november 20 2022
November 20th 2022 Last Sunday of the Church Year
Old Testament: Malachi 3:13-18 “The distinction between the righteous and the wicked”
Psalm: Psalm 97 “You who love the Lord … hate evil”
Epistle: Colossians 1:13-20 “Delivered … from the domain of darkness”
Gospel: Luke 23:27-43 “Today … with Me … in paradise”
Sermon Text: Colossians 1
Sermon Title: “Peace, by the Blood”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Your words have been hard against Me says the Lord … you have said it is vain to serve God … evildoers put God to the test … they prosper … (but) once more you will see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked”. (Malachi 3:13-15a, 18a) “He has delivered us from the domain (kingdom) of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in who, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. (Colossians 1:13-14) He has “made peace by the blood of His cross”. (Colossians 1:20b)
Today is the Last Sunday of the Church Year, and once again, the focus is on Christ’s coming again in glory on the Day of Judgment. That is why we sang the opening hymn “The Day is Surely Drawing Near” and the sermon hymn “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying”. These hymns reflect the Scriptural texts and/or the theme of the day, season, or time of the church year. “The primary purpose of music/hymnody in the Lutheran worship (liturgy) is to proclaim the Word of God”; (Zager, page 9) to teach the churches doctrine; to clearly present Christ crucified and raised form the dead for the forgiveness of sins.
The prophet Malachi is warning the people of Israel against violence, greed, divorce, and unfaithfulness of both priest and people. Earlier in this chapter, he accused them of “robbing God … in your tithes and contributions” (Malachi 3:8) and in the reading for today, we heard they had spoken “hard words against … the Lord … saying it is in vain to serve God … evildoers prosper … and escape”. (Malachi 3:13-15) Like all good prophets and preachers, Malachi is calling his hearers to repentance and faith; to return to the Lord their God; who alone saves them.
In the day of His coming again in glory, people will say; “there is peace and security, (but) then sudden destruction will come upon them, as when travail comes upon a woman with child, and there will be no escape … so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober”. (1st Thessalonians 5:3, 6)
The Lord declared “Once more you will see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked; between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him”. (Malachi 3:18) “Those who fear the Lord … they shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts … I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him”. (Malachi 3:16-17)
Those who serve Him, those who have been made righteous by grace, through faith in Christ; those who by the blood of the Lamb of God have had all their sins forgiven, will be spared on the Day of the Lord; when “He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead; whose kingdom will have no end”. (Nicene Creed)
As we heard in the Gospel reading, God has sent His only Son into the world, as a man, to die on the cross, to atone for the sins of all people. “And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death in a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name; So that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father”. (Philippians 2:8-11)
This Sunday is also called sometimes called, “Christ the King” Sunday, because Christ also reigned from the cross. He is our crucified and risen Lord and Savior. Therefore, we proclaim both Christ crucified and Christ risen, ascended, and coming again in glory; as the One to whom “all authority in heaven and earth have been given”. (Matthew 28:17b) The Apostle Paul deals with all of the above in the Epistle reading for today, which we will now get into. By the way, this is possibly the clearest of the many texts in the Bible, dealing with the deity of Jesus; that He lives and reigns as King for all eternity.
Paul begins, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. (Colossians 1:13-14) To be delivered means to be rescued from some dark, terrible and powerful enemy (enemies) that we could not escape from on our own. Paul describes these enemies elsewhere, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”. (Ephesians 6:12) Therefore, we (who believe in Christ) have been rescued from the power of sin, death, and the devil; from hell itself; by Christ’s atoning death and bodily resurrection.
Again, to be delivered from these horrible enemies has nothing to do with us. We did not deliver or rescue ourselves by our good deeds or strong faith. Neither has any pastor rescued us by His powerful, persuasive words or winning personality. His main job is to teach, but it is always the Holy Spirit, working through the means of grace, that people are brought to repentance and saving faith.
In fact, it is the sin of idolatry for anyone to think that either we or our pastor are capable of motivating or inspiring anyone to faith or good works; again, it is Christ Jesus our Lord, alone, who has delivered us (by means of His Word and sacrament). He has not just delivered us from evil; He has also “transferred us” to another Kingdom; “the kingdom of the Beloved Son”; (Colossians 1:13b); His kingdom; which is a kingdom of grace and mercy and love.
By definition, in His Kingdom, Christ alone is King; just as “He is the Head of the body, the church”. (Colossians 1:18a) We will speak more of that in a moment, but it is in the church, through the Word and Sacrament, that Christ gives the precious gifts which Paul speaks of now. “In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. (Colossians 1:14) “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved”. (Mark 16:16a) Notice this is in the present tense, it is true now and it is ongoing.
We know from the Scriptures and are taught in the Small Catechism, that Christ Jesus is both true man, born of the Virgin Mary, but also “true God, begotten of the Father from eternity … and lives and reigns to all eternity”. (2nd Article explanation) “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation”. (Colossians 1:15) Paul is not stating here that Jesus is a created being, but rather that He is first in authority over all things in creation.
The rest of the text clearly teaches that Jesus is not part of the creation, but is actually its creator. “For by Him (Christ), all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him”. (Colossians 1:16) John also affirms this in his Gospel saying, “All things were made through Him”. (John 1:3a) He created the world by His Word and redeemed the world by His shed blood on the cross.
“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together”. (Colossians 1:17) Christ, as the second person of the Trinity, is eternal, meaning without beginning and without end. As the Apostle John proclaimed, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. (John 1:1) “I am the first and the last” (Revelation 1:17b), Jesus said. The writer of Hebrews also declared, “He upholds the universe with the Word of His power”. (Hebrews 1:3)
“And He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything, He might be preeminent”. (Colossians 1:18) As the Head, Christ Jesus and His Word, the Holy Scriptures, have all authority in the Church. No human word or opinion gets to trump the Bible in the affairs of the church; for “it belongs to Christ and is built on Him alone”. Therefore, “the Holy Christian Church is to be found where the Word/Gospel is purely taught and the sacraments rightly administered”. (Small Catechism, Third Article, Question # 173-174)
Knowing that our crucified Lord is also “firstborn from the dead”; the first of many to be raised bodily, and that He is coming again, and that He is the head of His body, the church, we should be faithful to the visible church or denomination that teaches and practices these things. For Jesus said, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. (John 8:31-32) Doctrine matters, and we are warned by our founder C F W Walther, “t believer must for the sake of their salvation, flee all false teachers and heterodox congregations”; which are those churches where some parts of God’s Word are accepted and others rejected.
Now, just in case the previous text wasn’t clear enough about Jesus’ divinity, Paul says “In Him/Christ all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell”. (Colossians 1:19) “In Him/Christ the whole fulness of the deity dwells bodily”. (Colossians 2:9) We just confessed this in the Nicene Creed, He is “very God or very God … being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made”.
Because Jesus is both true man and true God, He is able to “reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace (with God) by the blood of His cross”. (Colossians 1:20) Jesus lived a perfect life and He has atoned for the sins of the whole world; so that “whoever believes in Him would not perish”. (John 3:16b) Even for criminals like the thief on the cross, to whom Jesus said, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise”. (Luke 23:43b) So also, “whoever does not believe (in Christ) is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God”. (John 3:18b)
As the prophet Malachi spoke of old, “all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble … they will be left neither root, nor branch”. (Malachi 4:1b) Woe to those who think they can “put God to the test and escape” (Malachi 3:15); for they will not escape the judgment of God. They are still in the “domain of darkness” (Colossians 1:13a) held captive by the devil.
Still, even though the darkness in our world seems so strong against us, Christ is King. He has “all authority in heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18a) and “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us” (Colossians 1:13-14a) to His own Kingdom. He has broken the power of darkness, both now and forever; “for He came to destroy the works of the devil”. (1st John 3:8b) Even when you do not “feel” His peace, know that Jesus has made real peace with God; “through the blood of His cross”. (Colossians 1:20b)
The Word of God declares, “Our Lord preserves the life of His saints; He delivers them from the hands of the wicked”. (Psalm 97:10b) Jesus is coming again to take His people home, for He has promised that “He who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ”. (Philippians 1:6b) “He who testifies to these things says; Surely, I am coming soon! Amen! Come Lord Jesus”. (Revelation 22:20)
The peace of God …