Prepare the way (2)

Prepare the way

Introduction

We talked last week about trusting God and turning over our whole lives to God. If Jesus as King is the source of truth, then we can truly trust God with our lives. Today we shift gears to talk through preparing for the Lord. In thinking back to the birth of Jesus, the world needed to be prepared for his arrival. In some ways we too need to be prepared for Jesus’ return. Lets take that first step in preparing our hearts and minds for Jesus’ return.

Word of God came to John

If we go back to our passage I want to focus a bit on John. In the middle of verse 2 it says “the word of God came to John...” John was a special person. You read his backstory in Luke versus other gospels which don’t explain it well. There was a link between Jesus and John even when they were both still in their mother’s womb.

John was born to prepare the way for Jesus. During this time, there had been no prophet or word from God for several hundred years. God had been silent towards the Jews. They knew prophecy declared a savior Messiah would come but had not heard anything from God in a really long time. This word of God came to John as the beginning of a great time when God spoke again, starting with John and then with Jesus.

John had an important role here. Sin tends to get in the way of hearing from God. When sin is ruling over you or when you are so caught up in it, then you become deaf and blind to God. In some ways it is trying to become your master again instead of God. Last week when we said trust in God, this is one of those areas that it becomes hard because we doubt ourselves because sin is still trying to rule over us. The less we hear from God, the louder sin may become.

Proclaiming a baptism of repentance

Verse three shares that John started the ministry to prepare the way for Jesus Christ by proclaiming or sharing the word of God that he received in all the areas around the Jordan. This word of God was to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The world was not ready for Jesus because they were still ensnared with sin. The prepare themselves, they first needed to cleansed of their sins. This baptism represented just that. It was publicly declaring their need to be forgiven and the baptism represented washing away that sin.

This is still true today. This is part the sacrament in our own baptisms today is washing away our sins by water. If you look at it this way, this is not just myself or John baptizing the person, this is God washing away your sin. God gave John the word. God directed John’s steps to spread the word given to him that repentance was needed to receive forgiveness.

One item here that sets Methodists apart from some other denominations is the once baptized, there is no need to be baptized again. This has to do with believing that it is God who is baptizing you so if God is the one present, then there can be no recreating or repeating the work God has accomplished in you. This does not mean you can’t rededicate yourself to God but the baptism sacrament as we conduct it today is that this is a public declaration of the work God has already accomplished in your heart by turning your heart to God.

Repentance begins with turning towards God. As I mentioned earlier, when we feel like we are not hearing from God and sin is constantly knocking at our door, and maybe is trying to rule over our lives, we need to turn away from the world and turn towards God.

In John’s days, God has not spoke to the Jews in so long that generations had come and gone without anyone hearing from God. In the absence of God’s voice, other voices tend to creep in. The people had been conquered for the 5th time and the Romans had ruled over the land for quite a while. There had been a reprieve during the Maccabean revolt but that is a story for another day. The outside world had conquered them for centuries and they could not live as they wanted to for so long that it likely felt “sin” was there to stay and they just had to learn to live with ungodly ways in their lives to blend in and survive.

This is also a lure we can fall for. Sometimes the world around us seems bigger than what we can control. While on the one hand, yes the world is bigger than us and what we can control, it is not however bigger than what God has control over. Repentance begins by acknowledging our sins and acceptance of the world’s ways and turning away from them and back to God. We can only accept one of two things here: either God is in control and we need to turn back to God or sin rules over the world and there is nothing to do but live with it.

The Prophet Isaiah declared this word quoted in our passage today several hundreds of years before John was born. It is about all obstacles being removed and things becoming clear and straightforward. This message for me is that the obstacles the world puts in our way, that is the things that block us or get in our way of having a relationship with God, can be removed and when we turn away from the world’s ways, no longer have to get in our way.

Repentance begins this path of removing obstacles in the way. We all desire that relationship with God. We all desire to be free from sin’s grasp and rule over our lives. When we turn away from the world’s ways and confess our sin before God, we shall be forgiven and as the prophet declared thousands of years ago, “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”

As we move into communion today, listen to the words we speak in our readings. We always ask for forgiveness and we repent of the sins in our lives. This is preparing ourselves to receive God’s grace. We can’t accept sin in our lives and then also accept God’s grace. God’s grace is to free us from sin. When we approach God, it is good to begin with repenting of any sin, so you may hear clearly from God and you are free to receive that good Grace of God again.

People have asked the question. How do I know if I can take communion or not? Or a different version of the same question, how do I know if I am taking communion in the wrong manner? While this varies by denomination, I can tell you my personal belief and the Methodist belief on this subject. When we confess and repent of our sins, we are free and clear to come to God’s table to partake of this spiritual nourishment filling our souls. We not only remember Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection but we also remember our own death to sin and resurrection to new life. Let us take communion today in that worthy manner where we repent of our sins and remember and celebrate God’s grace in our lives.