Sermon November 24, 2024
Dear Heavenly Father, we are ever thankful for Your Son, Jesus the Christ. May we always serve Him with great pleasure. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to Your Word, that we might come to gain a deeper appreciation for all that our Lord has done for us. This we ask in Jesus holy name. Amen.
Christ the King Sunday, we focus on Jesus’ return, which is always a hot topic. Bookstores have large sections of books devoted to the end times. Some of You may remember when some people expected the end of the world to occur in the year 2000; others expected the end of civilization as we knew it.
Countless people around the world stocked up on food, bottled water, fuel, generators, guns and ammo, only to experienced disappointment when life went on as usual. That’s not to negate the fact that portions of God’s Word does deal with the end times and there are benefits to preparing for that day when Jesus comes in all His glory. The advice that we have in today’s Gospel is that we are to stay awake.
Our gospel lesson for this morning warns of many things that must happen before Jesus returns. and some of them are frightening, because we live in a very uncertain world. We’re bombarded with messages that tell us God’s Word is outdated. The Bible isn’t what it appears to be, and not applicable to the society in which we are now living. The mantra we hear is do whatever makes you feel good; Jesus is just someone who taught tolerance and that we should love other people. End of story. Even the idea of putting ourselves before God isn’t new. In fact, it’s THE original sin. The evil one uses the same lie over, and over again, just presented in a different package. Our sinful natures want us to believe, that we can work out our own salvation.
But if we were able to save ourselves, Jesus wouldn’t have had to come in the first place. There are false prophets who want you to see Jesus as a stern judge which was an image that terrified Martin Luther early in his life. He knew he could never live up to those expectations that God has for us under the law, and that terrified him. When we focus on Christ as merely a judge, we see an angry God who will cast us away if we don’t get our act together.
The law always demands something from us; it shows us how we fall short of what God expects from us. That’s why it’s so important for us to cling to God’s Word, where we hear who Jesus really is. We see Jesus, the Son of God, who lived the perfect life and kept every single one of God’s commandments for us.
He willingly went to the cross in our place to suffer, to die, and to rise again to break the power that sin, death, and the power of the devil. It’s because of this, that we can confess our sins and hear the sweet words that our sins have been forgiven.
And in times when things seem to get out of control, we can cling to the promises God has given to us in His Word. We know that the things of this world will pass away, but God’s Word never will.
That’s why I hope and pray that you will continue to come to God’s House week after week, to be fed by His word and His sacraments. I also hope you invite others to be a part of our life together as a family of faith. We’re not here to appease the sinful and misguided world. We’re not here to come up with new marketing gimmicks or reinvent the Gospel. We’re here to stay awake, to get ready; we’re here to seek the plan that God has for our lives; we’re here to prepare for Christ’s second coming.
We do that by hearing God’s Word, that our understanding of it might grow, that we might share it with others. As a congregation, we are to serve as a beacon of light reaching out to those who need to hear who Jesus really is. That’s what the purpose of the church has always been and what this congregation must be about.
Did you catch the opening verses of our Epistle reading for this morning? “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life and have mercy on those who doubt.” The ever-changing world in which we live is frightening. As believers we know that the things of this world will pass away. God has revealed to us signs of Jesus second coming so that we can be prepared for the time when Jesus returns.
As Christians that means we must fix our eyes on Jesus and His promises because His word to us will never pass away. He’s not just a moral guide, or stern judge, he’s our Lord and Savior.
As we gather around God’s unchanging Word we prepare ourselves for Jesus Christ’s 2nd coming. Many things in this world will come and go. People in our lives come and go. Pastors of congregations come and go–although some do stay longer than others, they all eventually leave one way or another. Even congregations close.
Yet, God’s Word is eternal. His promises never change; they’re something we can hold on to in times of uncertainty. That’s what we have to offer to this community and the world. It is my hope and my prayer that together, we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and His Word and not on things that will pass away. Grant this O Lord unto us all, Amen.
