A PRELUDE TO MESSAIAH’S COMING
Text: Matthew 3:1-3
Introduction:
Many good things in life depend largely on our careful planning and preparation for them. If you don’t want anything big to happen don’t do anything. If you want to fail in any task, be passive toward it. If you want things to fall into the cracks, all you have to do is just stand there and watch. The bottom line is that there is no gain, achievement, victory or success without intense preparation for it.
Advent is a season that invites us to anticipate and prepare for Christ’s coming. It is certainly a suitable time for reflecting on this biblical promise of the coming kingdom, since it is also the time which prepares for the celebration of the birth of its Savior and King.
The Advent message last Sunday taught us how to live anticipating the fulfillment of that glorious future with God. We learned that it is urgent that we walk this pilgrimage of life with our eyes paying attention to the promised Kingdom. We learned that to walk the spiritual walk of life, we must not allow our feet to lead our eyes, but to let the eyes do the walking. Our earthly feet are acquainted only with what is temporal and often disappointing. They know all about suffering and pain, death and grief. Walking, on the other hand, anticipating and celebrating the biblical promise that there is indeed more to life than all that happens to us here, is very essential to the Christian walk. No matter how difficult the journey may be, it is a means to a greater and eternal end for which we live and whose fulfillment we anticipate.
Today’s Advent message takes the first message a step further. We are not only instructed during this most favored season of the year to anticipate the return of Christ, but also to prepare for it.
Preparing for an event or task is often the critical part in causing that event or task to be a big success.
But preparing for an event or task is not only critical but also have critical rules that must be followed. Here then are the rules which we need to continually remember as we seek to follow a healthy process of preparation:
First: There is the rule of giving of ourselves that we might successfully achieve that for which we prepare. I am not talking here about the contributing of time and effort, though that is part of it. Here I speak of a special type of giving, the giving of our total selves first to God. It is the giving of body, soul and spirit for God’s use that we may achieve, for ourselves and for others, the higher ends of God. This is not, as you can see, charity giving. This is dedication giving. It is the giving of who and what we are. It is the type of giving expressed in a an engraved picture on one of the ancient cathedrals in Europe where an apostle stands between an altar and a plough, the symbols of dieing and serving, with the inscription, ‘READY FOR EITHER.” This rule of sacrificially giving of ourselves that we might prepare the way of the Lord, is like the case in all the experiences of life. It is a common- sense rule that applies to all the situations of life: Without serving that which we need to achieve, we simply can’t achieve it. Life is a series of giving that we might gain. Only where is input can we expect an output. Only when we deposit, can we expect return. Don’t participate, don’t expect. No pain, no gain. Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.
The businessman or woman knows that; the student knows that; the investor, the athlete, everyone knows that. A good career doesn’t simply happen. Staying healthy is not an act of nature. Financial security is not the work of luck. A happy marriage is never automatic. An enjoyable overseas vacation is almost impossible without long and careful planning. “The land of the free” is never in someone’s will for someone else to inherit it. If we are to remain, the land of the free, we must to continue to defend our freedoms. Even in our natural bodies, the principle is the same, “No air breathed in, no air breathed out, and the body simply dies. The examples and illustrations for this point can go on and on as long as we permit them, but we all get the point. Giving ourselves to the tasks to our goals is the key for dreams to become realities, for hopes to become facts. Without hard work and continued sacrifices as we prepare to fulfill our goals, our goals will remain just ideas in our heads, good ideas to be sure, but nothing more.
If we are to apply this principle to our topic of preparation for Messiah’s coming, we must come to the conclusion that without the giving of our total selves to God, we should neither anticipate nor have the right to hope for the coming of Messiah to be our God. Sure he will come regardless, but only to those who made the decision to believe in, and live for him, ever serving and ever sacrificing for his kingdom. It is biblically safe to say that only those who are part of Christ’s Kingdom would prepare for that kingdom, and only those who prepare for it, would be the recipients of it. The Kingdom of God is not for every one.
This, my friends, was why John came preaching in the wilderness of his confused culture and corrupt society saying, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” John’s message of preparing the way included two basic elements:
He first exhorted those who gathered around him to prepare the way of the Lord in their hearts. This, he illustrated by the term, “Repent” which is defined in the original terminology as turning oneself around and changing one’s direction, to begin walking toward God, to return or come back, to regain a healthy sense of direction, to change one’s mind in regards to the worldly old ways of being and behaving and by adopting the highway of God.
The second exhortation was to prepare the way of the Lord in their communities. They were to seek to prepare a way for divine intervention in the politics, economy, religion, moral and ethics of their time. John exhorted his listeners to make straight a way for God that he might reach out to others as he reached down to them. So this task of preparing the way that Christ may come into people’s lives, and to make possible among many, the knowledge and experience of God in Christ is the ever-present message of Chris’s followers.
The way of the Lord or the kingdom of God doesn’t happen automatically. There must be forerunners to proclaim its message of redemption, to express its peace and love, to show its truthfulness, to teach its ways, and to project the difference it can make in lives.
Without such tasks of preparation, it is impossible to make Christ’s coming the joyful experience it should be. But without this type of preparation, many will miss the opportunity of God’s future with his people. That is how urgent our task of preparing for winning souls for Christ is.
Second: There is the rule of achieving only in accordance to the extent of our preparations. This rule says, “You only achieve in accordance to how much you give of yourself.” The quality and the extent of our efforts usually determine the quality and the extent of the results.” If we wish for an event or task to be successful, we must give the preparation for it all we can. What I am saying here is this: The mere preparing for something is never enough. Preparation must be diligent and careful. We must know all the facts, examine all the sides, and know all the possibilities before we attempt an action. And when we begin the process of acting and preparing for that which we desire to achieve, we must be consistent in giving the preparation all we can. It is not acceptable to give birth to a child and then live as if that child doesn’t exist. It is not wise to finally marry the woman of your dreams and then act as if you are still single. It is not OK to build a church in a resort area and then expect it to support itself financially. It is not sufficient to learn in Bible studies the urgent message of the scriptures and then keep it as a divine secret. It is not rewarding to make a decision to accept Christ as your Savior and then decide that you don’t need the church. Important life-ventures require constant commitment, careful preparation, and sacrifices. When mother Teresa prepared to go as a missionary to India, she knew that her decision was a lifelong calling. You know the rest of the story. I hope it is yours and mine, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”
Third: There is the rule of persistence in our attempts to achieve. This first rule says that we don’t achieve unless we give our total selves. The second rule says that the extent of our achievement is determined by the extent of our careful efforts. Now we are face to face with a third rule. This rule says that we must persist as we prepare for that which we want to achieve. This rule reminds us that as we discover how hard it is to prepare a way for God in the wilderness of our culture, we must never give up no matter how hard or how often we have tried.
A New York pastor reminds us, “There is always a rat within the word “Preparation.” This “rat” has been part of the letters of that word ever-since we learned to spell it.”
It isn’t easy to prepare for anything big or great. Preparation is time consuming, and energy demanding. Preparation requires patience and persistence. Preparation is often 90% of all that we do in life. A popular actor expresses it this way, “It is the time, which I spend consulting, advertising, corresponding with managers and producers, negotiating fees, meeting with sponsors, memorizing parts, rehearsing, traveling to where I would be performing, choosing my stage clothes, that I don’t enjoy. It is tiring and very often frustrating. But when I am on stage, it is fun which I can’t express in words.” There is a rat in preparation, and our task is to keep chasing that rat out of the way until the preparation is completed and Christ rules.
