Manuscript for Advent 1

P    In the name of the Father and of the T Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C    Amen.

 

331 THE ADVENT OF OUR KING

1 The advent of our King
    Our prayers must now employ,
And we must hymns of welcome sing
    In strains of holy joy. 

2 The everlasting Son
    Incarnate deigns to be,
Himself a servant’s form puts on
    To set His servants free.

3 O Zion’s daughter, rise
    To meet your lowly King,
Nor let your faithless heart despise
    The peace He comes to bring.

4 As judge, on clouds of light,
    He soon will come again
And His true members all unite
    With Him in heav’n to reign.

5 Before the dawning day
    Let sin’s dark deeds be gone,
The sinful self be put away,
    The new self now put on.

6 All glory to the Son,
    Who comes to set us free,
With Father, Spirit, ever one
    Through all eternity.

Text: Public domain

 

Collect of the Day

P Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C Amen.

  

Old Testament Reading Jeremiah 23:5–8

⁵“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

⁷“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ⁸but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

A This is the Word of the Lord.

 

Epistle Romans 13:11–14

¹¹Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. ¹²The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. ¹⁴But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

A This is the Word of the Lord.

 

Holy Gospel

P The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the twenty-first chapter.

¹When they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” ⁴This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

⁵“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. ⁷They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. ⁸Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

P This is the Gospel of the Lord.

 

Apostles’ Creed 

Sermon

 Matthew 21: Jesus said to the disciples, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.

It seemed good to our Lord Jesus to go up to Jerusalem, entering into the city this way. He knew how it was all going to happen. Clearly, He was in control of all that would happen - even the actions of each minor player (human and animal) in the city and outlying villages that day. 

Jesus, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, has all the characteristics and attributes of God, including among others omniscience and omnipotence. Omniscience means He knows everything. Omnipotence means He is powerful to do anything. Our Lord Jesus’ omniscience, his knowledge of all things, and His omnipotence, the power to keep control of all things for His good purposes are together a source of great comfort for us.

Push back far from you any doubts that arise when things in the world or things in your life seem out of control. Trust in your Lord’s omniscience and omnipotence. He knows all that’s going on and in His perspective, it’s all under control. And He wants to use even the smallest detail for His Kingdom, His purposes. The things going on around us are not out of our Lord’s control. Quite the contrary, we should be confident that He is working out all things for good. Don’t forget that. Don’t doubt that.

To doubt that God is working for your good is sinful unbelief. God is working things out for good -- even your suffering. God uses stress and difficulties for strengthening your character and faith -- to doubt that is sinful unbelief. And it’s even more sinful when, in the midst of doubts, our pride rises up and says this: “Well, it’s obvious that God’s not helping. Whether he’s incapable or unwilling, I don’t know, but He’s definitely not in the picture here. So I have to handle this. I have to fix my own problems. I even have to barge in on my neighbors, tell them what their problems are and since no one else seems to be doing it, I suppose I will have to fix their problems too.”

Pride is at it’s worst when it makes you think you can do a better job than God.

Over and over again our Lord Jesus has shown that He is attentive to our needs, He is able to help and to save, He is ready and willing to enter into the messy situations that happen in this world, and fix things, save people, and fulfill His good purposes.

In Jerusalem that day, He was definitely coming into a messy situation. He was on the way to trials, to conviction, to the cross and death. Matthew’s record of this event gives us details about how Jesus came into the city -- not accidentally; not haphazardly; not tentatively -- but boldly, deliberately, with a clear purpose.

When Christ first came into this world He was deliberate, with clear purpose to fix our problems of sin and death, and to save our souls, which we cannot do ourselves. He has promised to come again with clear purpose to judge the living and the dead, and to bring all history to His purposeful conclusion. All will see that glorious awesome day, whether they are ready for it or not.

So His first coming was intentional, purposeful. His second coming will be intentional, purposeful. In the meantime, which we are in right now, between His first and second coming, you hear Him telling you that He “will be with you always, to the end of the age.” He comes down from heaven into your lifetime. At your baptism, when you hear the word of the Gospel, when you gather with your fellow believers at the altar and in His name. He comes into your life and into your heart. Just as He had clear purpose in coming the first time, just as He will have a clear purpose in mind when He comes again the second time, you can be sure that His ongoing presence in your life is working mighty good things for you. Without a doubt, He is working His plans in you and through you and by you, for the sake of others around you.

But why is God allowing bad things to happen? Why isn’t he fixing things faster, better? What is His purpose? We’d all like to understand that better, wouldn’t we. Why is this difficulty or this pain here now? Often such questions can’t be answered until later, after it’s all over. The future’s not ours to see. Think about how it was at Jesus’ suffering. Eyewitnesses didn’t get it at the time. The crowds who sang Hosanna, were completely unprepared for what was going to happen later that week. They were shocked and beat their breasts in anguish. Only until much later, with the Holy Spirit inspired preaching of the Gospel, would people come to understand and believe that the suffering and death of Jesus was for the forgiveness of sinners and our salvation.

Maybe some of our questions will never be answered to our satisfaction. Why have we come upon this or that problem? Some of this difficulty around us might be for somebody else’s benefit. The Lord is using it for their good. It’s about them, not about you. It’s really not any of your business, so you don’t need to know all the details and all the answers to questions like “why?”.

The purposes of the Lord are clear and good. He tells you what they are. He wants to save you. He wants to forgive you your sins. So He calls you this Advent season to look carefully at your heart and life and attitude. Repent of your sins. Celebrate your Savior who has come with His good purposes for you. And be ready and open for the ongoing, purposeful coming and presence of the Lord in your life. Amen.

Prayer of the Church

Almighty God, Father of all mercies and God of all comfort, since the world began, you have been giving the promise of mercy and deliverance by the word of the holy prophets. Now we thank and praise you for the coming of your Son Jesus Christ, the Light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

We beseech you, O God, that as your faithful people in every age have earnestly and heartily believed your Word, so we may also unswervingly and heartily believe it and finally obtain what you have promised. As your servants in the Israel of the Old Testament looked with fervent longing for the coming of the Messiah, the Deliverer, grant that we may eagerly and joyfully welcome him, Jesus our Lord into our hearts by faith, and thus be delivered by his might from the power of sin, death, and the devil.

To this end, dear Lord, lead us by your Spirit to an understanding of our great sinfulness and our need of repentance. Teach us to repent. Help us to hate evil and to love the good. Strengthen us against the temptations of all our adversaries. Incline our hearts to seek righteousness and holiness, that thus we may serve and glorify thee.

Send out the Light of your Gospel to all corners of the earth, that people everywhere may know your love in the gift of your Son Jesus Christ, and join that multitude of your people who say, “Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.”

Grant peace and tranquility to the nations of the earth. Especially we ask your favor upon this land and all who dwell here. Guide all who are in authority over us, that in all things they may do your will and provide this nation with justice, peace and fairness. Prosper the work of newly elected officials.

Bless all who are gather here in your house. Bless those who listen at a distance. Sanctify them by your Word. To those who are in sorrow, to those who are enduring trials, to those who may be in any necessity of body or spirit, grant them all such strength, comfort, and understanding that they, loving you above all else, may in patience know the joy of your presence and wait with trust your salvation.

All these things we ask in the Name of him who came for our deliverance, died for our salvation, rose again for our justification and ever lives to intercede in glory on high, namely, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Lord’s Prayer

 

Benediction

 

349 HARK THE GLAD SOUND

1 Hark the glad sound! The Savior comes,
    The Savior promised long;
Let ev’ry heart prepare a throne
    And ev’ry voice a song. 

2 He comes the pris’ners to release,
    In Satan’s bondage held.
The gates of brass before Him burst,
    The iron fetters yield.

3 He comes the broken heart to bind,
    The bleeding soul to cure,
And with the treasures of His grace
    To enrich the humble poor.

4 Our glad hosannas, Prince of Peace,
    Thy welcome shall proclaim,
And heav’n’s eternal arches ring
    With Thy belovèd name.

Text: Public domain

 

 

Acknowledgments

Divine Service, Setting Three from Lutheran Service Book 

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2020 Concordia Publishing House.