Sermon for the Last
Sunday of the Church Year, November 21,2021
Give thanks to the Lord, for He
is good; His mercy endures forever. Let
us rejoice and be glad in it.
Isaiah 65:17-19
17Watch this! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be
remembered. They will not come to
mind. 18Instead, rejoice and
celebrate forever, because of what I am creating. Watch this!
I am about to create Jerusalem to be a source of gladness, and her
people will be a source of joy. 19I
also will be glad because of Jerusalem, and I will rejoice over my people. The sound of weeping will not be heard in her
again, nor will the sound of crying. (EHV)
Watch and rejoice! Jesus ends all weeping!
Dear friends in Christ,
Pastoral
friends have suggested that this Sunday could be called Ultimate Sunday,
because on this Last Sunday of the Church year, we are looking at what lies
ahead for us in Christ Jesus. This
morning is also our harvest festival in which we begin our thanksgiving for all
that God has provided for our earthly lives.
Both are appropriate ways to consider the harvest that will soon take
place because our Lord has prepared everything necessary for our eternal dwelling,
our ultimate home. So, as we consider
the words of our Lord this morning, I tell you, Watch and rejoice! Jesus ends all weeping!
Our text says, “Watch this!” In the Hebrew, it is literally, “Behold
Me!” The idea is that we should keep
watching the Lord for the amazing things He accomplishes for us. In heaven, time is irrelevant, therefore God
speaks in the present what will come to pass hundreds of years in the
future. When Adam and Eve fell into sin
and God promised to send a Savior, that promise was already as good as done in
heaven. Nothing would ever alter God’s
plan to restore His people.
The Lord says, “I am about to create new
heavens and a new earth.” Again,
time has no relevance in heaven.
Therefore, this promise was true immediately. God was working out His plan of salvation for
all who would believe in His Son. Every
detail would be accomplished according to God’s will. That means that history on earth had to
happen just as God had determined.
Kingdoms rise and fall. There are
wars and rumors of war. Through it all,
God’s plans proceed without delay. Then,
when the time had come, God sent His Son to win our rescue from this veil of
tears.
Jesus entered this world as a seemingly
helpless infant. Yet, already from the
moment of conception, He was perfectly holy, and though holding all the power
and authority of God, He set aside that power to be one of us, and as one of
us, Jesus lived in perfect humility, perfect trust in His Father’s will,
perfect obedience to all the law God had laid down for mankind, and perfect
submission to the role His Father had assigned Him. Thus, at the appropriate time His Father had determined,
Jesus submitted Himself to the torment of the cross as He laid down His holy
life for your sins and mine.
In the eyes of the world, Jesus’ death on the
cross looks like a tragedy, or at least, a failure. In contrast, though, from the throne room of
heaven, St. John was shown that this is the victory over the devil’s rebellion.
(Revelation 5:6-12) From that moment
forward, the Lord Jesus continues making preparations for our entrance into His
eternal dwelling place. The troubles and
trials of this world continue until the Lord returns, but only so that many
more can be made acceptable for that heavenly kingdom through faith in Jesus.
That brings us to today’s celebration. On this last Sunday of the Church year, we
look into the mansions of our God. There
we see what He has in store for us.
There we see the joy that is ahead for all who walk in true faith. In the new heavens and new earth, “The
former things will not be remembered.
They will not come to mind.”
The sufferings and sorrows of living in a world afflicted with sin will
no longer trouble us. The trials,
hardships, illnesses, pains, and even death will never cross our minds again,
for God will have restored us to that perfect relationship of fellowship with
Him that Adam and Eve enjoyed before sin entered the scene. Today, we Watch and rejoice! For Jesus ends all weeping!
Here on earth, Jesus told Nicodemus, “No one
has ascended into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of
Man, who is in heaven.” (John 3:13)
Our Savior knows the joy and the glory that awaits us because He came
down from heaven for the express purpose of preparing us to return there with
Him. On our own, we couldn’t comprehend
or imagine what needed to be done to reconcile us with God. On our own, we truly had no knowledge of the
glory of heaven and the perfect holiness we will enjoy there. However, the true God-Man who inhabits heaven
and earth promised His followers, “In my Father’s house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would
have told you. I am going to prepare a
place for you. And if I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may
also be where I am.” (John 14:2-3)
The Lord declared through Isaiah, “Watch
this! I am about to create Jerusalem to
be a source of gladness, and her people will be a source of joy.” Jesus’ sacrifice in Jerusalem becomes the
“foundation of peace’ for all who will believe in Him. It is Christ’s holy life and sacrifice in our
place that has won peace between God and the world. Through Jesus, we are counted righteous. Through the faith the Holy Spirit gives us in
Jesus, we become children of God. And
still there is more reason for us to be glad.
By Christ’s intervention on our behalf, we are not only welcome in
heaven, but we become a source of joy to God.
He honors Himself by being our Rescuer and Deliverer. Therefore, Watch and rejoice! Jesus ends all weeping!
The blessed relationship God intended when He
created mankind in the beginning is restored to all who believe. Remember Jesus’ assurance that “There is
joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke
15:10) Throughout history, God has
called people to return to Him desiring that they repent of their rebellion
against Him, so that they could dwell in the kindness of His care.
It might sound strange to us, but God the
Father was glad to sacrifice His Son on that cross at Jerusalem because by the
life and death of His Son, God defeated Satan and rescued all who would believe
in Jesus. Here, God declares, “I also
will be glad because of Jerusalem, and I will rejoice over my people. The sound of weeping
will not be heard in her again, nor will the sound of crying.” We
know that there is much crying at the death of a loved one. Therefore, we cannot imagine how God can
rejoice to sacrifice His Son for sinners such as you and me. Yet, even when Israel rebelled against God
with extreme idolatry, God swore with an oath, “As I live, declares the Lord
God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked
turn from their way and live. Turn back,
turn back from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?”
(Ezekiel 33:11)
When His disciples returned to Him rejoicing at
the success of their first experience telling their neighbors about Jesus,
Jesus told them, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice
that your names have been written in heaven.” (Luke 10:20) Seven hundred years earlier, God had encouraged
His people, saying, “Rejoice and celebrate forever, because of what I am
creating.” For, “The sound of
weeping will not be heard in her again, nor will the sound of crying.”
Throughout the Church year, we follow the story
of our salvation. We go from looking
forward with great anticipation to the fulfillment of God’s promises, to
celebrating the birth of the Christ Child, watching Him grow and work in the
world, then seeing all Jesus did for us in His life, death, and
resurrection. We then learn that through
Baptism, we are united with Christ both in His death and in His resurrection so
that we may live a new life. (Romans 6:4)
We continue on through the second half of the Church year with
instruction for how to live Christian lives in this world of sin and
rebellion. Now, at the end of the year,
we are reminded of what lies ahead.
Because of the salvation our God has won for us through his Son and worked
in us by the power of His Holy Spirit through the Gospel in Word and Sacrament,
the gates of heaven are opened to us.
The troubles and sorrows of this life will no longer weigh us down to
despair.
Unlike those who have no trust in the God of
our salvation, we have a future. We have
a sure and certain hope of something better than the trauma of death. We know that our Redeemer lives and because
Jesus lives, we shall live also. We
rejoice in company with St. John, who when seeing a vision of what Jesus has
done for us, heard a voice from heaven declare, “God’s dwelling is with
people. He will dwell with them, and
they will be His people. God Himself will be with them, and He will be their
God. He will wipe away every tear from
their eyes. There will be no more death
or sorrow or crying or pain, because the former things have passed away.” (Revelation
21:3-4)
Dear friends, we gather here this morning
knowing that our sins are many and we are unworthy on our own to stand before
God. Yet, we also know that we have a
great Savior, who lived for us, died for us, and rose victorious over sin,
death, and the devil, and because of our Jesus, we have been counted forgiven, declared
innocent in the courts of our God, and dear children who will inherit eternal
life with our beloved Brother who gave His all so that we might live with Him
forever. We don’t know how much longer
this world will exist, but we know with sure and certain confidence that Jesus
is coming again to take us home to dwell with Him forever in Paradise. Watch and rejoice! Jesus ends all weeping! Amen.
The peace of God
which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto
life everlasting. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment