Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

1. Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed.

Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith.

May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen

Holiness

Many trees appear to be healthy when we see them in summer.

But, in the winter, after their leaves have all fallen off, we sometimes find that hidden underneath the lush green of the summer foliage was a parasitic plant called mistletoe, which had been slowly sucking away some of the tree’s vitality.

We as Christians sometimes have hidden sins—which like the mistletoe—slowly suck away our spiritual vitality.

Although not always evident in times of outward spiritual health and fruitfulness, we must always examine ourselves for those small, often unseen, parasites of sinful habits that will sap our vitality.

And we must also remember that just because they are not apparent now does not mean that in another season of our life God will not reveal them for all to see.

On the Second Sunday of Advent, we celebrate the theme of Peace.

The peace that passes all understanding is the peace that we all desire, consciously or unconsciously, deliberately or under the guise of personal satisfaction.

The peace of reconciliation between God and man is a peace that the ungodly must deny, because they are compelled to deny His existence.

We understand that the truth as it is in Christ is the foundation upon which the entire creation rests.

The haters of the Gospel recognize it too, and are compelled to resist that truth, through resisting the 1st article as well as the 2nd article of the Creed.

It is the 1st Article, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, CREATOR of heaven and earth,” that declares our dependence upon God for live and all that pertains to it.

It is the 2nd Article, “And [I believe] in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our LORD, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell.

On the third day he rose [again]; he ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of God, the almighty Father, from where he will come to judge the living and the dead,” that declares our dependence upon Christ for that peace that eludes us no matter how hard we try, deny, fight, flee, work, play....

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 355.

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 354.

What does it mean to say that “God is angry with us?”

says

What is the evidence of God’s anger?

tells us

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 354.

In response, according to

Indeed, the remainder of the first chapter of Romans reveals that the wrath of God is manifested, not by what God does to us, but by what He allows us to do to one another.

catalogues the sins that we see covering our community:

In such a time, surely, one would think, “holiness and love of the truth” would be a prized possession.

Concerning holiness, “C. S. Lewis once commented to an American friend, “How little people know who think that holiness is dull.

When one meets the real thing, . . . it is irresistible.

If even 10% of the world’s population had it, would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year’s end?” (C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady [Grand Rapids: Wm.

Eerdmans, 1967], p. 19).”

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 354.

In the Incarnation of Christ, God has spoken peace to the world He created, a world that in its folly, worships temporal power instead of God, the Father Almighty.

describes its manifestation in the Antichrist,

Michael P. Green, ed., Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 Sermon Illustrations Arranged by Topic and Indexed Exhaustively, Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file.

(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989).

Surveys have indicated that atheism has greatly increased in America.

The Pew Research Institute, in an article written by Michael Lipka and published in June 1, 2016, states that

The share of Americans who identify as atheists has roughly doubled in the past several years.

Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that 3.1% of American adults say they are atheists when asked about their religious identity, up from 1.6% in a similarly large survey in 2007.

An additional 4.0% of Americans call themselves agnostics, up from 2.4% in 2007.

Lipka further stated that:

Self-identified atheists tend to be aligned with the Democratic Party and with political liberalism.

About two-thirds of atheists (69%) identify as Democrats (or lean in that direction), and a majority (56%) call themselves political liberals(compared with just one-in-ten who say they are conservatives).

Atheists overwhelmingly favor same-sex marriage (92%) and legal abortion (87%).

In addition, three-quarters (74%) say that government aid to the poor does more good than harm.

Finally, regarding Americans’ general reesponse to this cultural shift, the article says that

About half of Americans (53%) say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral, while 45% say belief in God is necessary to have good values,according to a 2014 survey.

In other wealthy countries, smaller shares tend to say that a belief in God is essential for good morals, including just 15% in France.

But in many other parts of the world, nearly everyone says that a person must believe in God to be moral, including 99% in Indonesia and Ghana and 98% in Pakistan.

The only counter to this remains the preaching of the Gospel of Christ.

Our surest response to what we see taking place around us is till declared in Luther’s Smalcald Article IV

[4:] Concerning the Gospel

[4:] Concerning the Gospel

We now want to return to the gospel, which gives guidance and help against sin in more than one way, because God is extravagantly rich in his grace: first, through the spoken word, in which the forgiveness of sins is preached to the whole world (which is the proper function of the gospel); second, through baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys and also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers and sisters.

[:20*]: “Where two or three are gathered …”129

We now want to return to the gospel, which gives guidance and help against sin in more than one way, because God is extravagantly rich in his grace: first, through the spoken word, in which the forgiveness of sins is preached to the whole world (which is the proper function of the gospel); second, through baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys and also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brothers and sisters.

[:20*]: “Where two or three are gathered …”129

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 319.

When we say that we confess this, we are committing ourselves to participate in this, not merely vicariously by coming to church on Sunday and hearing the Word of Christ.

Christ did not die vicariously, that is, though us.

He died substitutionally - for us.

We are justified through Him, not simply to enjoy the fruits of His work, but to participate in it, to have fellowship with Him.

Are you walking in Fellowship with the Father and with His Son?

The Apostle John, writing about this fellowship, proclaimed in

Those who walk with the Son participate in the Mission of God.

Those who sit on the sidelines, criticizing but doing nothing that supports ministry of the Gospel, do not.

Jesus said, in ,

The will and work of God the father is not found in the 1st (Curb) Use of the Law.

It is declared in the 2nd (Mirror).

It is embraced in the 3rd (Guide) by those who Hear the Word of Christ

Jesus later gives us a promise, in

In Christ alone is the prayer of today’s text answered.

closes with comforting words:

If you are weary with the darkness of this age, there is only one remedy.

If you know that there is a balm in Gilead, and you have been blessed with the anointing that comes through the preaching of Christ, God has given you peace to share with your neighbor, a peace that passes all understanding in a world that clearly lacks any understanding.

So be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, putting on the whole armor of God so that you can stand in this evil day, and let the peace of God, that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our lord, Amen.