The Fourth Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
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LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
The Collect for the First Sunday in Advent is on Page 90:
The First Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas Day.
The Collect for this Sunday appeals to imagery given by Malachi in the last Book of the Old Testament: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” (Mal 4:2) From the Collect: “O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us.” The Executive Power of Creation (John 1:1-3) was that same Sun of Righteousness whose coming is proclaimed by John in the Wilderness – not in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, or the Temple at Jerusalem, but in the Wilderness! If you will learn the mysteries of God, flee to the Wilderness of your closet – not to Rome or Canterbury! Israel has languished in darkness so thick you could cut it with a knife since the days of Malachi & the prophets. But the Sun is about to burst forth to disperse the storm clouds and black despair of the dawning day. Here is a prophet who proclaims truth to thousands in the Wilderness. His message satisfies a great hunger in the people if they will even travel to the Wilderness to hear it.
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OMFORT ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins. 3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: 7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. 8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. 9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! 10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. 11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:1-11)
This Old Testament Reading speaks of comfort to the people of God – not all who CALL themselves the people of God, but those whose faith has sealed their names in the Book of Life of the Lamb. The passage speaks clearly of John the Baptist some 700 years before his birth. Just as Job received double all of his losses in the end, so shall the people of God receive a double measure of Grace for their sins repented. John came to prepare the hearts and minds of the people for the Coming Lord Jesus Christ. The great empires of the day shall be brought to the depths of the pit, and others shall be raised up in righteousness. Even science and humane consciousness shall bloom among those nations who turn to the Lord.
Isaiah reminds us we are only transient pilgrims in this temporary world. We sprout up as grass, or as flowers in the desert, one day, and wither and disappear the next. It is only the fragrance of the Holy Spirit that we emit while blooming that causes us to grow anew in heavenly pastures. God’s Holy Word is not subject to the intellectual reasoning of man, and it will stand forever regardless the disgraceful attempts to re-interpret it into oblivion. The Lord is our Shepherd. The newborn believers are carried in His very arms to protect from wolves – both without and within the Church. Now come we to the Gospel passage for this 4th Sunday in Advent:
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OW in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, 2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. 3 And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; 6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. 7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? 11 He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. 12 Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? 13 And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. 14 And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages. 15 And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not; 16 John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: 17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. (Luke 3:1-17)
The Lord’s Jesus Christ is not only the eldest Son in Time, but also in all of Eternity Past and Future. His steps toward Calvary did not begin outside the courts of Pontius Pilate, in Nazareth, in Bethlehem, but in Eternity Past - long ere the world was made. It is evidence of God’s prevenient election of His people spanning all time by His Grace. “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev 13:8) The Lord Jesus Christ was the First-Born of God in Eternity Past, and the First-Born of the Resurrection at the conclusion of His earthly ministry. The Way that John prepared was the Way of the Lord. If we are His, and follow Him as our Shepherd, we shall also be raised in immortality and ascend to God the Father.
John is preparing the hearts of the people for repentance and cleansing. Though John baptizes with water as an outward evidence of cleansing, it is the coming Lord Jesus Christ who will cleanse the heart so that the vessel is clean from inside to outside. “I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” I invite your attention to Psalm 51:7 - “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. “ Hyssop is a purgative to clean the alimentary canal (the inside of the soul), and the outward washing will cause the appearance to equal the inward essence. That is the fiery purging that Jesus Christ brings as a Refiner of silver. It was a common sight in Korea of the 1960’s to see men casting grains of rice into the air with a tribulatum, and others fanning the grains as they fall back to the earth. This was to separate the chaff from the pure grain. The trials and tribulations (a derivative of the Latin term for tribulatum) is the method that Jesus uses to prove and strengthen our faith as a mother exercises her child.
John is calling the Old Testament Church (not all of the nation of Israel, but those who believe in the coming of the Promised Seed) to repentance and faith. He is telling the people to be ready to receive their Lord and Savior. Such preaching as John practiced is becoming quite rare for our day, sadly. But ALL of John’s preaching pointed directly to the Lord Jesus Christ, and so should every sermon delivered from every pulpit today. There is far too much nonsense being preached about football, golf, and social encounters. We need a firm and devout return to the Holy Word in preaching, and that of Christ crucified and risen! Just as the fig tree that failed of fruit was fated to be cut down, so will Jerusalem suffer destruction at the hands of the Gentiles after they have rejected Christ and His righteousness. “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Do you suppose that the same principle might apply to nations today who have known God, enjoyed His benefits, and then reject all that He taught? It might be well to remember that the same fire that purifies silver (the elect) is that which consumes the wicked before God.
Almost everyone who hears this sermon will recall some cold, dark night of the soul during which the gathering shadows grow into a stifling darkness for which there seems no respite. Perhaps a debilitating illness, or loss of a beloved soul, has precipitated the night of despair and smothered the light of joy. Such was the state of Israel to whom John was sent. Men had walked in darkness from the last word of Malachi of the Old Testament (the last word was ‘curse’ for the law is a curse without the grace of God). Four hundred years of utter darkness of silence passed from the time of Malachi until the time of John. Such darkness will make the eyes keen to the light that is granted in due time. John proclaims to the light-hungry people the Coming of the Light. There is a place called the ‘Lost Sea’ in eastern Tennessee at which a person can enter and elevator and descend almost 400 ft. below the surface to a large, underground body of water. Taking a glass-bottomed boat out onto the large lake, one can see numerous bass and other fish that are snow white. They have been deprived of the benefit of light for hundreds of years, so the pigment of their skin has not been able to respond to light. The amazing thing is the eyes of these fish – they are grown over with scales. If we remain in darkness too long, we will become blind to light just like those dark cavern dwellers!
John was not that coming light promised by Isaiah and the prophets – his preaching pointed to an ever-brightening horizon over which that bright and glorious Light of the World was about to break in brilliant colors of dawn. Have you seen the Light, my friends?
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