Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : December 7, 2003
Be Prepared for Your Advent King
2nd Sunday of Advent
This past Thanksgiving many people were surprised to hear that President Bush had made a surprise visit to the soldiers in Iraq. Whether you think that was a good idea or not, the soldiers who ate with him -- whether they were Republicans, Democrats or neither -- will remember that visit for he rest of their lives. Have any of you ever seen a President of the U.S. with your own eyes? If you found out that the President would make a visit to the Waukesha Expo Center, would you go? I suppose it would depend on whether you could get in for less than $2000 a plate. It would also depend on whether he says and holds to the kinds of things you think are important. But I think all of us would agree that seeing someone as important as the President of the U.S. would be quite a treat -- even exciting.
That was the excitement that happened around Jerusalem when they heard that a prophet was preaching in the desert of Judea. Mark even mentions that "the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him." His name was John. Even though he didn't have an entourage like a U.S. president would have, yet people came to him. Why? Because he was a prophet sent from God. They hadn't seen prophet in 400 years, so this was spectacular for them -- something that their own grandparents and their grandparents had never seen in their lifetimes. They went out for different reasons -- some because of curiosity; some because they had to look good in front of the people; some to actually hear what he had to say -- but what he had to say was the same for everyone: Be Prepared for Your Advent King. We join the people in running out to hear John's preaching today as we listen to God's Word. As we join them, John will tell us also how we can be prepared for our Advent King -- by having a repentant heart and by seeing God's salvation.
The message the John was preaching was a familiar message to God's people, that is, if they knew their Old Testament. Really it was the same message that God had been preaching for hundreds of years and still preaches today: Repent and trust in God and his promise of salvation. Even John's manner, his clothing, was very reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets, especially of Elijah. Just like God's Old Testament people, the people of John's day needed a spiritual revival, a reformation, so they would turn from their evil ways and turn to God in faith and do his will. Really, that is what repentance literally means -- to rethink something. The picture is of someone who is turned the wrong way and walking away from where he needs to go, and something turns him around in his tracks and gets him going in the right direction. John's message long ago still applies today -- if you are harboring some sin, any sin, you better think twice about that. Rethink what that means. If you continue in that sin, you have chosen it to be more important in your life than God. If you continue in a sin, you are messing with fire, and you might get burned -- forever. So repent.
As they listened to John's message, which really should have been familiar to them, they found out that it wasn't familiar at all. They had grown up under the Pharisees and teachers of the law who told them to live a good life according to all the commands of God, and God will accept you and let you into heaven. John said that was garbage.
It's garbage today, too. John pointed not to man's doing to get you prepared to meet your Advent King, but to God's doing. That's where John's message would have sounded completely different to the people coming to hear him. Luke says he preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John's call to repentance was a call to faith. Repenting meant that you felt genuine sorrow over sins committed against God, and believed that those sins were forgiven by the coming Savior. Those sins were actually forgiven in the baptism that God had told John to do because that baptism was into the death of the coming Savior.
That message had been proclaimed by many prophets in the Old Testament -- from Moses to Malachi. But there was an amazing difference between John and the earlier prophets of the Old Testament. They had said, "The Lord is coming, you will be saved when your Savior comes." But John was saying (as Matthew says in his account), "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near!" In other words, "The Savior is almost here! Get ready for him! I was sent to point him out to you!" And that's exactly what John did. 700 years earlier, Isaiah had foretold John's ministry: "A voice of one calling in the desert." John didn't revel in these people coming to see him and his person as an Old Testament prophet; he was just the voice that simply and humbly pointed the people to Jesus, the Prophet, which was what his life's work was all about.
John took his own medicine -- he strove to get rid of everything in his life that would get in the way of being prepared for the Lord. His chief concern wasn't in buying a big house or getting a nice chariot to ride around in. He wasn't more concerned about saving face in front of his friends than about the message he had to proclaim. The message was the important thing; it was the only thing that he concerned himself with. Everything else came second. That's why he could then boldly tell people, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him." John dedicated himself to that message, regardless of his personal aspirations, not worrying about what that would mean for his personal life as difficult as it might be. Do we do the same? When people look at you, do they see someone who is more concerned about yourself or others? Do they see someone who is more concerned about earthly friendships or your friendship and servitude to God and his Word? In short, do they see someone who walks the walk of a Christian and talks the talk of a Christian, or someone who is like anybody else in this world? If they see that your life follows what you say, then they'll be listening to your voice, too, just like people listened to John.
That voice said, 'Be prepared for your Advent King by having a repentant heart', and that is only possible by first seeing God's salvation.
Isaiah not only prophesied that the message of the forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, was important, but he also foretold what that message would be: "Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God's salvation." Isaiah was picturing a prestigious and powerful king coming to a certain part of his kingdom, and when the king comes there, the people want it to be in the best condition when he comes. A crumbling road in disrepair wouldn't do for such an important guest. It would have to be fixed and in perfect condition so he could have a comfortable ride to that place where he was going. Isaiah even mentions making a highway for our God. When you think of the best highways in our country, you think of the interstate system. Country roads wind around hills, or they go up and down the hills, but interstate highways go right through hills, even mountains. Nothing stood in the way of that road going straight through to its destination. And they are smooth, paved roads, not gravel roads with all kinds of bumps and ruts in them.
When God comes to our hearts, we want it the same way, we want to make our hearts a place where our Savior will be comfortable, won't have to climb any mountains of pride, or go around any valleys of worry or doubt. We want to give him a heart that is pure -- not focused on this world but on him. If the President of the U.S. would come to your house, do you think you might spend some time tidying up? How much more do we want our lives to be free of the dirt of sin which God detests!
But if you and I try to pick up the litter of our lives by ourselves, if we try to break apart the mountains of pride and fill in the valleys of worry and doubt by ourselves, then we are lost. We are just like anyone else who tries to prepare themselves for heaven by what they do. Instead, notice what Isaiah said, "Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth." We won't fill in the valleys of worry and despair -- they will be filled in for us. We won't make every mountain of pride and hill of self-importance low -- they will be made low for us. We won't make our crooked, sinful lives straight with God and make is smooth, as perfectly smooth and without sin as it needs to be in order to be prepared for the coming of our Advent King -- those sinful, crooked, rough lives will be made perfectly straight and perfectly smooth for us. How? The last verse tells us how -- it is the gospel. "And all mankind will see God's salvation." God will do it. This is his salvation. He is the one that thought of it, put it into effect by sending his Son and accepted the sacrifice for sin that his Son gave for the sins of the whole world. In Isaiah's time it was still coming. In John's time, it was being put into effect. In our time, it is finished. Our sins are forgiven through faith in our Advent King, Jesus Christ. Every time we try to make our lives straight and perfect, we fall far short. As much as we try to clean up our dirty lives of sin by doing good, we can be sure God will find plenty more dirt with his white glove inspection. But don't let that lead you to despair. Jesus knew our lives would never hold up to his spot inspection. So he cleaned our house for us. He took away all your sins by dying for them and paying for them in full. In its place, God credited Jesus' perfect life to your account. And that is how you can be prepared for your Advent King -- because Jesus, your Advent King, has made you ready through faith in him.
Since we are ready for our King, since we are equipped, as Paul says, for a lifetime of good works, let us do them. Let us get rid of all the sins in our lives, repent of them, turn away from them, and turn to God for forgiveness and salvation. As Christians, you have a choice to make when it comes to Advent. You know that God has already made your life perfectly straight and perfectly clean by creating faith in your heart. Now you once again have John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, urging you to repent and so be prepared for your Advent King. Really, as a Christian, there's no choice about it. You live a repentant life, and the angels and God himself in heaven rejoice over it. Amen.
