The Days Are Still Coming!

1st Sunday in Advent, 12/2/12
Jeremiah 33:14-16


The Days Are Still Coming!
I. When our King will fulfill all his promises to us
II. When we will still live in our King’s righteousness


Now that December has arrived the countdowns have begun. I’m referring to the number of days until Christmas. Local and national retailers are only too happy to keep you well-informed of how many shopping days you have left until time runs out. And the stress of getting our shopping done rises with each passing day. But for little children, the closer that day gets, the more excited they become. They can’t wait for the day to arrive. Others of us count down the days until we’ll see our beloved family members over the Christmas holiday. In one form or another I’m sure we all have a day right around Dec. 25 we’re looking forward to.

In a way, that’s what the season of Advent is all about—looking forward to a day. Advent is a season of preparation. Obviously we’re preparing ourselves to celebrate our Lord’s first coming to this earth. The signs of Christmas already dot our neighborhoods and homes. But more importantly, we’re preparing ourselves for our Savior’s second coming to this earth. That preparation is accomplished in us when we repent of our sins and, by faith in Jesus, we receive the assurance of our forgiveness.

Our God does exactly that for us with his words to us this morning through his prophet Jeremiah. In the opening words of our text, the Lord proclaims through Jeremiah, “The days are coming.” With those words the Lord invited his Old Testament people to look forward to the grand and glorious events that the Savior would accomplish for them. And that’s still his invitation to us, his people, some 2,600 years later.

The days are still coming. Join me in seeing what those days will bring for you and me, people who trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Part I.

A little less than a month ago they finally stopped. I’m referring to the promises made by the two presidential candidates. There were promises made about a national health care plan, about taxes for middle and upper income brackets, about our military, about immigration, about our national economy. We’re wise enough to know that those promises rarely mean much. Even when we’re certain that a particular promise has not been kept, a good politician will have a way of explaining his or her way out of it. But the problems persist.

If you think our situation in this country is bad, you should take a deeper look at what the people of Jeremiah’s day faced. Jeremiah served during and after the 3 invasions of the Babylonians. God used Jeremiah to tell his people that he was using the Babylonians as his instrument to bring punishment upon the Jews for completely turning their backs on the Lord. He encouraged the Jews to submit to the Babylonians or things would only get worse, and that’s exactly what happened.

And yet, the Lord still promised help. He had words of encouragement and hope for them. Listen again to the opening words of our text, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.” Notice that the Lord doesn’t speak of ending the Babylonian occupation or oppression. He doesn’t address the economy or employment numbers. He is silent on the national budget. He doesn’t even speak about some of the basic necessities of life, such as health care, food, and shelter. To be sure, the Lord is concerned about these things. He even promises to provide them for people whether they love him or not. But his main concern was not about their physical needs.

His main concern regarded their spiritual needs. Yes, the Jews longed for a king who would help them out of this mess they had created. But the days of the monarchy in Israel had ended. However, the Lord does mention a Branch from the line of David. I’m sure most of you recognize that term. It’s a promise to send another King, a Savior, who would be a descendant of King David. In making that promise, the Lord does not speak about what he would do for his people physically, but spiritually. That King would be a righteous Branch. In other words, he would be the holy Son of God who would come, not to establish an earthly kingdom, but an eternal, spiritual kingdom.

You and I are blessed to know exactly how that happened, how God fulfilled that promise. We’re going to celebrate it in 22 days. The eternal Son of God took on human flesh and blood and came into this world via a virgin birth. His parents laid him in a manger. About 30 years later he took our sins upon himself and died on the cross for them. And then he rose again, assuring us that we now belong to his eternal kingdom by faith in him. That’s what our King, this righteous Branch, did for us.

But there’s more. The days are still coming. Again, in this season of Advent our thoughts are also drawn to the future, to the last day in all of history when our Savior, who is also our eternal King, returns to this earth to claim us forever as his own. That will be the greatest day of our lives, a day when we will live with these bodies in glory with our Savior forever. In a very real and literal way, the best is yet to come. Jesus will return.

The days are still coming when our King will fulfill his promises to us.

Not a day goes by when we don’t think at least for a moment about the problems we face. It might be a sour relationship with a family member. Maybe it’s the heartache someone has caused us. Maybe it’s some form of sickness or suffering. Maybe its employment of finance related. And then there are the mountains of national and international problems that we face. What kind of country and world will our children live in? And then we wonder what our God is going to do about all of these problems and countless others. I don’t mean to trivialize the problems you face by what I say next, but our focus shouldn’t be so narrow. All of those problems pale in comparison to the one that inflicts us all—the problem of sin. Without a solution to the problem of sin, we jump out of the frying pan of this life and literally into the fire. But our God has solved that problem for us when he sent his Son to this earth, living a holy life for us and dying an innocent death for us. The effects of sin will remain until that day when he returns again. Then, and only then, will all be well for us, in fact, perfect for us. The days are still coming when our King will fulfill his promises to us.

Part II.

It’s happening again. More accurately, it’s happening still. I’m referring to conflict in the Middle East. Every day we hear about it. If it’s not Syria, it’s Egypt. If it’s not Israel, it’s the Hamas. You never know what’s going to happen next. About the only thing that’s certain is that there’s conflict going on in that area of the world.

Jeremiah and the Jews of his day knew all about it. Because of where Israel was positioned, it was the repeated victim of international conflict. The citizens of Jerusalem were all too familiar with war. And yet what does the Lord promise? He states, “In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety.” Listen to those words again. He promised salvation and safety. That sounds like just what these people needed. They needed rescue from the Babylonians. They needed to live in prolonged safety.

But if you’re at all familiar with Jewish history, that kind of rescue and safety didn’t occur. After the Babylonians came the Persians. After the Persians came the Greeks. After the Greeks came the Romans and then Jerusalem was destroyed.

So just what is the Lord promising? He’s promising the salvation and security of those who belong to his eternal, invisible kingdom, the Holy Christian Church. How can we be sure? Listen to the final words of our text, “This is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.” The “it” is the Church. Lasting salvation and security—eternal even—are found only in the Church. Your God brought you into that Church when he created faith in your heart and placed his name on you. That occurred for you on the day of your baptism. You now live each day of your life safely in the Church.

That also means you live daily in the forgiveness of sins. That’s what Jeremiah had in mind when he called the Church “The Lord Our Righteousness.” That is true of every member of the Church. By faith in Jesus every member of the Church has full and free forgiveness for all sins. That means we stand as holy people in the eyes of God. You live each day as that holy child of God.

The days are still coming when we will still live in our King’s righteousness.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Only our God does. It might bring the return of Jesus to this earth. Then again, it might be more of the same—dealing with the problems of living in a sinful world, dealing with our own sins, dealing with the guilt those sins cause. Our God knows that. It’s why he sent Jesus in the first place—so that we could have forgiveness and the holiness or righteousness that God requires. And we do! By God’s grace through faith in Jesus you are the Lord Our Righteousness. He has placed his name on you and washed you clean of every sin. You live every day in that saving good news. That’s what’s certain for you tomorrow and for eternity. The days are still coming and they will never end in which you have the fulfillment of that saving promise of God no matter what happens here in this life. Amen.