Are You A Prepper? A Sermon For The Second Sunday In Advent

Are You a Prepper?

A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent

Matthew 3:1–12 NKJV

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

Make His paths straight.’ ”

Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

We live in an age where we are constantly barraged with threats of disaster of one sort or another. There are those who say that the currency is about to crash, and we need to hoard silver and gold. There are plenty of companies who are more than willing to meet this need. There are those who warn us about the failure of the electricity grid. they claim that a large percentage of the world would perish in a long term grid outage, whether it is by an EMP, failure to maintain the grid, or a “natural” event like a Carrington Event caused by a solar flare. There answer is to buy either a solar generation system or at least a gas generator. There are many ready to serve this perceived need as well. There are threats of war, mega thrust earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, asteroid collisions, and the like. There is an impending sense of doom which hangs heavy over the world. And there are many who use this to profit.

How does a Christian deal with these threats? Whereas it is prudent to a point to be ready for such events in this age, there is, indeed, a greater threat. Jesus brings this out when he says we should not fear the one who can kill the body, and after that has no power. Rather we should fear the One who can kill, and after this can cast one into eternal hellfire. (Matthew 10:28) This is the One who promised to return to judge the living and the dead. This is what the we need to be prepared for.

Last week we entered the Christian season of Advent which was created for us to ponder upon the truth that the Lord Jesus is going to return —not only ponder, but to prepare ourselves for this event that it might be eternally well for us. As we read:

2 Peter 1:10 NKJV

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

Advent has also in recent time reflected upon the preparation which God made for Christ to be born in Bethlehem and to live among us. This ties the idea of Christmas into Advent, although Christmas and what we call Advent are distinct. There was a time, or truly before time, that preparations were made for Christ to come to earth to live, to teach, and to die as a sacrifice for our sin, that everyone who believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). The preparation for this Christ event lie fulfilled and in the past. Christ died, and Christ is risen lie fulfilled. What remains to prepare for is “Christ will come again,”

This is not to say that it is not useful to study the preparations God made to bring Christ into the world the first time as all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for doctrine and teaching. It tells us that the God who promised the first coming of Christ and fulfilled it shall certainly fulfill the promise of His return. So, it is good for us to examine these texts that we might learn of how we might prepare for His return. Advent is not awaiting the arrival of Christ into a manger in Bethlehem. We remember, as we should that the Word did indeed become flesh and tabernacle among us at Christmas. But this Jesus who came that night is returning again, not as a baby, but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.