St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Midweek Advent Vespers #3.

December 15, 2004 Malachi 3:1

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

Last Sunday afternoon I was watching the Minnesota Vikings Seattle Seahawks football game. There were less than three minutes left—the score exceedingly close—the final outcome up in the air. The game was in a dome. The fans were screaming. There was a deafening roar. And then—in a moment when there was a pause in the action on the field—they showed the stands. And there—midst all the screaming and shouting—sat a man fast asleep. Well, not really asleep—more like passed out from drinking. On his shaved head sat a beer bottle. The man sitting behind him was actually using his shaved head as an end table—for his cold bottle of beer. The game is on the line—every one is screaming—and this guy is passed out drunk! Now—if you think for a moment—how embarrassing! I mean—I’m not perfect—but at least I’m better than that guy! In that moment we are surely not! We can say with the repentant heart of the Apostle Paul—Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am worst! Jesus was born a little baby—come into this world—to rescue us from all our guilt and shame. This last midweek Advent Vesper God’s Word encourage us with law and Gospel

Jesus Will Come Suddenly!

1. John the Baptist prepares the way

2. Jesus is the Way

The part of God’s Word we are concentrating on today is from the scroll of the prophet Malachi. God’s Word doesn’t tell us much about Malachi at all. We don’t know where he was born. We don’t know who is mom and dad were. We don’t know if he had any adventures. We don’t know if he was tall or short—handsome or not—rich or poor or somewhere in between. We don’t know about Malachi the man and that’s ok. As one of my teachers used to say—what God hasn’t told us—we should be happy not to know! All the ins and outs of Malachi’s life—his Heavenly Father knew—and that’s good enough. The whole scroll of the prophet Malachi is only 4 chapters long—only 14, 17, 18 and 6 verses—only 55 verses total! It begins simply enough—An oracle: The word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi. An oracle—literally a burden! The message of law and gospel is a burden—a gift and a powerful pressing responsibility! Jeremiah understood this burden. Jeremiah wrote, “But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9 The apostle Paul wrote about this burden too. He said, “Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” 1 Corinthians 9:16 When you know the way to heaven—you can’t keep it a secret. When you know that Jesus is the only way to heaven—you can’t keep that information to yourself! When you know that immortal souls will spend forever in the terrible destruction of hell. When you know that being in hell is like being a worm—half squished—forever dying—yet never knowing the ultimate peace and rest of death—how can you keep that information from those who desperately need it?

The prophet Malachi preached a message of law and gospel. The law would sting. Malachi was not afraid or embarrassed to say there was a problem with the thankofferings. Part of the problem with the thankofferings was with the priest—the called workers! Oh, the workers said—we are not guilty of despising the name of the LORD! Yes you are—declares the LORD. “When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or disease animals, is that not wrong? Our Heavenly Father was so disgusted with people bringing the leftovers—bringing thankofferings that were worthless for any thing else that he actually said, “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD Almighty, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.” How displeased was the LORD? The LORD said “I will spread on your faces the offal from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.” Do we understand the fierce anger of our Heavenly Father? Or do we think the LORD is this arthritic little grandpa living in the land of dry ice smoke—with this great long beard and trembling hands—sitting on a porch in a rocking chair—shaking his fist and in a hoarse voice saying, “Hey! Knock it off!” Talking about rubbing filth on faces of people who were bringing thankofferings—apparently from hard hearts and terrible attitudes is enough to make you stop and think—isn’t it? Malachi contains one of the most precious Gospel promises—about bringing thank offerings. Bring abundant thankofferings from joyful thankful hearts. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10b Hasn’t the LORD already blessed us? Where are you going to put all your presents? There isn’t room in the trunk of the car to bring them home. There isn’t room under the tree for all the gifts. There isn’t room in our closets for more clothes. There isn’t room on our shelves for all our CDs and DVDs. There isn’t room in our refrigerator for all the food. Do we have extra little refrigerators—just for all our cold beverages? If we are celebrating Jesus’ birthday—how much thought have we given to the gift we will give him? Are we planning to give a special gift to the Son of God—or are we so busy buying big screen TVs and computers and video games and sneakers for ourselves—we haven’t really given Jesus’ gift much thought. What do you give to the Son of God who has everything? Maybe we can give Jesus our heart and our life. And then a gift that fits in an envelope—is only a small part of our praise!

Four hundred years before it happened—four hundred years of quiet would precede the keeping of the promise Malachi wrote. “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.” At just the right time in the history of the world—our Heavenly Father sent John the Baptist out into the wilderness to prepare the hearts of God’s people to welcome the Savior. Repent! Be sad—be sorry for your sins. Show you are sorry for your sins—by bring forth appropriate fruits of repentance. That means fighting against the sins that are especially tempting—depending on what your role and responsibilities are. If you are a student—do your homework! Study hard! Do all your math problems—then check them—to make sure you got them right. If you have reading to do—read carefully. If you an essay to write—use good penmanship. Write complete sentences—spell words correctly. Learn lots! If you are a teacher—prepare thoroughly—instruct patiently—encourage and build up. If you work at a factory—do your part as quickly and carefully and skillfully as possible! Make sure that your part is done as perfectly as humanly possible. Don’t goof off. Don’t waste time! Don’t take breaks that are twice or three times as long as they are supposed to be. If you work in retail—remember the customer is always right. Don’t say what they are looking for is—I don’t know—somewhere over that way—I think! When people ask about something—don’t always say—if we have any—they must be on the shelf! That can’t be true—if there is a back room of extra stock! Don’t laugh at customers—don’t laugh in their face—when they ask if there is any chance you will get in some more before Christmas! If you are a truck driver—don’t speed. Don’t cut people off. Don’t lay on your horn or make obscene gestures at bad drivers in your way. If you work in a restaurant—where the object of the game is bun, burger, bun—line them up—as if you were making those hamburgers for Jesus—because in fact—you are! Do whatever you are supposed to do—the best you can—with the gifts and abilities Jesus has given you. Show you are sorry for your sins—by trying ever harder to do a better job—giving glory to Jesus!

Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple… Jesus is coming soon. What are we going to do in the meantime? This holiday time—are we abusing alcohol? There is danger if we are a “binge drinker”. That’s a person who doesn’t drink often. Maybe they don’t have any alcohol for weeks at a time. But when they do drink—it’s the first one or two or three very quickly—like when you get to a party and you are kind of excited and kind of nervous and kind of thirsty. And then you keep having drinks all night long. Before you know it—and that’s half the trouble—before you know it you have had much more to drink than your body and process. And you start saying and doing things that don’t give glory to Jesus. There is also more and more talk about what they call “heavy and frequent” drinkers. This is when we drink a lot—a lot of the time. If we are in college—and get into the habit of drinking Thursday nights—and Saturday nights and maybe during Monday night football, too—there is danger. Danger that we are twice as likely to drink and drive under the influence of alcohol—twice as likely to have serious suicidal thoughts. If we start drinking more and more more and more often—there is two or three times the chance we will be involved in a sexual assault—either as a victim or a victimizer—someone who assaults/attacks someone else! How hurtful is that! There are more and more ads on TV. An ad that shows a lady state trooper—a tape from her squad car making an arrest. She tells the suspect—I’m going to put the handcuffs on—but I won’t put them on too tight. I’m going to cuff you so your hands are in front—so it won’t be uncomfortable. How nice is that? Then comes the tag line—just weeks after that—she was killed—murdered by a drunk driver! How tragic is that? Suddenly Jesus will come. How will he find us when he does? Will he find us watching and praying—or indulging in self-destructive sin?

Suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come… It’s tempting to think—if I could win the lottery—I mean win really big—then all my troubles would go away. If I had millions and millions of dollars—I wouldn’t have a care in the world. It’s tempting to think that. I saw on the Internet the other day a picture of a man with painful wrinkles on his forehead—the corners of his mouth painfully down. And the look in his eyes was one of genuine sadness. Hard to believe that this is the face of the man who won the largest jackpot ever won by a single individual. This guy named Jack won a $315 million Powerball on Christmas Day two years ago. Did all that money buy him happiness? His wife is quoted in saying, “I wish all of this never would have happened…I wish I would have torn the ticket up!” How sad is that? Money is not the answer. Not all the Christmas presents in the world—can fill our hearts with real and forever joy. The only Christmas present that really matters—is the gift that was first placed in a feed box in Bethlehem. The only Christmas present that really matters was wrapped in swaddling clothes and worshiped by shepherds. All that matters is being ready when Jesus comes again—suddenly—with all his holy angels with him. The same Holy Spirit that prepared the hearts of God’s people to welcome the Savior—will prepare our hearts—so that whenever Jesus comes again—we will be ready. Amen!

To God alone all glory!

Rev. Anthony E. Schultz