The Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost
November 17, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Malachi
4:1-6 2
Thessalonians 3:1-13 Luke
21:5-36
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our
text today comes from the lessons just read, especially these words, “Stay
awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these
things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” Thus far our text.
Dear
friends in Christ. It’s the end of the
church year, just a few weeks to go until the church celebrates a new year with
the season of Advent. In other words,
it’s the “Fire and brimstone” time of the church year. And our texts today truly have that fire and
brimstone behind them.
Behold
the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all
evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says
the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. These words of Malachi are the last words of
the Old Testament ever written. This
warning is one that echoed out as the last words of God for 400 years to his
people. And they are a word of
warning. Stay away from wickedness. Stay away from the arrogance that says I’m
better than others, so God will ignore my sin.
Instead, remember the ten commandments given to Moses. Not just some of them, but all of them, from
“You shall have no other Gods”, to “You shall not commit adultery”, to “You
shall not covet,” and everything in between.
Do this, and you will avoid the fire and punishment of that great Day of
the Lord.
And
if Malachi speaking this warning isn’t enough for you, dear friends, hear also
the words spoken by Christ our Lord, echoing the warning of Malachi. “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be
weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that
day come upon you suddenly like a trap.”
Take heed to these warnings, for the consequences spoken of are eternal,
and they are weighty beyond imagining with life and death hanging in the
scales.
And
the most terrifying this is this, we have not kept the ten commandments. We’ve failed terribly. In fact there’s not one of the ten
commandments of Moses that we have kept.
“You shall not murder”, God says.
But the truth is we are murderers, Jesus says, if we so much as harbor
anger in our hearts against someone in our lives – something we all have
done. Its sin long before you’ve acted
on it. “Do not commit adultery” How about this? Jesus says you’ve broken this rule if you
have looked at someone with any tiny bit of lust in your heart, long before you’ve
even gotten to sleeping with them outside of marriage. “Do not steal.” In fact, everything you have, you should have
gotten in a Godly way. Don’t gossip or
lie, Be honest and straight forward about everything – yes everything. And attend church every Sunday, even as you
spend time outside of church constantly in God’s Word on your own.
Dear
friends, this is a tall order. One we’ve
all failed at. One we can’t even come
close to fulfilling. And Scripture says
that if we’ve failed at one point, we’ve failed at them all. And that even if you were able to keep them
all, which you are not, that that would be just the bare minimum of what God
expects from you.
And
the day is coming, when all sins will be revealed and out in the open. Christ promises to return to earth, and to
judge all for the things they’ve done on earth.
And for us this day should be terrifying to think of. We should be afraid of hell, and all the punishment
that comes with sin.
And
yet the reality is this. Christ Jesus,
the one who comes to judge the sin of the world, has himself been judged for
sin. Christ came and went to the cross,
why? To be judged for sin, in your
place. To suffer for all those things
that you’ve done wrong, yes even those we’ve just spoken of along with those
thing we haven’t. There is not one sin
that you’ve done that Jesus did suffer the judgment for. There’s not one sin that He hasn’t died for. If you’ve committed it, he’s died for
it. And so all of your sin, yes dear
friends, all of them have been paid for by Christ our Lord.
That
forgiveness has come to you already.
It has happened to you as
well. In baptism, your sin became
Jesus’s sin. In baptism, the punishment
you deserve was put on Christ. You died
with Christ in your baptism. You were
buried with Jesus through baptism into death, so that all your sin and guilt
became his, so that he might pay for it.
And in the waters of baptism your fire and brimstone became Christ’s and
Christ’s life became yours.
So
now, you need not fear God. You need not
worry about the sin you’ve committed.
You get life from Jesus. You get
forgiveness form Jesus. And in baptism,
you’ve received Salvation because of Jesus.
So
what then do we say? Should we sin more
so that our forgiveness increases! No,
you’re dead to sin because of baptism.
Because you belong to Christ you out to strive to steer clear of all
sin. You ought to live holy lives here
in time, so that we may also live them there in eternity. Yes all future sins are forgiven, but we seek
to live apart from that sin.
The
day of the Lord is coming. The last day
when the world will come to its end. But
we do not face judgment on that day, but forgiveness in Christ. He will come on that day with healing in his
wings. We rejoice, that on that day, we
will enter heaven, because of the forgiveness of the cross, given to us in the
waters of baptism. In the name of
Jesus. Amen.
