Malachi 3:1-7b; Philippians 1:2-11; Luke 3:1-20

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

How do you prepare... for company to visit? For a trip or vacation? For a test? Perhaps, you are one that waits until the last minute and then tosses everything together. Or maybe you like to methodically lay everything out, write a plan down, and start it weeks in advance. We learn from life that there’s a certain level of preparation needed for most things. We don’t (often) walk into a classroom on test day without having studied. We don’t wait until it’s time to leave to pack a suitcase for a trip. Many other things too take preparation.

In this season of Advent, we focus on our preparation for Christmas. We prepare for family to visit, getting what food we need for meals, making sure everyone has a bed to sleep on, and so on. But that’s not the only preparation we need. Advent teaches us that we must prepare to greet our newborn king. We must be prepared to celebrate Christmas rightly. 

This week, we hear about John the Baptist as he seeks to prepare the way. “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me,” Malachi 3:1. John is charged with preparing the people for Jesus to come. What we often find confusing is how John prepares the people. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” Luke 3:7. John has some choice words for the people. But it’s all for the sake of preparing them.

The preparation which God desires is repentance. It was what John preached, a baptism of repentance. Sin must be addressed before the good news may come. God had to remove the roadblocks and barriers to his word before it may be spoken in its sweetness. Or like Malachi says, God must purify us like silver and gold. He must first remove the impurities from our lives. For so we must have those uncomfortable conversations. We must address sin lest it keep us from entering the kingdom of God. Thus, we’re called to repent and change our ways so we may be prepared to greet our Lord aright.

John warns us that God’s wrath is imminent. It’s coming upon all sin and unrighteousness. “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees,” Luke 3:9. God was getting ready to punish sins. He was getting ready to swing his axe at the tree... only to make the cross. God sent John to prepare people to repent, to place their sins upon Jesus so that God might bear his full wrath, not against you, but against his own Son. Jesus bore the full weight of our sin, the full wrath of God by dying on the cross. By Jesus death, God purifies us from all sin. He cleanses us of all unrighteousness. He forgives us our sins so that we might hear the full sweetness of the Gospel, that Jesus’ death has paid the price for all of your sins and that you are now holy in the sight of God!

Pastor Sorenson

Prayer:

Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to make ready the way of Your only-begotten Son, that by His coming we may be enabled to serve You with pure minds; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen!