December 8, 2012

The Lord Prepares Us to be Repaired.

2nd Sunday in Advent, 12/9/12
Malachi 3:1-4


The Lord Prepares Us to be Repaired.
I. He sends his messenger to prepare us.
II. He sends the Messenger to repair us.


Are you one of those people that fixes things up before you bring them in to be fixed? For instance, do you shower and try to look your best in order to go to the doctor’s office to convince him how sick you are? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go to the doctor’s office looking like death warmed over? Wouldn’t your doctor be more likely to think you’re sick if you looked sick? But we don’t do that. Instead we dress up to convince the doctor that we don’t feel good. So we prepare ourselves, in a sense, to be repaired.

Or maybe you’re one of those people who cleans things up before you take them in to get fixed. I do that. Before I would ever think of bringing my lawnmower in for servicing, I would be sure to hose it down and wipe it clean. Maybe you do similar things. For instance, do you wash your car and vacuum the interior before you bring it to the mechanic? Why do that? Well, you don’t want him to think that you don’t take care of your car. But he knows you can’t take care of your car by yourself; that’s why you’re bringing it to him. I don’t think he cares how clean or dirty it is. But we clean it up first. We prepare it to be repaired.

God’s Old Testament prophet Malachi talks about the same thing in the words of our text this morning. Malachi lived about 400 years before the birth of Christ. His words were the last words that the Holy Spirit inspired and caused to be written down before the birth of the promised Savior, Jesus Christ. As such, it makes sense that God would use Malachi to prepare his people for the coming of the Messiah. And that’s exactly what he does with these words of our text. He caused Malachi to speak about the forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist, and about Christ himself. In doing so, the Lord prepares us to be repaired. And, unlike the preparations we might make before repairs, this one is absolutely necessary.

Part I.

Are you ready for Christmas? That’s a question we hear repeatedly at this time of year and most often it’s used simply as a conversation starter or even as a mindless opening question. When you ask people that question, you expect them to roll their eyes and exclaim, “No! Not even close!” Even though we still have 16 days until Christmas Day, we can tell already that we’re behind and, like other years, we probably won’t get everything done that we wanted to. We’re not ready. We probably won’t be ready and we’ll just have to accept it.

But your friends aren’t the only ones asking you that question. Your God is, too. But he doesn’t care about the things we think we have to do to be ready for Christmas. He wants to know if you’re spiritually ready for Christmas. He wants to know if you’re spiritually ready to celebrate your Savior’s first coming to this earth. He wants to know if you’ve made spiritual preparations for celebrating his birth.

And closely connected with that concern is another one. He wants to know if you’re ready for his second coming to this earth. We know when Christmas is coming. It occurs every year on Dec. 24 & 25. It doesn’t even move around the calendar like Easter or Memorial Day or Labor Day. We know when Christmas is coming. But we don’t know when the Lord will return to this earth. He hasn’t told us. He hasn’t even revealed it to the angels in heaven. But it’s going to happen. He promised it would. Are you spiritually ready for it?

That’s a good question. No, it’s an eternally critical question. It’s probably one of the most important questions we can ever answer. And to make sure we don’t misunderstand the question or give a wrong answer, God sent his messenger. He speaks about it in the opening words of our text, “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.” The Jews knew this prophecy. They had heard it earlier from Isaiah. Today’s gospel from Luke 3 quotes the words of Isaiah which spoke of this messenger. “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’” (Lk. 3:4). The Lord sent John the Baptist to prepare his people for the coming of the Savior. How did he do that? Listen to this description, “John said to the crowds coming out to him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Produce fruits in keeping with repentance.’” (Lk. 3:7-8). Not exactly the kind of words which win friends and influence people. Certainly not the “pc” thing to say. But John was not about being politically correct; he was about preparing people for the coming Savior. That takes place through repentance. It was John’s job to convince people that they had sinned against God and weren’t by nature right with him. He pointed out their sins of greed, lust, injustice, anger, resentment and pride.

And, 2,000 years later, his message is still the same. That’s because preparing people for the coming of the Savior hasn’t changed. It still involves preaching God’s law to reveal our sinfulness and our need for a Savior. We need that Savior whose birth in Bethlehem we’re preparing to celebrate. We need that Savior who is coming again to judge all people on the Last Day. We need him to be our Savior because we have wronged our Lord, we’ve sinned against him. Confessing our sins and trusting in Jesus for our forgiveness makes us ready to receive him. The Lord prepares us to be repaired. He does so by sending his messenger.

In a way, Christmas is like a birthday—it comes whether you’re ready for another one or not. If you aren’t ready, you can’t reschedule it for a week later. It’s the same way with the Lord’s return to this earth—he’s coming back whether we’re ready or not. And there’s no use trying to delay him. The date and time have already been set. He hasn’t revealed it to us; he’s only told us to be ready for it. Pretty sobering, isn’t it? So, you can try to convince yourself that you still have plenty of time to get ready, or you can heed the words of the Lord’s messenger and get ready right now. Listen to the law’s stinging rebuke, “You brood of vipers!” John was speaking to me; he was speaking to you. As sinners, we’re not the people our God wants us to be. And there’s no place to hide our sins. So confess them and trust in the blood of Jesus for your forgiveness. That’s what makes you ready for his return. Faith in Jesus is the mark of readiness. By God’s grace you have it! Live each day in it as you look for the coming of your Savior.

Part II.

The Lord’s messenger, John the Baptist, was one of the greatest prophets of God this world has ever seen. And yet he paled in comparison to THE Messenger of whom Malachi speaks. THE Messenger doesn’t merely prepare us; he repairs us.

If Jesus is coming to us, what should we look like to receive him? How should we be for him to accept us? Malachi asks, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?” The Psalmist said it like this, “Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart” (Ps. 24:3b-4a). Are your hands clean (and I don’t mean free from dirt or germs)? Is your heart pure? Let’s be honest. In the past 24 hours we have stained our hands with sin, and the desire to sin in the first place came from right here—our sinful hearts.

The bottom line is this—a holy Jesus demands holiness from us. He says, “Be holy because I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2). If holiness is what it takes to receive Jesus and to live in his presence, I don’t think any of us are close to making it.

No, we can’t make it on our own. But that’s why Jesus came to this earth the first time. He cleanses us. Malachi says it like this, “He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.” Jesus didn’t come to destroy us or to throw us away; He came to repair us, to wash us clean with his holy, precious blood. The blood of Jesus shed on Calvary’s cross was the payment God demanded for sin. Jesus paid it for us. He paid it all, for every last sin.

And in doing so, he makes us acceptable to him. He demands that we be holy and then he makes us holy by washing our sins away. The Bible declares, “The blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Not some sins; all sin, whatever sins there are and however many sins there are. He makes us acceptable to him.

And, as we live with faith in Jesus, our lives are acceptable to him. The Psalmist said, “The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love” (Ps. 147:11). With faith in Jesus you are his joy; you are his delight. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? By God’s grace you can. You can stand before him because Jesus has repaired you. He has washed you clean with his holy, precious blood.

There are few things I despise more than taking something to be repaired, dropping it off, picking it up a week later, bringing it home only to find out that’s it’s still broken and I have to take it back to get “re-repaired.” Disgusting, isn’t it?

How do you think your God feels? If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to bring ourselves to him daily for spiritual repairs. How do you think he feel s about it?

Rest assured, he loves it. He knows what kind of sinners we are. That’s why he sent us his Son—to be our Savior from sin, to make those spiritual repairs we so desperately need. That’s what the season of Advent calls us to do. It calls on us to offer our Lord repentant hearts that trust him for forgiveness through his death on the cross. Jesus then makes us clean. He repairs us. He has done that again for us today. Are you ready for his coming? You can be certain you are by faith in him. Amen.