3rd Sunday in Advent

Meditation

INI

Text: Revelation 3:20; Psalm 51:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:13

1^st Meditation – Revelation 3:20

“Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

In Christ Jesus, whose desire is to be welcomed within our homes, so that He might bestow upon us His rich blessing, dear fellow redeemed:

How welcome is Jesus in your heart and in your home? I would imagine that our first reaction to a question like that would be to say, “Oh, Jesus is very welcome in my heart and home?” I would imagine that if such a question had been asked of the Christians in first century Laodicea, the congregation to which Jesus’ words in our text were directed, they too would have said the same. Yet the very reason Jesus said what He did to the Laodicean Christians was because their attitudes and actions revealed something very different. Let me explain. The Christians in Laodicea had been blessed in many ways that other Christians of their day were not. They had not experienced persecution for the sake of their faith as had the Christians in Smyrna. They had not been misled by false prophets as had the Christians both in Pergamos and Thyatira. They had in fact been blessed by the Lord with greater material prosperity than had their fellow Christians in other communities of Asia Minor. But nonetheless they found themselves being rebuked by the Lord Jesus. The reason was because they had become “lukewarm” in their faith (cf. Revelation 3:16). They secretly thought to themselves, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing”—not a very welcoming attitude. In reality Jesus tells us that the Laodicean Christians spiritually were “wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (cf. Revelation 3:17). Jesus, however, wanted to bring them healing. Therefore He was at the door of their hearts and knocking, calling out to them with His precious words of correction and promise, urging them to repent and renew their zeal for their faith and future hope. Jesus promised them that if they would hear His voice and open the doors of their hearts, he would “come in to” them and “dine with” them—suggesting a close and intimate relationship of believer with Savior!

My dear friends, Jesus is knocking at the doors of our hearts. Do we hear His voice? Is He welcome in our hearts and in our homes? Let us examine our hearts and our homes. We do not want to be deceived as were the Laodiceans into believing that everything is just fine, when in point of fact it is not.

Is Jesus welcome in our hearts? Do we think of Him often? Do we talk to Him regularly—not just to recite certain table prayers—but do we earnestly pray to Him, sharing with Him both our joys and our sorrows? Do we meditate upon His word? Are our hearts “quiet chambers kept for” Him as suggested in Luther’s Christmas hymn From Heaven Above to Earth I Come? Or do we harbor within our hearts thoughts that we do not want Jesus to know. Do we privately resent His commandments and resist His authority within our lives? What of our homes? I am not talking about whether or not there is a religious picture hanging on our walls, or whether there is a Bible on a bookshelf? Rather would Jesus feel welcome to sit down with us in front of our televisions or to watch our latest video choices? Would we want Jesus to review the history of our internet web site choices, or might we be somewhat embarrassed should he check? Would Jesus feel comfortable listening to our dinner time conversations or sitting with us as we resolve disputes?

My dear friends, let us open our hearts to Jesus. He is knocking at the doors of our hearts and our homes. He is calling out to us, urging us not to harden our hearts, but rather to repent each day of our sins and to rejoice in the love and forgiveness He provides. He wants to be close to us. That is why He came to be one of us. He entered this world as the holy Child of Bethlehem in order to share our joys and sorrows, to commune with us here so that we might experience the joys of His presence now, even as we hope to rejoice in His presence forever. Amen.

2^nd Meditation: Psalm 51:10

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

How is it that we can welcome Jesus into our hearts and so into our homes? The impression is given at times in certain Christian circles that we can and do welcome Jesus into our hearts through moral transformations, but this is simply not the case. I am not a Christian because I avoid drunkenness, drug abuse, and sexual impurity. I avoid those sins, because I am a Christian and as a fruit of my faith. The apostle Paul reveals the problem with viewing Christianity as simply moral transformation when he writes, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice” (Romans 7:18-19). We are incapable on our own of moral transformation, even though we may to a certain extent control our outward behavior. It requires something much greater than our will power to welcome Jesus into our hearts and homes.

The key to that is God’s grace and power. He must enter our lives with His love and create within us “a clean heart” and “a steadfast spirit” as David states in our text. You and I can promise to do many things on the basis of our personal will-power, but we will never be successful until God Himself enters our hearts with His power and transforms our corrupt hearts into faith-filled, loving, and obedient hearts. It is when we, who must face the just condemnation of our sins and God’s wrath over sin, give up all confidence in ourselves and find our hope, our peace, and our forgiveness in the wounds of Jesus Christ, that the Holy Spirit will enter our hearts, place faith in those hearts, and so give us true and lasting hope and confidence.

The “clean heart,” of which David speaks, is a pure heart—made pure by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. The “steadfast spirit,” of which he speaks, is a loyal spirit devoted to what is good and pleasing to God in view of His mercy to us in Christ. These are God’s gifts to us as He leads us to trust in Jesus and moves us to respond in love to His love. It is such a heart and spirit, which then wants to do as God asks, for instance, through the apostle Paul. Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). Such hearts and spirits to not resist the correction of God’s word, but welcomes it, for such hearts and spirits trust their Lord and Savior explicitly, knowing that He will always do for them what is right and good.

David, of course, prayed these words after he had fallen into the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and after he had played a role in the death of her husband. He could have hardened his heart in the face of the prophet Nathan’s rebuke, but he did not. He was led by the Spirit of God to genuine repentance and renewed faith. Let us not harden our hearts to the promptings of the Lord, but rather welcome Jesus into our hearts and homes this Christmas through daily repentance, in faith, and with joy! Amen.

3^rd Meditation Text: 1 Thessalonians 2:13

“For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”

John’s Gospel begins with those wonderfully intriguing words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” John goes on later in his first chapter to explain the wonder of Christ’s birth by saying, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-2, 14). Jesus is the Word of God. He came to reveal the grace, mercy, and plans of God for us. If we are to welcome Jesus into our hearts and into our homes this Advent/Christmas season it must be by rejoicing in and welcoming God’s Word.

The apostle Paul was overjoyed and rejoiced with thanksgiving to God in view of the reception of God’s Word by the Christians in Thessalonica. They viewed the words Paul preached, as he explains, “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.” That word, Paul said, worked faith and hope and joy in their hearts.

There were many people in Paul’s day who did not receive his words or view them as the word of God. Paul was stoned on several occasions. He was imprisoned because of his faith for numerous years. Many of his own countrymen—his fellow Jews—refused to listen to him, for they did not want to hear something that contradicted their own thoughts and opinions. That is not very different than what you and I experience today. The Bible is often viewed as old-fashioned and irrelevant and by some even dangerous. There are many within external Christianity who believe the teachings of the Bible, but do so on a “take-it-or-leave-it”… “pick and choose” basis, asserting that they will be the judge of Scripture, rather than allowing Scripture to judge their thoughts and opinions. The LORD’s observation recorded by Isaiah in which He states, “On this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (66:2) goes unheeded in a mad rush for personal fulfillment and a demand for personal autonomy.

My dear friends, let us follow the example of the Thessalonian Christians and receive the words of Scripture for what they indeed are—the word of God! Let us review this Advent/Christmas Season the simple yet amazing truths that God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ would enter human history, take on our flesh, live in our place, assume our responsibilities, and bear our guilt and shame. Let us rejoice that God in heaven above would love us so much that He would devise a plan to rescue us from our own self-inflicted wounds of sin and deliver us into His eternal kingdom. Let us welcome Jesus into our hearts—seeking both His forgiving mercy and His abiding strength. Let us welcome Jesus into our homes—honoring Him with our words and actions. Then we will see the results of God’s Word taking root, growing, and working within our lives. Then we will experience the peace, which passes all understanding. Then we will possess the joy and confidence of knowing all is well, for all lies within the hands of our loving Savior God. As we ponder the wonders of Christ’s birth again this year, let us welcome our Savior with open arms and with hearts filled with praise. Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting