Amen Prepare the Way by Dave Howard Isaiah 40:3-5; Mark 1:1-8; 2 Peter 3:8-15 The best news of the year 550BC, according to Isaiah, speaking to a nation that had been destroyed by an invading army and carried away into exile in a foreign country, to a nation living as slaves was, “One is coming who will restore your fortunes. One is coming who will redeem you from slavery and carry you home out of exile to the Promised Land again. The Lord Himself is coming.” The best news of the year 30AD, according to John the Baptist, speaking to a Jewish nation under the oppressive Roman regime, suffering cruel taxation and even crueller physical abuse was: “Someone powerful is coming. Someone worthy is coming. Someone who will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and set you free is coming. The Lord Himself is coming to you.” The best news of the year AD64, according to Peter was: “The Lord is coming again. The end of this world of darkness and sin and disease and corruption is coming. The destruction of the world of war and hatred and rape and murder and sorrow and mourning and pain is coming. The creation of the new heavens and the new world of joy and laughter and perfection and love is coming. The Lord Himself is coming to you again!” The best news of 2014 is: “The Lord is coming to you today. He’s not only coming when the world is destroyed by fire and the new heavens and the new earth are created. He is coming to you by His Spirit TODAY. He is coming into your life with power and glory and love and the gift of a new life of joy and love and peace … THIS VERY DAY.” In 550BC the Israelites wanted to know: What must we do for this to happen? In 30AD the Jews wanted to know: What must we do for this to happen? In 64AD the disciples of Peter, both Jew and Gentile, wanted to know: What must we do for this to happen? I hope that perhaps in 2014AD the people of CMC also want to know: What must we do for this to happen? What must we do to be delivered by our God, Isaiah? What must we do to be set free from slavery to sin, John? What must we do to inherit the new heavens and the new earth, Peter? What must we do to receive the gift of a new life in the Spirit, the life of power and glory and love and joy and peace? I hope you want to know because that is what the rest of this message is about. 1. Repent While Isaiah does not tell the Israelites what they have to do because he is declaring an unconditional promise of God, both John and Peter make it clear that the first and foremost thing a human being needs to do to prepare for the coming of the Lord in whichever way the Lord is coming is this: REPENT! Mark 1:4 says, “John came preaching a baptism of repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 says, “He is patient … wanting everyone to come to repentance.” To repent is to make a 180 degree about-turn. When you do a U-turn in your car, first you are facing this way and then you end up facing that way. Your car has literally repented. In the Greek, the word is metanoia and it means a complete change of mind. A U-turn in my mind-set. When it comes to the spiritual and Biblical understanding of the concept of repentance, we’re talking about: 1. a person who is living with their mind firmly set on pleasing themselves and taking as much as they can out of life for themselves, 2. having a complete U-turn and deciding that 3. from this moment I am going to have my mind completely set on pleasing God and on giving as much as I can of my life to God and His pleasure. In other words we are talking about: 1. A person who is walking down the road to destruction and hell 2. having a complete U-turn and deciding that 3. from this moment on I am going to walk down the road leading to God … the road leading to LIFE! 2. Be set apart for God The way John the Baptist put this point was: “Be baptised!” The way Peter put this is: “Since everything is going to be destroyed in this way (i.e. since Jesus is returning to incorporate His Kingdom) what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” I want to try to express this really clearly! God never intended that we should make some kind of emotional or knee-jerk decision to turn away from sin and turn towards Him … and then leave it at that. God wants us to make a deep and deliberate and reasoned and decisive and irreversible decision to leave a life of sin behind us and to open our lives up to Him. And when we make that kind of decision we are essentially deciding to sell our souls to God! I say it that way because when I say, “That person sold their soul to the devil”, you know exactly what I mean. I mean that they made the decision to give themselves over entirely to the devil’s control so that he can do with them whatever he wants to. They are sacrificing their lives into the service of the devil. And one thing we know for sure is that this also means that they will now be saturated with the presence of evil! So when I say that to repent has to go one step further and we have to sell our souls to God … what I’m trying to express is that following Jesus Christ has never been an add-on to one’s existing life. You don’t just add on Satanism to a person’s life and everything else continues exactly as it did before. Now if that is so obviously true, surely it is logical that to become a Christian cannot just be added on to a person’s life and everything else continues the same way as ever before! No! Never! To respond to the call of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus in our lives means to sell our souls to Jesus … to make a total and utter surrender to the Spirit of Jesus … to sacrifice our lives in to the service of Jesus. And one thing we know for sure is that this will also mean that we will be saturated with the presence of Jesus. Through a real, deep, deliberate, reasoned, decisive and irreversible decision to leave a life of sin behind us and to open our lives up to Jesus Christ … will release God to saturate us with His presence and make us truly godly from the inside. He will change our nature. He will saturate us with His holiness on the inside. Living a holy and godly life is NOT primarily, first and foremost about our behaviour. It is primarily about having opened our lives up to Jesus Christ to such a complete extent that he has invaded our lives (by invitation) with His Spirit … taken occupation … taken possession of us (by invitation) and has changed our spiritual nature from sinner to saint … from godless to godly … from self-centred to set-apart for God … godly and holy! And as a sign of that decision … of the true inner baptism of the Spirit of God in our lives … He invites us to be physically baptised … he invites us to MARK ourselves out as having made that decision! Now for a Hindu living in India to take Christian water baptism … or a Muslim in Afghanistan … that is so radical an action that everyone in their community will know that they are Christian now and the way everyone sees them and relates to them will instantly change. Here in SA Christianity has been so watered down and so culturally acceptable for so long that actually to take water baptism is kind of cute. So whereas a Hindu in India or a Muslim in Afghanistan will face rejection and even martyrdom after baptism … no-one here will even bat an eyelid. So we need to do more! We need to not just be baptised in a Church. We need to advertise the fact that we have made a decision for Christ! Christian baptism in Jesus’ day advertised the fact that you belonged to Jesus! That’s the whole point of Christian baptism – to advertise to the world – to make one’s decision clearly evident to ALL. We need to find creative ways in addition to water baptism to make the same statement … I BELONG TO JESUS! I HAVE SOLD OUT TO JESUS! I HAVE SET MY LIFE APART FOR JESUS! 3. Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him If we want to be ready for encounters with God through Jesus Christ … whether today by the Spirit or at our death or at the return of the King … we have to repent to God … be set apart for God … and we also then have to LIVE! John the Baptist told those who came to him for teaching about how to live now that they had repented: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Live a transformed life!” Peter phrases the same teaching in these words: “Make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him.” Living out a God-honouring life is at its heart really about co-operating with the Holy Spirit who is already at work within us to change our nature from the inside … by letting that change come out in the way we live .. .and in fact by making every effort to let that change come out of us in the way we live! We are called to live in a way that deliberately and with great effort strives to conform our character and our conduct to that of Christ Jesus. It does not happen automatically. The Spirit of God is constantly prompting us to live in that way … he is constantly giving us the power to live in that way … but WE have to make the decision ... and we have to make the daily choices that confirm that decision … and we have to perform the actions that such a decision entails. We are not forced in to godly living … we are not forced to make the decision to be live a spotless and blameless life … but the Spirit of God empowers us to do so … and so we have no excuse if we fail to grow in holiness of life! Now the world we live in has many standards of success. Ask someone how it’s going and they’ll be quite likely to tell you how busy they are. That’s one standard of success. We might look at the way someone dresses or listen to the way they speak and be likely to form an impression of how successful they are. We’ll look at a church and see how many people go there or how much of the latest equipment or gadgetry they have and be likely to form an impression of their success. But with Jesus Christ, and in His Kingdom, there is one standard of success: “Have you lived a life that is spotless and blameless before God and have you lived at peace with God?” Let me rephrase that before you think the question means: “Are you perfect?” – for it certainly does NOT mean that! Here’s what it means: What is the state of your relationship with God? Are you living close to God? (at peace with God) Are you living in obedience to what you understand God’s will to be (blameless)? When you fail are you turning back time and time again to God in repentance and godly sorrow over your sin (spotless)? Conclusion Sometimes Advent and Christmas can be a time of such fuzzy-wuzzy Christianity in our churches that the world gets a warped impression of not only what Christmas is about, but also of what Christ and Christianity are about. This Advent, hear the call of Isaiah, John the Baptist and Peter, to accept the truth that the offer of Jesus is an offer of a life of radical and total commitment to the person of Jesus Christ: • A radical repentance form all that is displeasing to Him; • A radical sacrifice of your soul to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; • A radical coming out of the closet as a Christian; • A radical commitment to living with Jesus and for Jesus!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 09:29:52 +0000
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