With the first Sunday in Advent we begin a new church year. This year the pastor will be preaching from the appointed epistle lessons, many of which will come from the two epistles of Paul to the Corinthians. The Corinthian church faced many of the spiritual challenges that we do today, including a liberalism that sets aside Scripture in favor of individual “freedom” at the expense of the true message of the cross.
Lessons:
- Isaiah 64:1–9
- 1 Corinthians 1:3–9
- Mark 11:1–10 (Mark 13:24–37)
The Lord Jesus Comes in Meekness and Humility to Save Us
Although we pray that God “would rend the heavens and come down” (Is. 64:1), that He would take vengeance against our enemies, we ourselves “have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Is. 64:6). We have continued in our sins for “a long time, and shall we be saved?” (Is. 64:5). Yet, the Lord does not punish us in anger. He comes in voluntary meekness and humility to save us by His grace. Just as He once came into Jerusalem to sacrifice Himself for us upon the Cross (Mark 11:4–8), He still comes to His Church with the fruits of His Passion.
By His ministry of the Gospel we are “enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge,” and so He will “sustain you to the end” (1 Cor. 1:5, 8). Although “heaven and earth will pass away,” His words “will not pass away” (Mark 13:31). As He sends disciples to call us to Himself in the fellowship of His Church, so will He “send out the angels” to gather us and all of His elect “from the ends of the earth” to Himself in heaven forever (Mark 13:27).