He Comes To Bring Righteousness

Speaker: Pastor Matthew Ude Festival: Advent Passages: Jeremiah 33:14-16

Our theme for our Wednesday Advent services this year is “He Shall Be Called.” We are going to go through some of the names of Jesus particularly the ones from Isaiah 9:6. Our text today gives us two other names for Jesus, the coming one and our righteousness. Jeremiah tells us in our text this is what Jesus comes to do, he is coming to bring righteousness. He brings righteousness both in the form of judgement on the wicked and forgiveness to those who trust in him.

He comes to visit

The days are coming – He is speaking of course about the days of Jesus. The days when Jesus is coming to visit us.

Today is December 1^st so some of you will probably get out your advent calendars. Even if you don’t have an Advent Calendar, you are probably counting down the days to Christmas.  The day is coming soon, the day of His coming. That is what Jeremiah is speaking about in our text. The day of His coming is coming soon.

Jesus is the coming one. This is one of the names that is given to Jesus. Two weeks from today we are going to hear in our Gospel reading that John’s disciples come to Jesus and ask are you “the coming one.” In Revelation Jesus is called the one who was and who is and who is coming.

Even during the time of the OT, the Lord spoke about coming to visit his people. When they were slaves in Egypt the Lord visited his people. Zacharias rejoiced that God “has visited and redeemed his people.” Zacchaeus was overjoyed the Jesus was coming to visit him at his house.

Psalm 8:4    What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?

Jesus is the coming one. The days of his visitation are coming soon.

Jeremiah was looking forward to that first Christmas morning, but Jesus is still the coming one. He came once but we still look forward to the day of his visit.

He is the coming one because he came among us. He came and was born as a man and died for our sins. He is the coming one because he will come again in judgement on the last day. He is also the coming one because he comes to visit us daily through word and sacrament. Nothing can be more important to us than that Jesus is coming to visit us today. Just like Zacchaeus we rejoice that Jesus comes to visit us today.

he comes to bring righteousness.

When I was in Africa, we gathered all the Nigerian pastors together for a conference. At the end of the conference, they told me they needed gifts to bring back home. Our kids expect gifts when we return from a journey. Jesus is coming to visit and when he comes to visit, he comes with gifts. The gifts he comes to bring us is his righteousness. He is the Lord our righteousness.

When he came to this earth, he executed righteousness in the form of giving himself as a sacrifice for the people. On the last day he will come and bring justice and righteousness in the judgement of this world. He also comes to visit us today and every day that we come to his word. He brings us the gift of his righteousness.

In our text the Lord declares: “I will perform that good thing which I have promised” Jeremiah 33:14 

We have been going through the book of Amos in bible class. The prophets Amos and Jeremiah often have phrases that is directly opposite.  For example, in Amos God says “Surely I will never forget any of their sins” On the other hand in Jeremiah God says, “Their sins I will remember no more.” Another example is found in Amos 4.

Amos 4:2 The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days shall come upon you When He will take you away with fishhooks

In Jeremiah the days are coming in which he will perform “that good thing“

What is the difference?

In Amos God condemns the people because they were living in luxury and not only ignoring the poor but taking advantage of them to get richer.

He calls the women of Israel ” cows” who “oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring wine, let us drink!'” Amos 4:1.He accuses the men of cheating the poor out of their only coat and then using that coat as a rug to kneel to a false god. He not only takes issue with their abuse of the poor, but also with their worship. Even when they come to the temple to worship, they are counting the minutes till they can leave and get back to buying and selling and making money.

Amos 8:5 When will the New Moon be past, That we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, That we may trade wheat?

Because of their sin God is going to visit them, but not with good news. He is going to visit destruction and devastation upon their cities.

So what was the difference in Jeremiah’s day? Were the people of Jeremiah’s day so much better than the people of Amos’ day? No, the difference is “The Lord is our righteousness.” 

The people of Amos day had rejected the righteousness of Christ. There was no repentance and there was no faith, therefore they are judged by God on the basis of their works. These works were not sufficient to appease the wrath of God, but Jeremiah speaks of the Lord coming to give righteousness to sinful people. 

The description Amos gives of Isreal could easily be a description of our society. People who spend all their time drinking. Rich people who get richer off the backs of the poor. People who even when they do come to worship are only counting the seconds until they can go. If God were to judge us as he judged the people of Isreal, we too would fall under the same condemnation.

Yet Jeremiah reminds us that the day is coming when the Lord will perform the good thing which he promised.

The difference of course is Christ, the prophet Amos spoke to those who had rejected the righteousness which Christ came to bring. Without that righteousness there was nothing left but condemnation.

Jeremiah is speaking to the remnant, those who had repented and trusted in the grace of God, in the Messiah, the coming one. They received the righteousness of God; thus God will remember their sin no more.

Jesus is the one coming to give us the righteousness of God. He is the Lord our righteousness.

Just as Jeremiah waited for that first Christmas so also, we wait for Jesus coming. We wait for Christmas. We are waiting for the last day. We wait each and every day for him to visit us through his word. We wait for his coming because when he comes he brings his righteousness. This is not the righteousness of this world, or the righteousness of our works. He brings his righteousness. Jehovah is our righteousness.

Amen