november 12 2023
November 12th 2023 LWML Sunday (Mission Sunday)
Old Testament: Amos 5:18-24
Psalm: Psalm 24
Epistle: 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13
Sermon Text: Psalm 24
Sermon Title: “The Coming of the Lord”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Lord has come to this world in the flesh in the person of Jesus, to atone for the sins of the whole world; your sins, my sins, and the sins of all who have ever lived or will live. The Lord Jesus is coming again in glory “to judge the living and the dead”; which we confess in all of the Creeds of the church. On that day and hour, which no one knows, all the dead will be raised. “Believers will rise in glorified bodies and enter everlasting life in heaven … unbelievers will rise to eternal death, to shame and torment in hell forever”. This is what Holy Scripture and our Confessions and Catechisms teach, and that is always the focus of the last few weeks of the church year and the beginning of Advent.
This is LWML Sunday, and this is why we do Mission; to bring in those whom the Lord has called into His kingdom and to call back those who have wandered from the faith; “letting tribulation … persecution … and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches (and pleasures of this world) choke the Word” (Matthew 13:21b-22b) in their lives; causing them to be unprepared for the Lord’s coming. We pursue mission because the Day of the Lord will be a frightful day for all those who are those without faith in Christ, resulting in them being “cast … into the outer darkness … where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth” forever. (Matthew 25:30)
In the Old Testament reading, the prophet Amos warned, “Woe to you who desire the Day of the Lord … it is darkness and not light, as if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, or went into a house and leaned his hand against a wall and a serpent bit him”. (Amos 5:18-19) This warning is not just for the overtly wicked, but for the hypocrites and apathetic ones in the church as well, for the Lord declared through Amos, “I hate and despise your feasts … and solemn assemblies”. (Amos 5:21)
Or as Jesus said to the foolish virgins in the Gospel text this morning, who thought they were prepared for the coming of the bridegroom; Christ, but were not. They had the door of heaven slammed shut on them, “I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour”. (Matthew 25:12b-13) Do not be apathetic about His coming, like the mockers that Peter described, who say, “where is the promise of His coming … for everything continues as it was from the beginning of creation”. (2nd Peter 3:4) Christ’s second coming is as sure as His first, because He has promised it in His Word and God never lies; therefore, we are to “watch” for His coming.
We also do mission, knowing that “God so loved the world”, (John 3:16) that our Lord said through the prophet Ezekiel, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked”. (Ezekiel 33:11a) The Scriptures declare through the apostles Paul and Peter, “God our Savior, desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1st Timothy 2:4) and “the Lord is patient … not wishing that any should perish (eternally) but that all should reach repentance”. (2nd Peter 3:9b)
We bear witness to the Gospel knowing also that “there is salvation in no one else (except Jesus) for there is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved”. (Acts 4:12) As John the Baptist declared of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”. (John 1:29) We preach Christ crucified and raised from the dead because the Bible declares, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already”. (John 3:18a)
The Apostle Paul also wrote to the Thessalonians “since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep (those who have died believing in Jesus) … for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first … therefore, encourage one another with these words”. (1st Thessalonians 4:14-16, 18)
We heard many other such words of encouragement about heaven and eternal life last week on All Saints Day and this should be of great comfort to all of us who trust in Christ alone for the hope of eternal life. It should also encourage us in the mission of the church; in sharing the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ in our preaching and teaching and our everyday lives. For we know that Christ is raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and “now fully exercises His divine power over the whole world/universe … especially for the benefit of His church”. (# 147, Small Catechism)
Therefore, we need not fear when sharing the Gospel, for it is ultimately not us who will win someone to Christ, (with our persuasive words and/or sweet personality) but rather it is the Holy Spirit (alone) who “calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it in the one true faith” (explanation of the 3rd Article of the Apostle’s Creed). Of course, this is done through the means of grace, the Word and the Sacraments.
The Psalm for the day, which is our sermon text, is usually associated with the Advent season because it speaks of the coming of the Messiah; Christ Jesus, but it also fits well in this season of the church year as it speaks of Jesus, not in His humility, but as the “King of Glory”. David begins, “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein; for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers”. (Psalm 24:1-2) All of creation belongs to the triune God who created it, “in the beginning”. (Genesis 1:1) This too, should give us confidence as we bear witness to the death and bodily resurrection of Jesus, our Savior.
Now, we know that our Lord Jesus Christ has come and continues to come to us in different ways. First, he came to us in the incarnation; when God became man in womb of the virgin Mary, which we will hear more of in the Christmas season. He became one of us, coming to this world in order to keep the law of God perfectly on our behalf and then to die on the cross, atoning for the sins of the whole world; of all who have lived or ever will live.
This was absolutely necessary for without His atoning death and resurrection, we would still be in our sins and under the wrath of God, as the Apostle Paul teaches, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God … no one does good, not even one”. (Romans 3:10b-12) It was “while we were enemies, that we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son”. (Romans 5:10a) After Jesus won salvation for us and all people, He then rose bodily on the third day, proving His victory over sin, death, and the devil/Satan for us and promising His people, “I am with you always, to the end of the age”. (Matthew 28:20)
Second, as I already mentioned, He comes to us in His Word and Sacrament, every time we gather in this place to receive the gifts He won for us on the cross; the forgiveness of our sins, the strengthening of our faith, and the hope of eternal life. For the Scriptures declare, “faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17) and “These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name”. (John 20:31)
Our Confessions also teach that this is why the office of the preaching/ministry was instituted; that we may come to true/saving faith in Christ. “For through the Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given, who works faith, when and where He wills, in those who hear the Gospel”. (Augsburg Confession, Article IV, par. 1-2) So, we also hear in the Small Catechism that we are “not to despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it”. (Small Catechism, Third Commandment)
We despise preaching and His Word whenever we do not make use of the Word of God and the sacraments; when we do not attend public worship or attend it only to be inspired or entertained. Luther wrote that this commandment is violated whenever we “listen to God’s Word as we would any other entertainment … who leave with as little knowledge at the beginning as at the end … who permit themselves to be preached to … but listen without serious concern … God will require of you an accounting of how you heard, learned, and honored His Word”. (Large Catechism, Third Commandment, par. 95-98)
Jesus also declared to His disciples, “the one who hears you, hears Me and the one who rejects you, rejects Me, and one who rejects Me, rejects Him who sent Me” (Luke 10:16) and “whoever is of God, hears the Word of God”. (John 8:47a) The writer of Hebrews also, “Do not neglect to meet together as is the habit of some, but encourage one another all the more as you see the Day (of Jesus’ second coming) draw near” (Hebrews 10:25) and “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation”? (Hebrews 2:3a) Again, this is where Jesus comes near to us, in the Word and Sacraments, so “the Holy Spirit says, “today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”. (Hebrews 3:7-8a)
The third way that Jesus will come to us is the reason for this season of the church year; “Our Lord Jesus Christ will return on the Last Day to judge, to raise all the dead, to give eternal life and eternal joy to those who believe … but to condemn the ungodly and the devils to hell and eternal punishment”. (Augsburg Confession, Article XVII, par. 1-3) This is the Day that all Christians pray for and anticipate with joy, when Jesus “will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him”. (Hebrews 9:27) As the Psalmist declared, “Lift up your heads … and be lifted up, that the King of Glory may come in”. (Psalm 24:7)
Again, the warning here is also real and is another reason we do mission, why we preach and share our faith in Christ with those around us, for an eternity in hell is what awaits those who reject Christ. Once our lives are ended or Christ returns, the doors of heaven will be locked and no amount of crying out “Lord, open to us” (Matthew 25:11b) will be answered; for Jesus will say to those who ignored His Word; “Truly, I say to you; I do not know you. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour”. (Matthew 25:12-13)
Watch for the coming King of Glory, for neither do we know the hour of our own death, beyond which there is no opportunity for repentance. On this LWML Sunday then, let us remember this mission work of all of God’s people, to share the Gospel, “which is the power of salvation to everyone who believes”. (Romans 1:16a) “For God our Savior, desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1st Timothy 2:3b-4) and “the Lord is patient, not wishing any to perish, but all to reach repentance”. (2nd Peter 3:9b)
The Gospel of Christ’s death and resurrection, is our only hope, the only hope of all mankind, as the “King of Glory” comes to us in these means. He called (most of) us to faith in the waters of Holy Baptism, where we were “united with Him in a death like His (and we have the promise to) be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:5) on the Last Day. He also continues to strengthen our faith as we receive His body and blood in the Lords Supper for the forgiveness of sins.
Again, the Word of God is absolutely essential for the everyday life of the Christian, for in the Word, have “a lamp to our feet and a light to out path” (Psalm 119:105) and “Blessed is the one … whose delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night”. (Psalm 1:1-2) Through His Word and sacrament, God provides both temporal (earthly) and eternal means by which we receive Jesus, the “King of Glory” the psalmist speaks of; now and into eternity.
In this fallen, sinful world, we bear witness to Jesus, as the LWML pledge declares, “in fervent gratitude for the Savior’s dying love and His blood bought gift of redemption”. It pledges our “hands and feet” in willing service to Christ; our “voices” to sing His praises and our money to support the work of the church; in order that “the lost and erring” would be brought to saving faith.
This LWML Sunday reminds us of the importance of mission; to both share our faith and support those who proclaim the “Gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15b) in our community and throughout the whole world, with our talents and treasures; so that all whom God has appointed to eternal life will hear of and believe in Christ, and be prepared for (watch for) the coming “King of Glory”, who promises eternal life to all who trust in Him alone. Amen.
The peace of God …