Fourth Sunday in Advent – December 21, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text for this morning is the Epistle reading from Philippians chapter 4. Let me read it again.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication,

with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of

God, which surpasses all understanding,

will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Here ends our text. In a few days, we will say the words Merry Christmas to

everyone. The word merry means festive or joyful.

Yet for many people, Christmas is not a joyful time, but a very stressful time.

There is financial stress because of the cost of gifts and food and travel.

There is some grieve the loss of a loved one who died.

We expected to gather together with, oh, let's say, difficult relatives.

There never seems to be enough time. There's shopping, there's work,

there's getting ready for this and that.

Yet in the midst of our stress and anxiety, St.

Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice.

The Lord is at hand.

We will learn that because of Christ's birth in Bethlehem, his death upon the

cross, his resurrection from the grave, there is reason to rejoice because of the gospel.

The gospel gives us an everlasting joy. It forgives our sin.

It gives us a peace that the world cannot give. And this gospel helps us to

be gentle toward others.

Paul writes, the Lord is at hand.

So to begin with, I want to talk about this phrase, the Lord is at hand.

And then we'll talk about joy and peace and gentleness.

John the Baptist preached a message, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand.

In other words, the Messiah, the promised Savior is just around the corner.

He is about to appear. And so the people confessed their sins,

and they were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.

Advent is a time of repentance. And so we too should confess our sins which

caused Jesus to be born and to die.

And we also, it's a time also when we receive the gospel, forgiveness of sins.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were unrepentant. They refused to believe that John

was sent by God, and they refused to believe that the Messiah was at hand.

And so John warned them, if they did not repent, then they would be cut down

and thrown into the fire of everlasting condemnation.

John said to them, there stands one among you whom you do not know.

There stands one among you, in your midst.

Unfortunately, you do not know him through faith.

Jesus was standing among them.

He was at hand, and yet the religious leaders again refused to believe that

John was sent by God and that the promised Savior is among them.

The next day, John pointed to Jesus and basically said, there he is.

There's the coming Messiah. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

The Lord was at hand in the person of Jesus.

Advent means to come. First of all, Jesus came in the past.

He was born of the Virgin Mary there in Bethlehem. He was laid in the manger.

His public ministry began when John baptized Jesus there in the Jordan River.

And throughout Jesus' ministry, he was gentle with many.

With a woman at the well, he also gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf.

Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly. Then he willingly laid down on the cross and was lifted up.

The cross was the means by which his innocent blood was shed as a payment for

our sins and for the sins of the whole world.

And on the cross, Jesus bore the wrath of God in our place.

Then he died, and three days later, he rose from the dead and he lives forevermore.

There is now reconciliation with God our Father.

Advent means to come. Jesus came in the past, but he also comes today.

In other words, the Lord is at hand.

Jesus is among us.

This morning, we do not see Jesus with a physical eye, but we witness a baptism

where we hear the word of God connected to the water that we can see.

Is put on the baptized, and they are given Christ's righteousness.

We do not see Jesus, but we hear his forgiving word and absolution spoken earlier,

and his word that is proclaimed here from the pulpit.

We don't see Jesus who is a physical eye, but we receive his body and blood,

with bread and wine and the Lord's Supper for the forgiveness of all our sins.

The Lord is at hand. He's present in water, word, bread, and wine.

For us and for our salvation. He is close by.

He's not a faraway God.

He is Emmanuel, God with us.

This morning, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.

We are poor sinners. We've not loved the Lord our God without our heart, soul, and mind.

We've sinned in thought, word, and deed.

We repent of our sins, and we receive the forgiveness of sins.

We give God our broken hearts, and he heals them.

We give him our sins, and he gives us the righteousness of Christ.

The good news is that in Christ, you have a merciful and gracious God.

He loves you. He takes care of you. In Christ, your sins are forgiven.

And God remembers them no more.

This is why we come to church on Sunday morning. We come to receive the gospel.

We come to receive the God who became flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary

and was laid there in the manger.

We come to receive the Christ who died upon the cross and rose again for our salvation.

We come to learn how to love one another. We come to learn how to live out our life in Christ.

So the Lord is at hand means

that Christ is among us he's

near to us in Christ Jesus he is not a far away he is at hand and this is good

news and because Christ is among us and with us there's nothing to be afraid

of Jesus is with us with us always even to the end of the age.

Let us now talk about joy. Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say, Rejoice.

Despite the stress and anxiety in your life, you are able to rejoice because of the gospel.

Despite the hostility from an unbelieving world, you are able to rejoice because Jesus is with you.

To rejoice in the Lord is not a command, like some kind of legal requirement.

Paul is not saying you better rejoice or else.

No one can force joy, not even God.

Rather, Paul invites us to recognize the joy that we already have in Christ.

You are a baptized child of God, therefore you rejoice in what God has done

for you. Your sins are forgiven, therefore you rejoice that God remembers them no more.

Money or the things of this world are not your source of joy.

The gospel is your source of joy. And during this season, this joy is not seasonal,

limited to only Christmas, but it's constant during Christmas and beyond and

throughout the whole year.

Yes, we will have a Merry Christmas because Jesus was born as our Savior,

but we also will live joyfully tomorrow and forevermore.

No matter whether you have made mistakes that you regret, your health is failing,

your friends have let you down, the Lord is near you.

His love for you is not determined by the circumstances around you or by your

emotions which come and go.

God has promised to work all things together.

Good. Even in the midst of evil, he works to bring good out of evil because he cares for you.

Paul says in our text then to let your requests be made known to God. Pray.

If you are in need or down, pray, God hears your prayers.

So whom do we rejoice in? We rejoice in the Lord.

We rejoice in what God in Christ Jesus has done for us and for our salvation.

Where there is faith in Christ, There is joy.

Let us now talk about peace. Paul says, And the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding, will guide your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

By the way, these are the words that a pastor usually closes his sermon with, if you remember.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the angels appeared to the shepherds and

proclaimed to them that there is now peace on earth.

And this peace is found in a babe that's wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

That boy in the manger is our Prince of Peace. Jesus is peace in human flesh.

Jesus died upon the cross so that we may be reconciled with the Father.

And because of the cross and open tomb, there is now peace with God our Father

through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

There is peace between God and man, and Christ is the one who bridged the gap for us.

Jesus said, Peace I leave with you, peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Peace on earth is not achieved by some kind of political or military victory.

It's not the elimination of crime and hatred or violence.

These things, as painful as they are, will remain as far as we live in a fallen world.

Money cannot give peace of heart and mind. Psychology cannot ultimately calm our guilty conscience.

We cannot achieve lasting peace on our own. Rather, our true peace is found only in Christ.

This peace calms our troubled hearts.

The peace of God surpasses all understanding. We cannot explain it.

It is a gift from God.

Forgiveness and peace go together. If you have forgiveness, then you have peace with God.

The peace that surpasses all understanding is a peace of sins forgiven.

Therefore, do not trouble yourselves over past sins.

They are drowned in the depths of the sea, and they are paid for by the blood of Christ.

So Jesus is our source of peace. He is our Prince of Peace.

And this peace assures us that our sins are fully paid for by the blood of Christ.

Finally, because of the gospel, we possess a gentle spirit.

Paul writes, Let your gentleness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand. The Greek word for gentleness is epikeia,

sometimes also translated as reasonableness.

It also means mercy or gentleness, mercy or kindness.

And so because God in Christ has been gentle and merciful to you,

then you naturally are gentle and merciful to others.

Between Christians, there should be no animosity, no hatred, no anger, no revenge.

We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all children of God with Christ as our brother.

We should treat one another with gentleness. We also speak the truth in love.

We care about one another. We want to help them in perhaps maybe where they

could be improved or helped to be sure.

We want to be faithful to God's word and what it says.

But in our conversations with one another, we should reflect Christ.

And his word in our lives, in what we say and do. We want our gentleness to be known by everyone.

So, because of the gospel, we

are given a gentle spirit, and we pray that others may see Christ in us.

In summary, even though we may be filled with stress and anxiety during Christmas,

we are able to rejoice in the Lord.

He is at hand.

God has come near to us in Christ Jesus. He now comes to us in gospel and sacrament

for the forgiveness of our sins and our salvation.

And because Christ is present, we live without fear.

From the gospel flows gifts of joy, peace, and gentleness.

Our joy comes from the gospel and from the forgiveness of sins.

Our peace is found not in human effort or worldly solutions,

but in Christ alone. And this peace surpasses all understanding.

And because God has been gentle and merciful to us, we live with gentleness

toward others, reflecting Christ in our words and actions so that others may see Christ in us.

Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. Amen.