"The Coming of Our Lord: He Has Come" Midweek in Advent1 December 3, 2015 John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 Advent is a time of waiting. It is a time of preparation. The word Advent means ‘coming’ and in the season of Advent we focus on the coming of our Lord. When the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth concerning their misuse and abuse of the Lord’s Supper he went to the words of the Lord to underscore that it is the Lord’s Supper we celebrate, not our own meal. The Lord is coming to us in His Meal we partake of. That being the case, we ought to be prepared for it. In other words, we ought to be prepared for Him coming to us. So Paul says something quite amazing in 1Corinthians 11:26 in the course of about twenty words: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” Paul speaks of the Lord’s Supper as something in which the Lord comes right then and there because of what He did when He came at Bethlehem and that this is something we do until He comes again in glory. In Advent there is particular emphasis on the coming of our Lord, but, really, the entire Church Year and the entire Christian life is one in which we are focused on the coming of our Lord. Because He has come to accomplish salvation He comes to deliver that salvation until He comes again in glory. During our midweek Advent worship services we will focus on each of these, beginning with the first one, He has come. In the Gospel according to John Jesus is shown to be the divine Word and His coming is described this way: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:14. Why is the Lord referred to as the Divine Word? Because it is the Word of God that is living and active. God brought the world into being by His Word. God brought life into existence by speaking it into existence. When He sent His Son He did so by sending Him in the flesh. The word became flesh. The Word dwelt among us. Our Lord has come, and He has come as one of us. Our Lord has come, and He has come right where we’re at, here on this earth. God created people and He walked with them in the Garden of Eden. Sin changed all that. Sin separates us from God. There is no more walking with Him, there is only shame. We cannot escape this sinful world and ascend to Him. So He came down to us. He has come to save us. Though at the heart of the salvation of God, the cross isn’t only the simple action of what God has done for us in coming to us. As John says, it is that Jesus came and dwelt among us. The Word became flesh. God, who is spirit, became flesh and bones, as we have flesh and bones. He was born, as we are born. He lived, as we live. But though He was born, He was born without the sinful nature we are born with. We are born into sin, inheriting the sinful nature of our parents. Jesus was born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was born without sin and lived a holy life. He dwelt among us living the holy life we ought to have lived. He has come to do what we are unable to do. He has come to live in consonance with the Father’s will. Of course, the love of God is exhibited most clearly in the suffering and death of our Lord. He suffered in the flesh not only the beating and crucifying but also the punishment for sin and guilt. Jesus took in His body what we rightly ought to have taken. He came for this. If our preparation for our celebration of Christmas is for anything it is for this. Jesus came, He had life, He lived, for this. He came in order to die. He came in order to suffer for the sin of the world. As we shall see in our continued look in our midweek Advent worship services, this coming of Jesus to earth in order to go to the cross is at the heart of our Lord’s coming to us. As we ought to see, not just in Advent, but throughout life, that Jesus has come means that He has accomplished salvation. It means that everything He does is for us and for our salvation. The life He lived was a pleasing sacrifice to the Father. The death He died was a pleasing sacrifice to the Father. The rising from the grave was the culmination of His life, His death, His salvation for us. He, the author of life, was born and He died in order to give us life. His resurrection guarantees that. His resurrection shows us that the sacrifice of the cross was accepted. This is why He has come. This is why we wait for Him to come again. Knowing that He has come we know He will come again. Waiting for Him to come again we are grateful that He continues to come to us as we wait. He has come, He comes to us, and He will come again. All of the promises of His coming were fulfilled when He was born and lived the life He lived and died the death He died. Because He has come everything He has said He would do for us He does. If you are waiting on the Lord, don’t despair. Waiting is good. Before He came in the flesh the people of God were waiting for their Lord. He came and they saw that He keeps His promises. We know that He has come. We see that He keeps His promises. This is why our focus is not simply on His coming to us in the ways He comes to us, namely, the Gospel and the Sacraments. It is why we don’t only look ahead to when He will come again in glory. As we focus on these things it is always with the mind that He has come. It is always with the focus of what has already happened, He has come. Our entire life, and even in eternity, is all because of the fact that He has come. He is the eternal Word made flesh. He is the Word who dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. We have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. He has come. Because He has we know He comes and will come again. Because He has we know we have salvation and eternal life. What better thing to ponder in Advent and for all eternity. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
