Text: Romans 13:11-14
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11 Besides this you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
The Advent season is upon us! The decorations are up and we are ready for the coming Christmas season. At home Monica really enjoys this time of year. We get out the trees, but me being allergic to the new cut trees, we’ve used artificial trees for years. But the ornaments make it our own as I’m sure yours do as well.
For me pre-lit is the way to go! The Nativities are placed on the shelves. I say plural because we have many - but not as many as we use to have. Here at church the Nativity is lit as well and as always, we thank Jim and Bob Klein for putting it out on the front of the church. It is a blessing.
Lights illuminate the hope we each hold dear at this time of year because the reality is, that darkness has a sinful beauty that can lure and charm us even in this time of hope, joy and celebrating.
Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
In our text, Paul also speaks of a routine as we prepare for Christ, the light of the world. However, the day for which Paul encourages us to be prepared and ready is not Christmas. We don’t need to prepare for that which has already happened, but rather for the day that is still to come.
Paul is not concerned with trees, decorations, or even our sort of lights. Instead, he desires to make sure we are prepared spiritually for Christ’s second coming, just as the angels, Mary, and Joseph were for his first coming as the baby who would be the Savior of the world.
This is the day for which we prepare, the day when Christ comes in all his splendor, power, and glory, with all the heavenly angels, banishing the darkness with his victorious light.
Such anticipation is filled with the delight that God loved each and every one of us to the extent that he sent his only Son, Jesus, into this world of darkness to be our hope and light of eternal joy.
Unfortunately, too many people have become confused about God’s genuine love for us.
Quite often people believe and teach that God loves us because he has strong feelings or loving emotions toward his creation. It’s true, feelings and emotions are involved in love, but the greatest part of love is the action.
Love is an action that one does rather than what one feels. Far too many marriages dissolve in this world because individual feelings are valued more highly than the individual’s actions toward the other.
It’s commonplace for one to say that he or she doesn’t “feel” the love they once had for the other.
Imagine if God the Father decided that his love for man had changed, that he fell out of love with man after all.
Since the fall, generation after generation has turned their back and sinned against him. Or imagine Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, looking up into heaven and saying, “Father, I hate this feeling, and I don’t feel like going through all this suffering and death.”
The good news is Jesus resisted those feelings and fought back even though he prayed three times to have the cup of suffering removed. His love for us was demonstrated in action—dying on the cross—that shines and enlightens our lives as we strive to love one another as he has loved us.
For “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
Earlier in his Letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes that there is not one person who is righteous by his or her own merits (Rom 3:10–12). We are sinners, and by nature we love the darkness.
And so it is that Paul encourages us to put away the works that need to be hidden by darkness, such as sexual vices, drunkenness, quarreling, and jealousy:
“Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy” (v 13).
The world of darkness bears a sense of beauty that charms and lures our sinful flesh avoiding the true light.
In the verses preceding our text, Paul speaks to us about loving one another, for the entire Law of God can be summed up in one simple statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Rom 13:9
Jesus was born to pierce the darkness, and under the darkened afternoon sky on Good Friday, he did.
Jesus’ death is the ultimate glorious light of God’s love.
As sinners who have received this righteousness of Christ, purely by God’s free and loving gift, which cleanses us from all our sins and enables us to love as he has loved us. By the light of faith, we desire to follow in the way of Christ, obedient and loving, not out of fear but because of his love for us first.
“Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” v 12b.
Through God’s Law, we know our sinfulness and our inability to escape the captivity of sin’s darkness.
Through God’s grace, we know we’ve been forgiven and empowered to live in the righteous life of Christ.
Through God’s grace we are enabled to put on the armor of light so we may
love our neighbors;
live a joy-filled life;
enjoy peace in our families;
have patience with our children;
express kindness, goodness, and gentleness with those who hurt us;
and have more self-control with those who differ with us.
Through God’s grace, this armor of light is brighter and stronger than any light man can imagine.
It is the true light of Jesus Christ himself, for you!
The good news is Jesus resisted those feelings and fought back even though he prayed three times to have the cup of suffering removed. His love for us was demonstrated in action—dying on the cross—that shines and enlightens our lives as we strive to love one another as he has loved us.
For “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8).
Earlier in his Letter to the Romans, Paul emphasizes that there is not one person who is righteous by his or her own merits (Rom 3:10–12). We are sinners, and by nature we love the darkness.
And so it is that Paul encourages us to put away the works that need to be hidden by darkness, such as sexual vices, drunkenness, quarreling, and jealousy:
“Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy” (v 13).
The world of darkness bears a sense of beauty that charms and lures our sinful flesh avoiding the true light.
In the verses preceding our text, Paul speaks to us about loving one another, for the entire Law of God can be summed up in one simple statement: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Rom 13:9
Jesus was born to pierce the darkness, and under the darkened afternoon sky on Good Friday, he did.
Jesus’ death is the ultimate glorious light of God’s love.
As sinners who have received this righteousness of Christ, purely by God’s free and loving gift, which cleanses us from all our sins and enables us to love as he has loved us. By the light of faith, we desire to follow in the way of Christ, obedient and loving, not out of fear but because of his love for us first.
“Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” v 12b.
Through God’s Law, we know our sinfulness and our inability to escape the captivity of sin’s darkness.
Through God’s grace, we know we’ve been forgiven and empowered to live in the righteous life of Christ.
Through God’s grace we are enabled to put on the armor of light so we may
love our neighbors;
live a joy-filled life;
enjoy peace in our families;
have patience with our children;
express kindness, goodness, and gentleness with those who hurt us;
and have more self-control with those who differ with us.
Through God’s grace, this armor of light is brighter and stronger than any light man can imagine.
It is the true light of Jesus Christ himself, for you!
Strengthened, daily, by the power of Christ’s Word and Sacraments to live and radiate his armor of light, adorned with his glory, we stand ready for his second and final coming.
It’s an exciting time!
“The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (v 11).
Christ is coming, and we eagerly wait in anticipation God’s peace with childlike faith in the Christ child!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
Based on Sermon series Behold the light! Rev. Steven R. Schumacher 2018
It’s an exciting time!
“The hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (v 11).
Christ is coming, and we eagerly wait in anticipation God’s peace with childlike faith in the Christ child!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
Based on Sermon series Behold the light! Rev. Steven R. Schumacher 2018
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