In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Every year on the first Sunday in Christmas, we are re-introduced to the account of old Saint Simeon in the Temple. This is a wonderful passage from God’s Word that’s been so influential in the Lutheran Church that we use it at multiple times in our Liturgy. First, we sing it on Sunday’s right after we take Communion. That’s the canticle known as the “Nunc Dimmittis,” which is just the Latin translation of the first few lines of what Simeon said in our text. But we also use these words during our Lutheran funeral services too. Right before we lay our loved ones to rest in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead, we confess together as a congregation, “Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace.”

Even though I’m going to incorporate both the ways that we use Simeon’s song in this morning’s sermon, I mostly want to focus on that second instance, and how it helps us think about death in the right kind of way. What do we learn from the example of Saint Simeon, and how he departed in peace, that can help us to depart this life in peace too?

The first thing that we learn from Saint Simeon is how to get ready to die in general. Lots of times people try their hardest not to even think about death, but even when they do, they end up approaching it in almost the complete opposite way the Bible says we’re supposed to. In many cases, they turn getting ready to die into a sort of personal challenge to see how many fun things they can do before it happens. But preparing for your death doesn’t mean checking off all the things on your bucket list. It’s not about going sky-dying, swimming across the ocean, or seeing the Grand Canyon. That doesn’t get you ready to meet Jesus. In fact, it might even make it so that you’re unprepared to meet Him, because you neglected the things that He said actually matter. 

Getting ready to die isn’t about doing all of the things your sinful flesh wants, it’s about repenting of your sins and continually looking to God for His forgiveness and mercy. It’s about a repeated and ongoing use of the Means of Grace, God’s Word and Sacraments, where Christ promises to be present and active to keep us in the faith so that one day we can go to heaven.

What was Saint Simeon doing while he waited for his own death? The Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he would not die until he saw the Lord’s Christ. So, what exactly did Simeon do in the meantime? The Bible says that he went to Church. As our text tells us, “And he came in the Spirit into the temple.” That, by the way, is also what Saint Anna the prophetess did too. It says in our reading that “she did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.” Both of these individuals show us the real way that we’re supposed to get ready to die. It’s through receiving God’s gifts in worship, because when we worship in the Name of Jesus, we get the protection of Jesus too.

God’s Word tells us that Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. It says that whoever believes in Him will not die, and though he die, yet shall he live. Just like the blood of the Passover Lamb was painted on the doorposts of the Israelites in Egypt, so that when the angel of death saw it, he passed over, and spared them, that’s what happens when we are marked with the blood of Christ too. That’s what happens when we are washed clean by His blood in our Baptism, and when we eat and drink of His Body and Blood in the Lord’s Supper. When we receive God’s Word and Sacraments in faith, we receive Christ, and Christ protects us from death. He shields us from the consequences of our sins by forgiving them so that even if we physically die, we don’t die eternally.

Again, where else do we say the words of Saint Simeon from our text? We don’t just say them at our Lutheran funeral services, we also say them at our Communion services too. With the Body and Blood of Christ still fresh on our breath, we return to our pews singings together, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.” That is a confession about what just happened when we took the Sacrament. In the same way that Simeon was prepared to die after he got to take Christ in his arms, and see the embodiment of his salvation with his very own eyes, we are prepared to die after we got to take Christ in Communion, and behold our salvation their as well.

So that’s how Simeon teaches us to prepare for death. He shows us that the real way that you do it is by going to Church all of the time to hear God’s promises and wait for them to be fulfilled. It sort of makes you wonder what Simeon was thinking on those days that going to the Temple was kind of hard. Can you image him skipping Church for something like fishing or hunting? Can you see him going on vacation and not trying to find a place to worship God in Spirit and in truth with other believers? I can’t. I bet his attitude was always, “maybe today is the day, so I better not miss.” And that’s how we should think of church too. There’s nothing better in this whole world than what we get on Sunday mornings, and every Sunday we aren’t there, is a Sunday that we missed out. But we don’t want to miss out on salvation. We don’t want to deprive ourselves of God’s gifts that get us ready to die. The hour of our death could come at any moment and that’s why we spend every hour that we can getting ready for it by coming to Church week after week to meet Christ, and receive His forgiveness.

The other thing that Saint Simeon shows us about death in our reading this morning is that it’s supposed to be something that we look forward too. Lots of people dread even the thought of dying because they don’t have any confidence about what’s going to happen to them next. Either they don’t think they’ve been good enough to go to heaven, not realizing that no one is and that’s not how it happens, or they don’t believe in heaven, and they think they’re just going to go right into the ground. Sometimes even Christians, because of their sinful nature, can give the impression that when they die, they might be missing out on something. I’ve heard on more than one occasion baptized children of God give the impression that they hope they don’t die until they get married, or see their grandkids grow up, or even take a vacation. But all of these examples, don’t express the attitude about death that we see from Saint Simeon.

When the moment finally came for him to depart this life in peace, nothing gave him greater joy. He took that little baby in his arms, he looked up to heaven, and he blessed God Almighty. And that’s how we should think about our own death too.

First, if we’re afraid of dying because we think we haven’t been good enough to go to heaven, we should realize that no one is saved by their works, and that even the most egregious sinner can be forgiven through the blood of Christ. In fact, Christ already forgave our sins when He died on the cross, and there’s nothing left for us to do but receive it. Just repent and ask God to have mercy on you and He will. Just get baptized, or remember your baptism, or come and take Communion. Then you can have the assurance, because of God’s promise, not your own merit, that when you die you will safety enter into God’s presence.

Secondly, if you’re worried about missing out on something when you die, you should remember that nothing is lost to us in heaven. It’s not like we’ll be together with Jesus in perfect bliss and happiness wishing that we’re still down here on earth struggling with our sins. What does Saint Paul tell us in Philippians chapter 2? He says, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” That means that we gain something when we die, we don’t lose things. The only that we lose is that dumb sinful nature that causes us not to appreciate the things that we definitely should. Or here’s another passage from God’s Word. What about the way that Jesus describes heaven to the thief on the cross? He called it paradise: “Today you will be with me in paradise?” Have you ever even come close to describing anything in your life that way at all? I’ve experienced some wonderful moment with family and friends, but wouldn’t ever say that that’s paradise. But that’s what we will have when we die in the faith and go to be with the Lord. 

Since we are God’s beloved children and He has promised us salvation in Christ just like he did Saint Simeon, we can look forward to the day that we die with confidence and even anticipation. We can even pray for it to happen like we do in the Lord’s Prayer when we say “deliver us from evil,” knowing that whenever it happens God will bless us. Whether we die in old age surrounded by family or all alone just by ourselves; whether we are cut down in our youth or pass away in tragic accident; whether our death is painful or painless, we cannot depart this world in peace trusting in the promises of Christ our Savior. Because of what Jesus has done, and how He died for our sins, we can say in Christian confidence along with Simeon and the saints who followed him, “Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace.” In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of the most controversial topics in the Christian Church today is whether or not infants can actually have faith. Lots of people argue that it’s impossible for babies to believe in Jesus because they’ve not yet reached the state of development where they’re apparently capable of it. This has also led to the sad, but very common practice, of withholding God’s gift of Baptism from infants until they’re much, much older. In some cases, the churches that do that have even invented something called “dedication,” which is when a child is presented before the congregation after they’re and prayed for in the hopes that one day, he or she might become a Christian. Instead of simply doing what God commands us to do in the Bible, which is to make disciples by Baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, because of their faulty doctrine about infant faith, they’ve made up their own thing to replace it. But our God will not be mocked! And there is nothing that gets more to the heart of the Christian Faith, then the answer to whether or not babies can believe and be saved. 

So, on the basis of our Gospel lesson for today, where we get a divinely inspired account of infant faith, allow me to spend a few moments in this morning’s sermon defending how it’s possible, and why it matters. 

In Luke chapter 1, we read about what’s called “the Visitation.” That’s the story of when Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth while both of them were pregnant with John the Baptist and Jesus. There are a lot of amazing things that happened during that visit, but nothing more incredible than what we’re told in verse 41. There our text tells us that “when Elizbeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.” It’s such a small detail, that if you’re not paying attention, you might almost miss it. But the significance of what that detail means is beyond measure. Again, here is a real-life instance given to us by the Word of God itself which demonstrates in clearest of terms that children actually can have faith in Christ. And not only any children, but pre-born children at that. What could it possibility mean that John the Baptist leaped for joy at the sound of Mary’s greeting, if he did not believe in Mary’s Son. What would even be the point of the Holy Spirit providing us with this information, if it wasn’t intended to show us anything at all?

Now, sometimes it gets argued that John leaping in the woman at the sound of Mary’s greeting, is not evidence of infant faith universally, but only a special case that applied specifically to him. “It’s not that all babies can believe,” some say,” but just John, because he was uniquely filled with the Holy Spirit.” And I suppose that if this were the only place in the Bible that made any references to babies believing, then that argument would hold some weight. But when we look at the rest of the Scriptures, we see that there are many other clear instances of the them talking about infant faith too.

Listen to what the Psalmist says in Psalm 22, verse 9. He writes, “You are He who took me from the womb; You made me trust You at my mother’s breasts.” Once again, we have not just an example of a baby believing, but a baby that’s so young that he’s still nursing. The Psalmist says that God caused him to trust in Him before he was even weaned. Or what about what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11. There our Lord prays this: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will.” The word for “little children” in that passage is the same word for babies. Jesus is saying that God reveals Himself, and His plan for salvation, even to little babies. What would be the point of God doing that, if babies couldn’t even believe it?

Or here’s another example of the Bible talking about infant faith. What does Christ say in Matthew chapter 18? First, He tells us that “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of God.” Then He says one verse later, “Whoever receives one such child in my Name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Here Jesus not only tells us that adults need to become like children if they want to go to heaven, but that children can believe in Him, so we should be careful not lead them astray. 

Lots of times people talk as if infants believing in Jesus is the exception to the rule, and that adult faith is really more the norm. But God’s Word shows us that its actually the opposite. Its grown up’s that have a harder time coming to faith, not kids. It’s adults who struggle to believe the Gospel, not children. They’re the ones who put all kinds of obstacles in the way of the Holy Spirit, and have trouble setting aside their pre-conceived notions about how things should work. Have you ever heard a toddler argue with his parents about the theory of evolution? Have you heard a 2-year-old deny the historicity of the Bible, because of something that he read one time on the internet? Kids don’t do that. They might be little sinners, but they’re little sinners who bring a lot less baggage to the table.

Those who reject the possibility of infant faith are not doing so on the basis of anything that we read in the Scriptures. They aren’t making an argument from any particular passages that we find in God’s Word. They’re making an argument solely from human reason. Because it doesn’t make sense to them that babies can believe the Gospel, they assume that it’s impossible. But who knows better about whether or not a certain individual can come to faith? Who knows more about who can actually believe in Jesus? Is it the One who causes it to happen, or is it the person that it happens to?

The main reason why so many people in our time reject the idea that babies can have faith is because of a misunderstanding about what faith really is. All too often you hear Christians equating faith with something like knowledge. And while it’s certainly true that knowledge can inform our faith, and that God uses knowledge to strengthen it and keep it growing, that doesn’t mean that faith is the same thing as knowledge altogether. You can have knowledge without having faith. You can know every single detail of the Bible and still not trust in Jesus as your Savior. I had professors when I studied at Cambridge who could rattle off almost any verse of the New Testament that you wanted them to, but if you asked them what they believed, hardly any of them would agree with the verses they had memorized. Many of them didn’t even think that Jesus actually rose from the dead. 

And just like you can have knowledge without having faith, you can have faith with a very limited knowledge too. You don’t need to be able to articulate every single teaching of the Bible perfectly in order to trust in Christ for your salvation. How much does a little baby need to know about his mother or father before he can trust in them? Not very much. In fact, sometimes babies show an even greater trust in their parents then their older siblings do. While the “big kids” will follow a stranger into a van just because he promised them candy, or give their address to some “wierdo” on the internet because he was nice to them, infants will scream bloody murder just because someone that they don’t recognize holds them. They know their mom and their dad. They have enough knowledge about who their parents are to look to them for help and rely on them for care. And if they can do that with their earthly parents, how much more so for their Father who is in heaven?

God’s Word shows us without a shadow of doubt that infants absolutely can have faith. No matter how small they are, even if they are still in the womb, it’s still possible for them to believe in Jesus. That’s what we see in the example of John the Baptist, and that’s what we see all throughout the Scriptures too.

So, why does any of this matter? What is the point of God showing us that infants are capable of having faith and that babies can trust in Christ too? Certainly, one of the reasons why God shows us this truth is so that we would not neglect our children. If you don’t think that infants can believe or understand anything about Jesus, then it doesn’t make much sense to even try and tell them about Him. And sadly, that’s what a lot of parents do. Instead of seeing early infancy, and pregnancy for that matter, as the most important time for their little one’s instruction, they see it as one of the least. Sometimes they don’t even make a habit of taking their newborns to church because they assume that through all the crying, no one is getting anything out of the service. Well, who says so? Maybe, you say so, but that’s not what Jesus says. In Matthew chapter 19, He says, “let the little children comes to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.”

We bring our babies to church and get them baptized in God’s Holy Name as soon as we possibly can because Christ our Lord tells us that they can be part of His family too. Just like they were able to receive their first birth from their earthly parents, apart from their own contributions and efforts, they can receive the new birth from above as God’s children apart from their own contributions and efforts too. They are the perfect candidates for being baptized, because they are perfect candidates for being saved.

In the end, the reason why it’s so important that we recognize that infants can have faith is because nothing highlights the grace of God and the cause of our salvation more. What’s the reason we have the hope of eternal life? How does a person actually get to heaven? Is it through something that we do? No! It’s is entirely the work of the Lord. It is a free gift that God gives to us out His own goodness and mercy.

Little kids can’t do anything on their own. Babies, in particular, have to rely on someone else for literally everything. If we left them alone even for just a couple of hours, there’s a good chance that they might even die. But that’s exactly how it is when it comes to our relationship with God. We can’t do anything on our own. As Jesus tells us in John chapter 15, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” If God left us by ourselves, and did not intervene with His love to save us, then all of us would without doubt perish eternally. If He had not sent His only begotten Son to die for all of our sins, then we would never be able to be forgiven for them. If He would not, even now, continue to provide us with His Holy Spirit, who works through the Word to call people to faith, then we not be able to believe in Him.

And when we realize that, it becomes easier to see how God can save babies, and why He gave give them the gift of saving faith too. That, right there, is the key that unlocks everything. Babies can believe the Gospel, because faith itself is a gift. It isn’t something that we figure out by ourselves. It isn’t something that we produce in ourselves through our own striving and efforts. It isn’t a decision that we come to after a long process of thinking it over. Even if we think that’s how it worked, like many people today do, that’s not how it really happened. It happened when the Holy Spirit gave us a new heart. It happened when God Himself intervened in our lives and brought us back from spiritual death by converting us and raising us up with Christ. It happened when Jesus visited us, like He did John the Baptist, and proclaimed to us the good news of our salvation.

So, may we cherish the gift of faith that we have received. And may we rejoice that God can give that gift to anyone He wants: to literal children, yes, but also to all those who become like children too. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of the main themes for the 3rd Sunday in Advent is the role of the pastor and what we should expect from him. As Saint Paul says in our Epistle lesson from 1 Corinthians chapter 4, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Pastors are called to be stewards of God’s mysteries, meaning, they are managers of the Lord’s heavenly gifts. Just like a manager at a grocery store takes care of the things on the shelves, even though he doesn’t own anything on them himself, that’s how pastors should treat God’s Word and Sacraments. They should watch over of them and make sure people are getting them in the ways that Jesus wants. 

This is also one of the reasons why we have our Gospel lesson today from Matthew chapter 11. Besides Paul words from 1 Corinthians, we get a real-life example of what being a good pastor is supposed to look like. Through the witness of John the Baptist, who Jesus says was the greatest man who ever lived, the Holy Spirit shows us what being a faithful preacher is all about.

Now, I know that not everyone in this room is a pastor. In fact, the only who is, is the guy who’s up here about to preach a sermon about it. But just because we haven’t been called to a particular office, that doesn’t mean that we don’t need to know how that office is supposed to function. Even if you aren’t the guy that’s wearing the black and white pinstripes at a football game, you still need to know how he’s supposed to call the game. If you don’t, things can go wrong very fast. And the same is true when it comes to Office of the Ministry. If we don’t know what God has called our pastors to do for us, and what He wants to give us through them, then we might not look to them for the right thing. We might expect things from them that God never asked them to do, and we might not go to them for the things that we actually need. So, we need to know what our pastors are supposed to do. And by looking more closing at our Gospel lesson from Matthew chapter 11, and the example of John the Baptist, that’s exactly what we see.

The first thing that we learn from our text about what pastors are supposed to do, is that pastors are supposed to tell the truth. That’s what God commands them to do, and that’s what their hearers should expect them to do too. Saint Paul literally tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 4, that men called into the Ministry should “preach the Word” and be ready “in season and out of season.” What that means is that pastors should teach all of what the Bible says, regardless of what other people might think about it. And if you recall, that’s exactly what John the Baptist did and why he found himself in his unfortunate situation. The reason why John the Baptist was locked away in a prison cell, waiting for his head to get chopped off, was because John the Baptist did his job and did not shy away from speaking the truth of the Scriptures. In particular, if you remember, John told King Herod to repent of his adultery, because Herod had wrongfully divorced his wife, and then went ahead and married his brother’s wife instead. That was wrong. It was sinful. The Sixth Commandment forbids it and God was extremely angry with King Herod for doing it. 

So, John told Herod the truth. And we need our pastors to do the same thing for us too. We need them to speak the truth to us, regardless of what that truth is, because lies never help anybody. In fact, lies always hurt us. Lies have the ability to hurt us even deeper than how the truth might hurt our feelings. That’s the case for all lies, but it’s especially the case when it comes to lies about sin and grace. When someone, for example, is living in sin, meaning they are committing a sin on purpose without any intention of trying to stop it, and the pastor who knows about it says nothing, that person who is living in their sin keeps on doing it. And when anyone lives in their sin, instead of repenting of it and looking to Jesus to forgive it, they put themselves under God’s wrath and Judgment. According to the Bible, no one who lives in their sin will be saved. Listen to what Saint John tells us about unrepentant sin in 1 John chapter 3. He writes, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” This passage doesn’t mean that Christians don’t sin anymore at all, but rather that true Christians don’t embrace their sin and live in it on purpose. When their sins are shown to them, they repent and turn away from them. They actually try and stop doing them. Or what about what the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 6? There he writes, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolater, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.” The Word of God could not be more clear that people who do these sorts of things, demonstrating an unrepentant heart, won’t go to heaven. And because God’s Word says that, pastors need to say that too. They need to tell their people the truth.

God never sends preachers to tell lies. If John the Baptist would not have told King Herod the truth, if he would have lied to him, and said that Herod would be okay, because we’re all sinners, and Jesus loves everybody, Herod would have become even more hardened in his sin than he already was. He might not have even had the opportunity to ever repent again. Granted, Herod never did repent of his sin, even though he had the chance, but that’s not the preacher’s concern. Sometimes people do repent. Sometimes people do listen to God’s Word and stop doing what it says is wrong. There was another king in the Bible who repetend of his sexual sins when the preacher told him about it. That was king David. The prophet Nathan came to him, at great personal risk, told him the truth of God’s Word, and by God’s grace, David actually listened.

It's never the opinion of the crowd that should dictate what the pastor preaches and what the hearers should expect to hear him to say. It’s always the Word of God. That’s what Jesus says about John the Baptist. Jesus says that John was not a reed shaken by the wind. He was not a “yes man,” dressed in soft clothing, who secured a position in king’s courts by telling the king whatever he wanted to hear. John’s preaching wasn’t informed by what was popular at the time, but by what was in the Bible. And that’s because John knew that the Bible is the only reliable source of truth. The Bible is God’s Word which alone has to power to grant repentance, and bestow saving faith in the hearts of those who hear it. 

Pastors need to preach what the Bible says. And because they need to do that, this also means that the people who listen to them, are supposed to be examining the Bible and studying it to see if what their preachers are telling them is actually in it. Pastors can and have made mistakes. They are sinful and fallible men just like the people that they preach to and that means that sometimes they get things wrong. Sometimes they are more afraid of what the people will do to them what God could do to them, so they don’t say what needs to be said. At those times, they need to hear the Law too. And thanks be to God for the faithful hearers who hold their pastors accountable and tell them to say more when they aren’t saying enough. Thanks be to God for those like Pricilla and Aquilla who took Apollos aside and corrected him when his preaching on Baptism wasn’t what it was supposed to be. Thank the Lord for the faithful parishioners who walk into the pastor’s office and ask a question that they already know the answer to, so that they can gently lead their pastor into the right direction. Pastor’s need that. They need to hear the same Word of God that they speak to their people, because faithful pastors tell their people the truth.

The next thing that pastors are supposed to do is point their people to Jesus. It should never be the goal of the pastor to amass his own personal following and put the attention on himself. Pastors should not be in it for the “likes.” They should not cater what they say to what is popular in the world, or popular among the people they preach to. Pastors need to grow deaf to the praise of men, and give God the glory for everything they do that is right, and blame their own sinful nature for everything they do that is wrong. Their goal should not be to became famous, but solely to point people that they serve to the only One who can actually save them. Remember how Saint Paul rebuked the Corinthians when they played favorites with their pastors saying, “I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas.” No, Saint Paul, said. Christ is not divided. Paul didn’t die for their sins. Nobody was Baptized in the name of Paul.  Pastors don’t save people. Jesus saves people.

While it can and often does take place, the congregation should not become dependent on the personality of their preacher. In fact, they should be on guard against this happening. What God’s people need is for their pastors to do their best to be interchangeable so that no matter who stands in the pulpit or in front of the altar, the message is exactly the same. And that message is Christ crucified for sinners.

Just look at what John the Baptist did, even when he was rotting in a prison cell, and his disciples wanted to be near to him. He sent them to Jesus with the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another.” Now some people think that John the Baptist was having doubts about whether or not Jesus was actually the Christ. Other people, though, think that it wasn’t John who was doubting, but his disciples who were. In either case, it doesn’t really matter. John may have been the greatest man born of woman, but he was still born of a woman. John inherited the same sinful nature from his parents that we all have inherited. And so, we know that John struggled with sin just like the rest of us do. But whether or not this was an instance of John struggling with sin, or his disciples struggling with sin, John still did the right thing. John sent his disciples to Jesus. That’s what John had been doing from the very beginning of his ministry, and that’s what he did even at the end of it. And that’s what every faithful pastor should do. They should point their people to Jesus. No clearer Gospel has ever been preached then what John the Baptist preached about Jesus. He’s the one who said, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John was a faithful preacher because he knew who the source of eternal life was, even if he, like us, struggled at times to believe it perfectly. The source is always Jesus.

Listen to what Jesus said to John’s disciples when they came to him asking their question. Our Lord responded, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receives their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” The true gospel is always about what Jesus does for us. It’s never about what we do for Jesus. Whenever preachers turn the gospel into something that we do for Jesus, they take away the only comfort that we sinners can actually have. Because what we do for Jesus is never good enough. What we do for Jesus is always tainted by sin, just like we are. But what Jesus does for us is always pure and good. What Jesus does for us is so righteous that it actually fulfills all righteousness, and stands in the place of our unrighteousness. Jesus overcomes our sin by bearing it as His own and dying for it. That’s how the blind receive their sight. That’s how people who are sick ultimately get healed. That’s how we are saved from eternal death and given the gift of eternal life. It’s through what Jesus does for us. Jesus is the hope of all. He is the hope of pastors and he is the hope of those who listen to their preaching. And that’s why every faithful pastor should sends their people to Jesus.

And the last thing that pastors should do is listen to what they say along with their hearers. The reason why faithfully preaching God’s Word is the most important thing that a preacher does, is because hearing and believing God’s Word is the most important thing that there is. When Jesus’ gave John’s disciples the list of all the things that the Messiah does, the last one on the list was is the most important. He said, “The poor have good news preached to them.” Everything that we experience in this life is temporary. Our health declines. Our bodies decay. We die and turn to dust, but the Word of God endures forever. And those who cling to God’s Word endure forever along with it. Those who confess their own spiritual poverty, and look instead to the riches and merits of Jesus, have true and lasting wealth. Only God’s Word has the power to create faith in the hearts of those who heart it. And it is only through faith in God’s Word that we’re saved.

Preachers and hearers need to remember this, because the Word does not always seem to be working. That’s why Jesus also said to John’s disciples, “Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” The Word of God is offensive. It does not always look as powerful as God says it is. Just think about John. He preached the Word of God in all of its truth and purity and look where he ended up. Look where that Word got him. It seemed like John was losing. It seemed like the Word that he preached was causing him to lose. Then it seemed like John lost for good. John never did get out of prison. He died in that cell without ever seeing the light of day again. John was murdered by a vain lunatic who killed him after making a foolish promise to a pretty girl. John lost his head for doing his job. But even though it looked like he was a failure, we know that nothing could be further from the truth. Even though it looked like he lost, faith knows that things are not always as they seem. John didn’t lose. The Word of God did not fail. It may have looked like he lost, when he lost his head, but, as Jesus says elsewhere, “whoever loses his life for my sake, will find” 

John the Baptist won, and the Word of God won too, because John the Baptist is in heaven. Herod may have killed him, but Herod couldn’t destroy him, because John belonged to Jesus, and those who believe in Jesus never die. Yes, Herod may have been able to hurt John and make him suffer for a little while, but Herod could not stop the Word that John preached from coming true. In fact, it was Herod himself whom God used to make that Word come true for John. Because when Herod took John’s head, all that he did was usher him into eternal life a little bit faster. 

The Word that John the Baptist preached worked. God’s Word always works. We don’t always see it working, but it does. It works because God says so. It works because the power of the Word is bound up in what the Word proclaims, and that is, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Preachers and hearers listen to God’s Word, and nothing else, because in that Word we have the certainty of better things to come. We have actual good news. We have the assurance of a new and eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

It can be hard to be a pastor sometimes. It can be hard to be a parishioner sometimes too. Both of them are sinners who constantly need God’s grace. We both struggle with doubts. We both find it hard at times to believe what God says. But that’s who Jesus Himself preaches to. Jesus preaches good news to the poor. He preaches the Gospel, by sending His called and ordained servants to proclaim that message of forgiveness in His stead. And through His Word, He blesses both the preacher and the hearer alike. As Saint James tells us in His epistle, “We consider those blessed who remain steadfast.” We consider those who cling to God’s Word by repenting of their sin, and looking to Him for forgiveness, to be truly blest. They are blest whether or not they look blest. They are blest whether or not they feel blest. They are blest whether or not their life stinks and is filled with all kinds of hardships and misery. They are blest whether or not they suffer a lot for the Word, or whether they suffer a little for it. They are blest because the Word says so.

So, may the pastor always speak God’s Word in all of its truth and purity. And may God’s people listen to it and receive it with gladness. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.