We Are Heirs of God

Galatians 4:1-7 From Advent to Ascension, through the words of Holy Scripture, the Church tells the story of everything that God has done for us in Jesus Christ. 

From the promises of a Savior to come-- to the birth of a child-- to the beginning of his public ministry-- to his death on the cross and resurrection and ascension—the festival half of the church year tells the story of the great events in the life of Jesus Christ. 

But what must be told along with those events—the “what” and the “who” so to speak—is the “why”. 

Why did Jesus come into the world as a baby?  Why was he so careful to do everything commanded by the Law?  Why did he go to the cross and rise from the dead and ascend to heaven? 

That is the story that must be told if we are to understand why the birth and baptism and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is such Good News for us!

That story –the “why”-- is what we hear today in these verses from Galatians. 

God made these promises and fulfilled them in Jesus Christ so that each of us sitting here today could become God’s child and his heir.  This identity, this status, this inheritance is the purpose of God’s saving work in his Son Jesus Christ for us.

During his earthly ministry our Lord taught this again and again—that a life with God and the blessings of God came only through the Son. 

When Jesus concluded the Parable of the Prodigal Son there was a man who was restored to “sonship” by his father-- and there was a man who was alienated from the Father, angry that he hadn’t received what he thought were wages due him for all that he had done—the point being that our place in God’s family is only by his grace.

When many of the Jews began following Jesus, he reminded them that slaves had no permanent place in the family but the Son did-- and if they were to be free, it was the Son who would have to set them free.

It is impossible to overestimate how important this biblical teaching is regarding our identity, our status, our purpose as God’s children is!  It is ONLY when we understand that God has broken into our world in the person of his Son Jesus Christ to make us his children and heirs that we begin to understand why it was necessary for God to do what he has done.  Paul wrote that:

the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.  In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

            Our text catches Paul in the middle of an ongoing argument and he is using an example from the ancient world to make his point that our place in God’s family comes only through the Son—not through what we do.

If you were the son of a prominent father, he would entrust your care and training and education to a guardian who would watch over you and teach you how to be a gentleman and prepare you to take your rightful place one day as the heir of your father’s possessions and place in society. 

And so you learned how to behave and what to value and how to speak and how to relate to various kinds of people in various stations of life.  You did your lessons and you obeyed the master your father set over you. 

Until that day came when you took your rightful place in your father’s house, you were effectively no better than the guardian appointed to you and, in fact, you were under his authority even if he was a slave-- and so, essentially, were you-- even though you were a child of the lord.

But when the date came for you to take your rightful place in your father’s house, that guardianship came to an end. 

That’s the way it was for the Jews.  The law—and obedience to the law-- was never intended to be the way for them to be counted as God’s children—that status would only come through God’s Son.  Jesus told them, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”

So it is for us.  Our life with God; our status as God’s children; our right to lay hold of the riches of the living God and claim them as our own precious inheritance, comes only through Jesus Christ who God gave to the world for this purpose:  that we too could be counted as God’s children, adopted into his family by faith in his Son.  Paul wrote that:

When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

            The great miracle of the Christmas Season is that God’s only-begotten Son became Mary’s Son so that we could be adopted into God’s family as his children too.

            The One who is born on Christmas morning IS God’s Son.  He is from everlasting to everlasting; he is before all things and after all things; he is the Alpha and the Omega.  He was there in the beginning with his Father and all things were made through him-- and he will be there when all things come to an end and a new heaven and a new earth will come from him as well.

And at just the right time, when God had perfectly ordered all things on earth for his arrival and fulfilled all the promises of his coming, Jesus was born of Mary—one of us—the Creator of all-- become a creature so small.

To bring us to himself and make us member of his family and give us the riches of eternity, he did not hold himself aloof from his creatures and from his creation.  He did not shrink form even the smallest act of obedience his laws demands. 

He was circumcised under the demands of the law to identify himself as one under the covenant-- but also to show that he was the covenant itself, shedding the same blood that would be poured out on the cross as the payment price to set us free from sin and death.

He was born under the law like every one of us—with God’s holy expectation that he would keep every command.  He was born under this law because he was one of us-- but he was also born under this law to redeem us from its demands that we cannot keep, by filling it up with his holy obedience.

That word redeemed has to do with slaves.  It is the ransom that is paid, the purchase price that is given, so that slaves can go free, so that their masters’ just demands can be satisfied to the fullest degree.

That is what the Son of the Woman has done for us.  He was born under the law along with all the rest of us so that his holy obedience would fill up the righteous demands of the law that rest upon all of us; demands that proclaim us unfit, unworthy slaves again and again. 

His holy, precious blood was poured out for us upon the cross to pay the penalty for every failure to be the faithful servants we ought to be.  And he has done this so that we might receive adoption as sons.  For this purpose:  that we might receive adoptions as Son. 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there is a purpose in the promises that were made to Adam and Eve and Abraham and Sarah. 

There is a purpose in God’s faithfulness in fulfilling those promises. 

There is a purpose in God’s wise, powerful providential ordering of all of human history and the rise and all of great nations. 

There is a purpose to the living, powerful, holy, righteous, just God of the universe taking on the flesh of a baby and living under the law and dying a terrible death and rising again. 

There is a purpose—and that purpose is you.

Can you imagine it!  Can you imagine it!  That God’s purposes and God’s plan and the person of God’s Son has always and will always have in view this purpose:  that you would be restored to God’s family; that you would be God’s child; that all the blessings and riches and dignity of the living God of the universe would be your own precious possession now and forever.  Paul wrote:

And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

            You are God’s children!  You have been adopted into God’s family through faith in God’s only begotten Son.  The Holly Spirit has called you to faith.

Everything that God has purposed and planned for you from everlasting to everlasting, he has accomplished for you in his Son Jesus Christ.  You are God’s child and he is your Father and that relationship you have with God is of such deep intimacy that you may call him, “Abba”,

As God’s child, you are no longer a slave to your flesh.  You are no longer a slave to the demands of the law.  You have been set from your failures and you are an heir of all that Jesus has earned for you by his life, death, and resurrection:  forgiveness for all your sins, God’s abiding presence in your life, and your own special place in heaven when this life is over.

In this New Year there is simply nothing more important for you to know and believe than the Good News that you are God’s own dearly loved child and an heir of all that Jesus has done for you.  Amen.

Jesus Is the Light of the World

Jesus is the Light of the World

John 1:1-14  Growing up, we always took our vacations in Texas.  My dad’s motto was that if there was anything worth seeing, it had to be in Texas.  One year we would go to San Antonio and then the next year to the beach and then the next year to Austin.  One of those vacations that I remember is the trip to the various hill country caverns.

One of the things the guides loved to do when you got the deepest part of the caves, was to turn off the lights. Even though he had warned you ahead of time, that degree of darkness was a bit overwhelming—you literally couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face. 

Even though you knew he had his hand on the switch, you could understand the panic that those lost in the darkness of caves must feel—and then the relief when the lights came back on—the palpable release of tension that left the tour group.

Today we rejoice in the Good News that the Light of the world, Jesus Christ, has shown into our dark world, dispelling the darkness of sin and death from our lives and lighting the way to a life with God.  The simple promise from John’s Gospel is that:  “The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Human beings have an innate fear of the dark.  When we’re little, we have to have a night light on in our room to make us feel safe and secure but as we get older, even that doesn’t help-- because the dark fears we face are not dispelled by a little light plugged into the wall beside our bed. 

We may not be afraid of those things that go bump in the night but we are afraid by those things that cast a dark shadow over our lives—because while the boogey man may not live under the bed—there are dark things in this world that can really hurt us and those we loved.

When we receive that news that our medical test results are not normal—when we see our children heading in a direction that we know will hurt them—when we’re not sure how our financial situation is going to work out—when it seems like the culture around us is on an ever-deeper downward spiral into filth—all of these and more cast a dark shadow over our lives.

And then there are those dark parts within us all—that perhaps even more than the things outside of us—make us afraid. 

We see entrenched bitterness and anger towards others and we know its not right but we can’t get past it—we see besetting sin that makes us ashamed and guilty and we wonder to ourselves, how can I call myself a Christian and still struggle with that—we see those nagging doubts about the most important things of God—and we try to dispel those doubts, but they are still there.

In this world of sin, there is spiritual darkness that is even more terrifying than the darkness of a deep cave-- which is why these words from John are such good news for us

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.  He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”  THAT ALL MIGHT BELIEVE

The words of the Apostle John and the words of John the Baptist and the words of all prophets and apostles have but one purpose—that we would believe in Jesus Christ, the Light of the world—that we would come into the glorious light of the Son of God—that he would enlighten our hearts and minds and lives and drive away the darkness of sin and death. 

There are countless numbers of people who try to dispel the darkness in the world and in their lives in some way other than faith in Christ.  They pursue false spirituality—they fill their lives with material things—they abuse various substances to numb the dark realities of their lives.  These things of the world don’t enlighten—they don’t give life--they are a part of the “darkness and death” and people in who walk in them are lost and alone.

We don’t have to live like that and God doesn’t want us to live like that.  The Light of the World has come in the birth of the Savior. John tells us that:

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. “

This of course is the story of Christmas.  Matthew tells his Christmas story by showing us that the Babe of Bethlehem is the Messiah of Jewish Scriptures.  Luke tells his Christmas story by showing the humanity and humility of the Christ Child and the love of God for all people.

But it is John that allows us to look behind the veil of human flesh of a newborn baby and see the cosmic realities hidden in straw and manger—that this Word who became flesh—this light of the world-- did not have his beginnings nine months before his birth—but had always existed—even before there was time.  John tells us that

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

  It is not merely the birth of a baby that caused a special star to shine and heaven to open and angels to sing and the humble and wise to worship—but the birth of a baby who was none other than God in flesh.

The One who was in the beginning with God—the One who was with God as he began to create the heavens and earth from nothing—the One through whom all things were created—the One who was God himself—took on human flesh and was born in Bethlehem. 

For two thousand years the mystery of the Incarnation—that an infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful God became man—a baby--has captured the hearts and minds of all those who find Jesus to be light of the world and life of mankind.

And it is a mystery!  Not because it isn’t true but because we can never fully get our minds around it—because it must be revealed to us—that the One through whom all things were created became a creature—that the One who was before all things entered into the world on a particular day in time—that the One who sustains all things in the universe had to be cared for as a newborn—that God became Man so that we could have eternal life with the Father.  John says:

 To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. “  

In Jesus Christ the Light of the World we see the grace of God that reaches down and brings us out of the darkness of sin and unbelief.  In Jesus Christ the Light of the World we discover the truth that sets us free—that life in its fullest sense is found in God.  This grace and truth of God led Jesus to the cross and then to an empty tomb and finally to his rightful place in the glories of heaven so that we might have life and have it to the full.

Through faith in this Good News, we are born again—not by an earthly father but by our heavenly Father--new people—children of the heavenly Father-- and because this is who we are, we don’t have to be afraid of the darkness that surrounds us—not even suffering and death.  We know that we are filled with the Light of the World and the simple promise of Almighty God is that the Light of Christ cannot be overcome by anything in this world.  “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world!”

Because we have been born from above, because we have been enlightened by the Light of the World we no longer have a desire to be a part of the darkness of this world.  The light of Jesus Christ has shined upon our relationships and upon our work and upon every facet of our lives and so we want to walk in that light.  We are new people with a new perspective and a new purpose in life—to be a part of that great company of saints who have borne witness to the Light of the World for the last two thousand years.

Of all the Texas vacations we took when I was a boy, my favorite, the one that we took several times a year, was a trip to my grandparents’ farm.  There was fishing and hunting and horseback riding and looking for arrowheads—just a hill country farm-but a great adventure for a boy-- and still my favorite place on earth.

When we took this trip, it always seemed like we would get there at night because we would leave when my Dad could finally get away from work.  And as we turned off the highway at the Mercury exit we began our descent down Mercury Mountain to the valley where my grandparent’s live.  Even now there are not many people there—then there were even less--just a few ranches between there and San Saba--many miles from any real town or city lights.  But there in the distance, still miles away, you could make out the light from their farm, shining in the darkness.

That is the purpose of our lives—to be those lights shining in the darkness of this world—reflecting the light of Christ in our marriages and families and homes—drawing the world around to the Light of the World who has come for all.  God grant you and yours a very merry Christmas!  Amen.

This Is Love

This Is Love

1 John 4:7-16 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

            On this holy night, the necessity of being reminded to love one another may seem far removed from this place and time.  And yet if we are just a bit reflective, we know that we need this reminder to love for we do not always love as we ought.

Perhaps we are at odds with some of those who will gather with us beneath the tree and around the table tonight and tomorrow morning.  We will be friendly of course, and put a smile on our face, but the pain and anger beneath is real and deep.  Maybe we are resentful that this is our kids’ year to be with the other set of parents and it is loneliness that fills our hearts.  Maybe we are at odds with a brother or sister in Christ and even on this night—we avoid them.

We need this reminder to love because even during the Christmas season we don’t always love as we ought.  The judgment that we hear from God’s Word is that those who don’t love—don’t know God.  And this is a hard judgment indeed—but it is the righteous judgment of the Law which is summarized and fulfilled by love. 

On several different occasions Jesus was asked about the will of God for mankind—what God was looking for from us if we are to be saved and how should we treat others—and he always answered the same way:  love.  Love God and love your neighbor!  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself!  Such is God’s holy will for our lives --and as we reflect on our lives—even on this holiest of nights—we find that we have not loved this wholehearted way that is commanded in the Law.

In fact, by nature, we don’t even know how to love this way.  By virtue of our birth as Adam’s children, our natural response to God is to flee from him in fear and shame.  Our natural desire towards others is to love those who are kind to us so long as they are kind to us—merely using them as a tool for our own good.  And the world around us has simply lost any concept of what true love is when all kind of hateful, evil, immoral things go by the name of love in our culture of death.

Death.  That is exactly where the command to love God above all things and love our neighbor as ourselves leaves us—with God’s judgment hanging above our heads.  And so what are we to do?  How are we even to know what this love really is that God calls us to live out in our life with him and one another?  How can we begin to love God and one another as we ought?

That is what this night is all about—God breaking into human history to show us what true love really is by giving us the greatest gift of all—the gift of his own Son.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”  Directing our attention to the Christ-Child, God says:  This is love.  John writes:       

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

            Right smack down in the midst of a world that commits evil and calls it love—into the midst of our own lives where so much of what we call love is distorted by our own sins—God sends his Son and says:  this is love.  At the end of the day, when it comes to knowing what love really is, the Bible says that love is not a concept or an idea or a command over even an abstract attribute of God—love is a person named Jesus who was given to the world by his heavenly Father so that we might live through him.

            Where before there was only judgment and death because we cannot love God and one another as he commands in the Law—now there is life for us in the gift of his Son.  But this life we have in Jesus still required a death.  God’s wrath over our failure to love as we ought is real --and the punishment that he promised mankind had to be given to take away that wrath.

That is what the word propitiation means that John uses to describe what Jesus came to do:  make a sacrifice that takes away wrath.  That is why God gave us his Son.  We will not understand what Christmas is all about—why it is such Good News-- if we fail to see that shadow of the cross that lies over the manger and the baby who laid there.  In love he was given by his heavenly Father to die for our sins.

His sacrifice upon the cross took away God’s wrath over our sins and his resurrection has made the way for a new and everlasting life for us that is filled with love for God and one another.  John writes of that new life of love through faith in Jesus:

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

            The love and forgiveness that God has bestowed on us in Jesus Christ means something in our lives with others—it means that we will love as we have been loved—it means that in Jesus we not only have an example-- but we have his life within us that empowers us to love as he loved us.

During his earthly ministry Jesus told a parable about a man who owed the king a fortune which he could not pay.  Throwing himself on the king’s mercy, the king forgave his debt.  But when this same man saw a friend who owed him just a pittance, despite the friend’s pleas for mercy, he had him imprisoned until he paid what he owed.  When the forgiving king heard about the man’s lack of love and forgiveness, he was furious and had him imprisoned for eternity.

The point that Jesus wants us to understand in this parable is that the love and forgiveness and mercy that God has bestowed upon us—he intends for us to give to others in the same way it was given to us.  John says, Beloved, if God loved us, we also ought to love one another.  We began by talking about how sad and wrong it is --that on this most holiest of nights—when the love of God has been made plain for us to see—we can still harbor bitterness and resentment and anger in our hearts towards others. 

And so dear friends in Christ, beloved in the Lord, in the light of God’s love for you:  set it aside.  Set aside the bitterness and anger and resentment that fills your hearts.  Let the love that God has for you fill your hearts to overflowing so that it pours out into the lives of others—sharing the gift of love that God has given to you in his Son. 

That is what John means when he says that God’s love is perfected in us.  He doesn’t means that God’s love is somehow lacking until we love in the same way—but that God’s love has a purpose in our lives—that it would be given to others around us, by us—not because they have earned it or deserve it—but because God wants us to give it to them.  No one has ever seen God in his essence-- but his living presence in our lives is clearly seen when we love others as he loved us. 

And this love that we have for others—this love that looks like Jesus—is a powerful testimony about our own relationship with God—that the Spirit of Jesus lives within us because we find ourselves loving others simply because Jesus loves us. 

God wants the world to know about that love through our lives and through our witness.  John writes:

We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

            I am thankful that you are here to worship Jesus but there is a world of people who do not “know and believe” what we “know and believe”—people who are still lost in the darkness of sin and unbelief—people who don’t know what it means to be loved or to love others.  But God’s loves them too and he wants them to know about his love. 

The Christmas story contains a cast of characters who testify to what they have seen and heard:  the angels to Mary and Joseph and Elizabeth and Zechariah--the shepherds to those living out in the countryside around Bethlehem--and the magi to Herod’s court.  All of them bear witness to God’s gift of love in Jesus.

The story of God’s gift of love continued to be told down through history so that people from all over the world—in every place and time—came to know the Good News that God loves them.  Now it is our turn to take our part in telling about God’s love in Jesus just as it has been told to us.  The Bible says:

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

            Dear friends in Christ, what God wants you to know and believe tonight, is that his love for you is not an abstract theological concept or philosophical attribute of a divine being who can never really be known.  Instead, God’s love for you is a Son that he has given to the world so that all people could have a life with him through faith.

That life we have with him is a life of love—that having been loved by God we would love those around us in the same self-sacrificing ways, confident that God abides with us for Jesus is our Immanuel.   

May God grant that each of us here tonight, loved by God in Christ—loving others in his name—can look to the Christ-Child and say in faith:   This is what love is—and that we would abide in that love all our days even as he abides in us!  Amen.

The Fulfillment of What Was Spoken by the Lord

The Fulfillment of What Was Spoken by the Lord

Luke 1:39-56 Four thousand years ago, God graciously chose a man named Abraham through whom he would bless the world.  God promised Abraham that he would become a great nation—that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars—and that through one special Child from his family all the world would be blessed.

God made these promises when Abraham and his wife Sarah had no children—and still they didn’t.  Periodically God would renew his covenant with them—but still no child-- until they became very old people. 

It was at this point in their lives—when there could be no doubt but that it was a God of might who acted in their lives—that Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac, whose son Jacob had twelve sons who would become the twelve tribes of Israel—and they became a great nation just as God had promised.

Over the centuries God maintained his covenant with Abraham and renewed his promise to bless the world through his one special Offspring. 

Periodically God would send prophets who would tell more about him:  the place of his birth—that his mother would be a virgin—that he would suffer and die for the sins of the world and rise again.  Hundreds of prophecies made over hundreds of years—each of them a brushstroke in the portrait of Abraham’s Offspring.

Two thousand years ago in the hill country surrounding Jerusalem there lived another elderly couple named Zechariah and Elizabeth.  They were pious, devout believers and they too were childless.  But God graciously sent the angel Gabriel to tell them that he would do what was humanly impossible—that in their old age they would have a son in who would bring joy to many for he was promised messenger of the Messiah who would prepare his way into the hearts of his people.

At that same time, in a town called Nazareth, there lived a young woman named Mary who was engaged to be married.  Before that marriage was consummated, the same angel appeared to her with a startling announcement—that she too had been graciously chosen by God to bear his Son.  Luke writes:

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

            By God’s grace, at Zechariah’s house, an elderly pregnant woman met a pregnant virgin.  But as amazing and wonderful as are God’s mighty and miraculous works in giving babies to these two women and Sarah before them—what God did spiritually in their lives and in the lives of their children—was even greater.

When the words of Mary reached Elizabeth’s ear, little John leaped for joy in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and made one of the first confessions of faith in Jesus.  She confessed that Mary was the mother of her Lord:

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Thirty years later Jesus would breathe on his disciples and give them the Holy Spirit.  But already on that day—in Jesus’ presence within the womb of his mother-- the Holy Spirit was given through Mary’s greeting and Elizabeth confessed with her words and John confessed with his deeds --their faith in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

As miraculous as those two babies were—as mighty a work of God as they were--the spiritual miracle accomplished that day of God working faith in human hearts, causing them to believe in Jesus—was just as great.  And so it is in our life too.

Through simple water and the promise of God, our heavenly Father rescues us from sin, death, and the power of the devil in Holy Baptism and adopts us as his children and gives us the Holy Spirit. 

Through the promise of Jesus to be with us always, our Lord gives us his body and blood in Holy Communion --feeding us with his own life to sustain our life in him. 

Through the preaching of his Word and the Good News of forgiveness, God awakens faith in our heart and fills us with his Spirit.

These mighty works of God are accomplished in those whom the Bible says are spiritually blind by nature—deaf to the voice of God—and dead in sins and trespasses! 

It is his gracious, mighty work alone that we are able to:  join our voices with Elizabeth-- and be filled with the fruit of the Spirit like John--and confess that the One born of the Virgin Mary is our Savior and Lord. 

Because of this Spirit-worked faith, we can add our praises to that of Mary as she thanks God for the mighty things he has done for her.  She said:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.  For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 

It is a helpful reminder for all of those within Christendom who would lift up Mary almost to the place of Christ—that Mary herself magnifies the Lord- and rejoices that he is her Savior from sin- and counts herself his humble servant. 

But it is also precisely because of her great faith that Mary serves as an example for all Christians to follow for she shows us what faith in Jesus looks like.

First of all, Mary knew and rejoiced in the Good News that God is her Savior.  There is nothing in her confession of faith that indicates in the least way that she has done anything worthy of the great things the Lord has done for her.  It is all by his gracious gift of a Son that she is saved-- and she exalts God’s holy name for his mercy. 

That we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is not a Lutheran peculiarity or reformation innovation from the ancient catholic faith.  It’s not an idea you find only in the Pauline epistles.  It is the story of our salvation that goes back all the way to the beginning—God reaching out to those who do not deserve his notice—to do for them what they cannot do for themselves:  save them from sin and death.

All generations call the Mother of our Lord:  the Blessed Virgin Mary-- and rightfully so-- for out of all the women who have ever lived she was the one graciously chosen by God to be the mother of the Savior of the world. 

But that judgment of “blessedness” is also spoken over us too because we believe in Jesus Christ.  And it will be spoken about us forever in the courts of heaven.  The Bible says about those in heaven:  blessed are those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

Secondly, Mary reminds us that the Lord is both mighty and merciful.  She says:

His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

The powers of sin, death, and the devil are no match for Jesus much less the earthly forces of those who stand opposed to his people.  He is the God who orders and upholds the universe.  He is the God who kills and makes alive.  He is the God who rules all things.  He is strong and mighty and powerful to save!

But we are also reminded that he is merciful.  He exalts those of humble estate; fills the hungry with good things, and the rich he sends away empty.  When we are struck to the heart in the knowledge of our sins—the Lord lifts us up and forgives us and calls us his children.  When we hunger for the good things that are ours as God’s children Jesus promises to fill our deepest needs—giving us peace and hope and joy.  When we are confronted by enemies more powerful than ourselves, the Lord comes to our rescue, promising to deliver us from evil.

We can be confident that he will keep these promises he makes to us because he is the God of kept promises.  Mary concludes her song in the way that we began our meditation—by calling to mind the Lord’s faithfulness to the covenant he made with Abraham to save the world through his offspring.  She says that the Lord:

…has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” 

Two thousand years separated Abraham and Mary—two thousand years separate Mary from us—but from generation to generation the Lord keeps his promises and shows his mighty and mercy-- and we can count on that very thing in our lives too.

From the day that Adam and Eve sinned and brought death into the world, the story of our salvation is the story of the Mighty One who has done great things for us, acting in human history in powerful ways, to reconcile us to himself through his Son Jesus Christ.  

That Good News cannot help but bring forth from our lips a song of praise just like it did for Mary:  the mighty one has done great things for me and holy is his name!  Amen.

The Gentle Shepherd

The Gentle Shepherd

Isaiah 40:1-11 After years of disobedience and generations of faithlessness, God had enough.  He would exercise judgment on his people at the hands of their enemies.  Homes would be lost.  The temple would be destroyed.  And the Israelites would go into exile. 

Again and again we must learn from their experience that the Lord is a God of holiness who will not abide with sin in the life of his people.  We must never forget that the Lord is a God of power and righteousness who exercises judgment in time and eternity.

But we are also reminded tonight that he is God of mercy who loves his people with an everlasting love and provides a way for us to return to him when all seems lost.  Isaiah prophesied:

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. 

            As dark as those days were for Israel (with the people of God at the mercy of their enemies on account of their sins) there was still hope because they had in the Lord a God who forgives an undeserving people.

The northern kingdom would fall to the Assyrians and the southern kingdom would fall to the Babylonians.  The tribes in the north would be lost to history and the southern tribes would go into exile.  But there was a loving God who was still in charge of the lives of his people.

No matter how great and powerful were their enemies, God was greater.  He would set a limit on what they had to endure and would deliver them from exile and bring them home.in the end.  This promise comforted them in the difficult days to come.

So it is for us.  We have a heavenly Father who still disciplines his children in love.  We live in this world as exiles.  We face real enemies who want to harm us in time and eternity.  And yet the hardships and difficulties of life that God allows are not without end.  There is comfort for us too.

God has sent his Son to conquer our enemies of sin and death and the devil.  Jesus has pardoned our iniquities by his shed blood on the cross.  Rather than giving us what our sins deserves, God has made a place for us in his family and given us a share in eternal life.

What a comfort to know that God’s mercy and love are accomplished facts of history in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

But there is spiritual work that must be done in us if we are to receive those blessings in faith.  Isaiah prophesied of that work:

A voice cries:  “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 

            When the Israelites were carried into exile in Babylon, they labored up every mountain and they scraped their way down every valley road and they trudged over every desert mile.  Each footstep was a testimony to how far they had fallen—the desert a great barrier that kept them from home. 

But Isaiah promised them that it wouldn’t last forever—that God himself would come for them—that these barriers and impediments, as great and lasting as the foundations of the earth, would be removed so that they could make their way home.

These are the words that the Holy Spirit inspired St. Mark to use to describe the work of John the Baptist as he prepared the world to receive their Savior.  Mountain tops of pride would have to be made low and valleys of despair would have to be raised up so that we can be made ready to receive our deliverer who will bring us home.  Isaiah promised that:

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 

            In 539 B.C. God raised up Cyrus the Persian who, in one of the greatest battles in the ancient history, defeated the Babylonian Empire and made the way for the Israelites to go home.  He is the only non-Jew that the Bible ever calls a Messiah—an anointed deliverer of God’s people.  God had promised that he would set his people free and by the hand of Cyrus, his chosen servant, God did exactly that.

But the true fulfillment of these words was found in another deliverer.  You see, the story of the sinfulness of the Jews and their exile in slavery and their deliverance and journey home is not just ancient history but it is a universal story that explains our human condition:  our sin and our exile from God and a deliverer that God has raised up to bring us home.

That anointed servant is Jesus Christ.  God promised that he would raise up a Savior who would defeat our enemies and bring us to our heavenly home and he kept that promise in the birth of his Son.  Jesus is the glory of God in human flesh, the world’s Redeemer who came to do for us what we cannot do because of our frailty and weakness.  Isaiah said:

A voice says, “Cry!”  And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. 

            From slavery in Egypt to destruction by Assyria to exile in Babylon the Israelites knew the truth of these words:  that people are like grass.  We live for a brief time and then pass away as if we had never existed at all.

But the Israelites also knew the truth of these words:  that the word of our God will stand forever. 

Throughout salvation history, the one constant in the life of God’s people is the existence of our God from generation to generation and his faithfulness in speaking to his people and calling us back to himself. 

God is faithful and his word can be trusted.  When he speaks words of judgment—it comes to pass.  When he speak words of deliverance—they too come to pass. 

Compared to ten thousand years of human history our lives of 70 or 80 or even 90 years are incredibly brief to say nothing of comparing our lives to eternity.  Because of the brevity of life, there is only one way to gain a perspective on what truly matters—on what will truly stand the test of time and eternity-- and that is by reading and hearing and studying the Word of God.

Just think of the empires that have come and gone since the words of Genesis were written!  Just think of all the scientific theories that have been hailed as great advancements only to be disproved by the generations that followed!  Just think of all the technology that was considered cutting edge but is now rubbish!

What has endured the test of time and comforted God’s people in every generation is God’s Word.  That is why we must not stand in judgment over God’s Word or discard some part of God’s Word or adapt some part of God’s Word to an ever changing world. 

Instead, God’s Word—both the law that convicts our sin and the Gospel that comforts our troubled consciences--must be believed by us and shared with the world.  Isaiah prophesied:

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!”

            The message of God through the prophet Isaiah—a message of conviction and comfort—what not intended by God for just a few people.  Rather, he wanted his word shared so that all people could take comfort in his promise to deliver them and bring them home.

It was not just Isaiah who was to take this message of comfort to the people—but all who heard it and believed it were charged by God to share it.

So it still is today.  Pastors have a special responsibility to speak forth God’s word and to do that faithfully—warning their flocks when they are in spiritual danger- and comforting them when they are in need- and instructing them in the ways of the Lord.

But once God’s people have heard the word—once they have learned what God requires of them and the forgiveness he gives them when they fail--then each and every member of God’s church has that same responsibility to lift up our voices and bear witness to Jesus.

Each and every one of us are heralds of Good News, chosen and loved by God and given the task to point those in our workplace and schools and neighborhoods to Jesus Christ and say:  behold, your God so that they too might take their place in the flock of the Good Shepherd.  Isaiah prophesied:

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.

The Israelites were exiled in Babylon for seventy years.  Those were difficult days.  Daniel faced the lion’s den.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced a fiery furnace.  But during God’s people were comforted by his promise to care for them and lead them home—and he did. 

But his love and goodness was not just for a select few, but for all people in every place and time.  God’s deliverance and the return of his people was a sign pointing to what he himself would accomplish in his Son Jesus Christ. 

With the birth of Jesus, our Immanuel, the God who is with us—God himself entered into our world bringing gifts of hope and peace and forgiveness not just for a few-- but for all people.  He is the Good Shepherd who gathers us into his flock where he cares for us.

And he will come again to bring us out of exile and lead us to our heavenly home.  May God grant it to us all for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

Is Jesus the One?

Is Jesus the One?

Matthew 11:2-11 John the Baptist was the one who baptized Jesus.  He proclaimed Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  He saw the Spirit descend upon Jesus and heard the Father’s voice proclaiming him his Son. 

Because of this, many early church fathers and modern bible teachers reject the idea that John was now having doubts.  They say that John is preparing his own disciples to follow Jesus upon his death in prison and so he wanted them to hear with their own ears what Jesus had to say about himself.  But what we see here is an odd way to do that.

What I think is really behind their unwillingness to admit that John is having a crisis of faith is a kind of “hero-worship” and Jesus himself says that among those born to women none are greater than John.  But in saying that Jesus also I making the point that John IS among those born to women. 

In other words, he is a fallen, sinful human being just like the rest of us and he is susceptible to the same struggle and doubts that we all have and how much more would that be true for John who knew what happened to prophets who publicly criticized kings. 

And so this story, like the story of all the great heroes of the faith is written for our instruction so that we would learn what to do with our faith struggle and doubts and that is to take them to Jesus.

When I gave my sermon title to Bobbie, “Is Jesus the One?” she immediately said:  “yes!” and that is exactly where the Holy Spirit wants to bring each one of us today.  The Bible says that: 

“when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to Jesus, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

            Are you the one?  I don’t know if a more important question has ever been asked-- or can be asked--and we too need to know the answer to it and be certain about it.  Is Jesus the One?  Is he the One that we can stake our entire life on?  Or is there another?  Is he the one in whom all the promises of God are fulfilled or not? 

To ask this question and to seek an answer is not sinful doubt–at least not the way John asked it and the approach he took.

            What did John do with his questions?  He turned to Jesus.  He turned to Jesus as the one who could answer his question-he turned to Jesus for assurance that his faith was not misplaced.  What John did, and the questions he had, was a deep expression of faith that is completely consistent with other great statements of faith in the Bible.  After all, “Lord I believe–help my unbelief” is the prayer of a believer not an unbeliever.

            All of us have faith questions at times–all of us struggle to understand portions of Holy Scripture–all of us want to grow in our faith and in our confidence in God.  John the Baptist shows us the way to do that.  Take it to the Lord in prayer.  Search his Word.  That is exactly what Jesus would have us do.  He said:

 “Go and tell John what you hear and see:  the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them”.

            In effect Jesus says, search the Scriptures–see what they say of the Messiah–and then see what I do and you will know the truth–that I am the one.  Yes there are still things to come–but trust the one who has already fulfilled so much-- to accomplish the rest.  Jesus gives the same answer today to those who struggle with doubts and questions. 

God is not afraid of our questions–he is not ashamed of our struggles.  He wants us to have the assurance of a deep and abiding faith and so he invites us to turn to his son Jesus–to search the Scriptures—to pray to him—and to receive the sacraments for assurance-- so that our faith in Christ does not waver.

            We need that Spirit-given certainty BECAUSE when it comes to the person and work of Jesus (as it is revealed in Holy Scripture and proclaimed by the Church) doubt is not a virtue.  Doubt is not the sign of a discerning spirit or intellectual superiority.  Doubt and skepticism, when it comes to our faith in Jesus Christ, are tools of Satan that are used to trip us up in our walk of faith and the spiritual consequences are severe.

            Twisting Scriptures to his own advantage–asking us, as he did Adam and Eve:  “did God really say”--causing us to doubt--Satan desires to steal our salvation, forgiveness, and eternal life.  That’s what’s at stake when it comes to doubt and it’s deadly serious.

            Jesus told John’s disciples: “Blessed is the one who is not offended because of me”.  In the original Greek, that word translated as “offended” means to “trip up” and the word itself is the technical term for a kind of trap used to kill small animals. 

            Life and death are what’s at stake when it comes to knowing and believing what Jesus says about himself–that he is the one--none other than the True God in human flesh–the Messiah sent to save us from our sins by his own death and resurrection.  It is eternal life to know that and believe that for ourselves. 

That is the message that the disciples were to relay to John as he faced his own death-- and that is what Jesus would have us know and believe today.  And for the people who surrounded him that day listening in, and for us here today, Jesus makes the question personal.  The Bible says that:

“As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John:  ‘What did you go out into the wilderness to see?  A reed shaken by the wind?  What then did you go out to see?  A man dressed in soft clothing?  Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in king’s houses”. 

Jesus says in effect, “What about you?  Where is your faith in all this?  What did you go out into the wilderness to see?  Something for entertainment value?  What did you go out to hear?  Were you drawn to John because he told you what your itching ears wanted to hear or because he spoke the truth about the One to come? 

            That’s still a good question for us to ask ourselves regarding our worship services and our pastors. 

Do you listen to what the pastor has to say because he tells you what you want to hear- or do you listen because he brings you God’s Word even when you don’t like to hear it?  Is he a reed swayed back and forth by every wind of doctrine-- or does he stand fast on those eternal truths handed down by the prophets and apostles of old?  Do you come to worship to be entertained and visit with friends or to grow in your faith and knowledge of Jesus? 

            The answer for the people that day was that they went out to John precisely because he brought God’s Word–not like their religious leaders who taught the doctrines of men–but because John would not be swayed by the opinions of men.  They went to John because he unswervingly held to the central message of the Kingdom of God–to repent of sins and believe in Jesus.  That message is life and salvation and the people received it in faith. 

            And so what was John’s reward for his faithful service?  Fine clothes?  A room in the king’s house?  No!  He was cast into the king’s prison in the rough camel hair garments of his Jordan days–known as a true prophet of God not only for his faithful proclamation-- but also for the opposition he received and the suffering he endured from sinful men-- like so many faithful men of God.  And among them all-past, present and future–John the Baptist was the greatest.  Jesus said:

“What then did you go out to see?  A prophet?  Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’”. 

            This was why it is so necessary to recognize who John was and why he was so important–he was the messenger sent by God to prepare the way for the Messiah. 

To know John the Baptist and to believe his message is to know and believe in Jesus the Messiah of God.  That is how important John the Baptist was—because he pointed to Jesus as the Savior of the world.

            As remarkable and as wonderful as all this is, Jesus saves the best for last-- for he tells us that those who are the least in the kingdom of heaven are greater than even John the Baptist–the greatest man who ever lived.  Jesus says:

“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist.  Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” 

How is that possible that you and me–regular folks with regular lives-- least in the Kingdom of Heaven as it were--are even greater than John the Baptist?

            It’s because we have been blessed to see the whole salvation story that God tells in the death, resurrection of his son Jesus Christ.  John would not live to see it–he was executed a short time after these events. 

He never got to see Christ’s death on the cross that atoned for the sins of the world.  He never got to witness the glorious resurrection that changed the course of the world from death to life.  But we have heard it and seen it through the Word and Sacraments and by these gifts of God’s grace we know that Jesus is indeed the One.  Amen.

The Sun of Righteousness

The Sun of Righteousness

Malachi 4:1-6 Malachi prophesied in those years after the return of the Israelites from Babylon.  God keep his promise to bring them home.  He was faithful.  But in very short order their faithfulness to the Lord who delivered them began to falter.

They became more interested in their own homes and businesses than rebuilding the house of the Lord.  They didn’t bring their best offerings to the Lord and simply went through the motions in worship.  They couldn’t understand why God wasn’t blessing them—why the evil seemed to be doing just as well as they were doing.  And the Lord spoke through his messenger:

"Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

            God had not forgotten about justice—he had not abandoned his expectations for how people should live their lives—evil would not win out in the end-- for the day of fiery judgment was coming. 

Very few things are as clearly taught in the Bible as eternal punishment by fire.  Human beings are terrified of being burned in a fire—the pain is unbelievable.   To think of eternal torment in the fires of hell is horrible.  It’s meant to be.

Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels and not for men.  There is absolutely no reason for any person to go to hell.  But that punishment will most certainly await the arrogant and the evildoers.  Malachi says they are ripe for judgment like stubble that quickly catches on fire. 

It is important to note that besides evildoers, the arrogant will also go into the fires of hell.  We would expect the evil to be cast into the fire.  All of us can picture Hitler and Stalin receiving the just punishment of their evil deeds.  But the arrogant?

That hits a little close to home.  The Lord had a warning for the people of Malachi’s day who thought that their homes were more important than the Lord’s house—who thought that the Lord ought to be satisfied with their worship when their hearts weren’t in it—who questioned the ways of the Lord—the message was:  you too will go into the fires of hell with all of those who do evil.  Malachi said:

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

            It is important to note whose words of judgment these are.  Malachi is the one who is speaking them—but they are the Word of the Lord—the Lord of hosts.  This title means the Lord of heavenly armies—the Lord who cannot be conquered—the Lord of power and might who will utterly destroy his enemies. 

We will listen to this warning or not-- but there should be no confusion on anyone’s part who it is that is speaking these words to us tonight.

The judgment and punishment for the evil and arrogant will mean the destruction of everything they hoped for—destruction so complete and final that they cannot rise again.  Evil was not a part of God’s good creation in the beginning-- and it will not be part of his new creation at the end. 

The evil and the arrogant and all of those who stand against God’s ways will be separated from the Lord and his people by a fiery chasm that no one can ever cross for all eternity—a place of torment and weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Because of the certainty of that day, because of the eternal consequences of that day, there is one thing that we need to know and that is:  how to avoid the punishment to come.  The LORD said:

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

            When we recite the Ten Commandments we begin with:  You shall have no other gods before me.  But these are not the first words that Moses heard on Horeb.  God gave the law to Moses beginning this way:  I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  I am the LORD. 

Before Moses went to Egypt, he asked God his name and God answered:  I AM.  The God who was and is and always will be.  Yahweh.  Jehovah.  The LORD.  God’s name is not just some title—it is who he is in his very essence.

I take time to explain this because it is only those who fear the Lord’s name who will greet the day of judgment with gladness—it is only those who know God as their Savior who will experience healing rather than punishment on that day—it is only those who fear him who will know that day as glorious light rather than deepest darkness.

It was the great I AM who delivered the Israelites and set them free from Egypt and it was the great I AM in the person of Jesus of Nazareth who delivered the world and set us free by his death and resurrection. 

During his earthly ministry Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone knew who he was.  He said:  I AM the bread of life.  I AM the light of the world.  I AM the living water.  Before Abraham was—I AM.

Those who believe in him and trust him and receive him in faith as their Savior and stand in awe of the holy name of Jesus:  The LORD saves—have nothing to fear on the day of judgment.  There will be healing and restoration and new life for us on that day—a day of eternal vitality and gladness where death will be destroyed and all that is broken, healed. 

Malachi says that on that day when the evil and arrogant are cast into eternal fire, we who fear the name of the Lord will be like calves let loose from the stall—no longer constrained by the hardships of this life that pen us in—no longer confined by the darkness of this dying world--but free to live in the brilliant sun of an everlasting day.

That day will not only be vindication for the Lord but victory for us.  Malachi said that all who fear the name of the Lord:

shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.

            Throughout the world today there are people in positions of power and influence who misuse and abuse God’s people.  Christians are imprisoned and killed for their faith—pastors’ lives are made miserable for speaking the truth—decent, hardworking folks are defrauded and robbed.  None of this escapes the eyes of the Lord.

And while the child of God is called upon to follow in way of the cross in this world, not avenging ourselves of the wrong done to us—there is a day of vengeance to come when we will see all of those who have used wealth and power and influence to misuse and mistreat us-- not only kneel before the Lord as he pronounces eternal fiery punishment—but we will see them as ashes under our own feet.

These words of warning must lead us to ask ourselves:  Do I truly fear the name of the LORD or am I deceiving myself and others?  Will I stand victorious on that day or will I be ashes under the feet of the righteous?  The only way to know the truth about whether or not our faith is real is to ask ourselves how we are living our life.  Is our faith shown in what we say and do and how we treat others?  The LORD said:

“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

As we have already mentioned, when God gave the Ten Commandments at Mt. Horeb he began by reminding his people of his redeeming work—that it was because he had saved them that he was calling them to live a holy life, guided and informed and shaped by the statutes and rules he was giving them.

These words that call us to remember the Ten Commandments were words that the people of Malachi’s day needed to hear-- and we do too.  We can fake fear of the Lord by sitting in pews and putting money in the plate—Malachi’s people did it-- and people still do today.  We can deceive others and ourselves-- but we cannot deceive God. 

God sees and knows the truth.  Do we truly love him by worshiping him and honoring his name and putting him first-- or is our faith just pious sounding words?  Do we love our neighbor by caring for their physical needs and making sure they have the necessities of life and speaking well of them to others-- or is our love empty words?  

We have been delivered and set free from sin by Jesus Christ and are called to holiness of life—our thoughts, words, and deeds guided by the Ten Commandments so that our life with God is marked by an active, living faith-- rather than by empty words which will not stand on the fiery day of his return.  The LORD said:

"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction."

Before God sent the flood that destroyed the world—he raised up Noah to warn the world of judgment and deliverance.  Before God destroyed Nineveh he sent Jonah to warn them of God’s judgment and call them to repentance.  And before God destroys the world on the last day he has sent John the Baptist to call people to repentance and faith—warning that the ax of God’s judgment was already laid at the root of the tree.

The message of God through these men was exactly the same:  repent and look in faith to the LORD for deliverance and salvation.  It is the same message you are hearing tonight. 

Each of us has an opportunity right now—a moment full of God’s grace—in which to listen to the voice of God through his chosen spokesmen, repent of our sins, and trust in the one they all pointed to as the Sun of Righteousness:  Jesus Christ.  Amen.