Sermon
for Advent 2, December 7, 2025
Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
By his great mercy he gave us a new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Amen.
Romans
15:4-13 4Indeed,
whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that,
through patient endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we would
have hope. 5And may God, the source of patient endurance and encouragement,
grant that you agree with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, 6so
that with one mind, in one voice, you may glorify the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. 7For this
reason, accept one another as Christ also accepted you to the glory of
God. 8For I am saying that
Christ became a servant of those who are circumcised for the sake of God’s
truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs. 9He also did this so that the
Gentiles would glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: “For this reason I
will praise you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name.” 10And again it says: “Rejoice, you
Gentiles, with his people.” 11And
again: “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples give him
praise.” 12And again Isaiah
says: “There will be a Root of Jesse, and he is the one who will rise up to
rule the Gentiles; on him the Gentiles will place their hope.” 13Now may the God of hope fill you
with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow
with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (EHV)
Overflow
with hope for Christ accepted you.
Dear
fellow redeemed,
The Advent season is a time of
preparation. Most often, we think of
preparing to welcome the Baby, Jesus, as we celebrate His arrival in the manger
at Bethlehem. At the same time, we are
really preparing to meet Jesus face to face when He returns in glory to judge
the world. At Jesus’ first Advent, He
came in humility, poverty, and meekness to live in our flesh as a servant and
to effect salvation for all people. The
next time Jesus comes, He will arrive in all the pomp and circumstance of the
heavenly King. He will sit on His throne
of glory to judge the world. This is
what we are preparing for in Advent.
In
truth, this is exactly why God gave us the Bible, to prepare us to meet Him
face to face in glory. At the creation,
mankind was perfectly in harmony with God.
We had no sin, no difference of opinion, no alternative desire, and no
reason to hide from God nor for God to turn His face away from us. That all changed with the fall into sin. Still, God had His plan in place to restore
us into the holiness that will allow us to be in His presence for eternity.
Here,
Paul writes about how God has restored to us the hope of salvation and eternal
life. By the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, God is described as “the source of patient endurance and
encouragement.” Imagine that amazing
love and kindness displayed for all mankind.
Once sin entered the world, all people were left without hope, without
love, without any reason to go on, without any chance to be with God in peace. However, God sent Jesus to accomplish
reconciliation so that you Overflow with hope for Christ accepted you.
In
our day, many people claim to be spiritual but not religious. What they want is a silent god who agrees
with them no matter what they desire or believe. Yet, such a god is powerless to save, unable to
answer prayer, to defend the helpless and weak, to heal, or to do any of the
other amazing things God continually does for us, whether we believe in Him or
not. What silent idol could make it
rain, or keep the sun shining? What
silent god could give life? Our God does
all this and so much more on a daily basis.
However,
on top of all that, the God who actually did create this world and bestow on us
the breath of life, spoke with power and authority through His prophets,
apostles, and evangelists. Through His
prophets, God foretold the birth of a Savior and much about how we could
recognize Him. By His generous grace and
kindness, God chose people to believe in Him and to live demonstrating for the
world His ability to save. The Children
of Israel weren’t chosen by God to be His people because of any merit or praiseworthy
behavior. In fact, in many cases, they
demonstrated the lack of faith in God that has so troubled most people.
At
the same time, remember how Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, was rescued
from spiritual darkness; “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as
righteousness.” (Romans 4:3) God
spoke His great promises to Abraham, and Abraham believed. Dear friends, God speaks to you and me in His
Bible. No, we don’t get to hear God
speak to us in some surreal voice. God
doesn’t meet us at a burning bush in the wilderness as He did with Moses. Instead, God has the very practical solution
of recording His message of hope in a book to be shared for all the rest of the
history of the world.
By
the miracle of divine verbal inspiration, we have the saving Word. We have the law that condemns us and makes us
realize our need for a Savior, and we have the Gospel which shows us the Savior
God sent, teaches us all Jesus did to rescue us from darkness and condemnation,
and empowers saving faith in Jesus to grow in those who hear the Word and
believe it.
Across
our world, today, there are almost countless divisions among people who claim
to be Christian, and likewise countless other religions that claim faith in a
different god, or no god at all.
However, there is only one God who speaks from the heavenly realms, and
there is only one God who saves. Jesus
openly declared, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through
me. If you know me, you would also know
my Father.” (John 14:6-7) All
religions other than the parts of Christianity that truly teach Jesus as the
One and Only Savior lead to eternal death and damnation prepared for the devil
who started all this trouble.
Knowing
that we have forgiveness and true salvation only through faith in Jesus, Paul
writes here, “And may God, the source of patient endurance and
encouragement, grant that you agree with one another in accordance with Christ
Jesus, so that with one mind, in one voice, you may glorify the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There are
many so-called ecumenical movements that attempt to have fellowship without
agreement in doctrine. Yet, I ask; Is
Christ divided? Can Jesus possibly speak
two different truths? Not hardly. Instead, we have “the knowledge of the
truth that conforms to godliness, based on the hope of eternal life, which God,
who cannot lie, promised before time began.” (Titus 1:1-2)
Now,
God certainly wants the people He calls to believe in Jesus to be in complete
agreement with each other, but it has to begin with agreeing with His holy
Word. God never lies or deceives. Rather than imagining a god who doesn’t speak
or one who is flexible concerning truth, our God demands perfect allegiance to
Him and to His Word. Thankfully, dear
friends, this too Jesus lived for us. By
Jesus’ perfect trust in His Father’s will, and by His perfect obedience to all
the law, Jesus has provided the righteousness we need to stand in God’s
presence when our time on this earth shall end.
Furthermore,
we did nothing to gain this great faith, but faith and salvation are granted to
us by God’s choice and by the power of His Spirit in Word and Sacrament. Through the power of the Gospel, Jesus’
perfect life is credited to us through faith, and Jesus’ sacrificial death on
the cross bearing the sins of the world gives us sure and certain hope of
restored harmony with God. The Holy
Spirit tells us:
There is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ
Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and
death. Indeed, what the law was unable
to do, because it was weakened by the flesh, God did, when he sent his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh to deal with sin. God condemned sin in his flesh, so that the
righteous decree of the law would be fully satisfied in us who are not walking
according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
(Romans 8:1-4)
Because
of everything the Bible tells us, and especially because of all Jesus has done
to rescue us from the condemnation we deserved, we have every reason to praise
God and to celebrate here and eternally for His saving mercy and grace. Our text ends with Paul’s sincere desire that
we never take this blessing for granted.
He wrote, “Now may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and
peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power
of the Holy Spirit.”
What
a marvelous prayer of one believer for another!
Remember, the Holy Spirit caused Paul to write these words. Therefore, God, Himself, desires that you
believe His Word and never doubt. For
that trust in His Word, you are given eternal reason to believe. No matter how the world around us might ridicule,
condemn, or even kill us, we have salvation that cannot be taken away. Our God has spoken His promises of
forgiveness and peace. This Advent
season, as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ birth, be prepared to rejoice at His
return, for our merciful God has won your forgiveness and salvation, chose you
out of all the masses of people on earth to believe in His Son, our Savior, and
granted that saving faith to you through His Word in the Gospel and the
cleansing flood of Baptism.
Dear
friends, continue to read your Bible, study your catechism that summarizes its
truths, and by the power of the Holy Spirit in God’s Word, Overflow with
hope for Christ accepted you. Amen.
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