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.