{"id":11053,"date":"2025-11-25T17:31:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11053"},"modified":"2025-11-25T17:33:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T00:33:49","slug":"wake-up-jesus-is-lord-not-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11053","title":{"rendered":"Wake up. Jesus is Lord, not others."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 24:36-44<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy New Year everyone. Today is the first Sunday of a new church year. As we begin the church new year, we don\u2019t make new resolutions, as many may do in January of a new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here in the church what we do at the beginning of a new year is take a new look at things, take a look both back and to the future, take a look at the whole picture and ask: What is God doing? What\u2019s it all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the things people mention, is that God has a plan, and then the question is: What\u2019s the problem? Doesn\u2019t God\u2019s plan work? Did God have a plan A and that didn\u2019t work so he had to get a plan B?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early church there was a leader who said about the fall into sin: \u201cO, happy sin!\u201d because that is what led to the coming of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea was that God\u2019s plan A didn\u2019t work so he came up with Plan B. That perspective is a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s think about what the Bible says about these things. As you know, it says in Exodus and Deuteronomy that when the people fell down and worshipped the golden calf, the Lord said: \u201cI am going to destroy these people and start over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moses begged him and prayed to him, and it says the Lord repented. He changed his mind. That\u2019s a very important kind of thing that we have to think about. We find that astonishing. From our way of thinking, God is eternal and unchanging, always the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the New Testament in Hebrews 13:8 it says: \u201cJesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever.\u201d What happened is God changed. It blows our minds, blows our categories to pieces. God came to be part of this place in space and time and all the categories we have for thinking about this don\u2019t work, can\u2019t comprehend it. He truly was one of us and truly was among us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a couple of things we should think about from that. The first one is: All attempts to talk about proofs for God are idols. We have a hard time swallowing that because well, how can we know? How can we be sure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We want to bolster our faith, prove that it\u2019s logical, reasonable to believe, so we set up proofs for God, and what we really do is set up a god above God, that is, whatever we are using to prove it by. It might be a certain philosophy, or our feelings of spirituality, proofs from history, science, whatever. All these things are idols, ways we are trying to make God conform, control God, and manipulate God so he is the way we think he has to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That comes out in this text in Isaiah 2:1-5: \u201cThey shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks.\u201d There is a parallel to that in Isaiah 11: \u201cThe wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid . . . and a little child shall lead them.\u201d And another parallel in Isaiah 65:25: \u201cThe wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox . . . They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ancient Hebrews were trying to figure out: How is God doing this? In their own limited way they had the picture like what it was going to be in Eden, and they thought the end would be the same, like a return to the beginning, except they know about the problem of evil, of \u201cnature red in tooth and claw,\u201d as Tennyson calls it. How is this going to work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lion is going to eat straw, become a vegetarian? What\u2019s that about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our categories, our ways of thinking aren\u2019t adequate. They simply can\u2019t make it, except we think it has to be that way. It has to be something we figure out, understand, and the like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We turn then to the great place in the New Testament that deals with these things, that is, in Ephesians 1. There in verse 4 it says: \u201cHe chose us in him before the foundation of the world.\u201d In other words, he chose you and me before the world was created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In verse 10 it talks about God\u2019s purpose \u201cwhich he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.\u201d From eternity he the plan to do what he\u2019s doing, and there\u2019s no way of talking about Plan B for God because he is above planning, and he is above space and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of what astronomers say about \u201csingularity.\u201d They talk about the Big Bang. It\u2019s always capitalized because there\u2019s nothing like it. It\u2019s singular. God created that, too. He\u2019s above it all. He is the one who is above all things and through all things and to all things, and he became one of us as a little baby to save us from sin and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that we come to this season of Advent. There are three colors for the season of Advent: Purple symbolizes repentance and royalty, and blue and pink are colors of hope and expectation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We looking at the fact that God is providing hope, and we\u2019re looking forward to Christmas, but really through Christmas to Good Friday and Easter, and we\u2019re also looking to the fact that this is serious business so the prayers this season start with \u201cStir up!\u201d and \u201cWake up!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text in Matthew 24 talks about Noah. Remember how he built that boat on the prairie, on the flat dry land, and everybody laughed at him. There\u2019s no water around here to float even a little boat, much less a big boat. And it says the people didn\u2019t pay attention. They ate and they drank, and they married, and they worked and they slept, and then BANG! Out of nowhere, the end came. What in the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though we are made aware of the fact that the Lord is Lord, and he is Lord of history and our lives, we go on in denial. It\u2019s like that snooze button. We hit it and go back to sleep. At the end of this text, it talks about the thief in the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you may know, there are five different places in the New Testament where it talks about how the end will come like a thief in the night (Matthew 24:43, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10, and Revelation 3:3, 16:15). Obviously, if you know the thief is coming, you\u2019re ready and can lock your door. But we live in denial, with our heads in the sand because we want to live life our way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the word of the Lord says: \u201cBe ready.\u201d There is one mediator, not many. Well, we put that off. We think we\u2019ll deal with that later, but like closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out, then it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second way we avoid this is to do what St. Augustine did. In his book, Confessions<\/em>, he says: \u201cLord, make me your own, but not yet. I want to be your own, but later.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is like the one before him, Constantine, the Great Emperor, who called the Council of Nicaea. It\u2019s probable that Constantine postponed his Baptism until just before he died, because, of course, Baptism wipes out all your sins, so he figured he could live and rule as Emperor as he thought he should, and then be forgiven all his sins right before he died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the fact that none of knows the moment when we might die, it\u2019s also not truly having the Lord as Lord. It\u2019s another way of thinking we can manipulate God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the third way we think we can avoid this is seen in the German poet, Heinrich Heine, who said: \u201cGod has to forgive me. It\u2019s his job.\u201d In other words, you don\u2019t have to worry about judgment and wrath. It\u2019s the nature of love and the nature of God, so I can do whatever. We fall into that trap of thinking I can live however I want. God has to forgive no matter what. But, of course, he doesn\u2019t. He is not sentimental love; he is holy love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that none of these three ways work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s scary because the Lord will be Lord no matter what. That\u2019s what the text in Romans 13 says. It says it\u2019s time for you to wake up. The night is far gone, the day is at hand. The Lord is coming. He\u2019s coming in his time in his way. That\u2019s something that is the center of the universe, more important than the Big Bang, more important than whatever you might talk about in terms of events in history, or in all the cosmos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More important than anything is the fact that he came to be Lord among us, and he comes to you and me in his Word. He came first of all as the Word made flesh, the Word of God as Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He comes second in his Word as proclaimed in his promises. \u201cCome to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest\u201d (Matthew 11:28). \u201cThere is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared\u201d (Psalm 130: 4). \u201cIn him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he has lavished upon us\u201d (Ephesians 1:7-8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the promises of God is salvation. Outside of that, nobody has anything to hang on to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in him, in the Lord who is Lord, is that certainty which gives us hope and salvation. Amen

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 24:36-44<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent<\/p>\n

Happy New Year everyone. Today is the first Sunday of a new church year. As we begin the church new year, we don\u2019t make new resolutions, as many may do in January of a new year.<\/p>\n

But here in the church what we do at the beginning of a new year is take a new look at things, take a look both back and to the future, take a look at the whole picture and ask: What is God doing? What\u2019s it all about.<\/p>\n

One of the things people mention, is that God has a plan, and then the question is: What\u2019s the problem? Doesn\u2019t God\u2019s plan work? Did God have a plan A and that didn\u2019t work so he had to get a plan B?<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a> for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11053"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11060,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11053\/revisions\/11060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}