Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Advent Midweek 3
Text: Matthew 24:15-31
Sermon Audio
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
O Lord, how shall I meet you? The words of the hymn still echo in our ears as we wrap up our Advent series. We have seen that He did come and meet us in the flesh of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ; whose life, death, and resurrection freed mankind to live in His love that was poured out on the cross. We have seen that He continues to come and meet us in His Word and Sacraments; where Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection continues to be poured over our heads, into our ears, and into our mouths. He keeps us in His love as we live out our daily lives. Now the question is, O Lord, how will you meet us?
Christ will come again as our hymn so beautifully puts it: He comes to judge the nations, a terror to His foes, a light of consolations and blessed hope to those who love the Lord’s appearing. Our reading from Matthew says the Son of Man will appear in great fanfare on a cloud in the heavens, with angels and trumpets. The tribes of the earth will mourn at His coming, but His elect will be gathered to Him from the four winds. Our Lord’s second coming is going to be quite the spectacle. Unlike His coming lowly in the manger the first time, this time all will know that Jesus is the Christ and know that all should have heard His words when they were proclaimed in His continued coming. In that great and glorious day there will only be two camps of people; those standing in boldness in Christ’s perfect love and those who are trembling in fear as the trumpet sounds.
Fear seems like the natural state in the end times. Daniel and Matthew describe the tribulation in the world leading up to Judgment Day as quite the dreadful place. Beasts, or false christs and false prophets, will be prolonged in the world. They will rise with signs and wonders to attempt to even deceive the elect. In fact, Christ must shorten the days of His second coming or else no one could withstand these beasts. No flesh of those living in that day would be saved. False christs surround God’s faithful remnant in this world. The beasts want nothing more than to drag us into the fiery pits of hell with them.
Truly we are in the end times. How many false prophets in this world will point you to something other than the Scriptural second coming of Christ. Beasts will tell you that all people worship the same god really. Whether it be Hinduism, Islam, or Christianity all are just different aspects of one universal god. If God is love, He wouldn’t be so closed minded to make one Christ be the only way to heaven. He would make it so all would go to heaven no matter what. They point you out into the desert of the pagan world. Do not go out! False christs tell you that you can be secure in the end time as long as your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds. They try to convince you that you are your own Christ. False prophets know that we love to make ourselves our own gods. They point you into the inner room of your sinful heart. Do not believe it!
It is easy to be fearful when the world is against you. Being bold in Christ is hard against such beasts. In John 7, we see that this was even the reaction when the disciples went up to Jerusalem for the feast and Jesus stayed behind in order to come later in secret. While they were there they did not speak openly, that is boldly, for fear of the Jews. The false prophets of the day claimed Jesus deceived the people. They put earthly fear in God’s faithful people so that they would not speak of Jesus as the Christ. Only Jesus spoke boldly and publicly in those days. Yet we are supposed to have boldness in the day of judgment? How is that possible when it can be hard for me to even talk to my neighbor without fear? Our Epistle reading shows us how.
“By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world.” Abiding in love is abiding in God who abides in us. God abides in those whom he has made His through the hearing of His word and through the waters of Holy Baptism. These are the ones who confess Jesus is the Son of God. This is the work of God through His people. God is the one perfecting love in us. The perfect love of Christ is perfecting us. His continual coming unites us to His first coming. We can stand in bold confidence in the day of judgment because we have been united to Christ’s first coming. He has made us as He is in this world, beacons of His sacrificial love. Even when our sinful flesh wants to fear as beasts encircle us, we can stand in the confident hope that the perfect love of Christ on the cross is our perfect love, because of Him. His boldness in the face of the world is now our boldness. His love is the source of our boldness and love.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” How come I still fear if love has already been perfected in me through the continued coming of Christ? Fears in this world will always surround us. When we do succumb to the fear that gets presented to us by the false christs in this world, we know to turn to the true Christ as the source of love and forgiveness. Repent and ask God to give you the boldness to stand in the face of fear. Christ took your fears to the cross and redeemed them. He didn’t want to drink the cup of wrath that we deserved yet He trusted the Father and took that wrath for us on the cross. There His love overcame our fear. Remember that He has given you His Spirit and perfected His love in you and even when you do fear, Christ has taken that upon Himself as well. His love in you gives you boldness beyond earthly fear. The love that God has perfected in you gives you the ability to stand without fear in eternal judgment because it has given you the faith to trust that you have already been judged in Christ’s first coming and you need not fear another judgment. You have died in Him and are risen in Him. You have no fear because Christ’s perfect sacrificial love has been given to you. Stand boldly in these end times in His love.
“We love because He first loved us.” The love of God is the reason behind the threefold coming of Christ. God loved the world in such a way that He sent His only begotten Son into the flesh to be the propitiation for the sins of the world. He continues to join His faithful people to His sacrificial love through the hearing of His word and the outpouring of His Spirit in Holy Baptism. He continues to feed your Spirit with His body and blood so that you can remain in His love while the beasts surround you in the end times. Christ is keeping you, His elect, in His love. In doing so, He is giving you the ability to love others in this same way. Your love, that God is working in you, is another way in which God continues to come to people today. All of this so that those whom He has called to be His special people can stand confidently in His love in the day of judgment. The love of God is made manifest in the Advent of Christ.
As we prepare to celebrate the first coming of Christ next week on Christmas, we are also preparing for His second coming. He came in the flesh and quieted the mouths of the false prophets, vindicating His faithful people on the cross at the time of His first Advent. When He comes again in His second Advent He will make all things right again. The beasts and false christs that surround us today will be hushed and receive their due justice. You who cling to Him will rejoice as ones vindicated in Christ’s resurrection. You can rest assured in His love which will quiet your fear. You stand boldly because our coming Christ has wiped away your fear in the face of such evil. You fix your eyes on the perfect love of Christ.
You, who have had the love of Christ made perfect in them, fear not! Christ has come, continues to come, and will come again. You stand boldly and confidently in His love. This is the answer to the question of our hymn. O Lord, how shall I meet you? I shall boldly meet you as one who has been united to the love of Christ. His love has blotted out all fear. In Christ we have the confidence that He will guide us in love; patiently waiting for His second coming with rejoicing and singing. O glorious Sun, now come, send forth Your beams so cheering, and guide us safely home. Thanks be to God!
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen.