Peace through strength, and when necessary, peace through victory!
‹anonymous›
Atlantis: the domain of the Stingray
4Dec
2013
Wed
11:31
author: Stingray
category: Sermons
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Mid-week Advent I

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

Mid-week Advent I 2013 Wordle
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.”

On Sunday, we marveled at the humble coming of Jesus in the flesh and into Jerusalem to die for the world. With an eye toward celebrating that first coming, that first appearing of Jesus in the flesh to man—to the shepherds outside of Bethlehem—we always do so with an eye to His coming again in the clouds with judgment—to the “coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.” For, as we confess, this same Jesus, “Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary...shall come [again] to judge the quick and the dead.”

On that great and dreadful day, we shall see Him as He is. “He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages; and He is man, born from the substance of His mother in this age” (Athanasian Creed)...”very God of very God,” (Nicene Creed) and true Man. And on the day of Resurrection, we shall be as He is: true Man—for on that day, He will wipe away every tear from our eyes (cf. Revelation 7:17), this corruption will put on incorruption, this mortality immortality (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:53-54), and we will be whole; no more Old Adam, no more sin, no more death—in a word, perfect!

But you get that way through no work of your own. In this corruption and mortality, you are powerless and weak to effect such perfection in yourself. No, the Lord makes you...

Try as you may to love one another and all, you just can’t do it. Old Adam always rears his ugly head in this temporal life, and you sin—sometimes it’s merely a spiteful word spoken to a neighbor, sometimes it is outright angst and hatred toward another, sometimes it is blows from our members or a weapon, sometimes it results in the death of another; in any case, it is killing and not love, and you have broken the Fifth Commandment. Dear hearers, make no excuse: you are murderers, each and every one of you, and for your sin you deserve to die!

But God would not see the sinner die. His love for you compels Him to find a substitute. And for you, He sends His Son in your likeness to be your Substitute. He is conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary—He takes on flesh like yours and bone like your and blood like yours flows through His veins like yours. He fulfills every bit of the law, like you could never hope to do—He is, in a word, perfect. And while He is eternally perfect, He doesn’t stay that way, in a manner of speaking, as He takes every bit of your sin and every one of your sins into His perfect flesh—and the sin and sins of everyone—becoming the most vile sinner the world will ever know. He takes your corruption and mortality from you and makes them His—they are no longer yours. He who never hated anyone, who never struck anyone, who never spoke a spiteful word to another, who never took another’s life, became the murderer that you and everyone else is. And He suffered the death penalty for you, nailed to a cross outside of Jerusalem, and there destroyed the sin which so easily ensnares you. He is your Sacrifice—the Vicarious Atonement—you are made clean and declared righteous by His death for you. The Lord makes you right with Him.

But you are still corrupt and mortal. You still struggle with one sin or another—with all of them. The good news is that Jesus is still your Vicarious Atonement. The good news is that He has taken all sins with which you struggle and will struggle from you and was crucified with them and died for them. The good news is that He is still flesh and blood, like you, but the Perfect Man at the right hand of the Father for you. There, He speaks to His father on your behalf, “I died for that one; He is yours—reconciled to you.” The good news is that, by way of your baptisms into His death and resurrection, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit, who wills in you to do the good that you ought to do. You see, again, the Lord makes you...

What does He make you? Blameless in holiness! Here in time, you still suffer with corruption and mortality, but the gift of immortality and incorruption are yours by way of your baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection. They are yours now, but not yet. You have put on Christ the crucified—God-in-the flesh who died for you; therefore, it is no longer you who live but Christ who lives in you, and the life which you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the son of God, who loved you and gave Himself for you. (cf. Galatians 3:27, Galatians 2:20)

And so, by the willing of God the Holy Ghost in you, you love one another and all. At least, you want to. The New Man given to you in that blessed flood desires earnestly to do so. And every good work you do to serve your neighbor, then, is an expression of this love in Christ, which is always strong and living, binding faithful hearts in one.

Jesus is come—Jesus is here—and this is what He makes you to be: redeemed, righteous, forgiven, faithful, sanctified, pure...now and not yet.

The Lord makes you and your hearts blameless in holiness. Therefore, when Jesus comes again in the clouds with His righteous judgment, this is your sentence: you are not guilty...you are forgiven for all of your sins.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Download media: 20131204.midweekadvent1.mp3 (3.93 MiB)
audio recorded on my digital recorder
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