The First Sunday in Advent

December 1, 2024

1 Thessalonians 3:9-13

A Real Christmas—

A Real Christmas Requires Remembering Why Christ Came!

9How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

11Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. (NIV1984)

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Those of you who are parents and grandparents will understand me when I say that I want to give my children and my grandchildren a real Christmas. While that sentiment is easy to embrace, it is not always as easy to explain. What is a “real Christmas”? For some people a real Christmas centers on decorating a freshly cut Christmas tree with lights and ornaments and maybe even some tinsel. For other people a real Christmas centers on copious amounts of Christmas presents piled around the Christmas tree. For still others a real Christmas means spending the holidays with your family and a few close friends. While all of these ideas as to what makes a Christmas a “real” Christmas can be wonderful— none of them actually make Christmas “real”!

If you want a real Christmas then you need to carefully observe the Season of Advent. In the Season of Advent Christians observe the connection between the first time the Son of God came into this world “to save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) and the second time the Son of God will come into this world as the Judge of the living and the dead. The Season of Advent prepares both our minds and our hearts so that we can indeed celebrate a “real” Christmas!

With that reality in mind the sermon series that we will be following on the Sundays in Advent focuses our attention on: A Real Christmas. As we begin this sermon series let’s see that: A Real Christmas Requires Remembering Why Christ Came!

When you heard our Gospel Lesson for today (Luke 19:28-40) were you just a little bit confused? This is the first Sunday in Advent. Why were we reading Luke’s account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday? The reason is very simply this: the Child of Bethlehem came into this world with one overarching goal. That goal was to innocently suffer and die on the cross as the perfect sacrifice— the only sacrifice— that could completely pay for all the sins of all human beings. Jesus’ triumphal entrance into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday reminds us that the Child of Bethlehem not only knew why He came into this world, but the Child of Bethlehem was willing to do everything that was necessary to “reach His goal”! (Pointing to the cross) Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem was an essential part of having a real Christmas. In other words, a real Christmas requires a real cross. A real Christmas requires an empty grave.

The apostle Paul— whom God the Holy Spirit used to give us our sermon text for today— the apostle Paul knew what a real Christmas was all about because the apostle Paul knew why Christ came into this world! Once Saul the Persecutor was brought to faith in Jesus the Christ, once Saul became Paul, he spent the rest of his life sharing with others the glorious message of a real Christmas.

One of the places where Paul proclaimed the message of a real Christmas was in the city of Thessalonica. On his second missionary journey Paul and his fellow missionary Silas stopped in the city of Thessalonica and on three Sabbath days Paul went into the synagogue and “reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:1-3) In the book of Acts Luke tells us, “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women” (Acts 17:4). But there were also those who rejected Paul’s message of a real Christmas. They caused so much trouble that Paul and Silas had to flee Thessalonica. Paul dearly wanted to go back to Thessalonica, but as he would later write, “Satan stopped us” (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Because his heart longed to find out how the Thessalonians were doing, Paul sent Timothy back to Thessalonica. Paul wanted Timothy to encourage this young congregation as they continued to face fierce persecution. When Timothy came back from Thessalonica he brought good news! Not only were the Thessalonians remaining faithful to Christ, but they were also reaching out to others to share with them the message of a real Christmas!

Timothy’s report is what prompted Paul to write in the opening verse of our text, “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” Note, my friends, that Paul does not congratulate himself or Silas or even the Thessalonians for their faithfulness and their dedication. Paul gives all thanks and all glory to God because he knows that God is the only One who has the power to keep and to strengthen anyone— including us!— as we strive to remain faithful to Jesus and dedicated to His Kingdom work.

Paul’s joy and Paul’s thankfulness to God led him to also share these words with the Thessalonians, “Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.” Since Paul had only been able to be in Thessalonica for three or four weeks he did not have time to teach them everything they needed to know. As Paul brings out in his letter to the Thessalonians, they needed further instruction about things such as avoiding sexual immorality (4:1ff), about Jesus’ second advent into this world (4:13ff) and about treating each other in a God-pleasing way (5:12ff).

Paul’s heartfelt prayer for the Thessalonians continues when he writes, “Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.” Since Satan had been “stopping” Paul and Silas from returning to Thessalonica, Paul wanted the Thessalonians to know that he was asking the Lord Himself to “clear the way” for them to come back to Thessalonica. In the meantime, Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians is that the Lord Himself would make their “love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else.”

Let’s pause here for a moment and let this portion of our text sink into our hearts. As we look around at our church family we see brothers and sisters who know what constitutes a real Christmas. We know that a real Christmas centers on the birth of the Christ-Child. We know that the Christ-Child is the true eternal Son of God who came into this world to “save us from our sins” by suffering and dying for us on the cross of Calvary’s hill. We know that a real Christmas includes the cradle, the cross and the empty grave in the garden. While we know all of that, my friends, there is the danger that comes from thinking that is all we “need” to know. Whether it is you or me as long as we are on this side of heaven we will always be “lacking in our faith.” We will always have “room to grow” in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Are we striving to grow? Are we striving to help each other grow? Are we striving to grow in our ability and in our desire to share the message of a real Christmas with others? Are we asking the Lord to “make our love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else”? God’s children in Thessalonica have left us a beautiful example to follow. Even though they were enduring powerful persecutions, even though they were facing tremendous temptations their faithfulness to Jesus and their dedication to sharing Him with others led the apostle Paul to say, “How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?” Pray that someone will always be able to say something like that about us!

The final petition in Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians is found in the closing verse of our text. Paul writes, “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”

Here it is! Here is how our text ties in with our theme for today: A Real Christmas Requires Remembering Why Christ Came! Here is where Paul “connects the dots” between Jesus’ first advent into this world and His second advent into this world. Our heavenly Father requires that anyone and everyone who wants to live with Him in His heavenly home must be “blameless” and “holy.” Are you “blameless”? Are you “faultless”— in God’s eyes? I am not. Are you “holy”? Are you “consecrated”— in God’s eyes? I am not. Because we are not “blameless,” because we are not “holy” in God’s eyes, because no one is “blameless” and “holy” in God’s eyes— the Son of God was born into this world as the Son of Man in a manger in Bethlehem.

That’s the “why” of a real Christmas, my friends. Since we are not and cannot be “blameless” on our own, the Child of Bethlehem came into this world so that He could live a “blameless” life, a “faultless” life— as our Substitute! Since we are not and cannot be “holy” on our own, the Child of Bethlehem gives us the “holiness,” the Child of Bethlehem gives us the “blamelessness” that we need to live in the heavenly Father’s home— forever! He gives it to us purely by grace through faith in what He has done for us. (Pointing to the cross)

Then why? Why does Paul pray concerning the Thessalonians and why does Paul pray concerning us, “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones”? Here is where it is helpful to know the difference between justification and sanctification. Justification is 100% God’s work! God is the one who has “Declared us: Not Guilty!”— on the basis of what His Son has accomplished for us on the cross! Sanctification is openly living the faith that God has created in our hearts. In our life of sanctification we “cooperate” with the Holy Spirit. In our life of sanctification we decide, we choose every single day whether or not we are going to live, think and talk in a way that is pleasing to the God who has justified us!

Because of the powerful persecutions we endure as we journey through this world and because of the terrible temptations that Satan levels against us, Paul’s prayer for us is the same as Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians. Paul’s prayer is that through regular use of God’s holy Word and through regular reception of God’s holy Supper God the Holy Spirit will continually “strengthen our hearts” so that when Jesus returns to this earth “with all his holy ones” we will indeed be “blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father.”

I’m confident that all of us are looking forward to celebrating a real Christmas. While we can still look forward to having a Christmas tree, while we can still look forward to exchanging Christmas presents, may God grant that all of us will remember the why of a real Christmas— why Jesus the Christ came into this world as the Child of Bethlehem!

To God be the glory!

Amen