Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Lebanon, OR
First Sunday in Advent + November 27, 2016
Text: Matthew 21:1-11
Advent is all about the coming of our Lord. He came in the flesh, just as was promised. He comes again in great glory, just as was promised.
When He enters into Jerusalem, He shows us what sort of King He is.
He comes in lowliness: “Humble and mounted on a donkey”
Yet He has great power to save: Hosanna to the Lord of Hosts,[1] save us we pray!
He alone has the power to deliver us from our enemies:
- He slays the ancient serpent the devil and all his hosts. He commands and they obey.[2]
- He has the authority to overturn the power of sin and declare a person righteous before God. Blessed indeed is the man against whom the Lord does not count his iniquity (Psalm 32).
- He has the power even over the grave to order our release and death itself must yield. Lazarus, come out! Young man, I say to you arise! She is not dead, but sleeping.[3]
So, He came to Jerusalem and there accomplished all that was necessary for our salvation. Where does that leave us today?
We too wait for His coming, but His final arrival and the redemption of our bodies.[4]
What will happen then?
- Sin will have no more power over us. It will no longer be, “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”[5]
- The devil will be out of the scene forever. He will no longer prowl around like a roaring lion. God will tear out the fangs of the lion[6] so that he can never again attack the work of God’s hands.
- Death will be stripped of its power over us. “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”[7]
We live between His two comings: The first when He disarmed these powers for all who believe, the second coming when our victory will be complete.
Those two advents meet in the Divine Service.
Here, sins are forgiven on earth as they are in heaven. The peace He won with His first coming is delivered like a preview of the Last Day Judgment.
Here, the saints on earth sing the praises of the heavenly choir with glory to God in the highest and extolling the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
In the Lord’s Supper, we take a place at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb.[8] Even though we are a people of unclean lips, the holy, holy, holy Lord of Hosts touches our lips and cleanses us with His Body and Blood. That’s why we also join in the song of the saints in Jerusalem and sing Hosanna to the Son of David.
Our Lord has come and will come again. He is our mighty King, dressed in the splendid robes of holiness, but also in our flesh. Hosanna to the King who comes again in power and great glory to bring us an everlasting victory in His Kingdom! Amen.
[1] Psalm 118:25
[2] Mark 1:27
[3] John 11:43, Luke 7:14, Luke 8:52
[4] Romans 8:23
[5] Romans 7:14, 19
[6] 1 Peter 5:8; Psalm 58:6
[7] Revelation 1:17-18
[8] Revelation 19:9, Matthew 22:2-13
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