The text for this morning is from the Luke’s Gospel, the first chapter:
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.Thus far the text.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Dear friends in Christ,
It’s almost kind of strange celebrating a nativity in the middle of one of the hottest years on record, isn’t it? Nativity. It’s one of those words that propels us directly to Christmas. Visions of donkeys and stables and angels and shepherds crowd in our heads. But today’s nativity, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, it doesn’t involve any of that. There was no need for John’s parents to find room in the inn. There was no need for John’s parents to look upon him and see all the gifts and the people that came to see him and treasure them up in their hearts. There was no need for John to be visited by kings and princes and shepherds.
No, John’s nativity is celebrated with little pomp and circumstance. John, the cousin of Jesus, was about 6 months older than Christ, which is why we celebrate his birth today. Just a quick reminder, only 6 months of shopping days until Christmas!
John’s nativity is of a different sort of celebration. It is the celebration, in fact, before we celebrate Christ. That’s John’s lot in life. John the Baptist, John the Baptizer, his job, his only role in life is to precede the Son of God.
John. John the Baptist. John the Baptizer. He will be called the prophet of the Most High, for he will go before the Lord to prepare His way. John is the often called the greatest prophet, for every prophet that came before him longed to see the day of the Lord’s coming. John did. With John’s own two eyes, he watched as his Lord and his God one day walked down the banks of the river, stepped into the flowing stream, and went under. He watched his Lord and his God as Jesus came up out of the water and a dove appearing from heaven descended on Jesus and a voice from the same place said, This is my beloved Son. In Him I am well pleased. This was foretold of John the Baptizer even before his conception. And John’s father, Zachariah, he in today’s Gospel text is recalling the very famous words of two very famous prophets, two very famous prophets who foretold Zachariah’s own son. Talk about pressure for John. He was prophesied of, he had a lot to live up to, and he did. Hear the words of the prophets.
The first prophet, from Isaiah 40:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.The second prophet, from Malachi 3:
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver...The Lord God Himself is prophesying through his prophets that He will send a greater prophet, greater than any who has come before. And as soon as this prophet comes, the Lord whom you seek will suddenly appear. Guess who comes 6 months after John the Baptizer?
It was clear from the beginning. For Elizabeth, for Zechariah, for Mary the mother of Jesus, for all who witnessed the miracle of Zechariah’s mouth opening after having been shut up for 9 months. The greatest prophet, it is John the Baptizer. John, the cousin of Jesus. John, who comes into the world as a baby 6 months before Christ. John, who appears out of the wilderness wearing camel’s hair and eating locusts and wild honey. John, who preaches, Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, and lo and behold, Jesus appears on the scene. John, who says that after him comes one who was before him, whose sandals he is unworthy to untie, and there comes Jesus, the God of all creation, now in the flesh, having existed from eternity and now encapsulated by time, to be baptized by John.
This John, this mighty prophet, and today as we celebrate him, this little child being held in the arms of his father, this John will proclaim the kingdom of God by baptizing people in the repentance granted to them for the forgiveness of their sins by the Holy Spirit.
This has always been the way of the prophets: to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. And it is the way of the prophets, the proclaimers, the pastors, of our Church today: to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. If a pastor does not do this every single Sunday, every single gathering, then he is no pastor of the Word of God at all. This is the way of the Lord.
The things is, we often forget this. You heard me speak two weeks ago from this very pulpit and I said some very hard things. I told you that murder is a sin. To that you may say, duh. But then I told you that abortion is a sin. That may have rubbed you the wrong way, but the Word of God tells you that murdering a person, any person, much more an unborn baby, is wrong and sinful.
Two weeks ago, and even more often, I told you that adultery is a sin, and again, it’s a duh moment. But then I told you that pornography, all pornography, including the female romance genre, is sinful. That may have struck you in a strange way but the Word of God is clear that pornography is evil, and all things that lead us to lust, including those things that are sensationalistic, or focus on eroticism, or lead to letting our imaginations wander, to commit lustful and disgusting adultery in our heart much less our bodies, they are evil and must be cast aside.
Two weeks ago, and even more often, I also told you that hatred, homosexuality, gossip, slander, backstabbing, these things and so many others are sinful. And you may have just sat in the pew and said, Yep. Or maybe you were cut to the quick and said, Oh poor wretched person that I am. Or maybe you said, he is so wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.
Guess what? You’ve now been treated to the very same words, the very same message that John the Baptist brought to God’s people, Israel. He told them to repent. He told them what they needed to repent of. He told them repent or die eternally in the fires of hell. He told them the very same words that Jesus would say when He took on His public ministry: repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.
And what were people’s reactions? Well, some, some like the Pharisees, said, I haven’t done that. I don’t need to repent. I don’t need to turn away from my sins because I haven’t had them. I haven’t murdered anyone. I haven’t committed adultery. I haven’t done whatever it is the vicar is beating us on this week. I’m not getting down in the water. I don’t need it.
Some, facing their sin, said, Yes, I need to repent of this. Tell you what, why don’t I get down in that water? And from there, they went back and kicked up their feet with the latest sensationalistic, erotic, and disgusting book in the 50 Shades of Grey series. Or they went back to gossiping about the latest news in the synagogue and how much someone messed up the order of the scrolls. Or went back and just stopped caring, letting their baptism make no difference in their lives.
But some, some, sat on the shore of the riverbank, and they heard John’s message, and they knew that they were sinful and they took in every word of his. They went down into the water of baptism and repented. They came out of the water, washed and renewed and forgiven. They knew that every word from the mouth of John was a Word from God. They knew that when he said that he came to prepare the way of the Lord, the Lord was on the way. They knew that the Lord God of Israel was soon to visit His people, would soon redeem them, would soon save them, would soon make a new covenant with His people, a covenant that would stand for all time, a covenant that showed that in Christ’s very death and resurrection, the repentance and forgiveness found by faith would come to them and deliver them into all righteousness.
These very few, these people who were convicted of their sinfulness, they saw John and they knew him to be the prophet of the Most High. They remembered Malachi and Isaiah. They knew that if John, the one who prepared the way of the Lord, if John prepared the way, Lord would be taking that very way. John prepared the way alright. John’s preparation, John's way, was all about repentance. Repentance, repentance, repentance. And that way was the very way Jesus came.
For when you, Christian, repent, you are moved to do so by the Holy Spirit who is working the same way in your heart as He worked in the hearts of those who heard the sound of John’s voice. That same Holy Spirit is the one who testifies to Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior whom you crucified, but who, in His crucifixion won for you the forgiveness of all of your sins. Jesus rides in on repentance and makes His dwelling in this place, in this church, in churches across the world and across time as repentance and the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in His name!
Some people, like you, my friends, when you hear the Word of the Lord, you repent. You have already been baptized. You are already saved people. But you recognize, you realize the depth of your sin, and the dearth of ability to fix yourself. There is no good that I can do! There is no saving me by me! O wretched sinner that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? Jesus.
Jesus saves you. You sit here this morning and hear my words and you hear the message I bring to you from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and this message is to repent and be forgiven! This message is life and salvation! This message is Gospel! And this message is for you.
For here is good news: when Jesus’ message of repentance is proclaimed, when, through my words, through Christ's words, the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin, when He tells you that you are a sinner, when He tells you that you are wretched and evil, the Holy Spirit also delivers up to you the very Jesus Christ that walked down the riverbanks of the Jordan, that walked up the steps to Golgatha and the cross. The Holy Spirit prepares the path for Christ to walk. The Holy Spirit moves your heart, your sinful heart, and prepares it to be slain. He prepares your Old Adam to stand before the cross, to stand before that sword and to take it through the gut. He prepares you, sinner, to be washed and renewed in the very waters of baptism that have covered you, continue to cover you, and will always cover you, that have washed you clean from your sins in the very real blood of Jesus.
We don’t just talk about repenting in this church. We don’t just talk about baptism. We repent in this church and we receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ which washes over us, flowing from the cross. We practice baptism, we baptize all who come to the font, to wash them in this same blood, this same forgiveness. One baptism for the remission of sins. Once for all time. Only this saves. Only this heals. Only this forgives. For it is the promise of Jesus Christ, for a people who sat in darkness sit in darkness no longer. Just as the sun rises each day and brings light to a darkened world, so also has the Son of God risen from the grave to grant you the promise that He is God, the very God whose way was prepared by the greatest prophet of the Most High, John the Baptizer.
This is why John in his nativity had no need to be visited by princes, and shepherds, and kings; in his work, he prepared the way and was visited by Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the Great Shepherd, the Prince of the Kingdom of God the Father. And this Jesus, the good Jesus, the savior Jesus, He has taken your dark blot of sin and washed it whiter than the purest driven snow. This is Jesus, and in His name, repent and be forgiven. Amen.
Now may the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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