SERM: Luke 3:1-14, Advent 2, LSB C
SERMON FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT JOHN CAME PREACHING BAPTISM Theme: Baptism. Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In today’s Gospel, “John the son of Zechariah… went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Dear Christian friends: This year’s Advent Midweek theme is “A Baptismal Look at Advent.” You might not feel surprised at that. You might even say, “Gee. More preaching about Baptism.” I am increasingly interested in finding more and more ways to proclaim to you—and to impress upon you—the abiding importance and daily significance of your Baptism. I have told you before that I think every Gospel of the Church Year could produce a sermon on Baptism, but I think I have been looking too narrowly at the topic. We probably should think that way about every verse in God’s Bible, including the Old Testament, which was written long before Baptism was given to us. I wish I could think of a hundred illustrations or more that will make the daily benefit and importance of your Baptism come home to roost for you, as well as for myself. (You may trust that I need to grow in my reliance and trust in Baptism just as much as anyone else does—and only God in His powerful Word can make that happen for any of us.) Don’t feel too bad on account of hearing so frequently about your Baptism. At least you were not in John the Baptist’s congregation. Apparently, it didn’t matter when you made it to church out there in Jordan River basin, whether on Sunday or Wednesday or any other day of the week. The sermon was always on the same topic. “John the son of Zechariah… went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” As far as John was concerned, everything is rooted in Baptism. · John teaches you that God uses His miracle of Baptism to create your repentance for you (Luke 3:3), both making you able to feel sorry for your sins and stirring your fear of His wrath (cf. Acts 5:31, 11:18). · The same Baptism is also “for the forgiveness of [your] sins” (Luke 3:3). Simply stated, your sins are fully forgiven in Jesus’ name. If you have trouble believing that, you do not have to rely solely upon my word for it, even though God sent me here to tell you that. Look also at your Baptism, which was given to you “for the forgiveness of [your] sins.” Stated another way, your Baptism places you into the forgiveness of sins, so that you constantly swim around in God’s forgiveness like a teabag in a teacup or a fish in a fishbowl. · John wants you to know that Baptism will do a good and powerful work in your every day life, if you will not oppose it or prevent it from doing so. For example, Baptism will create in you both the willingness and the desire to do things differently than you have done them in the past: “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise” (Luke 3:10-14). · Through Baptism God raises up from cold, dead stones children for Abraham (Luke 3:8). That is to say, your Baptism raises you up from the death of your sins and gives you God’s gift of faith—the same faith by which Abraham lived every day. Through this faith which He has miraculously given to you, God your heavenly Father credits you with perfect righteousness and He personally regards you as His righteous one. · John also wants you to know that your Baptism is the miraculous escape hatch God has provided for you, so that you may “escape the coming wrath” (Luke 3:7). It is almost as if John wants you to think of yourself as submerged in the cool and safe water of the baptismal font, fully protected from the heat and flame of divine judgment. “John the son of Zechariah… went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” John preached in many different ways, but the topic always boiled down to the same thing. Somehow, the sermons never got old. “Crowds… came out to be baptized by him” (Luke 3:7). The crowds came out, then after that they went home and did like the shepherds did at the birth of Christ, who “made known the saying [or the sermon] that had been told them” (Luke 2:17). As the crowds made known what they had heard from John concerning Baptism, more crowds then “came out to be baptized by him.” They were continually showing up at the Jordan, continually seeking to escape “the wrath to come,” continually grappling with how this divine gift of Baptism would work itself out in their everyday lives, and continually bringing more crowds “out to be baptized by him.” That’s right folks, in addition to everything else, Baptism is also about the mission and outreach of the Church! · In your Baptism, and in many sermons throughout the year about your Baptism, God gives
SERM: Luke 3:1-14, Advent 2, LSB C
The Second Sunday in Advent What Then Shall We Do? Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen! In today’s Gospel, God wants you to concern yourself with the question, “What then shall we do?” Dear Christian friends, God Actively Works While His Word is Preached to You “The Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And [John] went into all the region… preaching.” Through John’s preaching God was doing what God loves to do: God was drawing people to Himself. God was performing the divine miracle of attracting people to John’s preaching so that God could give these people the gifts of repentance and forgiveness through John’s preaching and through John’s Baptism. God was acting through John’s preaching because God says, “I will draw all people unto Myself” (John 12:32). God was acting through John’s preaching because God says, “No one can come unless the Father draws him in.” (John 6:44). So John is mouthing the Words, but the Lord is doing the work. As a result of the “Word of God [that] came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness,” God beckoned and led, poked and pushed “the crowds that came out.” It certainly was not John’s gentle approach to preaching that brought them out. “Every one of you is a snake,” says John. “You are each filled to the brim with a deadly poison that will destroy everyone around you,” says John. “Do not tell me about your good name and reputation because your name and reputation mean nothing,” says John. “You will be judged like all others. You better start looking like you believe something, because God is looking at you. If God does not see what He wishes to see in you, you will, without doubt, feel the sharp axe of His condemnation at your own feet.” John’s harsh, brutal preaching was a calculated act of love. John must tear the people’s attention away from themselves so that he may point them toward the Christ who had come to them. By calling the people vipers and dead branches, John was announcing to them that they had nothing to give to God in trade for their lives. Do not bother inventorying your life to find a way to gladden your God! You have nothing to give! Vipers produce only poison; dead branches grow no fruit; if any person is to be saved, it must be the work of God and God alone! That is how John preached. All the while, God was busily at work in and through John’s preaching. Even while a river of fire flowed from John’s lips, God was nevertheless calling and gathering “the crowds that came out.” This rough preaching was the preaching that God Himself had promised through Isaiah, saying, “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” In order for you to see God’s salvation, God must first tear your eyes away from yourself. That is why John so lovingly screeched, “You brood of vipers! Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” God’s Word Powerfully and Miraculously Creates in You the Desire to Do Stuff “And the crowds asked, ‘What then shall we do?’” These Words—“What then shall we do?”—these Words show evidence of the miracle that God had performed through His Word—even the rough-and-tumble Word preached by John! • If God had not miraculously unstopped their ears through the power of His Word (Isaiah 32:1-3, 35:3), then these people would have remained deaf—cold, stony, unmoved. Thus it is written, “The hearing ear and the seeing eye? The Lord has made them both!” (Proverbs 20:12) • If God had not caused these people to see the viperous poison and the barren fruitlessness inside them (Psalm 38:2-3); if God had not opened their lips (Psalm 51:15), they could never have asked, “What then shall we do?” • God repeatedly declares in His Word that He—He alone—gives (Acts 5:31) and grants (Acts 11:18) repentance to His people. When the people asked in today’s Gospel, “What then shall we do?” they were giving evidence that God had begun a good work within them. “What then shall we do?” is really the voice of a child that has been born by the power of God’s Word. • Essentially, the question “What then shall we do?” is a confession of faith. “What then shall we do?” is a confession of faith because this question could not be asked unless God first begins to create your repentance and your faith! What Shall I Render to the Lord for All His Benefits to Me? (Psalm 116:12) “What then shall we do?” This is a good and faithful question for all God’s Christians to ask—including you. 1. Do NOT ask “What then shall we do?” as if the question should mean, “What then shall we do to be saved?” Both right now and forevermore, you are so completely and unassailably saved by God that words can hardly express the full extent of your salvation! a. As you heard from the prophet Isaiah, quoted in today’s Gospel, God promises you that “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” With these Words, God is promising you
