"Who Can Stand When He Appears?" (Malachi 3:1-7b)

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“Who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fuller’s soap” (Malachi 3:2).

 

Judgement is coming and it is coming quickly. And this judgement always takes its victims by surprise.

 

Is Jesus really coming? For many of us, maybe even you, we act as if He isn’t coming. We get lost in the daily grind of life. Or we may think that God has forsaken us.

 

For the postexilic Jews, it’s been some 90 years since their return from Babylon to Jerusalem. The re-built Temple is now 65 years old. But Jerusalem is not a very impressive place. It looks very much God forsaken to them.

 

Before the Babylonian exile, Judah was great and powerful. It had mighty kings and an awesome Temple. The glory of the Lord shined. Yahweh’s reign could be seen and touched.

 

But on this side of the Babylonian exile, God has appeared to have slipped away. Now, Persia appears to be the ruler of their world. If the Jews want anything done, they have to ask permission from the Persian ruler. If they wanted supplies, they had to rely on the good graces of the Persians. They had to practice religion under Persian government. They were beholden to the Persians!

 

The mighty deeds of God were of yesteryear. The rebuilt Temple was a mere shadow of what it once was. The walls of Jerusalem were still a wreck.

 

The Jews were troubled. Upon their arrival back to Jerusalem, they had hoped and expected, the glorious and prosperous reign of the Davidic line of kings, but all they see is a wicked Persia prospering. 

 

To many Jews, they began to believe that their God had abandoned them, or He refused to care about them.

 

Jesus says in Matthew 24: “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27).

 

There is something true about lightning. It always takes us by surprise.

 

Jesus’ coming at the first Christmas took everyone by surprise. Mary, Joseph, Herod, the shepherds, friends and enemies were all surprised when He came. God had promised His Son’s coming from the dawn of the world. Many people had carried that thought and hope with them through all those long years, but what they hoped for, they really did not expect. It caught them by surprise. Will it catch you by surprise at His coming on the Last Day?

 

St. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5: “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).

 

Where is God? Is He coming? For the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25, five of them appeared to give up on the Bridegroom coming, so they refused to refill their oil lamps through Christ’s Means of Grace and went to sleep. But then by surprise, at midnight, there was a cry: “Here is the Bridegroom! Come out to meet Him!” (Matthew 25:6). The foolish five were refused entry to the marriage feast. To them, the Bridegroom says: “‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:12).

 

We all desire the Second Coming of Christ, but that day will also surprise us, even though we hope for it and profess to long for that day.

 

The day of judgement is coming all right, but how often do we act like that day is far off? Do you act like Jesus is coming?

 

“Just as in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man,” Jesus says. “They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:26-27).

 

When we least expect it, Jesus will come.

 

“Who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears?” (Malachi 3:2a)

 

If we truly examine ourselves, no one can endure; no one can stand. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This is you and me. We are all poor, miserable sinners. We sometimes act as if sin has no consequences, but sin has eternal consequences, because God cannot partake in sin. Since none of us are as pure as the wind driven snow, what do we do? What can we do? Sadly nothing. 

 

So, God will do everything! “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me” (Malachi 3:1).

 

God sends John the Baptist to prepare the way for His Son by “proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). We are all called to confess our sins as we recognize our inability to stand before God because of our sin. And where there is confession, there is forgiveness. 

 

After that preparation, God sends the Messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought the new covenant through His blood.

 

You and I cannot be 99 percent clean. We must be 100 percent clean. We must be pure. To be clean and pure, Jesus enters in.

 

Through His suffering and shed blood on the cross, Jesus is “like a refiner’s fire and like a fuller’s soap” (Malachi 3:2b). Upon that cross, as He suffered and died for you and your sins, Jesus is making you and I clean and pure. Jesus is not only the Purifier but also the Purifying agent. He is not only the Blacksmith but also the Fire. He is not only the Cleaner but also the Soap. 

 

Jesus refines us through His heat. He cleans us like a launderer by rubbing, kneading, and beating to make us soft, clean, and pliable.

 

God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ because He desires a pure product. On our own and by our own merits, we could never be made holy, but it is only God who has the power to make us holy. Our purity is only made possible through the blood of Jesus – the very Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

 

Christ scrubbed us clean through His death and resurrection. Today, He comes to keep us clean through the preaching of His Word and in His giving of forgiveness through His Sacraments. 

 

As forgiven sinners, by grace through faith in Christ alone, we have nothing to fear, because through Christ’s work, we are seen as holy and blameless before God the Father.

 

So, “Who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He appears?” (Malachi 3:2a). We can! God’s people can! We endure as we receive through faith the forgiveness of sins won for us at the cross and offered to us freely in the Means of Grace. God is faithful and Christ will return. But now His return is not fearful for us, since Christ has atoned for all of your sins. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

Sermon for The Last Sunday of the Church Year: "Remembered" (Malachi 3:13-18)

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

 

Christians are used to speaking up for God, but more and more today we hear strong words, words hard to hear, harsh words, spoken against God, words of defiance. We hear these words all the time: “Do whatever you want!” “If there is a God, He doesn’t care!”

 

The Lord says through His prophet Malachi: “Your words have been hard against me” (Malachi 3:13a). Here, God is calling His people to account for those words, their hard words against Him. And what were these hard words from God’s people? “Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape” (Malachi 3:15b).

 

But what about us? Have you ever uttered things like that? Have you been tempted to say: “It’s useless to serve God!” “My prayers are worthless.” “Where were you, God, when I needed you?” And often things get worse when we keep Your Commandments. “We are called old fashioned and phobic.”

 

The American culture has turned God into a figure who grants our wishes, our desires. But that isn’t God. Yes, He answers our prayers, but it is His will that is done, not our will. So, often when we don’t get what we want, we put God to the test, much like the Hebrews of old.

 

So, the Lord, by His prophet, bids us to look up from ourselves to see Him, to fear Him, to repent and stand in awe of Him, and to trust His promises. We cannot speak against Him or test Him, but He bids us to look back and remember all His works for us. Even when it seems God is far away, when we are tempted to speak against Him or put Him to the test, He leads us to remember His promises, to remember that He will never forget His people. When we remember what God does for us, we have no need speak against Him, because God always keeps His promises and in Jesus makes us His treasured possession.

[God Keeps His Promises]

 

The Lord says: “Your words have been hard against me. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?” (Malachi 3:13) Ok, slow down. Let’s listen to the whole charge God’s people bring against Him: “You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping His charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape’” (Malachi 3:14-15).

 

Do you hear what they are saying about God? “God doesn’t care about us! Why be loyal to Him if He isn’t loyal to us? These evildoers seem to always escape punishment. In fact, they are held in high esteem! If we are His people, why don’t we get a better deal? Why are we wasting our time with God!”

 

But did you catch something else? They said: “How have we spoken against you?” (Malachi 3:13b) What were they just saying to God? They were defending their own sins to God! You see, they are seeing the sins of others, but they don’t see their own sins. They see the proud, the immoral, the brazen, the violent all around them, but they don’t see it in themselves. They, too, have spoken against God!

 

Despite what it may seem to look like, God is keeping His promises. To these Hebrews, it looks so far from that. But He is. You see, God heard every complaint. He paid attention and heard them, and “a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed His name” (Malachi 3:16b).

 

So, what could be in this “book of remembrance”? Well, those who continued to worship God. Those who comforted each other. Those who fear God.

 

But what happens when the Lord remembers? Is He recalling something He has forgotten – like these Hebrews may think? No! When God remembers, He holds His promises up for all to see. Recall God’s covenant with Noah. Remember, it is for our benefit each time we see a rainbow in the sky. This is so we remember His covenant that He will never again flood the earth (Genesis 9:15-16). He remembers so all can see! He remembers His people. He keeps His promises!

 

Well, yes, we see those things, but how do we really know? How do we really know God remembers His promises? Well, we do have a book of remembrance that we can see, touch, and read. We have the Scriptures, the very Word of God. And this Word of God does what it says and brings what it promises.

 

Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. It is God’s last word to His people before the fulfillment of His greatest promise. God spoke through the prophets then, but the next time God speaks, He would speak in person as the promised Messiah. It’s going to be some 400 years in the future, but He is going to come. Remember, what God speaks, happens.

 

In today’s Gospel lesson, the repentant thief on the cross, speaks to Jesus – the promised Messiah – “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). And Jesus, who is nailed to cross beside him says: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). And that is exactly what happened. Though being a criminal, through His faith in Jesus, he was delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God, for in Jesus we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14).

 

In Christ alone, we are reconciled to God the Father. We are reconciled through the blood of His cross shed for us. In other words, promises kept.

 

[In Jesus, We are His Treasured Possession]

 

Through Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection, by faith in Christ, we are made God’s treasured possession. Faith is what does it. 

 

Well before Malachi, God said to His people: “If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among the peoples” (Exodus 19:5). And now God says to you: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

 

Indeed, the Lord has compassion upon His people. He says: “I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him” (Malachi 3:17b).

 

But there is some irony here. In the case of His own Son – the Son of God – the Father did not spare Him, nor did He have compassion on Him, but sent Him to the cross. He gave Him up to suffering and death. He gave Him up to what our sins deserve. But, He did all of this to have compassion upon us, so our sins would be placed upon Jesus, so He would make you a child of God, so that we would be spared from His wrath. God’s compassion is fulfilled in Christ.

 

So, whenever we doubt the goodness of God, we must repent, since He always keeps His promises. Jesus is the proof we are always remembered.

 

Now, our faith may be put to the test in this sinful world, but God never forgets you.

 

Even when we forget, He remembers you. He restores us when we fall.

 

He made us His treasured possession by putting His name on you in Baptism and speaking of His forgiveness. Through the water and the Word, we are united to Christ’s death and resurrection. And if we are united, then we have been clothed in Christ’s righteousness.

 

Through Christ alone, we have been spared from the power of sin, death, and the devil. Through His compassion, He says: “Your sin has been forgiven!”

 

Today, Christ remembers His promise to you also in the Sacrament of the Altar, there we hear Christ’s words: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” You see, He remembers His promise, and by His sure Word He places into your mouth His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins.

 

We are God’s treasured possession. He keeps His promises. One day, He will fulfill another promise when He returns on the Last Day when we “shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him” (Malachi 3:18). That day will be another great reversal. Upon the cross, Jesus took upon Himself our filthy sins and gave us His righteousness. On that Last Day, it will be another reversal. He will divide the faithful from the faithless and we, the faithful, will be remembered as His treasured possession. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

 

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

Sermon for Advent Midweek 2: "Prepare the Way" (Malachi 3:1-7)

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen!

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

[Intro]

“On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry – announces that the Lord is nigh; – Awake and hearken for he brings – Glad tidings of the King of kings!” (On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry, LSB 344, stanza 1)

“Behold, I will send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me” (Malachi 3:1a).

Here, the Prophet Malachi explains how God is going to intervene in human affairs. He is not a faraway God, but a God who will be near His people. To prepare humanity, God will send His messenger to “prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Luke 3:4b).

This messenger did not appear instantly, but at God’s appointed time.

Some centuries after Malachi’s proclamation, this messenger finally appeared in the wilderness as John the Baptist. He proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

[Repent]

Throughout the book of Malachi, the prophet warns those in his community who have a false understanding of God’s will and God’s ways. Malachi is calling everyone to not just feel sorry for their sins, but to repent by changing their ways of thinking and living. 

Likewise, John the Baptist did much of the same. He warned the crowds to prepare for the coming wrath.

John proclaimed to the crowds: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:7-8a).

John isn’t just telling the crowds to be sorry. He is informing the crowds to change from their sinful desires. He is telling them to prepare themselves for the coming of the One who is much greater than him.

He is preparing them for the First Advent of Emmanuel – God in with us.

Jesus the Christ is the Messenger of the New Covenant that Malachi proclaims. Jesus the Christ is the Messenger of the New Covenant that John proclaims.

[Today]

This leads us to today.

Christ has come to proclaim good news to all nations. He has come to give the entire world His grace through His sacrificial death upon the cross and His resurrection from the grave that gives all who believe and trust in Him salvation, forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

Christ also promises to come again in glory. When He comes again descending from the clouds, He will draw near to us in judgment. He will thrust everyone away who does not fear Him. He will bring near everyone who fears Him. He will separate the goats from His sheep.

Like Malachi and John the Baptist, we have a role as well. As followers of Christ, we are to prepare the way for Christ’s Second Advent – His second coming. 

We prepare by living out the Christian life. We prepare by telling others of the hope we have in Christ Jesus. We prepare by baptizing and teaching all what Christ has commanded us. We make the paths straight by following Christian virtues and not by bringing in false doctrine from the world.

We prepare by knowing that “the Lord does not change” (Malachi 3:6a).

The Triune God continues to condemn sin – even if we may justify our sin, but at the same time His mercy endures forever.

As children of God, the Lord promises to never forsake His children as long as we remain loyal to Him as our Lord. We remain loyal by repenting of our sins of thought, word and deed against God. Then in His Fatherly grace, we are forgiven of those sins and He sees us as spotless. He sees us as He sees His Son – righteous.

And so in expectation of Christ’s arrival, we are to be vigilant about the wrath to come, but also bear fruits of repentance as we wait for Christ’s second coming. For this is when we will truly be set free from sin, death and Satan as all in Christ will be made new with a sinless body and soul.

“All praise, eternal Son, to Thee – Whose advent sets Thy people free, – Whom with the Father we adore – And Holy Spirit evermore.” (LSB 344, stanza 5)

Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

T SOLI DEO GLORIA T