Salvations Accepted Day Now Isa 49 8 13

Laetare, The Fourth Sunday In Lent 30-March-2025 Sermon Text: Isaiah 49:8-13 Sermon Theme: “Salvation’s Accepted Day: Now!” I. Salvation Comes Only In Jesus! (Vs.8-9a). II. Salvation Shepherds Us! (Vs.9b-10) III. Salvation’s Spirit Comforts Sinners!(vs.11-13) by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert

 I.N.R.I. “God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayers, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.” Rejoice! Today in thanksgiving! Rejoice? In the somber season of Lent? Pastor, check the calendar thanksgiving isn’t for 8 months! Smack in the middle of Lent on the way to Calvary, Laetare Sunday, calls out: Isa 66:10-11 "Rejoice with Jerusalem, And be glad with her, all you who love her; Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; (11) That you may feed and be satisfied With the consolation of her bosom, That you may drink deeply and be delighted With the abundance of her glory." God the Holy Spirit preaches through Paul’s pen, Gal 4:26-28 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. (27) For it is written: "REJOICE, O BARREN, YOU WHO DO NOT BEAR! BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR! FOR THE DESOLATE HAS MANY MORE CHILDREN THAN SHE WHO HAS A HUSBAND." (28) Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.” Rejoice! We are citizens of the Jerusalem above, the heavenly Jerusalem, the One Holy Christian and Apostolic Church. Children of promise, Rejoice! Joyfully sing! With David, Psa 122:1-2 “I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the LORD." (2) Our feet have been standing Within your gates, O Jerusalem!” Every Sunday you ascend to Jerusalem - your local Christian congregation - you make your pilgrimage to Emmanuel to stand in the House of the Lord - here in the free Jerusalem from above! Pastor, this looks more like the desolate wilderness than the glorious ancient city of Jerusalem. All I see are sinners like me. Tired and hungry after the sermon seems to take all day to finish. Planning my lunch as we trudge through the liturgy. Start seeing with your ears. Walk by faith and not by sight. The local Christian congregation is what God says it is in His Word, not what you experience, think, or feel in your gut. Here God Himself is present! See with your ears - hear Jesus! Mat 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Open the eyes of your ears! Mat 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. Rejoice to see Jesus in His Temple - 1Co 11:23-25 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; (24) and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me." (25) In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." In this heavenly Jerusalem we unite our voices with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven rejoicing for: “Salvation’s Accepted Day: Now!” I. Salvation Comes Only In Jesus! (Vs.8-9a). II. Salvation Shepherds Us! (Vs.9b-10) III. Salvation’s Spirit Comforts Sinners!(vs.11-13) I. The Lord God called the nation of Israel to be His own. He rescued them from Egyptian slavery. He drown all their enemies in the Red Sea, while leading them safely through on dry ground. He brought them to Mount Sinai and spoke His Holy Ten Words into their ears and wrote them on stone. When they were thirsty He provided water, when they hungered He fed them angel’s food - bread from heaven - every morning, six days a week, for the forty years they chose to wander in the wilderness in their rebellion. They rejected their heavenly Husband and chose to prostitute themselves to idols promising to fill their stomachs with bread and the sinful desires of their sin perverted hearts. Israel proved to be an unfaithful servant. Seek His lost bride the Lord God sent prophet after prophet preaching, “Repent and Return to the Lord our God!” They killed the Lord’s preachers spurning His mercy. Finally in 722B.C. He raised up the Assyrians to destroy the northern 10 tribes. Judah to the south refused to learn the lesson from her sisters destruction. She continued to spurn God’s Word preached by His prophets. They would not repent! The Lord sends Isaiah to warn them that now the Babylonians would be God’s instrument to discipline His wayward Bride. They had rejected Him, but He had not rejected her. He would send them into exile for 70 years and then Cyrus the Persian would open the door for their return to Jerusalem. A remnant, a small portion of their descendants would come home again. The others were comfortable with the daily bread the Lord provided them in Babylon. In mercy the Lord promises to reduce Israel to one - to His Servant Jesus - the Suffering Servant - The walking Temple of the Lord walking, talking, eating, breathing, drinking, among the people of God. Salvation comes only in Jesus alone! (Vs.8-9a) Listen to the ongoing conversation within the Godhead between the persons of the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Only-Begotten Son! What is the “acceptable time”? It is the year of Jubilee! Every 40th year in Israel all debts were to be cancelled, all slaves freed, and all property revert to its original owner the Lord God and to the tribe He had entrusted as its stewards. The eternal Jubilee arrived when the angel Gabriel preached to a young Virgin in Nazareth that she was the highly favored one from whom the Messiah - the God/Man Savior would be born. Hearing God’s Word preached she humbly responded, Luk 1:38....., "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.” God the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, through the promise of Jesus preached created His new life as God and Man within her virgin womb. Mary became pregnant through her ears! The epoch of Jubilee arrived with Salvation’s conception. At Elizabeth’s house the Virgin Mary joyfully sings, “Luk 1:46-47 ...: "My soul magnifies the Lord, (47) And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” The day of salvation arrived with the Embryo Jesus - True Man/True God growing in her womb. The Father and the Spirit help and preserve the infant God/Man Jesus. He humbles Himself to be our Brother and win salvation for the world through His flesh and blood! Salvation is preserved as the Spirit moves Joseph to protect his Infant Son and his bride Mary as they flee Herod’s sword to Egypt. Young boy Jesus is preserved in His Father’s house, the Temple, when lost by His parents for three days at Passover. He is preserved through His public ministry. At His baptism the Holy Trinity helps, preserves, and gives Jesus as our Salvation. History records: Mat 3:16-17 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. (17) And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Our God/Man Brother Jesus is given as the covenant between our Heavenly Father by the Holy Spirit to be the only restoring covenant to all nations. Salvation echos this reality giving us His body and His blood through His Word in bread and wine as a new covenant forgiving all our sin! Salvation restores all that sin has made desolate by His sacrifice. His blood poured out upon our world restores the earth. Eight days after His birth Salvation’s blood blessed the cursed ground as He was circumcised and given the name - Salvation - Jesus for He saves His people - sinners from their sin! Salvation has taken your sin, your guilt, your shame, your hell, your death into His own flesh and blood! Rejoice for all is finished by His death. Raised to life in His body three days later - He says us imprisoned by sin, Satan, and the fear of death - “Go forth!” “Whoever sins you forgive, they are forgive them!” He calls us out of the darkness of self-idolatry and addictions to walk in His light - show ourselves - if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins cleansing us from unrighteousness! Today is Salvation’s accepted day! Rejoice! II. How then shall we live? As pilgrims and strangers looking forward to the Jerusalem above. Our citizenship is in heaven. Our inheritance cannot be taken away in Salvation - in Jesus! Behold, Salvation is my shepherd, I shall not want! (Vs.9b-10) Salvation’s ascension to the Father’s right hand is to draw nearer to you by the Holy Spirit with His flesh and blood in His Word and gifts of baptism, absolution, Scripture reading, preaching, prayer, His feast of victory, hymns, and the mutual conversation and consolation of the saints - fellow members of His body - the Church. Jesus - Salvation feeds you along the roads with His Word. Planted in your ears, heart, and life. Your greatest need is to hear Him! The crowd of nearly 15,000 followed Jesus into the wilderness content to weather the heat of the day as He preached for hours on end. The 4,000 were content as Jesus preached to them a three day sermon. Salvation blesses, Mat 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. Not your good deeds - His alone! Php 3:8-11 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; (10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, (11) if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Salvation’s accepted day is now! He has mercy upon you. Baptismal springs flow new forgiveness life daily into you as your journey from death to life eternal in Him alone! III. Salvation preached in Jerusalem during the feast of booths - the week long celebration to remember the 40 years of wilderness exile. History records, Joh 7:37-38 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (38) He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." St. John explains, Joh 7:39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Salvation’s day is now - Jesus is crucified for our sin, raised again declaring us forgiven - reconciled to the Father. Ascended and enthroned He draws near to us comforting us by the Holy Spirit given through His Gospel! (Vs.11-12) You are here today because God the Holy Spirit sent forth the Gospel from Jerusalem through Apostles, pastors, teachers into your ears. You didn’t choose Him - He chose you from eternity to be Christ’s own by the Father’s Will. He gathers you from the ends of the earth into the True Jerusalem - Christ’s Church! How can we keep silent? (Vs.13) Creation rejoices that Salvation has come! Heaven’s angels rejoice as us sinners repent and return home - glad to be in the House of the Lord! He comforts you in Jesus! He has mercy on us afflicted with sin, struggles, fear, addictions, and death. Rejoice! Today is thanksgiving - Salvation’s accepted Day - FOR YOU! Amen.