Luke 3:1-6 * December 10, 2006 *
Advent 2 * Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
We associate certain people with certain times or epochs or events. For example, if we are discussing the early days of our country, we wouldn’t get too far into the conversation without mentioning George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. Or if we were to talk about our country’s involvement in the Second World War, certain people immediately come to mind.
In the same manner, the man in our text has a definite association with the season of the Church Year we are now observing. At this time each year we can be sure his name will pop up in our hymns, prayers and Scripture lessons. In fact, he’s already been mentioned a number of times today. And rightly so, because
JOHN THE BAPTIST IS THE ULTIMATE ADVENT FIGURE
This morning we’ll be taking up the life and work of John the Baptist, a person our Savior once referred to as having no equals among those born of women. And as we will quickly determine from our text, he is
1. No ordinary man, with
2. No ordinary message
And through him God has a lot to teach us. So without further introduction, let’s turn our attention to this text.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar – when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanius tetrarch of Abilene – during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. There are two particular items about John the Baptist that the inspired writer, Luke, wants every reader of his Gospel to know.
Number one is this simple fact: John the Baptist was real. We can’t help but notice that a significant amount of historical data is given. Luke does not begin his information about John the Baptist here by saying this happened “once upon a time.” Rather, he gets specific. He pinpoints dates and years and events and people.
Why? He is impressing upon us once again that what we have in the Scriptures are not just a collection of Bible “stories,” but an assembly of historical accounts. He places John the Baptist squarely on the plane of space and time. He was not a mythical character, but a real flesh and blood man.
But certainly not an ordinary man. Because the second thing we are to know is that John the Baptist was special. He had a specific role to play. In one of his Advent sermons Martin Luther makes repeated mention of the “finger” of John the Baptist. By that he meant that John pointed to the Savior who was to come. His was the privilege of introducing Jesus to a watching and waiting world. John was the “forerunner.”
That he did not assume this role for himself our text makes clear when we are told “the word of God came to him.” In other words, God Himself chose and commissioned John to his position. So he was not expressing his own ideas or opinions out there in the Judean wilderness. What he said and did came from God. The next verse tells us just what exactly that was.
He went into all the
country around the
John’s baptism, we are told, was connected with repentance. He talked about law and gospel, man’s sinfulness and God’s amazing grace. Those who were baptized made confession of their sins and found forgiveness in the Messiah, the long promised Savior, who was to come – and who, shortly after this, did come and reveal Himself to the world. That Savior, of course, was and is Jesus Christ.
Our text goes on to reiterate how the work of John the
Baptist was all part of God’s plan. The
final verses indicate John was the direct fulfillment of an important Old
Testament prophecy: As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every
mountain and hill made low. The crooked
roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’”
And so this important Advent figure went about His work preparing people to meet the One who was to come. What can we learn from this man and his message and apply to ourselves today? I believe there are three important Advent thoughts we can glean from this text. The first has to do with the importance of repentance as a part of our lifestyle.
John preached repentance. He told people to meet their Lord by doing a personal spiritual inventory. John instructed people to turn from their sinful ways, rejoice in the forgiveness that Christ brings, and then go forward with joy into a better life – a life of voluntary service to a Savior who paid the ultimate price so we might never have to confront the rightful consequences of our sin.
How do we prepare to meet the Lord in the two weeks that remain before Christmas? The same way. Through the practice of repentance. Like the Lenten season, Advent was originally designed to be a penitential season. Certainly it is a period of preparation, but the preparation is to begin with honest introspection
That being said, repentance is not relegated to the Advent season. Actually it is to be a part of our daily lives as Christians. Martin Luther, you may recall, made that very statement in the very first of his famous 95 theses. So let’s talk about repentance.
As far as understanding the need for it, most of us are pretty good at recognizing that mankind is sinful. We’re comfortable with making general statements about how the world needs to change. What we are not always so comfortable with is owning up to our own personal sinfulness, and the fact that there may be specific areas in our lives that are in need of repentance and change. But we all have them.
For instance, sometimes we struggle with impatience and anger. Sometimes we allow the cares and worries of this world to clutter up the joy of knowing Jesus. Sometimes we fail to treat our loved ones with the love and respect they deserve. Sometimes we say we’re just analyzing a situation, but really we’re gossiping. Sometimes we pride ourselves on telling other people the truth, which is good; but sometimes we do it in a hurtful and uncaring way, which is bad.
Since this is the season for lists, let’s go on… Sometimes we like to look at people or things in the worst possible light, rather than the best. Sometimes we like to accentuate the negative of any given situation, rather than the positive. Sometimes we like to build ourselves up by tearing other people down. Sometimes we excuse bad language by saying we’re just blowing off a little steam.
We’ll stop now. You get the idea. We each have our own list. Driven by the message of John, let us ask God for the courage to own up to our personal sins. Then let us repent of them, experience the joy of forgiveness in Christ, and go forward with a stronger resolve to live our lives for Christ before a watching world.
A second, related Advent lesson has to do with the value of
contemplation. Recall where John did his
work. In the desert. Wasn’t this a poor marketing choice? Couldn’t he have reached more people by going
to the big city of
Perhaps. But by coming out to the wilderness, away from the hustle and bustle and distractions and pace of the city, people could slow down. Focus. Contemplate.
Good advice. For many of us the pace of life is fast as it is, but may get even faster during the holidays. The result can be – and mental health professionals will verify this – feelings of stress or a sense of overload or a tendency toward irritation and even sadness, all of which are intensified by the fact we are continuously reminded in the Christmas song that “it’s the most wonderful time of the year.” Not necessarily.
Without making comment on the way in which we as Americans traditionally observe Christmas, we do have to be careful that the busyness and clamor prevents us from taking time to hear the voice of God in Scripture. Because if we are too busy for that, we are just plain too busy. Always, but perhaps especially in the next two weeks, we need to carve out a personal wilderness area. We need to slow down as part of our personal spiritual preparation.
Because what we have is worth contemplating. And that is the third Advent lesson for today. John the Baptist cultivates within us an unending appreciation for “God’s salvation.”
“Salvation” is one of those religious words we hear and say
so often that the impact of its meaning can be lost to us; so let’s review. The original sense of the word means to be
delivered or rescued from a desperate situation – one from which we could never
extricate ourselves on our own. Think of
being trapped on the 20th floor of a burning building where there is no way out. Our survival depends entirely upon someone
delivering us from danger. If left on
our own, we perish. We need a savior to furnish us with salvation.
The spiritual parallel is apparent. On our own, we are unable to rescue ourselves from the death and hell that our sins deserve. Try as we might, there is no way out. Salvation lies outside of us. But the good news is that it is there. Salvation exists in the person of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is ours. The Apostle Paul put it this way in his letter to the Colossians: “For he [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” This is the time of year to especially contemplate our salvation…
One way to do this is to try and imagine not having it. What would our lives be like if Jesus never came, or if we didn’t know Him? Paul describes it as a life without hope. Peter speaks of life without Christ as being empty. And King Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes talks about life without God at the center as being meaningless.
But those words don’t describe us. We have Him. Christ has come, not only into our history, but into our lives. And He brings with Him his perfect life, His sacrificial death in our place, and His glorious resurrection with which he sealed the deal. We have the salvation that John the Baptist talks about in its original, dramatic sense. And is ours to appreciate anew during this Advent season.
So let’s be sure to do that in the next couple of weeks. On