How Could We Not Rejoice?

John the Baptist’s Witness to the Light

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 John, the first chapter. There was a man sent.

From God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. And this is the testimony of John.

When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, well what then, are you Elijah? He said, I am not.

Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. So they said to him, well who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees and they asked him, well then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water. But among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me.

The strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. In the gospel of John we have this wonderful opening, this concept of we who are in sin are in darkness.

And that Christ is the light of the world and the light has now shone and broken forth into the world. And we have the confession of John the Baptist basically saying, I am not the light. I have come to testify about the light.

Advent as the Blue Hour and the First Glimpse of Joy

Now all of that being said, you all may know I am a photographer by hobby I guess, that's probably the best way of putting it. And I will say this, photography is an interesting thing to engage in because it's all about photographing light.

It's all about the light if you think about it. In fact, some of the more obsessed and I would say even world class landscape photographers, these are quite a hearty group. They get up before the crack of dawn, head out to the place that they want to photograph in their composition in the dead of night, in the darkness.

And what ends up happening is an amazing thing if you would. Darkness turns to what we call the blue hour. The blue hour is that time when you have those really deep, dark, almost black blues. And those begin to brighten slowly and slowly and slowly until you get the first glimpses of color.

And the first glimpses of color are these amazing pinks. And they're fantastic. So here today, today is the third Sunday of Advent, it's Gadate Sunday. Rejoice! And so we'll note, we'll take advantage of the fact that as we've been going through this Advent season if you would, a penitential blue hour, we have been praying to God for an answer, for our pleas for mercy and forgiveness.

Gadate is God's first glimpse of an answer. Think of it this way. Back in the day when people traveled on the sea where the only mode of propulsion was the wind, sometimes ships would get themselves in trouble.

And they would end up in multi-day long storms. And people would be praying, praying for deliverance, praying for salvation. You see, our sin is a lot like that kind of a storm where we don't know if we're going to make it and God is going to hear our prayers.

But Gadate Sunday is that first cry that you hear from the crow's nest where you hear Land ho! And you realize, ah, there's a chance we may be saved. That's what Gadate Sunday is. It's an amazing thing.

Isaiah’s Promise of Good News, Freedom, and Salvation

And so with that, I think it is appropriate that we take a look at the prophet Isaiah. And just for good measure, we'll throw in a little bit of the prophet Jeremiah. And you're thinking, Jeremiah, does he have anything positive to say?

Oh yes, he does. He has a wonderful thing to say. And I think it's quite appropriate for Gadate, if you would. So if you want to look on, we're looking at our Old Testament text from Isaiah. And I want you to think of it this way.

Remember Jesus' inaugural sermon. His inaugural sermon is the Sermon on the Mount. And he begins with the Beatitudes. Blessed are the who? The poor in spirit. Now if you're not sure who those folks are, believe me, you're one of them.

But the idea is for us to recognize that. The poor in spirit are those who say, I got nothing. I haven't got a penny in my pocket that I can offer to God in exchange for my salvation. When I look at my life in light of God's law and his ten commandments, his holy law, I realize that his law is holy and I am far, far from that.

And so you'll note the ravages of sin. It creates in us all kinds of fear, anxiety. It creates in us all kinds of guilt and it ought to. It makes us humble. It drives us to our knees and we recognize that all of those thoughts that we have, that we are the bee's knees, that we are the apple of God's eye, that somehow we've got our acts together, it's just a lie.

Complete delusion. And so you'll note the poor in spirit are invoked here. And then also remember what Christ says in that sermon, blessed are those who mourn. Now this is not the mourning of people who mourn because they have lost a loved one.

That's not what's being referred to here. What's being referred to is the mourning of saying, oh my goodness, what have I done? The mourning of sin. The mourning and lament that goes along with recognizing that you have not measured up.

But note here then, here's the first colors of pink coming across the blue hour. The first shimmerings that God has heard our prayers. And that rather than giving us what we deserve, he's going to give us something different.

The spirit of Yahweh Elohim is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. And if you're sitting there saying, well these sound like familiar words. Didn't Jesus read this text at one point and say it applied to him?

Indeed he did. And so think of this as the voice of Jesus. These are red letters in Isaiah. The spirit of the Lord is upon Christ and he, the Lord has anointed Christ to bring good news to the poor. And he has sent Christ to bind up the broken hearted.

To proclaim liberty to the captives. The opening of the prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The day of vengeance of our God and to comfort all who mourn. Ah, good news to the poor.

That's me and you. The broken hearted. Yeah, that's us as well. To proclaim to us liberty. Liberty, freedom from slavery to sin, death, the devil, the dominion of darkness itself. The prison of sin has been opened by Christ because he has gone to the cross and he has defeated all of the forces of darkness by bleeding and dying in your place and mine.

And now the prison doors are open and Christ has proclaimed that to you. And he's proclaiming to us the year of Jubilee. If you're familiar with the Mosaic Covenant, the year of Jubilee happens every 50 years and every 50 years what's supposed to happen on the year of Jubilee?

The most amazing things ever. All debts cancelled. All lost inheritance restored. Every slave set free. It's a picture of what? The day when Jesus returns and what he gives to those who believe in him.

To grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes. Ah, ashes, I know what those are for. In scripture over and again when people are brought to repentance there are two things that are mentioned.

Sackcloth and ashes. These are the signs of the penitent and so God takes the ashes that you have tossed onto your head in a display of your penitence and your sorrow and your grief over your sin and God takes those ashes and he dusts them off, casts them aside and instead of giving you the whip or the scourge or the fires of hell, he instead places a beautiful headdress on your head.

The oil of gladness instead of mourning. The garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. That all may be called oaks of righteousness. Now if you remember last week I talked about the fact that one of my former pastors was so ingloriously reminding me that I've entered the third trimester of my life.

Thank you. And of course the text that we were preaching on last week described all of us as what? Grass. What a horrible, awful thing. But that's the wages of sin. Death comes to us quickly. But here in the new world that Christ is making, the new world that Christ is bringing, the world that we will inhabit, all who trust in Christ, we are no longer described as grass, we are described as oak trees.

And those things, I don't know if you've noticed, they can live a long, long, long time. The comparison between grass and oaks is a big comparison and note this is what Christ is promising all of us. And then in that new world we will be called the planting of God and that God may be glorified and we will build up the ancient ruins, we will raise up the former devastations, we will repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations, the derelict earth, the consequences of sin, we will have the supreme joy of rebuilding it all in a world without end.

For the Lord says, I love justice, I hate robbery and wrong, and I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations, their descendants in the midst of the people, and all who see them shall acknowledge them that they are the offspring Yahweh has blessed.

I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh, my soul shall exult in my God. Why? Because he has clothed me in garments of salvation. One of the pictures that's so graphic in scripture of our sin is that our sin is, well we talked about this a few weeks ago, polluted garments, I won't go into details on that, but we recognize that sin is always typified with filth, with dirt, with disgustingness.

And we recognize rightly when we look at our sin and recognize that we have soiled our garments with sin but Christ, what he has done, remember he has taken your sin upon himself on the cross and he has bled and died for all of that muck, all of that ick, all of that filth.

All of that filth was put on him and because it has been taken off of you and put on him and you are bled for and died for, now instead you are clothed with garments of salvation. And I would even argue that the garment of salvation is the very righteousness of Christ.

If our sin is a polluted garment, then the righteousness of Christ is the garment of salvation. And all of this he gives out of his great mercy and love. And so he has covered us with the robe of righteousness.

And this robe of righteousness is now described in terms that I think we can all relate to. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.

No, there's not just one picture here. We all recognize that when people get married, they dress up. I've seen it happen. I've done it myself. And we would even argue that men are looking their shnappiest Yeah, I kind of said it that way.

When they're wearing that tuxedo and they've had their hair done and they are waiting for their bride to come down the aisle. Oh, they look fantastic. But then just when you think they're looking spectacular, in comes the bride and everybody stands.

And of course I can't help it. I always cry because a woman is never more beautiful than on that day when she is wearing that gown. It is just fantastic. It is amazing. And so you'll recognize here that that's the picture of our everyday clothes in the new earth.

Always beautiful. Always bedecked. Always at our shnappiest. Always. That's the picture of salvation. It's an everlasting dapperness and beauty. That's the amazing thing. No more t-shirts. No more slovenly dress.

No more Levi's with holes in them and shorts and hairy legs and never mind, I'm going too far. But you get the idea. That's the idea. Now as the earth brings forth its sprouts, as the garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

And Isaiah has spoken well. What a wonderful text. One that indeed gives us something to rejoice over. But in my typical way, let me just go over the top. Let's throw a little Jeremiah in for good measure, shall we?

Jeremiah 31, the Exiles, and God’s Everlasting Love

In Jeremiah chapter 31, you'll note if you've read Jeremiah recently, if you follow the one year lectionary from the treasury of daily prayer, you've read Jeremiah in the month of November. And Jeremiah is the weeping prophet.

He's the guy that God tasked with prophesying to rebellious Israel. He was the last prophet before they were sent into exile. And already by chapter 31, well, the worst has happened. God has acted in judgment.

Few have survived. Off they have gone into exile. And so this last portion of the prophet Isaiah is always in the context of either the impending destruction of Jerusalem or the destruction of Jerusalem that has already happened.

And so we note that in Jeremiah 29, God has sent a letter, an epistle of comfort to the exiles to assure them that what he means for them is good and not their harm. And in chapter 31, we are building off of this picture now that God has given to the prophet Jeremiah to tell us of what is to come to give us comfort, to give us something to hope for, something to rejoice in.

Again, that glimpse of pink color on the horizon just as we know that the sun is about to come up. And here's what Jeremiah says. At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.

And this is something we've got to take into consideration. I preached on this on Wednesday. You sit there and go, well, God's going to be the clans of all the people of Israel. Listen to me. Only Israel is saved.

But don't fret, because we've all been grafted into Israel. Everybody who is in Christ has been grafted into Israel. Everybody who is in Christ and has the same faith as Abraham is now a child of Abraham.

So this is a promise for you. Which clan you've been sorted into, I have no clue. But that's not the point. You are in Israel because Jesus is Israel squished down to one person, and you've been grafted into him.

Remember, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. So thus says Yahweh, the people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness. When Israel sought for rest, Yahweh appeared to him from far away.

I have loved you with an ever lasting love. And that's the point. Salvation is because God has loved us. For God so loved the world, he so loved you that he sent his only begotten son, that whoever, including you, believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

And so here we hear of the everlasting love of God. Therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you, God says. Again, I will build you, and you shall be built. And listen to these words, O virgin Israel.

Now Israel has been anything but virginal. But we even talked about this a few weeks back, talking about how in Christ, because we are bled for, died for, we are renewed, and our sin is taken from us, we have been re-virginized.

Can you virginize somebody? Well, God has virginized us. All who are in Christ, God declares them to be virgin Israel. Again, you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of merrymakers.

Now I must point out that the second part of verse 4 of Jeremiah 31 probably makes the Norwegians nervous. But they'll just have to get used to it. They'll have to pick up a tambourine and do the merrymaking and the dancing.

They may be awkward at first, but don't worry. They'll get over the hump, right? Again, you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria. The planters shall plant. They shall enjoy the fruit. For there shall be a day when watchmen will call in the hill country of Ephraim.

Arise and let us go up to Zion, to Yahweh our God. For thus says Yahweh, sing aloud with gladness for Jacob. Raise shouts to the chief of the nations. Proclaim, give praise and say, O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.

What a great praise. Behold, I will bring them from the north country. Ah, as far north as Minnesota. He'll bring them from the north country. Gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. Among them, the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor together, a great company.

They shall return here. With weeping, they shall come. And with pleas for mercy, I will lead them back. I will make them walk by brooks of water. So you're going to note here, how does one return to Zion?

How does one get to this new earth? Well, they come as they are, broken and sinful. And they come in weeping and pleas for mercy. And God is the one who leads them back. I will make them walk by brooks of water.

Hmm. There's a little brook of water right here. The baptismal font, you can kind of see the picture of what's being painted here. A straight path in which they shall not stumble. I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

So hear the word of Yahweh, O nations, and declare to the coastlands far away. Say, he who scattered Israel, he will gather him and he will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands that are too strong for him.

In fact, that is exactly what Christ has done. You and I are incapable. We are not strong enough to defeat sin, death, the devil, the world, even our own sinful flesh. We are completely powerless to overcome these enemies, but Christ has overcome them for us by laying down his life.

And he has ransomed us, he has redeemed us from those strong hands, and he has set us free. So they shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of Yahweh, over the grain, the wine, the oil, over the young of the flock and the herd.

Their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old will be married. I will turn their mourning into joy.

I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow. I will feast the soul of the priest with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord. There's hope. In the darkness of Advent, pink now has come across the sky.

There's hope. He's heard our pleas for mercy, and he has answered us with forgiveness, mercy, and a new world. Is it any wonder then that today the assigned psalm is Psalm 126. Here's what it says. When the Lord restored the fortunes of Jacob, we were like those who dream.

You see, it's kind of that picture, like what am I looking at? This is too good to be true. Pinch me. Am I sleeping? Is this a dream? But the reality is this, that all of these good things that God has promised, they are not a dream.

This is the reality of the day that we will wake up in when Christ returns. Then our mouth was filled then with laughter, our tongue with shouts of joy. And they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.

The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad. So restore our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the Negev. Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy. Sow your repentance with tears today.

Christ returns that sowing with the reaping of the shouts of joy. He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for the sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. Rejoice in the Lord always.

How could I not? Again I say rejoice. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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