Preparing for the Advent of Christ

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church.

Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota.

We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to.

Saint Mark, the first chapter.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet, behold I

send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

John appeared baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and

all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river

Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and

wild honey and he preached saying, after me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals

I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

This is the gospel of the Lord.

In the name of Jesus.

All flesh is like grass.

That's a terrible thing.

Have you noticed that summer just kind of went so quick this year and now all that green grass is, well,

it's brown.

It's dead.

And we have no snow on the ground, which I'm not complaining about.

I want to make that very clear.

I'm not complaining about the fact there's not snow on the ground.

But the text from Isaiah says, all flesh is like grass, all its beauty is like the

flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades and when the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people

are grass.

And so this Advent, today's message, really our text focuses on how do we prepare

to meet and to greet the Lord at his coming.

And you'll note that the first Advent oftentimes invokes the second.

But in that, let me kind of put it to you this way.

The idea that all flesh is like grass.

I had a conversation with one of my former pastors not too long ago and it was kind of a

disconcerting conversation because he asked me how old I was now.

He had kind of forgotten.

It's been a while since we've been together.

And I said, well, I'm 52.

And he says, ah, you've entered the third trimester of life.

What a terrible thing to say.

The third trimester of life.

So he asked, so have you picked up any hobbies?

And I said, well, yeah, I've been applying myself to photography.

He said, oh, good, good.

You need to keep yourself busy while you're in the third trimester of life.

Now, let me kind of explain how this all works.

First trimester of life, the whole goal is to grow up, get educated, to get beyond

living at your parents' house.

And I remember as a kid, first trimester of life just took forever.

I couldn't wait to finally be an adult.

Second trimester of life involves a wedding, diapers,

it involves homework, disciplining your children, meals,

family fun time together, ah, the whole nine yards.

Second trimester was the best, but the thing is, it's a blur.

It's an absolute blur.

They used to call my house the Loud House, and we were called the Loud Family.

Now my house is, well, a museum or a library.

When I go downstairs and I say, morning, honey, she goes, shh.

No, not really.

She doesn't do that.

But you get the idea.

It's a very different thing.

In fact, being the parent of adults, yeah, that's not as

fun.

It's not as challenging.

It's different altogether.

When you're so used to making sure your kids don't crash into things and kill themselves as toddlers,

all the stuff that goes along, just the pandemonium of the second trimester, gives way to the

third trimester, which is, well, definitely at a different pace.

But the thing is, is that it all happened so fast.

It all happened so fast.

And that's kind of the point.

So all flesh is like grass.

And that being the case, we must consider the fact that in preparing for the advent,

in preparing for meeting Christ, that we need to hear what Isaiah the prophet has

to say to us today.

In fact, John the Baptist is referenced here in our Isaiah text.

But I'm going to apply the three rules for sound biblical exegesis, because as great as Isaiah 40

is, there's a context to it.

And it has a lot to do with our lives being like grass.

So I'm going to back up.

I'm going to back up into Isaiah chapter 38.

Have you heard the story about how Hezekiah, King Hezekiah, nearly died

from a boil?

He had a staph infection.

We know that medically now.

He almost died from a boil, kind of in the prime of life.

He was almost cut down in what would be considered the second trimester of his life,

not the third.

And so we read in Isaiah 38, in those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death.

Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, came to him and said to him, thus says Yahweh, set your house in order,

for you shall die, you shall not recover.

Well, that's some good news right there.

Now, a little bit of a note here.

If prophet Isaiah were to knock on my door today and say, get your affairs in order, you're going to die, I would do a Napoleon

Dynamite.

Yes, finally, I'm going to get out of here, be done with sin, done with the temptations of the world, done with the

temptations of the devil.

And I'd be sure to say the appropriate goodbyes and farewells to all my family.

And it was a mercy that God let him know that he was going to die.

And that's the thing, that is the consequence of all of our sin.

The wages of sin is death.

So we all have a payday coming, some sooner than others.

But Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he prayed to Yahweh.

And he said, please, O Yahweh, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart,

and have done what is good in your sight.

And so Hezekiah, he wept bitterly.

And the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, go and say to Hezekiah, thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, I have

heard your prayer, I have seen your tears.

Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city out of

the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

Fifteen years.

It goes like this.

Fifteen years?

Yeah, I'm kind of hoping to live a little longer than fifteen years.

But here in the tithes and shadows, this is an example of how God extends out our life, not in this

life, but in the life to come.

So God then says this, this shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that

he has promised.

Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn

back ten steps.

So the sun turned back on the dial, the ten steps by which it had declined.

Now you're going to note, this is an interesting miracle.

This is an interesting sign.

For the sun to go backwards?

That's a big deal.

You think about in the stories of Joshua and the conquest of Canaan.

At one point, Joshua actually told the sun to stand still.

And God heard him, and the sun stood still so that they can finish the battle.

But keep in mind that when Joshua did that, he had a firm word from God that

they would win that battle, and they needed daylight to finish it.

So based upon the promise of God, it seemed like a reasonable thing to tell the sun to stand still.

Now if you are familiar with evangelicalism, there was a book that was written a decade ago, maybe a

little more than a decade ago now, by Stephen Furtick called Sun Stand Still, and it was miserable theology.

And the big question was, are you praying audacious prayers like Joshua, and are you

praying sun stand still prayers?

What a miserable thing to say.

It's absolutely ridiculous.

So at the time when he published that book, I came up with my own parody book, and I called it Shadow Go

Backwards.

Are you praying shadow go backwards prayers?

It's silly when you think along these lines.

That's not the point of the sun standing still.

It's not about that.

In fact, the sun going backwards, the sun standing still, it reminds

us and points to the fact that Christ bled and died for all of our sins, and he did so in the

dark.

At noon on the day that Christ was crucified, the sun could not give its light anymore, and it stopped.

It was dark on planet Earth for three whole hours while our great God and

Savior bled and died for our sins so that we can be reconciled to God.

And once he had given up his life and said that it is finished and, Father, into your hands I commit my

spirit, it was then that the sun began to shine again.

And so these miracles where the sun is involved all point us

to the miracle that Christ did for us in dying for our sins.

So after this, after Hezekiah was given the sign, Hezekiah, the king of Judah,

after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness, he said, In the middle of my days I must depart.

I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

I said, I shall not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living.

I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent, like a weaver I have rolled up my life.

He cuts me off from the loom from day to night.

You bring me to an end.

I calmed myself until morning, and like a lion he breaks all of my bones, and from day to night you bring

me to an end.

And you'll note that although God did not bring Hezekiah to an end for 15 more years, but when those 15

years were up, God did bring Hezekiah to an end.

And if Christ continues to tarry, he will bring each and every one of us to an end.

And we don't know when our lives will come to an end.

At the moment, as a pastor, I can say I have yet to bury somebody younger than myself,

but there's no guarantee that I won't.

And so we recognize that each and every one of us, our days can be cut short.

I was a little disturbed to hear of the death of a very famous pastor in the Missouri

Synod on Thanksgiving Day, Pastor Paul McCain.

Turns out he was 58 years old, six years older than me.

Six years.

And he was cut down early in the third trimester of life.

And there's no guarantee that you will not be cut down now.

I always like to say, I'm one banana peel away from the grave.

You just never know when you're going to slip on it.

So Hezekiah then goes on and says, Like a swallow or a crane, I chirp.

I moan like a dove.

My eyes are weary with looking upward.

O Lord, I'm oppressed.

Be my pledge of safety.

So what shall I say?

For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it.

I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit.

O restore me to health and make me live.

And is that not all of our prayers?

That God would restore us to health and to make us live?

But the thing that we yearn for, the thing that we long for, is not that we would have restored

health and be made to live 15 more years in this life.

But the thing that we long for is to not die.

To be restored completely and to live forever.

And these are the promises that God has made to each and every one of us who trust in Christ.

That we will be restored.

That we will live forever even if tomorrow we bury your

body in the grave.

Hezekiah continues, Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness.

But in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction.

For you have cast all my sins behind your back.

And it's here in verse 17 that we recognize that Hezekiah understands that

although he was granted 15 more years on this cursed planet,

that the reality of the situation is that God has delivered his life from the pit of destruction

because he has forgiven him of all of his sins.

Pit of destruction.

It sounds like a place mentioned in the story of the Princess Bride.

Welcome to the pit.

Of destruction.

Don't even think about getting out of here.

I know, I know, I know it's despair.

I get it.

But you know me.

I have to twist and turn and manipulate things just a little bit here.

But the reality is this.

The pit of destruction is none other than hell itself.

And anybody who finds themselves in the pit of destruction there is no way out.

The only way out is now.

The only way out is being truly prepared to meet Christ in His second

advent.

The only way out is to have your sins forgiven.

And that you can trust that God has cast all of your sins behind His back and He will not turn

around to look at them anymore.

Sheol does not thank you.

Death does not praise you.

Those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.

The living, the living He thanks you.

As I do this day.

The Father makes known to the children your faithfulness and the Lord will save me and we will play my

music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of Yahweh.

Now Isaiah had said, let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil that he may recover.

And it's in verse 21 we recognize what it was that nearly cut Hezekiah down so early

in life.

He had a boil and it had gotten into his system.

He had a staph infection.

But God allowed him to recover.

What follows next is an unanswered question in the text.

At least an unanswered question directly.

Hezekiah had also said, what is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?

And here's the thing.

Go up to the house of the Lord.

He doesn't need a sign that he's going to be able to worship in the temple again.

This has greater implications.

And it is the answer to this question that follows and what sets the stage for our Old

Testament text today.

So chapter 39 then continues.

At that time, Meredok Baladin, the son of Baladin, the king of Babylon, sent envoys

with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had

recovered.

Now it's important to note, Babylon is the kingdom by which God will punish Judah for their impenitent

idolatry in the generations following Hezekiah.

And one has to wonder if Meredok Baladin and his envoys were not, well,

jealously looking at the things that they were being shown by Hezekiah in

preparation for a, well, a war that will come later.

So Hezekiah welcomed them gladly.

He showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole

armory, all that was found in his storehouses.

And there was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and he said to him, What did these men say?

And from where did they come to you?

Hezekiah said, Well, they have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.

He said, What have they seen in your house?

Hezekiah answered, They've seen all that's in my house.

There's nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.

And now comes a very ominous prophecy and

one that is fulfilled later but not in the lifetime of Hezekiah.

Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh, Sabaoth, the god of armies.

That's what hosts mean.

Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and that which your fathers have stored up to this day

shall be carried to Babylon.

Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.

And some of your own sons who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be

taken away and they shall be eunuchs in the place of the king of Babylon.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.

For he thought, There will be peace and security in my days.

Kind of a strange way to react.

I mean, what if I were to tell you that the prophet Isaiah has said that America will be invaded by the

Chinese and that we are going to become a communist nation in the days right after your

death?

Would you sit there and go, Well, at least I don't have to experience that.

Would you not have concern, great concern for your own children and grandchildren and your

community that they would lose their freedoms and be under a communist regime?

So you'll note that Hezekiah's response seems to be singularly focused on himself

with no compassion even for the sons that Isaiah said would

be born to him that would be taken off into Babylon.

When you read the writings of the church fathers, the sermons that the church fathers give on this text, they

condemn, they rebuke Hezekiah because he only is

thinking about himself.

And I want you to consider then that in the ancient world, that when one nation conquered

another nation because they all worshipped their national deities, that

the idea that Judah would be destroyed by Babylon,

anybody who went through that, they would have felt like the gods of Babylon,

Marduk and others, had conquered Yahweh.

And it would have been very tempting for them in the midst of this to say, Well, what good is Yahweh?

He wasn't able to stop the gods of Babylon.

And so God Himself at this point has to fill in a little bit of

information for us so that the people who went through this

terrible judgment of God, the destruction of Jerusalem by the king of Babylon, and the

carrying away of those who survived.

Nine in ten people died in that campaign, by the way.

And here Isaiah is prophesying it.

And so while Hezekiah is focusing on himself, now God through the prophet Isaiah

says, listen, comfort, comfort my people.

And that's the context of those words.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

And here are tender words of comfort given in advance by the prophet Isaiah

to those who would survive the Babylonian captivity.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is

pardoned, that she has received from Yahweh's hand double for all of her sins.

Now let's unpack this just a little bit.

These are words that can only provide comfort to those who are penitent.

God does not speak tenderly and kindly to those who persist in sin and unbelief.

And the idea here is that the Babylonian captivity would humble Israel,

would humble Judah, and humble them to the point that they recognized once and for all

that the misery that they were in was their own doing because they refused to hear the voice

of God, persisted in their idolatry.

And so to those who are penitent who are now reading the prophet Isaiah, God speaks to

them and says your warfare is over and I assure you that your iniquity is pardoned.

Have you ever thought that for a second, maybe even longer, how is it that God

even puts up with me?

Have you ever thought for a second you know I seem to can't get my act together, haven't figured out how to

stop sinning yet.

I wonder if there is a limit to the forgiveness of sins won by Christ.

It's a tempting thought.

And here Isaiah says that we have received from the Lord's hand

double for all of our sins.

Not double condemnation, but literally what's being described here is double pardon, double grace.

It's almost as if Isaiah is saying that when Christ finally goes to the cross, in three

hours he atoned for the sins of the world, but he stuck it out for three more hours

so that we would be forgiven double for what we've done.

So that we would never have to worry that we have outstripped the grace of God.

And it's in this context then we hear this great prophecy of John the Baptist.

And the impact that it has on us.

And so here then in this context a voice says cry.

What shall I cry?

All flesh is like grass.

All of its beauty like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades.

When the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

Brothers and sisters, this is absolutely true that all of our lives are like grass.

But understand this, the promises of God for those who trust in Christ and have

received and are confident that their sins are forgiven in Jesus.

That in the new world we are not described as grass, we are described as trees.

Deep roots, large trunks, long life, long branches.

No longer grass.

And so how does one then prepare for the advent of Christ?

Well, our epistle text says it so well.

Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness.

He is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish.

And any means any.

God does not wish that any human being would perish.

Not you, not me, not the most rank sinner that you know.

Not any of us.

But his goal, his desire, is that all should reach repentance.

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be

burned up and they will be dissolved and the earth and the works that are done in it will finally be exposed.

So the way we prepare is repent.

Repent.

And repentance is recognizing your sin and even, dare I

say, feeling sorry for your sin.

But that's not enough.

Judas felt sorry for his sin, but what was lacking in Judas that we have?

Repentance also includes confidence that God has pardoned you and forgiven you because of and for the

sake of Christ.

So that we may say that our sins have been

forgiven.

And this is not our own doing.

This is all because of the great mercy and grace of Christ.

And so you'll note that true repentance kind of has two streams to it

emotionally, if you think about it.

One is true sorrow for sin, but also great hope

and happiness and joy in anticipation and expectation of the mercy

that we receive from God.

It's kind of a weird two -faucet thing.

The two streams flow together.

So that being the case, our gospel text is so appropriate here.

The gospel text begins with these words.

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And that's what gospel means.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the

voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

What is the sign that you will worship in the temple of God, in the house of God?

The sign is that John the Baptist has come and told each and every one of us to repent.

You'll note that John the Baptist, his message applies to us today.

He's not speaking to them.

He's speaking to me.

He's speaking to you.

He's the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord.

And so John appeared baptizing in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness

of sins.

And we'll note that true Christian baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.

And all the country of Judea and Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the River Jordan, and they were

confessing their sins.

Brothers and sisters, you've been baptized, and today I heard you confess your sins.

John was clothed with camel's hair, wore a leather belt around his waist, and ate locusts and wild

honey.

And he preached, saying, After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandal I am not

worthy to stoop down and untie.

I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

And indeed, Christ has baptized you with the Holy Spirit.

And he, through the powerful preaching of his word, has worked in us true

contrition of our sins, where we have confessed our need to be forgiven, and we have also heard from

God that we are forgiven.

The one who we are not worthy to stoop down and untie is the one who serves us today with his word.

He is the same one who, in humbling himself, rather than saying, Ah, you're not worthy to stoop down and untie

my sandals, he himself took on the form of a servant and even washed the feet of the disciples.

What a great God we have.

So brothers and sisters, that being the case, I can think of no better way to end this

sermon in reminding us of our need to be ready for the appearing of

Christ than to know that you are well ready for his advent because of

what he has done for you.

And although right now we are like grass, there is a day coming when we will be

restored, and I am looking forward to that day.

The assigned psalm for today is Psalm 85.

And here are the words of the psalmist.

Lord, you were favorable to your land, and you restored the fortunes of Jacob.

You forgave the iniquity of your people, and you covered all their sins.

You withdrew your wrath, and you turned from your hot anger.

So restore us again, O God of our salvation.

Put away your indignation towards us.

Will you be angry with us forever?

Will you prolong your anger to all generations?

Will you not revive us again so that your people may rejoice in you?

Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

And you'll note the prayer here is a prayer of restoration, and I assure you that God answers this

prayer for all of his saints in the affirmative.

He will restore us.

He will revive us.

And I can tell you right now, as somebody who's just embarked in the third trimester of life, O

lucky me, that there is a day coming when each and every one of us, having been

restored and revived in the resurrection, will see each other,

not as we are now in mortal flesh that dies and withers, but we will

see each other clothed in the glory of God and the righteousness of Christ in a world

without end, with bodies that do not suffer or die.

And so you haven't seen anything yet.

I know that I look terrible now, but there's a day coming when I won't.

And don't worry, you young kids.

You're going to be looking like me in just, well, a couple of hours.

I'm sad about that for you, but don't worry.

Christ will be here soon.

So restore us, O Lord.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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