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[00:00:00] Speaker A: Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. This is the Sunday Drive to Church edition for what is today.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: December 7th, the second Sunday in Advent. If last week's was hot off the press, today's is even hotter. Some of you are probably looking for it and I could call you, you could tune in live. Anyway, Second Sunday in Advent. Some of the texts today are going to sound familiar because we had a Malachi 4 and also Romans 15, although a different spot a couple of weeks ago. The reason for that, and this is very interesting, is that always at the end of the church year, we're thinking about the Second Coming and the return of Jesus. That's true in the One Year Lectionary. In the Three Year Lectionary. Although the Three Year Lectionary adds this Christ the King Sunday at the very end.
We talked about that a few weeks ago.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: In the Three Year Lectionary, Advent is really given over to getting ready for Christmas. But in the historic One Year Lectionary, that's what we're doing this year.
Advent has this theme of the threefold coming of Christ.
That he came in humility to save us. That was last week. The triumphal entry. Sorry. That he came in humility to save us. That's the birth of Jesus. That's going to be the next two weeks that he continues to come to us. That was last week, the triumphal entry. That Jesus is continually with us always and that he will come again in glory.
That's the second week of Advent. That's today.
That's why we're going to hear from the scripture reading in Luke chapter 21 where Jesus is talking about the signs of the end times.
It's like Matthew 24, 25 in Luke. It's the parallel texts, although there's something really special. But we'll get to that in its time. The colic for the day, remember also the colics for Advent. These four prayers for the four Sundays in Advent are really unique. I was trying to figure out where you could read them all together. If you have an old TLH, they're on pages 54 and 55 and you can see them all there.
This is.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: One of the deficiencies of the new hymnal, the LSB is that those proper pages that had the readings and the colics and the introits and all the different stuff for the different days, that's out of the hymnal. It was just too much probably to have a three year and a one year or even just three year LLW tried to do.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: Took up too much real estate. They Took it out. But if you have a tlh, you can see it now.
So here's the interesting thing.
Three of these four prayers are stir up prayers. So first Sunday in Advent, stir up, we beseech thee, thy power, O Lord, and come the prayer for today. Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the third Sunday in Advent, Lord, we beseech thee. Kind of normal. Then the fourth Sunday. Stir up, O Lord, we beseech thee, thy power and come.
The other interesting thing. So three out of four. The other interesting thing is that three out of four are prayers to the Lord Jesus, which is also unique. Most of the colleagues of the church of prayers to the Father, but it's not. They don't map over each other.
So the stir up prayers are 1, 2 and 4, week 1, 2 and 4. The prayers to Jesus are week ones 3 and 4.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: So today the prayer stir up our hearts, O Lord, is to God the Father.
And next week the little Lord, we beseech thee, that prayer will be to Jesus.
Now, okay, what do we make of that?
Maybe it's just an interesting observation to make note of these things, but I think that there's something there.
If we were inventing it, if we were saying, hey, we should have some unique prayers for Advent, we would make them all stir up prayers. We would make most of them prayers to the sun. But these things grew up so naturally that there's no kind of artificial work to make them all match up.
They don't. They just gather some uniquenesses.
It's like, you know, if you've noticed couples that have lived together for a long time, they start to look like each other. I think these prayers have lived together for so long, they start to look like each other. It's not that you can tell that they're brothers or sisters, but that they show these indications that their lives are matching up to one another. That's my thinking on it. Anyway.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: We have the only stir up prayer to the Father today.
And so let's pray it stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of your only begotten Son, that by his coming we may be enabled to serve you with pure minds through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
The psalm of Psalm 50.
I don't know exactly how we're going to do this because we have the first six verses and then we skip to verses 12 and 15.
We'll figure it out, especially the last verses that are of Interest to me.
Verse 12 is one of my favorite verses in all the psalms, but we're going to skip verse 11, but you should take a look at it.
And 10. Every beast of the forest is mine. Cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains and the wild beasts of the fields are mine.
That's the setup for the punchline in verse 12.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine in all its fullness. Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
[00:05:53] Speaker A: So the Lord says, and this is in contrast to all the pagan gods who always want to be served and fed by the sacrifices at the altar. And the Lord says, look, I'm not like that. I'm not like these pagan gods that you're trying to placate with all your sacrifices.
In fact, I don't get hungry. And if I did, I wouldn't tell you about it.
I'm not going to need anything from you. You're going to need things from me.
And all the idea of the sacrifice, that you're somehow pleasing me or filling me up or making me happy with the sacrifice. Get real, guys. Get real. He said, everything is mine already. I don't need you to give me anything.
The sacrifices, and this is.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: One of the things that the prophets are preaching about. All through the Old Testament, the sacrifices were not instituted so that we can please God, but so that God could show us that he is pleased with us.
So those sacrifices were always preaching.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: And blessing and giving to us the promise of the forgiveness of sins. They were showing the death of Jesus, though. It's on the way.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: So God says, if you want a real sacrifice that's going to impress me, offer to God thanksgiving, pay your vows to the Most High.
And then verse 15, which I think is probably Martin Luther's favorite verse on prayer. Anytime Luther is preaching and teaching and he starts talking about how God hears our prayers and answers our prayers. He goes immediately to Psalm 50, verse 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble.
I will deliver you and you will glorify me.
So good.
Okay, Old Testament reading is again from Malachi. So we heard it a couple of weeks ago. Malachi, chapter four, last chapter of the Bible. Just a couple of pictures to pick up on Malachi's real. And Pastor Davis, by the way, is teaching on Malachi on our Wednesday afternoon Bible class at 4 to 4:45.
We cut it short for the sake of soups, but it's really interesting.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Well, Malachi is rhetorically pretty amazing.
The Lord asks questions and he puts the answer in the people's mouth. When do we do that?
And then he answers the question. It's so good. And there's so many images in the preaching of Malachi.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: This certainly is no.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Exception. The days are coming like an oven.
And this is not an oven for baking your Christmas apple pie. This is the oven for burning up the trash. This is the incinerator when all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble.
That day will set them ablaze, says the Lord of Hosts. It'll leave neither root nor branch.
But I got a different picture. The Lord says, through Malachi, for those who fear my name.
So how do you think about the last day? Well, if you're wicked, you think about the last day like an oven. But what about those who fear the Lord's name?
Well, it's a day of healing. But look at this picture. The Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stole.
Boing, boing, boing.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Someone showed me a YouTube video. I think I mentioned this last time.
The cows getting out, the calves getting out for the first time in the spring, and they just boing, boing. They're just bouncing on the grass. That's the last day for us. Now the wicked are underneath the wicked of the grass that we're boing, boing on. But this is this great joy, almost overwhelming joy, of knowing that the Lord Jesus is on the way, that he's the one who's coming for us, that the judge holds the gavel in the hand that was crucified, that he is always for us.
That's really what the Gospel lesson is about. But just on the way, let's pick up a few things about the epistle. Romans 15, verses 4 to 13.
[00:10:08] Speaker A: This epistle is the source of the collect for the Word. You know, this prayer that we use all the time.
Blessed Lord, you've given your word. So that through the comfort of the Scriptures, we. We might have hope, grant that we might read Mark, learn, and inwardly digest it.
That collect right there, that collect was written.
That collect.
The collect for the Word was written by Thomas Kramer in preparation of the Book of Common Prayer for this second Sunday in Advent, which the Anglicans call Word Sunday because of this text.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: So we have the historic collect that comes from Gregory the First or something, the Pope. Back in the 400s or 500s, the Anglicans updated it in the Book of Common Prayer time. When was that? Sixteen something or other.
And.
And they have this that's the collect they'll be praying today.
From this verse 4 Romans 15:4. Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: That's an amazing text.
The Scriptures are given to us for hope.
If you pair these two texts, Romans 15:4 and.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: 2 Timothy 3:16, all scriptures were breathed out by God and useful for teaching, rebuke, correction and training up in righteousness so that the man of God might be equipped for every good work.
If you take those two scriptures and you put them together, you form a sort of goalposts around the why of the Scripture.
And I'll tell you, this comes in handy. Our Lutheran fathers used this when it comes to the doctrine of election.
So when you start thinking about the doctrine of election, you get into some pretty deep mysteries. How can God love everybody and be the only one that works and not everybody is saved?
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Is it that God chooses some for grace and others for condemnation? Or even if God only chooses for grace, doesn't the very fact that he didn't choose others for condemnation means that God de facto chose them? You start to get all these things. How can God work in time to call us if it was determined before time that he would call us?
And you can start to get lost.
And so our Lutheran fathers are talking about the doctrine of election.
And they were especially worried about this doctrine of double predestination that was coming from the Reformed that said that God chooses some to be saved and others to be damned. The Lutheran said, no, no, it's only the election to grace. God only chooses us to be saved.
And apart from that damnation, that's our own work, we do it ourselves.
And they use these two twin points of the Scripture as their guide. They said, if you have the doctrine of double predestination, you think, on the one hand, whatever I do doesn't matter, I'm elect, I can't lose it, I'm locked in.
And that is against 2 Timothy 3, 16, or all scripture teaches us how to live godly lives.
If on the other hand, you think, well, look, it's God's choice, I got nothing to do with it.
So if I'm damned, I'm damned. And that leads to despair. They said that violates Romans 15:4, that the Scriptures are written, that we might have hope.
So if you have a doctrine that leads either to resolute or dissolute living doing whatever you want, that's wrong doctrine. And if that doctrine or another doctrine leads to despair, then that's false doctrine because the Scriptures were not given to us so that we could despair or do whatever we want, but so that we would hope and lead godly lives.
It's really beautiful.
[00:14:25] Speaker A: This verse ends. Oh, it's talking about hope. So Romans 15 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord with Jesus Christ, I think old New King James. And you could translate the Greek this way in verse five, May the God of hope and encouragement. I have to look it up. But the God of endurance, the God of encouragement, that's your God. And then look at the very last verse here. Well, you might not see it. You're driving. Keep your eyes on the road. But listen to the last verse.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: The Lord wants to fill our hearts with his hopefulness.
He is the God of hope, not the God of despair.
This is true for the Gentiles and Jews alike, but especially Paul's bringing out all these gentile verses, verse 12. In him will the Gentiles hope.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: So that our God is a hopeful God. And he gives us joy and peace in believing, so that faith brings with it the confidence that the God of hope is with us.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: And through the power of the Holy Spirit, we abound in hope, reminding us that we always pray for the Holy spirit. And Luke 11, the Father answers that prayer for the Holy Spirit, and that through the Holy Spirit we have faith in the promise and we have love for God in the neighbor, and we have hope.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Hope is this faith directed towards the future. Hope is the one that knows that Jesus is lord over all things and that he's governing all things for the sake of the church, and that he's coming in glory on the last day to bring us into those joys of eternal life.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Which takes us to the Gospel. Now, a couple verses to highlight here. Don't want to give you too much, but verse 28. So Luke 21:28, my favorite text from our Lord about the last days. Not that what's my favorite matters, but I would commend it to you as the best because Jesus is giving these very specific instructions. It's an amazing thing that when and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, when the world starts to fall apart, the unbelievers are going to look for places to hide and they're going to say to the hills fall on us and mountains cover Us, but we have these instructions for the last day, Jesus says, Starting with verse 27, when they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Now, when these things begin to take place.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: Straighten up, raise up your heads.
Your redemption is drawing near.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: It's amazing.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: The return of Jesus is the return of the Redeemer.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: And that day is a day of salvation and deliverance for us.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: It's the answer that the Lord gives to our prayer. How long come Lord Jesus.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Now, the second point of this gospel, he tells them the parable of the fig tree and how to know when these things are coming.
He says, this generation will not pass away till all this has taken place.
I understand this to mean that.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Those parts of this promise that Jesus is talking about that have to do with the destruction of Jerusalem.
But then he says, heaven and earth will pass away. My words will not pass away. The word of the Lord endures forever. Jesus is referencing that text, and he says those words, the words of the Lord. Those are my words.
So that here he calls himself God. It's one of those apologetic texts for the divinity of Jesus. And so we.
[00:18:33] Speaker A: You can almost imagine that the fires on the last day are assigned to burn everything that is not marked with the name of Jesus.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: But you are marked with that name.
So there's instructions. There's always instructions with the end times. And so that readiness is the first, is the readiness of faith and hope, that patience. But there's also a readiness of love. In other words, a readiness of not being handed over to sin.
Watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life. That the day will come upon you suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all the things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son of Man, so that Jesus says that it's going to be a while.
The danger. Remember the parable of the of the five wise and five foolish virgins. The danger is that you'll be ready to go right away. But then you'll get used to being here, and you won't make provision for the last day for the judgment. And you'll be like the five foolish brides who were not ready for the waiting.
So that we have this twofold readiness to depart, but also to wait if we need to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. But in the waiting, our hearts are not drawn to this world as if this is it, no. This world will soon dissolve and give way to the new heaven and the new earth. It's on the way where the righteous dwell.
And Jesus requires of us a watchfulness for this last day. A gregariousness. That's what the word. Stay awake. Gregarious.
That we have a gregorosity, that we're just alert. This doesn't mean we don't sleep. You have to sleep. You can't.
But it means we pray and we're paying attention. And we're not handed over to this world as if this is our permanent residence.
But we're ready for the life to come.
The hymn is the Great Second Coming Hymn. Lo he comes with clouds descending.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: It's an adventy Second Coming hymn.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: For the ages. In fact, we should. I'll talk about it a little bit. Let me grab the text.
Lo he comes with clouds descending Once for every sinner slain Thousand thousand saints attending Swell the triumph of his name Alleluia, Alleluia Alleluia Christ the Lord returns to reign Every eye shall now behold Him Robed in glorious majesty those who set at naught and sold him pierced and nailed him to the tree Deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing shall their true Messiah see. That's the promise. That they will look upon him whom they pierced From Zechariah those dear tokens of his passion. Still his dazzling body bears cause of endless exaltation to his ransomed worshippers.
With what rapture gaze we on those glorious scars. How beautiful is that. So they will look on him whom they pierced. And for those who do not believe, these marks of the crucifixion are their judgment. But for us, they are cause for endless adoration.
He still bears in his body those scars.
He is still the Lamb who was slain will recognize Jesus by the wounds of the cross and will worship him because those are the means of our redemption.
Yea, amen. Let all adore Thee High on Thine eternal throne Savior, take the power and glory Claim the kingdom as thine own Alleluia, Alleluia alleluia Thou shalt reign and thou alone.
Charles Wesley. You can kind of tell it's a Wesley hymn because it has that sense of. I don't think this is a translation. I think it started in English.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: It didn't need the work of translation. It already has that kind of grabbing you with the poetry.
Indeed it does.
And indeed Jesus will sit on the throne and reign. And that's why we pray. Today especially reminds us that we pray. Come, Lord Jesus.
All right, drive safe. See you soon. Don't forget. Let's see. Pastor May will be teaching Sunday school this morning. That'll be great. Voters meeting after church lunch. Provided we've got bratwurst that are going to be there. That'll be especially great.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: Men's fire pit tonight. Oh, we have all these announcements. We'll get it to church. See you soon.