Advent 2020 - 2 - Clear the Way

20-11-22 – ADVENT 1 – Clear the way

HBI: Remove all obstacles in our life (prepare) that may take us away from the Lord for He is going to come again, take comfort in this. 

Intro

What do you call a train that eats toffee? A chew, chew train. 

Why is the railroad angry? Because people are always crossing it!1

I have grown to appreciate history and have watched a few documentaries on the building of things in the world, like the hoover dam, the railroad and so on. 

When building the railroad there was some obstacles to get around. You see they had to cross hills, mountains ravines and such. 

They could have just gone up and down the hills, but that is hard on equipment and if the grade is to steep the train can’t make it. 

So, when they built the railroad the had to clear the way. They had to fill in small dips, they had to bridge ravines, they cut through hills all in an effort to make as straight of a line as possible. 

This was vital as in the late 1800’s people relied on the locomotive to bring supplies as we started to settle the continent of NA. 

When it came to the mountains, they had to find the easiest way through. It was slow going moving at only about 1 foot per day. 

They would lower immigrants down in baskets and drill holes in the mountainside and light the fuse. The people would be carried up hopefully fast enough to avoid the explosion. 

It was dangerous work, but the way had to be cleared and prepared for the movement of the train. 

We are also told to clear the way, to remove all obstacles but in a different way. Our obstacles are the things in our life that are keeping us from running the race towards Jesus. 

Maybe they are the things that are keeping us from having a relationship with our Lord and savior. They all need to be removed for the purpose of Knowing Him. 

We do this for the Kingdom of God has been set in motion and will one day be totally established. God’s rule on earth has been set in motion and we need to be prepared for it to come to completion, but are we? 

Comfort was promised to Israel for the forgiveness of their sins. The where being punished but Comfort was promised. John the Baptist then called for people to prepare themselves for the one whom Isaiah promised that was going to comfort them will come and straighten everything out and lead them back to the land promised. 

The Prophecy

Prepare the way for the Lord! We go back to the book of Isaiah for the prophecy that we are going to look at today. But first we look into what was going on at the time. 

Last week we looked at Isaiah 9 when Ahaz was king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah in about 730 BC. We move on about 25 years to King Hezekiah. 

1 Kings tells us that Hezekiah enacted sweeping religious reforms, including a strict mandate for the sole worship of Yahweh and a prohibition on worshiping other deities within the Temple of Jerusalem. 

He was the son of Ahaz but somehow learned of Yahweh and started to follow Him. There was still the judgement 

Hezekiah got very sick and was told by the prophet Isaiah that he was going to die. Hezekiah after hearing this cried out to God and asked. “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 

God heard Hezekiah’s prayers and healed him. Word was going out that Hezekiah was healed miraculously. Babylon heard of this and sent an envoy to the king. 

Now remember the consequences for the peoples sin where still on them even though Hezekiah was doing all he could to lead the people back to God. 

But Hezekiah’s pride got in the way. The envoy of Babylon came and Hezekiah took them all through the palace and showed them all his treasures and all his stuff so they knew exactly what they could take when they came to attack Israel. 

This led to Judah being warned that Babylon would hold them captive later as well. They just couldn’t keep on the right track. 

But they where not going to be left without hope. There was a message of peace in the is message of consequences. Is 40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 

Comfort my people says the Lord. There is a message of comfort for the people. Do not lose heart. But what is that message of comfort that they where given. 

Isaiah 40:3-4 A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. our God. Every valley shall be lifted up,  and every mountain and hill be made low;  the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 

The message of hope that they had been given is one that says that we are to prepare the way for the Lord, for the messiah is coming. Salvation is promised to those that would believe in the name of the Lord. 

This message is repeated a few times in the Old Testament, the promise of someone coming, a voice in the wilderness, the coming of one in spirit and power of Elijah who would prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. But what does this mean?

The Fulfillment

So, we jump another 700+ years to the time of Jesus again. God’s promises always come true, are always fulfilled and this promise is no different. 

Not much is said about Jesus in his growing up years, but He is now in His 30’sabout to start His ministry. Comfort was always promised for the people who put their faith in the Lord God. 

The prophecy is coming true in the person of John the Baptist who is echoing the words of the prophet Isaiah. People where starting to think this was the return of Elijah as was promised, come back to bring a message of hope and salvation. 

That is a sermon for another day though. This message of hope and comfort is being sent across the land by John the Baptist. “Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Turn from your wicked ways and turn your lives over to God for the reign of God as was promised is coming to you soon and I am here to usher it in. 

What are we to do about this? The kingdom of Heaven that is to come. Repent and prepare the way. 

Matthew 3:3 For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight! 

John 1:23  He said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord—just as Isaiah the prophet said.”

Mark 1:3 A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight! 

Prepare yourselves

Prepare the way for the Lord, this is the comfort we get from the fulfilled promise of God. But out of all this history what are we to do? 

The one thing the people can do is to prepare the way for the coming King. Elliger may be right in seeing this as a reflection of the kind of road building engaged in prior to the triumphal tour of a conquering king. But in any case it speaks of an act of faith on the part of the people. They do not yet see the King, but they dare to believe that he is coming. It also speaks of some form of activity on the part of those who had formerly been paralyzed by discouragement and hopelessness, as in v. 27.2

Clear the way, prepare the roads, knock down all obstacles. This is what this is telling us to do. Why are we to clear the way? Because of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

So, let us start with that, the Kingdom of heaven. It has also been described as the Kingdom of God. Both mean the same thing. 

The Kingdom of God is something that has been established at the coming of Jesus but will not be fully established till Jesus comes back again for the second time. 

Kind of confusing I know. The main idea that I want to get across today is that the Kingdom of Heaven is coming so we need to prepare the way in our lives. 

The kingdom of God is God’s promised reign on earth, His rule, His sovereignty over us. God’s kingdom has been established here on earth and as his children we are now a part of that kingdom. 

But it is also a double fulfillment, Zechariah 14:9 On that day the Lord will become King over the whole earth — the Lord alone, and his name alone.

Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of God at his coming, and as children of God we are a part of that same kingdom. 

But all is not as Yahweh would have it in the world at the moment. There is the hope of a time to come when God’s rule will be fully and openly implemented on earth. 

This is a great hope that we have. It is the hope that was given to the Israelites when they where going to be judged for there sin. A message of comfort for the people of God. 

We have the great hope and joy of the ability to enter into the Kingdom of God, come under the rule of our saviour but there is something we need to do first? 

Repent we are told. That means that we are to turn away from our life of sin, and turn to God. We need to prepare our lives for the coming of the Lord. 

To prepare means to clear out all obstacles that are getting in the way. We are called to give our lives to our Lord and saviour. 

God’s promises will always come to pass, we know this for sure. And we have this hope, this great comfort that Jesus is coming back again. 

We have this hope promise of salvation from sin for those that would turn their lives to God. So what are we to do with this promise that we have? 

John the Baptist was the one prophesied to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. He came yto baptise people for the forgiveness of sins and warn them to get right with God for the messiah was going to come. 

In truth the Messiah was already there and His ministry was about to start. We have the same promise for us now. 

Prepare the way in your life, clear out any obstacle that might be hindering us from coming to the Lord and living our life for Him. 

Is your phone causing you to sin? Get rid of it and get a stupid phone. Is Netflix tempting you to wacth bad things? Cancel it. You need to clear out anything in your life that may be an obstacle for a relationship with Jesus. 

Forgiveness of sins is offered to us, we can become citizens of the kingdom of Heaven but first we need to make sure we prepare the way for the Lord in our lives.