Today is the 4th and final Sunday in the church season of Advent! Wednesday is Christmas Eve and Thursday is Christmas! During Advent we light candles on the Advent Wreath. The first candle to be lighted represents Prophecy and Hope. All our hope is through God and God sent the prophets to predict he birth of Christ! The 2nd candle to be lighted is the Bethlehem candle or the candle of preparation. God said his son would be born in Bethlehem and he was born there. Now we must all be about getting ready as preparation means getting ready. By preparation we mean preparing for Christ’s second coming! The 3rd candle to be lighted is called the Shepherd Candle or the Candle of Joy! The angles sang a message of joy! This candle is pink. The 4th candle to be lighted represents the Angel Candle or the Candle of Love! This is the one that was lighted today for the first time! God sent his son to die for our sins because he loved us so much! The 5th Candle is white and the largest by far because it is the Christ candle! That one we light for the first time on Christmas Eve and then each Sunday during the church season of Christmas. Jesus is the spotless lamb of God sent to wash away our sins! December 26 the church remembers Stephen, Deacon and Martyr. According to the New Testament Book of Acts Stephen was the first Christian martyr. He was stoned and a man named Saul held the coats of those who stoned him! Saul would later meet Christ on the road to Damascus and as a result his life would be changed for ever as well as his name! He would then be called Paul. An encounter with Christ will do! It can and will change lives dramatically! But Steven could see heaven ahead and he was eager to go there! Death had no fear for Steven! Our first reading for today was from the Old Testament book 2nd Samuel. Remember this was written prior to 970 BC! David has built his own palace and now he wants to build a tabernacle for the Lord! But God tells the prophet Nathan it will not be David who builds the tabernacle! But God also tells Nathan David’s kingdom will last forever! And through Christ the Messiah it has and will last forever! Christianity, while under attack all over the world, will never be destroyed! There is a well know reading from Isaiah! The Lord through the prophet Isaiah tells that a virgin will have a son and shall him Immanuel which means God is with us. This was said some 700 years prior to Christ coming to earth in human form. Now some very liberal editors say young woman in their translation but no doubt it said virgin! The Hebrew word almah clearly means virgin. Now we all know it is impossible for a virgin to have a son but we also know full well that with God nothing is impossible! New Life Lutheran Church in Waterloo is proof positive of that to this very day! And for that I praise God! The Gospel of Matthew tells about the step father of Jesus-Joseph! It focuses on the role of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. Only Matthew and Luke talk about Joseph. Matthew details 4 dreams given to Joseph concerning Jesus and his care. One of those 4 is regarding fleeing to Egypt for safety. It appears Mary and Joseph and the young Jesus stayed in Bethlehem for around 2 years before fleeing to Egypt. We think Joseph was a very skilled craftsmen, probably in wood and metal. The Catholic Church has spread the myth that Mary was a life long virgin! But the Bible clearly states Jesus had brothers and sisters! James, Joseph, Simon and Judas are even named as his brothers! The last we hear of Joseph is when Mary and Joseph come to Jerusalem for the Passover and come back to find Jesus talking to the religious leaders. The Catholic Church would have us believe Joseph was over 90 years old when Jesus was born but its hard to imagine a man over 90 traveling by foot to Egypt and back and making a living for his wife and son! We do know God picked a fine man to be the earthly father of Jesus! And what a woman God picked to be the mother of his son! The Angel Gabriel was sent to tell Mary about having a son. After Mary hears everything Gabriel has to say she responds “Here am I, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word!” What did Gideon in the Old Testament say? “Here am I send me!” Neither said “oh, no this is not for me, pick someone else,!” NO, both said fine, if that is what God wants, then let it be! What an example for all of us! When God calls you to a position, accept that position and give it nothing less than your very best! Mary and Joseph would end up being fantastic parents for the earthly Jesus! They fled to safety in Egypt and then returned home. The raised a fine son! They obeyed God! So the promise made to David 1000 years prior is now fulfilled, on God’s timetable and not mans! On God’s terms and not mans! Oh, that today we would all follow God on his terms and not ours! If you never remember anything more that I ever said, please always remember this FOR NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD! New Life Lutheran Church in Waterloo is just another proof positive that nothing is impossible with God! The world would say no small group of people can start a church from absolute scratch and within 19 weeks have a great building and then proceed to make dramatic improvements to that building! But God still works miracles today and we are proof positive of it! Yes, with God truly nothing is impossible! God created heaven and earth! God took dry bones and made an army from them! God does what many say would be impossible-a virgin conceives and delivers a son who will save the world! I would like to close today by asking you think not only about the birth of Christ which we come back here Wednesday and celebrate. But let us also take a few moments to think about the other meaning of the season of Advent. Yes, Christ came once to earth as a man. He died on a cross for our sins! But he arose from the grave and has promised us that he will return! The Bible frequently speaks of the “last days” or the “final days.” Peter tells us there were be many scoffers in those last days. Scoffers-we sure have them today! They say we can’t see God and we can’t feel God so therefore God does not exist! Yes, their hearts are very hard! In truth, these people do not want God to return again! Why? Because they love living in sin! They do not want that to end! You know God is love, yes indeed, we all know that well. But our God is also a God of anger! Not an emotional anger like you and I feel but rather God’s anger is righteous indignation! We see this in Matthew 23 when Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple and calls them all kinds of names! But never forget the Day of Judgment is coming! The Bible tells us God will come like a thief in the night. Totally unexpected! And my on my what a horrible day that day of judgment will be for so many people! How easy it would be to be a pessimist. But I am an optimist! Now you may well be asking yourself how can our pastor be an optimist knowing that judgment is coming and so many will be lost? I am optimist because I believe in the theology of hope! My hope is based on nothing less than Jesus Christ and his blessedness! On Christ the solid rock I stand! All other ground is truly sinking sand! I know that when the judgment day comes Christ will claim me as his own! He paid the price for my sins with his body and his blood! Not because I deserve it! Oh, my, no! What I deserve in everlasting Hell! But by Christ’s amazing grace which passes all human understanding I have been saved! Yes, let us rejoice in Christ’s birth but let us all be looking forward to that great and joyous day of his return! Remember Christ has promised us he will return! Christ always keeps all his promises! Therefore I know that the day will surely come when I will walk those streets paved with gold! I know the day will surely come when I will drink living water! I know the day will surely come when I will eat fruit from the tree of life! I know the day will surely come when I will be with Christ forever and forever! Do you know that too? I pray that you do! Because if you do this is indeed a most glorious Advent season! AMEN’ HYMN OF DAY-267 –JOY TO THE WORLD
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:29:18 +0000
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