Sermon 4th December 2011
Rev Dr Ken Jeffrey
Advent 2
Introduction
Preparing to meet Jesus
Today is the second Sunday of Advent, this holy season that provides the opportunity to prepare:
To celebrate the birth of Jesus, born in a stable in Bethlehem two thousand years ago.
To anticipate His second coming, when He will establish his reign over new heaven and earth.
Amidst all your frantic preparations for Christmas Day that will be here today and gone tomorrow, let us not ignore the preparations for a much more significant day when Jesus comes again.
This morning, based on our two readings, I want to discuss two simple questions with you:
1. What ought we to expect to receive when Jesus comes again?
2. How should we prepare to meet Jesus?
Development
1. Isaiah 40 v1-11, p 723
Q: What ought we to expect to receive when Jesus comes again?
A: Forgiveness and grace
The answer to our first question is found within the book of Isaiah that belongs to the great OT prophet who ministered to the people of God towards the end of the C8BC, at a time when their kingdom was under enormous threat from neighbouring nations
In ch 1-39, Isaiah warns the people about their injustice and corruption, and of God’s judgment.
In ch 40-66, punished in exile, the prophet comforts them with messages of hope and promise.
This message begins at the start of chapter 40 when God says, ‘Comfort, comfort my people… speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins’.
Through the prophet God speaks to His people whose entire world has been shattered.
He speaks to reassure them that despite everything that has happened, they are still ‘my people’.
Despite their disobedience, sin and faithlessness the covenant into which God entered with His people still stood. He was their God and they were, and always would be His people. He had permitted them to be judged and suffer, but his eternal plans for them, bless them, had not changed.
More than this, God tells His people that their sins have been forgiven, the penalty for their wrong doing has been paid in full, and thus they have been set free from their exile. They were forgiven. Their sins had been paid for. Their hard labour was ended. They were free to go home.
Indeed, v3-5 reveals that God self will lead them home through desert, while last verse of passage, v11, describes how He will tend, gather, carry and lead them like a shepherd caring for his flock.
In this way, the watching world will see what kind of God he is, a God full of grace and love.
So, what may we expect to receive when Jesus comes again? As God’s chosen people we may expect the same welcome that was afforded to the Prodigal Son when he returned to his father.
2. Mark 1 v1-8, p 1002
Q: How should we prepare to meet Jesus?
A: Repentance
Seven hundred years after Isaiah, and when Mark sat down to write his gospel it is significant that he quoted from the prophet when he introduced JtB. Mark recognised that JtB was fulfilling God’s promise given through Isaiah, that John was the messenger sent to prepare the way for the Messiah.
Notice how JtB fulfilled his calling, how he prepared the way for Jesus, v4, by
‘baptising in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’.
JtB baptised people. It was a physical sign of their repentance and the washing away of their sin.
Repentance and baptism were means by which the people were encouraged to prepare for Saviour.
a. Define Repentance
The literal meaning of metanoia is ‘to turn’. Understood spiritually, therefore, it means to turn around, to change direction, to go and live in a fundamentally different way from before.
Let us be honest, not fool selves. There is much that we think, do and say that we need to turn from.
b. God’s work of regeneration
Turning around or changing is not something we can naturally do in, for or by ourselves.
J Edwards, ‘Conversion is a great and glorious work of God’s power, at once changing the heart and infusing life into the dead soul.’ HS, at work deep within us, draws us to turn towards God.
c. Our role within our second birth
Yet, lest we assume that God is wholly responsible for the ‘turning’ required of us, He gave us free will to choose whether or not we want to be changed, whether or not we want to turn to Him.
d. Repentance can be Sudden
For some, this ‘turn around’ can be a sudden experience, prompt by any number of circumstances.
e. Repentance is more often Gradual
However, for majority of people, ‘turning’ to God is a process that takes place over period of time.
For most, it is like learning a language or serving time as an apprentice. It is like a journey.
Significantly, repentance is most commonly experienced by people who belong to a local church.
f. Repentance needs to be Continuous
Crucially, repentance or turning to God is not a once and for all moment or experience.
On the contrary, turning and returning to God is something we do again and again through our lives.
Calvin, in Institutes, Bk3, Ch 3, Sect 9: ‘This restoration does not take place in one moment or one day or one year; but through continual and even slow advances… God assigns to them [Christians] a race of repentance, which they are to run throughout their lives’.
Illustration of musical jewellery box, of the ballerina who is always ‘turning’.
We are called to turn from anger, jealousy, greed, lust, adultery, all expressions of selfishness.
In practice, this means that we ought to keep short accounts with God, that we do well to learn and practice the habit of saying ‘sorry’ often and quickly, rather than allow wrong habits to form in us.
Conclusion
Have you never turned to God, and acknowledged your sin, and asked for grace to change?
Did you turn a long time ago, but now, for one reason or another, have stopped turning?
Today, may I invite all of you to begin to turn again to God, to prepare for Jesus coming again by turning away from sin and selfishness and turning to Him whose example we seek to follow.
Let us, in this way, receive grace and forgiveness, be prep to meet Jesus when He comes again.
