The 3^rd Sunday in Advent

SERMON

INI

Text: Luke 1:54-55

Mary said: “He has helped His servant Israel, in the remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”

In Christ Jesus, the basis for our hope both in our present lives and the life to come, dear fellow redeemed:

The dramatic events surrounding the capture of Saddam Hussein this past weekend have dominated the network news-broadcasts of our country. One of the experts recently interviewed made an interesting observation concerning the fears of many Iraqis as they look ahead to the formation of a new government. He commented that the Iraqis have never experienced a government that has not oppressed them. Consequently, they have no past history of good government upon which to build their hope for good government in the future.

Hope by its very nature looks ahead to the future, but it is very often anchored in the past. It would appear that Mary understood this as she concluded her hymn of praise. As she prepared her heart for the coming of her son—the Christ-Child, she looked to the past mercy of God in His dealings with her people as the basis for her hopes of future grace, mercy, and blessing in connection with her child. In this final midweek Advent meditation LET US PREPARE OUR HEARTS AS MARY DID WITH HOPE, entrusting our future to God, who has dealt mercifully with His believing children in the past!

I.

Before concluding her hymn of praise, Mary’s thoughts turned once again to God and His dealings with His Old Testament chosen people. She said, “He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham.” The history of God’s Old Testament people, the ancestors of Mary, was a history rich in examples of His mercy. That history, which anyone can note by simply reviewing the many stories in one our Bible history books, reveals how time and time again God responded to His people with mercy in view of His promises and in spite of their sin.

Think of Daniel, living in exile in Babylon for most of his adult life, but hoping and praying that God would visit His people and restore them to the land of Palestine. We are told that one day Daniel, while studying the prophecies of Jeremiah, was led by the Spirit to understand that God intended to allow His people to return to Palestine after seventy years of captivity. He then got down on his knees and uttered the following words in prayer: “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him…according to all Your righteousness, I pray, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all those around us. Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of Your servant, and his supplications, and for the Lord’s sake cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary, which is desolate. O My God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name” (Daniel 9:4,16-19). Did the Lord listen? Did He remember His covenant? Did He respond in mercy? Yes, He did moving the heart of Cyrus, King of Persia, to proclaim that the Jewish people might return to Palestine and rebuilt both Jerusalem and the temple. This they did under the leadership of Zerubbabel in the year 436 B.C.

Think of good King Hezekiah, who once faced the awesome power of the Assyrian Empire and the blasphemous threats of its leader, Sennacherib, to destroy the city of Jerusalem. Hezekiah, too, prayed to the Lord, kneeling before the Lord in His temple in Jerusalem and saying, “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone” (Isaiah 37:16-20). Did the LORD listen? Did He respond in mercy? Yes, He did, sending an angel of death to pass over the camp of the Assyrians and to strike 185,000 of their soldiers dead without even a struggle. The mighty, yet blasphemous King of Assyria fled home in disgrace, only to be murdered by two of his own sons the following year.

Think of King David, or the prophet Samuel. Think of Samson, or Jephthah, or Gideon, or Joshua. Time alone constrains us from here examining the countless examples of God responding to the pleas of His people with mercy in spite of their sin and in view of His many promises.

Now within the womb of Mary, God was about to perform His greatest miracle of mercy—sending His own Son to become one of us and one with us. That Child would bear the demands of the law for us. That Child would bear the curse of the law in our place. Yes, that Child would arise again to rule over us and on our behalf. While Mary had no way of seeing clearly the future of that Child, who was beginning to develop within her womb, she knew that in view of His birth God’s mercy, which had been so evident in Israel’s past, would extend into the future to “his seed (that is, all believers) forever!” So, Mary prepared her heart—looking back to see the Lord’s good and gracious works in the past, and then looking forward, not with fear, but with confident hope that God would again and again prove Himself faithful to her and to all who placed their faith n Him!

II.

Will God prove Himself faithful to you and me? Will His mercy extend into our lives? Can we too have such a hope? The answers to those questions are a resounding “Yes!” As we approach the celebration of Christmas once again this year—as we look forward to the expected second coming of Jesus Christ, we can do so with hope! We, too, can look back to see how God has dealt mercifully with fellow believers in the past.

Think of the apostle Peter—placed in prison by King Herod and readied for execution to please the Jews, only to have the angel of God free him of his chains and release him through the prison doors. He himself thought it but a dream, until he found himself in the streets of Jerusalem (cf. Acts 12). God was exercising both His power and His mercy on behalf of His appointed apostle.

Think of the apostle Paul—tossed and turned in a winter storm on the wild seas of the Mediterranean, while en route to Rome. Hope was all but lost, until an angel of God appeared to Paul in a dream announcing God’s mercy—the ship would indeed go down, but no life would be lost in the storm, for God would save them. Indeed, that is what happened as their tiny ship was driven into the shoals off the island of Malta, and as the ship was broken apart on the rocks, every individuals—all 276 persons made their way safely to shore in accordance with the merciful promise of God.

Yet, we need not go back to biblical times, for we can look at the history of our own congregation and the lives of individuals within our own families to see the mercy of God in action. God has graciously sustained this congregation and its school for 137 years. Have there been difficult times—times when for reasons of budgetary shortfalls it would not appear that portions of our congregational programs might have to be ended? Yes, there have been such times, but the Lord in His mercy has blessed our efforts and allowed us to expand rather than to reduce our ministry? When fire destroyed the church thirty years ago, God graciously enabled us to rebuild and continue His gospel proclamation. Time and time again God has proven Himself faithful in the history of our congregation, and should we review our personal lives and those of our family members, I am confident we would see the same mercy and faithfulness in action time and time again.

This gives us reason to hope, does it not, for the future? Our God loves us with a deep and abiding love. As He has faithfully preserved us in the past, so He has promised to do so in the future! LET US THEREFORE PREPARE OUR HEARTS THIS ADVENT SEASON AS MARY DID WITH HOPE, entrusting our future to God, who has and will continue to deal mercifully with us His dear children! Amen.

Soli Dei Gloria!

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting