Midweek Advent I
Manifested in His Word…
through PREACHING!
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! The first verses of tonight’s reading form a very long sentence.
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the
faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with
godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before
the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the
preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior…
For tonight, we will take up only one kernel idea that God has nestled into
these Words. The kernel idea for tonight is this: “eternal life, which God…
manifested in His Word through the preaching.”
Dear Christian friends,
Luther’s explanation to the Third Commandment has always troubled me a bit.
What is the Third Commandment? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise
preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, gladly hear and learn it (Small
Catechism).
Why would Luther place preaching before the Word of God? Shouldn’t we have
God’s Scriptures first, saying instead, “We should fear and love God so that we
do not despise His Word and its preaching…” But that is not how the catechism
reads, and that is not how countless generations of Lutheran children have been
taught. We have been taught “that we do not despise preaching and His Word.”
In tonight’s reading, God Himself places a very high emphasis upon preaching.
Here God speaks about “eternal life… manifested in His Word THROUGH THE
PREACHING.” These Words make it sounds as if God intends for His Scriptures,
first and foremost, to be preached.
• That does NOT mean it is wrong or sinful for Christians to read God’s
Bible in personal devotions, or to teach the Scriptures to their children at
home or in Sunday School!
• God is simply saying that something very important happens to you when
you hear the faithful preaching of His Word. What happens to you? God’s gift of
eternal life gets manifested—revealed, disclosed, exhibited, made plain, opened
and proclaimed—personally to you! Listen again to God’s Words: “eternal life…
manifested in His Word through preaching.”
These amazing Words from God—“eternal life… manifested in His Word through
preaching”—these amazing Words from God promise great benefits to all of us.
There are benefits here for me, whom God has sent to preach in this pulpit, and
there are also benefits here for you, whom God has called and gathered to hear
the preaching that comes from this pulpit.
• The benefit for me is comfort and consolation, in view of my sinful
condition. Tonight’s reading is the letter to Titus, where God outlines the
sort of qualifications that a man ought to have if he intends to be what God
calls an elder, and overseer, and God’s steward. (All these are different names
for pastors.) Yet many of the qualifications outlined here describe very well
what I am not. Praise be to God that I am “the husband of one wife,” that my
“children are believers,” and somehow I am not “a drunkard or violent”—but
things really start to fall apart for me after that! My black shirt gets worn
over a black heart. In my person, I have nothing good to bring into this
pulpit. Yet what does God promise me in tonight’s reading? God promises me that
eternal life gets manifested—revealed, disclosed, exhibited, made plain—eternal
life gets manifested by God Himself through my preaching, despite all that I am
not! “Eternal
life, WHICH GOD… MANIFESTED in His Word through preaching.” These Words mean
that your eternal life does not depend upon my holiness! These Words mean that
eternal life comes to you because God acts miraculously through preaching; God
Himself manifests—opens and proclaims—eternal life to you through my preaching
(and perhaps in spite of my preaching). God gives eternal life to you through
my Words, even though I must continually confess my sins with you, while you
confess yours.
• Listen now to the gift that God has for you in these Words: “ETERNAL
LIFE, which God… manifested in His Word through the preaching.” With these
Words, God wants you to know and believe that a miracle is taking place for you
whenever you hear a faithful sermon preached to you. God wants you to know that
eternal life gets opened up to you and declared to you and delivered to you
through preaching. Whenever you hear God’s Words faithfully proclaimed in your
midst,
o Jesus’ forgiveness of sins comes to you. This is why Jesus said that
“repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in His name to all
nations” (Luke 24:46-47).
o Eternal life becomes eternally yours. Where there is forgiveness of
sins, there also is life and salvation! That is why Jesus says to you tonight,
“eternal life… [is] manifested in His Word through preaching.”
• Finally, there is a good benefit for all of us in these Words because
we are now in the Advent season. Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” Most of
the time, when we speak about Christ’s coming or arrival, we speak of His First
Coming in Mary’s Womb, of His Second Coming on the Last Day, and of His bodily
coming to us in the Sacrament of the Altar. Jesus wants us also to know in
tonight’s reading that He likewise comes to us through the preaching of His
Word. Jesus is the very embodiment of eternal life, and “eternal life… [is]
manifested in His Word through preaching.” These Words mean that the faithful
preaching of God’s is never merely information! Christ Himself comes to you
through the Words that are preached to you. Stated another way, Christ arrives
to you, or is advent among you, when His life-giving, miraculous Word is
preached in your midst.
Luther might have been on to something when he wrote in his catechism that “We
should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word.” We
do not need to misunderstand these words, or wrongly take them to mean that
preaching is higher and more important than God’s Bible. Rather, preaching is
vitally important because it is God’s favorite way for you to use and hear and
receive the benefits of God’s Bible. Simply stated, in preaching, God reveals
and delivers eternal life to you.
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