Sermon 12-24-23 Advent 4

Pastor Ray Lorthioir

Trinity Lutheran Church

W. Hempstead, NY

Based on the Gospel Lesson for the Fourth Sunday of Advent — Luke 1:26-38

King Jesus

The men who dared to proclaim the United States independent of Great Britain only did so after a deep intellectual and even religious struggle. They had to come to grips with the understanding of human government that had been in use since Roman Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the empire.

Prior to Constantine, Roman emperors from the time of Caesar Augustus onward had proclaimed themselves gods. This was not unusual for kings in all the centuries of antiquity before Rome. And declaring himself a god served Augustus well. All his subjects — except the Jews — were polytheists. Adding another god to their pantheon was no problem. Having Caesar as a god united all the empire’s disparate peoples through Caesar worship.

By special agreement the Jews were exempt from Caesar worship. Trouble did arise, however, when foolish emperors like Caligula attempted to violate the protocol. Eventually such attempts brought about the Jewish rebellions of 67A.D. and 132 A.D., both of which resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the banishment of Jews from their homeland.

Caesar worship was a significant problem for Christianity as it overspread the empire. Like Jews, Christians were and are monotheistic and could not have the emperor as just another god in a pantheon. More importantly, there was no imperial edict or agreement exempting Christians from emperor worship. Therefore, Christians were persecuted, sometimes in the most horrible ways.

All this changed, however, in 312A.D. when Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity and declared it the religion of the empire. As a result, Constantine embraced a different theory of kingship. Instead of being a god, the emperor now understood himself to have been appointed emperor by the one and only God. This is the root of what became known in theology and philosophy as the divine right of kings. Thus, for the next millennia and more, all the rulers of the lands that became Christian subscribed to the Christian philosophy of the divine right of kings. By this theory of governance, kings reigned by divine appointment from on high. As such they were servants of God. Thus, God’s authority on earth was expressed through kings, princes and other royalty. Until the American Revolution, all of Christendom acknowledged this.

Do you see the problem the American founding fathers had? In order to declare themselves independent of Great Britain, either they had to find themselves a new king or they had to come up with a new theory of government. They eventually chose the latter. They declared that God’s authority rested upon the people of a nation. Therefore, it was the duty of government to do the will of the people and protect the God-given rights of its citizens. As we know, this theory of government worked well until perhaps the last fifty years. The theory is now endangered because the Christian doctrine, Christian philosophy and Christian cultural understanding that undergirded it has been badly eroded in this last period of time.

Moreover, Marxist philosophy has invaded our universities, law schools and even seminaries, so that young people are being indoctrinated in its principles. In case you don’t know it, History is the god or goddess that Marxists worship. They see History as the god who determines the course of the world. Marxists believe that they are the prophets of the god, History. Therefore, it’s their duty to their god to imagine and bring forth entirely new conditions of human existence on earth. The last hundred years of history have documented that when Marxists do their imagining, it is vain imagining. And because it is vain, Marxist imaginings are resisted. Thus, Marxists become merciless killers of all who don’t wholeheartedly participate in their vain imaginings.

Because Marxism is vain imagining, ultimately only one Marxist can impose his vain imaginings on the rest of society. A guy like Xi Jinping gets to imagine a China in whatever form he wants. Thus, Marxists always become the worst of tyrants. This is what always happens when humans play God. And ironically, instead of bringing freedom, Marxism leads civilization back to Augustus Caesar’s theory of the emperor as a god. Only, most Roman emperors before Constantine had no vain ambitions of completely remaking life on earth in their own image.

Last week, I told you to memorize three things: 1. The Image of God.  2. The Likeness of God.  3. The Lamb of God. When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the Knowledge of the Tree of Good and Evil, they lost the Image of God and entered into the state of being known as the Likeness of God. This is the state that all of us are born into. We can’t help but be our own gods. We’re born that way. And because we’re our own gods we can’t help but be sinners in the eyes of our Creator.

Don’t believe it? Well, let’s consider our existence. First, is there such a thing as right and wrong; good and evil? Absolutely. For even evildoers complain when evil is done to them. Second, who determines what is good and evil? You do. I do. Each of us must decide for ourselves what is good and evil. We are all forced to play God, defining good and evil for ourselves. However, third, is there some standard of good and evil higher than individuals that most humans subscribe to? Absolutely. Because again, evildoers complain when evil is done to them. And atheists and Marxists complain about the evil conditions of this world. They can only complain about “evil” based on a standard higher than themselves. This standard seems to be built into the human heart. In philosophy and theology it’s called natural law.

So, what is the source of this natural law in the human heart? The answer to this question is life’s most severe controversy. St. Paul wrote in Romans 1:18-20, “18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” There is a huge implication in these words. If there is a God who created absolutely everything, including us, then His Law and Justice are supreme in this universe. There is nothing higher. And most importantly, every created being is subject to this Creator God’s standards of right and wrong. Every created being will be judged by this Creator God’s standards of right and wrong.

This is the source of the controversy. It’s why for centuries, humans have attempted to deny the existence of a Creator God. Our modern rebuttal to St. Paul is the whole theory of a self existing universe that has evolved everything in it over an enormous period of deep time. However, actual scientific investigation keeps undermining this modern origins myth. And philosophical inquiry continues to expose the roots of its logical fallacies. Thus, when everything is said and done and you press atheists, atheists can only say that there is no God because they don’t want there to be a God.

Nevertheless, many modern people take comfort in the evolution myth. It simply enables them to play God, deciding good and evil for themselves without guilt, especially in sexual matters. It rules out any accountability to a Creator. For if there is a Creator, sexuality is His creation, not ours. His purposes, His design and His rules govern sexuality.

So, this brings us to the crisis of being in the Likeness of God. There are two ways to decide good and evil in this world — God’s way or some other way. However, even those who choose God’s way cannot decide or act upon good and evil as if they were in the Image of God. We can only act in the Likeness of God. For this reason, all fall short of the glory of God — as St. Paul says. (Romans 3:23)

As originally created, Adam and Eve were designed to be in perfect union with their Creator and have their being within the protective cocoon of His complete righteousness. We can say this because of what Jesus told us in the New Testament. In John 14:15-18 Jesus explains that the Holy Spirit will be in the believer. Then, on top of that, we read in John 14:23, “Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” Father, Son and Holy Spirit make their home in the believer. Of course, this is only possible in this life through the forgiveness of sins. But living with and in us is Yahweh’s end game. It’s Yahweh’s intention to return us to our original state of perfect righteous union with Him.

And all this is by faith in what Jesus said. As a sinner, I’m not particularly aware of Yahweh dwelling within me. But that doesn’t matter. Jesus said it — the only one resurrected from the dead so far. That’s who said it. Therefore, it’s true. And it’s to be believed. And if Yahweh dwells within me, I can expect His righteousness to be the strong antidote to sin. And so it is, by faith.

But consider. If this is the state of the believer in this present life, then in the resurrection of the dead, believers will be in a sinless, perfect union with our perfect, righteous Creator in a way that we can’t yet imagine. This is what will make eternity blissful. We’ll never run away from or need to hide from our Creator again. We’ll never raise our fist against Him again. He will be our God. We will be His people.

Now, if anyone doesn’t want that kind of righteous future with Yahweh, there is an alternative. Hell is the place where we can be our own gods forever. The downside, however, is that the climate is lousy, and the knowledge of what is truly good will be completely stripped from all those who are sent there. Hell will be the self-contained pocket of creation where Yahweh will totally absent Himself forever by popular demand. Hell will be a place without a god and without a king. That’s why I see it as a 24/7 vicious marriage fight/barfight/gang war/holocaust and world war all rolled into one without any relief. In any event, all those who want an eternal existence without Yahweh will get precisely what they want. They might even be pleased with that. Who knows?

And whether you realize it or not, your heart is torn between these two alternatives. Your sinful nature absolutely craves the right to be its own god. The sinful nature is a child of hell. On the other hand, Christ in the believer longs to be perfectly united at long last with He who is perfection. This is the difficult situation every believer finds themself in. Martin Luther described it this way: he called us saints and sinners at the same time.

Therefore, so that believers might finish this life in the grace of God and the forgiveness of their sins and escape hell, God gave His Word, His Sacraments and His Church. And it’s why the Church in its wisdom created special days of observance so that we might remember and hold in faith what Yahweh has done for all humanity.

Now, if we’re going to have Jesus — here’s where it gets tough — we Americans have to know that the Kingdom of God will not be a constitutional republic. We won’t get to vote on anything. No. The Kingdom of God is just that — a Kingdom with a King. Resurrected believers will all be subjects of the King forever. Saint Mary, mother of our Lord, clearly heard this from the angel Gabriel.

Let’s go over it again. Luke 1:30-33, “30 But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’” Kings have thrones. Kings reign. Kings have a kingdom. Could it be any more clear?

Indeed, Gabriel brought news that Yahweh’s ancient promise to David would be fulfilled in Jesus. That ancient promise is in our first lesson. Yahweh gave this promise to David through the prophet, Nathan, who attended to King David. We read in 2 Samuel 7:16, “‘Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” David’s dynasty was broken through the disobedience of his descendants. But Mary, a descendant of David, brought forth a Son who was given David’s throne forever.

Centuries after the prophet Nathan brought the prophecy of an eternal throne to David, it was reaffirmed again in Scripture in a most unusual way. The pagan king of Babylon, the great Nebuchadnezzar, was given a troubling dream that the Jewish prophet Daniel unraveled for him. We read in Daniel 2:44-45, “44 [Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar] ‘In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands — a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.’”

The iron, bronze, clay, silver and gold all represented ancient kingdoms that would succeed one another. The iron and clay was the Roman Empire. The kingdom that the God of heaven set up that will never be destroyed is His true Church. And who is the head of the Church? Mary’s Son, Jesus. He’s the rock cut out of a mountain, and not by human hands. The Church came to be during the Roman Empire and has outlasted it. So it was just as the prophecy said. Here in Advent, we’re looking forward to the final eternal triumph of the Church, the final eternal triumph of Messiah Jesus Himself. His Kingdom is eternal.

But, you know how it is with kings and rulers on earth. It’s rare to have a benevolent ruler. For the most part they’re tyrants who insist on having their own way. However, what will it be like to have Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords?

Jesus came the first time as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Does that tell us something? Even though the authority of Caesar, the Herods, Pontius Pilate and the Jewish Sanhedrin came directly from Jesus Himself as Yahweh, the Son, Jesus humbly submitted Himself to the authority of all these tyrants as the child born in Bethlehem. Indeed, the most amazing scenes in Jesus’ life were at His trials. As Yahweh, the Son, Jesus is the Judge of Pontius Pilate, Herod, the High Priest and the Sanhedrin. Yet, He permitted these sinners to judge Him and put Him to death on a cross.

The only thing we can conclude is that our God is not full of Himself, even though He is God. Jesus demonstrated that. He is no tyrant. Rather, He is filled with Agape Love — complete commitment, even toward those in rebellion against Him. What kind of ruler is this? Jesus is obviously very different from the devil who inflames the hearts of earthly tyrants.

But, like all rulers Jesus demands one thing — Love. As we saw above, Yahweh — the Father, Son and Holy Spirit — comes to those who love Him. And there is the great shema that was given to Israel. Deuteronomy 6:4-6, “4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.   5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Loving God this way is only possible by those who have been shown the Agape Love of  God.

And, only those who have been converted by grace through faith can appreciate the enormous Agape Love that has been expended on them. For this reason, St. Paul prays in Ephesians 3:17-19, “17. . . And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

We read in 1 John 4:10, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” There has never been nor will there be any greater Love than this. All those who come under the Kingship of Messiah Jesus know this for a certainty and will know this Love in complete measure in the coming Kingdom.

As we read in 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love.” This is because our sin has been atoned for by the only one who could do it for us — Jesus. Thus, in the coming Kingdom we will have nothing but love for our King, Messiah Jesus. 

Every tyrant on earth yearns for such love. But all they can do is build concentration camps for those who will not love them. On the contrary, Yahweh takes us, who would be our own gods, and changes our hearts by the magnitude of His Agape Love, so that we might always Love our King. Mary was the first to hear that the Son she would bear would do this for us and that He would be this kind of King. Blessed be His Name forever. Amen.

All Bible quotes are from the NIV.