Preparation, Prophets, and Partners

December 09, 2012

Malachi 3:1-4 Luke 1:68-79, 3:1-6 Philippians 1:3-11

On August 16th, 1960 Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger jumped out of a gas filled balloon 102,800 feet (19 miles) above the earth and set records for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest fall (over four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere. These records stood for more than fifty years. On October 14th, 2012, Felix Baumgartner jumped from a balloon 128, 097 feet (24 miles) above the earth and exceeded the speed of sound during his fall (833.9 miles per hour) and broke all of Kittingers records except for the length of the fall. What Felix Baumgartner did was extraordinary, but he didnt just wake up one day and decide that Today, I think I will break the worlds record. Baumgartner is a daredevil but he is a daredevil who methodically planned his jump. He assembled a team of experts to advise him, which included Joseph Kittinger, and that team designed and built the pressure suit that he would need as well as the balloon and its gondola. More than two years of planning, preparation and practice went into his jump and a great deal of money was spent by Baumgartner and his corporate sponsors. Once in a great while great things happen by accident, but most often great things require planning and preparation. As the Christmas holiday approaches we understand about planning and preparation. If we are having friends or family over for the holidays there are meals to plan, supplies to purchase and presents to buy. Our message from scripture today reminds us of two things. First, when God sent his Son Jesus to earth on that first Christmas night, he didnt just wake up and decide, Today, I think I will send Jesus to Bethlehem. And second, as our celebration approaches, parties and gifts are not the only thing that we should be preparing. The prophet Malachi lived 430 years before the birth of Jesus and his is the last recorded voice that speaks for God from scripture before the arrival of John the Baptist. In Malachi 3:1-4, God declares I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the LORD Almighty.
2

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiners fire or a launderers soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. Four hundred and thirty years before the birth of Jesus, through the prophet Malachi, God tells of another prophet who will come, a prophet whose message and mission will be to prepare for the arrival of the Messiah. Four hundred and thirty years. Hows that for advance planning? God declares that his messenger will come to earth to prepare the way for him and will purify the Levites, the priests who run the Temple, just as silver is refined and purified. It is an interesting picture, because while wheat is purified by sifting and cream is purified by separating, silver is purified by fire. Silver is heated in a fire 1

until the impurities separate from the pure silver. The mission of the one God would send to prepare for the arrival of the Messiah would be to bring heat and fire to the priests in the temple until the impurities floated to the top. Ouch. Sounds painful, doesnt it? In Luke 1:68-79, Zechariah, the father of the child who would become John the Baptist, sings a song about his son
68

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. 69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), 71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us 72 to show mercy to our ancestors and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham: 74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, 77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven 79 to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. Zechariah has heard from God and he declares that his son will be a prophet of the Most High God and will prepare the way for the arrival of God on earth. His son will tell the people what they will need to know about salvation and forgiveness of sins so that they might find their way out of the shadow of death and into a place of peace. In all these things God was still making preparations for the Messiah that was to come. God had announced his intentions more than four centuries earlier through the prophet Malachi and hundreds of years before that through Isaiah, and Jeremiah and other prophets but even now, God was guiding the course of human history so that all would be ready for the arrival of his son. In Luke 3:1-6, we read more about John and his mission and we realize that the priests in the Temple were not the only ones whose lives would be changed In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesarwhen Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: 2

A voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. 5 Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. 6 And all people will see Gods salvation. Luke tells us that John went into all the country around the Jordan River and preached that everyone, not just the priests, should be baptized, repent and be forgiven. Luke then repeats a phrase from Isaiah and applies it to John and we begin to understand that Gods preparations for the arrival of his son have to do with preparing the hearts of Gods people. Through John, God calls upon everyone to prepare the way for the Messiah. Preparing for the arrival of the Messiah wasnt just the job of John the Baptist and it wasnt just a message for the priests in the temple. The call to prepare the way was a call to all the people. Today we hear that call still. The call to prepare the way for our celebration of the Messiahs birth is not a call to pastors, or to the church, it is a call to all the people. God calls upon all of us to repent of our sins and prepare our hearts for his arrival. That is what the season of Advent is all about. We have just a few short weeks to contemplate what we have done and consider where the path we are taking will lead us. We have only a short amount of time to reflect, repent and, if necessary, plot a new course. While we do that, we must also remember that we are not alone in our need for repentance, nor are we alone on our journey to tell the world about the arrival of Jesus. In Philippians 1:3-11 Paul writes Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all Gods holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:
2

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 5

I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in Gods grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
9

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christto the glory and praise of God.
10

Again, as we heard last week, Paul gives thanks for those that serve God alongside him. But then Paul addresses everyone in the church at Philippi and names them all as his partners in the gospel. According to Paul, because we all work alongside one another as witnesses for the cause of Jesus Christ we therefore have one another in our hearts and no matter whether we are in good times or in bad, in poverty or prosperity, in freedom or imprisonment we all share in Gods grace with one another. Pauls prayer is that each of us might love more and that we might grow in knowledge and wisdom so that we will be 3

able to discern what is best and reach the goal of being pure and blameless on the Day of Judgment. Paul also prays that we would all be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. Once again, all of these are good models for us to follow. As we prepare our hearts for the arrival of the Messiah, our savior, rescuer, redeemer and king, we remember that we are not in this alone. All of us from the least to the greatest and from the youngest to the oldest are all partners in our mission to tell the world the Good News of Jesus Christ. May we all spend these few, short weeks of Advent wisely. Let us all prepare a way for the coming of the Messiah. Let us repent of our sin and ask for Gods forgiveness but let us also pray for one another and remember that each and every one of us are partners in the gospel. We share in Gods grace with one another and we all have a part in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the world. Remember, we cant just wake up on Christmas morning and say, I think that today I will grow closer to Jesus Christ. Great things come from planning and preparation. May prepare our hearts for the arrival of the Messiah and may we all carry the message of John the Baptist and help others to find their way out of the shadow of death and into a place of peace.

You have been reading a message presented at Trinity United Methodist Church on the date noted at the top of the first page. Rev. John Partridge is the pastor at Trinity of Perry heights in Massillon, Ohio. Duplication of this message is a part of our Media ministry, if you have received a blessing in this way, we would love to hear from you. Letters and donations in support of the Media ministry or any of our other projects may be sent to Trinity United Methodist Church, 3757 Lincoln Way E., Massillon, Ohio 44646. These messages are available to any interested persons regardless of membership. You may subscribe to these messages, in print or electronic formats, by writing to the address noted, or by contacting us at subscribe@trinityperryheights.org. If you have questions, you can ask them in our discussion forum on Facebook (search for Pastor John Online). These messages can also be found online at http://www.scribd.com/Pastor John Partridge. All Scripture references are from the New International Version unless otherwise noted.