To Encourage You

Matthew 3:1-3 “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ^‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.”’”

If you’re like me, you love Christmas.  I love everything about it. That means I love not just Christmas day but also the time leading up to it. Each year, immediately after Thanksgiving, many people turn on their outdoor Christmas lights and put up their decorations.  Multiple radio stations begin to play, and some continually, Christmas music.  On TV there seems to be no time, day or night, that we can’t find a Christmas-themed movie or show.  Many churches are busy practicing for a children’s play or other event focused on the Christmas story.  Then, on a personal level, most of us are in a preparatory mode as we buy gifts for our loved ones, purchase and decorate a Christmas tree, write out and send Christmas cards, think about and purchase the items that we’ll serve for Christmas dinner, make travel plans, and all the other things we tend to do each year prior to Christmas day. One of the questions we often hear people say at this time of year is “Are you ready for Christmas?”  There is such a focus on preparation for “the most wonderful time of the year.” 

This morning these thoughts led me to think about the Scripture above, which was the message that John the Baptist went about preaching before Jesus began His ministry.  It was a message about preparation, not for the coming of the Christmas holiday, where we look back to the day Jesus came into the world, but for the coming of Jesus in a very personal way, preaching, teaching, healing, doing miracles, and eventually dying on a cross to rise again.  Interestingly, as he preached about this preparation, he used the words of the Old Testament from the prophet Isaiah, who, approximately 700 years earlier, had also been preaching about preparation for the coming of the Messiah. But it wasn’t just Isaiah that was preaching in this way.  In fact, in Luke 24, as Jesus spoke to his disciples after His resurrection, He said to them, “’These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’”

Do you realize that when Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” the only Scriptures that they had were the writings of the Old Testament? In effect, Jesus was telling them, “The entire Old Testament was given to you to prepare you for what has just happened. They were meant to prepare you for my coming. They were telling you to get ready! To wake up! They were telling you that a great day was coming, the very coming of the Messiah into the world.” 

This leads me to think about how all our preparations for Christmas day are a microcosm of the great preparation for the coming of the Messiah that all the Old Testament prophets wrote about.  It was a message that all the world should be preparing for this greatest event that the world had ever known.  All generations were to think about His coming, speak about His coming, and then live as if He was coming.  It was the message of “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And yet, as we look back at Jesus’ first coming, the Scriptures point us today not just back to His coming into a remote stable in a small town in a manger to be seen at first only by Mary, Joseph, and a few shepherds, but to another coming that the Scriptures tell us about, when Jesus will come again “with the clouds, and every eye (of every person on the face of the earth) will see him” (Revelation 1:7).

And so, as you make your preparations for a day in which we look back to Jesus’ first coming on earth, are you also making preparations for His second coming, which will be a much more incredible event.  Are you ready for this? Are you thinking about it, talking about it, preparing for it, and living as if it will certainly come to pass?  For it IS coming, and like John the Baptist preached about Jesus’ first coming into the world, the message is still the same, i.e., “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  It’s the message that we shouldn’t just live as if it will never happen, for it most surely will! 

Listen to the apostle Peter’s words in Chapter 3 of his second epistle, as he talks about our preparation for this great event: “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.”

So, what about you?  As you are preparing for Christmas, are you also living in preparation for this even greater day?!