This sermon was to be preached December 19, 2012, however, due to the Blizzard, services were cancelled.
May the
words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight,
O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Let us
pray! Gracious ruler descended from a
royal line. The names of Your ancestors
connect You not only with the royal line, but with the stories of old. These stories are a connection to the people,
but also to the promise of Your coming to set the people free. May we understand we have been baptized into
this line and our redemption draws near as we come and celebrate Your birth in
the manger for all of mankind, especially all of us saints gathered here at
Emmanuel this evening. AMEN.
Tonight
we have heard one of the most cherished short stories of scripture. The story is of Ruth, who takes her rightful
place in the royal line that leads directly to Jesus Christ. Ruth’s story is clearly one not only of heart
ache, loss and pain, but more so a story of how one woman remained dedicated to
her mother-in-law Naomi. This model for
us tonight clearly is of the devotion of one woman to a family that she has
married into, but more so how Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of
devotion of God for His people Israel.
Throughout
the Old Testament there are bread crumbs of the coming Messiah, whether from
Genesis and the Fall of Adam and Eve, to Isaac and Jacob and the promised
Messiah, to Obadiah and the prophets speaking of the last days. Clearly God in scripture has placed gems in
the midst of the story of salvation foretelling of the coming Messiah. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the
prophecy with the Royal Line that can be traced from Adam, through David and
Solomon to Joseph.
But of
what consequence is a royal line for us tonight? The significance is not only in the ability
to trace Jesus ancestors, like a lot of people do today on sites like
Ancestory.com, the significance is the fulfillment of the promise of God for
each of us today. In, through and by our
baptism in the font, when we were made heirs of the kingdom of God, we have
been grafted into the royal line with, for and by the King of Kings, Jesus
Christ. When the water intimately
connected with the Word was poured over our head or that we were immersed in,
God made us heirs of eternal life. Yes
we have an earthly father, but now, by God’s greatest mystery, we now have a
connection to the royal line of Jesus Christ.
This
fulfillment of the promise of God in, through and by the Messiah and the royal
line of patriarchs and matriarchs enables us today to understand we here in
Goodland, Kansas are not just Lutherans, not just Christians, we are grafted
into the royal line of Jesus Christ. The
promises made to Israel as they left Egypt.
The promises made to and fulfilled through David of making a
kingdom. The promises made Uzziah and
Ahab and all of the descendants is fulfilled in each of us tonight.
Therefore,
as a royal people, descended by and through Water and Blood, fed with the
precious gift of Jesus Christ Body and Blood, we no longer are strangers in
this land, but heirs of eternal life through Jesus Christ sacrifice for all of
mankind. And the beginning of the
sacrifice occurs on bended knee around a manger, where Jesus Christ was placed,
because there was no room in the inn. So
let us who are grafted into the Royal Line of the King of Kings, venture to
Bethlehem to pay homage to a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a
manger. For Jesus Christ, our Royal
Priest and King comes into this World to set all of mankind including all of us
saints gathered here at Emmanuel free from our sins because of His great love
for all of us. AMEN.
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