Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Advent Midweek 2
Text: John 6:43–65
Sermon Audio
In this Advent midweek series, we are exploring the different ways that Jesus comes to us. The title of our series is, “O Lord, How Shall I Meet You?” Last week, we talked about how Jesus met us through His arrival in a manger on Christmas. Next week, we will talk about how Jesus will meet us when He comes again in glory. Today, we discuss how THE LORD MEETS US THROUGH WORD AND SACRAMENT.
Throughout the season of Advent, we discuss the different arrivals of the Lord Jesus in our lives. It’s not as though Jesus waits on the sidelines letting the history of the world play out until His second coming. He still remains present through the Word of God found in the Bible and the preaching of the Word as well as the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Tonight let’s take time to unpack these.
First, I. The Lord meets us through baptism. We read in Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” Through baptism, the Lord who saves us is in our midst.
Is it any coincidence that at the end of Matthew, Jesus has the great commission wherein He tells us to go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that He has commanded them. Then He promises, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus promises to be with us!
Paul writes, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” In baptism, you have been clothed with Christ, covered with Him, so that the Father no longer sees you and your sinfulness, but rather, He sees His perfect and holy Son.
You don’t need to wait until Christmas. Christ comes to you even now through your baptism. He walks with you through the many hurdles and perils leading up to Christmas. He walks with you in the midst of trials, tribulations, and temptations. He walks with you from death to life.
Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Covered in Christ, He walks with us from death to life as we daily die to sin and daily rise again to new life until that day that Christ will come again to make all things right.
Second, II. The Lord meets us through His Word. Moses gives his last speech to the people of Israel and he remarks that the Lord, “humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.”
Man does not live simply from being fed by the last feast and moving on to the next feast. Mankind needs something more, namely, the Word of God. Through the Word of God, the Lord Jesus meets us and gives us life. John opens His Gospel writing, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Is this not different than when Jesus said in John chapter 6? Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.””
Our Lutheran Confessions talk of a spiritual feasting on Christ’s flesh: “So there is a twofold eating of Christ’s flesh. First, there is a spiritual kind of eating, which Christ treats above all in John 6. This occurs in no other way than with the Spirit and faith in the proclamation of and meditation on the gospel, as well as in the Supper. It is in and of itself useful, salutary, and necessary for all Christians at all times for their salvation. Without this spiritual reception even the sacramental or oral eating in the Supper is not only not salutary but also harmful and damning” (FC SD VII 61).
This spiritual feasting on Christ’s flesh occurs when we through the Holy Spirit and faith feast on God’s Word. Jesus Christ meets us whenever we open the Scriptures and believe what they teach. John in his first epistle writes, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
Jesus said, “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.” In other words, Christmas doesn’t only come once a year. As we open up God’s Word, Christ comes to us to bring us life. It becomes a Christmas as Jesus comforts us, rebukes us, and enlivens us with His Word. Truly, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Nonetheless, this hearing of God’s Word is received by faith alone. We spiritually feast on Christ’s flesh as not only as our eyes scan the words on the page or the sounds of the words vibrate our eardrums, but as these words travel from our brain into our hearts. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts to receive this gift. “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” Our Heavenly Father works through the Spirit to draw us to Himself. Truly, as we make preparations for Christmas in this month, we know that it is God working in our hearts to draw us to Himself in this holiday season through His Word which tells us of our sins and gives us the gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Finally, III. The Lord meets us through His Supper. As we look at John 6, we cannot help but draw connections to the Lord’s Supper. Certainly, as mentioned above, the Lord must first meet us in the Word before His meeting in the Lord’s Supper can be of benefit to us. We must spiritually partake of Christ through faith before Christ’s body and blood in with and under bread and wine can be of any benefit to us.
Every morning I take a vitamin C pill. I figure other than the cost of the pill itself, there’s nothing to be lost. It boosts my immune system, and if I take more than my body can handle, my body simply eliminates the excess through normal bodily functions. What’s there to lose?
Unfortunately, sometimes we treat the Lord’s Supper like that simple vitamin C pill. Take it regularly without thinking about it. What’s there to lose? Some churches have open communion and allow anyone who would like to come forward to partake of this holy meal
Indeed, it would appear Jesus is telling us this in John 6. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” If it’s so important, why not feed it to my Baptist friend who think it’s just a symbol? Why not feed it to an unbeliever? Why not feed it to a toddler?
We must understand that Christ is forming a people who can rightly receive this gift of Himself. The Holy Spirit works through the Word so that you can believe all that Christ has taught you. Jesus Christ hung as the bread of life on the tree of Calvary to die for your sins so that you may live eternally. Jesus Christ has washed you in Baptism to make you His. Jesus gives you His Bible which teaches all things necessary for salvation. Jesus gives you His Word which says the bread is truly His body and the wine is truly His blood. Jesus has inspired writers such as the Apostle Paul who tell us that we go forth believing that Christ is truly present in this meal and that those who deny this risk spiritual harm. The Bible also tells us that this meal is a shared confession of faith in this living bread who comes down from heaven.
Rightly received in this way, the Lord’s Supper is a great treasure wherein Christ touches us with His body and His blood for our benefit and blessing. The Lord’s Supper acts as a means by which Jesus grants us forgiveness, life, and eternal salvation. Certainly not by our power or strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit who works through the Word to receive all these gifts by faith.
Indeed, we meet the Lord regularly throughout these means. The Lord comes to us in baptism and clothes us with Himself. He regularly comes to us through His Word and we spiritually feast on this Word as we trust His words by faith. Finally, the Bread of Life comes to us through His Supper as we trust His Words and He touches our tongues and makes us clean. What wonderful ways for the Lord to prepare us for His arrival at Christmas, and this gift keeps on giving throughout the entire year.