Church Sermon - December 15, 2002

PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD
Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Old Testament Lesson; Isaiah 61:1-3, 10-11
Sermon Text; John 1:6-8, 19-28

I was going to have everybody raise his or her hand and have you take a little test, but I don’t want to do that and embarrass anybody. What I was going to do was have you raise your hand. And, when everybody had his or her hand up, then I was going to say, "We’re going to take a little test to see how prepared you are for Christmas. Leave your hand up, if your Christmas Tree is up, the lights are on it, and all of the decorations are out at your house." I don’t know how many hands would go down at that point.

Then, I was going to say, "Leave your hand up, if all the presents are already taken care of. They are all wrapped and ready to go." I don’t know how many hands would have stayed up at that point.

Next, I was going to say, "Keep your hand up, if your Christmas Letter is written, the Christmas Cards have been addressed, they have gone out in the mail and are already there!" I don’t know how many hands could have stayed up at that point.

Finally, I was going to say, "Keep your hand up, if all of the baking has been done, and all of your Christmas Cookies are ready." I don’t know how many hands would have stayed up at that point.

I don’t how prepared you are, for Christmas to come.

But there was man who had, as his job, to prepare the people for the coming of Christ. His name was John the Baptist. That was the reason that John existed, to prepare people for the coming of Christ. In the book of Malachi it says, "I will send my messenger ahead of you, to prepare your way before you." That was the job of John, to prepare people. John, in today’s scripture reading says, "I am the voice of one crying in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’" That was his job, to prepare people for Christ.

And so, the question we ask this morning is, "How did John prepare people for the coming of Christ?"

He didn’t do it by telling people to

put up Christmas Trees.

He didn’t do it by telling people to

put lights on their trees.

He didn’t do it by telling people to

go out and buy presents for other people.

And, he didn’t do it by telling people to

send out cards and bake cookies.

But there was a very specific way that John the Baptist prepared people for the coming of Christ. And, when you think about what he did, it is almost a shocking way that John prepared people for the coming of Christ. How did John do it? Well, John walked out in the crowds of people that had gathered to see him, and he pointed at them and said, "You have committed adultery. You are a thief. You have plenty of clothing, but you don’t share with people who don’t have any clothes. You have plenty to eat, but you don’t share with those who don’t have enough to eat. You extort people. You falsely accuse people. You are greedy. You are envious. You have said things that hurt other people."

What a shocking way to prepare people for the coming of Christ! We put up trees with lights and get presents. They are all joyful ways. But John, John, spoke of sin. He troubled people. He told people, "You are poor, miserable, pitiful, wretched sinners. No matter what good you may do in your life and no matter how great it may appear in your eyes, in God’s eyes, in God’s eyes, without Christ, it is pitiable and miserable. All of our righteousness is like filthy rags and is damnable."

How is that preparing someone for the coming of Christ? Because it showed people, "I have sinned. I am a sinner and I see what I deserve in God’s eyes." It created in their hearts, a need. "If that is how God sees me, then I need a savior. I am hungry for a savior. I want a savior. I can’t be saved without a savior." And so, John prepared the hearts of the people by calling them to repent of their sin and look for a savior.

But you know that there were people whom John preached to, that still were not ready, when Jesus did come. They were not ready. Their hearts were not ready.

Is your heart ready? The greatest thing that blocks preparedness for our savior is a conceited heart, a heart that is spiritually conceited. A heart that says, "I don’t really need a savior" is a conceited heart. All of us, as we sit here today, and as I stand in this pulpit today, need to ask ourselves,

If, as you sit in your pew today, in your heart are thinking to yourself, "Why does he always have to talk about sin? Why does he always have to make it sound like we are so bad? Why does he have to make it sound like we are miserable, rotten, wretched, pitiable, damnable sinners? I don’t like to hear that and I don’t want to hear that."

If that happens to you in your heart, and if you think to yourself, "I am not as bad as he says. I am not that bad a sinner. Basically, it’s good, what goes on inside my heart, and in my life." Can I tell you something? You don’t need a savior.

You don’t need a savior,

because you have a conceited heart.

You might as well go home, take down your Christmas Tree, return the presents to the store, and don’t bother to mail the Christmas Cards that are still sitting on your table, because there is no reason for you to rejoice that a savior is born. If you don’t feel in your heart an absolute need for a savior to save you from all of your sins, then there is no reason for you to rejoice.

If we sit here today, and look out over the congregation, during the service, and look at this person or that person and think in our hearts, "What is she doing here? I know what kind of life she has lived. What is he doing here? I know what kind of life he has lived."

Or we look at the gentleman standing next to us and we think, "He isn’t hardly singing the hymns. What kind of Christian is he?"

Or we look at the family that has little ones who seem to be out of control. And, we think to ourselves, "Why can’t they control their children better than that? What are doing here in church, when they are like that?"

If we start to think that way, we sound an awful lot like the man who said, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men, evil doers, robbers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector."

If we start to think that way, we sound an awful lot like the example Jesus gave when He said, "Why do you try to take the speck out of your brother’s eye, when you don’t even see the plank that is in your own eye?"

If we are busy in our hearts, thinking that we are better than this person or that person, if we compare ourselves to other people, if we think that we are somehow pleasing to God in His eyes, and we don’t see the plank in our own eyes, which is the depth of our sin that scripture so clearly describes, then we don’t feel a need for a savior. We don’t need a savior. And, again, we might as well go home and take down the tree and return the presents, because there is no reason to celebrate the birth of a savior.

If we think, as we sit here today, "Well, I am a pastor. I am an elder. I am a member on a committee. I do so much for the church. Certainly God will be merciful to me, because of what I do." That is spiritual conceit. That is thinking that God is going to stroke us and pet us, because we have been so good and we deserve His love. Scripture says, "They all together have become worthless. There is no one who does good. Not even one."

If we think that we deserve God’s love and forgiveness, then we don’t need a savior, because we are our own savior. Again, we might as well go home and take down the tree, because we have no reason to celebrate the birth of Christ.

But to those who recognize, (and all of us must recognize), that certainly I have been secure and I have felt self secure. I have not always seen my sin the way I should. That false sense of security shows how deeply I have fallen and how corrupt I have become, because I don’t even see my own sin, all of the time. Those are the ones who John points to. John says to those individuals, "Repent."

What does it mean to repent? To repent means that in our hearts we say, "I am sorry. I am sorry. I know that I have sinned against God. I do not deserve to have God love me or care for me. As John the Baptist said, "I am unworthy to even untie the sandals of Christ."

Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest person that was ever born from woman. Just think, the man who Jesus said was the greatest man born from a woman, said about himself, "I am unworthy to even untie the sandals of Christ." That was the lowest of a slave and John said that he was not even worthy of the lowest job of a slave!

I am unworthy.

I am a sinner.

Repentance means to confess our sins, to admit our sins, admit that we don’t deserve anything from God. It means that we wish we were rid of that sin. It means to wish that God could not see that sin, and that it was gone forever. Those are the hearts that are truly ready to prepare for the coming of Christ.

Think about the people who saw themselves as poor, wretched, miserable sinners, who didn’t deserve to have God’s love. They were gathered together at the banks of the Jordan River, when John the Baptist pointed to a man on those same banks and said,

"Behold.

The Lamb of God

who takes away the sin of the world."

How their hearts must have begun to beat faster, as they thought, "He is the one who can save me. I need Him. I need His forgiveness. I need what He has to offer me."

Don’t our hearts start to beat faster in our breast, as we hear the words of Jesus who says,

"Come onto me,

all you who labor and are heavy laden and

I will give you rest."

We need Jesus. We need our Savior. We need the forgiveness of our sins.

Don’t our hearts start to beat faster in our breast, when we hear the scripture describe what Jesus, God’s Son, did for us.

"God laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

How that makes my heart beat faster, because there, my sin was paid for. How our hearts beat faster, when we see what happened on the cross. Our sins were paid for and satisfied. Heaven’s door was opened wide. God will not and does not hold our sins against us, because Jesus the savior, God’s Son, has fully, completely, absolutely, 100% paid for all of our sins, and lived the perfect life that we are not able to live! He has given that to us, as a free gift!

How our hearts beat faster, when we see our needed savior. Does Jesus shy away from sinners? It may be the natural reaction of our hearts to say, "Oh, I am such a sinner. Jesus wouldn’t want to be with me, would he?" Would He? Jesus does not run away from hearts that recognize their sin. That draws Him to those hearts. Jesus said,

"The Son of man came to

seek and save

that which was lost."

That is whom Jesus comes to. Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep. "Who of you, if you have a hundred sheep and lose one, won’t leave the other ninety-nine, go and look for him, until you find him." Jesus is drawn to look for sinners, to pick them up on his shoulders, to speak to them the words of forgiveness and to take them to His home in Heaven.

Are you ready for Christmas? Are you prepared? It doesn’t matter so much if the tree is up, with all of the lights on it, the presents are out, the cards are sent and the cookies are baked. What matters is whether your heart is prepared. Have you heeded the message of John the Baptist? Are you repentant over your sins? Do you long for a savior? Do you see the savior that John pointed to, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Those are the hearts that are truly prepared. Those are the hearts that will sing with true joy on Christmas Day,

Those are the hearts that will sing with true rejoicing, Rejoice,

Those are the hearts that will sing with true gladness,

Repentance over sin, and trust in Christ our savior…. hearts that are truly prepared.

Amen.

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