Sermon Tone Analysis

Scriptural Reading

Intro

This morning, we are continuing on in our series on Advent and you will recall last week we spoke on the theme of Preparation.

Preparing our hearts and minds for His arrival.

And hand in hand with that truth is that there is an expectation, an anticipation that he is, in fact, coming!

These two go hand in hand.

You prepare for what you anticipate.

And last week, we looked at how we are to prepare ourselves for the Second Coming of Jesus.

But this is not something that we do in vain.

It is not as though we are preparing for an event that will never happen.

This is no futile practice, as though we should live as if Jesus would come back, but the reality is that He is not coming back.

That would make all preparation useless, and make God a cruel God who speaks lies while at the same time claiming to be truth, to be perfect.

Last week I told you of how my family spent a lot of time preparing for Y2K.

stockpiling food, and water, propane, and candles, and a bunch of stuff.

But nothing happened.

It was preparation with no purpose because nothing happened.

When we prepare ourselves for the Second Coming, it is not in vain.

It is with anticipation of a real event which will occur.

We anticipate the reality of His return.

Body

John’s words seem pretty strong, to a crowd that has traveled out of the city to meet with John, to hear his words, and to be baptized by him.

Why speak so strongly?

Well John knew a fact.

The anticipation of an arrival was one that caused him to speak with urgency .

It caused him to speak the very words that he did.

It caused him to live in a specific way.

John understood that, yes the kingdom is coming and that salvation is near.

But he did not only know that the day of salvation was near, but also that the day of damnation was near.

So we have both good news, and at the same time you have bad news.

He is calling out to the people repent.

Turn from your sins.

And for those who do, that is good news, for they will be saved from their sins, but for those who reject it.

This is bad news.

On judgment day, you will be without hope if you remain in your sins.

The people were coming out saying that they know that they need to place their faith in God.

Not even the mere fact of them being Jews would save them.

Notice how the Pharisees and the Sadducees indicate they are fine on their own.

They come from a family, the family of Abraham.

And John replies back to them that no personal or familial righteousness will save you.

They must repent.

We all are from the family of Abraham, big whoop.

Baptism is a sign that it doesn’t matter what family you’ve been born into.

You’re personally called to repent, confess your sins and put your faith in the Lord.

But his words also remind the people of what they may have forgotten.

“The One who is coming after me is more powerful than I.” John the Baptist is a very interesting person to study, his wildness, his candor, his humility.

He knew who he was and what his mission and purpose was.

He was not the one, but he was simply preparing the way for the One to come.

He was anticipating the arrival of the Messiah.

The Jewish people themselves were waiting for the Messiah.

Just to briefly walk through the history of the people of God…A promise had been given from the beginning of creation of a coming One...Genesis 3:15 “He shall bruise your heard, And you shall bruise His heel.”

They are waiting for the one to deal a fatal blow to Satan, but they see that this one will also be one who will suffer.

Later, Isaiah in the 53rd chapter would describe him as a suffering servant.

And so they wait.

And another promise is given through Abraham of one who would be a blessing to all nations.

A coming seed.

This is definitely good news.

This is something to look forward to.

But just a couple of generations later they are in Egyptian captivity for nearly 400 years and after being set free by God and moving back and forth from good king and bad king they spend nearly 200 years under Babylonian rule.

Mainly due to their rebellion to God.

You’d think this is the time to get your act together.

This is your time to repent and return to God.

After being set free from Babylonian captivity and God using Nehemiah and Ezra to bring the Jews back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and the temple, You would think, “ok, now they will do right.”

But, we read in Nehemiah how they complete the work and after having spent 12 years with the people, Nehemiah returns back to King Artaxerxes.

The people should be good.

But after some amount of time, still in Nehemiah’s own lifetime he returns and..

They went back to their old ways!

And Nehemiah returns thinking everything will be done, everything will be back in order, not to the same beauty as Solomon’s time, but better than it was before.

But it isn’t so.

And he returns and rebukes them and they repent.

What needs to be considered is that the people who Malachi is prophesying to are back in Jerusalem.

Under the leadership of Zerubbabel the sacrificial system is back in place as the temple is rebuilt and so you would think, now after having gone through exile and suffering.

The rebuilding of the temple and walls, finally they will acknowledge their sin and return back to God wholly.

But Malachi’s words are not what you would be expecting.

Not even 100 years after being set free you can see that their wickedness had sunk back to the same depths as before, or you could argue even worse, because they are desecrating the temple once more, which was dedicated to God by offering up unworthy sacrifices that they would not even offer up to their human governors.

They had the Messianic prophecies.

They knew them and they were waiting, but they sunk deep into darkness over the land and they were about to enter into a very dark period of silence.

They were left with the words of Malachi to ring in their ears and in their hearts of the coming messenger who would prepare the way for the Messiah, who would eventually purify them.

But those words would remain in their minds for 400 years of silence.

Silence as they wait.

And so the words of Malachi and Isaiah, take on a whole new meaning.

John the Baptist is on the scene, preparing the way.

Making hearts prepared.

Calling them to repentance, but not just that…he also calls them to look.

He tells them there is one other coming after him.

One that is more powerful and and one will come in judgment.

And cannot help but remember there will be a second advent.

He will come again.

And so we anticipate his return.

And the message John gave to the crowds then is one still for us today.

His message to prepare for the kingdom through confession and repentance (vv.

2, 6) is also a message to us to do the same in anticipation of its arrival.

Conclusion

But there is a second part of John’s message.

The One who is coming will come to judge.

And so we anticipate his return, and we make ourselves ready for we know He will come in judgment.

Commit your life to Him in preparation and exaltation

Commit your life to His Word

Commit your life to proclaiming the Gospel

And for those who are not anticipating his arrival or for those who do, but neglect to prepare themselves there will be judgment.

And so what does this mean for you?