SERMON FOR THE FIRST MIDWEEK IN ADVENT
THE BRANCH STILL SPRINGS UP
Theme: Connected to you by Baptism, Christ and His Kingdom continually sprout,
grow, and produce fruit in your personal life.
God spoke many promises in His Old Testament. God also gave His Old Testament
people the gift of circumcision (Genesis 17:1-14), which was a sacrament. The
gift of circumcision gave God’s people certainty and assurance that they were,
without doubt, personally included and fully participating in the promises from
God. The sacramental benefits of circumcision ended with the coming of Christ
(Galatians 5:1-12). At Christ’ coming, God also fulfilled His Old Testament
promises (2 Corinthians 1:20), but not all of those divine promises are yet
completely fulfilled. Many of God’s Old Testament promises are still being
fulfilled for you in every moment of your life, and some promises await
ultimate fulfillment on the Last Day.
How do you and all God’s Christians today get connected to God’s Old Testament
promises, now that circumcision has been cut out of the picture? How can you be
certain that God’s Old Testament promises are personally yours? Baptism now
does for you what circumcision no longer can do (Colossians 2:11-12). Stated
another way, your Baptism does MORE than assure you that you have personal
place in the things God says to you in His New Testament. Your Baptism also
gives you certainty and assurance that God’s Old Testament promises are
likewise personally yours.
Tonight’s prophecy from Jeremiah is an example of a promise that God
speaks as much to you today as He did to His ancient people. This prophecy
began its fulfillment when Christ came in the flesh, but this prophecy
continues its fulfillment for you—and it shall do so for you—every moment of
your life:
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that
time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and He shall
execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be
saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will
be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
The Branch that God promises to you here is your Lord Jesus Christ and Him
alone. “He grew up… like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground”
(Isaiah 5:2). He is the one who has caused eternal life to spring for you
within the dead soil of your heart and mind, as a seedling plant would spring
up out of the cold ground. Your Lord Jesus Christ is the Righteous Branch who
executed justice for you by carrying upon Himself the full weight and
punishment of God’s justice against your sin. Jesus is the LORD your
Righteousness, as Jeremiah calls Him here, because Jesus laid His perfect
righteousness overtop your inborn and active unrighteousness, covering you with
the pure white blanket of His perfection and swaddling you in the forgiveness
of your sins.
“In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to
spring up for David,” declares the LORD. This prophecy was fulfilled for you
when Jesus was born of Mary, “a shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1),
He who “shall branch out from His place” (Zechariah 6:12). This prophecy began
its fulfillment, but was not once-and-for-all completely fulfilled for you at
the birth of your Lord Jesus. This prophecy from Jeremiah continues actively to
be fulfilled for you in every moment of every day. This prophecy shall only be
completed for you in its ultimate fulfillment on the Last Day. What I mean is
this: Jesus, God’s Righteous Branch, is still springing up for you, still
exerting His justice and righteousness for you (1 John 2:1), still saving you
and still causing you to dwell securely. The Branch of Christ and His kingdom
is still growing stronger, still rooting deeper, and still bearing good fruit
for you personally and
individually.
This is one of the Old Testament benefits of your Baptism, that you
would think of your Lord Jesus and His kingdom as always in a state of growing,
branching out for you from the baptismal font, as I tried to illustrate for you
on the cover of the bulletin. Because of your Baptism, Jesus your Righteous
Branch still curls lovingly and securely around you, sustaining you and
supporting you during the struggles you endure in your life. Through your
Baptism, Jesus produces green leaves and good fruit in you, constantly
refreshing and supplying you, refusing to allow you to dry and to whither on
the Vine no matter how arid and scorched you might feel in your life. Because
of the promise and assurance that Jesus delivers personally to you in your
Baptism, Jeremiah’s words concerning Judah and Jerusalem are Words that
likewise apply personally to you: “In those days Judah will be saved and
Jerusalem will dwell securely.” Baptismally stated, these words
could be read, YOU will be saved and YOU will dwell securely. Your Lord Jesus
Christ, the Righteous Branch springs up, without fail and despite all
opposition. Your Righteous Branch simply cannot be uprooted and destroyed.
Neither can you, because Baptism has grafted you into this eternal Branch and
Vine.
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