Prepare for Arrival

Luke 3:1-6

Transcript

To you my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and a fuller's soap.
He will sit as a smelter and a purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. Our New Testament reading comes from Philippians, chapter one. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in every prayer for you all in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the Gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me, for God is my witness. How I long for you, with all the affection of Christ Jesus. And this I pray that your love abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless, until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Would you please stand as I read the Gospel? Reading the Gospel lesson comes from Luke, chapter three.
Now in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judah, Judea and Herod, was patriarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was patriarch of the region of Eturia and Trachynitis and Lysanias, and the patriarch of Abilene in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. The word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness, and he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it was written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and Hill will be brought low, the crooked will become straight, and the rough road smooth. And all flesh will see the salvation of God. This is the word of God for the people of God.
Praise be to God. Let's pray. Father. May your will be done. Jesus.
May your word be proclaimed in spirit. May your work be accomplished in us. We pray. Amen. You can be seated.
Peace be with you.
Well, our gospel lesson for today begins with a lot of difficult and challenging names to pronounce and read. As you might have noticed, Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, and Herod and Philip. All these names. Now, as you read this, you might think, man, this is a really good historical account. This specifies the time when Jesus ministry is about to begin.
And we know the powers that be. But the Holy Spirit isn't just telling you a historical fact. The Holy Spirit is trying to cover you with the climate of the day. The days are dark, the days are evil. The principalities and the powers that be are wicked.
And this is the moment that when all that is dark, there is still light that has not yet been extinguished. See, if I were to tell you or recite names like Hitler, Osama bin Laden, or Jeffrey Dahmer, you know that what I'm going to talk about is nothing good. And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does through Luke. He paints the picture right before he introduces you to John and Jesus. He wants to show you and declare to you the days are evil.
The days are dark, and people are longing for a promise to be fulfilled that God has once spoken to them. And it's at this moment where Luke begins to just from the top down, recite all the powers that are all the principalities, starting with Caesar, the highest of them, going all the way down to Herod, the lowest of them, that all of this is wicked, to demonstrate that this kingdom of darkness claims its power and its prominence. And yet there breaks forth light in the midst of this dark and evil world. And God's promise comes out to the wilderness in a lowly person, John the Baptist. See, as Luke went from top to bottom, now he reverses it.
And he contrasts the kingdom of darkness that rules and reigns to the kingdom of light that is beginning to shine. And it starts at the bottom, it starts with the lowest. It starts with John the Baptist in the wilderness. And the word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness. And as John was out there, John came into the Jordan to the people, to declare a specific message to the people in order so that he can prepare the way for the one that is coming on his heels.
Jesus, the Christ. And so, as John comes into the people, much like Jesus comes down to us, John goes and delivers a challenging and tough message to prepare the way. Now, you would think that this message that comes from God in order to prepare for the ministry of Jesus would be something of greatness, something that would offer them true peace, that would be stimulating to the heart and to the mind and to the ears. But he comes bearing a specific word, and that is repentance. This is how it is that God wants the way of his Son to be prepared for.
Repentance is a very challenging and hard thing. And we're shown here, right here in this Gospel lesson that is this message of repentance for the purpose that forgiveness can ensue. See, without repentance, you don't really have forgiveness. Repentance communicates the idea of a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of what you believe about yourself. See, a lot of us, because of our sin, would like to say we're not really that bad.
But if you were to ask God what he looks down upon his creation that is riddled with sin, what is it that God would say of you? He would say they're riddled with sin, that they're unrighteous, that they can't save themselves, their ways are wicked, and they oppose Me, the one who loves them. And repentance begins to examine your heart, examine your mind, and examine your life to expose that God is right and I am wrong. There is nothing good in me, and I'm a sinner that I can't save myself. I'm in need of saving.
And like a surgeon, John the Baptist comes as those surgical texts who prepare the body so that the surgeon can come in and remove whatever needs to be removed from that body. And that's exactly the ministry of John the Baptist. He's preparing the way of the Lord to come and remove sin from the lives. The people that have their sin exposed through repentance, that's the act of repentance. We confess our sins every time we gather here so that we can agree with God that we are in need of his forgiveness.
We can forgive ourselves. Sure, we might try, but it doesn't remove the sin. This is why, in John's account, when John the Baptist sees Jesus coming on the next day, he says, look, and behold, I have preached to you repentance so that you're ready. Because, behold, here comes the Lamb that removes the sin from you. In order to get your sin removed, you have to Expose it.
You have to bring it to light. And that's the act of repentance. That is the whole ministry that John has prepared. John is giving a hard and challenging word to the people. He comes and brings this to them, says, we must repent so that you can be forgiven of sin.
This reminds us on when we engage with people in the gospel, it's just not the good news. We have to communicate. We have to prepare them to receive the good news. It's only good news to one who knows their frailty. It's only good news to ones who know that they are ruined, that they are sinful, that they can't save themselves.
Repentance is hard. It's a hard thing to hear. It's a hard thing to tell others. I have never wanted to repent in my life or to expose what I have done in my life. The shame and the guilt that comes that I feel.
And now I don't want the looks from the other people. If I were to repent of my sin, I don't want to do that. I want to be closed off. But Jesus says, I know repentance is hard, but it's efficient and it's effective and it's appropriate and it's what you need the most. You need to be getting rid of sin out of your life.
And you can't do that. You have to repent. You have to change your mind about what you think about yourself and how you perceive the world. And you have to conform your mind to the way God sees things. And if you just do this, trust me, if you would do the tough work of repenting of your sin, which is to get sin out and to confess it, I am a sinner.
I've done horrible things. I've made poor decisions. I have offended a good and holy loving God. If you would just do that, then Jesus can come and take your sin and put it on him and wipe it clean by his blood on the cross and give you forgiveness. And it's that forgiveness that affords you a relationship with God.
Because the beauty of what we experience in the Gospel lesson this morning is something hard. But if you'll push through it and be obedient to it, if you will come and repent of your sin, then Jesus will come and lift that sin away from you. He will cast it as far as the east is from the west. There is one thing, God knowing all things. There's one thing that he chooses to forgive and that it's confessed, repented sin.
And if you don't want God to bring up your sin anymore. In his judgment, he promises you, I will remove it from memory, from my memory. And you will not be judged for it if you confess and repent of it. Because my Son will pay for it and he will atone for it. But you have to repent and trust in my way.
And that's what he's offering. This promise that has been spoken of, that now is coming into the world begins with John the Baptist saying, repent. And this, we're told, prepares the way. It makes the path straight for the Lord to come and John to say, look, behold the Lamb who comes to take away the sins of the world. And Jesus comes.
And then Luke paints this portrait of peace. And he recites Isaiah. He says, all the ravines, all the dry riverbeds where water should be flowing, those parched land pieces are going to be filled up. The high places, the hills and the mountains, they're going to be brought low. Those things that are crooked and curvy are going to be made straight.
And those roads that are rough and windy, they're going to be smooth. And what Luke and Isaiah, what Isaiah is really preaching to us by way of the Holy Spirit, is that Jesus not only comes to forgive and cleanse you from all unrighteousness, but he removes all the obstacles on your journey and your relationship with God. There is nothing that's going to keep you from the love of God because of Jesus Christ. That's what's taking place. And if you think about it, if we were to break these down, you know, the flowing water that's been dried up, it's water that nourishes the land, that causes the crops to grow.
And they're dry because the world is in chaos. The days are dark. And Jesus says, I will bring water yet again to nourish the land. That's a metaphor on how we come to have our souls and our lives nourished by Jesus Christ himself. These mountains, these places where you have built up in your life, these wonderful accolades that you could say, look at how I have built my life.
Jesus says, I'm going to bring low because those things you've done in your power and you haven't been trusting in God. So I want to bring those low, so that's not an obstacle. But not only that, a mountain is also a place where heaven and earth meet. It's a place where divine, the divine can dwell with humanity. And he says, so I'm also going to bring that low.
I'm going to come down so the divine will walk among you and have a relationship with you. But not only that, you've made a crooked mess of your life. I'm going to make that straight, too. And that's a big deal to anybody who can say, like, I don't know how I ended up here. I've made a lot of wrong turns, and now I'm at a dead end.
I don't know where to go. Jesus says, I'll make the crooked straight. I will direct you out of the dead end, and I will put you on a path that leads to a relationship with God without obstacles. I can get you out of the situation that you've created for yourself. But it's going to be a righteous way, it's going to be the true way, and it's going to be a way that leads to life, not a dead end.
Only if you trust in me. Not only does it make the crooked straight, but he also makes the road smooth. This is a big deal if you have weak ankles like me. I don't like to hike anymore because I always roll my ankle. If there's one rock on a path, that rock, no matter how much I focus and concentrate on that rock, it's going to roll my ankle.
And then I'm going to be a heathen for a second because my ankle hurts. But this is something that is a promise of Jesus. He says, you know those roads that have all those potholes and the rocks that you can easily trip your ankle on? I'm going to make them smooth in your life. I'm going to remove every obstacle, whether it needs to be filled up, whether it needs to be lowered down, whether it needs to be straightened or whether it needs to be made smooth.
Whatever is in your life, whatever obstacles have been at play in your life that keep you from having a relationship with God and keep you from maintaining a relationship with God in Jesus Christ, all are removed. And this is that peaceful portrait that here we're encountering in Luke. It's a scene. If you were to look visually at this scene that Luke paints with the ravines and the mountains and all that and what we are told that Jesus is going to do and is doing, you're left at peace, knowing and trusting that it's not contingent on you. That's not about all the wrong turns you've taken.
It's all about the right turns he's taken and that entrusting in him, he steers me in the right direction. And that's peaceful. To anybody who knows well their sin That's a peace that surpasses all understanding. That's a peace that completely relies on God to save, to God to ensue to God to make happen in your life. That's the peace that we celebrate this week.
We've lit the second candle today, which is the candle of peace. Last week was the candle of hope. This week is the candle of peace. And it's that the candle of peace is one that we all need. I know it's one that I've needed specifically this week.
A lot of times we like to make peace happen on our own. I got a great plan that will make peace come to fruition in my life. If I were just to do these things, if I were to respond in this way, if I were to do this, this would hopefully encourage peace. There is nothing that you can do to bring true and lasting peace or the kind of peace that Christ can bring in your life. This week I just had a hard week.
I'll just be straight up honest with you. Still having a hard, tough time. And I was driving to church the other night, and in the midst of this challenge that I was facing Beau in the backseat, he's been working on some verses, and at the right time, at the right moment, randomly, after some silence in the truck, he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. And in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he'll make your paths straight. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
He had only been learning this for a few days, but at that moment, it wasn't Bo that was speaking to me.
It's God.
And that's the peace that Jesus brings. Stop relying on your merit, on your works, on what you think you could bring to the table, and just trust in me. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge me. I'll make those paths straight for you, and that will bring so much peace, even in the midst of turmoil, even in the midst of dark days that you can endure and say, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. And in all my ways, I acknowledge you, and you're making my path straight.
There's this promise that we're given in Christ Jesus that to the heart of those who are poor and needy, who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, are only satisfied with Jesus.
And lastly, to what end? What end does this picture that Isaiah has painted for us and the Holy Spirit is recalling our attention to this second Sunday of Advent to what end? And this end comes in verse six, when it says, so that all these obstacles will be removed. So that. To what end?
All the purpose that Jesus is going to accomplish by forgiving your sins and removing all obstacles, so that you might see the salvation of the Lord.
So that you might know that he is God. So that you might be able to experience his love in this portrait of peace that we just read. And I'm reciting to you of the ravines brought up, the mountains made low, the crooked brought straight, and the rough made smooth, comes up again in the New Testament, this time by one who has experienced all that. The apostle Paul, a rough guy transformed by God himself. And he writes this in Romans 8.
For I am convinced neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers nor height, no depth, no other created thing will be able to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus comes.
Well, first John comes and says, repent, Acknowledge the sin in your life, confess it. And then Jesus is going to come and wipe it all away. And you're going to experience forgiveness. And then you're going to be able to, because he's moved that away, because he's removed all obstacles that have kept you from the love of God. You're going to be able to unite your life with him and you're going to experience God's love for the first time for the rest of your life.
So what must we do with this lesson? How is it that we, in the second week of Advent, that we can prepare our hearts and our minds to receive the fullness of this promise that Jesus Christ is offering to us? He's already accomplished it. We already know what happens. And yet we still live in this time where this promise, continually, continually and perpetually is being fulfilled in the lives and hearts of people.
How do you need to get rid of your sin and confess it? What do you need to repent of so that Christ can wipe it clean? What obstacles stand in the way of your relationship with God, so that you can experience the fullness of his love, whatever those things might be. John's message to you, repent.
And Jesus message to you is, I'm here to make it all good again, to put it in a Christmas hymn way. John's ministry is all about, oh come, oh come, Emmanuel, God with us. I have dirt, I have sin, and I can't get rid of it. And Jesus comes and he says, here I am. Come and follow me.
Happy Advent. Let's pray.
Jesus, when we are weak, you are made strong. When we are made low and humbled, you lift up our heads. We praise you because you remove all obstacles. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. For those who are in you and united to you, I pray that we would be a people who cling and unite our lives to you, I pray that you would help us by the power of your Holy Spirit to rid us of the sin that dwells in our hearts.
I pray that you would forgive us of it and cleanse us from it and restore us to righteousness through following after you and trusting in your work. May you be exalted among us and may we worship you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Let's all stand and sing together.