Good morning. See you all again. Worship with you this Lord's Day. Our scripture text for today. Sermon text is from the book of Luke chapter 2 verses 25 through 35. Please stand with me and turn in your Bibles as we hear the word of our Lord. Luke 2, 25 through 35. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, He took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him. Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother, Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against. Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Let's pray. Lord God, we thank you for your Spirit whom you have poured out upon us, that you have brought us here to your house, and we are in the Spirit on the Lord's day here. We ask, Lord, that you would guide us by your spirit, that you would speak to us through your word now, that you would bless the hearing and reading and preaching of your word. And to that end, O Lord, we pray that the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts would be pleasing in your sight. O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. In Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, it's pretty obvious. This is the first Sunday in Advent. Maybe it's not obvious, but we can, you know, that there's decorations here that weren't here last week. And today we begin a new church year and renew our consideration of the birth and life, death and resurrection and ascension of our Lord Jesus as the church calendar follows his life. And as we celebrate Advent and Christmas, it's appropriate for us to consider afresh, why did Jesus come? Well, today's text gives us a bit of an answer and helps us to see a little more clearly what the incarnation of Jesus is all about. As John 3.16 tells us, Jesus comes into the world that we might have eternal life. And later in John, Jesus declares in his prayer to the Father that eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Knowing God, Jesus says, is eternal life. And John says this in his epistle at the end of his letter. He says, We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, even in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God, or he is the true God in eternal life. John Calvin talks about the knowledge of God in the opening comments in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. He begins his work this way. He says, Our wisdom, insofar it is deemed to be true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves, because it is perfectly obvious that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves. Nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God. and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For, such is our innate pride, we always seem to ourselves just and upright and wise and holy until we are convinced by clear evidence of our injustice, vileness, folly and impurity. Calvin goes on to say, but though the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves are bound together by a mutual tie, due arrangement requires that we treat of the former in the first place and then descend to the latter. So Calvin says that knowledge of ourselves is essential to the knowledge of God. Calvin says that these things are intertwined and cannot be separated. When we draw near to God, we learn of him. Not only do we learn of him, we learn about ourselves as well. Both God and we are revealed to us. So if any of you watch sports or NCAA football, or maybe even pro football, I don't watch pro football, I watch college football. There's a Capital One commercial that's been playing a lot, and their slogan is, What's in Your Wallet? You have Samuel Jackson and Jennifer Garner and some other actors asking the question, What's in your wallet today? Well, today's sermon tagline is, What's in your heart? While there are several important things we might consider in the story of Simeon and the presentation of Jesus, I want to give attention today to the last section, the last two verses, spoken directly by Simeon to Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus. Simeon says here in this text that the coming of Jesus is specifically so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. I think it's important to observe. We can sometimes get lost in knowing God, covenantally and personally, in growing in our theology through his word and works and attributes, and yet we still fail to understand ourselves. and who we are in relationship to him and to one another, and even more often, who we are in relationship to our own selves. And it may seem odd to say that, that we have a relationship with ourselves, but I think this is a biblical way to consider our lives before God. The psalmists speak of this over and over again. Psalm 16, David says, you have said to the Lord, My heart instructs me. My heart is glad." Notice he doesn't say, I am glad. He says, my heart is glad. My heart shall rejoice. In Psalm 34, David says, my soul shall make its boast in the Lord. He asks the question of his own soul in Psalm 42. Why are you cast down? Oh, my soul. David both talks to himself about God, about himself. But David also talks to himself about himself. It's almost as if he's viewing his heart and soul as distinct persons within himself, a single person. In Psalm 131, David speaks of knowing himself well enough to know what he is thinking and feeling and self-assess his own posture toward God. He says, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lifted up. My soul is like a weaned child. David looks at himself and knows how he's acting toward God. This is godly introspection and is a goal we can and should aspire to. Jesus himself said, as he's in the garden, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Objective truth is the beginning, as Calvin notes, but we ought not, indeed we cannot, stop there. If we wish to know God, we must also know ourselves. Now, we must certainly guard against over-introspection and self-scrutiny and thinking of ourselves more than we think of God. But we must know ourselves. We have to start first, though, with the object, God, and then we follow with the subject, ourselves. Knowing what's in our hearts and what our souls are thinking and feeling and experiencing is good and proper and necessary. We'll see more of this as we consider the text further. The context for the text today is the presentation of Jesus after his circumcision and the cleansing of Mary. And here, the song of Simeon as he sees the Messiah, he is released by God to die in peace. Simeon is one who has been given special knowledge by the Lord and is awaiting the Messiah. He finds Jesus here in the temple and takes the 40 day old baby in his arms, blessing God and declares that the light of the nations and the glory of Israel have arrived. Now he can depart in peace. The words here that Simeon uses to address God All have specific connotations in the original Greek. He uses the word despot, not kurios. This highlights the idea of being a servant, having a master. He says, Lord, let your servant depart in peace. That word depart actually means to be released, to be freed. So Simeon is talking about a slave being set free from bondage, which is what Israel has been waiting for. Simeon is awaiting for the consolation of Israel, it says, the encouragement, the solace, the liberty granted by the arrival of the Christ. Simeon is echoing words from Isaiah's prophecy in both Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 49. Isaiah 42 says this, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth, he will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for his law. Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it. I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house." The words promised here show how the Savior, the Messiah, would illumine darkened souls and free prisoners. So this is Simeon the bond slave of Yahweh who is freed by the coming of Messiah as he has seen the light. And again we read in Isaiah 49 and now the Lord says who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel is gathered to him. I will give you he goes on to say as a light to the Gentiles that you should be for my salvation to the ends of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to the servant of rulers. Kings shall see and arise. Princes also shall worship because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and He has chosen you." He goes on to say again, "...I will preserve you and give you as a covenant to the people to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages, that you may say to the prisoners, Go forth, and to those who are in darkness, Show yourselves. So we see here in these texts in Isaiah a summary of the Christmas story. Jesus is formed in the womb. He comes to save Israel, to restore the Gentiles, and to save the ends of the earth. Kings and rulers will come and worship as Jesus restores the whole earth and frees those bound in sin. I want to take a brief excursus here and note the connection here in the text in Luke between the gospel and the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit and Christmas. Simeon, it's noted, comes by the spirit. We read that in Isaiah 42, I put my spirit upon him. Simeon, it says he comes by the spirit and three times the spirit is mentioned in relationship to Simeon. And it occurred to me as I considered this passage that Luke may be called the spirit filled gospel. The gospel John also talks about the spirit quite a bit but doesn't use the word filled. We're told in John one that John will be filled with the Holy Spirit Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. The spirit comes upon Mary the spirit is upon Simeon in the book of Luke. Luke notes that after his temptation, Jesus was being filled with the Holy Spirit returned to Galilee. He's the only gospel writer that says Jesus was filled with the Spirit. Jesus then in Luke 4 preaches from Isaiah 61, the Spirit of Yahweh is upon me. When Luke talks about ask and you shall receive as Matthew does, he says, Matthew says, If you're being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father give good gifts to those who ask him? Luke says, how much more will your father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? So Luke uses and employs the Spirit consistently and regularly throughout his telling of the gospel story and the Christmas story. As I mentioned, The prophecy that Isaiah in Isaiah 42 says, I have put my spirit upon him. So I just point that out because I think it's important for us to recognize we can't have a gospel. We can't have Christmas. We can't have good news from God apart from the Holy Spirit. There's no salvation apart from the Holy Spirit. Romans says, Paul says this, but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. Here we see in Romans that salvation is Trinitarian. The spirit of God, it says, dwells in you. Then it says Christ is in you. And then it says the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is in you. So it's the spirit Christ and the father is in you. We baptize in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John 14 that anyone who loves me will be loved by my father and we will come to him. He doesn't say I will or he will. He says we will come to him. Echoing what we read in Genesis, let us make man in our image. Again, Jesus says, I will come to you. And then he says, when the comforter comes, he has poured out, Peter says, the spirit. The Nicene Creed reminds us of this and says that the spirit proceeds from both the father and the son. The spirit is the bringer of community. We read in 2 Corinthians 13 in the blessing that Paul gives at the end of his letter, he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship, the communion or the koinonia of the Holy Spirit be with you all. So Simeon here comes in the spirit and because of the spirit, he's here to meet the one who will pour out the spirit. The word heart here as we read the thoughts of many hearts. The word heart is used here in Luke 2 three times. Proverbs tells us that the heart is the source or the issues of life. Guard your heart with all diligence, Proverbs 4 says, for out of it spring the issues of life. We often consider the Old Testament to be fleshly or physical or temporal, yet The primary word in the Hebrew for heart occurs in the Old Testament more than four times more than the New Testament Greek word for it. So God is concerned about our inner man, very much so. And we read that in the Old Covenant over and over again. Bridges has this to say about Proverbs 4. It says, the heart must be known so that it may be kept safe. Nothing is more difficult, but nothing is more necessary. If we do not know our hearts, it will be as if we knew nothing at all. Whatever else we know, to neglect this knowledge is to be a prized fool. If we do not know our weak points, Satan is well aware of them, the sin that so easily entangles. Above all else, exhorts the wise man, guard your heart. As Satan keeps a special watch here, so must we keep special watch as well. If the citadel is taken, the whole town must surrender. If the heart is captured, the whole man, affections, desires, motives, pursuits, will be handed over. The heart is the vital part of the body. If the heart is wounded, that means instant death. Spiritually, as well as naturally, the heart is the wellspring of life. It is the great vital spring of the soul, the fountain of actions, the center and the seat of both sin and holiness. As Jesus says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Luke can be called, I believe, the gospel cardiologist. He uses the word heart more than any other gospel account. The only other New Testament book which employs the word heart as often as we find in Luke is in Acts, which was also written by Luke. Luke 1 says that John will come to turn the hearts of fathers to the children. Mary says that he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. The shepherds kept these things in their hearts. His mother, it says twice in Luke 2, kept all these things in her heart. In Luke 3, the people reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ. And again, Jesus proclaims he's come to heal the broken hearted. His parable of a sower, Jesus uses a term he doesn't use in the other Gospels, or Luke uses a term that's not in the other Gospels. He says that the ones who bear good fruit are those who have heard the word with a noble and good heart. He rebukes the Pharisees saying, you justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. And the tribulation happens and men's hearts will fail them for fear. And then after the resurrection, Jesus rebukes the disciples for being dull of heart. And then they say our hearts burned. And as we listen to him on the road. So Luke uses the word heart and focuses on that, I believe, very, very often. And so I think that this text is important for us to consider as we consider the Christmas story. Jesus comes to reveal the thoughts of hearts. Other words employed by Luke more than any other gospel which show the state of the heart are fear, afraid, marvel, joy, rejoice and temple. Luke uses the word temple more than any other gospel. I think the Lord is speaking to us here in Luke, but he is not only the Lord of all creation. He is specifically the Lord of man and man's heart, man's public and private life, his psyche, his thoughts, his words, his deeds, his heart, soul, spirit, mind, and body. All of these are areas of our being in life. that should reflect and correspond to the image of God in which we're created and align with his holy word. As Moses commands the people, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And then he tells them, you shall love the Lord with one heart, right? With all your being, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. So we're to unite, as David says, unite my heart to fear your name. We're to be united in every area of our life to love God. In Simeon's song, the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon says that Jesus comes as a light to lighten the Gentiles. And we read that, and we sing that regularly during the Christmas season. A light to lighten the Gentiles, right? Well, that's, you know, we've been singing that song for decades, and I think, Ruthie, you've probably been singing it for a longer time than most of us. It's a great Lutheran chorus, or chant, maybe is a better word for it. But I hate to ruin the song for us, but the word is really not lighten or illuminate. It's the word apocalypses or apocalypsing, which means to reveal. The word that we read in the New King James is a little closer like to bring revelation to the Gentiles. This is the same word apocalypse we read in John's book that we call revelation, the apocalypse of the revelation of Jesus Christ. We often associate apocalypse with the end, but it is actually the revealing or the uncovering of Jesus. John, in his apocalypse letter, sees the post-resurrection, the ascended Jesus in glory, and he is called up to heaven to receive a word which reveals Jesus as the first and last, the key holder, the lamb, the lion, the warrior, and the king of kings. And Jesus comes, Simeon says, as a light for revelation to the Gentiles. The Spirit is upon Jesus, so that he might bring justice to the Gentiles who are waiting for his law. So Jesus, we might even call him the apocalyptic Jesus. Jesus comes to reveal. He comes to reveal the Father. He comes to reveal the will of the Father. He said, you have heard it said, but I say. He said, this is what it means to know and to love and to serve God, your Father. He shows us, he reveals the purposes and the plan of God. Paul tells us that Jesus comes as a revelation of a mystery that God is going to gather all things together, Jew and Gentile, heaven and earth together in Christ. Jesus comes to reveal the person of God as well. Jesus says, he who has seen me has seen the father and I am the father of one. And as we see here in our text, Jesus reveals us to ourselves that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. The thoughts of hearts are discovered and revealed and uncovered. Jesus shows us not only who he is and who the father is giving us the knowledge of God. He shows us who we are and gives us knowledge of ourselves. Consider these examples from the gospel of Luke as Jesus reveals the disciples hearts to them. After the miracle of the fishes, Peter falls down and says, depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. He had previously told Jesus, you know, we fished all night, we didn't catch anything, but if you really want me to, I'll throw the net out. He does, and they can't even drag the net in, it's so full, and he falls down and says, depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. Peter's unbelief is exposed there, the thoughts of his heart. In Luke 10, Martha's rebuke of Jesus Jesus turns to expose her unnecessary worry Martha Martha you're careful and troubled about many things that one thing is needful. The woman with the flow of blood is discovered she's revealed when Jesus perceives power going out from himself and turns around me says who touched me and the woman is revealed there. Jesus. perceives the thoughts of his disciples when they're reasoning together about who's gonna be the greatest and he rebukes them for it. Even in Luke 22, Jesus, it's the look of Jesus after Peter's denial that exposes Peter's heart to himself. It says the Lord turned and looked on Peter and Peter remembered the word of the Lord and he went out and wept bitterly. So Jesus revealed Peter's heart as he looks at him during his own trial. As we come to know the Lord through his word, we see ourselves in the mirror of it. We're told in Hebrews that the word of God itself is a revealer. The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, it says. James says that the Word of the Lord, the Word of God, is like a mirror, and a man goes away sometimes and forgets what kind of a man he was. But whoever continues in the law of liberty, not forgetting what kind of a man he is, but is a doer of the work, he'll be blessed in what he does, reflecting Psalm 1. Some of us, maybe most of us, can relate to the fact that self-discovery can be a painful thing. Sometimes we're afraid to see ourselves, or afraid to know ourselves for who we really are, for fear of rejection or fear of having our failures exposed. We want to paint ourselves in a positive light before others and before ourselves, so that we're not seen for who we are. And often we can end up lying to ourselves so much and so often that we don't even recognize the lie or know ourselves any longer. And God gives us circumstances at times to even reveal who we are. The wind and the waves come crashing down and we are exposed for our unbelief and Jesus says, why are you so afraid? Self-discovery can be fearful and painful. Jesus not only reveals our hearts and our faults and our foolish thoughts, he reveals which side of the antithesis, which side of the enmity between he and Satan that we and others are on. Peter and Mary and Martha and James and John all are revealed and brought to light. and seen as faithful, although weak and foolish and unbelieving sometimes. But on the other side, as the Pharisees attempt to test Jesus to reveal what he will say and do, he turns their testing of him into a revelation of their own wicked hearts. Twice, Jesus says in Luke, there is nothing uncovered that shall not be known, nor hidden that shall not be revealed. Jesus perceives the thoughts of the Pharisees' hearts as they question who can forgive sins when he tells the young man who's palsied, son, your sins are forgiven you. And the Pharisees reason in their hearts. They don't say it out loud. They just reason who can forgive sins but God alone. And Jesus perceives their thoughts and discovers them and uncovers them and reveals them. Jesus in the synagogue sees a man with a withered hand and he perceives that they're testing him to see if he's going to heal on the Sabbath and he calls their bluff and heals the man and and it says he perceived their wickedness. Jesus answers Simon's inward thoughts. Simon is a Pharisee, invites Jesus to dinner, and there's a woman there who wipes Jesus' feet with her tears, anoints him with perfume, and Simon thinks to himself, hmm, if this guy was a real prophet, he'd know who was touching him. And Jesus, it says, answers his inward thought. So Simon speaks to himself, and Jesus Answers him and uncovers Simon's thoughts about forgiveness and about sin And about love The crafty Pharisees attempt to test Jesus and he Uncovers them he reveals their hearts and says why are you testing me? and so in each of these circumstances Jesus uncovers the thoughts of hearts and In the case of the Pharisees, their hearts are discovered as being evil, envious, unforgiving, and lawless. Jesus comes, revealing the hearts of men and where they stand in relationship to God and to His examination and judgment of them. Ellicott says, Wherever Christ is preached, there is a manifestation of the thoughts of men's hearts, of their secret yearning after righteousness, of their secret bitterness against it. So in this, Jesus is not only the apocalyptic Jesus, we could say he's the destructive and restorative Jesus. Big words there. Jesus comes, it says here, as a sign for which will be spoken against, but for the fall and rising of many in Israel. This is what Simeon tells Mary. Now the translation again here doesn't really do justice to the ideas expressed. as the words here carry a very strong connotation. The word for fall is the same word that's used in Matthew about the fall of the house that the flood comes against. Great was the fall of it. It's the idea of a remarkable or absolute or final fall. And on the other side, the rising again, the rising of many in Israel, is actually the same word that occurs throughout scripture in the New Testament for resurrection. So Jesus comes to both destroy and to raise up, to bring to life again. is is the one who comes both to judge and to save and he does say I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. But in other cases he says for judgment I have come into this world that those who see may be made blind. Jesus comes to expose hearts reveal motives and condemn sin in men's lives. Many commentators believe that Simeon is quoting from Isaiah 8 where Isaiah talks about the Lord being a stone of stumbling. Isaiah 8 verse 11 says this, For the Lord spoke to me thus with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people saying, Do not say a conspiracy concerning all this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be trouble. The Lord of hosts, him you shall hallow. Let him be your fear. Let him be your dread. He will be as a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many of them shall stumble, they shall fall and be broken, be snared and taken." Here we see that Yahweh is both a sanctuary and a stone of stumbling, both a refuge and a snare. Simeon's declaration to Mary repeats this. Jesus is destined for the destruction and resurrection of many and again as I quoted from John 9 Jesus says for judgment I have come into this world that those who do not see may see and That those who see may be made blind if you were blind you would have no sin, but now you say we see therefore your sin remains Jesus reminds the Pharisees of who he really is. He looks at them and says, What is then this that is written? The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Whoever falls on that stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Wherever Christ is manifested and made known by us, he becomes in us and around us as an aroma of life or death. Paul says, we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death unto death and to the other the aroma of life unto life. Both Jesus and his people are a sign spoken against by those who oppose him. Again in Isaiah 8, Isaiah goes on to say we are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts. So I'd ask you, where are you today? What's in your wallet? What's in your heart? Is Jesus your sanctuary or does he offend you? Is the aroma of Jesus pleasing to you or is it a stench? Is the gospel a savor of life or a savor of death? Those are the only two choices we have. As Moses says, I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. And Jesus says, he who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters abroad. So is your heart in line with Jesus and with his word? Where's your heart when it comes to your home? Are you gathering or are you scattering? Are you with Jesus? Are you against him? Are you dedicated to him when it comes to your spouse? Husband, are you loving, cherishing, and honoring your wife? Wife, are you respecting and submitting to your husband? Is the Word of God regarding marriage your sanctuary here, or is it a stumbling block? Do each of you in your marriage love Jesus more than you love each other? What's in your heart? Are you dedicated to him in your parenting of your children? Are you rearing them with Jesus in view discipling and disciplining them for his sake. Is your training and education of them thoroughly Christian? Do you just send them to school or put Christian curriculum in front of them, hoping they'll get it? Or are you actively involved in speaking to them and instructing them in the ways of Jesus? Are you helping them to know God and to know themselves? What's in your heart? And children, do you love your parents and do you honor them? Do you speak well of them, not just to their face, but behind their back? Do you defend them and uphold them and their word, even when your siblings may be tempted to dishonor them? Are you doing your schoolwork, your music practice, or your chores with zeal, or with rumbling and complaining? What's in your heart? Christian, are you being kind and forgiving to your brothers and sisters? Do you hold bitterness about expectations of others that aren't met? Are you mutually submitting to one another and receiving them in love? What's in your heart? Employers, are you treating your employees with dignity and respect, knowing that you also have a master in heaven? Are you paying them fairly and timely? What's in your heart? And employees, are you honoring and submitting to the will of your bosses? Are you doing your work thoroughly, as you would if you had to present your work to Jesus? You do, after all. As Paul tells us, whatever you do, do it heartily, with all your soul, as to the Lord and not to men. You and I need to ask ourselves, what's in my heart? Jesus has come to reveal. He reveals the person, the word, and the works of God to all the nations. showing the great mercy and kindness and grace of the triune God, as well as his judgments on sin. And he manifests us to ourselves. As we approach Christmas and consider the coming of Jesus, let us consider not just him and who he is, but who we are in him. This child Jesus, whom we worship, is the one who resurrects us to new life, who restores the world, who brings the ends of the earth to God, who has loved us and given himself for us. As Peter tells us, coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, to you who believe he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble being disobedient to the word to which they were also appointed, but you are a chosen generation. a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the revelation of Jesus Christ. We thank you that he has revealed you to us, that he has revealed us to ourselves as well. We ask, Lord, that by your spirit you would continue your work in us and through us as we speak your word to the world. Bless us now as we continue in worship, coming to your table. In Jesus' name, amen.