How Will You Prepare for Christ?

2nd Sunday in Advent, 12/9/18
Luke 3:1-6


How Will You Prepare for Christ?
I. Get “straight” with your God.
II. See his salvation.


It’s easier than ever to find recipes. Just Google what you’re looking for and “Viola!” more recipes for Christmas cookies, apple pie, or how to smoke ribs than you care to peruse. And each recipe either unashamedly or covertly makes the claim that this recipe is the best. Follow the directions of this recipe and you’ll prepare the finest food you’ve ever tasted. But how do you know which recipe to choose? No two of them give you the same instructions for food preparation.

And that’s true with many tasks we set our minds to. What’s the best way to prepare the exterior walls of your home for painting? How should you prepare for college? Are you prepared for marriage? And if you’re not sure, here’s how. And here’s a preparation question you see and hear nearly every day: How do you prepare for retirement? I’m guessing that every source of information is slightly different.

How do you prepare? What’s the best way to prepare? We all know that solid preparation is the wise and prudent course of action, but just making the effort to investigate it seems overwhelming at times, and that only plays into our natural propensity to procrastinate.

Advent is the season of preparation—preparation for the Lord’s coming to this earth. I ask you: is there any person in the world whose arrival is more important than that of Jesus? Obviously not.

So, how will you prepare for him? Don’t bother Googling it; it’s right here in front of us this morning in this account from Luke 3. Yes, this is the account of John the Baptist preparing the people for the coming of the public ministry of Jesus, but his words encouraging us to prepare are appropriate any time we are preparing for Jesus.

So, how will you prepare for Christ? Let’s keep that question before us this morning and search God’s word for his answers.

Part I.

Preparing for something important can be a very personal matter. What I mean by that is one person’s way of preparing for an event might be completely different from another person’s way. How many husbands have been told by their wife, “You’re not going out looking like that. Get back in there, clean up, and wear something much better”? Obviously there was a huge difference of opinion in what proper preparation entailed.

Again, there is no more important arrival to this world than Jesus. How will you properly prepare? How will you avoid being told, “That’s not proper! Get back in there!”?

Let’s listen to the preparation strongly suggested by the one whom God himself appointed to be the one to prepare sinful people for the arrival of his Son, the world’s Savior from sin. “[John] went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: ‘A voice of one calling in the desert, “‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth.”’”

Luke tells us first that John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Theologians have debated just exactly what this baptism was. The best interpretation is that it was essentially the same as your baptism. It was a means of grace that bestowed the forgiveness of sins. To whom? To those who came out to John and took to heart his direct law-preaching, condemning the people for their sins, calling upon them to repent and to look to the coming Savior for their forgiveness.

But make no mistake—the Lord was not fooled by mere sham attempts at repentance. He was calling for an inward change of heart that was reflected in outward living. That should have come as no surprise to these people to whom John preached. That’s exactly what God had foretold through his prophet Isaiah 700 years earlier. Make straight paths. Fill in valleys. Level out hills and mountains. Make crooked roads straight. Make rough roads smooth.

In ancient times, just imagine the hard labor involved to do any one of those engineering feats, let alone all of them. We travel interstate highways nearly daily that have been constructed with minimal inclines and declines using massive earth moving equipment. But not so in Bible times. Roads were constructed by hand with shovels. Imagine what it took to cut a road through a range of hills.

But, obviously, the Lord isn’t speaking here about highway engineering. He’s speaking about the human heart. He wants us to recognize, admit and confess the sinful hills and valleys in our hearts and lives. Instead of lives that are bent with sin, he requires hearts that are straight with holiness. And when God’s holy law does that work of exposing our sinfulness, then God’s gospel stands ready to do its saving work—bringing us the forgiveness of sins, filling in and leveling out our spiritual lives. Making our crooked hearts straight for him. For Jesus.

How will you prepare for Christ? Get “straight” with your God.

What “crooked” ways seems too hard for you to address? In other words, what sinful habits are hindering or even preventing you from being prepared for the arrival of Christ? For some it’s materialism. For others it’s sinful worry and anxiety. Maybe it’s a sinfully critical attitude. Perhaps its substance abuse or some online addiction. Maybe it’s the unloving way you speak to and about others. Those, and a host of other sins, can be hard to break. And as we struggle to overcome them, we might be led to ask, “What’s the cost of non-compliance?” In other words, if I don’t come clean with God about this sin, what will it cost me? The Apostle John declared, “If we claim we have not sinned, we make [God] out to be a liar and his word has no place in our hearts” (1 John 1:10). In short, a refusal to come clean with God is a refusal of our Savior, who makes us clean through the forgiveness he won on the cross for us. That means confession of sin and trust in Christ for forgiveness is the only proper preparation for Christ. There is no other method. There is no other way of receiving Christ. So, how will you prepare for Christ? Get “straight” with your God. Recall your sins, and then recall how your Savior suffered and died for each one of them, for every one of them. Your risen Savior assures you of your forgiveness. Prepare your heart for him!

Part II.

Intended learning outcomes have been the norm in education for quite some time. In other words, educators want to be clear on what they intend for students to learn in a specific course or period of time. Learning simply for the sake of learning isn’t the goal. In other words, intended learning outcomes are a way of measuring what a student should know at a particular grade level or point in their education.

Striving for an intended outcome is one way to look at this season of the year. Many of us place tremendous stress on ourselves because we have an intended outcome for what we want Christmas to look like in just a little more than two weeks. By that we usually mean what we intend for decorating, gifts, and good things to eat.

But what are your intended spiritual outcomes for this time of year? We’re now well into the Advent season of the church year. The intended outcome of the Advent season is that you’re prepared for the coming of your Lord. So, make a hasty self-evaluation. How are you doing with that? If Advent is meant to focus your heart and mind on the coming of Jesus, and the only way to prepare for his coming is through repentance, how close to the intended outcome are you? How can I help you get there?

And after Advent comes your celebration of Christmas, which is the celebration of the birth of your Savior. Have you positioned yourself spiritually to celebrate your Savior’s birth and to ponder what that birth means for you personally, or, does it appear that such a spiritual celebration will be an after-thought? Could it even happen that you might celebrate Christmas with little or no “Christ” in it? The unthinkable suddenly becomes possible.

If that’s true, then listen to the final words of our text, “And all mankind will see God’s salvation.” That’s God’s intended outcome for you. What your God wants for you more than anything else at this time of year is for you to see your salvation through Jesus. That Child born in Bethlehem’s manger wasn’t simply a nice idea; he was absolutely essential for you to have any relationship with the holy God and any hope for eternal life with him. God gave you his best at the first Christmas. What will you give him in return this Christmas? How about your best? What would please your God more than anything else is for you to see Jesus as the Savior you desperately need every sinful day of your life. What would please your God more than anything else is for you to rejoice over that Savior, not just for a day or two each December, but every day of your life.

How will you prepare for Christ? In the words of our text, see God’s salvation.

No doubt you’ve heard the expression, “Keep Christ in Christmas.” But here’s one you probably haven’t heard: “Keep Christ in Advent.” That expression doesn’t have the same ring to it, and people might even wonder what it means. But it’s really all about properly preparing for Christ. The Advent season is all about Jesus. John made that perfectly clear in his encouragement to prepare our hearts. When you keep Christ in Advent, you are reminded each day of the Advent season of your daily sins: selfishness, pride, prejudice, arrogance, greed, and lust—to name just a few—and on the other end of the sin spectrum: depression, guilt, doubt, and despair. Jesus came to this earth to save you from every sin—all those included. His death washed every sin away. That’s seeing your salvation this Advent season. That’s preparing for Christ. May our God fill each of you with his Holy Spirit and prepare your heart for Christ! Amen.