November 28, 2021                        Text:  Jeremiah 33:14-16

Dear Friends in Christ,

    When do things and/or people become old?  Is a car new until 10 years or 100,000 miles?  What about your fridge or your dryer?  When do your clothes become old?  For some it may be after only a few washes.  Hang on to your “old” clothes and then they become vintage and popular at re-sale shops.

    How about us?  When do we go from young to old?  Is it all about how we feel?  Is it how others view us?  I’ve always been considered young.  “Your to young to be a Pastor you should be in high school” was something I heard a lot in my early pastorate.  Even today when I tell people I have been in this profession for 30 years they have a hard time believing it.  But that is usually people older than I am.  When I ask the confirmands over the years most lowball my age, but not all of them.  By the way, I’ve got your names in my secret book!  I feel good, I can still perform in my sporting events, my mind is still in sync and then a family friend who hasn’t seen me in years says, “Boy, you are getting gray.”  So which is it – young and new or old and decaying?  

    Change is happening and the mirror doesn’t lie.  When change and decay occur then anxiety and insecurity can swell up from within.  Why didn’t I remember that?  Why this pain?  Stairs can look like a mountain.  

    Jeremiah knew about change and decay.  He knew about anxiety and insecurity.  Jeremiah is here to announce God’s deliverance from all of this.  It is a message we need to hear because we all need . . .

“SECURITY”

    God speaks through Jeremiah:  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.  In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” (v. 14-15)

    “They day that are coming” is a reference to the birth of Christ and he will “execute justice”; namely pay for our sins at Calvary.  Righteousness is the obedience God demands of us but we can’t always be righteous.  Christ would have to earn our obedience through His obedience.  God reckons us righteous through Christ who died and rose again to pay for our disobedience.

    Jeremiah had his insecurities.  He saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Babylonians.  Before that he was in prison and had people reject him because of his preaching God’s Word.  They didn’t want to hear it.  He saw upheavals and uncertainties.  Yet God would comfort him with a promise.  A coming Branch, the Lord Jesus Christ.

    Can we acknowledge the world has always had uncertainty?  We are fearful because we see these institutions of church and government and healthcare and education in upheaval.  We are concerned about the lack of a justice system.  Our security is worn down when people want the pandemic to continue so they can wield the power.  But guess what word I heard from an apolitical doctor the other day – endemic.  We will still have isolated cases but the hysteria will end.  History shows this over and over again.  God gives us hope.  Political bad decisions have consequences that cannot be made sensible by a 30-second talking point.

    “In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely.” (16a)  Alfred Edersheim, a noted Jewish convert to Christianity gave this fascinating description of the Roman World at the time of Jesus.  See if you notice anything.

    “The citizens were idle, dissipated, sunken.  Their chief thoughts were of the theater and arena.  They were mostly supported at the public cost…200,000 were thus maintained by the State.  (There was a rapid decay of home life) partly from corruption, but chiefly from the cessation of marriage, and the nameless abominations of what remained of family life…among the populace religion had degenerated into abject superstition.”

    That is what Jesus stepped into.  He didn’t secure earthly Judah or Jerusalem.  Judah and Jerusalem are references to the church – to Jew and Gentile saved by grace through faith in Christ’s saving us through His blood, death, and resurrection.  He secured for us a heavenly Jerusalem.  It is ours now and forever.

    Let God’s Word address your insecurities:  “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken…For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” (Heb. 12:28 & 13:14)  Hold on to God’s Word when in doubt or when your gut churns with concern.  Also from Hebrews, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

    Rejoice with Jeremiah.  Beyond the disappointment and challenges of this world that come at us from all angles, beyond the anxieties we have security that is secure.  We have the security that the Son of God, the seed of David, brings and freely bestows on us.  Be at peace inside as you meet the world on the outside, for you have security in Jesus.               Amen.    

November 21, 2021                                  Text:  Mark 13:24-37

Dear Friends in Christ,

    On May 19, 1780, the sky over Hartford, CT and much of New England, darkened so quickly and ominously that some members of the Connecticut legislature, as they peered through the windows thought was world was ending.  They rose for an immediate adjournment.

    The speaker, Colonel Abraham Davenport, quelled the chaos when he rose and said, “The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not.  If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment.  If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty.  Therefore, I wish that candles be brought.”

    The end of the world as we know from the Bible is imminent.  What should we be doing now?  On this last Sunday of the Church Year the text is from the Book of Mark.  When it comes to the grand finale we have . . . 

“ALLURES, ALERTS, ASSURES”

    Our first word of the day is allure.  The end of the world always has a certain allure for us.  Jesus disciples were no different.  They want to know when.  They want details.

    People are fascinated by the end times.  Why the popularity of the Book of Revelation?  More people ask questions about this book more than any others in a Bible Study.  And then we still don’t completely understand it.  But the end times have such drama and oh Judgment Day.  We write books and make movies and have television shows like we are some kind of experts.  

    The only expert is the Lord.  There is such an allure for both the believer and the unbeliever.  The believer is confident of a new and a new earth.  The believer knows that Jesus’ return is a good thing for now and for eternity.  The unbeliever on the other hand is scared.  They may not say it, but down deep they know they may be facing an eternity of hell.  When the trumpet sounds it is too late.  They wonder, “Could I have been wrong all along?”  The predictions must make God laugh.  Even Jesus says in verse 32 that He, Jesus, doesn’t know the day or hour.

    That brings us to word two of our day – alert.  “Be on guard, keep awake.  For you do not know when the time will come.”  Are you on alert?  Are you anxious with expectation or dreading the moment?  We’ve lived through some big moments but if Jesus returns – wow – now there is something to talk about in heaven.  The good news, the 24-hour cable news channels can’t cover it to death!

    Our lives are full of trouble and challenges.  But Jesus tells us:  “The one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Mk. 24:13)  We don’t walk alone.  Jesus is alongside as we wait.  You can and you do endure because Jesus lived, died, and rose for you.

    That leads to our final word of the day and that word is…assure.  Christ is coming.  Trusting in Christ we have his full assurance.  We wait with joy because the Lord has put sin and death in their eternal places.  We have light and life and forgiveness and hope.

    Be assured through His Word.  “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (v. 32)  His Word assures of forgiveness and we share that with others.  His Word assures of love and we share that with others.  His Good News of salvation assures us and we share that with others.  

    For thirty years I have preached to three different congregations that the Lord is going to return.  I see the signs.  You see the signs.  Pray that day will be here sooner rather than later, the day there will be no more headaches, no more stress, no more fears, no more tears, no more virus, no more sorrow and no more death.  I can’t wait for heaven.  No more political footballs, everything works and nothing breaks down.   The showers are always hot and the toilet paper is plentiful and soft. Truthfully we know that won’t matter.  What will matter is being in the presence of Almighty God – another wow moment.  

    As Christians, we live in Him now by faith, and on that Last Day we will be with Him forever in love.  That is good news for us and all who believe.  With faith in Christ, there is forgiveness for all our sins.  There is hope when things seem hopeless.  There is life after death.  There is eternity.  With Jesus, we are more than conquerors.  That is why Jesus lived, died, and rose for you.  So, not just allured – stay alert, be assured.  Jesus is coming.

                        Amen.