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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. That which the children sang to us is our prayer as well. Come, Lord Jesus. Come.
But when Jesus came the very first time, when he began his ministry, he wasn’t received and still isn’t being received with open arms. But when you compare Jesus’ coming with John’s coming and his preparation, John the Baptist that is, two different ways of coming, and both were rejected by the world. Jesus said this about John and about himself from the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus said, “Because of how he came. Because of what he was preaching.” I mean, think about it. John was out in the wilderness. He wasn’t among the scribes and Pharisees in the temple. People had to travel and trek a fair piece to get to where John was preaching and where he was baptizing. And as he preached and baptized, he preached a very strong way of speaking about God’s coming.
That people are to wake up, smell the coffee, and know that He’s coming. That the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, I know many of us are thinking, “Boy, you know, Pastor, we could use a lot of John the Baptist today because people today need to be waking up that there are serious things happening in the world that we need to open our eyes to, that You are coming.” And you’re right. But John, they thought of him and his message as being from demons.
Then Jesus said this about himself. He said, “The Son of Man comes eating and drinking,” and they say, because he comes eating and drinking, he’s a glutton, He’s a drunkard, and he’s a friend of tax collectors and sinners. And they rejected him as well.
Are you beginning to see a pattern here about the world? No matter how you package it, the world refuses to believe the Creator coming in Jesus Christ, who redeems the world. Before Jesus said that about John and about himself, he said this: “‘Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.'” That implies that people could fall away on account of Jesus, which means that we live in a world, the concept of which Jesus coming to bring salvation is alien to the world. It doesn’t see it that way.
John came the way he came to prepare the way for Jesus to come. John came saying, “Repent, repent and believe. The kingdom of heaven is at hand and here with you. Be ready, repent. Be prepared. Stay awake. The King comes, mighty and having salvation.” And people, as the text said, lots of people, all of Jerusalem and Judea came to hear Him. All of them went out into the wilderness. All of them were, listen carefully, called out of their homes. All of them were called out of their comfort zone to the wilderness to hear the message. About the coming one, which is the message still today, isn’t it?
God calls us out of our comforts, the things of this world that loves to grow tentacles around us and drag us toward its doom, which is ultimately destruction, away from the one who brings life and salvation. But then think about it compared to Jesus’ coming. Jesus doesn’t go out into the wilderness like you would think. Why didn’t he do that what John did? He instead goes into the midst of the people, finds them where they’re at, and doesn’t just find them where they’re at, but finds ones who are sinners of all people and eats and drinks with them of all people. Hence, Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
Because I come only for sinners. I don’t come for righteous people. I don’t come for people who think that they’re not that bad. I don’t come for people who think that they’re bad, but not that bad, or seriously sinful. I come only for sinners. I come for those who are damned. I come for the broken. I come for the bleeding. I don’t come for the healthy. What a great God. Because you know, we live in a world where, let’s be more specific, we live in a nation. We’ve got it made. The very poorest among us has access to things that only the wealthy in countries like Haiti have access to. The poorest among us have not only access but are able to do things that the richest in Haiti can only do. And that’s just one country.
We have it very comfortable here in this nation and in this world. Having it so comfortable, we are not to begrudge that great kindness that God has given us. It’s not the point. The point really is that having been given this great comfort that we’ve been given in this world, here in this nation, we ought not to let it pull us away from the one who comes to eat and drink with us, sinners. That’s the warning that John brings to you and to me. Because it’s very easy to get comfortable in this world, in this nation. Amen. It’s easy not to come out of our comfort zone in this country and to stay very satisfied and satiated in our little realm and not reach out to other people, sinners like us.
And you know, the difficulty that we have living in this world is that we’re so markedly different than everybody else. Now, there is already an underlying theme within our society that you want to be different than everybody else because in being different, you set yourself apart. But isn’t it unusual that the very people who hearken to that siren’s voice and say, “Be different,” are really like everybody else in this country? And it’s people like you and me that are markedly different because we’re sinners and we know it. We’re damned and we’ve been brought back from death to life and we know it.
And being markedly different, we don’t agree with what the world says. The world cries out, “This is good and right,” and we say, “It’s ungodly and damnable.” And the world looks at what we call holy and righteous and says it is trash and refuse. We’re very different than the rest of the world, and that’s a good thing. But in being different from the rest of the world, it is a tempting thing to be gravitating away from what makes us different. To be like the world. John’s preaching is for you and me. Because it wears on us to be different. But that’s how we’re going to die. Different.
And so since we’re going to die different, let’s live differently in the meantime. This world offers a great amount of comfort, as was mentioned, and it’s tempting for us to put our roots down into the comforting things of this world, forgetting that we don’t own this world and we don’t live in this world. Isn’t God gracious? Having gathered us together in this flock, this flock full of only these kind of people, sinners, because Jesus will not dwell among righteous people. He will not dwell and He does not come for people who are righteous and holy. He comes rather for sinners.
And isn’t He gracious to have gathered us sinners together in a group known as a flock, where He shepherds us? And a shepherd is not someone who takes a stick and beats. A shepherd is one who guides and leads, not who drives and demands. St. Paul is for sinners and sinners only. That meal is for sinners and sinners only. This Word is for sinners and sinners only. Isn’t God gracious to have brought us together as a flock? Because we live in a world that scatters people like us, sinners.
Here there are no valleys. There’s no one worse than we are. Here there are no mountains because there’s no one better than we are either. Here everyone is a damned sinner, and here everyone is a redeemed saint. That’s an equalizer that no one can do except God. Isn’t God gracious to have done that to you? Here’s where we are told your struggle is over. Here you find rest. Here you find rest from the weariness of dealing with your difference in this world. Here you find rest from being set apart from the rest of the way the world views things. Here you find like-minded sinners redeemed by the same blood.
Here you and I come dressed with our finest fig leaves and we leave clothed with the righteousness of the Lamb slain for us, bearing his righteousness. The same. Isn’t God gracious? Here is where it is said to us, “I forgive you your sins.” Remarkable words said by a sinner to sinful people. And yet, isn’t that Jesus’ coming? To share that with other people? To be that to you and to me? And isn’t that what he’s given us to be to the world? A redeemed sinner proclaiming forgiveness to other sinners. Hmm. Isn’t God gracious? Isn’t He good to us?
Marvel! We are told here, regularly in this flock, in this place, that we are like the flowers of the field and the grass. We grow up and we die. And hasn’t it been an amazing thing to see in the last several months before the weekly rains we’ve been receiving and what it has done to the earth? And how quickly things can dry up and how quickly things can pop back up again. Amazing indeed. And that’s you and me.
Here’s where we are told there’s only one thing eternal. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. And here we have it given to us in our ears, whispered by a lover, our bridegroom, Jesus Christ. We have it placed upon our lips and in our hearts, in the very flesh and blood of the one who clothes us, that we feed upon and have that righteousness. Isn’t God gracious?
What the world says is wrong. What Christ says is right. Peter asks that question, though. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought we to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Yes. Waiting for the hastening of the coming of the day of God because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved. The heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But, what a great conjunction! But according to His promise, we are waiting, sinners are waiting, for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you and I are waiting for these things, be diligent to be found alive by him without spot or wrinkle, and, if you heard pastor say it, and be found by him at peace. That’s not an inside, internal feeling. That is faith that stands upon something that’s not internal feeling. We need to repent. We do need to repent because we’re shepherded by a loving shepherd in a flock that he’s gathered. We do need to repent because we’ve been found outside the flock and have been brought back to the flock several times, haven’t we?
On his shoulders, carried close to his bosom, haven’t we? We need to repent because of the people we worry about, their souls. We’re concerned about them like a parent for a child or a grandparent for a grandchild or an aunt, an uncle for a niece and nephew. Amen. Or for a cousin, for another cousin. We’re worried about them. We’re nervous about them. We’re concerned about them. And we worry and fret, and God says, “Repent, for this is the shepherd who will gently lead those that are with young.” The ones about whom we worry. The frail ones. The weak ones. Of whom we count ourselves at times, and of whom we count others at times.
Repent. God’s promises shall endure. The world will not. The world lies that it will. You are not of this world. As the children sang, “Come, Lord Jesus, come. Deliver us and preserve us until that time.” In His name, amen. The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
