November 30, 2022 – Advent                                  Text:  Isaiah 9:6

Dear Friends in Christ,

    In today’s world because of the loud voices, we hear about everything “Christian” going away.  Nobody follows God’s Word anymore; I mean look around you.  Because of this people tend to buy into the myth.  Here is just a small example.  Have you noticed the names dads and moms continue to give their children.  Look at a top ten list or top 50 list and Biblical names are all over especially with boys.  Just in the top ten for boys you find Noah, Elijah, Levi, and Asher.  These aren’t even New Testament names, they are from the Old Testament.  God continues to work and the Christian influence is going nowhere.

    I love my name and pray you do too.  Joseph and Mary didn’t need to get out the latest name book.  They got something a little more immediate and dramatic – an angel.  They both heard, “You shall call His name Jesus.”  With the assigning of the name Jesus the angel was saying, “This Child Is . . .”  Jesus means “The Lord Saves.”  That has a life-changing meaning for us.  Let’s begin these mid-week Advent sermons with . . . 

“THIS CHILD IS . . . WONDERFUL COUNSELOR”

    Our theme verse is Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be on His shoulder, and His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Tonight, we look at “wonderful” and “counselor.”

    We will start with the 2nd one first – Counselor.  What do you think of when you hear that term?  Someone who can provide guidance.  Someone who might provide comfort.  Before we see a counselor we like to know they will lead us down the right path or to the right answers for our lives.  We want to trust them.  We look to their experience.

    Jesus does all of this and more.  We can trust Him and His Word.  He comforts us in tough times.  He guides with His eternal light.  He has perfect knowledge and absolute truth.  There is no hourly charge.  His rate is always the same – grace, mercy, forgiveness – and it all comes from his Hand. 

    All right you wonderful people, how about wonderful?  How will you decipher this?  Remember being starry-eyed when getting to know your spouse?  “Dad, mom he’s wonderful!”  “Pa, ma, isn’t she just wonderful!”  It was used as an adjective.  For Jesus, it is a name.  It is the content of who He is.  He is wonderful because of all His goodness and his self-sacrifice on the cross.  It is about who He is and what He came to do.  It takes us directly to His desire to give Himself for the sins of the world – wonderful!

    Now, what does this all mean for us?  How does Wonderful and Counselor apply to us?  Think of it this way.  Jesus is His name but as we see in Scripture Jesus has so many other titles.  If I asked every one of you here tonight for a title of Jesus, you could each name a different one.  We would have to bring in more people to even get close to all his names in Scripture.  

    It is the same for you.  You have a name.  But think of everything you have been called in life?  Prayerfully mostly positive.  Jesus is “The Lord saves” let’s start there.

    So, what are we being saved from?  Sin.  Jesus addresses our deepest need.  We must acknowledge who we are.  John helps to identify us in His Gospel, “Jesus needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man.” (John 2:25). We can’t hide anything from God.  He knows what is in you and I.  “We have sinned against God in thought, word, and deed.”  

    Jesus doesn’t drag us into a courtroom to face the judgment we deserve.  Rather, in the courtroom He declares us “Not Guilty.”  He can declare that because He took our guilt and nailed it to a cross.  This Counselor intervened for us and it is wonderful.

    Most counselors want us to find solutions to our problems within ourselves.  They want to point to man.  “Read a book, keep a diary, speak with your parents about how they screwed you up.”  What?  Jesus operates outside that realm.  He knows our problem is solved by who He is and what He has done for us.  He insists that our problem of sin, death, and the devil can only be taken away by Him.  He takes our sin.  He takes our death.  He faces the devil and conquers.  

    Too good to be true?  Go to Bethlehem this Christmas and see the child born of a virgin.  His name is Jesus – the One who saves.  Listen to the angels sing “Glory to God and peace on earth” because of His birth.  In the manger is “Wonderful.”  The shepherds come to behold their “Counselor.”  What is in a name?  Everything.  The names tell us who this child is and all that He has done.

            Amen.        

November 27, 2022                                            Text:  Isaiah 2:1-5

Dear Friends in Christ,

    OK, I admit it.  I love the darkness.  If I lived alone, you would never know I was home.  When we go out at night and I am the first one back in the house, I don’t turn on a light.  I hang up my coat, walk up the stairs and then maybe flip on the TV.  If I work at night at church – same thing.  I come in the front door and walk to my office in the dark.  I leave the same way.  One of the greatest sleeps I ever had was in a room with no windows.  Loved it.

    How about you?  Same thing or do you flip a light on as soon as you can?  You don’t care for the darkness or walking down the hallways with your hand on the wall.  Any adults still have a night light?  

    While I enjoy the dark, I do not care for the dark times we live in.  The heart of men and women can be cruel and nasty.  Some people want their way so bad in the world they will lie and cheat and manipulate and their soul is so cold it almost isn’t there.  

    Ancient Judah was living in the same conditions.  When Isaiah was doing his prophetic work, Israel had split in two.  It was a time of darkness.  We know.  We need the reminder . . .

“A NEEDED LIGHT IN OUR DARK TIMES”

    In Judah the people were far from God in their hearts.  They didn’t trust the Lord, they were looking to the outside for peace and security.  They were selfish and greedy.  The courts could be bought.  Most people preferred injustice if it benefited them.

    Has a ring of plausibility, doesn’t it?  Look around.  People today are so selfish that they don’t care about justice.  As long as it benefits what they believe then it is ok.  People today don’t care about the minds of our young people.  It is the adults making the decisions who are messing with these young brains.  People today can attack the faith around the world, and nobody seems to think it is important.  People today in their speech take the 1st Amendment way past what the framers of our Constitution had in mind.  You can’t just say what you want at all times.  If we let all this continue, we will no longer live in a civilized society.  The road ahead can be dark and lonely, and we can get depressed thinking there is no end in sight. 

    What we need is a light in our dark times.  Isaiah called the people of Judah to do that by looking ahead.  Days will come when people from all nations will stream to worship the true God.  The little hill where the temple stood in Jerusalem will become the greatest mountain.  People will listen to the teachings of the Lord, and do them.  There will be peace.  Swords will become plows to provide food to eat.  Isaiah’s message is simple:  walk in the promise of this light of the Lord during dark times.  Better days will come.

    And they did.  The days of light arrived a little over seven hundred years after Isaiah wrote these words.  Jesus, the light of the world, came down from heaven above.  “Peace on earth,” the angels sang when Jesus was born.  People flocked to listen to the Savior when he preached His Sermon on the Mount.  He instructed Peter to put away the sword when Jesus was arrested.

    Jesus is the light in our dark times.  On the cross, the world was plunged into eternal darkness in the middle of the day.  Jesus took the selfishness and the cold hearts and the injustice and the filthy language and the power plays, all these dark times melodramas, it all went with Him on a wooden cross on a hill outside of Jerusalem.  He died there for everything the world has done or will do to blacken our hearts.  After death, His darkness continued in a tomb with a stone rolled in front of it.  Dark, dark, dark.

    The dark, dark, dark was shattered.  The tomb had light.  Jesus as he was surrounded by angels shone brightly. He came walking out and the promise of Isaiah was kept.

    Do you see the fulfillment of the prophecy?  All nations worship the true God.  On every continent this day worship services were held.  People on every continent heard God’s Word.  People on every continent were reminded of the light – Jesus Christ their Savior from sin.  Hundreds of languages were heard.  People on every continent were in church and Bible study and they want to do what is right.  With the Holy Spirit’s help, they want to walk in the light.

    Yet, we still wait for the final fulfillment.  Where nations worship God without persecution.  Swords are laid down.  When will this all happen?  On the Last Day.  On the day Jesus returns in power and glory and light.  Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.  We still wait.

    While I enjoy the darkness do you know what I always see when I leave the church at night?  This eternal light in our sanctuary.  A reminder that I don’t go out into a dark world alone.  Jesus goes with me in His Word.  Jesus goes with me in His Sacrament.  Jesus goes with me in my prayers.  A Needed Light In Our Dark Times.

                                Amen.