Sermon 12182011 Advent 4

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!  Heavenly Father, as we hear from our last prophet Isaiah, may Your Words spoken through them, continue to ‘challenge’ and ‘change our hearts’.  For our preparation during this Advent season will not be complete this side of heaven, but in order for us to begin to understand this, Jesus Christ had to come in the manger to set us free.  May the stem of Jesse that sets us free enter our hearts and continue to transform us as we worship Jesus Christ Who came for all of us saints here at Emmanuel.  AMEN.

When preparing this series for Advent, I looked forward to Isaiah, the fourth prophet.  Not because, Isaiah is more important than any of the other prophets, but because, the passage Isaiah spoke rings true for our whole series.  In one of my many books that I have consulted in preparing, the Isaiah 11 passage was summarized like this, ‘An ideal age is a human dream, but a divine accomplishment.”  Hear God’s Word through Isaiah the prophet:

¹ Then a ^(A)shoot will spring from the ^(B)stem of Jesse, And a ^(C)branch from ^(D)his roots will bear fruit. 
² The ^(E)Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of ^(F)wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and ^(G)strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 
³ And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes ^(H)see, 
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

Isaiah clearly speaks to us today that the one Who is coming will have wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  Each of these characteristics we see clearly in the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  For Isaiah’s message is not muddy, but clear, Jesus Christ is the branch that bears fruit and is the One that is coming to set things right and take on human bodily form and lives the sinless life for each and every one of us.  And by doing this, our baptism into Jesus Christ, life, death and resurrection sets us free.

Now that ‘ideal age’ formerly thought to be a ‘human dream’, is a ‘divine accomplishment’ through Jesus Christ coming in a manger.  The prophets voices have been fulfilled.  For God spoke through the prophecies of Daniel, Micah, Jeremiah and Isaiah and we have heard clearly how each of these men were instruments of God speaking about the coming of Jesus Christ into this world.  Jesus purpose was clear, to save the World.  Like the summary written, ‘it is a human dream’, but God the divine accomplished this in a little manger where Jesus Christ came into the World for all of mankind and especially for us saints here at Emmanuel today.  AMEN.

Sermon 12142011 Mid-Week Advent 3

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!  Heavenly Father, as we gather this evening to hear the fulfillment of the covenant for us today, may we begin to understand it is Your gift to us.  For the gift of Your Son and our Savior through His precious Body and Blood gives us life and salvation.  In, with, under and through the Bread and Wine that is the Body and Blood of Christ God fulfills the covenant He made with us in our baptism and we are changed by our receipt of Your gift of our salvation.  As we prepare for our celebration of His Advent, may God’s gift to us change us and make us whole.  For this can only occur because of Jesus sacrifice on the Cross of Calvary for all of us Saints here at Emmanuel.  AMEN.

One of the joys of Pastoral ministry is the opportunity to meet with the Council and discuss the business of the church.  This past Sunday we met as we do monthly to discuss the day to day operations of the church and the issues that come up that we as a council have to deal with.  Well, like with most organizations, meetings can sometimes go long, and church council is no different.  But what is different is that I need these meetings, no matter how long they last, to insure I am meeting the needs of you the people of God I have been called to serve. 

Usually we meet on Tuesday’s, but this month due to schedule conflicts we met Sunday afternoon beginning at 2PM.  I told my wife, I should be home for dinner, and she was preparing a glazed ham with all the fixings.  Well, as 5:30 rolled around, I called Michele and said, go ahead and eat without me.  When I arrived home about 8:30, I found out, I was missed and I missed out on a good glazed ham dinner meal.

In tonight’s text we hear the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy of a new covenant.  The fulfillment is found in the meal that Jesus Christ institutes and shares with His disciples.  Hear again a portion of the text of Luke:

“I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶ for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷ And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; ¹⁸for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹ And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” ²⁰ And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

God’s focus for us today is this meal that Jesus Christ instituted.  It isn’t glazed ham, but the greatest meal we can partake of this side of heaven.  For, we find that from the prophets and especially Jeremiah, he foretold of this meal as our ‘new covenant in Jesus Christ Blood’ for ‘this cup is poured out for us’.  In receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, we enter into the everlasting covenant that is the forgiveness of sins and life and salvation.  When Jeremiah said the covenant would be placed on our hearts, it is fulfilled as we receive Jesus Christ precious Body and Blood on our lips.  We receive this gift that Jesus instituted on Maundy Thursday and our lives are forever changed.

Yet, as with any covenant, we are still sinful creatures and do break the covenant with God that He has made with us in and through our baptism and in our receipt of the Lord’s Supper.  But what is different is that God Who made this covenant with us, does not forget us or depart from us.  For Jeremiah tells us He that is God will remember our sin no more.  Therefore in this Paschal Meal, instituted and prepared for us by Jesus Christ, where we receive His precious Body and Blood, we will hear God’s Word clearly fulfilled from Jeremiah through Luke of remembering our sin no more when we receive this Holy Meal.  And this is why we not only can come and hear the words of forgiveness of the Gospel, but heartily eat and drink His precious Body and Blood as often as we can.   For Jesus Christ Body and Blood will strengthen us for our lives outside of the church walls.  It is meant to feed us on a regular basis, because we need it and should desire it regularly, just as much as we feed ourselves the earthly food on a daily basis three meals a day and sometimes even snacks between meals. 

This meal is not only to remind us of God’s covenant with us on our hearts, but especially during this Advent season to help us clearly hear the prophets message and its fulfillment heard in scripture and in the manger in Bethlehem and prepared for us here in church.  For Jesus meal that we “do…in remembrance of Jesus Christ” and His innocent life, death and resurrection gives us the forgiveness of sins and life and salvation for all of us Saints here at Emmanuel.  AMEN.

Sermon 12112011 Advent 3

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!  Heavenly Father, You clearly prophecy through Jeremiah and the prophets and open up to us the truth of the scripture message.  May we hear in Jeremiah’s prophecy of the new covenant how You forgive us our sins.  For this only occurs through what Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ has done on the Cross of Calvary for all of us saints here at Emmanuel.  AMEN.

For our confirmation students this year, we have required them to sign a ‘covenant’ with us.  In the covenant there are some requirements and expectations that both myself as Pastor, them as students and you as congregational members are required to fulfill.  What most of us may not realize is that we enter covenants all the time.  How about when you bought your first car?  Took out your first loan on your house?  Or got your first license, whether, driving, marriage or hunting.  Covenants are a daily part of business in the world.  We even find that in the bible covenants were used, not only between men for business dealings, but also between God and man.

Jeremiah the prophet clearly prophesies about a ‘new covenant’.  Hear his prophecy:

³¹ “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. ³³ “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ³⁴ They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

The covenant that Jeremiah prophesied impacts each and every one of us today.  Jeremiah said, “But this covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God…”  God places this covenant within us when we are baptized in the waters of baptism.  When water with Word is intimately connected, and God’s grace is showered over us, we are made God’s people and forgiven for our sins.  As God’s people we receive not only forgiveness of sins, but life and salvation brought to us through what Jesus Christ has done for all of us on the cross of Calvary.  And we clearly hear through Jeremiah, that God says, “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” 

Yet, what does it mean to be God’s people?  What does it mean to have written on our hearts, God’s law?  What does it mean for us today to be in covenant with God?  Being in covenant means we are in relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  We are in a personal relationship with God the Father Who provides for our every physical need.  We are in a personal relationship with God the Son, Who died on the Cross of Calvary to set us free from the bondage of sin.  We are in a personal relationship with God the Holy Spirit, Who calls, gathers and enlightens us daily.  This covenant is the Christian life.  It is the life we are called to lead maintaining our focus on what God did for us in the waters of baptism when He washed us clean and placed His law in our hearts.  We feel His law on our hearts when we feel sorry for our sins and return to God in our worship and confession that we are sinful creatures.

And thus, when we confess our sins, the promise God makes to us through the prophet Jeremiah becomes a personal reality.  Our sins that we carry, no matter how big or small God says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”  The freedom we receive that Jeremiah tells us about is not something that occurs irregularly, but every time we come and worship God and hear the words of absolution, I speak at the beginning of the service, where by Christ’s command and in His stead, I proclaim, “I declare unto you the entire forgiveness of all of your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

As we continue to prepare for the coming of our Lord and journey with the prophets during this Advent season, we can boldly confess our sins and receive the forgiveness offered to us through what Jesus Christ has done for us on Calvary.  For in celebrating and remembering the coming of the Christ Child in the manger, the covenant God has made with us and placed on our hearts becomes more tangible.  And we begin to understand the sacrifice Jesus made in coming in a manger to fulfill the covenant made with and for us in our baptism through Jesus Christ innocent death on Calvary for all of us saints here at Emmanuel.  AMEN.