A Righteous Branch Jeremiah 33:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13; Luke 19:28-40 

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, His righteous branch.

Our message is taken from our Old Testament, Jeremiah 33, 14 -16: 14 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

Today our celebration of Advent begins. 

Advent is that time when we blend together the first and second comings of Christ; we remember His first coming and anticipate his second coming, as we prepare to joyfully celebrate His birth.

Last Sunday, as the Church year came to a close, we focused on the righteousness that will never be dismayed, that is, the righteousness and forgiveness we have by faith in Christ, and ultimately the righteousness and salvation we’ll share in heavenly glory.

Today, as a new Church year begins, we’ll focus on the righteousness that comes to save us, the One who our text calls, a righteous branch of David.

The Gospel for this first Sunday of the Church year, can also serve as the Gospel for Palm Sunday. In our Gospel we heard Luke’s account of the Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Sunday of Holy Week.

News had spread that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, riding on a donkey. 

In our opening hymn, Lift Up, Your Heads, Ye Might Gates, we sang in verse 2, A righteous Helper comes to thee; His chariot is humility.

Riding on a lowly donkey, he humbled himself to save us in the only way we could saved, by suffering and dying for our sin.  

As Jesus was heading toward Jerusalem, crowds from the countryside were gathering, and following along. As He rode down the Mount of Olives, crowds from Jerusalem converged on Him. 

They surrounded Him as he rode toward, and then in to Jerusalem through the sheep gate. They welcomed Him like a conquering king.

Interestingly, Luke doesn’t mention the Hosanna chant that was rising up from the crowd, as Matthew, Mark and John mention. 

Instead, Luke chooses to focus on the Messianic verse that some were shouting, probably inspired by the Messianic Psalm 118, verse 26, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Based on that, some began to shout: Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 

These words are similar to the words we’ll hear in Luke’s Gospel on Christmas Eve, when the angel appears to the shepherds in the hills outside of Bethlehem, announcing that the Messiah has been born, and that they can find him in the town below, lying in a manger.

Luke says, And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” 

And so in this season of Advent, as we prepare for the coming of our Lord and ready ourselves for the celebration of His birth, we get a glimpse of Christmas in today’s Gospel, Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 

And since this was said to Jesus on Palm Sunday, the week of his death and resurrection, these words tie Christmas and Easter together, the two highest festivals of the Church year. 

One of the great things about the season of Advent is the hymns we sing as a prelude to the hymns we’ll sing at Christmas. Advent carols prepare our hearts for Christmas carols.

In our sermon hymn, we sang, The advent of our King (His arrival) Our prayers must now employ, (We pray for His return) And we must hymns of welcome sing In strains of holy joy.

With joy we welcome our King, who is coming back to us soon.

There’s another Advent hymn, O Lord, how shall I meet You, How welcome You aright? Your people long to greet You, My hope, my heart's delight!

On Palm Sunday the people were ecstatic to welcome Christ. 

How much more excited and happy will God’s people be to welcome Him again; this time for Him to stay, or rather, for Him to bring us to where we will stay in Heaven, forever blessed there in His presence.

If we’re going to rejoice and be in His presence forever, we need to be worthy to stand before the most righteous of kings, the King of kings. 

Knowing how unworthy we are, Christ, our King, gives us His own righteousness, that we may live, as Psalm 26:8 says, in the place where His glory dwells.

As it begins to look more like Christmas, and the Christmas lights are shining at night, our hearts anticipate the Eve, and then the Day, and the Season of Christmas.

As our children were growing up, we always got real Christmas trees. A couple years ago, we got an artificial tree, a Black Friday special. There’s probably a shortage of them this year.

Either way, the tree reminds of our text, 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 

The kingdom or dynasty of a king could sometimes be compared to a mighty tree, with the founding king as the trunk, and his descendant kings as the branches.

There would be one descendant of King David in particular, who would righteous and just. 

He would be the Messiah sent to save the people; not a political king to conquer Roman tyranny, and bring freedom and prosperity, as some people had hoped, but a greater king than that, a king to conquer the tyranny of death, and to set the world free from slavery to sin. 

In the well known Advent Hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, we sing in verse 4, O come, Thou Branch of Jesse's tree, Free them from Satan's tyranny That trust Thy mighty pow'r to save, And give them vict'ry o'er the grave. Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel, shall come to Thee, O Israel.

We know Jesus was genetically descended from David, through his mother, Mary, and so he fulfilled the prophecy that the Messiah would be a branch, or descendant of David, and therefore of David’s father, Jesse, as we sing in O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, Thou Branch of Jesse's tree.

This also shows the humanity of Christ, that he is truly human, and so he truly died for us, and He rose bodily to save us.

All the other descendants of David, and Adam and Eve, for that matter, and Noah, were sinful, but this one who was prophesied, the Messiah, would be righteous, and so, able to save us.

There’s no salvation without righteousness. Rejoice, for as our text says, the Lord is our righteousness. There is no other perfect righteousness; only the righteousness of Christ can save us. 

And so we rejoice in another Advent hymn, our closing hymn, Hark, the Glad Sound, the Savior Comes. 

When Jesus comes with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet call of God, as 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says, it will be a sound of joy to God’s people. 

As Advent reminds us, our righteous Lord is coming soon. And when He comes we’ll welcome Him with joy, and live and abide with Him in glory.

Until then, may the peace of God, which passes understanding, guard our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our righteous Lord, who we know is coming soon, and so we rejoice. Amen.