Advent Series 2023

Make Ready For The Lord, A People Prepared

Luke 1:5–24 ESV

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying,

“He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”(Luke 1:17).

Preparation for Christmas as well underway! I don’t know what its like in your house but yesterday was the big day in the Winter household when the tree was bought; set up and decorated and once the snacks werre made and the Grinch was on it felt like in the words of Olaf, “that time of year”!

“ Happy, merry, holly, jolly season's greetings here I'm wondering what your family does at that time of year Love and joy and peace on Earth and tidings of good cheer Do you have tradition things For that time of year.”

In the Church also we prepare to celebrate “that time of year”! This is Advent, traditionally encompassing the 4 weeks before Christmas and marked by us in the lighting of the 4 Advent candles on each of the approaching Sundays. Advent is meant to be a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Christ child:

The word comes from the Latin word “Adventus” means “coming”, a form of the verb advenio which is defined not only as arrive, come to, but also as develop, set in, and arise. Adventus can then refer to an invasion, incursion, ripening, and appearance—all denotations that are rich with implications for the gospel accounts of Christ. Thus it also covers the Greek word, parousia which speaks of the coming of a King and is used mainly in the NT with reference to the Second Coming of Christ.

So today, we celebrate the first coming of the Christ child into the world to bring God’s good news of salvation to the world and we also anticipate the second coming of the Jesus, as He descends to earth “on the clouds(Revelation 1:7-8 “and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

“As we light our Advent candles, adding a new one each week, we move from darkness to light. Our ritual symbolically anticipates the birth or our Savior, Jesus Christ, who will actually move us from darkness to light if we will let Him. Advent invites us to worship at the manger, but if we stop there, we have missed the meaning of Christ’s birth. His advent is the beginning of the path that takes Jesus from the light of the wonderful star that signals His birth, to the terrible darkness of his full and final sacrifice, and then on to the blinding brilliant light of His resurrection, which is the advent of ours. As we return to the manger, let us not forget the meaning of his birth and the purpose of His life. He came to save, deliver, and redeem us: O come, let us adore Him!”― Jean-Michel Hansen

Christmas is a great time for the church and exciting time for the lives of believers, so our themee this morning is one of preparation and to help us with this we are going to look at Luke 1:5-24, to seek to learn how we can be propwerly prepared for Christmas!

I. Be Prepared By Looking Back!

John the Baptist was created by God in his mother’s womb to become a bridge between the past and the future.

His job was “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”(Luke 1:17).”

Zechariah was being told here that his son, John was to be the fulfilment of Malachi 4:4-6 “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

John would instruct the people to look back to the law of Moses and to embrace again that ancient teaching in order to live in such a way that pleases God, this would break the curse of disobedience and reunite families and whole communities under the rule of God!

John is bridging the Old and New Covenants together, providing the continuity between the spirit of the law in which God’s design is “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” John will cause the people to look forward to the one who would come, for whom He was preparing the way, our Lord Jesus Christ!

A backward glance is always necessary - gartitude for what God has said and done but our faith is always forward looking. We look back to the past to learn to trust God in the preesent and for the future!

Malachi said: “Remember the law of my servant Moses” Why? Becasue to REMEMBER is motivating!

It is fortifying and tradition making - “Remember, remember the 5th of November!” if you belong to Protestant England OR “Remember Lot’s wife”!(Luke 17:32) so that you don’t foolishly look back with longing to the old life and get turned into a pillar of salt

“Remember Lot’s wife” by setting your heart and desire on a life away from the temptations and comforts of an earthly, godless existence to set your hearts on “the things which God has prepared for those who love Him!”(1 Cor 2:9).

“Remember Lot’s wife” so as to not follow her example of refusing to listen and obey the word of the Lord!

God has spoken and we need to listen!

In the Old Testament, God has shown us what we should do and how we should live by moral standards as outlined in His law. The Jews identified 613 distinct laws in the OT called “mitzvot” in Hebrew. These are clearly stated and crystalised in the words of Micah the prophet - Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

The motivational impulse in obedience to the law however, is not to prove our moral superiority over others who we may regard as morally inferior to us due to their lifestyle choices or the influence of bad parenting or amoral pagan religious traditions. No, the motivation impulse of the law is always one of love! Deuteronomy 6:4-6 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Jesus confirmed this when asked what was to be regarded as the greatest commandment in the law: Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

This requirement of love as the motivational force behind obedience to the law is easy to demonstrate with reference to the 10 Commandments for the person who “loves the Lord his God" will not put other gods before him; will not bow down to an idol nor take the Lord’s name in vain, anyore than a man who truly loves his wife would want to put anything else before her or mock and ridicule her in front of others. No, the person who truly loves God, will want to honour God by ordering his week to spend “Sabbath” time Him; by honouring his parents, because God asks him to; by not unlawfully taking the life of anyone made in God’s image or committing adultery and betraying the wife of a holy covenant; or stealing or bearing false witness or coveting what is not rightfully his and intended for him as a gift from God. Keeping these commandments out of love for God and to honour God shows that they are “written on our hearts” and provide the structure for our family life in our homes; in our work and leisure time, from when we get up in the morning until we go to bed at night. We love God and demonstrate it by our obedience for “from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”(Psalm 113:3).

God has spoken and we are prepared to listen because the law of God is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God!

As Hebrews 8:10, puts it, citing the Messianic promise of Jeremiah over 600 years before him, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

And this is why John can so confidently say that person “born of God”, “cannot go on sinning”(1 John 3:9) not because it is impossible for him but because in his heart he is not inclined to it! It is contrary to His regular lifestyle practive and the divine nature within will protest and call a person to repentance, as Romans 7:20-24 reminds us “if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.  So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.  Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from gthis body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

My mind serves the law of God. I love the Lord and I love His comandments and they are grievious to me but good and I long for the day when I will be able to perfectly obey them without fault or blemmish but in the meantime if 1 John 1:5-2:4, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

So BE PREPARED by looking back to the law and let God’s law be your delight and “meditate on it day and night’(Psalm 1). Let is riches fill your heart and soul so that you can say, “Oh how I Love your law; it is my meditation, every day”(Psalm 119:97).

II. Be Prepared By Looking Forward!

The Angel tells Zechariah that John acts as an intermediary bridge, enabling us to look forward and move forward in obedient faith in our Lord Jesus Christ:

Malachi 4:5 "Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes” and this is the role John the Baptist plays. Matthew 11:10-15, “This is he of whom it is written, “ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’

John the Baptist has a unique place in redemptive history, which is why Jesus said of him, “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.”

And yet John offers a continuity to the prophetic voice and calling, for Jesus tells us that John the Baptist was an Elijah figure! “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Why and how? Because Elijah was a prophetic voice speaking the words of God into the wilderness of unbelief, to kings and queens who would not listen and reform their lives and their ways according to the law of the Lord.

They were also both outsiders and hermit like in their lifestyle, shunning the comforts of this world and living in the wild in order to call people “out” from the world, to follow God.

They also were “signs” to the world that the Lord was at hand to bring salvation to some and judgment to others - Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”(Malachi 4:5). Elijah brought hope and salvation to those who at Horeb saw the power of God come down to consume the sacrifice and declare, “the Lord, He is God; the Lord He is God.” Even in the midst of terrible spiritual darkness, Elijah played a part in preserving a remnant in Israel who did “not bow the knee to Baal”! Likewise John the Baptist, in spite of the opposition of Herod and his wife; in spite of the opposition of the Scribes and the Pharisees, preserved a remnant as he preached “a baptism of repentance for the forigveness of sins” and as he pointed his followers to “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”(John 1:29).

And there is still it appears a prophetic role yet to be fulfileld by an Elijah-like figure, in fact two!

For in the future as Jesus puts it in Matthew 17:10-14, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”

And then later in Revelation 11:3-12 the writer describes two prophetic figures whom God says, “I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

These two witnesses at the end of the age make one last call to Israel to repent and prepare for the impending judgment. That these two are Elijah-like is confirmed by the words that follow: “They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying”(v6) and also they are killed but later raised to life and notice what comes next: v12 “Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.” and if you know your Old Testament you will know that this is what Elijah the prophet experience back in his day when James 5:17-18 says: “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” and also 2 Kings 2:11, “And as they (Elijah and Elisha) still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”

So, the Angel is calling Zechariah to see that this special child to be born to him and Elizabeth his wife would be building a bridge to a much better future, to a time when people would have their hearts changed by repentance! - “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”(Luke 1:17).

If we are to be a people made ready for the coming of the Lord, repentance must have a place in our lives. It must be a regular feature of how we live each day, whehever we come short of the righteous standards ur Lord sets for us.

Repentance involves a heartfelt conviction of sin, a genuine contrition over our grieving of God’s Holy Spirit and a willignness to turn away from the things in our life which displease God.

When John the Baptist came, he built a bridge to God by calling people to repentance - Acts 19:1-6, “And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.”

John was not the answer to this world’s greatiest need, he was the bridge but he was pointing forward to One who would bring the Kingdom of God down to men and pour out His Holy Spirit upon all who would beleive on Him:

As John himself said in John 1:20-26 “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even whe who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”

So, let us learn that if we are truly to be ready for Christmas we need not only to BE PREPARED BT LOOKING BACK and to BE PREPARED BY LOOKING FORWARD but also specifically, we nned to....

III. Be Prepared By Following Jesus!

John builds a birdge to Jesus! To the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”(John 1:29).

ADVENT points us to the ONE and ONLY Saviour of the world!

We walk across the bidge that John the Baptist built on the message he proclaimed, “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins”(Mark 1:4) and embrace Jesus as our Saviour and Lord because with Him the “Kingdom of God” has arrived and its treasures are being poured out on those who believe!(see Mark 1:15)

And be clear, when Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of God, he is speaking not of some physical edifice - “Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”(Luke 17:20-21). There can be no Kingdom of God in the world without the Kingdom of God in our hearts. – Albert Schweitzer

Jesus makes it clear that the Kingdom of God, the rule of God on earth, resides in the transformed hearts of men and women who repent and beleive the message of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. The phrases Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom occur more than 90 times in the Gospels.

Jesus taught the Kingdom of God as a new way of living and thinking, a new way of being with God in this world! That is why Jesus said to Pilate that His Kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36); it must be embraced by faith as people “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

When people walk across the bridge that John the Baptist built to Jesus and when they begin the live the Kingdom life as outlined for us in the teaching of Jesus then God’s Kingdom comes to this world - “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10).

When people here gospel preaching and when they open their hearts to God, then His Holy Spirit enters into their hearts and they are “born again” from above and unless a person is “born again” they will “not see the Kingdom of God”(John 3:3-5).

His kingdom comes as each of us bows the knee and confesses that He is king and live our lives as loyal citizens. “But there’s far more to life for us. We’re citizens of high heaven! We’re waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He’ll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.” (Philippians 3:20-21 MSG)

So, BE PREPARED this Christmas, 2023!

If Elijah was here, he would say to you, look I have built this bridge by “proclaiming a message of baptism and repentance for the forgiveness of sins” and I want you to cross this bridge to receive entry into the Kingdom of God by embracing Jesus!

If Elijah was here, he would in a sense still be a voice “calling out in the wilderness” to prepare for the day of the Lord! Not that many are listening in our secular, materialistic culture!

Elijah’s calling out to you in order “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”(Luke 1:17). He wants to reconcile you to God and in doing so he will reconcile people to one another as well, for when God changes hearts He also changes families; when God changes lives he changes generations for the future; removing the curse of the past and setting future generations free because they turn to Jesus in repentance and faith!

God is calling upon you today! BE PREPARED! He is inviting you to walk across the bridge that John the Baptist first built, and to accept His offer of mercy and forgiveness in Jesus!

This bridge exists in the shape of a cross; it is paved with the rightousness of Christ and its effectiveness is guaranteed by the precious blood of Christ which was shed for the forgiveness of all your sins if you will but repent and say, here I am Lord; her’s my heart Lord, it is prepared for receiving you!

“With the arrival of Advent, Christians everywhere turn again towards the Savior. Advent marks the beginning of the celebration of His birth and His long-foretold ministry, atonement, death, resurrection and second coming. If Advent is an occasion when I re-turn my eyes to the Savior, then it is also an invitation to consider where my eyes—and my heart—have been in the meantime. Advent is the gentle nudge that invites me to remember that the truth most worth knowing is that Jesus Christ is the only way Home. It is also a gentle reminder that I ought to keep my eyes upon Him all year long.” ― Jean-Michel Hansen