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“Preparing your Heart for Christmas”
Matthew 3:1-12
The Rev. Kong Namkung
December 5, 2004

Today is the second Sunday in advent.  The church tradition keeps the topic on John the Baptist, who prepared the way of our Lord and Savior.  One of the common denominators of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, has the story of John the Baptist before they describe the ministry of Jesus Christ.  As we have anticipation of coming of the birth of baby Jesus and of coming of the second coming of Jesus, today’s scripture indicates to us how we prepare our hearts for his coming, Christmas.  Lots of people prepare for Christmas by going shopping and buying gifts for others.  But we Christians may prepare our hearts for Christmas.

When I was in the Korean Army about twenty some years ago, I had an unusually experience.  My company was located in a mountain.  There were many places where the roads were not paved; even some roads had big holes because of heavy rains.  One day the battalion commander, who had some physical problems, wanted to visit our company. So he commanded our captain to “make his paths straight.”  No bumpy roads for the commander.  All men in the company stopped what we were doing and made all paths straight so that the battalion commander might not have any trouble to come to visit our company.  

There were two different reactions among us.   One was the group of the people, who liked the commander and were willing to work for his coming.  The other was the group of the people, who did not like him or did not know him well and who were not willing to prepare for His coming. 

However, as the day that he was coming was at hand, all soldiers had to embrace for the preparation for his coming.  When the commander arrived at our company, all of us stood before him as the military band played songs with many different instruments.  Whether we respected him or not and whether we made his paths straight or not, we stood straight and saluted to the commander and demonstrated our respect to him.  The commander came and was pleased what we prepared for his coming.

In today’s scripture lesson talks about John the Baptist, who commands us, “Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight.” (Matthew 3:4)  As we know John the Baptist was sent by God and helped people to prepare their hearts for the coming of the kingdom of heaven.” 

I have one question for you. “Who is the most influential figure in Jesus’ life?”  I think the most influential figure in Jesus’ life is John the Baptist.  According to the gospel of Luke chapter 1 Mary, Jesus’ mother and young, and virgin, and Elizabeth, John’s mother, old, and married for many years, were cousins.  So Jesus and John were second cousins.  John was six months older than Jesus.  Both Jesus and John’s birth stories were miraculous; Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Virgin Mary and John was conceived when his parents were too old to have a baby.  Jesus came out of a poor family; his father was a carpenter, so Jesus in his birth was nobody while John’s father, Zechariah, was a priest, so John in his birth was somebody.  We do not have any information about how they spent the early years of their lives except Luke 2 about the story when Jesus was 12 years old in Jerusalem in order to observe Passover.  It is clear that John went to the wilderness in order to prepare for the way of the Lord.  His ministry was very powerful and effective while Jesus was working in a carpentry shop.  John the Baptist baptized Jesus at the river of Jordan.  His proclamation was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” which is identical with Jesus’.   Can you see that how much John the Baptist influenced Jesus? 

Today we have John the Baptist coming out of the wilderness, wearing wild animal skins, eating locust and wild honey, I believe I do not want to be invited into his meal to eat locust and wild honey, or If there is any chance to take him out for lunch, I do not know where I should take him out to eat in any restaurants in Fayetteville. He was smelled badly and preaching repentance. He is not polite, he offends all those who might be offended, and I do know John wouldn’t get many invitations to today’s pulpits. And he certainly wouldn’t get past the first round of “introductory visit” of Pastor Parish Relations Committee. He was a terrible dresser, but he cuts right to the chase, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Repent, get ready, and prepare the way of the Lord.” Cut through all the distractions, eliminate the nonsense in your lives and pay attention. Stop turning away from God, God is in search of you.

However, there is a group of church leaders who have a problem with John. They might say, “He doesn’t dress properly; he speaks without proper decorum, he smells. How can they pay any attention to what he says – he obviously doesn’t belong in the right circle.  John the Baptist was completely unimpressed with the very thing that the Jewish people had built their lives upon. They were the "children of Abraham." Then John the Baptist comes.  The people might say, “We hate to hear John the Baptist because we know how it translates to our situation. We can hear him now. "Just because you are members of the church, just because you give your weekly offerings, just because you have been here from the beginning of the church, just because you are an officer, just because you are the pastor, doesn’t mean it is time to relax and take it easy and give in to this temptation of thinking this matter of being Christian is under control." In other words, don’t presume your past has taken care of your present.  

John’s message today is “Repent!” He asks his people to prepare for his coming with repentance.  Repentance is a tool to make his paths straight like all of my company, including myself, prepared the roads for the battalion commander’s coming.  John the Baptist asks us to prepare his coming with repentance as we have anticipation of his second coming. 

What do you think of when you hear the word repent? ¨ Two images come to my mind right away. The first is the street preacher with a Bible, screaming at people to repent to escape the coming judgment. The second is the guy in robes and sandals, either holding or wearing a sign that says, “Repent, for the end is near!” For many people, myself included, repentance has for a long time carried a negative connotation, mainly because of images like I have just described. 

John didn’t invent the word repent. The Old Testament prophets used the word often. In Hebrew, the word repentance, like many Hebrew words, presents a picture. It means ’to turn" or "return", to reverse our direction in life, to change.

Repentance is a primary theme of the Christian message. The day of Pentecost, that moment of spectacular blessing and the birth of the Christian Church, was a time to repent. At the end of Peter’s sermon, he urged the people to repent (Acts 3:28). The Bible ends with a message of repentance. Revelations is a letter from the risen Christ to the seven churches of Asia Minor. Christ commands five of the seven churches to repent. Repentance is the first word and a necessary part of the Gospel.

The moral power of that picture is obvious in Jeremiah 3:14. It is there that God tells Israel, "Return [repent], faithless people," declares the Lord, "For I am your Husband." In other words, an adulterer must bring home more than his or her body. A changed heart must come with the "return."
Jesus put it like this: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). That’s a fundamental change of direction in which our agendas, our self-interests, our desires, our goals, our dreams, and our behavior turns from ours to Christ’s! That requires a radical change, a revolution to the core of our being.

Saul experienced the Revolution. On his way to Damascus with mayhem on his mind and murder on his heart, the risen Christ appeared to him and knocked him off his horse. Saul landed on his knees - where he belonged. After hearing Jesus’ voice, Saul was blinded, immediately, and asked two things, "Who are you?" and "What am I to do Lord?" (Acts 22:8, 10)

Jesus identified Himself and then told Saul he must get up, go into the city, and there he would be told what to do. A few days later, Saul headed back to toward Jerusalem with love in his heart and the gospel in his mind. He had turned around, repented, and experienced a complete change of heart and mind. He was changed from Saul to Paul, from a sinning man to a praying and praising man. Saul experienced the revolution!  He repented his sins.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” said John the Baptist.

Repentance is simply to stop running after everything else and see that God is pursuing us. Repentance is to make decisions for God in our daily life that shows where our hope lies. To recognize that to be a child of God needs to determine the decisions we make every day. Clothes, status, fame, the right accent means nothing – only the fact that God has claimed us and loves us. Repent – live like it is true. Repentance is the ongoing lifestyle of the people of the kingdom. Repentance is to bear fruit of the kingdom. We are part of the kingdom of God when we bear good fruit. If we do not, we have decided to move ourselves out of the kingdom.

Take a look at your life, see where you have put your priorities, where your treasure really lies, and turn around and see God looking to guide you. Repentance is not an once-in-a-lifetime event, but a daily action. We need to “die daily to our sin”, as Luther reminds us. Richard Jensen says it most powerfully, “the repentant person comes before God saying, ‘I can’t do it myself God. Kill me and give me new life. You buried me in baptism. Bury me again today. Raise me to new life.’”

The book of Matthew, which we will be reading all year long, says much about these fruits. We are a part of the kingdom when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked and give drink to the poor. We are an alternative culture that needs to repent of ways in which we have bought into the values of the culture around us. We need to build and nurture a Christian sub-culture for our children to live within so that they might have faith. We repent of the attitude of entitlement that suggests we deserve certain perks because we belong to this church. We are a part of the church, which is the body of Christ, because we recognize Jesus Christ as our Savior and seek to live accordingly. We need to establish our own identity and allegiance to Christ in contrast to the competing groups within our society and culture.

As we seek to live in daily repentance, we discover the hope that is ours. Hope lies only in God. Hope that lies in the kingdom of heaven which is coming and which is here. Hope does not lie in all that we might look to for our validation of importance. We are important; we have hope as we die each day to old ways and have the courage to live according to God’s ways. The kingdom of heaven declares that God and God’s ways rules from now on. We do good deeds because that is how people of the kingdom live. We bear fruit.   How about you? Is there something God is telling you that you need to repent of? Is there a sin that’s in the way of your fellowship with God or other people? Is there a grudge you are carrying? God says that if there is, you a¦re not even supposed to take communion. So you need to make that right.

Along with John, we are not worthy to carry his sandals, but he declares us worthy to share with him the opportunity to be Christ to all those around us. He offers us hope that transcends all time and place that declares us right before God because of God’s grace. Life then becomes a life lived in response to that great gift.

The battalion commander came to our company whether we prepared his way or not, whether we respected him or not, and whether we obeyed his command or no.  When he came, all soldiers stood before him and saluted to him because he had power and authority over all soldiers of the battalion.  Likewise Jesus will come back soon or later whether we prepare his coming or not, whether we believe in him or not, and whether we live by his commands or not, he is coming.  When he comes with power and authority, we will stand before him.  My beloved, brothers and sisters, about 1500 years ago John the Baptist taught us how to prepare our hearts for his coming.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  “Repent.”  Gory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, Amen.

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Matthew 3:1-12

3:1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
"A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"
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 water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with 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."
NIV

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