Advent Midweek Sermon for December 17, 2025

Advent Midweek 3 (Our Coming King)

“He Shall Come to Judge”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield, CT

December 17, 2025

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

          Our Advent series based on the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed comes to a close today as we consider that Jesus Christ, our Lord, will come to judge the living and the dead.

          In 1522, Martin Luther wrote a Personal Prayer Book for the laity. Regarding the coming again of Jesus, he wrote, “I believe that Christ will return from heaven on the Last Day to judge those who are alive at that time and those who have died before that day, that all mankind, angels, and devils will have to appear before his judgment throne to see him visually. Then he will redeem me and all who believe in him from bodily death and every infirmity and will eternally punish his enemies and adversaries and deliver us from their power forever.”^[1] Luther doesn’t address the Second Coming of Christ in the Small Catechism’s explanation and only mentions it in passing in the Large Catechism, saying, “Afterward he rose again from the dead, swallowed up and devoured death, and finally ascended into heaven and assumed dominion at the right hand of the Father. The devil and all his powers must be subject to him and lie beneath his feet until finally, at the Last Day, he will completely divide and separate us from the wicked world, the devil, death, sin, etc.” (LC: II.31).

          This isn’t because Luther believed the Coming of Jesus to be unimportant. He confessed the faith of the Scriptures as summarized in the Creed. But the doctrine of Jesus’ returning to judge the living and the dead was not a disputed teaching at the time of the Reformation. Both the Roman Church and the blossoming Lutheran Church confessed this truth. We see this in Article III of Augsburg Confession, which the Roman Church approved!

Likewise, it is taught that God the Son became a human being, born of the pure Virgin Mary, and that the two natures, the divine and the human, are so inseparably united in one person that there is one Christ. He is true God and true human being who truly “was born, suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried” in order both to be a sacrifice not only for original sin but also for all other sins and to conciliate God’s wrath. Moreover, the same Christ “descended into hell, truly rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven, is sitting at the right hand of God” in order to rule and reign forever over all creatures, so that through the Holy Spirit he may make holy, purify, strengthen, and comfort all who believe in him, also distribute to them life and various gifts and benefits, and shield and protect them against the devil and sin. Finally, the same Lord Christ “will come” in full view of all “to judge the living and the dead . . . ,” according to the Apostles’ Creed.

The Bible clearly teaches a visible return of the Lord Jesus on the Last Day. Our Lord who once came in humility in the Incarnation will come again gloriously in power. Luke 21, “And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luke 21:27 ESV). And Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”

Holy Scripture teaches that Christ will return to judge the world, as Christians confess in the Creed, and not to set up some sort of earthly government. We heard in our readings from 2 Corinthians 5 and Matthew 25 about the judgment, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25:31-32 ESV). “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10 ESV).

But by what will we be judged? Judges in our courts sentence people according to local, State, and Federal laws. Should we not be judged according to God’s holy Law of the Commandments? If so, the judgment rendered would be against us and it would be disastrous. “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psa. 130:3 ESV). The answer to the psalmist’s question is, “No one!” Not one of us could be acquitted of sin and so would receive the punishment that we deserve—eternal death. If we were to be judged according to God’s Law, we would all be lost.

But according to God’s gracious favor, we are not condemned. Why? Is God not just? Oh, to be sure He is, but He “is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (Psa. 145:8 ESV). Here is why we are NOT condemned by the Judge of all, Romans 3:21-28, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:21-24 ESV).

A sinner is declared righteous or just by God in the legal sense, that is, not guilty of crimes, on the basis of God’s grace, on account of the Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, who has redeemed us by His blood. “As people guilty before the righteous Judge, the verdict of not guilty can be heard only as the greatest good news. . . . Although all your thoughts, words, and deeds make you ‘guilty as sin’ before God, on account of Christ you are acquitted. God declares you to be not guilty of any crimes of which you had been charged. The case is closed. Court is adjourned. You are free to go. This is not because God ignored the crimes. It is because He exacted the punishment against His own innocent Son. Christ suffered the wages of sin in our place.”[2]

As you and I will stand before the Lord Jesus on the Last Day, a sentence different from the one we deserved has already been handed down to us. Because Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law of God for us in every respect, because He suffered, died, and rose again in our place, you and I are sentenced to life and freedom. The righteousness and innocence of Jesus has been imputed to us, credited to us by God through faith. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in [Jesus] we might become the righteousness of God.” On the Last Day, Jesus will “announce publicly the judgement He made in the past at the cross and the judgment He makes in the present each time that He, by His Word, declares the sinner just through faith in Jesus Christ.”[3]

Dear friends in Christ, we have “A Coming King.” He is Jesus, true God and true Man, our Lord, who has redeemed us from sin, death, and the devil by His death and resurrection. He will come again, perhaps today, to judge the living and the dead. But we already know the verdict that He will pronounce upon us who live by faith in the Son of God—not guilty! How we long to hear His Words on that great day, “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34 ESV).

Jesus’ return is a source of hope and joy for us in this Advent Season and throughout the Church Year. We rejoice to live even now under Christ in His kingdom, serving Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness! This is our confession of the faith taught in Holy Scripture. So, we close our Advent series with words of firm belief, “This is most certainly true.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.  

     ^[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 43: Devotional Writings II, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 27.

     [2] Jacob A.O. Preus, Just Words (St. Louis: Concordia, 2000), 113.

     [3] Ibid., 114.