November 27, 2016
Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
INI + AMEN
JESUS advents. He comes. He’s the Coming One. Advent, adventus, He comes. He’s the King. The King comes! Get ready. Repent! If the president were coming to your house, you’d pick things up a bit, wouldn’t you? Maybe more than a little bit? The King of all comes. He won’t be fooled by your whitewashed life. The good facade you put on for others. The masks and good works you put on and do to cover up your sins. So, turn from them. Give them up. Not just today or for a little while or only for the Advent season—no!—, but give them up for good. Mourn them. Stop doing them.
You can’t fool the Lord and King of all. Give up your sins, give them to Him. Confess them. Be forgiven. Why else would He come? He’s not coming to do God’s version of the white glove inspection. As if He’ll put on His white gloves and check every nook, cranny, and closet of your past, your conscience, your soul for the slightest amount of dust and sin.
He already knows it’s there. We shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking He doesn’t know. JESUS knows. JESUS comes. Of course He does! He doesn’t come with His white gloves on, but He comes to get His hands dirty, pierced even! Humble He comes FOR YOU, and that’s why He’s the Coming One.
JESUS COMES SIMPLY TO SAVE YOU.
((I. JESUS comes for one purpose: to save you.))
JESUS COMES SIMPLY…TO SAVE YOU, that is, His one and only goal is your salvation. He’s the saving King. “Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” Hosanna, hosanna: “Save us! save us now!” הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא “Save us, we pray!” He does! He comes in the name of the Lord, in the name of Yahweh. He is Yahweh! He bears the name of Yahweh: JESUS. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ “Yahweh saves.” That’s what “JESUS” means: “Yahweh saves.” “He will save His people from their sins.” He saves you! That’s what His Name proclaims. “Hosanna in the highest.” Salvation to the Highest! Salvation before the most High and His throne. There’s no limit to His salvation. That’s His name. His name FOR YOU.
It’s not just His name though. That may proclaim what He’s all about, but He actually does it. Lives it. JESUS’ life displays and gives what His Name proclaims. He bears the sins of His people, all people, your sins. He takes them. Their His own. That’s why He’s born. It’s why He comes. To take your sins. Not to scold you. Not to point out how you don’t measure up. He knows all that. He comes to save you in spite of all that. Your sins are His sins. That’s the type of King He is. He bleeds and dies for them to pay for them. He rises from the dead to set you free from them. So, give them up! Why keep on doing them? He’s already taken them from you. They were His. No need to make them yours again.
((II. JESUS comes in a simple way to save you.))
When JESUS was on His one God-man mission to save you, He did it in a particular way. He promised to do it, and do it His way. “Tell the daughter of Zion: Look, your King is coming to you meek and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the son of a pack animal.” He comes meek and lowly. He comes humble. He rides a donkey, just like Solomon, but He’s greater than Solomon. The sin-bearing King is humble. So humble He can die. His Kingdom is also humble because no one fights when the King is grabbed. The high point of His death is that His body is placed in a rich man’s tomb. But even then, what sort of King, what sort of God dies that way? JESUS does. That’s His Way of saving you.
JESUS is still humble. He comes humbly, lowly, simply. JESUS COMES SIMPLY…TO SAVE YOU, that is, He comes in simple ways to save you now. He came riding on a donkey. A donkey! Now, He comes in other ways, just as simply, just as humbly.
He came to you first in the waters of Holy Baptism. “All that the mortal eye beholds Is water as we pour it. Before the eye of faith unfolds The pow’r of Jesus’ merit.” (LSB 406:7) In the waters of Holy Baptism JESUS delivers His death and resurrection to you, His own righteousness, His eternal salvation.
He comes in the Pastor’s Absolution. “The words which absolution give Are His who died that we might live; The minister whom Christ has sent Is but His humble instrument.” (LSB 614:5)
“Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.” He still comes. In His saving name, He comes in bread and wine that are His very own body and blood, just as He promises in His Word. “As His pledge of love undying, He, this precious food supplying, Gives His body with the bread, And with the wine the blood He shed.” (LSB 627:2) “Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest!”
Advent. He comes. JESUS comes. He’s only got one reason for coming: your salvation. He came humbly to do it. He was born. He died. He comes humbly now to do it! He came through water. He comes humbly through the pastor. He brings you His body and blood for your forgiveness and salvation.
So, put away your sins! Repent! Don’t do them! Nothing else will do! The King’s coming. JESUS is coming. He’s already taken them. There’s no reason to hold on to them any longer. Confess. Be forgiven. That’s why JESUS came and still comes to you and FOR YOU. He’s humble and gentle of heart. With Him you will find rest for your soul as He comes only to save you in the simple ways He promises.
INI + AMEN.
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