Advent Midweek Sermon, December 3, 2025

Advent Midweek 1 (Our Coming King)

“My Lord Who Has Redeemed Me”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield, CT

December 3, 2025

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

          Our Advent series this year is based on the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed. Over these next three Wednesdays, we will look at various aspects of Jesus, Our Coming King. Today we consider “My Lord Who Has Redeemed Me.” Next week, “True God and True Man.” And finally, “He Shall Come to Judge.” I pray that these catechetical sermons will be a blessing to you as you prepare to celebrate the first coming of Christ even as you await with joy His Coming Again as King and Lord of all.

          “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” To have a Lord is to be under one’s power, authority, and grace for your benefit. The earliest confession of the Christian faith was, in Greek, κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς (kyrios Iēsous Christos) or in Latin, Iesus Christus dominus est—Jesus Christ is Lord. But there was a time when Jesus was not my Lord or your Lord. From Luther’s Large Catechism, “For before I did not have a Lord or King, but was captive under the devil’s power, condemned to death, stuck in sin and blindness.”^[1] Ephesians 2:1–3, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

          Inheritors of the sin of Adam and Eve, every single person is involved in the horrible drama of Eden and the Fall. In that sin all humanity fell away from God and was condemned to everlasting damnation. All people were held captive by a self-proclaimed “lord” and “master.” In fact, it was a triumvirate, a three-fold task-master that held us in slavery’s chains: the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh with its desires contrary to the Word and Commandments of God. Luther summarized for us in the Large Catechism, “For when we had been created by God the Father and had received from Him all kinds of good, the devil came and led us into disobedience, sin, death, and all evil. So we fell under God’s wrath and displeasure and were doomed to eternal damnation, just as we had merited and deserved.”^[2]

          Just how bad was it under these harsh masters? In teaching us about the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “And lead us not into temptation,” Luther helps us to see that it is precisely these evil lords that bring us temptation to sin. “For we dwell in the flesh and carry the old Adam about our neck. He exerts himself and encourages us daily to unchastity, laziness, gluttony and drunkenness, greed and deception, to defraud our neighbor and to overcharge him. In short, the old Adam encourages us to have all kinds of evil lusts, which cling to us by nature and to which we are moved by the society, the example, and what we hear and see of other people. They often wound and inflame even an innocent heart.

Next comes the world, which offends us in word and deed. It drives us to anger and impatience. In short, there is nothing but hatred and envy, hostility, violence and wrong, unfaithfulness, vengeance, cursing, railing, slander, pride and haughtiness, with useless finery, honor, fame, and power. No one is willing to be the least. Everyone desires to sit at the head of the group and to be seen before all.

Then comes the devil, pushing and provoking in all directions. But he especially agitates matters that concern the conscience and spiritual affairs. He leads us to despise and disregard both God’s Word and works. He tears us away from faith, hope, and love, and he brings us into misbelief, false security, and stubbornness. Or, on the other hand, he leads us to despair, denial of God, blasphemy, and innumerable other shocking things. These are snares and nets, indeed, real fiery darts that are shot like poison into the heart, not by flesh and blood, but by the devil.”^[3]

          It was very bleak for us under the power and authority of the devil, the world, and our own corrupt flesh until . . . the “only and eternal Son of God—in His immeasurable goodness—had compassion upon our misery and wretchedness. He came from heaven to help us. So those tyrants and jailers are all expelled now. In their place has come Jesus Christ, Lord of life, righteousness, every blessing, and salvation. He has delivered us poor, lost people from hell’s jaws, has won us, has made us free, and has brought us again into the Father’s favor and grace. He has taken us as His own property under His shelter and protection so that He may govern us by His righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and blessedness.”^[4] That is why we believe, teach, and confess, “I believe that Jesus Christ . . . is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.”

          To be redeemed by Jesus, true God and true Man, is to be transferred from the lordship of the devil, world, and flesh to the Lordship of Christ! Luther masterfully explains in the Large Catechism that “the little word Lord means simply the same as redeemer. It means the One who has brought us from Satan to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness, and who preserves us in the same. But all the points that follow in this [Second Article of the Creed] serve no other purpose than to explain and express this redemption. They explain how and by whom it was accomplished. They explain how much it cost Him and what He spent and risked so that He might win us and bring us under His dominion. It explains that He became man, was conceived and born without sin, from the Holy Spirit and from the virgin Mary, so that He might overcome sin. Further, it explains that He suffered, died, and was buried so that He might make satisfaction for me and pay what I owe, not with silver or gold, but with His own precious blood. And He did all this in order to become my Lord. He did none of these things for Himself, nor did He have any need for redemption. After that He rose again from the dead, swallowed up and devoured death, and finally ascended into heaven and assumed the government at the Father’s right hand. He did these things so that the devil and all powers must be subject to Him and lie at His feet until finally, at the Last Day, He will completely divide and separate us from the wicked world, the devil, death, sin, and such.”^[5]

          Jesus Christ is Lord who has redeemed you and me and transferred us under His reign and rule. Colossians 1:13-14, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” And so each baptized person can say with confidence, “Jesus Christ is MY Lord who became human, without sin, in order that He would be Lord over sin. Jesus Christ suffered, died, and was buried so that He could purchase me with His blood and so become my Lord. He has risen as the One who overcomes death and is Lord even over death. He has ascended into heaven and has taken lordship over the devil and all powers. And Jesus, my Lord, will return for judgment in order to finally free His own from all powers of destruction.” This is most certainly true. Amen.

     ^[1] Paul Timothy McCain, ed., Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (St. Louis: Concordia, 2005), 401.

     ^[2] Ibid., 401–402.

     ^[3] Ibid., 420–421.

     ^[4] Ibid., 402.

     ^[5] Ibid.