[Any congregation without a pastor, whose pastor is strapped for time, or whose pastor becomes sick or is called away, is welcome to use this sermon for December 8, the Second Sunday of Advent. Sunday School classes or adult small groups should feel free to use it, if you think it would be helpful, as well.]
Luke 3:1-20
Today is the Second Sunday of Advent. This season, of course, is one of preparation. We prepare for the celebration of Christmas remembering when Jesus, God the Son, came to us as a sinless human baby to save us from sin and death. We also prepare for the day when Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead and to usher those made righteous through their faith in Him into “the new heaven and earth” He has reserved for all who believe in Him.
But how can you and I be prepared to meet Jesus, either when we see Him after He calls us from our graves or, if we’re still alive when He returns, we witness Him descending from heaven?
The answer is given in today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 3:1-20. Before John the Baptist was born, his birth was foretold to John’s father, Zechariah, by an angel. The angel said that John would appear among God’s people before Jesus began His public ministry “to make ready for the Lord a people prepared…” (Luke 1:17) And in today’s lesson, we’re told how God was going to use John to prepare people to meet Jesus when He came to them: “...he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Luke 3:3)
Now, there’s something we should say before we move on. John’s baptism was different from Christian baptism, the baptism practiced by the Church since the first century. As with Christian baptism, John’s baptism brought people “the forgiveness of [their] sins,” but we should notice three differences.
First, John did not baptize people in the triune name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Second, John’s baptism didn’t bring the gift of the Holy Spirit, as Christian baptism does today. Remember, in our lesson, John the Baptist says, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming [Jesus], the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
And third, John’s baptism did not baptize believers into Jesus’ death and resurrection. Only those who have undergone baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as we are baptized today in the Church, share in the overwhelming blessing that the apostle Paul dedclares in Romans 6: “We were buried therefore with [Christ] by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) In Christian baptism, we die with Christ and we rise with Christ!
But John’s baptism did prepare people to meet Jesus by giving the gift of repentance to those he baptized.
It may seem strange to speak of repentance as a gift. When we think of repentance, we likely see one or two unbiblical pictures in our minds. We may picture grim-faced people living in perpetual sorrow for their sins. Or, in a related image, we may picture people engaged in constant good works to impress God with their holiness, hoping that by their good lives or good works they can reverse the condemnation they deserve for their sins.
Repentance isn’t just acknowledging our imperfections. Most people will do that. “I’m not perfect,” we’ll say. But being a sinner and our sins are a lot more than being imperfect, as though our sins were akin to hitting a wrong note while singing or calling up the wrong suit while playing euchre.
The word translated in verse 3 of our gospel lesson as sins is ἁμαρτιῶν. It’s a word that means to miss the mark. You and I were born into sin. By birth and inclination, we are sinners. That means that we’re born wanting to do and we often do anything and everything but what God’s law commands of us. We don’t want to love God and we don’t want to love others. Instead, we want to be our own gods, decide our own destinies, and do things our own way. We sinners miss the mark of holiness and righteousness that God’s Word tells us is the basic requirement for having life with Him, now and in eternity. There is absolutely nothing about us that commends us to life with God or to be forgiven by God. We fall short of that, as Paul puts it, “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:24)
Repentance then has two parts and both parts are things done by God to us, not things we do for God or others. Both parts of repentance are done by God to us through the proclamation of His Word, whether through believers (including preachers), through reading His Word, or receiving His Word in Holy Baptism or Holy Communion. God wants to give the gift of repentance in both of its parts in this sermon today. I pray you will be open to receiving this gift.
The first part of repentance is contrition. The Apology to the Augsburg Confession, a basic statement of faith in the Lutheran tradition, says that contrition “takes place when sins are condemned by God’s Word.” We are condemned by God’s Word when we recognize how we utterly fail to meet God’s standards as enunciated in the Ten Commandments. When we hear God’s Law, we’re inclined to justify ourselves by saying things like, “I may take God’s name in vain, but I don’t commit adultery,” or “I may not regularly take advantage of the sabbath by gladly hearing and learning God’s Word, I’ve never stolen anything,” or “I may bear false witness by my gossiping, but I only worship God.” But God’s Word doesn’t let us off the hook that easily. James 2:10 tells us, “...whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” The first part of repentance, contrition, happens when God’s Word convicts us of the fact that we are sinners guilty of profaning all of God’s Law and that we’re worthy of only condemnation and hell for our sins–the bad we have done or thought and the good we have failed to do or think.
But it’s here when, in the words of Lutheran confessions, we experience “the true terror of the conscience…[feeling] that God is angry with sin” and we grieve that we have sinned, that God comes to us with another Word. It’s the Word that John proclaimed at the Jordan. It’s the Word of the Gospel about the crucified and risen Jesus that gives us the gift of faith.
Listen, friends, God knows that you and I are sinners and that if we were to meet Jesus when He comes naked in our sin, we would be without hope for life with God. But Jesus Christ came into this world, led a sinless life, bore the condemnation for sin that you and I deserve on a cross, and then rose from the dead to bring forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life with God to all those who, by the power of the Gospel Word, repent and believe (have faith in) Jesus.
When repentance, both contrition and faith, are worked in us by the Word of God, we are saved from sin and death. We are justified before God, declared innocent not because we are sinless but because the Savior Who died and rose for us is sinless. We belong to God forever. Jesus says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life…” (John 3:36) And He says, “...this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:29) And Jesus tells us, “For God so loved the world,[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) And God’s Word tells us of this saving, faith-giving, Word, “...since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
In Jesus Christ, friends, all your sins–all that you’ve done, said, or thought that grieves God for the hurt it has brought to Him, to your neighbor, or yourself–all your sin is forgiven.
Daily repentance, daily receiving the Word of God that tells us both the truth about our sin and the truth about God’s grace, is how God prepares us to one day–maybe today or tomorrow–to meet Jesus face to face.
Receive these gifts of contrition and faith again today, friends, and be prepared to live with your Savior now and forever. Amen
[Saint John in the Wilderness by Jose Leonardo, 1635]
