Victory comes through the hearing of the Word.

 

Sermon for Advent 1, November 29, 2020

Grace to you and peace from the Faithful Witness who is, who was, and who is coming.  Amen.

Revelation 3:20-22  ²⁰“Look, I stand at the door and I am knocking.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in with him and dine with him, and he with me.  ²¹To the one who is victorious I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.  ²²Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (EHV)

Victory comes through the hearing of the Word.

Dear repentant friends,

            The apostle John was charged with writing messages to seven congregations in the Roman province of Asia, in what is present day Turkey.  The words of our text are taken from the seventh letter, written to the city of Laodicea.  I sometimes fear that the condition of Christianity in our country most closely resembles that of the congregation at Laodicea.  That’s not a good thing. 

Jesus describes a congregation that considered themselves rich and healthy, and needing nothing, but they were anything but that in spiritual things.  In fact, the Lord describes them as poverty-stricken and dying, declaring them lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, so He was ready to spit them out of His mouth.  That is a brutal rebuke against people who were Christian, but who had allowed earthly prosperity to dull their faith to the point that faith was nearly extinguished.

Neither hot nor cold; food is best served hot or cold, lukewarm brings the danger of rapid spoilage.  Every holiday, we hear the warning that we should beware of letting our leftovers sit too long on the table lest they spoil and cause food poisoning.  Lukewarm spirituality is no different.  People who grow complacent and satisfied with life are often not so sure of their need for the Savior.

The point of this seventh letter, though, was not to bring condemnation.  It is, rather, our loving Savior’s call to repentance.  Those He loves, our Lord chastises.  He is not ready to give up on His children so easily as a less loving god might.  To such lukewarm Christians, Jesus said, “I rebuke and discipline those whom I love.  So take this seriously and repent.” (Revelation 3:19)  Then He speaks the invitation of our text to remind His people that Victory comes through the hearing of the Word.

Jesus declared, “Look, I stand at the door and I am knocking.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will go in with him and dine with him, and he with me.”  There are many of our world who want to twist this statement into some synergistic condition of faith.  In other words, they say Jesus will do His part through the work of the Holy Spirit, but you have to do your part by opening the door to Him, or inviting Him into your heart.  The words of our text have none of that intent. 

The Bible is clear that we do nothing to contribute to our salvation.  Before the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we were dead, blind, enemies of God who had no intention or ability to come near to God or even to hear His invitation.  This text is addressed to those who are already Christians, but who through indifference, or sinful living, have pushed their dearest Friend out the door.  The Friend who has loved them beyond all measure, to the very last drop of His blood and His own life sacrificed to the grave was pushed aside and forgotten, and this is why Jesus calls for their repentance and pleads to enter their lives again, so that in hearing His Word, their faith would regain its vigor.

In our world, it is so very common for Christian churches to forget that repentance is necessary.  Some would rather focus on helping one’s neighbor or welcoming any stranger and any strange sin into their midst.  The thought is why call people to repentance when it might drive someone away?  Yet, it doesn’t help anyone to tell them sin is okay.  Making light of sin is like seeing someone staggering blindfolded toward the edge of a cliff, but instead of turning that one away from danger, putting a sandwich in his hand and telling him to have a nice trip.

Others take the truth that God loves His people and twist it into a false notion that the Lord will never allow His friends to suffer, so they pretend that if things don’t go exactly like you want them to, you must not be doing the right things to keep God happy with you, which is nothing more than one of the devil’s oldest lies.

Therefore, the warning, here, is that we do not turn Jesus away.  We are to seek Him where He promises to be found—in His Word, and in the Sacraments He ordained.  There is a danger in the present epidemic.  Many who began staying away from church out of respect for the safety of their neighbors may find it easy to become complacent about hearing God’s Word.  Others may grow so comfortable staying home and watching a service from the comfort of the couch, they may not feel the need for the blessing Christ intends to give us through His holy body and blood in the Supper.

Dear friends, there are times when common sense tells us to stay home, but we dare not become indifferent to gathering with the body of Christ which is His Church on earth.  The writer to the Hebrews said, “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have the habit of doing.  Rather, let us encourage each other, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)  When the conditions of this pandemic allow us to return to a more complete gathering, we must do so.  And while we operate under these restrictions, we dare not turn away from our Savior or each other by indifference, but rather, access the Word of our Lord by whatever means available: the worship service and Bible study offered online and in print, personal devotions and Bible study, call your pastor to bring you the Lord’s Supper privately, seek him out for comfort from the Word, and share with your friends and dear ones the assuring promises of a Savior who lived and died for them and for all.

Jesus said, “To the one who is victorious I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.”  The victory is ours by faith.  Just as in Old Testament Israel, the victory is always won when the Lord fights the war.  We win, not by great works of valor, but by hearing the Word of our Lord through which the Holy Spirit works in us the faith to humbly bow before the Lord in repentance for our sin and indifference and then trust that our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. 

Remember the account of the Pharisee and tax collector.  The Pharisee bragged before God about how much he was serving, but the Lord held that man in contempt, not because he shouldn’t serve, but rather because his trust was in his own works and not in the holy Son of God.  The tax collector, on the other hand, knew he had nothing to offer, so he threw himself before God’s mercy, and he was justified by faith informed by the Word of God.  Thus, Victory comes through the hearing of the Word.

The people of Laodicea likely assumed that because they had been so well-blessed materially, that surely they must have been doing some things right for God to be so generous with them.  From that mistake, they went down the path of life indifferent to the Savior who was pleading for them to return to Him in faith and repentance. 

The Advent season is, likewise, a call to repentance in preparation to meeting our Savior, both at the manger at Christmas time, and in person on Judgment Day.  To walk before the Lord on our own merit merits disaster, because we will never measure up on our own to the holiness of God’s Son.  Yet, God loves us as His chosen people, so He calls us to repent continually and to trust continually in the love He has shown to us in His Son, Jesus. 

Jesus left His Father’s side in heaven to come to earth to become one of us to live for us in perfect humility and obedience.  Jesus had no need to repent for He never once went against His Father’s will, yet Jesus bore the sins of the world and was punished with exile from His Father in our place, so that we could be reconciled with the One who loved us before the beginning of time.

“Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  What a graceful invitation to any and all.  This thought is repeated in each of the seven letters.  By hearing what the Spirit says, faith is worked in the penitent sinner giving life and peace.  “This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)  We should well stand with those who observed Jesus’ life on earth, for “They were amazed beyond measure and said, ‘He has done everything well.’” (Mark 7:37)  Even in rebuking the indifferent, Jesus comes to us in love.  He wants only to save those who were lost, and to keep those in His loving care that He has already found, so Victory comes through the hearing of the Word.

Dear friends, as troubling as this year has been, we still live in such luxury that the danger of complacency is ever present.  We have such peace in our land that the threat of death is somewhat a new fear for many.  That is one reason why this pandemic is such big news.  We don’t like to face death.  However, death isn’t new.  It is the result of sin, and on our own, we should fear the One who has power over life and death.  Still, for the Christian believer, that fear is not terror but awesome respect for the One who holds our eternal lives in the palm of His hand, that is Jesus.

Jesus is the Author and Giver of life.  As John said, “Through him everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:3-4)  This Man who came down from heaven, who in the beginning gave life to all living things, gave His human life so that you and I may live and never die.  That is the promise of God’s Word and the sure and certain hope of Christianity. 

The Gospel tells us all that Jesus has done to make us right with God above.  It tells us how He lived and died and rose again for you and for me.  It tells us that our sins are forgiven, now and forever.  It tells us of the Human God became so that we could enter the divine.  It tells us that Victory comes through the hearing of the Word.  Therefore, hear that the Good News is ours for Jesus’ sake for hearing it with faith brings your eternal victory.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.