Well, good morning. Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving celebration, and I would invite you now to turn with me in Luke's Gospel to Luke chapter 1. We're going to begin our sermon series, our Advent sermon series entitled Come, Val Long Expected Jesus. We'll be thinking about things that we see in the first couple chapters of Luke as well as thinking about this reality of a need to prepare. As Stephen has mentioned, Advent is about preparation. It's a season in which the church would, throughout history, have sought to prepare their hearts for two things, really. One of the things during Advent that we prepare our hearts for is to celebrate Christmas, to find great joy in the coming of Christ, the first coming of Christ. And then the second thing that Advent has traditionally been used to prepare for is to create a growing longing and anticipation for the second coming of Christ. We live in this time after Christ has come for the first time, but before he has come for the second time when he will return and make all things new. So this Advent in our sermon series, we're going to be talking about ways that we can prepare, that we can be a people who are prepared to truly celebrate Christmas as well as long and anticipate for the return of Christ. And we're going to do that by looking at some of the things we see in the first couple chapters of Luke. I'm going to read Luke chapter 1, I'm just going to start in verse 8 this morning and go through verse 25. Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense and Zechariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you as son and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord. And Zechariah said to the angel, how shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years? And the angel answered him, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and bring you this good news and behold you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time. And the people were waiting for Zechariah and they were wondering at his delay in the temple and when he came out he was unable to speak to them and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute and when his time of service had ended he went to his home. After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept herself hidden saying, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked upon me to take away my reproach among people. This is the word of the Lord. Let's spray together. Father we do pray now that you would through your spirit open our eyes to things in this passage that will help us prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ in deeper and more life giving ways than we have in the past. We pray Lord that as we talk about things in this passage you would also prepare our hearts to rightly anticipate and long for our King the Lord Jesus to come back as he has promised to do and to make all things new. And so we place ourselves before you Lord asking that you would prepare us and continue to equip us to continue our mission to make disciples and pray in Jesus name. Amen. So I just want to pull out three things from this passage that I think show us what it looks like when our hearts are prepared to rightly celebrate Christmas the first coming of Christ as well as rightly anticipate the return of Christ the second coming of Christ. So three marks of a heart prepared for the joy of celebrating and anticipating Christ from this passage number one we'll see that regular repentance is something that helps us prepare. Number two taking God at his word is critical for us to prepare to celebrate and anticipate Christ and number three keeping your hope in God keeping our hope in God helps us prepare. So we're going to move through these things this morning. So let's talk about regular repentance. I want you to look at verses 16 and 17 in particular to see that a person prepared to live in celebration and anticipation of Christ regularly repents. So let me set the scene here a little bit we from the reading we saw that Zechariah is this priest and he is doing his normal duty he gets this once in a lifetime opportunity to burn incense in the temple. And what happens is he goes into the temple to do what he's been commissioned to do that day and an angel appears to him and he freaks out of course as people always do in scriptures when they see an angel. And then the angel speaks to him and begins telling him that he's going to have this child and this child will be named John we know that the angel is talking about who would become John the Baptist. But I want this morning for us to look at what the angel says about John the Baptist and really referring to the ministry of John the Baptist in verses 16 and 17. Because it teaches us shows us the importance of our being a people who are repentant look at 16 it says and he so John the Baptist will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just and to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. Now here's what's so interesting about what the angel Gabriel was saying here he's really alluding to and even quoting from some old testament passages particularly in Malachi chapter 3 and Malachi chapter 4 in which God said he was going to come to earth himself. God would come to earth and make things right. And he says in Malachi that he will send Elijah ahead of him to prepare the way of the Lord and that's what the angel is referring to here. So we have to understand that the angel is now showing that prophecy is being fulfilled and that John the Baptist will indeed fulfill this role of Elijah coming before God himself comes to the world. And I want you to notice the emphasis on the turning of hearts. You see that with twice that John's ministry this ministry of really calling people to repentance he's going to end up turning the children of Israel to the Lord their God so he's talking about their people who are part of the nation of Israel turning back to God turning their trust to God recognizing them that they must many of them had been turned away from God. And notice that as the children of Israel the Israelites themselves are turning back to God as individuals he says it would also turn the hearts of fathers to the children so you see this impact on families families whole families turning to the Lord and even turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just which I think would extend them to even the nation itself and really even society. There's kind of this ripple effect that people will turn to the Lord and then the families will turn to the Lord and even society at large turning to the Lord and it's all pointing at this ministry of John the Baptist in which is going to be as we read on largely a ministry of calling people to repentance. And that's what we see here that what prepares a people for God for God to come to earth is repentance having our hearts turned back to the Lord act 1730 says the times of ignorance were overlooked but now he commands God commands all people everywhere to repent. And this is something that we probably don't talk about quite enough as Christians that importance of our lives now living after Christ's first coming but before his second coming are really meant to be lives just thick with repentance that we would be a people who are regularly turning away from sin and turning away from self trust. And to understand that this is meant to be a big part of how God is at work in our lives and meant to be a big part of our lives in fact Martin Luther many of you are familiar with Martin Luther and the 95 theses the very first of the 95 theses that Martin Luther nailed to the door in Vittenburg and that sparked the reformation was this number one when our Lord and master Jesus Christ said repent he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance. And we have to ask ourselves why is it that God is so insistent that we turn away from the things that he has revealed to be sin why is it so what does it matter so much to him that we turn to him and trust in him and what we have to understand is that God is the one who's created all things and he knows how everything is supposed to work and he knows how humanity would ever flourish he has designed us in a certain way and when he's calling us to repentance what we want to understand. is he is calling us to turn away from the things that will not and cannot ever fulfill us will not and cannot ever give us the joy and the satisfaction that our hearts long for in fact the more that we understand it the more we really think about what is happening in repentance the more we would long for it that we would want to turn away from things to get rid of things in our lives that will not satisfy us that will not lead to our joy that will not lead to God's glory. You know if you can't tell right now I'm not feeling great our family has been hit with this stomach bug and we had a starting at about 24 hours starting Thanksgiving night till the next night of two of our children being sick we'll just leave it there to be as PG as possible it began in the evening and it continued all through the night with one child and then in the morning we thought we were done and then another child picked up where the first one left off and there was a tremendous amount of sickness happening and I think it might be happening to me so pray for me but here's something that I think is so helpful when we're thinking about repentance and why God calls us to turn away from sin to turn to him to him and trust and obedience. If you think about the body the human body when there's something in there that's not going to allow the body to flourish it does something right it gets rid of it and that's what was happening there's a whole lot of getting rid of stuff that night for our family and when we think about that then it makes sense right like if there's something inside of me that's going to hurt me going to ultimately not lead me to be able to flourish then I want it out. And that's really how we can understand what repentance is it's turning away from the things that will not actually lead us to flourish in fact I love the way the Puritan Thomas Brooks refers to repentance very simple he says repentance is the vomiting of the soul.
And a lot of times when we hear the word repent we're like I don't like that word because it means I got to stop doing something or start doing something but it's actually a beautiful thing that God calls us to. And as John's ministry was largely a ministry of calling people to repentance here we see the angel Gabriel announcing this is what he's going to do he's going to be involved in the turning of hearts back to the Lord be involved in people and more and more people repenting and it's actually a beautiful thing and it helps us as we not only obey the Lord and repent but then also see. That as we repent it does help us to celebrate Christ even more because when we repent we're turning away from sin we're acknowledging the ways we're we've disobeyed the Lord or we are in disobedience which points us directly to our need for a savior for someone to come someone to rescue us which is exactly what Christ has done for us on the cross. In other words the more repentant we are the more we will actually be able to truly celebrate Christ and his death on the cross which is paid for our sins but also as we seek to be more repentant turning more and more away from what God calls sin it helps us to anticipate because as we see in the scriptures none of us are going to be perfect in this life. We're still going to wrestle with sin we're going to have to fight against it and what happens as we seek to be more and more repentant is we not only celebrate more what Jesus has done but oh do we begin to long for Jesus to come back and make all things new including us so that there is no longer that battle with sin and so you see in choosing to be people who are repenting daily turning away from what God has revealed to be sin. We are better able to celebrate we are more able to anticipate and so I would ask you like what are the things that you're regularly turning away from and this is a time to prepare this is a time to turn away even more so I mean I was thinking about this and you know one of the things that I have to turn away from regularly creeps back it creeps back I have to regularly keep turning away from my self-centeredness and my wanting things to be about me. I also have to continually turn away repent of this need I sometimes have to impress others you know and I was sick this morning I was I was thinking I was upset about being sick far less because I was feeling bad but more because I thought what if I'm boring this morning and I have to fight against that and you have things as well and the more that I fight against these things that keep creeping up in my life the more I repent and turn away from them the more I can celebrate. Jesus more the more I long for him more and the same would be for you and so I think this is a time for us to prepare by identifying the things of which we can be repenting and actively doing so. Number two taking God at his word look at verses 18 through 20 a person prepared to live in both celebration and anticipation of Christ takes God at his word look what happens in verses 18 and following so Zechariah says to the angel when he finds out that he's going to his wife will have a child and they're old age he's pretty shocked by this he says how shall I know this for I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years and the angel. Gabriel responds I'm Gabriel I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and bring you this good news and behold you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time and as we'll see these words were fulfilled this child does come. But if you think about it it might seem harsh that Zechariah is you know acknowledging something any of us might acknowledge like how's this really going to happen but yet then there's this seeming discipline he's caused to be silent and I know we might wrestle with that but what would be far more harsh is if God did not reveal to us through things like this that there are consequences to our unbelief. When God reveals what's true to us and we reject it there's always consequences and not necessarily even his judgment but really if he's revealing what is true and we're rejecting what is true then we forfeit the freedom and the joy that comes from living according to what is true. If God tells us in his word that living a certain way will lead to our good and the good of others and we reject that then we forfeit that good in our life and in the lives of others. I think another reason we want to be a people who takes God at his word is because the Bible makes very clear that the world is filled with lies. The devil has spread all these lies Jesus says about the devil he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies. And you and I want to be people who take God at his word because God has revealed to us through his word in spirit and in his son that he's telling us the truth. He's telling us what's real what's true what's good what's beautiful what's actually right what's actually wrong what will lead to our good in the good of others but we tend to believe the lies of the devil. We see because we go by sight right we're called to live by faith and not by sight but it's so tempting to live as if seeing is believing that's the way the world operates. I think this passage challenges us to doubt our eyes and to choose to take God at his word believing that he really sees all things he really knows what's true and what's good and what's beautiful our eyes will deceive us in fact I was reading this interesting story about the Gulf War. If you remember the Gulf War and desert storm one of the first objectives in the Gulf War was for the United States military to take out these scud missile launchers remember scud missiles and see the Iraqis were firing the scud missiles at Israel. And so the first objective for the United States was to take out these the what what what they were doing is they were using these modified flatbed tractor trailers and they had built these missile launchers on the back of them. And the Iraqis would drive around and they would shoot these missiles at Israel. So what was happening is our government sent in these F-15 strike Eagle fighter jets and what they would do is they would watch for these missiles to be launched at night because then you could see light from the flare of the rocket and what as soon as they would see a launch the jets would fly over and then they would take a picture with a camera. It was a 4.6 million dollar camera so not available on Amazon but they would take this picture of the ground and it was an infrared picture that would then enable them to see exactly where that missile launcher was and then we would fire our missiles and take them out. And pretty soon all these reports of all these direct hits on our part were coming in so there was this excitement this growing excitement they were taking out these scud missile launchers and pretty soon the count was up to 100 until the Air Force once the hostility had died down Air Force did send in a team to determine the real effectiveness of these air strikes. And they ended up realizing that the actual number of confirmed scud missile launcher kills was actually zero. So here's what was happening what we didn't know is that the Iraqis were launching the missiles from these flatbed trucks and then they would drive those trucks under highway overpasses. So when our jets flew over we couldn't see them. We also found out after the fact that they had built a bunch of decoys that looked using old missile parts that made it look like these missile launching trucks and so that's what we were blowing up. We also blow up a bunch of oil tankers which from a high high looks a little bit like a missile launcher but we were not able to confirm any actual destroyed missile launchers but think about they were so sure. Because they could see they had a picture but their eyes had deceived them. This is why God calls us to take him at his word to live by faith and not by sight because we are deceived. We are blinded by our sin to what is really true to what is really good to what is really beautiful. So he calls us to live by faith and faith comes through hearing as my friend and seminary professor always says Christian see with their ears. We want to take God at his word. Think about this. We want to take God at his word about everything and we want to take God at his word about what he has said about Jesus. Think about the way taking God at his word helps us to celebrate Jesus first coming Christmas but also anticipate his second coming when he comes to make all things new. We sang it come that long expected Jesus born to set your people free and one of the things we need to remind ourselves is that Jesus did come to set people free and we believe that he has through the cross he has set us free from the penalty of sin. Because he died on the cross to pay for our sins if we believe in him then all of our sins are forgiven. So we are set free from the penalty of sin but also his death on the cross the Bible tells us has set us free from the power of sin. We're not under sins, domineering power anymore. We really can repent. We really can change. And thirdly we know that when Christ returns he is going to set us free from the very presence of sin. He's going to remove all the causes of suffering and sorrow and make all things new. So we can celebrate his first coming by just joyously celebrating that he set us free from that penalty of sin. We cannot be judged for our sin because Christ took our judgment for us on the cross and then was raised from the dead to prove that God has accepted what he did on our behalf. We can both celebrate and anticipate right now as we celebrate the ways God has already transformed us but also the coming transformation through the work of the Holy Spirit as we continue to live free from the power of sin. And the third we can anticipate that day when Christ comes and makes all things new and sets us free even from the very presence of sin. As long as we are taking God at his word believing yes we are forgiven yes we are not under sins, domineering power yes one day Christ will return to make all things new. Third keeping our hope in God look at verses 24 and 25 lastly here. A person prepared to live in celebration and anticipation of Christ keeps his or her hope in God look at 24 and 25 this is it says after these days Zechariah's wife Elizabeth conceived. And for five months she kept herself hidden saying thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked upon me to take away my reproach among the people. Here's what she is showing us or what we're seeing in Elizabeth the minute that she realized that she was pregnant something she'd been paying for something that she was the fact that she wasn't able to have a child something that was a disappointment to her the minute that she realizes she's pregnant she gives credit to God she believes God has been at work. She believes God is meeting her needs she believes God is the one who's removing this disappointment this sadness from her life she's showing us that all along she'd been living with her hope in God believing that no matter what's happening in her life remember she's very old at this point that her hope is always going to be in God she believed for sure God will meet all her needs God will take away all her guilt and shame God will deal with all her sorrow. And it just shows you and I that that's the way we can live with hope is by choosing to believe that God is going to do all the things that he has promised to do that he will get us through this time as well as all the way to the new heavens and new earth where he makes all things new. The more we celebrate Christmas and recognize that Christ came to earth to be born to die so that we could be forgiven it also helps us realize that that proves God loves us. God doesn't love us because Christ came and died for us Christ came and died for us because God loves us and as we celebrate that it helps us keep our hope that if he sent Christ once he's going to send him again and Christ will indeed one day return and remove all the causes of sadness of sorrow and make all things new. And if we want to live with hope even amongst the times where we feel deep sadness over the way the world is still very messed up it comes from choosing to deeply believe that Christ will come he will make all things new. And one of my favorite scenes in one of my favorite movies is it's in a movie called Armageddon and I know you know I love that movie. And this one of my favorite scenes which I've shared before is when so the story of Armageddon is that an asteroid is coming to destroy the earth and they decide NASA decides to send up a bunch of astronauts and deep core oil drillers and they're going to sort of go in these space shuttles and rock it around the moon and land on the back of the asteroid and then dig a hole in the asteroid and put a bomb down there and blow it up. So totally realistic. And what happens is they get all the way there and they get on to this asteroid and they get the whole Doug and they get the bomb down the hole but then the remote detonator won't work. And so one person the guy named Harry decides he will stay back and he will push the button and he'll give his life so that the asteroid can be blown apart and the earth can be saved. And the rest of the crew gets on the space shuttle and they take off. Now they're getting farther and farther away from the asteroid and some of them start to get worried because nothing's happened yet. Harry hadn't pushed the button. The asteroid had not exploded yet. So they begin to have this debate and this discussion maybe we should go back. We got to go back and do it ourselves. Harry didn't do it. We got to go back and they were saying well there's no time and then they're having this big argument and what you don't know what's going to happen. And then all of a sudden AJ who knew Harry really well and loved him deeply. AJ stops all the conversation and he says Harry will do it. I know he will. He doesn't know how to fail and a few moments later boom the earth is saved. And if we want to be a people really prepared to celebrate Christmas it's about realizing that Jesus came to sacrifice himself so that we could be forgiven and free. But also to deeply believe that he will return to make all things new. And that every day we should say of Jesus what AJ said of Harry and believe in our hearts about this new heavens new earth that will come that Jesus will bring. I know Jesus will do it. He doesn't know how to fail. Let's pray. Father we do thank you and we praise you that you are teaching us things in your word always. And would you help us to be a people who see repentance as something you give to us? Not that you want from us. Would you help us to be a people who are taking you at your word letting your truth destroy the lives of the devil? Would you help us be a people who are keeping our hope in you that no matter what we struggle with in this life. Let us never doubt that one day Jesus will come back and he'll do it. We know it. He doesn't know how to fail. We pray in his name. Amen.