November 28, 21012 Wednesday Advent
Sermon by Pastor Paul G. Eckert
Sermon text - Revelation 22:12-21
“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give
to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the
right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and
practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this
testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David,
and the bright Morning Star.” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!”
And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come;
and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book:
If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues
described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this
book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of
life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. He who
testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come,
Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
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In Christ Jesus, who is coming soon, dear fellow redeemed:
The opening words of the first hymn we sang are, “The advent of
our King Our prayers must now employ.” That speaks of employing
our prayers with regard to Christ’s advent or coming, bringing Christ’s
advent, or His coming, into our prayers. Do we do that?
Can you think of a time when we do it quite often, when we pray
about Jesus’ advent, Jesus’ coming? Think a moment. Don’t we ask
Jesus to come, in other words to advent, regularly when we sit down
to eat? We do, don’t we! We employ our table prayer to say, “Come,
Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed.” Yes,
we employ that prayer at meal time to ask Jesus to sit down with us at
our tables and to bless what we eat. And I sure hope it actually is such
a prayer, and not just a signal that we now can start eating.
Meal time, however, isn’t the time about which our sermon text is
speaking. Instead it may make us think especially of the future when
Jesus, God’s Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will return for a
tremendous advent. But the words of our text, which are the closing
words in our Bible, can make us think not only of that future advent
that will come, but also of a past advent that has come, and a present
advent that is coming.
OUR PRAYERS MUST NOW EMPLOY
THE ADVENT OF OUR KING
I THE ADVENT THAT HAS COME. (12-13)
1. Jesus was in the past. (12-13)
“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give
to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and
the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”
a) Jesus is now and says He will return on the final judgment day.
b) But Jesus is more than now and then. He isn’t only the Last,
like the Omega which is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, like our
English Z. No, He is also the Alpha or A, the First and the Beginning.
In other words, He is God’s eternal Son, one with the Father and Spirit
from eternity and to eternity.
2. His appearance in the past in the flesh was foretold.
a) Think here of the words from Psalm 24: “Lift up your heads,
O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of
glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD
Almighty - he is the King of glory.”
b) And then hear what the O.T. Prophet Zechariah wrote.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of
Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having
salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.” This, as we know, was fulfilled on the first Palm Sunday.
3. Marvel at what was involved here.
a) The second stanza of the first hymn we sang says, “The
everlasting Son Incarnate deigns to be, Himself a servant’s form puts
on To set his servants free.” Yes, Jesus came in the past, was born on
this earth in Bethlehem, to be a servant for us.
b) The Apostle Paul in Philippians 2 puts it this way: “[Christ
Jesus] being in very nature God, did not consider equality with
God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And
being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient to death - even death on a cross!”
4. May we employ our prayers for the spread of this truth.
a) This Jesus, our Savior who came in the past to serve us, who
died on the cross for our forgiveness, is the one we invite to our meal
tables when we say; “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.”
b) May our prayer be that others get to know Jesus not only as
someone who can bless the food we eat.
c) Pray that others above all know He came to serve the world
and us, to pay the wages of our sins, so that we may have the blessing
of forgiveness and the promise of life. That’s why He came.
And now let us move on from The Advent That Has Come to:
II THE ADVENT THAT IS COMING. (14-17)
1. Blessed are those who believe. (14-17)
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the
right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.
Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually
immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and
practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this
testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of
David, and the bright Morning Star.” The Spirit and the bride
say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is
thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free
gift of the water of life.
a) It speaks here of washing robes. Revelation 7:14 also speaks
of those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.”
b) What a blessing! Forgiveness of sins because of Jesus!
2. But many reject Jesus, do not believe. (15)
a) Our text speaks of open and obvious ways of showing
unbelief, like “magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the
idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.”
b) Unbelief is shown also by rejection, like those who rejected
Jesus as the promised King and nailed Him to the cross. And it is
shown today by polite and law-abiding people who see Jesus only as a
teacher or an example and not as the promised King of glory.
3. Still the invitation goes out to all. (16-17)
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say,
“Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes,
let him take the free gift of the water of life.
a) We invite Jesus to sit down with us at our tables with the
words “Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest.”
b) Jesus invites Himself into our hearts with these words from
Revelation 3:20, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If
anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat
with him, and he with me.”
4. Pray that many will heed Jesus’ coming now.
a) Jesus knocks on our heart’s door, His invitation still goes out.
He comes now in Word and in sacrament.
b) Pray that God will bless what we, our synod, are doing to
bring Jesus’ invitation also to others.
c) Pray that others believe and sit at Jesus’ table which provides a
wonderful menu, the menu of forgiveness, with Heaven as the dessert.
And that leads us to the final verses of our text, 18-21.
I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this
book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the
plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away
from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his
share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in
this book. He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming
soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be
with God’s people. Amen.
III THE ADVENT THAT WILL COME.
1. We are warned not to change or despise God’s Word. (18-19)
a) You may turn down some invitations without consequences.
b) But don’t do that with Jesus’ invitation. Changing, tampering
with, rejecting any of our Savior’s words, that leads to terrible
consequences. We like to hear Jesus’ words, “Whoever believes and
is baptized will be saved.” But those who reject Jesus’ words will
hear, “Whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
2. Live expecting Jesus’ advent at any time. (20a)
a) Jesus says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
b) That could be the day of our death, it could be next week, it
could be a long time yet. That knowledge is withheld from us.
3. Whenever, may our response be, “Come, Lord Jesus.” (20b)
a) Yes, Jesus, come into our hearts, our houses, to our tables.
b) And yes, Lord, whenever You know it is the right time for us
to depart, come, because we know what You have promised us.
4. Pray that many join us in that response. (21)
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
a) As believers in Jesus, we are God’s people.
b) We want others to be God’s people too, to share in that grace
of God.
c) Let’s employ our prayers that many others would join us in
this Advent season as we, in our church services and in our lives,
rejoice and celebrate JESUS’ ADVENT THAT HAS COME, as we
make faithful use of God’s Word of truth to be a part of THE
ADVENT THAT IS COMING, and as we in faith look forward to
THE ADVENT THAT WILL COME.
Yes, come Lord Jesus, be our guest - now and always.
Amen.
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