2013 Advent Midweek Worship: The Trinity in Advent The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Our Advent midweek worship will focus upon that blessing written by God’s apostle Paul, which you can see on the cover of your bulletin, “the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit are among you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). We should think of these Words as God’s New Testament explanation or elaboration of that earlier blessing He spoke through Aaron the Priest, which blessing you know well and regularly hear at the end of worship: The LORD bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26). When Aaron the Priest spoke this earlier blessing upon the people of God, the living, creative Name of God was quite literally laid upon the people (Numbers 6:27). Through the speaking of Words, God’s name became the people’s clothing, so to speak, and their identity. Through Aaron’s blessing, God’s name enveloped the people and wrapped itself around them, so that they were in, with and under the eternal name of God and all its power. Paul’s blessing does the same thing for us. That is to say, you should believe that, when you hear the Words, “the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” these Words indicate that our Lord’s grace is quite literally and personally yours, coming upon you and wrapping around you, beneath and above you. Why is this important? It is important because of that first Word in the blessing, GRACE. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ… is among you all.” GRACE means the wrath of our Lord Jesus Christ is NOT with any of you, even though each and every one of us deserves nothing but wrath and punishment on account of our sins. Grace is the opposite of wrath. Grace indicates a favorable disposition. Synonyms for grace include such words as kindness, favor, mercy, benevolence, and clemency. Grace not only indicates God’s attitude toward you on account of Christ, but Paul’s blessing also announces that God’s grace has come very near to you—so near that it rests on your head and touches your skin and fills the space all around you. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ…” is the bubble wrap that your Lord has used to insulate you against every accusation and indictment that your ancient enemy, the devil, might bring against you. Grace is what moved our Lord to · become incarnate among us, born of the Virgin Mary. By His grace, our Lord Jesus Christ did not consider our estate and condition too far beneath Him, but He humbled Himself into our nothingness, for our salvation. You might say that, while His grace envelops us, the wrath we deserve enveloped Him and drove Him to the cross. · suffer under Pontius Pilate without complaint, to die, and to be buried, thus burying eternally all our sin and guilt and rebellion against God. · rise from the dead and later to ascend, thus filling all things. · come to us here and now by the power of His spoken Word. Grace so inhabits that Word that we each may rest peacefully every night with “a pure heart and a clear conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). It might seem strange to you that Paul begins his blessing with “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This might seem strange because we normally think of the Father as the first person of the Trinity. Because of this, it would perhaps seem more natural to begin this blessing with the Love of God. But Paul’s blessing begins with the Second Person of the Trinity, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul has done this because our Lord Jesus is that one person of the Trinity who makes the others known. The only way we know about our dear Father is the presence of the Son among us. (Where there is a Son, there must be a Father.) So too, the only knowledge we have of the Holy Spirit is through that knowledge which God the Son has given. All this simply means is that, when we want to see God, we must look at our Lord Jesus. And Jesus is a good place for us to look, because Jesus abounds and overflows with grace. That grace is now yours. It has been laid upon you. It is all around you and it will not let you go. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
