“If Not Now, When?”

Matthew 3:1-12

December 9, 2007 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

Christmas is coming. In a little over two weeks, Christmas will be here. Are you ready? Our Christmas preparations include buying and wrapping presents, sending Christmas cards, and decorating the house. If you are expecting company for Christmas, you may do some extra cleaning. If you have a mother-in-law coming who checks every possible corner to see if you have cleaned good enough, you will try extra hard to get your house clean.

So how particular would you be if a king were coming to your house for Christmas? Christmas is a time to get ready for the coming of Jesus, the King of kings. Since no one knew that the King was arriving that first Christmas, they didn’t even have a proper place for him to be born. No preparations were made, but Jesus came anyway.

When Jesus comes again, we also will have no advance warning. No one knows the hour or the day when Jesus will return. So no preparations can be made, except in us, in our lives and hearts. Jesus is coming. Are you ready?

Prepare the Way

John the Baptist was God’s messenger who was sent to tell the people that the King was coming. John’s message was prophesied in Isaiah 40:3. John’s message was that they must repent and get ready for the Messiah.

The people listened to John’s message and knew they needed to change. They knew they needed to repent. So they came from all over Judea and the area around the Jordan River, and confessed their sins and were baptized in the Jordan River. They wanted to be ready for the King. They wanted to be prepared with more than a clean house. They wanted a clean life.

The religious leaders, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, also came to hear John’s message. John had hard words for these men. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” [Mt.3:7b].

He called them a nest of poisonous snakes. Remember, it was a snake, a serpent that deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was a snake that destroyed their relationship with God and brought them death. It was the snake that took what God had given them and corrupted it.

In Matthew 23 Jesus also spoke harsh words to these leaders. “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. … Everything they do is done for people to see.” [Mt.23:2-3,5].

The Pharisees and Sadducees were deceiving the people and keeping them from knowing God. John condemned these religious leaders.

They couldn’t save themselves from God’s judgment simply by saying they repented or by being baptized. Being Jewish, or claiming Abraham as their father, wouldn’t save them either. Being a religious leader of the people wasn’t enough to save them. John said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” [v.8].

He was saying, “Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God.” [v.8 NLT]. Don’t just talk about cleaning. Clean up your life. Don’t just talk about repentance. Live it.

Getting Ready for the King

The people who were coming to John the Baptist were not terrible people, criminals. They were ordinary people like you and me. Like most of us, they did the religious things that were required and thought that was enough. Yet when they really looked at their lives they knew that they needed a change of heart and behavior. They needed to get cleaned up. If the king, the long awaited Messiah, was really coming, they needed to get ready.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were not bad people either. Like most pastors and priests and religious leaders they did their job to the best of their ability. They had learned about God and about keeping the law from those who had gone before them. But they forgot about God.

Sometimes religious leaders today lose sight of what is most important. Being admired by the people or other leaders, moving up the religious leader ladder, building bigger and better churches– all may pull their attention away from what is most important – God!

Christians today fall into the trap of thinking that because their parents were Christians they are also Christians, and so they are “safe,” God will accept them. They think that going to church is enough to please God. Some think that saying they’re a Christian, being baptized, or repenting of sins is enough, or that looking or talking like a Christian means they are a Christian.

John the Baptist would say, “NO! That’s not enough.” He would say, “Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God.” [v.8 NLT]. If you have repented of a sin, then stop doing that sin. If you’ve told God you are sorry for what you did, then show it. Give up the sin that separates you from God. Start living in a way that proves you have truly repented.

Cleaning up our lives takes work. It means we have to admit what is not acceptable to God and clean it out. The secret sins are often the hardest to admit: pride, greed, hatred, lack of forgiveness, judging others, prejudice, resentment. Then there’s gossip, lying, cheating, dishonesty in business or personal relationships?

The one sin that God condemns most strongly is idolatry – worshiping something or someone more than God.

We cannot clean sin out of lives once and think it is gone forever. Just like the dust that comes back shortly after we have dusted the furniture, sin comes back. We can let the dust and dirt accumulate in our homes until it seems impossible to get rid of, or we can deal with it on a regular basis. But if we ignore it, and someone happens to stop by to visit, it could be embarrassing.

Letting our sins pile up in our lives can also become a problem. Not only will other Christians see that we need to do some cleaning, but those who are not Christians will not be impressed by our Christian life.

Karl Rahner wrote, “The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim God with their mouths and deny Him with their lifestyles is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable.” [PreachingToday.com, “Unreliable Witnesses” by Karl Rahner, quoted in the Wittenburg Door (June/July 1988). Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 8].

However, dealing with sin in our lives takes work. It takes persistence. We have to decide to clean up our lives and then really do it. No excuses. No putting it off. Just do it!

But what’s the hurry, you’re thinking? Let me just get through Christmas. I’ll start over in the new year. It’s just another three weeks. Give me a break!

Well, okay. Go ahead and wait. When you decide to clean up your life isn’t up to me. It’s up to you. But if you knew that Jesus was actually coming back on December 25^th to claim all who are ready for his return, would you wait until December 24^th?

The author of a book I’m reading writes, “Makeovers make for good TV. … Personal makeovers are so popular that they are no longer limited to people – Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for example. … Why are we so fascinated with makeovers? We love to see the joy that people receive from positive transformation. … It makes us feel good to see changes that make people happy. God loves makeovers, too. He loves to help us make healthy changes in our lives, and he loves to see the joy that we receive from our positive transformation.” [Arron Chambers, Running On Empty (Colorado Springs: Cook Communications Ministries, 2005) 91-92].

Think about a time when you experienced transformation, gave up some habit that didn’t honor God. How did you feel? Pretty good, right? How do you feel when you get your house clean? How do you feel when you are no longer in debt?

Positive change makes us feel good about ourselves and about life. Transformation picks us up and makes us want to change in other ways. It lifts our spirit.

On the last day of school, kids turn in their books and go home with an empty backpack. The weight of that burden of books and school work is gone (at least for the summer). They feel like they have been set free from a heavy weight.

Letting go of the burden of some sin does the same thing for us. Jesus takes that sin and carries it for us. Suddenly we are free, and we feel great! We ask ourselves, why didn’t we do it sooner?

Celebrate the King of Grace and Justice

§ I can only encourage you to take that weight of sin from your shoulders and give it to Jesus.

§ I can only encourage you to clean up your life, to experience a total makeover.

§ I can only encourage you to get ready for the coming of Jesus.

The decision is yours.

When Jesus came in John the Baptist’s day, and began to teach and heal and give new life to the people, he brought peace among all people, and established justice. He came to show God’s mercy, God’s love to all people.

However, when Jesus returns he will bring judgment. Those whose faith is genuine, who have proved by the way they lived that they really turned from their sins and turned to God, will experience the joy of being with God forever.

Christmas is a time when we want to give those we love the best we can. When God gave us his son Jesus that first Christmas, it was the best he could give us.

Since Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, are you prepared to give Jesus your best this Christmas?

Are you ready? Or are you ready to get ready?

And if not now, when?

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This sermon is copyright 2007 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.