old Testament is full of signs pointing us forward to the fulfillment of that promise. From Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Judah and Tamar, Rahab and Ruth, David and Bathsheba, Joseph and Mary, we see how God was at work, weaving his plan of salvation through each subsequent generation, right up until the Holy Spirit came upon Mary so that she would become pregnant with the long-promised Messiah. It may not make sense to the world, but God does not operate the way the world does.

2.

While Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, he still was born of the Virgin Mary, and therefore, according to his human nature, he ate and drank, wept and slept, felt emotions and physical pain—like all other human beings. Jesus had to be conceived by the Holy Spirit to be of the same substance with the Father, to be truly God, without sin, perfect and holy in every way. But he also had to be born of Mary. He had to be flesh and blood, truly human in fulfillment of the promise that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (Is 7:14). He was born covered in blood, and he would die covered in blood. For the way that he would save his people from their sins was by shedding his blood on the cross for the forgiveness of their sins. He came to redeem us, to buy us back for God. Not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood. Jesus had to be fully God, but he also had to be fully human so that he could shed that blood on the cross for us.

It doesn’t make sense that the Son of God would get up from the table and, with a towel and basin, wash his disciples’ feet. It doesn’t make sense that the Holy One of Israel would associate with an adulterous Samaritan woman or heal the Roman centurion’s servant. It doesn’t make sense that this descendant of David and Abraham would associate with tax collectors and prostitutes. Most of all, it does not make sense that the Son of God would come to die. But that’s just the kind of Lord he is. For it is in his wounds that we find healing. It is in his taking on our shame that we are made righteous. It is in his being forsaken that we are restored. And it is in his death that we live. How truly backward it seems. But it should really come as no shock at all that God’s way seems so very foreign to sinners.

The resurrection did not make sense either. Everyone expected that Jesus’ body would be found in the tomb. The fact that the stone was rolled away and that his body was missing must have been the work of the gardener, or else some enemy like the Pharisees had taken him. But once again, God’s design doesn’t have to make sense to us. The numbers don’t have to add up. Matthew was not intending to list all the ancestors of Jesus or for the numbers to line up just right. His genealogy shows us that while the family of Jesus was fraught with mistakes and misdeeds, the promised descendant would be perfect in every way. In fact, though Jesus’ family was marred by sin, God’s plan of salvation was perfect; Christ exchanged his holiness for our sin and his death for our life. And death could not hold Jesus, so in the resurrection on the Last Day, we will see with our own eyes our Redeemer, who lives.

1.

What it means for you is that God still doesn’t work the way that the world does. God still turns the world upside down and doesn’t operate the way the world expects. The almighty God became a tiny baby, knit together in Mary’s womb. The King of kings and Lord of lords was born to an unknown peasant girl with a questionable lineage. He still comes to us today through his Word, attached to the ordinary elements of water and bread and wine. His power is still made perfect in our weakness. What we deserve for our actions is death, but he has given us the free gift of eternal life. We, the lowly, are exalted by God humbling his Son.

Nothing about this story makes sense, as Luther wrote: “[God] turns the world with all its wisdom and power into foolishness and gives us another wisdom and power” (AE 21:314). A virgin found to be with child. A Savior wrapped in swaddling cloths. A King lying in a manger. Peace on earth in infant form. Good news for all the world announced to shepherds. But it all comes together as God’s plan and his fulfillment of his promises.

God Turns the Ways of the World Upside Down by Sending His Son to Be Born of a Virgin and to Exchange His Life for Ours.

The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, demonstrates this with every name and every generation. God’s ways are certainly not our ways, but he has remained faithful to all of his promises that were given to all the saints of old. The list of names serves as a beautiful reminder that Jesus Christ came for all people. The genealogy of Jesus isn’t a fairy tale. It is a reality show full of sinners and scandals. But all are people for whom Jesus died—David and Abraham, Joseph and Mary—all.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus: The Son of Joseph

Matthew 1:16

Sermon Outline

4. Joseph is really quite forgettable, the ultimate “Average Joe.”

3. But Joseph was also faithful.

2. What Matthew does want us to remember is that the Son of Joseph is also Joseph’s Savior.

1. For in God’s eyes, no one is forgettable.

Joseph’s Son Came to Save His Average, Forgettable People from Their Sins.

Sermon

And Jacob [was] the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. (Mt 1:16)

During the 2008 presidential election, fame fell on Joseph Wurzelbacher, or, as he became known, “Joe the Plumber,” as a symbol of the common, ordinary citizen. He would be referenced in debates and stump speeches by the candidates who tried to appeal to the “average Joe.” For a brief moment, this plumber from Ohio became a household name . . . only to slip back into obscurity after the election.

Every family tree has members who have been forgotten over time. Their existence seems confined to census data. There are no statues or memorials commemorating their accomplishments. After the third and fourth generations, their memory is gone. It’s only when someone begins the process of constructing the family tree that their names and places in the family history are recalled. But their lives are remembered by little more than the dash between two dates. For those who research their family genealogies, their computer files are mostly pages of names and descendants, not unlike what Matthew has constructed for us in introducing Jesus as the Son of David and the Son of Abraham.

4.

One of the last names in that family tree is Joseph. While Mary is a key figure in the life and ministry of Jesus, Joseph is barely remembered. He is the ultimate “Average Joe,” whose stature pales in comparison to his betrothed. The evangelist Mark does not refer to him at all. Outside of the birth accounts in Matthew and Luke, the only recorded mention of Joseph is when he and Mary took twelve-year-old Jesus to Jerusalem for Passover. When Jesus went missing, it is not Joseph who rebukes him, but Mary. Then it was Joseph who went missing, never to be seen again, like a character written out of a television series. Beyond age 12, Jesus will regularly interact with his mother and brothers, but Joseph is never present.

Jesus was called the Son of David fifteen times throughout the Gospels. Blind men would cry out to him, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David” (Mt 20:30). The Roman centurion who oversaw the crucifixion and saw how Jesus died called him the Son of God. In fact, nearly thirty times, Jews and Gentiles, clean and unclean, and even demons would call Jesus the Son of God. And the messianic title the Son of Man—Jesus’ own preferred designation for himself—is used nearly eighty times. But Jesus is only referred to as Joseph’s son or the carpenter’s son four times in the Gospels. When Luke references Joseph in his genealogy, he refers to Jesus as “the son (as was supposed) of Joseph” (Lk 3:23).

Joseph is like one in so many other family trees, the relative who is not exactly a relative and little more than a footnote scribbled off to the side in someone’s tattered family Bible. Joseph is that extra figure in nativity sets who is not a shepherd but not a Wise Man. He simply balances out the scene with the beloved Mary on one side and the extra figure opposite her. How many “Madonna and Child” paintings have you seen . . . and how many of Joseph with Jesus? To many, Joseph is quite forgettable.

3.

However, Matthew’s version of the birth of Jesus is different from that traditional scene. It contains no shepherds and only one angel. There is no innkeeper, no stable, no manger. There’s no arduous journey to Bethlehem. Matthew focuses on the events leading to the birth of Jesus from Joseph’s perspective. During Joseph and Mary’s day, the period of betrothal usually lasted about a year. This was a formal engagement period that could only be broken by divorce or death. But during this period, there would be no physical intimacy. That would wait until the actual nuptial ceremony.

When Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant, and knowing that he is not the father, he is only left to conclude that Mary has committed adultery. Now it would have been within his right by Old Testament law to have her put to death for her sin. But Matthew notes that Joseph was a righteous man, so while he didn’t wish to shame himself publicly, he did not wish such punishment on Mary either. Instead, he decided to have the marriage dissolved quietly on account of her sin and then go his own way. Joseph’s plan shows us why God in his infinite wisdom also chose Joseph to raise his Son, Jesus: Joseph is a compassionate man who seeks to do the Lord’s will. Rather than lashing out at Mary in anger and vengeance, Joseph sought to show her mercy and compassion, while still being faithful to God and turning away from sin.

2.

But the angel appeared to Joseph and told him that this child in Mary was not the result of sin, but of God’s grace. The angel then told Joseph that he was to name the child Jesus because he would save his people from their sins. This had been no ordinary conception. Likewise, he would be no ordinary child. He would be given the name Jesus not as some testimony about the character of God, as was the case with so many Hebrew names, but actually as God’s action, his fulfillment of his promise to send the Messiah. This name was not to symbolize the idea that Yahweh saves his people like at the Red Sea or in bringing them back from exile. Rather, this child would be the ultimate embodiment of God’s plan of salvation, saving them from more than just oppression and suffering. He had come to be the Savior from sin. He was the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed One. He was the one who would rescue and redeem God’s people from death. No ordinary child! Unlike any child ever born, because he came to save his people, even Joseph and Mary.

No words from Joseph. He simply did what the angel commanded him to do. He took Mary home as his wife and cared for her. And when she gave birth to a son, Joseph called him Jesus. It sure wasn’t the kind of thing Joseph ever expected to hear. But God had a plan. And the angel revealed that perfect plan of salvation to Joseph, and he believed.

Matthew doesn’t tell us how Joseph felt about it all. He doesn’t write about what Joseph thought. We are not told how he tried to add it all up or figure it all out. Matthew simply states that Joseph did exactly what the angel told him to do. He took Mary home as his wife, and when the child was born, he named him Jesus, just as the angel had directed with the promise that this child would save his people from their sins.

1.

The angel of the Lord would appear to Joseph twice more. First, an angel appeared to Joseph to tell him to take his family to Egypt to protect his adopted son from the murderous King Herod. Then, after Herod’s death, Joseph was told by an angel, again in a dream, to return to Israel, and he once again settled in Nazareth. No objections. No debate. No recorded words at all. Joseph simply did what was commanded of him. But all this we do remember about Joseph.

Many of you have felt like Joseph. You’ve felt forgotten by people or that you didn’t get the recognition you deserved. You don’t want to be just an “Average Joe.” You want to be remembered. You want to be someone who leaves a mark on society. But the marks we ultimately leave on those around us are the stain of sin. The only hope we have is not that we will be remembered by the people around us, but that God has remembered us in his infinite mercy . . . so that he does not remember our sins. We can find solace in knowing that God put his name on us in the waters of Holy Baptism and sealed us with the Holy Spirit as the deposit and guarantee of God’s promise to remember us in his kingdom.

Jesus’ earthly father, Average Joseph, held something in common with all the other names in the family tree, even those much more famous and renowned. Joseph was a sinner who needed a Savior. When he gave the child the name Jesus, it was because he, too, needed someone who would save him from his own sins. God would then use this Average Joseph to protect Jesus from Herod’s soldiers, who ran their spears through the baby boys around Bethlehem. But one day, Joseph’s adopted Son would allow himself to be run through by the thorns, the nails, and the spear. And the Son of Joseph did it for his earthly father and for all who are part of his family by faith.

Joseph’s Son Came to Save His Average, Forgettable People from Their Sins.

Joseph serves as a silent but faithful witness to the Church of ages hence. May God strengthen us that we may be comforted in knowing that our God not only remembers us but that he also sent Jesus to save us from our sins.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

• In the Name of the Father…Amen.
• The Epistle lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
• Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray: LSB 810:1
• Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
• Imagine trying to build a house without any plans, without a clear idea of what the owner wants.
  1. Even if you manage to put into place (establish) some sort of ground floor structure, could you be sure that it was strong enough if the plans for the upper floors were also kept secret from you?
  2. If a house were built that way, would you have the confidence to step across the threshold?
• In similar fashion, the natural flesh attempts to establish and strengthen itself spiritually.
  1. But unless God tells you exactly what he expects and wants, and you listen to him—unless he tells you exactly what he has done for you!—you could never be sure that your status before him was firmly established.
  2. You could never know if your spirit had what was needed—the proper strength—to step across the threshold into God’s presence.
• On this Fourth Sunday in Advent, as we stand on the threshold of giving glory to God in the highest in celebration of our Savior’s birth, our Epistle teaches us that it is God  and Him alone who Establishes and Strengthens You by Revealing to You the Mystery of the Gospel.
• Living in mystery with respect to God is terribly uncertain, if not dangerous.
• World religions consist of uncertain seeking into the mysteries of God and life.
• Thinking themselves wise, they dream up their own obedience of faith (verse 26).
• Islam: Five Pillars–The declaration of faith, establishing regular prayers, paying charity, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and a pilgrimage to Mecca.
• Hinduism: The four goals of mankind–wealth, desire, righteousness, and liberation.
• Buddhism: Many paths to God–find the way that works best for you.
• The focus: it’s all about what you do to get to God.
• Unwisely, they establish the future of their souls on uncertain “knowledge” of God.
• But God alone is truly wise (verse 27).
• We sometimes develop our own version of “the obedience of faith,” as if our obedience brings us to faith or helps us to the faith (verse 26).
• Decision theology
  1. I have decided to follow Jesus.
  2. I have given Jesus my heart.
  3. I have asked Jesus into my heart.
• Misuse of spiritual disciplines:
  1. Devotions/Bible Study: if I don’t do my devotions and Bible Study at least once a day, the Lord will be upset with me and strike me down.
  2. Prayer: Lord, don’t give me what I need; give me what I want. Give me what I want NOW!
  3. Service to others: I’ll only help if there is something in it for me.
• We may try to establish and strengthen our faith on our own terms (verse 25).
  1. Not the way God has designed it.
  2. Faith is not about what God has given to me, but what I give to God.
• The result of all such pursuits is:
• At best: frustration and ignorance
• At worst, temporal and even eternal calamity.
• The world and even our own sinful flesh regularly try to construct a spirituality based on “secret heavenly designs” we try to discover by our own devices apart from God’s self-revelation.
  1. But such building leads only to destruction—like a house of cards that easily falls at the slightest ill wind.
  2. For it can neither establish nor strengthen us to receive the things of the only wise God.
  3. Thankfully, you don’t need to discern such secrets. Why?
• God reveals the mystery and makes it known to you through the proclamation of the Gospel about Jesus Christ.
• He promised this Gospel from nearly the beginning (Genesis 3:15).
• The prophets revealed portions of it by “the command of the eternal God” (Romans 16:26).
• And many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
• In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the LORD, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
• Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
• Now it is disclosed and revealed in the incarnate Son, born of the Virgin Mary.
• The Son of the Most High is truly “Jesus” (Luke 1:31–32).
• the Lord who “will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
• He lives the perfectly obedient faith and goes to the cross to reveal and establish the Gospel for you!
• By this Gospel of Christ, God both establishes you and streng­thens you to his own glory.
• By the Gospel that declares to you Jesus Christ, God establishes you in the faith.
• By this same Gospel, God strengthens you for godly, obedient living.
• Illustration
• Who doesn’t like a puzzle?
  1. Jigsaw puzzles.
  2. Word puzzles.
  3.  Number puzzles.
• Discovering them.
• Putting them together.
• As you work on a puzzle, you realize a few things:
  1. You need to follow the directions.
  2. Having a picture of a finished puzzle is only an aid.
  3. As you progress through a puzzle, the finished product slowly becomes apparent.
• The phenomenon of a puzzle or of a mystery that we humans like—and sometimes sinfully abuse—God has used for good.
• From the beginning, our triune God planned to restore the creation he knew would come to ruin by man’s sin.
• He promised a Savior.
• But the details remained a mystery.
• Then, as the hymnwriter eloquently puts it,
• The Savior is the incarnate Son of God, proclaimed to you in the Gospel.
• And in this Gospel of Jesus Christ, God is able to establish and strengthen you (Romans 16:25).
• The mystery has been revealed!
• The puzzle is now complete!
• Just as little as a contractor could successfully build a multi-story home without having a design plan given to him, so little are we (and the world) able to establish and strengthen ourselves spiritually . . . apart from God’s revelation of the mystery of the Gospel.
  1. But in that Gospel that reveals to you Jesus Christ, the mystery of his incarnation, his life of obedient faith, and his substitutionary death on the cross, God establishes you in the true faith and strengthens you in lives obedient to his holy will.
  2. All this is to his glory—which he mysteriously shares with you even now and will share more fully in the revelation of eternity. Amen.
• Let us pray: LSB 810:4
• The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
• In the Name of the Father…Amen.

• In the Name of the Father…Amen.
• The Epistle lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
• Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
  1. O God of all that is good, you sent John the Baptist to announce the Good News of Christ’s coming. Send us to live lives illumined by the Gospel, that we too may be a source of joy in Your promise, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
• Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
• On this Third Sunday in Advent, the Church encourages us to rejoice in the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
  1. The theme for this Sunday is Gaudete (Latin for “Rejoice”)
  2. But when we look around ourselves and in ourselves, we often find little for which to rejoice.
  3. Yes, we look forward to celebrating the coming of the Son of God at Christmas.
  4. But when we look inside ourselves, this joy can be dry, even  snuffed out.
     1. We have not been the consistently faithful servants God calls us to be.
     2. We have faltered in our prayers.
     3. We have neglected to give thanks as we ought.
  5. Our sin can cause us to fail to know the joy of God’s salvation.
  6. Nevertheless, in the Epistle for today, Paul would bid you once again to Rejoice!
  7. For God Is Faithful to Make and Keep You Holy in Christ!
• Daily, we are unfaithful in living out the Christian lives God wills for us.
• Even in good times, we’re sporadic at best in rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks.
• We don’t rejoice, pray, or give thanks continually as God wills (verses 16–18).
• God says we are to do this always, without ceasing, in all circumstances.
• Sometimes we rejoice when the unexpected happens.
  1. Getting a bonus in addition to our regular paycheck.
  2. Or when we were kids: getting a day off from school because of the snow!
• Mostly we only pray when things are going very wrong.
  1. My car broke down…again!
  2. My relatives are sick and near death.
  3. People I once thought were my friends don’t talk to me anymore.
• And we often forget to give thanks to God for all his benefits.
  1. Salvation
  2. Forgiveness of sins
  3. Eternal life
• We often despise God’s Word that tells us what to do and what not to do (verse 19).
• Excuse: I don’t have the time.
• Excuse: The Word of God is too hard to read and understand.
• Excuse: I’ll just go to church and Pastor will tell me what it means.
• We plug our ears to God’s commands and prohibitions.
  1. God does not want me to have any fun!
  2. Those laws do not apply to me! They were written for the people back then, not now.
  3. Who is God anyway that He tell me what to do and what not to do?
• “God is not the boss of me”, we say!
  1. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it.
• We don’t hold fast the good or test everything but instead embrace evil (verses 21–22).
• Paul says,
  1. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).
• We readily listen uncritically to voices that sound appealing:
  1. Theology that sacrifices Scripture for the spirit of our times.
  2. Trying out the latest self-help fad that makes me, rather than my Lord, my true helper.
• We buy into all kinds of evil that our world advertises:
  1. “If You’ve Got The Time, We’ve Got The Beer” (Miller Beer).
  2. “Because you’re worth it” (L’oreal Cosmetics).
  3. “Breakfast of champions” (Wheaties cereal).
• Rarer still is our joy, prayer, and thanksgiving in times of troubles or evil.
• Note this very well:
  1. Joy is different from happiness.
  2. Just as happiness is different from contentment.
• We don’t need to be happy in order to survive.
  1. But it certainly helps!
  2. The basic necessities of life:
     1. Air
     2. Water
     3. Food
     4. Shelter
• But we should still be joyful in Christ in spite of our circumstances.
• But we too easily give in to despair and give up hope.
  1. Don’t know what to pray for.
  2. Don’t know how to pray.
  3. Praying is something only to be “done” in church.
• We can’t imagine giving thanks during such evil times.
• It just does not seem right.
• And we want to feel a bit sorry for ourselves and wallow in our despair.
• And when we willfully sin, we risk quenching the work of the Spirit in our lives.
  1. The Spirit continually works in our lives to move us to do just what Paul says here.
• When we intentionally refuse to do these things, we thwart the Spirit’s work in us.
• But God is ever faithful to make you holy in Christ Jesus (verse 23a).
• First, Christ comes into the world as the Prince of Peace, and in his spirit, soul, and body, he works holiness for you.
• He lived the holy life in the body, fulfilling all that God here commands you.
• “sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood and a lavish washing away of sin” (LSB, p 269).
• After giving thanks on the night when he was betrayed, knowing what was coming, he gave to us the very sustenance of that sacrifice.
• For the joy set before him and holding fast to the good result, Christ shed his holy, precious blood on the cross to make peace between God and all people.
• Then, Christ sends the Holy Spirit to make you holy by his Gospel.
• “The Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.”
• He makes you holy through Holy Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection.
• In Holy Absolution, he forgives you (as Christ prayed even from his cross).
  1. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)
• He prophesies to you the holiness that is yours in Christ through the preaching of the Gospel.
• He will surely keep you “blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v 23).
• The Holy Spirit will remain faithful to the end to perfect you in holiness.
• As Luther states in the very last portion of his explanation of the Third Article:
  1. “On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.”
• And even now, you have a foretaste of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  1. The blameless and faithful Lamb of God comes and gives you his holy body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.
     1. Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins!
• In this way, Christ gives into your body his very own holiness to assure you of your holiness in him.
• I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. (John 17:14-18)
• In our Epistle for today, St. Paul enjoins us to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).
  1. But what is that like, exactly?
  2. We may think of it in terms of a “round.”
  3. You know, the songs or hymns that begin as usual, but then at the proper musical point, a second group starts the song again, singing the melody and words from the top while the first group continues.
  4. Sometimes, there may even be three groups or four.
  5. One such round uses the words of Phil 4:4—used in other years as the antiphon of the Introit for this Third Sunday in Advent:
     1. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”
     2. Once it gets started and the second, third, and fourth groups are added, it seems like there’s no real stopping point to the song.
     3. There’s always a new place to start up.
• Our rejoicing, praying, and thanksgiving should be like that.
  1. Once we finish with one moment of rejoicing over God’s goodness to us, there is always another right on its heels.
  2. There’s always another prayer needed.
  3. Always something new or something more for which to give thanks to God.
  4. Because of God’s steadfast love toward us, we have good reason to rejoice, pray, and give thanks—always!
• Though you are not continuously faithful in this life, due to the weakness of your body, you may indeed rejoice that he who came in the flesh is not only blameless but also perfectly faithful to sanctify and keep you blameless in spirit and soul and body at his glorious and final advent. Amen.
• Let us pray:
  1. O God, who see how Your people faithfully await the arrival of Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, enable us, we pray, to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing. All of this is possible through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever . Amen.
• The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
• In the Name of the Father…Amen.

• In the Name of the Father…Amen.
• The Gospel lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
• Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
• Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
• So many of our favorite stories start with a dramatic technique called (from the classical Latin) in medias res, meaning simply “into the middle of things.”
  1. We are dropped into the middle of the story, and the roller coaster ride begins.
  2. As a matter of fact, one of the most beloved stories that we read and watch and hear over and over again this time of year begins exactly like this, in medias res.
  3. It begins with three little words: “Marley was dead.”
  4. And with that, Charles Dickens plunges us into the life of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and what it means to “keep Christmas well.”
• Or perhaps even more famously, in medias res is the opening scene of the black-and-white montage of sights from a town named Bedford Falls where all we hear are the prayers of “a lot of people asking for help for a man named George Bailey.”
  1. The rest of the movie tells us the story of his “wonderful life” and of how he got to this one present moment on a bridge on Christmas Eve.
  2. And then everything that happens afterward.
• That’s how we make sense of our world and our place in it.
  1. All these stories that start “in the middle of things” play with our sense of how any story should go.
     1. This is what piques our interest.
     2. Or it drives us crazy.
• For the story to work, it often uses flashbacks and interruptions from the past to fill in the blanks of the present and move it forward into the future.
  1. Scrooge never took Marley’s name off the sign of his office.
  2. George Bailey can’t hear in his left ear because he saved his brother out of a frozen lake when he was a boy.
• The Gospel of Mark begins in the middle of the story.
  1. For one thing, it starts with a sentence fragment, almost as if we came in somewhere in the middle of a conversation.
• Second, Mark doesn’t have any of our favorite stories for this time of year.
  1. No nativity (that’s in the Gospel of Luke).
  2. No Wise Men (that’s found in Matthew’s Gospel).
  3. No big speech about the Word made flesh (John talks about that in his Gospel).
• Mark simply begins in the middle of a sentence, and then immediately flashes back hundreds of years to a prophet named Isaiah.
  1. Only to flash forward again to land us in the wilderness with this other prophet named John.
     1. Preaching repentance.
     2. Wearing camel skins and eating locusts.
     3. Preparing the way for the mightier one who will come after him.
• And then, fade to black.
  1. Mark leaves us in suspense until the next scene opens.
  2. Maybe next week.
  3. Or maybe the week after that.
     1. Who knows?
• Part of it, is perhaps to pique our interest.
  1. Mark wants us to be so filled with eager anticipation that we can’t help but read it all the way through to the end.
  2. And then, like any great story, to turn back to the beginning to see what we missed the first time around.
  3. As a matter of fact, the Gospel of Mark moves so fast that you could do exactly that this afternoon—read all sixteen chapters—with time to spare before dinner.
• But the real point is that this is exactly how Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world.
  1. In medias res.
  2. In the middle of things.
  3. Into the middle of human history.
• The way Mark tells the story, this Jesus seems to come to us from out of nowhere, out of a nowhere town called Nazareth, from a nowhere place called Galilee.
• The way Mark tells the story, it is almost as if we never would have noticed him, except that there is this prophet named John, prophesied by another prophet named Isaiah, preparing the way.
• Jesus comes in medias res, in the middle of things.
  1. Into the hustle and bustle of a holiday season that often doesn’t even remember the “reason for the season.”
     1. Into the messiness of our everyday lives.
     2. The stressful job.
     3. Our frantic home life.
     4. The days that turn to weeks that turn to years before we can even blink an eye.
• Into all the brokenness and failure
  1. all those things “we have done . . . and left undone”
  2. that we want to gloss over with a red-and-green sweater and a smile.
• Jesus Comes into the Middle of Our Lives to Stir Up Our Hearts to the Life That Only He Can Give.
• To repent simply means “to turn” from one thing to another.
• John is calling us to turn from whatever it is that is distracting us from the life that really matters in the middle of this hustle and bustle that will never slow down.
• John is calling us to turn to the One whose shoes we are not worthy to tie, but who nonetheless came to stoop down to wash our feet.
• The One who says:
  1. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
• The One who also says to us:
  1. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
• The One who would eventually give his all, his life into death on the cross, so that we might have eternal life.
  1. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:8)
  2. But that’s jumping ahead, now isn’t it?
• Into the middle of things (In Medias Res), the Lord comes to us.
• What about at the end of things?
• What about the end of our lives?
• What are we to be about?
• C.S. Lewis, from his book Mere Christianity,  sheds some light on this:
  1. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over.
  2. God is going to invade, all right.
  3. But what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else—something it never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?
  4. For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature.
  5. It will be too late then to choose your side.
  6. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up.
  7. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not.
  8. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose [with the Spirit’s help] the right side.
  9. God is holding back to give us that chance.
  10. It will not last for ever.
  11. We must [through the power of the Holy Spirit} take it or leave it. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity [New York: HarperCollins, 2011], 65)
• The next scene in the “beginning of the gospel” according to Mark is about to start.
  1. And I’m not just talking about Christmas morning.
  2. When it does come, we will finally see this one—Jesus Christ, the Son of God—face-to-face.
  3. Our Advent expectations hinge on the certain hope that just as Jesus Christ came into the world, he will come again.
  4. And he will come then just as he came two thousand years ago and just as he comes to us now: in medias res, into the middle of things.
  5. We don’t know when.
  6. We don’t know how.
  7. But he will come into the messiness of this world, into the messiness of our own lives.
  8. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise.” And he will come again to bring forth “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:9, 13).
  9. I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait to see what happens next.
  10. Amen.
• Let us pray:
• The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
• In the Name of the Father…Amen.