Sent to Turn Hearts

Intro

Do you guys like surprises? Some people are really into being surprised. Don’t tell me, I want it to be a surprise. If you’re married to one of those people, it’s tough because you want to surprise them but you also carry this desire to not disappoint them, right? So if I don’t tell you, and I don’t nail it, will you be mad? But others of us hate surprises. Even if the subsequent news is going to be disappointing, just tell me now. Let’s get it over with. The Advent season is officially upon us, and the word advent means arrival. Jesus first coming was both a promise and a surprise. They should’ve been ready but they weren’t. And we have something in common with that original waiting audience because we live right now in between two advents. Jesus arrived once. He will arrive again one final time. We live in between the two advents. ANd the point of the Advent season in the Christian calendar is to annually look back on that first advent moment so we can more fully participate in the moment we are in with God right now. That means our task isn’t only acting fake happy about a cool story involving a baby and a manger scene. No, we don’t look back to learn more, but to more fully enter the moment we live in awaiting his second arrival. Because friends, here’s the deal, his next arrival is both promised and will be a surprise. Just like his first one. So, we are going to talk for the next few weeks about the arrival of Jesus through the lens of the arrival of John the Baptist. He came as the preparer of Jesus after a long period of silence from God. And the more we can understand what the people of God needed to hear and see in John prior to Jesus’ first advent, the more we will be joyful and eager and ready participants in the story of God until Jesus’ second advent, his second arrival. Are you with me? The title of today’s sermon is “Prepare the Way: A Call to Turn” and my hope is that we will hear the call to turn to God in this story and we will become more attuned participants in the current story with God we are living awaiting his second arrival. We have 2 points; the characters and the call. If you’re ready, let me hear you say, I’m ready. Alright, let’s go.

The Characters

Many times when we are reading the Bible, there are portions of the Old Testament scriptures that the biblical authors are alluding to that the original audience would have picked up really quickly and we simply miss. And all of these elements together compose the story of God and his involvement with his people all the way back to the call of Abraham. If we don’t understand this story, we won’t understand the purpose of John’s advent, Jesus’ first advent, or why he will come back again. So let me point these out to you quickly so you understand this moment in world history and in the history of the people of God. We have a wicked king being in charge of the people of God in their own land. A barren family. A faithful priest with a barren wife. A surprise visit by an angel who brings the good news gospel announcement of God’s activity. You have disbelief by the priest. You have punishment by the angel, but it doesn’t nullify God’s plan. And the message the angel brought was about a person who was to come with a surprising message about getting ready for God to come. And all good stories tend to start with the hero, don’t they? Harry Potter starts at ______ drive. Star Wars is about the force and the good side and the bad side and villains and history but it starts with a hero in their unassuming house. That’s how it is with Jesus. Many of us know he was born at Christmas and died at Easter. But we really don’t understand why he had to die. We can say sin, but we don’t understand the depth and weight of the story. So let’s break each of those down and get more familiar with Jesus and John’s story.

In the days of Herod King of Judea - Luke 1:5 (Oppression)

This brief little phrase tells us a lot. King Herod ruled from around 37 BC - 4BC before his son took over following his death. Herod was put into that role by the Romans. The romans MO was to take over an area, and put in a puppet king to enforce their rules and collect their taxes. Herod fulfilled this role beautifully. And then there is the matter of Judea. Judea is the greek term referring to the land of the Jews. At the time it constituted a large portion of what we know as the promised land. So the people of God were under the oppressive regime of a puppet king under the more oppressive regime of the Romans. So if you know your Bibles, how did we get from God calling a dude named Abraham to an exodus story with Moses to this moment where the Romans are controlling the people of God through a puppet king? Let me show you quickly.

1- God creates all things. 2- Humanity falls. 3- God calls Abraham to be the vehicle of blessing to the nations by promising him a family and a geography (vocation - location). It’s so important to understand that what God wanted to be to all he was to Abraham. 4- God send his people to Egypt. 5- God’s people are oppressed by a wicked ruler in Egypt through a prophetic deliverer. You have the Passover Lamb sacrificed for the first time. 6- God delivers his people from Egypt and intends to rule over them in the promised land. 7- God gifts his people the law on their way to the promised land (vocation - location). 8- The people of God show immediate signs of vocation abandonment. 9- Despite their fragility and faithlessness, God takes his people to his location, and puts a king over them while calling them to fulfill their vocation of being a light to the nations. 10- The people fail their vocation to the point he sends prophets to tell them what will happen if they don’t turn. 11- The people are spit out of their land for the failure of their vocation; but God promises to send someone to do 3 things 1- be their God, 2- fulfill their vocation for them, 3- make them new. 12 - after invasions by the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks, and prophet after prophet after prophet calling the people of God to trust God while fulfilling their vocation of light to the nations, there is radio silence.

But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years - Luke 1:7 (Brokenness)

So into this radio silence God sends a messenger. But who does he choose to be the vessel of the preparer of the Lord? Not the top student in the nation. Not the top family in the nation. How about a barren family? A broken couple old in age. This taps into old stories like Abraham and Sarah, like Hannah.

And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. - Luke 1:11 (Gospel)

And into this long period of silence an angel shows up to this barren couple - to the priest while on duty. At the altar of incense. And he brings not a deal, but a promise. A promise of God’s plan. God’s doing. He says your prayer has been heard. What prayer? Many of us think immediately it’s his prayer for a son. Yes that’s true. But in his role he was also praying for God to come and restore the people of God. God is answering both through this family. Through this promised son.

… and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord… 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God (Response)

I want you to think about the story I shared with you. It involved God promising his presence in a location while his people fulfilled their location. So now the people of God are scattered all over but still predominantly in the location. So if they were to be told God is coming, their mindset is oh, God is going to rule over us in our location. That must mean the bad guys have to go. Get the Romans out. Here we go. But again, they have missed the goal of God all along which was to have a son, his children, trust him and by walking in Torah so show the world what it is like when YHWH is your God. So now we are beginning to understand why God chose to send osmeone before Jesus. Why does Jesus need someone to go before him to make the path straight and prepare the way of the Lord? Because the people of God thought they were ready for God. They weren’t. They didn’t just need God over them in his land. They weren’t acting like his people. That’s their primary problem they never seem to have understood. Bigger than Pharaoh was your problem, your lack of trust in God was the problem. Bigger than the Assyrians being the problem Israel is your failure to trust God. Bigger than the Babylonians your problem is you don’t embody God’s ways. Bigger than any external threat is their own blindness to their own lack of desire for and trust in God. You see the message of Christmas is both that God is coming to clean up the mess out there, but he always starts with the mess in here. When God comes, he tends to deal with his own disobedient people who think they know him first before turning to the total outsider.

2. The Call

So as we saw, God initiated this whole ordeal. He sent Gabriel. The time was right. Yes, Zechariah in some way represents the righteous remnant of Israel who is genuinely awaiting upon God, but as we see, even he is tone deaf to the ways of God. So the point is, God sent Gabriel. The plan is in motion. God’s plan. God’s arrival is on the way. That’s good news for us here today. You know what it guarantees? God will come again not because we get it all right and are waiting on him rightly, but because he chooses to come. We can be sure God wants to be our God because he is God. Christmas is the promise that God wants to dwell with his people. He made us in his image. In the new heavens and the new earth vision of Revelation 21 God says the dwelling place of God is with man. So Jesus being called Immanuel, God with Us, makes so much sense. He isn’t God with Us because we are perfectly awaiting his arrival. He is God with Us because that’s who he is. It’s his own character that is our confidence friends. So God has come and God will come. Now let’s focus our attention on what Gabriel says the primary ministry of the forerunner of Jesus will be.

English Standard Version (Chapter 1)

13 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. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 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. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 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.

Okay, so here we have it. Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. When you see an angel, who is only a messenger of God, you get scared. You are pushed back by it’s purity. It’s warrior like holiness. What do you think it would be like being in the presence of God? I tell my kids from time to time, you can’t even look at the sun, much less be in its presence. God is holy. Angels are just the tip of the iceberg of his holiness; and in large part because they’re accustomed to being in his presence. Don’t be afraid. Your prayer has been heard. A prayer for a son, yes. And a prayer for the people of Israel. Both will be answered. Your son is coming. And when he comes, his name will be John. John means “Jehovah’s gracious gift.” And that he is. He is the gift that goes before God himself. He is to be full of the Spirit from the womb and Zechariah and Elizabeth get to partipate in the gfit that John is by committing him to the Lord from his birth as one set apart to the Lord. He is to have a Nazarite existence like Hannah’s son Samuel once did. This isn’t to earn his role as the Messiah’s forerunner, as much as it is to make him the man who can actually become that. He will enter his role through his preparation. And the parents play a role in that preparation. And finally we get to the ministry calling John will have. He will be great before the Lord. 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. This phrase about fathers and children and disobedient to the wisdom of the unjust gets to the heart of the issue. Essentially, as a whole, the people of God had turned away from God and the evidence of that was in the home. It was in their behavior. As God was less and less at the center of the heart of the people, and they merely did the religious customs and sacrifices and festivals, their lack of loyalty to him could be seen in their homes; how their hearts weren’t for their own kids, and how following Torah was not a priority. So, much like Elijah, as the prophet Malachi prophecied, John is coming with a ministry where he would tell the people of God to turn to God. We first meet Elijah in 1 Kings 17. He is one of the most famous prophets. He comes on the scene during the divided kingdom. He prophecies to Northern Israel. They have a wicked king named Ahab who was married to Jezebel. This couple was awful. They were leading the people of God to worship a false god named Baal. Under Ahab’s leadership the people of God floundered more than ever. They followed their king into idol worship of this false god. Their were false prophets of this false god. They listened to him more than to the prophets of YHWH. So into this environment of fake worship of a fake god with false prophets, Elijah comes on the scene and has a showdown with the fake prophets. He sets up a scenario where he says, each of us will call on the Lord our God and whoever shows up is the real God. It’s an epic showdown. There are 450 prophets of Baal. Elijah says set up your sacrifice how you want and call on your God. Nothing happens. Then Elijah sets his up while restructuring the altar appropriately using 12 stones to represent the 12 tribes after it had been torn down. And then he famously calls down the Lord to accept his offering in contrast to the failure of the Baal prophets. And then he has the false prophets slaughtered, and it’s a major moment in the history of the people of God. But do you want to know what Elijah says to God prior to God coming down? Check this out. 1 Kings 18: 36-39

English Standard Version (Chapter 18)

36 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”

Did you notice what he said? Answer me that this people may know that you are God and that you have turned their hearts back. Elijah’s was a ministry of getting the people of God to turn back to God. Yes, the Baal countries out there, those pagan countries need to repent. But the ministry of a prophet was to uproot the idolatry in their own midst; within the people of God. So it will be with the preparer for Jesus. He comes and tells people to turn.

Somebody say turn. Turn means turn. It means shift. Move. Reposition yourself. You’re facing that way, now face this way. You aren’t facing God, so turn and face him. You’re not worshiping him, so turn and face him. John is preparing the chosen people of God, the Israelites, for the coming of the Messiah. So before the gospel goes to all people everywhere, it starts with the people who think they already know it. Jesus comes to his own first. So does John. In the spirit and power of Elijah. But why? If you were listening early there was a word I kept saying that rhymed with location and starts with a v. Somebody say vocation. You see, the people of God had failed to be just that, the people of God. They had Torah. They had the sacrifices. The story. The exodus. The prophets. All of it was accessible to them. But instead of becoming the light to the nations whereby everyone would come to know YHWH through coming to them in Zion, they were disgracing the glory of God. So, many think God is coming just to forgive our sins. Now, that is surely true. But if you miss the status of the people of God and how they were to display what it’s like to be God’s collective child, the ministry of Jesus won’t make sense. If all God wanted was a sacrifice, he could have come down 5 minutes before the cross, said I’m God, died, rose, and then said there is your atonement. But he didn’t do that. In the life of Jesus we see him reliving and fulfilling the story of the people of God that they failed to embody. You see, Jesus was the Son always turned towards and attuned to the Father. He came to live the life of a child of God, carried in the power of the Spirit of God, to show the world what it’s like when the Son is among us, when God is among us. So, the message of Christmas, the message of the first advent, is the same as the second one, turn to God. Turn to God. Someone say turn. I don’t know who you most associate with in our story here today. But they all need to turn to God and become participants in his story. Every character in our story today is a recipient of grace, and is also indirectly called to turn to God as preparation for the coming Messiah.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth goes from barren to having a child in our story. Does she do anything to earn it? Not at all. God heard her. God saw her. And yes, God had a bigger plan than merely giving her a son, but he wants to meet the needs of the people through this barren woman. Through this one who had reproach among the people. Although it was an incorrect thought, the prevailing thought is that barrenness is some sort of divine punishment. Maybe you can relate to that sort of shame here today. You know it’s not true. But you feel on the outs of God’s goodness. This text is not a promise that all of your dreams will come true, but it is a promise that God sees you. He sees the barren. He loves the broken. Keep going to God. What you need is to turn to him. As we see over and over in the Bible, what we need more than something from God is more of God.

Zechariah

Our guy Zechariah goes from a vocal priest who just so happens to get a once in a lifetime opportunity to perform the annual duties at the altar of incense to disbelieving an angel. Isn’t that wild? He thinks he needs more information. So often friends we think we need more information from God. But as is so often the case, we don’t need more information from him, we need more revelation of him. Gabriel gives no more information, he appeals to revelation. I’m sent by God. And Zechariah becomes a silent participant in the promise of God. His faithlessness doesn’t nullify God’s faithfulness. God is still God. God will be gracious. Zechariah will be involved. But silent. He will wait in silence. What a picture for us. Turn to God and wait. Not as a passive participant, but a trusting one who knows God will act for his own sake. You don’t need more information, you need to dwell more upon the already given revelation.

Gabriel

What an honor for Gabriel to get to be the messenger, the sent one of God to both Zechariah and later to Mary about Jesus. He isn’t the creator of God’s plan, but the channel of his plan. He is turned to God and attuned to his ways and his story, and plays his part.

Crowds

Then you have the crowds. These crowds are outside praying while Zechariah does his ritual. Some of them are probably deep in prayer even though it’s taking a long time. Others are like when will we get to go home. Whatever their posture, they get to see Zechariah come out silent. God is up to something. He probably motions about Elijah. The word gets out on that. What could this mean? Messiah is coming? We need to turn to God? But we’re the people of God. That’s right. So turn to God. Make yourself ready for him. Don’t use God. Look at God. Wait on God. And God’s coming didn’t radically change their life on the one hand, and it changed everything on the other. Gabriel comes, John is coming, Zechariah is silent, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to cook dinner. My sister still has cancer. Work is still hard. They didn’t get iphones 2000 years in advance. Life went on as normal. But now there is news. New news. God is coming. We need to turn. Friends, following Jesus doesn’t change anything about life and it changes everything about life. It doesn’t take away pain, but He promises one day to finish it off. You’ll still be a sinner but it’s power and penalty in your life will be broken. Following Jesus won’t make life easy, but it will make it full.

Herod

Even Herod will have an opportunity to turn his heart. He won’t take that opportunity. But the gospel is for villains too. Villains hear the gospel. Victims hear it. The church needs it. Those on the outs need it. Those who think they’re on the inside. Isaiah 45:22 “turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.” Herod is comfortable right now. He is in control. He thinks he is king. But little does he know soon a king is coming who will reign forever. And not just in Judea, but over all the cosmos. Herod will have buildings that we still have fragments of today, but Jesus has followers being raised up from every tribe and tongue. If you are Herod today, comfortable, thinking you’re a king, you are invited to turn. Turn to Jesus. You are not the king. He is.

John the Baptist

And lastly there is John the Baptist himself. He will be a conduit of God’s message to prepare the people of God for God himself to come. And one day John the Baptist would need to be told to turn to Jesus. John’s ministry was an intense ministry. Telling people to turn can get you punched in the face. Herod the Great’s son Herod Antipas didn’t like how John was telling him to follow Torah and trust God, so he shut him up by putting him in jail. Well, John was like, if Jesus is who he says he is, why am I in jail. He sends his people to go ask Jesus if he really is the Messiah. Jesus sends back a simple but profound message. Go tell John what you see. The blind see. The lame walk. The prisoners are released. And blessed is the one who isn’t offended by me. Turn to God, John.

The Advent season is where we remember God’s first coming. It was a surprise. His timing was a surprise. The way he came with a challenging message is surprising. And friends now we live in a different day, but our waiting on Jesus’ second advent is similar. Jesus has come. We don’t need new information. We need to turn to him for revelation. Our lives feel barren in many ways. We need to turn to God in trust, not away from him with demands. Some of us are his messengers, we need to turn to him and shout his message. Some of us have hard hearts like Herod, we need to turn to him. Jesus came once. He is coming back. He is alive right now. This Jesus is alive because he died on the cross and then 3 days later he rose from the dead. He is the Son of God who lived out perfectly what it means to be God’s Son.