Preparing for Christmas

Luke 1:5–17 HCSB

5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest of Abijah’s division named Zechariah. His wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both were righteous in God’s sight, living without blame according to all the commands and requirements of the Lord. 7 But they had no children because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along in years. 8 When his division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 it happened that he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. 10 At the hour of incense the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and overcome with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14 There will be joy and delight for you, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord and will never drink wine or beer. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb. 16 He will turn many of the sons 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 fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to make ready for the Lord a prepared people.

Christmas in many homes involves a lot of preparations. Every household is different, but there are certain aspects of preparing for Christmas that is quite common. Children begin making their Christmas wish lists, sometimes long before the holiday season even arrives. Parents begin saving for Christmas, planing what Christmas parties they will attend, where they will celebrate Christmas dinner, and if they are hosting, who will be coming to dinner.

Even our houses go through some sort of preparation for Christmas. We pull out the decorations from the attic, basement, or closet where we store them all year, and we begin transforming the house into it’s Christmas time decoration mode. The tree goes up, wreaths are hung on doors, and Christmas figurines go up in their usual places.

However, one of our kids favorite preparations for Christmas is our Advent Calendar. It’s a fabric calendar that hangs on the wall, with a little pocket marked with all the days in December form the 1st through the 25th. In each pocket, we put 4 pieces of candy, and each day, one of the lids takes a turn moving the star to the current day. When they do, each one of the kids gets a piece of candy. It’s a mini celebration that serves as a reminder of the greater celebration that is coming.

The passage we have today is all about preparation. It provides a glimpse at some of the preparations God Himself made in preparing for the 1st Christmas. Now, to be clear, God had been preparing people for the arrival of Jesus sin the day man first sinned. He prepared the Israelites for Jesus, both in the desert and through the daily sacrifice. But, as he got down to the wire, there were some final preparation that were necessary to the His arrival.

There are a few things we should notice about God’s preparations.

The People He carefully Chose ()

What do we know about the people God chose to bring John into the world?

They were Righteous People

Luke tells us that Zechariah was not only a priest, but that both him and his wife Elizabeth were righteous people, blameless in God’s eyes. This by no means they were without sin, but it does mean that God considered them clean. The Bible does not specify the basis on which God forgave them, but one could rightly assume that it was their faith in God and the promise of the Messiah.

So, God chose them, not only because they were the kind of people who would see that John was raised in a manner that would prepare him for the ministry God had planned for him, but also they would instill in him the same hope that they shared.

They were Expectant people

These two were among the few in Israel who were eagerly expecting the Messiah. How do we know this?

When the angel, which many assume was Gabriel, appeared to him, he told Zechariah that his prayer had been heard. Now some suggest that Zechariah and his wife were praying for a son, however, that would not explain Zechariah’s doubt in . If Zechariah were still asking God for a sin, that would mean that he was convinced God could actually give him a son, regardless of his age.

Zechariah’s prayer was that God would send the Messiah, probably a prayer that he had asked on many occasions. Gabriel was telling him that God was preparing to send the Messiah, and as part of his preparation process, God would provide the old priest with the son he gave up hoping he would ever have.

They were Childless People

I believe God had specifically prevented them form having a child, because anytime God sends a message to His people, it is almost always accompanied by a miracle. Preventing them from having children before giving the son God wanted them to have provided the perfect opportunity for God’s Word to be confirmed that would directly relate to the task God had prepared for them.

So, we see that God was very careful in choosing and preparing the people he would use to bring John into the World.

The Precision of His Timing ()

As humans, we often look at things in terms of chance or happy accidents. However, when it comes to God, there is no such thing as an accident. In the announcing of John’s birth, it was not chance that brought Zechariah to the temple that day.

The priesthood was divided up into 24 divisions, with each division serving for one week twice a year. And, there were so many priests, that no one would get to serve in this capacity more than once in their lifetime. To decide who would serve, they cast lots, which was similar to rolling dive, but not exactly. The lot system was consider by the priests as being God’s way of communicating His will in certain matters. The Apostles did the same thing in trying to decide which disciple would replace Judas.

So, when the lot indicated that Zechariah would serve that day, it was nothing less than God’s will that he be chosen. His job was to go into the temple and offer the incense to the Lord. The priests were the intercessors between the people and God, so as the people were outside praying, Zechariah was inside offering the incense and praying on behalf of the people and on behalf of himself.

The incense literally represented the prayers of the people, and it was at this time that Gabriel appeared to Zechariah. Now, God could have done this at any point. This was a once in a life opportunity for Zechariah, but God could have brought him here at any point. But, He waited until now for several reasons.

First, as we said previously, it served to confirm His word to them, but second, it increased the miraculous aspect of the miracle. If God had given them a child when they were much younger, then it would not have stood out as a miracle. The concept of miracles is often overused. A miracle is not something that is rare. It is something that is impossible apart form supernatural intervention. So, even though we do not know Zechariah’s actual age, being a gentleman he doesn’t tell us Elizabeth’s age, but he does say they were well along in years which is a strong indication that there was no way Elizabeth was going to become pregnant by any natural means.

Thirdly, it was almost time for the incarnation. God was preparing to bring John, because He was preparing to bring Jesus. Just as we begin to pull out all the Christmas decorations and start making our lists so we will be ready when Christmas arrives, God was getting everything in place for Jesus, which brings us to the final aspect of God’s preparations.

The People He carefully Chose ()

The Purpose His Preparation would Serve (Luke 1:12-17)

When the angel appears before Zechariah, he tells him not to be afraid, because God has heard your prayer. And then, the angel begins to tell Zechariah about the son God was giving to them. However, he does not tell him about his eye color, hair color, or any other trivial details, he tells him the manner in which John would live, and the purpose he would have in this world.

John had one purpose, to prepare the way for God.

Before man would be ready for God to arrive on the scene in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, man needed some preparation. Just like when you are preparing to cook you Thanksgiving turkey, few people just take it and stick it in the oven. No, they wash it, season it in their favorite manner, they might stuff it with stuffing, and only then are they ready to put it in the oven.

So, God was sending John to prepare man for His arrival. God had already been foretelling the birth of the Messiah for thousands of years, so now John would make sure they were ready. Through his ministry, John would prepare their hearts. John was there to preach repentance…to point out to his people who far they had strayed form God, and to instill in them a desire to return to God, to be right with God. So, when Jesus arrived with a message and the means of reconciliation, they would be ready to receive it.

God’s preparation was to get the world ready for the arrival of Jesus…does your preparation for Christmas serve the same purpose?

Application

This is the preparation step most people miss in getting ready for Christmas. We spend a lot of time making sure we have all of our decorations up, we make sure we have all of our parties planned, and we make sure that we have all of our presents bought, but how often do we make sure that we have our hearts prepared for Jesus? I can give you one indication that we don’t.

If you watch the offering board in the months leading up to Christmas, it gets lower and lower. In fact, it is generally at its lowest during the month of Christmas, because our minds and our wallets are focused more on the celebration of Christmas than on the reason for Christmas.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, we need to be asking ourselves, am I ready for Jesus to arrive? Not because we are expecting him to come as a baby on Christmas Day, but because we are waiting for Him to return as our Lord. The meaning of Advent is come, but it is no longer the first Advent for which we await. It is the second. But, just as God wanted the hearts of the people to be ready for His first arrival, God wants our hearts to be ready for His second.

Is yours?

If not, I want to give you an opportunity to get it ready. As we sing our him of invitation, I want to invite you to come down to the alter and ask God to show you the things in your life that you need to change to be ready for His arrival. Take this opportunity to truly be prepared for Christmas.

Let us pray.