Second Sunady of Advent 2005
www.valleyforge
Dr. Paul G. Humphrey
The following series of advertisements reportedly appeared in a daily newspaper:
Monday: "The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale. Telephone 626-1313 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Donnelley who lives with him, cheap."
Tuesday: "We regret any embarrassment caused to Rev. Jones by a typographical error in yesterday’s paper. The ad should have read: ’The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale, cheap...Telephone 626-1313 and ask for Mrs. Donnelley, who lives with him after 7 p.m.’"
Wednesday: "The Rev. A.J. Jones informs us that he has received several annoying telephone calls because of an incorrect ad in yesterday’s paper. It should have read: ’The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale, cheap. Telephone 626-1313 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Donnelley who loves with him.’"
Thursday: "Please take notice that I, the Rev. A.J. Jones, have no color TV set for sale; I have smashed it. Don’t call 626-1313 anymore. I have not been carrying on with Mrs. Donnelley. She was, until yesterday, my housekeeper.’"
Friday: "Wanted: a housekeeper. Usual housekeeping duties. Good pay. Love in, Rev. A.J. Jones. Telephone 626-1313.’"
Mistakes are inevitable in the publishing business. They are inevitable in life, as well.
(SermonCentral, SOURCE: First United Methodist Church, Meadville, PA. Content, The Newsletter, August, 1990, p. 3. Contributed by: David Yarbrough)
We each and every one have made great mistakes. But the good news of the Gospel is that God has a remedy. Jesus is coming! He enters into broken lives with a double cure for sin and mistakes. Prepare his way!
I. Preparing our Hearts
Let us look together to chapter one of the book of Mark.
MK 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
MK 1:2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way" –
MK 1:3 "a voice of one calling in the desert,
`Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him." [1]
The very beginning of Mark not only quotes, but shows the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy regarding the coming Messiah. We see in the next few verses that John the Baptist is the fore-runner who will prepare the way for the Messiah, and we see that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
I hope that you realize that verse three says something very special about the presence of Jesus. It says prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight. If you look at the verse in the Old Testament from which this comes, Isaiah 40:3, your Bible probably has LORD written in capital letters, which designates that the Hebrew word behind it is YHWH, the unspeakable name of God. Prepare the way of God!
The commandment is “make his paths straight.”
I have read that in ancient times, when a king would visit a city, messengers (heralds) would be sent ahead and the people of a city would go out and prepare the roads. Romans certainly took great pride in their roads. Yet, the way that Scripture is speaking of is not a road of dirt or stone, but a road of flesh, the heart.
How did John make the paths straight for the coming of the Messiah? Look with me to verse four.
MK 1:4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
For John, primary to his task of preparing the way for the coming Messiah was a preaching of repentance, and through this baptism the cleansing was illustrated. As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, repentance is paramount. You don’t hear a lot of sermons these days on repentance. People think, “Oh, that is negative.” But let me tell you, it is a topic that can bring happiness into your life like no other topic that I know.
PS 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.”
There is another that is very similar.
PS 34:18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
When was the last time that you got on your knees and let the tears flow before God for the regrets over wrong decisions that you have made in life? Sin is often doing something wrong (sins of commission), but most of the sins that Jesus addresses concern the failure to do something right (sins of omission). Either way, they are regrets and mistakes. If our sins are not regrets, then we are not going to be repenting of them anyway.
The message of Christmas, “A Savior has come” is a message that says, “we can lay our sins, our worries, our regrets, our fears and so many other things that wiegh us down at the feet of God.”
I challenge each and every one of you here today to, as the old song used to say, spend a little time with Jesus, and tell him about your troubles. Regret is something we carry with us. We are not going to be happy in this world carrying regret over mistakes that we have made in life. We can get rid of such, and know the peace and forgiveness that Jesus offers. The very offer of the Gospel is a message of joy. Through the Gospel we find a peace that is beyond understanding.
There was a priest from up north who was sent to a Catholic Church in South Georgia peanut-growing country, and he had some difficulty in understanding the ways of the South. One day he was in the confessional booth when three boys came in for confession. The first boy had among his confessions that he had been throwing peanuts in the river. The priest thought that was odd, but dismissed the boy without questioning. The second boy, among his sins also said, “I have been throwing peanuts in the river.” The third boy came in and confessed to some minor infraction, and the preacher asked him. “Why is it wrong to throw peanuts in the river?” The boy responded, “I am Peanuts.” (Source unknown)
Friends, as we come before God, we don’t need an intercessor apart from Jesus. It is good for us to confess our sins before one another, as long as they are confidants that we can trust. But ultimately, it is to God that we confess our sins. Jesus even taught us to pray “forgive us our trespasses and we forgive those who trespass against us.”
If you want to prepare your heart for Christmas, come before him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Receive the forgiveness of sins. And, let go of them, the Bible tells us that there is one thing that God will forget, what is that? It is the sins that we have repented of.
Here me again. Let go of them! Do you repeatedly ask forgiveness for a sin that you committed years ago. Jesus is faithful to forgive us, and we need to have the faith to believe him on the matter.
MK 1:5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
The crowds came. What would it have looked like? Maybe one was baptized, repenting of his sins and he went back into town, and what do you suppose he looked like? Do you think that he was depressed? “Well, I was baptized and repented of my sins, I feel so lowly.” No, I would say to you that the guy would have come into town joyous, proclaiming, “I know a freedom that I have never known before.” I know peace! This is a joyful message. This is the Good News of Christmas, not the bad news, not the depressing news. It is a cleansing message.
Mark 1:6 John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
II. Preparing our Hearts by Receiving his Gift
Thus far, we have talked about repentance and seeking forgiveness from God. John’s message for us doesn’t stop there. There is a Hebrew word for repentance, nichum, which comes from the Hebrew root word, nacham, meaning, to blow out all of your air, to breathe strongly; by implication, to be sorry.
We have each experienced this, we call it a sigh. When we are on the bottom of the world in regret we face this experience. We blow out our air, our shoulders drop, our heads hang low, as we say, “my God how I have failed you.” Have you been there? I know that I sure have.
The good news that I have is that God will not leave us empty or alone! As that breath of repentance blows out God has another wind that will replace it! Did you know that the word for Spirit in Greek is Pneuma, means wind or breath. We get our word pneumonia from it. And, this is something that John is telling us about hand in hand with repentance.
Not only is this Good News of Christmas about the forgiveness of sin, and the preparation of our hearts with joy for the journey, but also about a wind that will fill our sails as we follow Jesus in the way, preparing the way for others.
Jesus is our Lord and Savior. As savior, he forgives us our sins. As Lord, he will fill us with his Holy Spirit and empower us to empower others for the journey.
MK 1:9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
III. We can Prepare the Way this Christmas too.
What a message for the world today! But don’t think that this message is not going to be met with resistance.
If we continued in Mark, we would see that right after this Jesus is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness where the tempter awaits. And, I would say to you, as you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, or as you step out for him in a new way, look for it to be met with resistance by the enemy. Satan is a defeated foe, but, he is also the puppeteer of Godless people, and the tempter of Godly people.
This Jesus is continually coming into the world bringing his Kingdom, and the salvation that only he offers, and his Kingdom is at odds with the world.
Christmas is a special time, a time when hearts are being opened for the reception of Christ. Old grudges are set aside. Old wounds are healed. Joy replaces bitterness. People begin to think of others rather than just themselves. We, as his disciples have a responsibility in preparing the way.
I sometimes feel like one crying in the wilderness to a world at odds with Jesus.
They are tearing down the road signs. If the sign says Christ, the old devil is going to try to tear it down. The devil is evil, not stupid. If he is convincing enough to cause a third of the angels of heaven to follow him, then his arguments for silencing that word that he hates so badly is going to be cleaver as well.
People in the world today have started using CE rather than AD. Why, because Anno Domini means “year of our Lord.” And, Lord is a word that Satan hates. Hey, if they want to change the name of our dating system and take Christ out of it, let them come up with their own numbering system as well. But we just roll over and play dumb as that which is Christian is stolen. We are to prepare the way!
Would it be thinkable to take the Star of David, and say, this no longer represents Judaism; we have decided to change the meaning? From now own it will represent all religions?
Would it be thinkable to stand up a statue of Buddha and call it something else?
But it is ok to take Christ out of Christmas, because, who cares who offends Christians.
Stores are refusing to mention the name of Christ, rejecting the word Christmas, in fear of offending someone. Well, they are worried about offending anyone but Christians. We are fair game to all.
Christians need to stand up and prepare the way for Christ to enter into hearts in America. Christmas is a Christian holiday, it is a sign in the way, don’t let the devil steal it. Let corporations know that you will not spend your money where Christ is taken out of Christmas. And you might even remind them that holiday is really “holy day.”
Friends, my message to you this Christmas is, “Prepare your hearts.” Receive the cleansing, peace and good conscious that our redeemer offers us. And, look for the loving ways that you can go about preparing the way for others during this Christmas season. Every sign that you place can be a sign in the way pointing to Christ. Let the Spirit guide you in preparing the way of Christ, and his way of salvation.
Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born, and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn. Let us turn in our hymnals to Go Tell it on the Mountain.
[1] All Scripture quotes are taken from the New International Version of the Bible unless otherwise stated.
