Sermon - Ad Te Levavi 2019 - Matthew 21:1-9

Today is the first day of the new church year, so happy new year! With every new year we are again given the opportunity to start anew, give it a fresh beginning! Today I’d like to do that as Christians. You’ve confessed your sins and have received God’s forgiveness, you’re a new creation being made again in the light of Christ Jesus. Put the past behind and let’s go forward in the new year with joy! 

For married couples, when they want a fresh start they have a renewal of their wedding vows. For us Christians, it would be wise for us to have a renewal of our vows, namely our confirmation vows. So before we begin the sermon in earnest today, let’s start this new year afresh by renewing our confirmation vows. Open up your hymnals to page 272. I’ll read the parts marked with a P, and you’ll read the parts marked with an R or C.

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Having just renewed your confirmation vows, if you were to look back on your life since your confirmation or your baptism, how would you say that you’ve done? Have you kept them all as you promised? Have you faithfully done what you said you would do? Probably not. So how does that make you feel? Embarrassed? Ashamed? Guilty? Sad? Maybe a mixture of all of them?

Advent is a penitential season, similar to Lent, in that it’s a time for us to feel sorrow over our sins, repent of them, and then cling to the promises of Christ who forgives our sins. I know we often treat Advent like it’s Christmas, but we shouldn’t, because it’s not Christmas yet, that doesn’t come yet for a few weeks. 

Although I think it’s understandable why we behave as though it’s Christmas already. We want to feel happiness and joy right now, because this is a time of year that can be quite sad and difficult for many people. The days are often cloudy and gloomy, and what sunshine we do have only lasts for a short time before it’s night. Events and activities are ramping up, and so our stress and anxiety levels also ramp up. When we approach the holidays, it reminds us of our loved ones who aren’t here to celebrate with us. All of these things combined result in a whirlwind of emotions and often leave us sad and empty. So when we get a chance to be happy and celebrate something to distract us from our sadness, we leap at the opportunity!

But we Christians have another reason to be happy and filled with joy and contentment, and it doesn’t have to do with delicious food, sentimental music, and toys. Even now during Advent our hearts ought to be filled with joy and gladness as we anticipate the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The reason for our Advent Joy is that Christ comes to all of us poor lowly sinners in His grace.

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” The focus of Advent, which means “coming,” isn’t only about the past coming of Christ who came to this earth in His birth, but the special emphasis is that Christ presently comes to His people today! Behold, your King is coming to you, present tense, right now, He comes to you! 

We poor lowly ordinary people ought to be brimming with joy at the fact that God would deign to come to us! Think about it! How shocked would you be if the Governor showed up at your doorstep? What about the president? Or the Queen of England? Those folks would never bother to step into our dirty little hovels, nor would they ever even think about insignificant people like us. But God, the one and true only God thinks about you and has chosen to come to you where you live! What joy should fill our hearts when contemplating that glorious truth! 

But why would God think about us, desire us, and come to us? We’ve confessed that we’re poor miserable sinners; we realize we’ve failed our vows; we recognize our horrible guilt as we enter into this penitential season. So why would God choose to come to us?

The reason He chooses to come to us is precisely because we are sinners! It’s not the healthy who need a physician, but the sick! “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. In 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.’” The Lord comes to people who are unrighteous, to the foolish and unjust, to those in need of a Savior! The Lord comes to you because you are a poor miserable sinner whose sorrow implores Jesus to come and seek you out! 

“Behold, your King, your Salvation, is coming to you!” Yes, right now He is standing at the door of your heart knocking! He sees you as a sad and lonely sinner who needs the salvation that He has come to bring! Because not only does He come to us, but He comes to us in His grace in order to offer forgiveness and life! Jesus, our King and our Salvation comes to save us! 

Surely He should come and be angry with us, punish us for our wickedness and insolence. Certainly we deserve for Him to come with His wrath, but no! He comes to us with His grace and favor! So we cry out with the crowds! “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” Hosanna, we cry, save us, please! 

So He does. Our Jesus comes to us today in order to save us because He desires to be with us. Your sins do separate you from God, but also because you’re a sinner God comes to you to rescue you from those sins. So don’t despair this Advent. When feelings of loneliness creep in, when the darkness of depression becomes too dark, when your sins seem too heavy, and the anxiety makes you feel about to snap: remember, Behold, your Salvation is coming and He comes even now. “For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”

Be at peace with joy dear Christians this Advent, not because of the pretty lights and hot cocoa, but because your King is coming to you. So rejoice and exult with all Christians. He is here again. He rules again by the power of His grace in your heart. Let us walk forward into the new church year like a jubilant choir, singing the words of Paul Gerhardt’s glad hymn “Now I will cling forever to Christ, my Savior true; my Lord will leave me never, whate’er He passes through. He rends death’s iron chain; He breaks through sin and pain; He shatters hell’s grim thrall; I follow Him through all.”

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus! Through Your Word we all know that You are the new tree of life in the new Paradise of grace. But only You know how many of us are truly, daily partaking of Your sweet fruit. Oh, do arise to help us all. Let none among us lag behind. Reveal Yourself to all. Draw everyone to You. Open every heart to You and enter in with Your grace and peace! Grant that this appointed season of your most gracious Advent be blessed. May we joyfully appear at Your crib during the festival of Your birth, bringing faith in You to our hearts and an ever livelier confession of Your great kindness. Hear us, faithful savior. Amen.