INTRODUCTION
• VIDEO CLIP
• SLIDE #1
• How are we preparing for Jesus? Are we spending more time preparing for Christmas than we have for Jesus?
• The second candle in our Advent series is the candle of preparation. When Advent was first celebrated in the 3rd century, it was with an eye toward preparing for the second coming of Jesus, later in the middle ages Advent was tied to the celebration of His incarnation.
• The candle of preparation is an important candle for us to light in our lives. WE need to be ready for the coming of the Lord at anytime, we need to be ready and open to accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior!
• If our heart is not prepared, we will ignore the call of Jesus, there are issues in life that need to be addressed so we will be open together.
• In the passage we are going to examine this morning, Luke is quoting from Isaiah 40:3-5. The context of this passage is Isaiah telling the people that they would eventually be carried off to captivity, which began in 605 BC at the hands of the Babylonians, about 100 years after Isaiah wrote the book of Isaiah.
• Chapter 40, the source of this prophecy, is a pivotal point in the book of Isaiah. The first thirty-nine chapters focus largely on God’s coming judgments on Israel and the surrounding nations.
• The opening words of chapter 40, “‘Comfort, comfort My people,’ says your God,” mark a dramatic change in tone.
• The message of Isaiah’s prophecy changed from judgment to salvation, which is the theme of the rest of the book.
MacArthur New Testament Commentary, The - MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Luke 1-5.
• The Isaiah passage has dual meaning, it applied the the Jews return from Babylon as well as the coming of the Lord and the one who was to prepare the way, John The Baptist.
• Many things in life are done better when there is some preparation, proper preparation can make things easier and less chaotic.
• Let us not spend more time preparing for Christmas than we do for Jesus.
• Let’s turn to Luke 3 together.
• SLIDE #2
• Luke 3:4 (HCSB) as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight!
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The purpose of preparation.
• John the Baptist was the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, why was he doing crying out in the wilderness?
• John was in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord.
• For history sake, this took place in 26 AD. Luke does a great job giving us historical reference points by which we can pinpoint the beginning of the ministry of Jesus.
• In verses 1-3 of Luke, he gives us historical points of reference. Tiberius Caesar followed Caesar Augustus in 14 AD; however, history tells us that Tiberius was co-regent with Augustus beginning 11 AD. So 15 years after he began his reign was 26 AD.
• Herod reigned from 4BC to 39 AD. The word Tetrarch denoted one who presides of a fourth of a country or province. Anyway back to preparation.
• John was preparing the way for the Lord’s coming.
• This phrase “PREPARE THE WAY” denoted preparing the way for a king to arrive.
• In ancient times, when a King was going on a journey, highways needed to be built before them.
• This was no simple process, the people could not get their heavy road graders and explosives to do this.
• The ancients would make a path as straight as possible from point A to point B. They would rip out trees, cut down hills, fill valleys and gullies.
• They would take what were crooked roads and make them straight. On occasion they would also plant trees and other landscaping features to make the trip more visually stimulating for the king.
• We do the same type of thing today. If the President is going to go somewhere, there are a great deal of preparations that need to be made to help ensure his safety. There usually lots of pomp and circumstance at the arrival of a president or leader from a foreign country.
• The main reason for preparing the way was to make the journey for the king easier.
• Obstacles were removed so that the trip would be quicker and along with a greater level of safety.
• John’s job was to prepare the hearts of those who would come in contact with Jesus so that they would be ready to be open to His arrival.
• The Jews of the time had many obstacles in their path to recognizing Jesus for who He was.
• John preached a message of repentance, which is a change of mind and heart, which leads to a change in action.
• John’s baptism of repentance was a precursor for Christian Baptism that Jesus commanded during the Great Commission and went public at Pentecost with Peter’s stirring sermon.
• John was seeking to remove the obstacles from the path of the Lord!
• A KEY thought is that the verb tense of the word PREPARE denote a continual effort.
• The way must be prepared so that the Lord can come to us over it, but the work will always continue since sins appear in us constantly. One preparation is not enough so that after that we may sit down and rest; the work goes on throughout life.
• Let’s look at verse 5.
• SLIDE #4
• Luke 3:5 (HCSB) Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth,
• SLIDE #5
II. The obstacles that need to be cleared from the path.
• The language used in verse five is not meant to just speak of geographical issues.
• In the context of preparing for a worldly ruler, it was all about the exterior, it was about the hills and the valleys, the rough places, and making the crooked straight.
• John was on a different mission; John was seeking to change the hearts of people.
• Each of the geographical features quoted by Luke from Isaiah had a spiritual meaning associated with it also.
• Luke says that John would fill every valley.
• By the time Jesus was getting ready to make His entrance with His public ministry, faith was in trouble.
• There were people who had faith in God, and there were a few religious leaders who were dedicated to God.
• Every valley being filled is a reference to helping people break out of the moral and religious indifference the people and religious leaders possessed.
• There are still so many people today who are indifferent.
• I saw the New York Times Daily slamming prayer in the aftermath of the San Bernardino shooting.
• We see indifference in the church yet today, and even in FCC. At some point we all need to realize It matters, God matters, how you live your life matters!
• When we are indifferent, nothing really matters. An attitude of indifference gives Satan a win.
• If we are indifferent morally or spiritually, we will not be prepared for Jesus. All the Christmas lights in the world will not prepare us for Jesus!
• Luke tells us that every mountain and hill will be made low. This is a reference to the need of humility.
• The PRIDE of the Pharisees kept them from being open to Jesus, the PRIDE we possess will do the same thing.
• When we are overtaken by pride, we feel we do not need Jesus, we can do it on our own, we do not need God.
• SLIDE #6
• Psalm 14:1 (HCSB) The fool says in his heart, “God does not exist.” They are corrupt; they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good.
• I posted a video on my Facebook page that Pastor Greg Locke posted asking why the atheists do not go on crusades against unicorns and such, it is because they know those things are fairy tails that do not exist, but something inside them tells them God does exist.
• With one is filled with pride, repentance will never happen, neither will “I AM SORRY”!
• Next Luke says the crooked will become straight. This deals with the issues of corruption and deceit.
• Crooked corners were a good place for robbers to hide, it is more difficult to conceal oneself on a straight path with is flat and obstacle free!
• The religious leaders and soldiers of the time were full of lies and deceit. The generation was corrupt, they needed to hear the message of repentance from John as he prepared the way for the Lord.
• Then verse 5 finishes with the issue of THE ROUGH WAYS SMOOTH.
• This is an allusion to the sinful habits of all mankind.
• WE need to be convicted that certain things are right and certain things are wrong, sin is sin no matter how you slice it, dice it, or spin it.
• We are in trouble when the church can no longer distinguish between what is right and wrong.
• When we cannot admit to the most basic premise of Scripture, how in the world can be help anyone else?
• The religious leaders of the day could be religious AND eventually PLOT to kill Jesus, and they had no issue with it.
• To let people be mired in their sin without a work from us is cruel and unloving!
• Ultimately, for one to be prepared for the Lord, they need to possess a DEEP conviction that they are helpless without God. One must possess the conviction that without Jesus we are lost in the life to come and in this life! We must understand that left on our own we are toast.
• One must be driven to REPENTANCE and CONFESSION!
• Let’s look at verse 6!
• SLIDE #7
• Luke 3:6 (HCSB) and everyone will see the salvation of God.
• SLIDE #8
III. The blessing that follows preparation.
• When we are prepared, we will see or enjoy the salvation the Lord offers through Jesus Christ, His one and only Begotten Son!
• The Greek reads ALL FLESH WILL see.
• When we are prepared for Jesus, we will accept Jesus!
• One day EVERYONE will see the glory of the Lord!
• SLIDE #9
• Philippians 2:9–11 (HCSB) For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
• Really in the end, the question is, HOW are you going to se the salvation of the Lord? Will you accept it with open arms and praise Him when He returns or will you you be facedown shaking in fear knowing you missed out on the greatest blessing ever?
• One day everyone will know there is a God in heaven and the name of His son is JESUS!
CONCLUSION
• How much time are you preparing for Christmas versus how much time you are preparing for Jesus?
• John paved the way for Jesus, who are you paving the way for Jesus?
