Third Sunday in Advent (2025)

Advent 3 – Imminent Arrival of the Messiah

Matthew 11:2–15 • Isaiah 35 • James 5

Christmas Cantata Sunday – “He Is Worthy”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

This morning, through Scripture and through song, we stand in the middle of Advent — that beautiful and sometimes complicated season where joy and longing, faith and questions, hope and waiting are all woven together.

That’s the world into which today’s Gospel speaks. A world where faith exists alongside questions, where hope lives inside waiting, and where God’s people — including God’s prophets — sometimes need reassurance.

I. John’s Honest Question

The appointed Gospel reading for this Third Sunday in Advent is from Matthew who takes us into a prison cell. John the Baptist, the bold preacher of Christ, now sits in Herod’s darkness. And he asks the question many of us have whispered in our own hearts:

“Are You the One who is to come, or should we expect another?”

This is not unbelief. This is a weary believer wrestling with disappointment and delay. John had preached with power: “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Yet here he sits, waiting… wondering… longing.

And Advent understands that tension, doesn’t it?

Sometimes faith asks honest questions from dark places.

II. Jesus’ Answer: “Go and Tell What You See and Hear”

Jesus doesn’t rebuke John. He doesn’t shame the question. Instead, He sends back living proof that the Messiah has indeed arrived:

The blind see. The lame walk. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised. The poor hear good news.

This is Isaiah 35 — unfolding in real time. The desert blooms. Weak hands are strengthened. Fearful hearts hear, “Be strong; your God will come.”

In other words:

“Yes, John — I am the One. I am the Messiah. And the Kingdom is already breaking in.”

III. The Malady: We Stumble When the Messiah Works Differently Than We Expect

Maybe John had imagined fire, judgment, swift deliverance. Instead, he sees Jesus healing quietly, preaching gently, and advancing the Kingdom in ways that are powerful — but not always dramatic.

And we often do the same: We expect the Messiah to fix everything immediately. To remove the waiting. To explain the suffering. To overthrow the prisons in our lives.

But Jesus blesses those who are “not offended” by the way He works.

James says, “Be patient… strengthen your hearts… for the coming of the Lord is near.”

Sometimes waiting is not punishment — it’s discipleship.

IV. The Means: The Messiah Is Worthy — Because He Comes to Us Now

Jesus told John, “Look at what is happening.” He anchored John’s faith not in what John felt, but in what God was doing.

And Jesus anchors us the same way.

Where do we “see and hear” Messiah today?

In His Word, opening blind eyes. In Baptism, raising the spiritually dead. In Absolution, lifting burdens of guilt. In His Supper, feeding the poor with Good News. In the Church, where He meets us in our joys and sorrows.

This is why He is worthy. Not only because He comes — but because of what He brings when He comes.

Conclusion: The Messiah Has Come — and He Is Worthy

John asked, “Are You the One?” Jesus answered with the works only the Messiah could do.

And today, through Scripture, narration, and song, the Church answers with confidence:

He came low to raise us up. He took on flesh to make us His own. He suffered and died to bring us life forever.

He is worthy.

Worthy of trust in our waiting. Worthy of praise in our sorrow. Worthy of hope in our longing.

And as we continue with the Cantata — including that beautiful question and answer:

“Is He worthy?” “He is!”

—we lift our hearts with Advent joy:

The Messiah has come. The Messiah still comes. And the Messiah will come again.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Offertory Prayer

O Lord our God, maker and giver of all good gifts. Through your goodness you have blessed us with these gifts. With them we offer ourselves to Your service and dedicate our lives to the care and redemption that you have made, for the sake of Him who gave himself for us, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Closing Prayer

Pastor: Let us pray.

Gracious and mighty God, we thank You for the gift of this day and for the proclamation of Your Gospel through Word and song. You have reminded us that Your Son, our Messiah, has come in humility, meets us in our waiting, and will come again in glory.

As we leave this place, send us forth with hearts renewed by joy, strengthened by hope, and anchored in faith. Where we are weary, lift us. Where we are anxious, give us peace. Where we are waiting, teach us to trust.

Keep us steadfast in the days ahead until the day when faith gives way to sight and we join the saints and angels in everlasting praise, confessing with one voice that Jesus Christ is Lord— the Lamb who was slain, the King who reigns, the One who is worthy.

We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and coming King. Amen.