Preparation for Christmas
Mark 1: 1-8
The title of today’s message is “Preparation for Christmas.” This probably suggests to you; going to the attic and bringing down all the decorations, putting up the tree and all the lights, purchasing the gifts, doing all the holiday cooking and baking and maybe a thousand other things that “need” to be done before Christmas. But that is not what I mean at all.
In addition you may find today Scripture an unusual choice for a Christmas series since in Mark we find the only gospel account in the Bible that has nothing at all to say about the birth of Jesus. In fact Mark mentions neither the miraculous conception nor the birth of Jesus.
Last week in “The Prophecies of Christmas” we saw that before Jesus was born in human form it had been prophesied for hundreds of years and today I want us to see that before Jesus presented himself as the Messiah there was a call to preparation.
Mark begins his account of the life of Jesus in this way, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. (2) As it is written in the Prophets: "Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You." (3) "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.’"
Even though Mark doesn’t give us a classic Christmas story, when he opens his book, he essentially wraps up the Christmas message in just a few words. There is nothing wrong with Christmas trees and tinsel and children delight at the unwrapping of presents and food and laughter and the making of family memories. All those things make Christmas special.
The opening line of Mark is “the beginning of the Gospel” – “Gospel” translated means literally “good news.” The beginning of the good news is how it reads. Our task at Christmas is not to chop down the tree of celebration – rather it is to rediscover the cause of celebration – “What is this good news?”
Mark does not begin his gospel account with the birth of Christ instead he tells about a rather unusual character named John the Baptist.
This morning I want us to note three things about John.
First, He Was An Unusual Messenger
Verse six says of John, “Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.”
I get the impression that John who was the cousin of Jesus was a little different. You probably have some people in your family that could be classified as a little different. There are just some folks who if you invited them to social function you would feel a little uncomfortable to have them around. John was like that. John wore clothes made of camel hair, wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locust and wild honey. He was a man of desert, he ate the food of the desert and he wore the clothing of the desert.
Not Only Was He Was An Unusual Messenger but …
Secondly, He Had An Unexpected Message
Mark states that John fulfilled the prophecies of both Malachi (3:1) and Isaiah (40:3-5). The more extensive prophecy of Isaiah says, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. (4) Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; (5) The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
When John the Baptist comes he acts as a Herald or an announcer that Jesus is coming, “prepare the way for the Lord.” The word translated “prepare” can be used of making a thing ready or keeping it ready. John was not telling them to prepare a literal road, rather he is telling them to prepare themselves for the coming of Jesus. He says, “get ready!”
In our love of the celebration of the birth of Jesus I think we sometimes get lost. We love to prepare for Christ because it’s like preparing for a baby to be born. We get so wrapped up in the manager scene that we forget that He is not a baby anymore! We think that somehow he is satisfied to see us make our annual appearance at Christmas and sing a few Christmas Carols. This one who was born into a crude manage is now a KING.
John the Baptist was telling people, “you need to get ready because someone more powerful than I is coming.” John the Baptist tries to get the world ready for Christ. The world of his day was made up of religious and non-religious people, neither of which was ready for the Lord. The non-religious of his day, like our own, liked their sin and didn’t want Christ in their lives. The religious of that day and now, think that they don’t need Christ. So when Christ came, the religious and the non-religious alike rejected him. They were not ready for Christ to come into their lives.
John’s voice was one crying out in the barren places. At this time of the year people are expected to be happy but in fact there are more suicides than at any other time of the year. In the midst of much cluttered activity and partying, in many lives there is spiritual dryness. The question is “Have you prepared your heart to receive Jesus?”
How are we to get ready? In verse four, John uses the word “repent.” “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” John tells us the preparation that we need to make is to “repent.” The Greek word translated “repentance” (metanoia) is a word that means “a change of mind.” The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
Two kinds of repentance are possible in human experience. One is ‘the sorrow of the world,” a feeling induced by the fear of getting caught. Many people recognize the unpleasant consequences of their sin and are persuaded that they are guilty. This results in a superficial sorrow that may lead to a temporary reformation but not to a genuine turning to Christ for forgiveness. “Godly sorrow,” on the other hand, is accompanied by conviction of sin, which is a work of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:37). This stems from the realization of offending a holy God. It leads to genuine repentance. Repentance may begin with a sorrowful heart but to be genuine must lead to determined action!
The call to repent is one of the most important things we will hear among the sounds of exchanges of Christmas greetings, the singing of carols, shouts of joy as presents are opened.
Not Only Did He Have An Unexpected Message but …
Third, He Had An Extraordinary Ministry
In verse five we read, ”Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.”
“It was a bright Sunday morning in 28th century London, but Robert Robinson’s mood was anything but sunny. All along the street there were people hurrying to church, but in the midst of the crowd Robinson was a lonely man. The sound of church bells reminded him of years past when his faith in God was strong and the church was an integral part of his life. It had been years since he set foot in a church—years of wandering, disillusionment, and gradual defection from the God he once loved. That love for God—once fiery and passionate—had slowly burned out within him, leaving him dark and cold inside.
Robinson heard the clip-clop, clip-clop of a horse-drawn cab approaching behind him. Turning, he lifted his hand to hail the driver. But then he saw that the cab was occupied by a young woman dressed in finery for the Lord’s Day. He waved the driver on, but the woman in the carriage ordered the carriage to be stopped.
“Sir, I’d be happy to share this carriage with you,” she said to Robinson. “Are you going to church?” Robinson was about to decline, then he paused. “Yes,” he said at last. “I am going to church.” He stepped into the carriage and sat down beside the young woman.
As the carriage rolled forward Robert Robinson and the woman exchanged introductions. There was a flash of recognition in her eyes when he stated his name. “That’s an interesting coincidence,” she said, reaching into her purse. She withdrew a small book of inspirational verse, opened it to a ribbon-bookmark, and handed the book to him. “I was just reading a verse by a poet named Robert Robinson. Could it be…?”
He took the book, nodding. “Yes, I wrote these words years ago.”
“Oh, how wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Imagine! I’m sharing a carriage with the author of these very lines!”
But Robinson barely heard her. He was absorbed in the words he was reading. They were words that would one day be set to music and become a great hymn of the faith, familiar to generations of Christians:
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace’
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
His eyes slipped to the bottom of the page where he read:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it—
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
He could barely read the last few lines through the tears that brimmed in his eyes. “I wrote these words—and I’ve lived these words. ‘Prone to wander…prone to leave the God I love.’”
The woman suddenly understood. “You also wrote, ‘Here’s my heart, O take and seal it.’ You can offer your heart again to God, Mr. Robinson. It’s not too late.”
And it wasn’t too late for Robert Robinson. In that moment he turned his heart back to God and walked with him the rest of his days.
[Ron Lee Davis, Courage to Begin Again, (Harvest House, Eugene, OR; 1978), pp. 145-147- www.bible.org/illus/r/r-37]
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator;
If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist;
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer;
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
In order for Jesus to enter you life, it may mean that you are going to experience some difficult construction processes. A few rough bumps may be need to round off the rough edges in you life.
For some of you there may be some low spots that need to filled in. Some valleys of illness, depression or self-pity that Christ wants to fill with peace and comfort so that you can ready to experience the reality of Christ in your life.
