Preparation. Expectation. From today until the “big day” in December those are the two things most of us will be experiencing. If we are adults, we will probably put some time into preparing for Christmas. Maybe we have already invested a few hours in the upcoming holiday. Many of us did that last Sunday as we set up the Christmas trees in the sanctuary and set out the Advent wreath. But I think you would agree that in the weeks ahead things like shopping, cleaning, decorating, baking, and perhaps traveling will all be a part of our pre-Christmas preparation. Even the young people here this morning will spend some time preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Although this year the Sunday school Christmas program is the week before Christmas our children will continue to spend time learning their songs and recitations. Perhaps some of them will be working on special Christmas projects at school or even doing a little shopping of their own. Yes, preparation is part of this season.
And it doesn’t matter what age we are, we all will have feelings of expectation in the days between now and December 25th. The adults here may act like we aren’t all that excited about Christmas. But deep down we are. Yes, our expectations may be different than those of children, but we have expectations, nonetheless. I imagine that some of the young people here this morning are already finding it hard to wait four whole weeks as their expectations for Christmas continue to grow every day.
As we begin another Advent season let’s turn our thoughts to a portion of God’s Word that will guide us in our preparation for Christmas. This Scripture will also provide us with correct expectations for our celebration of Jesus’ birth. We turn to the Psalm for this Sunday and ask the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts through it. Listen again to Psalm 24. (Read text.) Preparation. Expectation. This Psalm touches on both of those thoughts under the general thought of God’s people welcoming the LORD—the King of Glory. I pray that these words would help us to:
“WELCOME THE KING OF GLORY!”
I. With proper preparation (vv. 1-4)
II. With enthusiastic expectation (vv. 5-10)
A lot of ink has been put to paper by pastor’s and Bible scholars speculating about Psalm 24. For what occasion did the Holy Spirit move King David to write this Psalm? What was its purpose? Some have said that Psalm 24 was composed for the time that David brought the Ark of the Covenant out of storage at the house of Obed-edom and took it to the capital city of Jerusalem. The Psalm does fit that setting. The people of Israel would have been welcoming a visible symbol of God’s presence into their capital city. The words of this Psalm could certainly fit such a celebration. On the other hand, perhaps the Holy Spirit prompted David to write this Psalm simply to encourage his people to welcome God at their worship and into their hearts and lives with proper preparation and enthusiastic expectations. We know from history that the Jews regularly used this Psalm in their worship where they were in a sense celebrating God’s coming to them.
Although their original purpose is uncertain thousands of years later these words still speak to the people of God. They take on a special meaning for us during Advent. As we look back on Jesus’ first coming, we recognize what made him the King of Glory. He shared our humanity to serve as our Savior. And as we look ahead to Jesus’ second Advent at the end of time we recall what he is coming to do. He will judge all people and establish his eternal kingdom of glory. Whether we are looking back or ahead, both Advents move us to proper preparation and enthusiastic expectation.
I.
A woman was in a mall doing her Christmas shopping. She was tired of walking through every aisle of every store to find just the right present. She was stressed out by the mounting debt on her credit card. She was tired of fighting the crowds and standing in lines for the registers. Her hands were full and when the elevator door opened, it was full. “Great!” she muttered and the occupants of the elevator, feeling her pain, graciously tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load. As the doors closed, she blurted out, “I think whoever came up with this Christmas junk ought to be found, strung up and shot!” A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement. Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said, “Don’t worry. They already crucified him.” I doubt that we would ever get to that point where we wished there was none of this Christmas stuff. But sometimes if our preparation is misplaced, we may have feelings like that. In these weeks before Christmas let’s focus on proper preparation for welcoming the King of Glory and let some of the unnecessary things slide.
The first thing that Psalm 24 does for us is remind us of who is coming to us this Christmas. “1 The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2 for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.” We are not preparing to celebrate the birthday of just some famous person. It is the birthday of our creator that we will celebrate in less than a month! Doesn’t that put our preparation into perspective? In a sense we should hold nothing back. But we also must realize our preparations will fall short of the honor worthy of such a guest.
David goes on to address that fact. “3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.” Welcoming God into our lives and being accepted by him certainly requires proper preparation!
David wasn’t talking about personal hygiene when he stated that God’s people needed to have clean hands to enter God’s presence. He was describing the preparation that Old Testament believers went through to go and worship the LORD. They had to be ceremonially clean according to the laws God had given them. David also pointed to the fact that those who wanted to welcome God into their lives needed a pure heart dedicated to God alone.
Obviously, David was referring to worshipping the LORD in the tabernacle but let’s take these verses and apply them to our preparation for Christmas. Who of us is worthy to worship the Christ-child? Can we rightfully stand in his presence? Do we have a pure heart that loves Jesus completely and serves him unconditionally? When we measure our life next to God’s holiness, we soon realize that we can’t go to Bethlehem. If we set foot in the stable the stench of our sins would make what the animals dropped there smell like roses. So, for proper preparation this Advent season we need to sweep our hearts clean of sin through repentance. In the midst of our shopping, baking, and partying let’s find time to look into God’s law and be convicted of our sinfulness. Although the next four weeks should be a joyful time, they should also be a serious time. Through our Sunday services and our midweek Advent services we will hear calls to repent and make changes to our thoughts, words, and actions. Martin Luther described proper preparation for the Christian before Christmas when he wrote: “Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child, / Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled, / Within my heart, that it may be / A quiet chamber kept for Thee.” Let that also be our prayer as we prepare to welcome the Lord of Glory.
Harold wanted to be in the annual Christmas program which was always a big production at his church. But Harold was not the top student in his class and seemed to have a lot of learning problems. The Sunday school teachers did not want to hurt Harold’s feelings, but they were worried about whether he could handle a part. They finally decided to give him the part of the Inn Keeper. All he had to say was, “I’m sorry, there is no room in the Inn.”
Well, the time for the program came and the church was packed. At the precise moment Mary and Joseph came and knocked on the Inn door. The whole village of Bethlehem shook as Harold tried to open the cardboard door to the Inn which was stuck. At last, he got the door open, and the pitiful young couple was standing there looking all too real to Harold, but with a little coaching he blurted out the words: “I’m sorry, all the rooms are full, and there’s no room for you here.” The couple turned sorrowfully away and began to walk off stage when all of a sudden, the door of the Inn swung open again, and Harold ran up to the couple and said in a loud voice so that everyone could hear, “Wait a minute. Come back. You can have my room. I’ll sleep in the shed.” Obviously, Harold didn’t follow script. He spoke from his heart and out of his love for Jesus.
This Christmas season you and I don’t have to follow the script either. We can give Him room — our room. We can give him the room of our heart. Jesus says to us before we celebrate his birth, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20). With that invitation from our Savior in mind let’s welcome the king of glory this Christmas. Let’s do it with proper preparation as we recognize who is coming and what makes us ready to welcome him. And as we consider the two Advents that we celebrate at Christmas we will be ready should our Savior suddenly return as judge of the living and the dead.
II.
As David thought of celebrating God’s arrival among his people he wasn’t looking forward to presents under a tree. He expressed his expectations in two thoughts in verses five and six. “5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.” Blessing from the LORD and a declaration of “not guilty” from the Savior is what David expected to receive when he welcomed the King of Glory.
All of us here this morning has certain expectations concerning Christmas. We have high hopes of making this the best Christmas ever. But as someone has said, “We’ll never top the first one!” May these verses from Psalm 24 work right expectations in us. At Jesus’ first Advent he came to bring us blessings. He joined our family so we could join his family. By leaving his Father’s house he opened that house to us. Lying in the manger he began his life under the Ten Commandments in our place. And at the end of that life, he would sacrifice himself for our sins. In the manger we find our holiness. While we celebrate his birth we also look forward to his second coming. Then the King of Glory will bring us even greater blessings and our final freedom from sin.
Being a warrior-king David had enthusiastic expectations for the coming of the LORD of glory. “7 Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 8 Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. 9 Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. 10 Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory.” David recognized that credit for his victories belonged to God. When the LORD fought for his people they were victorious.
When we think of Christ’s birth we may not think of warfare. A baby wrapped in strips of clothing lying in a feed box probably doesn’t cause us to think of a battlefield. But Jesus was born to fight. Hebrews 2:14-15 says, “14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” As Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, thought about Jesus’ birth he declared, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us—72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.” (Luke 1:68-75)
The King of Glory was born in Bethlehem to fight our battles. He came to carry out an all-out assault on Satan. By dying in our place, he would silence the ancient serpent forever. Jesus came to do battle against the power of sin in our lives. He came to fight death and walk out of the grave victorious. Those are the things that supply us with enthusiastic expectations this Christmas. The King of Glory who is mighty in battle is coming to fight for us! And as we see shadows of Christ’s Second Coming in our Christmas celebration we look forward to his final victory and the celebration that will follow.
Preparation. Expectation. When it comes to welcoming the King of Glory it really is that simple. May God enable us to have proper preparation in the next couple of weeks. Let’s stand in awe of God’s holiness and his love realizing that he must prepare us for his visit. And may God give us enthusiastic expectations for what is to come when he arrives. Amen.
