Tag Archives: Advent

Sermons

Advent 2 (Lk 21:25–36)

December 4, 2016
Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

The season of Advent is all about JESUS coming. Advent means “He comes”—not just as a baby in Bethlehem, but with all His almighty, endless power on the Last Day. That day will burn like an oven and furnace as He promises through Malachi. But even before you get to the Last Day when JESUS returns, there’s the End Times. The times of struggle, persecution, and unbelief that come before JESUS returns.

These three things go together (the End Times, the Last Day, and JESUS), and, today, we’ll look at them together. So, ready or not: here we go. Continue reading →

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Sermons

Advent 4C (Lk 1:39–45)

December 20, 2015
Immanuel Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO
Bethlehem Lutheran Church—Bremen, KS || AUDIO

INI + AMEN.

How does God come to you? It’s a good question for us to ponder as we finish up Advent. Adventus: “He comes.” But how does He come? I’m sure you’d find many answers to this question. There are those who like to think that God just comes to them, that when they’re alone, meditating, enjoying nature, or whatever else they just feel God’s presence. Maybe at a high point in life there’s the same sort of thing. Really God’s presence, then, His coming is something that’s just felt. Our connection to the divine is made through feelings and emotions because if you “feel” something, that’s how you really know for certain that God’s there and with you. That’s how you know God’s come to you.

But the Lord’s got a completely different answer for you. It’s not revealed in emotions or feelings at all. It’s revealed in His Word, and for us today we get the answer from our Gospel text in the words of Elizabeth. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “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?” There is our answer for how the Lord God comes to us. This is the truth proclaimed throughout the entire Bible: “I will put enmity between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall strike His heel.” “The Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Adventus: He comes. The Lord comes to us. How then does He come?

THE LORD COMES TO US IN THE PERSON OF HIS SON. Continue reading →

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