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sadvent104
Savior of the Nations
Text:
Matthew 24:36-44
Date: The First Sunday in Advent
11/28/04 cc generals nocd
Last
Sunday we ended as we began. Today we begin as we ended. The last
thing is the first thing, and the first last. Jesus, the Son of
God begotten from all eternity, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and the ending, “is coming again to judge the living and the dead.”
He first came being incarnate by the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin Mary. He there took on our flesh and blood never to give
it up again. In our flesh and blood He died and then was raised
in body and spirit, proclaimed his victory over hell and ascended
to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and now lives and reigns
in both his divine and our human natures. This Jesus is the Savior
of the Nations. No, not like the feeble and failing attempts of
international human organizations that are established with great
pomp and promise and then fall apart and splinter amid the pressures
of clashing special interests. Jesus is Savior of the Nations because
He got to the root problem of it all. And now all has been accomplished
but for one thing; the last thing that ought to be the first thing
on our minds as we wait, praying, “Savior of the nations, come.”
To
say that Jesus is the Savior of the Nations means to say that he
is the Savior of all people, no one excluded. Yet to refer to the
people of the world as “nations” is to recognize that those now
6.4 billion people are divided into disparate and different groups.
As of May 2002 there were 193 independent sovereign states in the
world, 61 dependent areas and six disputed territories for a total
of 260 national boundary lines drawn over the map of the world.
Within each of these groups are other distinctions, of course—those
we have no control over (age, sex, race) and others that are inherited
or chosen (health risk factors, religious, economic, linguistic,
etc.).
If
we could shrink the Earth's population to a village of precisely
100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it
would look like this: 75 of them non-white, 25 white. 60 would mistrust
their own government. 60 would live within 62 miles of a coastline.
50 would be female, and 50 would be male. (Funny how that happens,
interesting what that implies to the current confusions over sexual
identity!) 48 would lack access to basic sanitation. 29 would believe
in witchcraft. 25 would live in substandard housing or have no home
at all. 20 would live on less than $1 a day. 17 would be under 18
years old. 16 would lack access to safe drinking water. 16 would
be unable to read and write. 14 would suffer from malnutrition.
8 would have Internet access from home. 4.5 would be citizens of
the United States. 1 would be infected with HIV/AIDS. 1 would be
near death, and 1 would be near birth. Only 1 would have a college
education. But almost everyone would have access to Coca Cola, which
is sold, they boast, in 200 countries. There are 6,809 identified
main living languages in the world not including differing dialects
making communication a main obstacle. Add to that sign language
for the deaf and Braille for the blind and the divisions simply
multiply.
All
of this suggests the question, if Jesus is the Savior of the Nations,
how does the Gospel answer these many different concerns and how
do or can they know it? God's judgment of confusing language at
the Tower of Babel is mirrored by the Pentecost miracle, under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, of the disciples speaking the mighty
acts of God, the Gospel, in many languages. This work has continued
as the Church has sent missionaries to learn other languages and,
in some cases, develop a written form, and then teach the written
form so that people can read and hear the Gospel of the Savior of
the Nations in their own languages. And why does the Church do this?
First, because we have been commanded to make disciples of all nations,
to be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth. But the goal
is that “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout
the whole world as a testimony to all nations (to God's satisfaction),
and then the end will come” [Matthew 24:14 (ESV)]. The goal is the
end. The goal is, Savior of the Nations, come.
You
heard it right. As we begin a new Church year our prayer is that
the Lord would stop it, would cancel all our plans for a Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year, would return now to judge the living and the
dead. But some may ask what right he has to judge us. The answer
to that question is the Gospel.
He
has the right to judge all nations because he has endured what all
people have endured and more. The difference is that he endured
to the point of victory. You see, for all the differences and divisions
between people, we all have a few things in common. We are all human
beings, of course, the highest of God's good creation. It is in
the genetic code that we all have two arms, two legs, two eyes,
brain, heart, lungs. But whereas we share many of the same physical
systems and even, in some cases, similarities with the animals,
only humans were created to be in partnership, a personal relationship
with the Creator, commissioned to rule over and take care of the
creation. Oh, yeah. There is one other thing, one characteristic
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