- Dec 14, 2025
- 3 min read
A Preview of the Joy to Come - Isaiah 35:1-10
In the seasons of the Church’s year, Advent anticipates the celebration of Christmas (and much more). Today, we received a foretaste – or a little down payment – of the joy we anticipate.
In the Scripture reading we just heard – which is the Old Testament reading for this Third Sunday of Advent – the Lord, through His prophet Isaiah, gives the people of Israel a foretaste, or a sneak peak, of the salvation for which they waited. It was their own little season of Advent, as they waited for the Lord to act.
This is six-hundred-and-something B.C. Israel and Judah are in a bind. And it’s their own fault. They are facing the due consequence of their sins. God will allow worse and more powerful nations, Assyria and then Babylon, to conquer their lands and take them as captives.
This captivity was only a fraction of what their sins of thought, word, and deed deserved. But through Isaiah, the people also hear of a surprising grace: God’s wrath will come – but against their captors. God’s people, undeservedly, will be set free – treated not according to their merits, but according to God’s undeserved love.
Where there was once only devastation for them, there would now be salvation: “The dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom… the eyes of the blind shall be opened… the burning sand shall become a pool… the thirsty ground springs of water… the ransomed of the Lord shall return… everlasting joy shall be upon their heads… sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” [Isaiah 35:1-10]
Their deliverance from captivity in this world was a foretaste of the greater deliverance promised to them: One day a child would be born who would save them from their greater captors: sin itself, the grave, and everlasting hell.
To fully appreciate the joy of Christmas – and to know Christmas as the celebration of the Savior who was born – we must remember some basics about who we are and our situation:
We are not from nowhere. We are not animals, here by chance. We are human, created by God. Made in God’s image. Morally accountable. And fallen from that image. Our sin – in mind, and thought, and word, and action – is sin against God.
We are therefore captives to sin and death – and accountable to eternal punishment. There are due consequences in this life and the next, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” [Romans 3:23].
But you are recipients of surprising grace. The Son of God is born to take your place. For you, He has already done so.
God, the Son of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – was born a child on Christmas morning to take the place of man. To bear in Himself all that has gone wrong. To do for us all that needs to go right.
That child born, Jesus, God’s Son, grew from baby in the womb to man and carried the sicknesses, griefs, and weakness, belonging to every age – our whole load in full. [Isaiah 53]
And, on the cross, He carried our shame and our guilt before God. He was born to stand in for us and carry all our sin – to suffer all of God’s wrath and hell in our place. To pay it in full for you, and then rise from the dead because He finished it.
He was born in the manger, went to the cross and the tomb, and rose on the third day. He lives forever because He fully conquered sin, death, and hell by His death on the cross. You will live because He did it for you. That is God’s surprising grace.
The Savior born 2,000 years ago accomplished His mission, and, in Advent, we anticipate His return when He will put all He has done into full effect: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth – in which righteousness dwells – and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind – He will dwell with them, and they will be his people… He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore…” [Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:3-4]
(1) We prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth by remembering all He did for us. (2) We anticipate what He is soon to do when He comes again. (3) And we receive Him where He comes to us now: In His holy Word and in His Supper which we are about to celebrate. Amen.
- Dec 7, 2025
- 5 min read
[Romans 15:5-6] “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“…to Live in Such Harmony with One Another”
Of the many heartaches parents may face, one of the worst is when their adult children are not living in harmony with each other. Because they love their children, parents want siblings to get along.
The same is true of God. He loves His children. Therefore, His anger is stirred up against those who disrupt harmony in the church. God has made peace, and therefore wants you to live at peace with one another.
God’s will is what was spoken in today’s Epistle reading, in verses five and six, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Romans 14:5-6]
Such harmony glorifies God’s name and honors Christ’s blood shed for your reconciliation and redemption.
We are not, by nature, at peace with God or one another. From the time we’re born, original sin affects our will. Without having to be taught, we know how to insist on doing it our way. How to be selfish. We know how to be demanding. We know, by nature, how to get mad at our brothers and sisters for doing the same sort of things we do.
What is true of us as children should not be true as adults. But it is. And I’m talking about our maturity as Christians and how we act toward our siblings in Christ. Our baptized brothers and sisters. Our family in God’s house.
We are adult Christians. Still growing, yes – but you are the grown-ups in Christ. Your maturity in the faith means no longer treating each other according to the flare-ups of the flesh – quick to anger – quick to assume – imposing my own way – but instead treating each other according to how God has treated you in the Advent of His Son Jesus.
What has God done in Jesus? God, in sending His Son Jesus, has reconciled you to Himself and redeemed you – without you being worthy of it or asking for it.
Here was our condition (and this flesh still clings): “We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy – quarreling, speaking ill of others, lacking in courtesy – hated by others and hating one another.” [Titus 3:2-3]
And here was God’s response (and still is): “When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy.” [Titus 3:4-5]
Without our asking or wanting it, God responded by sending Jesus for our reconciliation. God came in His Son with His grace, His undeserved love: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” [2 Corinthians 5:19]
In His Son Jesus, God the Father – the one offended against by your sins - took the initiative to bless you by His grace. He gave Christ (and Christ gave Himself) for you: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” [Ephesians 1:7]
What we’ve done – what we’ve left undone – who we’ve been – who we’ve fallen short of being – when we’ve deserved the consequences, He has instead sent Jesus our Savior. Jesus has arrived with God’s grace.
And Jesus still arrives with God’s grace. When we’ve been children instead of adults, Jesus arrives with God’s grace and forgiveness. Seventy times seven times a day, He forgives. That’s Advent: He has arrived. He still arrives.
Any parent’s wish for their adult children is that they would love each other just as mom and dad loves them. God the Father’s will for you at Trinity is that you continue to love each other as He has loved you.
This means doing the daily work of putting down what comes from the flesh and taking up what comes from the Spirit: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” [Galatians 5:22-23] — “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” [1 Corinthians 13:7]. This is what His love for you looks like when you then apply it to each other.
Love does no wrong to its neighbor. “It does not insist on its own way” [1 Corinthians 13:5]. But love does endure wrongs from brothers and sisters – because your love is the love of Christ, and He endured wrongs. It wouldn’t be the love of Christ if it didn’t endure wrongs from brothers and sisters and yet still love and forgive. Rejoice to have the love of Christ in you.
Since the love God’s adult children are called to love each other with is God’s love, that love itself is therefore His work, not your own. He is forming you in His love as long as you are where the Advent of Jesus keeps happening.
He keeps coming to you in His Word and in prayer. He keeps coming to you in His Supper. He is forming His love in you when you are listening, repenting, and believing. He comes with His love; He comes forming His love in you; He brings honor to His name.
It’s to the glory and praise of parents when others see what harmony their adult children live in – when people see the family that has formed. When people see you living in harmony and in the love of Christ it helps them believe that God is good and that they might want what you have from God. It brings glory and added praise to His name.
Lastly, what God has begun in you now – which is, some days, very hidden under our flesh, but is still there, the love of Christ – God will bring it to completion in you at Christ’s final Advent. When He returns, He will complete His work as Scripture promises:
“I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” [Philippians 1:6]
“Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him.” [1 John 3:2]
Christ redeemed you and reconciled you. He continues to come and form His love in you. He will come again and complete His work in you. By His advent, we are and will be evermore His children living in harmony, to the glory of His name. Amen.
- Nov 24, 2025
- 6 min read
“They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.” Malachi 3:17-18
“And He Was Numbered with the Transgressors”
The people of Israel were speaking against God, saying, “It’s pointless to serve God, isn’t it? After all, look at the world around us: Evil doers prosper; the arrogant are blessed; those who speak against God escape unscathed. What’s the point of our repentance and our keeping of His ways? Others are just as well off.” [Malachi 3:14-15]
God points out to these grumbling Israelites that they themselves are speaking against Him. They are not trusting that God is in control. They see wrongs in their land, so they accuse God of wrong. He’s not handling it in the way and timing they believe is right.
God confronts them, “Your words have been hard against Me, says the LORD” [Malachi 3:13] “You are called to trust My way, My timing, My patience and wisdom.” Some of God’s people heard God’s correction, spoken through Malachi, as against their sin —
— “Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another” [Malachi 3:16] – about their mutual stumbling, how they had given in to unbelief regarding God’s promises and had begun to react to the world around them with a cynical heart as if there was no promise of a coming Savior.
To these who feared the Lord, God promised all the more, “On that day, I will spare you. You will see on that day the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who doesn’t” — but that distinction will be different than we or those Israelites might expect.
Malachi spoke around 430 B.C. The day that God promised through the words of Malachi was both the day of Christ’s cross and the day of Christ’s return. For us, one has come to pass, and one is yet to come.
We witness the cross of Christ in this morning’s Gospel reading [Luke 23:27-43], and at that scene of His cross we’ll see the line of that distinction between the righteous and the wicked drawn. On the ground, there are the people, their religious rulers, and the Roman soldiers. On three crosses, there are two criminal and one Christ. But again, that line of distinction is not drawn where naturally expected.
Consider what an onlooker would have seen if they happened upon the cross of Christ as we read about it today. The Son of God, in His state of humiliation, was not distinguishable from any regular man. And what kind of men get crucified? “He was numbered with the transgressors” [Isaiah 53:12]. Counted a criminal.
And there were the law-abiding citizens on the ground standing by. (Yet it was they who yelled, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” against their God and Lord who had only loved them.) And there stood the religious rulers, the experts in God’s Law, the respected rabbis of the people. The righteous. (Yet it was they who held a sham trial the night before to condemn the Lord of life). And there stood the Roman soldiers, who crucified criminals (but were themselves committing the highest crime).
By appearances, an onlooker would think they knew exactly where the line of righteousness fell – right between those people on the ground and those people on the crosses. (Though some onlookers in our world today might assume it the opposite way: that all those on crosses are righteous victims and that all who prosper are evil.) But the true line did not fall between the ground and the crosses either way.
The line, instead, is drawn in their reaction to their Savior. “The rulers scoffed at Him, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him save himself, if He is the Christ!” – “The soldiers also mocked Him… saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’” – and… “One of the criminals” who was crucified with Him “railed at Him… ‘Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” [Luke 23:32-39]
From the judge on the bench to the criminal he sentences; from the officer to the man or woman he arrests; from the rich in a house to the poor man on the subway steps; from the scholar to the uneducated; from the skilled doctor to the mentally or physically ill patient; from those on the ground to those on crosses; in every walk of life, there are those who mock their Savior Jesus. There are those who scoff at God’s love for them.
And, from the judge to the criminal, from the rich to the poor, from the scholar to the uneducated, from doctor to patient, on the ground and up on crosses, there are those who praise their Savior Jesus. Who recognize their sin and recognize their Savior. Who believe and thank God for His undeserved love. Who believe their Creator and Redeemer. Who fear Him as Lord and trust Him as Savior.
We see at the cross what it means to “fear, love, and trust” in our God and Savior Jesus – not from a perfect or sinless man – not from a man with his own righteousness to be proud of – but from the other criminal up there next to Jesus, who said to the first, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?” He knew his own sins: “We indeed [are suffering] justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.” And he knew His Savior. He prayed, “Jesus, remember me when You come into your kingdom.” [Luke 23:40-42]
That criminal on the cross is our example. He knew himself and did not deny that he was wrong. He could pray with King David, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight” [Psalm 51:3-4]. And he could pray with King David, “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities” [Psalm 51:8-9] – “Let me have Paradise, Lord, because I know you came to save people like me.”
And Jesus responded, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” [Luke 23:43].
The line drawn, the distinction made, between the righteous and the wicked was drawn between this criminal and the other, between this criminal and those on the ground, because man is saved by faith. Man is justified – counted righteous – by faith in Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice. [Romans 3:23-25]
Rich and poor, high and low, respected and despised in the world. The line of faith cuts right through all those lines. At the cross of Christ, here is a criminal who believed. Also, one of the soldiers will believe and will say, when all is said and done, “Truly this was the Son of God!” [Matthew 27:54]. And two Pharisees, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, believe and prepare Jesus’ body for burial and give Him a tomb [John 19:38-39]
This same line is drawn every Sunday when we gather, from all walks of life, into one place, as one body, confessing our sin and receiving His forgiveness, hearing His Word because we believe it is the Word of our Savior, and praising and thanking Him because we believe Him.
This is not our own doing but God’s: “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].
His deliverance and salvation does change us, transforms us for the better, and makes us people who can be distinguished from this world by the life we are beginning to live, by His power, according to His commandments. And we know that what God has only begun in us now will be brought to completion on the day of Christ, when Jesus comes again [Philippians 1:6].
And, finally, we do not despair or scoff at God for the evils that go on in the world around us. We know our own sins and His forgiveness. And we know His promise that all things will be brought to light. Evil, which mocks the Lord, will be exposed and put away forever when He returns. Humbly, knowing we don’t deserve such goodness, we nevertheless, with confidence, “are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” [2 Peter 3:13]
We do not grumble, but, by faith, we thank Jesus for all He has done so far and for all He will finish when He comes again. Amen.
