A Voice in the Desert...

Christmas is coming! Decorations are going up, presents are being bought and wrapped, electricity is in the air, Christmas parties... TV specials... anticipation is building to the day... 

Though there are no stats to prove it I’d wager this time of year, leading to Christmas and New Year’s is one of the most popular times of the year to have parties…

How do you go about getting ready for guests? You clean the kitchen, the bathrooms, you run the vacuum, make the beds… maybe put out some candles, bake some cookies so the house smells nice and fresh right?

There is preparation work that has to get done before you feel ready… that’s the key…

Now imagine you are planning to have a party on Sunday but everyone shows up on Friday… Feel prepared?

Jesus is coming soon… How are you preparing for his arrival? 

Our text this week is from Luke 3:1-18.

John the Baptist was sent to prepare the people of Israel for the coming of the Messiah. He called people to repentance. He called the people to prepare themselves for the Messiah’s arrival.

Luke is quoting from Isaiah 40:4-5 here, in Isaiah’s day it was common practice for Kings and Rulers send heralds before them in a journey to clear away obstacles, make causeways over valleys, and level hills to provide a smooth journey and prepare the people for the Kings arrival… They wanted large crowds of excited people waiting in every town…  

So John's duty was to bring back the people to obedience to the law and to remove all self-confidence, pride in national privileges, hypocrisy, and irreligion, so that they should be ready for His coming…

How were the people to prepare themselves? – How are you preparing yourself?

Luke via John the Baptist’s example gives us four clear ways to prepare for Jesus’s arrival in the passage – if you want to hear the rest you will have to come Sunday @ 11!