Midweek Advent Service
02 December 2015
Dear friends in Christ. Here we are in the midst of the hustle and bustle of another—as they like to say—“holiday season.” All around us are the advertisers and businesses, the obligatory Christmas concerts and parties; we are involved in all the preparations for the home, the card sending, the cookie baking; all the Christmas specials on TV; all these things that make this “the most wonderful time of year.” There’s so much to do and yet so little time, and yet here we are in church. Why? Because church is the calm in the midst of the storm. Here we quietly hear and meditate on our Lord, His work, His graces, His blessings. Here we are lifted out of the day in, day out busyness to focus our attention on what is truly vital. The thing is, the world around us thinks that the most vital things are always found in all the outward trappings; that Christmas has its true joy and fulfillment when we do/ are involved with what is around us and we are in the midst of: sounds, activity, and sentimentality. But the Church, Advent, calls us away from this to a quiet meditation on our Lord, His grace, His work, His salvation, His return. She calls us to a time of prayer, meditation and repentance. By this we are well prepared, by this our hearts are ready to hear and rejoice at the Christmas proclamation of the angels [Lk 2.11]: For there is born for you this day...a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Here is the reason for Christmas—our Savior from sin, death, devil and hell has come; and why do we rejoice? Because we are sinners who need a Savior. Notice the preparation of the world, what the world thinks makes for a perfect celebration—outward things / trappings; notice the Church’s preparation now for a joyous Christmas is an inward preparation of the heart.
The inward preparation of the heart via repentance is a key Advent theme. Not only do we think of preparing ourselves to hear and celebrate the mysteries of Christmas—that God became man, born of the blessed Virgin, to be our Savior—but as we prepare our hearts for that, our hearts are then also prepared to welcome Jesus as He comes on the Last Day to bring His dear Christians with Him into heaven, soul and body. But underlying all this is the day in/ day out readiness to receive Jesus our Savior as He daily comes to us in His holy word and sacraments. As Jesus comes to us in His word and sacrament, He comes giving us every heavenly and spiritual gift He has won for us—forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, eternal life. We can only welcome and receive Him as we recognize our sin and long for rescue and forgiveness from those sins—and that Jesus is our Savior from that sin and damnation.
That’s why our text is a glorious word and promise of Jesus. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. That’s what Advent is all about—Jesus coming to us, even today in His holy word and sacraments. In His word and sacrament He has come to us and stand[s] at the door and knock[s]. Now is the time to pay attention and to seek the Lord in His word, to seek Him in the holy Sacrament, to seek Him in church where He has promised to meet us as we gather around the pulpit and altar. Dear Christian, Jesus here tells us: Behold, that is, open your eyes and ears. Don’t let them be dulled by looking at things superficially, but when you hear and read Scripture, know that that is Jesus speaking to you. They are not just some dead words on a page or sound entering your ears, they are the very word of God Himself; Jesus says [Jn 6.63], The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. That’s why in the Advent season, especially, we will want to spend extra time in our Lord’s holy word and recognize just what His word is. Isn’t there enough to do in this busy “holiday season”? To be sure! But remember, all that busyness is just external, outward trappings. Yes, they can be nice; they may even be beneficial, but they are not what truly matters. What matters is: Is your heart prepared to meet and welcome Jesus?
What is Jesus doing as He comes to us in His holy word? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. He is seeking you and me out! Jesus doesn’t just let us sinners be; He doesn’t just let us go our merry way of sin—a way that leads to death and hell. Instead, He goes to where we are, at the door. And He stands there—He comes to us—full of love and mercy for us sinners and stands before us. The Lord describes Himself through the prophet Isaiah [65.1, 2]: I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good. That’s His love for us sinners. He seeks us out; He wants us to find Him; He wants us to welcome Him into our hearts by faith.
But Jesus doesn’t just stand there, at the door, but He also knocks. How does Jesus knock? He knocks with His holy word. He knocks with His word of law that points out our sin and accuses us of our sin; that word of law that shows us that by our sin we are enemies of God and hostile to Him and earn/ deserve nothing but God’s wrath and damnation. He knocks using our conscience that recognizes and feels the weight and guilt of sin; that nagging conscience that makes us very aware of our sin. That’s why as we take time now especially during this busy time of year and look at our hearts and lives in the mirror of God’s holy Law—that is Jesus knocking at our hearts. He is showing us that we need Him and His saving work, that we need a Savior from sin and death. If we don’t think we need a Savior from sin, why would we open the door to that Savior?
But the true repentance of the Christian is not just sorrow over sin but it is also faith in Jesus as that Savior from sin. That means simply this: just as little that we would open the door to a Savior from sin if we didn’t think we’d need a Savior from son, so little would we open the door if we knew that the one knocking is our Judge and would come condemn us to hell. In other words, Jesus doesn’t just knock with His holy word of Law, showing us and accusing us of our sin; instead, He also knocks with His holy word of the Gospel.
In His holy word of the Gospel that Jesus will knock with in the Advent season, He will show us that He is our Savior, that in Him is the forgiveness of our sins, that He reconciled us sinners to the holy God, that He opened heaven to us. By this He works faith in our hearts to trust in Him and His work; to trust in Him for the forgiveness of sin and eternal life. And that’s repentance—sorrow over sin and faith in Jesus as that Savior from sin and death. As Advent does its job anew as through the word that we hear in church and take time to read in our homes, Christ is knocking on the door of our heart and how we repentant sinners, sorry for our sins but rejoicing in Jesus, our Savior from that sin, then delight to hear the Christmas Gospel that our Savior has come! That Jesus has been born to be our Savior!
Advent—in contrast to the “holiday season” around us—is a quiet and introspective season. The world around us fills our eyes and ears with all kinds of sights and sounds of the season; it fills our minds with all kinds thoughts of things we have to/ should do. We go 100 mph. But Advent calls us to ponder, meditate, prayer and reflect. And why? Behold, I stand at the door and knock. How can we hear and answer Christ knocking at the door of our heart if our hearts and minds are filled with all sorts of other distractions, distractions in outward trivialities? Again, Advent is a time of quiet around the word so that we may hear Christ knocking on our hearts with His word of Law and Gospel; it is a time of quiet. May it remain for us the quiet in the storm.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Here we come to a glorious truth and working of God: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door. People will hear these words and think that they, by their own strength, effort, worthiness, virtue, decision open the doors of their heart to Christ. In other words, they are claiming credit for the fact that they are Christians; they are saying they have a hand in their salvation. But the splendid truth is that through that very word of the Gospel that Christ knocks with, that is the power that opens the heart that Jesus may then enter. Scripture is abundantly clear [Ps 51.5; Ep 2.1 ff.]—we are all conceived and born in sin; we are all spiritually dead, blind and enemies of God. There’s no way left to ourselves and our own devices that we would hear Christ’s voice and open to Him the door of our heart. But what happened? In grace and mercy Christ stands at the door and knocks—knocks with His holy word, be it when we were infants and He knocks with the word with the water of holy Baptism, or be it later on in life and through the word that we hear, ponder and read. Remember—His word is spirit and life! Through the work of the Holy Spirit in the word, He created in us spiritual life, giving us faith to welcome and receive Christ; faith that hears His voice and opens the door of the heart. What Scripture records of Lydia, applies to each of our Lord’s Christians [Ac 16.14]: The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
Yes, Christ came to us before in His word and brought us to spiritual life; and now in His holy word He continues to come to us and by His word He again and anew prepares us so that we continue opening the door of our heart to Him welcoming and receiving Him. What joy is now ours—our Savior again and anew comes to us!
Now Jesus comes to us in grace. When He stands at the door of our heart and knocks, He does not come empty-handed. Instead, He comes with every heavenly gift and blessing. What joy is ours as we ponder this great grace of our Lord: He, the holy God comes to me, a poor miserable sinner. Now as He comes in His word and sacrament, He doesn’t come to punish and destroy us sinners. He doesn’t judge the weakness and sin still clinging to us. Instead, He has great joy in us and gives us and feeds our soul with every spiritual good and blessing. He has the most intimate communion and fellowship with His dear Christian; we are in Christ and He is in us— I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. Paul writes [Gal 2.20; 3.27]: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me; and, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
By His knocking on the door of our heart with His holy word of Law and Gospel, Jesus prepares our hearts to receive Him; and now that we in the faith He created in us welcome Him, Jesus comes to us giving us every heavenly and spiritual blessing, giving us what our souls need. What peace fills our souls! We have the forgiveness of sins, we are reconciled to God, heaven is open to us—all because we are in Christ and He is in us— I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
We have the wonderful certainty of this, literally, in the Holy Supper as Jesus gives us with the bread and wine His very body and blood. Here is the outward expression of what Jesus is doing in us—richly feeding our soul with His heavenly goods. Here is the foretaste of that heavenly banquet we will enjoy eternally in heaven—all because now Jesus came to us and stood before the door of our hearts knocking with His holy word and by that preparing our hearts to receive Him and His blessings.
What a blessed season Advent is! May we especially use it to again prepare our hearts for His coming to us today, to welcome the announcement of His coming as the Baby born of Mary, and to pray for His second coming: Come, Lord Jesus, Come quickly. INJ