Old Testament Lesson; Isaiah 11:1-10
Epistle Lesson; Romans 15:4-13
Sermon Text; Matthew 3:1-12

Do you always keep your house neat and clean? For you as adults here this morning, do you have dishes in the sink at home? Are there dust bunnies under your bed? For the youth here today, is your bed made this morning? Do you have dirty clothes stuffed under your bed? Do you have toys lying on the floor? If I were to tell you that I was coming to your house this afternoon, would you have to rush home, after church, and make sure your house was prepared, ready, and in order?

This last Thursday, my wife Katie hosted the Naomi Circle December meeting at our house. On Thursday, she spent a portion of the day preparing the house for her friends. When Benjamin and Kira got home from school, they went and tidied up their portions of the house, to prepare for Katie’s friends to come over. And when I got home, I also prepared and tidied up portions of the house, because I knew that her friends were coming.

But, now let us look at things on a far grander scale. Let's say that Jesus was coming to your house this afternoon. Would you be prepared and ready for His coming?

That is really what the season of Advent is about. (Preparing our hearts and minds for Jesus coming.)

The word ‘advent’ means ‘coming.’ And last week, Pastor Bartels kicked off the Advent Season by reminding us of Jesus' second coming. The sermon text he used talked about "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." He reminded us that just as the world came to an end in Noah's day, the world is going to come to an end someday.

Are we ready for Jesus' second coming?

Well, today the message of John the Baptist is this. It is not going home, cleaning our house, getting those dust bunnies out from under the bed, cleaning up the dishes that are in the sink, and taking care of that proverbial pile of papers on the kitchen table. John's message is a message to prepare our hearts, through repentance and through faith. The message of John the Baptist is one of repentance.

Now, already seven hundred years before the forerunner of Christ came, it was prophesied what the message would be. And, our evangelist Matthew, reminds us of that. He says, "A voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight paths for Him."

If John the Baptist were to be here today, if John the Baptist were to come to your house this afternoon, and sit across the kitchen table from you, do you know what his message would be? It would be the same message that he proclaimed to the people of his day. He would tell us,

"You need to repent."

How would you respond, if John the Baptist, sitting across the kitchen table, told you and me that?

"You need to repent."

Here at Holy Cross, when visitors come and want to receive the Lord's Supper, we ask them to visit with us prior to their receiving the Lord’s Supper. It is an opportunity for Pastor Bartels and myself to visit with them. One of the first questions I ask (Pastor Bartels, I am not sure if you start with this question, but it is the one I start with),

"Do you believe that you are a sinner?"

Now, it does not happen very often, but maybe once or twice since I have been here, somebody has looked at me with the expression on his or her face, "How dare you? How dare you ask me if I am a sinner?"

Many years ago, after I had a funeral here at Holy Cross, after the committal service, somebody pulled me aside and said, "That was very inappropriate of you today, to talk about sin and to say that that person is a sinner."

But you see, brothers and sisters in Christ, if we do not see the ‘dust bunnies of sin’ in our heart, if we do not see the ‘dirty dishes of sin’ in our heart, then it is not ready and prepared to be cleaned.

Yes, the message that John the Baptist shares with us, once again today, is one we need to hear. As we hear his message, we hear that we are not perfect. I am not perfect. You are not perfect. If we are not perfect than we are sinful.

The first part of John the Baptist's message is one of repentance. Do we recognize our sin? Once we see those ‘dusty bunnies of sin’ and those ‘dirty dishes of sin’ in our lives, then we are ready. Ask yourself, where have I been less than perfect in my life? Think about your conversations, the way you have dealt with others around you.

When we do that, our hearts are prepared to hear that message of the forgiveness of sins that God, our Heavenly Father, so eagerly wants to share with us. That is the reason Jesus came. He came to give to us exactly what we need – the forgiveness of sin. God no longer holds grudges against us.

God keeps no record of wrongs.

Confessing our sin, and receiving God's forgiveness, through our Savior Jesus' birth, life, and death, we now want to reform our life.

Are we dishonest? Well then let us reform our life, with the help of God's Word, so that we can be honest.

Are we greedy? Well then, let us reform our life, with the help of God's Word, so that we can be generous.

Are we impatient? Well then, let us reform our life, with the help of God's Word. Let us be patient.

Do we have a temper? Well then, let us reform our life, and with the help of God's Word, let us be gentle.

Let us not ignore the message of John the Baptist. It is not one to ignore.

In our text for today, as the people were going out to see John the Baptist in the wilderness, joining them were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were that religious sect of people who thought they were better than other people. You could easily distinguish a Pharisee walking down the street, because they wore clothes so that they would stick out. They were known as ‘the separated ones.’ They liked to refer to themselves as ‘the companions.’ They thought they could keep the Law to its letter. But, they refused Christ. They refused the Messiah.

The same with the Sadducees. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees did not believe in angels. And as John came, preaching a message of repentance, the Kingdom of God is near, they did not want to hear that, because they were living for the here and the now. They also refused the Messiah and the Christ. They were concerned about this life not heaven.

May we not be like the Pharisees and Sadducees, but rather like the people who came out from Jerusalem. The people who came out from Jerusalem to hear the message that John the Baptist had to declare, confessed their sins and were baptized by John in the Jordan River.

The reason that John the Baptist’s message of repentance is not one to ignore, is because eternal implications are at stake.

The illustration is not as common to us today, as it used to be because we are more of an urban culture, but in the very last verse of our text, John the Baptist says, "His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Believers are the wheat. Unbelievers are the chaff. Jesus is coming and He will take His winnowing fork. He is the farmer and He will take his winnowing fork, throwing the wheat, (believers), into His ‘barn’ of eternal life in Heaven. And then, gathering up the chaff, He will throw it into that unquenchable fire of eternal life in Hell.

Is your house clean? Adults, do you have dirty dishes in the sink? Are there dust bunnies under your bed? Children, is your bed made? Are there dirty clothes under the bed? Are toys scattered around on the floor, needing to be picked up? If you knew that I was coming to your house this afternoon, would you need to run home and make sure that things were prepared and ready?

The message of the advent season is a message of preparation. The message of John the Baptist is that:

Jesus is coming!

And, it is not that we need to have those dust bunnies cleaned up under the bed. It is not that we need to have those dirty dishes in the sink cleaned. What we need is a clean heart. With a clean heart, having sins confessed, our heart is cleansed by the forgiveness of sins that God, our Heavenly Father, so graciously gives us, for Jesus' sake.

Last week, Pastor Bartels reminded us of Jesus' second coming. "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." Today the message of John the Baptist is preparing our hearts through repentance, through forgiveness, to have a reformed life.

May your heart, this Advent Season, be prepared for the coming of the Lord!

Amen.