Preparing for Christmas
How do you prepare for Christmas? For some people, this involves baking, shopping, wrapping gifts, decorating, setting up the Christmas tree, addressing Christmas Cards, planning parties, or any other of a long list of preparations to make sure their family has the perfect Christmas. But what if preparing for Christmas involved more? None of those things is wrong in and of themselves, but what if there was more?
In Matthew 3:1-12, John the Baptist prepared people for the ministry of Jesus.
“Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight!’ ” Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.””
Notice that he said to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. What does it mean to repent? Here is how I remember what it means:
R-Realize Jesus is King and you are not. (Matthew 3:2) If there is a Kingdom, there must be a King. Jesus is that King and I am not. Most of us grow up as though the world exists to serve us and affirm us and give us what we need and prefer. We must realize this is not right. He is King and deserves our all.
E-Enter into agreement with God about our sin. (Matthew 3:6) To confess our sin is not to give God new information, but to agree with God that our sin is evil and not the way we should live.
P-Produce fruit that indicates our minds and hearts have changed towards sin. (Matthew 3:8) While we might not appreciate the language John used to criticize the religious leaders, the message is the same for us. We cannot say we have repented if all we have done is feel bad because we got caught. Our hearts and minds must change so that we no longer want to sin.
E-Exit from any other claim for acceptance before God. (Matthew 3:9) John told them not to count on what family they were from, what social standing they had, or what country they were from to earn acceptance from God. Jesus alone is our way to the Father.
N-Never stop looking for Jesus’ return. (Matthew 3:11). While John told them to look for Jesus to come, we are to look for Him to come back. We must invest our lives towards this end so that we know our hearts and minds have been changed to want what He wants.
T-Trust His word, love, and forgiveness to be enough. (Matthew 3:12) While this may seem a long like exiting from any other claim to acceptance before God, we must also learn to trust that what God forgives is gone. It is not held over our heads any longer.
As we prepare for Christmas this year, we need to do all of the normal things, but we also need to prepare the most important way, which is to repent and make ready the way of the Lord.