Preparing for the King

Last week Ken spoke on the hope of the Messiah.

Today we begin to look at preparing ourselves for the coming of the Messiah.

This month, as we look at Advent, what is fresh in our minds is the birth of Jesus Christ. Because of this we think of the Advent season as the time leading up to the birth of Jesus. But that wasn’t always how the church viewed advent.

We get the word advent from the Latin adventus which is the same as parousia in Greek. The Parousia is the coming time John describes in Revelation.. (Revelation 19:11–13) “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.”

This is the what the historic church has referred to when they spoke of that Advent.

The return of Jesus Christ.

However, we don’t want to just unhinge the New Covenant from the Old. For they go together.

What was Israel looking for? What Advent did they expect?

The coming of the Messiah. The arrival of the anointed one who would establish His Kingdom. The kingdom that would never end.

They had hope for this Kingdom, God had given them enough information of the coming Kingdom through the prophets…but there was much work to be done to prepare themselves, and the world for this Kingdom, one that would be ruled by the Messiah.

In the Old Covenant, how did they prepare for the coming of the messiah?

Old Covenant Preparation

Exodus 19:10-11

The great omnipotent one, who breathes galaxies into existence.

The one who is the sheer essence of being, He who is everywhere present, was about to reveal His presence in sheer majesty and power in this particular location, to particular people

What a frighting awe filled experience this was about to be.

So naturally, He tells Moses to tell the people…consecrate yourselves, be ready. He is coming down.

Prepare the people to meet with God.

God tells them to wash their clothes…does this make them clean, sinless? NO!

This is however a physical action that gives weight to a spiritual action.

By the action of washing their clothes, it is a reminder that they are about to meet with a holy God.

They are not to come with a care free attitude where it doesn’t matter, but to come with an attitude of humility and worship.

Bringing their best before the creator of the universe.

All of these actions that they were taking would not make them pure, would not make them right. That is why we needed Jesus to come, for by his stripes we are healed, by His blood we are washed.

But it did set their minds on the correct course, to be ready; to prepare themselves to meet with the holy God.

Deuteronomy 4:5-9

God had set Israel apart. He had given them his law and taught them how to govern according to His statutes, not their own.

These laws would set them apart from all other nation. Other nations would look on and see Israel and glorify God for how great, how wise and how just he was.

This is a form of evangelism, drawing the bugs to the light of God, by living for Him and His glory.

Later, Israel would begin to look for the messiah. The one who would save them from the oppressors that were coming upon them. But they had forgotten that they were called to live for God in a particular way. To prepare themselves by living for the statutes of God and obeying his law. Living lives of repentance and obedience.

This was all part of God’s plan, for though they might have been able to live decent moral lives, they would still be in sin without the advent of Jesus. When He came to crush the head of the serpent, and break the power of sin and death, and bring forgiveness for our sins.

Malachi 4:1-5

A day of reckoning was coming.

The Advent of the Lord!

The coming of the Holy One.

God is telling them, that day is coming…but before it does, God would send forth a prophet, Elijah he states.

Elijah would come to prepare the way for the Lord.

Nothing prepares the heart of the people to meet with the Lord like repentance.

Jesus states that this is indeed John the Baptist.

Matthew pictures John the Baptist as wearing the same clothes as Elisha. A coat of camel hair and a belt. He was drawing connections so the people would see that John the Baptist was the Elijah they had been looking for.

In the Old Covenant.

They recognized that they were meeting with a holy God.

They recognized they needed to ready themselves to meet with God.

Nothing prepares us more for the coming of the Lord than repentance, and turning to live and do as the Lord commands.

New Covenant Preparation

Within the New Covenant, we would expect to find the things that are similar…but ratified.

Just as the old covenant pointed the people to be ready for the coming of the Lord, what we know now was the first advent of the Messiah.

So the New Covenant has preparations to take place for the second advent of the messiah.

Ephesians 4:22-24

Israel washed their clothes to symbolize a cleanness and freshness coming before God.

We are called to lay aside our old selves, our old lives.

In change

We put on Christ.

We aren’t just making ourselves look better on the outside when coming before God as Israel did.

For what we put on is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

This is part of what we call the double imputation.

Jesus removes our sin, and He took that sin to the grave for us.

But Jesus also takes His righteousness, and lays that righteousness on us.

Now when we stand before God, we stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

This is the first step in preparing for the coming of the Lord.

Being ready to meet Him, whether that is by our death or His return, we stand prepared to meet God.

Fulfilling the work He has given

This is accomplished through the great commission.

Matthew 28:18-20

Make disciples

Not converts.

Our goal should not be to get as many people to pray a prayer as we possibly can.

Jesus said that a tree will be known by it’s fruit.

If you tell someone the gospel and get them to pray a prayer, but do nothing to train them…they will be a tree with bad fruit.

They will be a branch that is good to be cut off and burned.

When thinking of preparing the world for the return of the king, we are to be teaching and training people what it means to follow Jesus.

That is done by demonstration, and also by training.

Who do we disciple?

All nations.

The gospel is not just for one people group, it was for all people, of all nationalities. It wasn’t just for the Jews.

Becasue it is for all nations, the effects of the gospel are far reaching.

Because it is of God, it will span the globe.

Throw a rock into a pond and you will see it’s rings spread throughout.

Making disciples begin at home.

When you throw a rock into a pond…where do the ripples come from?

The point of origin.

Making disciples begins in our homes. Husbands, sanctifying your wife as the spiritual head by leading in home worship.

Training your children to follow God.

Then we go to our neighbors and friends.

Then to the community and our town.

Then making changes in our state.

Then our nation.

Finally we get to all nations.

We should get to the point of reaching the nations, but if our homes are a wreck, why are we trying to reach others?

Its the same as trying to help your neighbor build their house, while yours is on fire with your children stuck inside.

Teaching them to obey, all I’ve commanded

Not just teaching them the elementary principles of the gospel, and the rest doesn’t matter.

Doug Wilson has a statement, “All of Christ for all of life.”

This is what Jesus said we were to be teaching those whom we disciple.

How all of Christ. Every thing God has spoken from the beginning of time. This means all scripture, Old and New Testament.

How does it apply to every aspect of our lives.

You and I do not have the authority to look at scripture and say “this isn’t relevant, for it doesn’t fit with the culture.”

There are things that are cultural, but we must study to discover if certain things are cultural, or if they are not.

If God has given instruction, we must do it; and we must teach it.

When we teach others to follow God’s instruction, we are fulfilling the same mandate that was given in Deuteronomy.

Will we look different from those around us that don’t follow God, yes.

But, it is a glory that will draw those whom God is calling to Him.

It is evangelizing the nations by living for God.

Closing

At this season, we remember that God has come, bringing:

Hope, for our sins are forgiven.

Peace between God and man.

For He Himself was the propitiation for our sins.

Are we preparing people that we know, to meet with Him. To come face to face with the living God.