Advent 4

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Deut 18:15–19; Phil 4:4–7; Jn 1:19–28; Ps 111; antiphon: v. 9   –     12/21/25

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

Dr CFW Walther would direct our attention in this Gospel reading to verse 20 where St. John records that John the Baptist, when ask, Who are you? … confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” Walther sees in this verse the vital example of a faithful confession, but also the terrible temptation the devil brought to John.

Walther says of John, His fame grew every day so that even the authorities were compelled to respect him, and thus sent the Levites to ask him, “‘Who are you?’ Had John answered ‘I am the Christ, the promised Messiah,’ without a doubt the excited people would have enthusiastically sworn allegiance to him as their long awaited deliverer and king. And had John then placed himself at the head of the nation, no government would have been able to stem the tide of revolt. As it seems, the delegation expected no other answer. But what did John say? We read, He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, ‘I am not the Christ.’ Saying this, John withstood the first temptation to the worst and grossest denial of Christ.” (1.31)

John’s first temptation in this interaction was to claim an authority and power which were not his and which would have led him away from the task God had assigned him, worse, it was a temptation that tried to inflate his pride so that he would reject faithful confession and set himself up as God. For John to deny Christ in that way would be for John to elevate himself in his own heart to be rival to God. We see a similar temptation which the devil brought to Adam and Eve in the garden before the Fall. The devil asked Eve, Did God really say, and by so asking deceived Eve, with Adam there watching, and invited her to reject the confession Adam had taught her and inflate her ego and set herself up as a rival to God. Meanwhile, Adam watches from the sidelines and is also tempted to reject the confession of the faith, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Gen 2:16–17). Adam knew the truth (1 Tim 2:14), and yet unlike John the Baptist, Adam chose pride, denied the faith by denying God’s Word, and so with his wife tried to make himself equal to God.

What does John’s faithful confession matter to you, though? This story of one man’s faithfulness is the example by which you must all live. The exact words will be different, yet the devil’s ploys remain the same. What was the underlying temptation in the Levites’ question, Who are you? the same as the question to Eve, Did God really say? The devil will likewise attack the foundation of your faith asking you, in crafty words and devious circumstances, to doubt God’s Word. Adam and Eve are the example of those who are unfaithful and deny that when God spoke He spoke the truth. John, meanwhile, is the example of those who remain faithful, even to the point of prison and death—for Herod took John’s head—who remain faithful to God’s Word. The devil needn’t ask this question of unbelievers since they have no confession, but he will ask you, ‘is that what God really meant,’ because you are Christians, you do have the confession of faith which God has given you.

How will you be faithful in your confession of the faith if you do not know the faith? Time and time again, I have urged you all to study your Bibles, for the confession of faith is the Bible, and supported on the solid foundation of Scripture is the Lutheran Confessions which I have also urged you all to study because they are the faithful exposition of God’s Word. Only through knowing the Word that God has handed down to us through the ages will you know the whole of the faith. It is true that it is sufficient to be a Christian to believe that Jesus Christ is God and He died for your sins, but that is insufficient to withstand for long the attacks which the devil is every day preparing against you. It is easy for him to cause doubt when his target doesn’t know what is being questioned.

Recently, I told you I was happy to say I have seen many of you here in Church more often over the last year. I hope that trend continues through next year as well. Divine Service, God’s service of gifts for His children, is where God desires all of you to be, as passages such as Hebrews 10:25 and Acts 2:42 show. I am saddened, though, that I see so very few of you attending Bible Study where God has given me, as He has given all pastors, the task of instructing you all further in the confession of the faith than there is time for in the sermon. For which I would direct you to 2 Timothy 2:2. Faithful attendance on Sunday to receive God’s gifts is the primary blessing God has given to each of you. Unlike in past human history, however, you have the great advantage of weekly Bible Study and the education and ability to study the Bible on your own, if you would but use these options.

How would any of us perform if we were taken to be tempted in the wilderness by the devil as Christ was in Matthew 4? If we do not know the faith well how can we expect to fare any better than king Saul or Lot’s sons or Eli’s sons, or even Eve? But what if we know the Word of God like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, or David or Zipporah, or even John the Baptist? Then you would know not only to flee temptation and evil people, as Proverbs teaches, but also what St. James says, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (4:7) As Luther says, one little Word can fell him, that Word being Christ. If you know that Word well then you are equipped to confess the faith even under great trial, as Sts. Paul and Barnabas did, or as the many martyrs of the Early Church, like Polycarp or Justin.

What you can do to prepare yourself is attend Divine Service regularly, go to Bible Study and utilize the education of your pastor, and especially read the Bible and the Lutheran Confessions at home and to your family, but read them broadly. These are just the most important means that God has given you to make a faithful confession so that when the devil asks you to doubt God’s Word you will know the truth and be able to stand on Christ the Word of God incarnate as your foundation. Do not think, though, that all preparation is your own work alone. Remember what St. Paul says in the Epistle reading: The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. It is God Himself who will use these means to equip your mind for the battle, and strengthen your heart against the trial. But note especially how St. Paul says, do not be anxious about anything. He does not simply mean do not be anxious about your daily bread, or your raiment, but also about the health of your faith, and your steadiness under trial, as Jesus Himself tells us in Matthew 10:19–20: When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Which is as much as saying Christ will chase the devil away for you. You are commanded to stand firm wearing the armor of the Word, God fights for you.

It is evident that John the Baptist learned God’s Word faithfully at the feet of his father Zachariah—remember that Zachariah was of the tribe of Levi, was a priest, and was therefore not only lettered, but educated in the Scriptures, and tasked by God with teaching Israel all that God had given to them. Hear again how John knows the Scriptures better than even the Levites who came to question him: And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” They ask him if he is Elijah the man returned back down from heaven, and they think the prophecy must mean that because they are ignorant of God’s Word. But John knows their error and in humility answers accordingly, he is not the same Elijah of old—Jesus will later say that John has come in the same spirit of Elijah, which is what the prophecy always intended.

Then they ask if John is the prophet of which our Old Testament reading speaks, I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. They think this is some special prophet like the prophets of old, but John knows God’s Word better, that the prophet here is not himself, but rather the One Whom he, John, has been sent before, thus he quotes to these Levites Isaiah’s prophecy to show them both who he, John, is, and Whom he precedes. Yet still the Levites, whose job it is to know the Scriptures, who were sent by the Pharisees, who taught the Scriptures to all Israel, do not understand. Therefore John again confesses the Christ, yet so that they may hear and not understand (Deut 29:4; Ezk 12:2; Rom 11:8): I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. Though John quotes to them Isaiah, and demonstrates that he precedes the Christ, they are like those who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not (Jer 5:21). Why? Because they are as Hosea 4:6 says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

What of you? Will you be destroyed because of lack of knowledge? Will you be led astray because false teachers twist God’s Word, or the devil tempts you to doubt Jesus? God forbid it! When you are confronted by false teachers, when the devil whispers tempting lies, when persecution comes, even such little, tiny, insignificant persecutions like the phrase ‘happy holidays’, Who will hold you up? Who will provide you the words to say? Who will sustain your faith? He who was pierced for our transgressions; … was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Is 53:5) Our Lord Jesus Christ will sustain you to the end, guiltless …. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9) God sustained John in the faith, He sustained Abraham, Job, Joshua, Jephthah, Samuel, David, Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Peter, Paul, Thomas, Irenaeus, Perpetua, Felicitas, Vincent, Martin, Gregory, Henry, and many, many millions more. These loved not their lives even unto death ( Rev 12:11) but all made faithful confession that Jesus Christ alone is God and Lord. They, as we should also, looked to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2). Christ is the one who fights for you. Thus St Paul says to you who bear the name of Christ in baptism, Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Amen.