Ever been to a city and seen or heard a street corner preacher? Often they are not particularly well kept. They might be dirty, dressed in layer after layer of torn unwashed clothing. Unshaven. They might hold cardboard signs that declare in bold hand painted words, REPENT! THE END IS NEAR!
Here’s what I want you to imagine. Imagine that the President of the United States was going to come speak to our church. That’d be a pretty big deal, right? But imagine if the President sent a homeless, dirty, hungry man the week before to speak to the church about what the President was going to be speaking about and get everyone ready for next week’s event. Would that make much sense? Would you pay any attention?
Now, let’s take it a step further. Imagine that you do decide to listen to this homeless man’s speech. He starts talking. Then he gets louder. He’s telling everyone to stop being so greedy. He’s telling everyone that they have ALL made bad decisions that deserves the death penalty and that everyone must stop doing what they used to do and make amends. He’s telling everyone that “just being born in the US” doesn’t make a person a REAL American and that if the President wanted to, he could kick everyone out of the country and start all over with a new population of Americans. Therefore, everyone in this building better feel terrible about how they’ve acted, clean up their act and stop screwing up or risk deportation or even death. And they better do it before the President gets here, and he’s going to be here SOON! So get on it!
But hey, it gets even crazier if you can believe it. Now I want you to imagine that a lot of the people in the church realize that this guy is right. We need to listen to this guy and do what he says. They start begging the homeless man to save them. Now as this is happening, the senior pastor and I both decide this guy is crazy at best and dangerous at worst. We start walking toward the guy to confront him and put an end to this. Before we even say anything, the guy looks at us and yells “You vicious wicked snakes! What are you doing here?! Who warned YOU of what’s coming? You obviously haven’t proven to anyone that you are sorry for your un-American ways and there’s no escaping what’s to come for you!”
Geez…
What would you say if I told you that God used a ‘street corner preacher’ not unlike the picture I just described to announce the most important event in human history? Would you believe me?
Let’s check it out…
Matthew 3
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”[a]
4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 “I baptize you with[b] water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 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.”
Sound familiar?
In our passage we see this guy, John, and his job as he understands it is to “Prepare the way for the Lord.” A quick bit of context. This passage is paraphrasing a passage in Isaiah. I want to read that really quick and give you some insight about why this passage is quoted in the Gospels.
3 A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the LORD[a];
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.[b]
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
Isaiah was speaking to the Jewish people about a time to come when they would be in exile, taken away from their homeland. They will suffer the indignity of being run out of their own country and sent off to the land of Babylon (current day Iraq). The vast majority of Isaiah’s message as recorded from chapter 1-39 is a message of despair, heartache, and loss. The Jewish people will suffer. They will long to go home to Israel, their promised homeland.
But then, in chapter 40 there is a dramatic shift. Here we hear a voice demanding that a highway be built in the wilderness in which the mountains are leveled and the valleys raised. The image that is created here in the prophet’s words is a straight-shot highway from their place of exile back to Israel. Taking even a small glance at the geography of that path, you see that what would be built would be an ever increasing ramp up to the town of Jerusalem. This is the beginning of a wonderful promise of God to one day restore Israel. To lead it out of the ‘wilderness’ and back to their home where God Himself will reveal His glory by sending Messiah, a Savior.
So let’s jump forward from Isaiah several hundred years to the appearance of John the Baptist. Here’s a guy standing outside of the boundaries of the promised land, on the east side of the Jordan river. He’s in the “wilderness”. And he’s out there saying HE is the promised voice crying out in the wilderness announcing the coming of the Lord. He is the messenger sent from the kingly God ahead of a visit to announce that those God is coming to visit much PREPARE themselves. How shall they prepare?
They must repent. They must realize that they are not in a good place. They are deeply flawed. They screw up more often than they do right. They must come to grips with the fact that they are Not Clean enough to receive a Holy and Spotless King into their home. John offers a symbol for those who wish to repent. Baptism is that symbol. The people walk out into the river with John and they are physically washed in front of everyone as a sign that they have “cleaned up” their heart and will leave there and do all in their power to STAY CLEAN.
It’s kinda like when you have an awesome new pair of shoes. You end up eventually getting them filthy dirty. So you take the time to wash them. After you put in all that effort to clean them, you find yourself stepping lightly, avoiding mud or dirt. They look AWESOME clean so you keep them clean.
John knows that God is coming to LITERALLY visit the people of Israel. He’s coming in physical form in the person of Jesus. And if God is coming to be among them, they darn well better be ready. Nobody wants to be ‘that guy’ who shows up to the prom and didn’t realize they were supposed to wear a tux and instead show up in their used football jersey and torn jeans. They must first go take off those dirty torn clothes. Take a shower. Use deodorant. Brush their teeth and hair. And put on their finest dress clothing. THEN and ONLY THEN can they be admitted to the prom.
So what does this have to do with us? Well, we’re in a season called Advent. It’s the time leading up to Christmas where we prepare ourselves for God coming to Earth in human form as Jesus. We spend this time preparing our hearts for Forgiveness. And it is impossible to be forgiven if we don’t first admit that we NEED to be forgiven.
Here’s the straight point y’all. If you take ANYTHING home in your hearts in reading this, this is what I want you to think about.
You NEED what Jesus has to offer. Why? Because what Jesus has to offer is LIFE.
And in order for Jesus to give you Life, you must first give up the death that is inside you in order to prepare the way for life to enter. Your sin. The things you do that are blatantly in defiance of God and harm yourself and those around you. Those things will kill you. Maybe not physically, at least right now. But in the end, that sin, if not taken care of, will eat you from the inside out. John the Baptist’s message to us is that we must eliminate that sin from our lives so that we will be prepared for the coming of the Lord. So that we can be prepared to meet Jesus, and embrace Him, and accept His amazing gift of Life.
You can make that choice today. Whether you’ve made a decision to follow Jesus already, or you have never committed to follow Him, you can choose right now to Let go of your sin. To have it washed away so that when God chooses to reveal Himself to you, you will be prepared to say “Welcome. Come on in.”
Let’s pray.
Mark 13:33-37
Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
Mark 14:32-41
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch. Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba,[f] Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
give thanks to our God, not only for what you have, but for what you can give to another.
i have so much to learn… so so very much.
christmas tree shopping
I used this song during my interview for my current ministry position.
just had the privilege of delivering boxes of food for thanksgiving (including turkeys!) to two single mother homes. I love this job.
