[Preview the Isaiah reading with a description of what Isaiah is writing to. Isaiah wrote hundreds of years before Jesus at a time when his people, God’s people, were threatened by destruction from a foreign nation. God saved them, but the warning from Isaiah and other prophets of that time was that another nation would come and conquer them because of their disobedience. And they would be shipped off, exported to a foreign land. They would spend 70 years there. But in these verses I am about to read Isaiah reminds them that even though their situation would be bad, it will seem like God has forgotten them, he had not. It was the consequence they had to face because of their sin. Don’t think for a second God forget them. Through Isaiah God shifts gears and gives a message of hope and comfort to his people. Listen to these words of Isaiah.
[Read Is. 40:1-11]
[Read Mark 1:1-8]
Today we are in the second Sunday of Advent, Advent means "coming" or "drawing near." During the season of Advent we are reminding ourselves what this Christmas season is really all about, we are celebrating God drawing near to us in Christ Jesus. The Bible tells us if we want to know what God is like we can look at Jesus because he is the visible image of the unseen God (Col. 1:15).
We celebrate God’s coming near to us. Last week we recognized that not only has God come near to us in the birth and life of Jesus, but that he will come again. We don’t know the day or the hour, but he will return and set all things right, and reign with peace, justice, and righteousness. Part of setting things right will be to gather all people to face judgment. So Advent is also a time of preparation. How do we prepare ourselves for the arrival of Christ? Obviously we are not talking about decorations, and buying Christmas presents. Last week we spent some time reminding ourselves of what Jesus said we must do to prepare ourselves for his return. Jesus told three stories or parables teaching us that: 1) We need to be spiritually ready. How is our relationship with Christ? Do we have a relationship with Christ? Are we filled with his Spirit? Jesus said before his return there will be a time of tribulation or persecution for Christians. Is our faith deep enough, strong enough, to handle people ready to kill us for our faith? He said there would also be false teachers and prophets who will try to cleverly steer us away from the truth. Do we recognize the Good Shepherd’s voice and his Word enough to recognize the truth? 2) Jesus taught about using our God given resources for his purposes. We’re talking about our time, abilities, money. 3) And in the third parable he told us what those purposes are, namely to help others in their need, particularly other Christians, whether that is a spiritual need (their need for Christ), or a physical ("I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink," etc.). These are ways we get ready. If you’re doing these things, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you’re not…
Prepare the Way
This week we take another look at preparing the way for the Lord through the OT prophet Isaiah.
The prophets loved using imagery to get their point across, to teach us something about God and his plans and what we are supposed to do. The image God gave us through the prophet Isaiah was of the wilderness. The wilderness or desert was something everyone understood because they were surrounded by it in Jerusalem. You can see in this picture of the Judean wilderness between Jerusalem and the Jordan River it is rocky, barren, with mountains and valleys. And God is saying,
"this (picture of desert) has been between you and me. I want to come to you but this is in the way, mountains, valleys, you are in a spiritual desert. Now Isaiah, comfort my people by letting them know that I will take the initiative to remove these obstacles that are between us, to level them out. I will lift up every valley, I will lower every mountain so that there is a straight path between us, an expressway as it were, so that I can come to them without anything hindering my way."
What are the hills and valleys? What are the obstacles? It helps to understand what the wilderness represented to the people of Israel. For the Israelites the wilderness represented the place they had to wander for 40 years before they could enter the land God had promised them. The wilderness was not a good reminder because it represented their disobedience and lack of trust in God to overcome their enemies. It represented God’s punishment. Here in Isaiah the wilderness also represented their time of exile, when the foreign nation of Babylon would come and conquer them, shipping them off hundreds of miles away to a foreign land. It meant separation from the Land of Promise. It meant separation from the presence of God, his Shekinah glory, in the Temple. It was a time when it felt as though God had abandoned them, he had forgotten them, and allowed them to endure suffering and pain. Of course the exile was also a result of the sins of the people. For Jesus the wilderness represented a time of preparation for his ministry, he experienced trials as he wandered in this wilderness for 40 days without food or water, and it also represented temptations as the devil caught him at his most vulnerable time, tired, hungry, thirsty and tried to get him to take the easy way out of his mission and compromise what he knew was right rather than take the road marked with suffering and obedience to his Father?
The reason I give these different images of the wilderness, and the mountains and valleys, is because they can represent different things for different people, obstacles separating us and God. It could be disobedience, sin. Perhaps you have wandered away from God and chosen our own path. You’ve ignored God’s commandments. You’ve selfishly lived your life for yourself. And as a result it feels like you are wandering in the wilderness without purpose or direction. Your life may seem empty or shallow. God, if there is a God, seems distant or remote like he’s just a rumor you hear about from others, or someone you read about in a book.
Like the Israelites in exile, perhaps your wilderness could be a feeling that God has abandoned you. It seems like he has left you on your own without any help. Perhaps God feels very far away from you right now. Perhaps at one time you felt close to him, but it seems as though you’ve drifted apart. Maybe you have recently experienced great hardship and suffering and don’t sense God’s presence or understand his purpose for allowing it to happen to you.
Or Like Jesus in the wilderness, perhaps you are experiencing some trials right now which seem beyond your ability to cope, and God seems unwilling to help. Or perhaps you are enduring temptations which are threatening to pull you away from God and his plan for you.
The Hope
This is where the NT passage is so important because along comes this guy named John, and he dresses weird, in camel hair, and eats only locusts and honey. He looks like a prophet, only instead of going to Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel and the center of Jewish religion and worship at the Temple, he goes off into the wilderness near the Jordan river and he starts preaching about the coming of God’s kingdom and baptizing people. But the people get it. They remember the words of Isaiah the prophet.
40:3 A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
John’s the guy, he’s the mouthpiece of God, he’s the one calling in the desert preparing the way for the Lord’s arrival. As the people went out to hear him and to get baptized he was making a visual point as well as a spoken one. As they looked around them at the mountains and valleys they got the point. God was coming near. His glory would soon be revealed. Remember how God seems far off right now. Remember how you’ve been waiting for God these many years. God is about ready to make a highway through the wilderness so he can come near to us. God is going to make a way through the obstacles between us so he can come near us. John was specific in saying he wasn’t the one, but there will be another who would come after him, who would be so holy that he could not even stoop down to untie his sandals. "I baptize with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." In other words God won’t just make a way to be near you, but through this man God will make it possible for him to be in you through his Spirit. His glory will be revealed to you once again as the prophet Isaiah promised. He will gather his people and hold them to his heart as a shepherd holds a lamb.
But before this happens, before he comes and bulldozes those obstacles standing in the way, he says we must prepare ourselves. How do we prepare ourselves?
Mark 1:4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Prepare the Way of the Lord, Make Straight Paths for Him - Repentance
The key to preparing the way for the coming of Jesus is repentance. God cannot come to us unless we repent. Repentance is not just saying "I’m sorry for what I’ve done, or I’m sorry for what our people have done." Repentance is turning away from our sin and turning to God. It literally means to change your mind. Change your mind, change your thought life, change your view about what you’ve done. In other words, God has shown me that what I’ve done is wrong, and it has created an obstacle between myself and him, and now I choose to think differently about my behavior, I’m altering my behavior by God’s grace and power. That’s repentance. It begins with confession, but must ultimately lead to a change in thinking and behavior. What God wants is a broken and contrite heart.
NLT Psalm 51:17 "The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit. A broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise."
Conclusion:
Perhaps you find yourself in a wilderness this morning, the wilderness for you might represent disobedience, things you have done which are not in line with God’s will, and God is convicting you of . It might represent trials or temptations we are enduring. As we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord Jesus let us make a highway for his arrival into our life this morning. John the Baptist prepared the people by urging the people to repent for the forgiveness of sins.
Let us prepare ourselves before we receive communion. Communion is a symbol of forgiveness we receive as a free gift from God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His birth had a purpose, so we could know God and draw near to Him. The Apostle Paul reminds us that as we prepare for communion we need to examine ourselves, to search our hearts, to think about our actions and how they have affected others. Is there a mountain or a valley between us and God which is created by our sin? Is God trying to reveal to us something we need to change or mind and our behavior about this morning so he can be near us again? God wants us to be honest with him, to repent, to come before him with a broken and contrite heart. Spend some time in silent prayer before we receive communion.
Prayer
God, we confess to you our sins of self-reliance and pride, if there is something you have revealed to us we confess that to you in silence.
God forgive us for our waywardness, help us to walk in your paths rather than our own. Raise the valleys separating us, level the mountains between us O God. Draw near to us right now in this moment, let your Spirit fill us. Help us to know the peace of resting in your arms of love, hold us near to your heart as the shepherd holds the lamb. As we receive communion this morning may they be for us a symbol of your very real presence here with us right now.
