Luke 3:1-6

¹ In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was

governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea

and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— ² during the high priesthood of

Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the

desert.  ³ He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of

repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

⁴ As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight

paths for him. ⁵ Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.

The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.  ⁶ And all

mankind will see God’s salvation.’ ”

In name of our coming Savior and King, dear friends,

 

            Driving the streets of town the last couple days it appears that many people are pretty much prepared for Christmas.  The mild weather has allowed many to get ALL their decorations out.  Lights are on the bushes, trees and houses.  Other outside decorations are up as well.  Looking inside front windows we see Christmas trees up and lit.  All OUTWARD indications are that people are prepared for Christmas.  But what about inside?  People may not be as prepared as we think?  If your house is like ours, yes, the decorations are up but the house is a bit of a mess with the boxes that the decorations were stored in laying around the house yet.  That may be alright for now, but for many of us the Christmas season also means company.  That clutter needs to be cleared out before visitors come, so that they aren’t tripping over boxes; or perhaps so that they have a place to sleep in the spare bedroom.  So, as far as our homes go, we aren’t truly prepared for Christmas until the decorations are up and the place is cleaned up.

 

            According to John the Baptist as he prepared people to meet Jesus, the same is true of our lives.  Being truly prepared to meet Jesus – whether it be in celebration of his first entrance into our world or for any meeting with him thereafter – means having our lives prepared, straightened up outside and in.  Our lesson today from Luke 3 helps us

Prepare to Meet Jesus!

We prepare to meet him by:     1. Listening to his messengers.

                                                     2. Taking to heart his message.

 

            There can be no doubt that John (the Baptist) was Jesus’ messenger to people to prepare them to meet Jesus.  Luke makes sure his readers understand this by showing that John’s appearance on the scene at that particular time in history was the fulfillment of God’s prophecy through Isaiah seven hundred years before.  Isaiah had prophesied that someone, a voice, would be out in the wilderness telling people to prepare the way for the Lord to come to them. 

 

            Luke’s other statement that assures us John was Jesus’ preparatory messenger was “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah” (v. 2).  Apparently, a specific, prophetic “word” came from God to John telling him to begin telling people that the Messiah, the Savior from sin promised to Adam and Eve and to all their descendants was soon to be among them.  He was specifically told to baptize people so that they were prepared to meet that Messiah face to face.

 

            But Luke’s statement “the word of God came to John” also describes something that has happened to you and me.  John was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, a miraculous and marvelous pre-Christmas story that Luke wrote down in chapter 1 of his gospel. Zechariah was a priest.  He and Elizabeth were Christian parents who understood the privilege and responsibility they had when God gave them their son in their older years.  Most certainly the Word of God was spoken in their home.  No doubt, John had opportunity as a boy to be in and around the temple in Jerusalem when his father served there.  His parents made sure the Word of God came to John as a child.  He knew the Scriptures!  The Word of God had been coming to him for a long time before that specific, prophetic word came to him telling him to preach and baptize.  All this made him a messenger of Jesus.

 

            The people of Jerusalem and Judea recognized him as such.  They went out to the wilderness region around the Jordan River to find him.  What caused them to recognize John as the Messiah’s messenger to them was that he and his message were so different from what they were used to hearing and seeing.  Mark’s gospel (chapter 1) tells us about John’s peculiar lifestyle, living in the wilderness, wearing camel skins and eating what he could find out there – locusts and wild honey.    And in this third chapter of Luke we hear the message that was different from what those people were used to hearing.  For all their lives the people to whom John was sent had been hearing that to be right with God and to have hope of life eternal with him they had to keep God’s commandments and the hundreds of supposedly related commands the Pharisees had come up with.  The teachings they had been hearing did nothing but create guilt resulting in fear of God and his judgment.  But what they heard from John was different.  They did hear that God demands obedience to his commandments.  John said, “Repent”, which means first of all, know the commandments and acknowledge you have failed to keep them and you deserve God’s condemnation.  But John’s message included a baptism of repentance FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.  John’s message that prepared people to meet the Messiah brought in a personal way forgiveness of sins from God himself.  His message and his baptism gave people peace with God, love for God and a real, certain expectation (hope) for life with Him.

 

            These people not only heard the words of John, but they listened to what he had to say.  We’re told they were baptized as John said they should be.  But in the verses following our section we hear them asking questions of John that indicate they were “chewing on” what he had said.  He had told them to “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Lk 3:8).  They asked him what they should do.  They listened to Jesus’ messenger as he prepared them to meet him.

 

            So, to whom should we listen as we prepare to meet Jesus?  Who are his messengers today?  Who are the “John the Baptists” today?  We’d have to say that Jesus’ messengers who prepare us to meet him are those who, like John, have had the word of God come to them and who are in positions to speak it.  That means John’s parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were Jesus’ messengers as they spoke the word of God to their son and put him among God’s people at the temple.  You Christian parents today are Zechariahs and Elizabeths and “John the Baptists” when you make sure the word of God comes to your children in your homes and in his house.  You parents are “John the Baptists” preparing your children to meet Jesus when you make your home life and lifestyle “different” from what is very common in our society.  The “John the Baptists”, the messengers of Jesus who prepare us to meet him, are those fellow Christians in our lives who will lovingly point out our sin to us to lead us to repentance.  They will point us to that Savior who came for us as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” to fill us with the peace and joy of our God.  The messengers of our Savior who prepare us to meet him are those Christians in our lives who offer direction from the word of God for our lives. They may be Christian parents, pastors, teachers, church elders or friends.

 

            So, let us not “blow off” those messengers, as we will often do, especially when we hear about our sin from them.  They have the message that we need to be prepared to meet Jesus face to face.  And when we have listened to those messengers who bring Jesus’ message, we are further prepared to meet him by taking to heart his message.

 

            Luke quoted Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 40:3-5) to show that John indeed was the messenger sent to prepare people to meet Jesus.  Isaiah’s words also showed how people would prepare after listening to the messenger.  They would do something.  It sounds like road repair.  “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.  Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low.  The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth” (Luke 3:4,5).  Repair of lives is needed to be prepared to meet Jesus.  The road repairs mentioned by Isaiah were tasks the people of towns and cities would undertake when preparing for the visit of a king.  We might compare it to the way the Secret Service works with local city governments and law enforcement departments to prepare for a visit to a city by the President.  We want no obstacles in the way of his journey.  The ancients would fix their roads.  If they had sharp turns that would be difficult to navigate with horsed and chariot, they would try straighten out the curve a little.  If they had steep hills, up or down, which might prove difficult for the horse drawn chariots, they would try to reduce the angle incline or decline.  All this repair work to allow the king to bring his gracious presence to their city without any obstacle. 

 

            Our Savior God wants to be with us, in our hearts, a part – the biggest part – of our lives.  He wants to put his gracious eternal blessings into our lives.  But our sin, our disbelief and disobedience to his word, is an obstacle to him moving in.  He’ll have nothing to do with sin.  Our lives need repair before he’ll visit us and stay with us.  Only he can make those repairs.  That’s why he came in the flesh in Bethlehem, to be born as we are and to live under the commands of God for our lives.  That’s why he came to suffer God’s anger and punishment for our sins while on a humiliating cross.  He has taken from us the offense of our sin and replaced it with his innocence. 

 

            Such a repair in our standing with almighty God moves us to make repairs to our lives.  We repent.  We confess our sins to God and to one another.  We receive with joy Jesus’ forgiveness offered to us.  And we take to heart, we apply, his message.  In the section after our reading (Lk 3:7ff), John told his hearers how to apply the message, how to repent.  He told them how to straighten the road of their lives and how to level out “the hills and valleys”.  Forgiven people who are prepared to meet Jesus “love their neighbor as themselves”.  He told people blessed with material goods to generously share with others.  He told tax collectors to collect only as much as they were supposed to collect, no more.  He told soldiers to not extort people for money or falsely accuse people in order to receive a bribe to have the accusations go away.  Instead, content with your pay, be protectors of the people.  Wherever you are in life, whatever your task or place – wife, husband, parent, child, employer, employee, student - get rid of the sins that Jesus so despises and that would keep you from receiving his gracious blessings.  Turn from bitterness and anger.  Speak to one another so as to build up, not to tear down.  Forgive as you have been forgiven in Christ!  Be generous with God’s gifts instead of selfishly worrying if you’ll have enough for yourself if you share.

 

            Lives “leveled out” like this through forgiveness and a renewed desire and effort to do things God’s way (repentance) are lives Jesus blesses with his presence, even now!  Such lives are prepared to meet Jesus face to face!  Such lives also prepare others to meet Jesus face to face.  Such lives are the lives of Jesus’ messengers sent to prepare others to meet him.  They’re different, as was John’s life.  And the message is different than what we so often hear around us.

 

            The last part of Isaiah’s prophecy quoted by Luke says, “And all mankind will see God’s salvation” (Luke 3:6).  Lives motivated by Jesus’ gracious presence and forgiveness and following a path of his directing speak of God’s salvation.  People will see it in you.  They will see your confidence about your future, in this life and beyond.  They will see the quiet peace you have in knowing you are in Christ a dearly loved child of God.  They will see godly living that is “safe” and “saved”.  But seeing you and your life isn’t enough.  They must meet Jesus!  John opened his mouth.  Zechariah and Elizabeth opened their mouths.  Through them “the word of God came” to others.  When you show them, tell them about their need for Jesus and his forgiveness and tell them it’s theirs, they can see God’s salvation.  And on that day when everyone meets Jesus face to face, they will see your Savior.

 

                        In his word and with his gifts Jesus is coming to meet you every day.  Meet him and greet him with a life that says he is your great King and Savior.  And he will come again to meet you as your Judge.  Be prepared for that meeting – with a life that has been purchased for eternity by him and a life of repentance that Jesus wants to be part of.