Sermon Cloud

Like many of you, my family’s getting ready for Christmas. Becky and the girls have been decking the halls. I’ve actually been Christmas shopping already. And we finally got our Christmas tree up Friday night. It’s not decorated yet, but it’s up. I guess you might say we’re a typical family. Right now we are surrounding our home inside and out with the trappings of Christmas. Trappings – now that’s a funny word – but it basically means this: the ornamental trimmings associated with preparation for the celebration of Christmas.

Have you ever wondered how all these trappings found their way into the celebration of Christmas? Take the Christmas Tree for example. Did you know that during the Middle Ages, a popular religious play told the story of Adam and Eve's eviction from the Garden of Eden? A fir tree hung with apples was used to symbolize the Paradise Tree in the middle of the garden. That play always ended with the prophecy of a coming savior, and so it was often performed during the Advent season. And did you know that putting lights on trees came from Martin Luther? Coming home one December night, Luther noticed the beauty of the stars shining through the branches of a fir tree. This inspired him to recreate the effect by placing candles on the branches of a small fir tree inside his home. I wonder what He would think of these trees here in our worship center? I think he’d like them.

How about Stockings? According to legend, a kind nobleman grew despondent over the death of his wife and squandered his fortune. This left his three young daughters without dowries and thus facing a life of spinsterhood. The generous St. Nicholas, hearing of the girls' plight, thought of a way to help. Wishing to remain anonymous, he rode his white horse by the nobleman's house and threw three small pouches of gold coins down the chimney where they just happened to land in the stockings the young ladies had hung by the fireplace to dry. That’s why we hang stockings.

And Holly: Legend has it that holly sprang from the footsteps of Christ as he walked the earth. The pointed leaves were said to represent the crown of thorns Christ wore on his head.

The Candy cane: Some say that the candy cane is full of symbolism of the Savior: the color white representing Christ's purity, the red - the blood he shed for us, and the presence of three red stripes - the Holy Trinity.

And last, but not least, Mistletoe! It was the Scandanavians (my ancestors) who created the custom of kissing under the mistletoe. But the plant was also seen as a symbol of peace, and it is said that among Romans, enemies who met under mistletoe would lay down their weapons and embrace.

So, my guess is, that if you haven’t already “decked the halls,” you’re right in the middle of preparing your home for Christmas. And if you are, that’s great, ‘cause all these trappings - all the lights, the holy and mistletoe, the Christmas tree all help prepare us for Christmas. But in all this household preparation, I forget sometimes forget to prepare my own heart for the coming of Jesus. Do you ever struggle with that? Do you ever wish your heart was as ready for Jesus as your house? Well, with Christmas just a few weeks away – I want to help us prepare our hearts for His coming. And to do that, I want to look at how God prepared His people 2000 years ago.

So if you have a Bible, let me encourage you to turn to Luke 1:17 (page 779 in the pew Bible). It’s here that we find Luke opening his gospel by introducing us to a priest named Zechariah. He tells us that both Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth are righteous in God’s eyes, they’re good people, but they’re also childless. God never blessed them with children and now they are quite old. But one day, while Zechariah is on duty in the Temple, an Angel appears to him and gives him a message that we find in Luke 1:12-17.

Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”

God is about to give Zechariah and Elizabeth a son and his sole purpose will be to prepare people to be ready for the coming Savior. His ministry is all about Making Ready For Jesus Lets look a little closer at verse 17. We are told that, He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly. Luke 1:17

One of the ways John prepared the people for Jesus’ coming was to turn their hearts towards home. This was a fulfillment of the last two verses of the Old Testament, found in Micah 4:5-6, where God said, “Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah (note how John the Baptist is compared with Elijah)… His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers.”

In John’s day, the hearts of fathers had grown cold to their children. Men did not value their children very well. Men were busy with other things. The family unit was falling apart. The same can be said of our time. One of the greatest needs of our day is for men to embrace their role as dads. It seems like a no brainer. We say that Christmas is all about children, but we still have a hard time connecting with our children. So let me ask you, is your heart turned toward your children? And I’m not talking about all the gifts that you plan on giving them. What I’m talking about is how well is your heart connected with their hearts? How much time and energy have you been putting into them to build your relationship? How well do you no your children? Here’s a little test for you to help you determine your level of connectedness:

1. What gives my child joy?
2. Who is my child’s hero? When I took this part of the test, I put down my own name, then I asked my youngest to answer this question. She said, “Mom and you and Kayla.”
3. What does my child fear most?
4. Which activities give my child energy? My guess here was swimming, and I was right!
5. Which activities wear my child out? When I asked Courtney, she told me basketball, then I showed her my answer: “homework” and she quickly agreed that homework was a close second.
6. If my child got to choose this year’s vacation, where would he or she want to go? I thought I nailed this one when I wrote down Disneyland, but she was very quick to say Canada – but going to Disneyland would be great too!
7. If my child could pick one activity for me to do with him or her, what would it be?
8. What music does my child like?
9. Other than going to school or sleeping, what does my child spend the most time doing each week? 10. What does my child want to be when he or she grows up?

Just taking this test made me want to get to know my daughters better. What about you? Maybe the best Christmas gift you could give your child is yourself: To give a relational gift. To make yourself a student of your child’s interests and surprise him or her with a gift of something you could do together: Like buying a Beavers hat and attaching a couple of basketball tickets to it or wrapping up a rock and promising a camping trip, or a handful of sand with a note promising a day at the beach. Or you could just take advantage of the season and do some things together, like get some travel mugs and fill them with hot cocoa and take a walk looking at neighborhood lights, or purchasing some tickets to a performance of the Nutcracker Suite or just doing a game night together. Whatever it might be that you do, the real question you must ask yourself is Are you turning your heart towards your children?

Maybe “making ready for Jesus” means just spending a little more time with your children this season. Maybe it means giving a relational gift, or maybe it means repairing a relationship that’s been broken. Whatever it is, one of the ways God prepared people through John’s ministry was to turn their hearts to home.

But maybe for you “making ready for Jesus” isn’t so much about preparing your heart, as it is preparing the hearts of others. Maybe making ready for Jesus is about By Making Room for Others! Because if you look at what John did when he finally did begin His ministry, it was all about clearing the road, removing obstacles, so that there would be room in people’s hearts for Jesus. Listen to how Luke describes John’s ministry in Luke 3: Isaiah had spoken of John when he said, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him! The valleys will be filled, and the mountains and hills made level. The curves will be straightened, and the rough places made smooth. And then all people will see the salvation sent from God.’”

How John cleared the road was by calling people to turn to God – to repent: When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee God’s coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

Now what’s very clear is that John’s call for repentance struck a cord in the hearts of the people. When they heard that if they did not produce good fruit, they would be condemned, their hearts were open for change. They wanted to know The Fruit of Repentance that God was looking for, what was required? So they asked “What should we do?” Literally, “what should we produce?”

And we see that question first of all coming from the crowds: The crowds asked, “What should we do?” John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.” Luke 3:10-11

What John is saying, is that if you have truly turned to God, the fruit that you will produce is that you will Be Generous with what you have! One obstacle that we need to clear in our hearts if we are to make ready for Jesus this Christmas is the lack of genuine Christ-like love that is displayed in generosity to others. John says it like this: “If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion – how can God’s love be in that person?” 1 John 3:17

Did you know that the average household in America will spend around $800 on the trappings of Christmas this year (presents, dinners, decorations, etc). Can you imagine what kind of a difference you might make if you cut that in half and gave it to a family in need? There’s a movement afoot in Christianity that’s trying to reverse this trend of just buying more and more stuff. It’s called the Advent Conspiracy. And Churches across America are buying in. I know a couple of churches in Oregon who have bought in. And what they are doing is great. Families are being encouraged to give some if not all the money they would usually spend on themselves in a special offering. Some of that offering would be used to do what we’ve been doing through Christmas Compassion, to help people in need, part of it would be given to local organizations who do this kind of work year-round, and some would be designated to such projects like purchasing a water purification system for a village in Africa. Can you imagine what a difference we can make in the world, if we turned our gift giving into projects like that? Such generosity is the central characteristic of God’s heart and hopefully is seen in us. Listen to what Psalm 112 says about those who are generous:
4 Light shines in the darkness for the godly.
They are generous, compassionate, and righteous.
5 Good comes to those who lend money generously
and conduct their business fairly.
6 Such people will not be overcome by evil.
Those who are righteous will be long remembered.
7 They do not fear bad news;
they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.
8 They are confident and fearless
and can face their foes triumphantly.
9 They share freely and give generously to those in need.
Their good deeds will be remembered forever.
They will have influence and honor. Psalm 112:4-9

I wonder if we’d do a better job of preparing our hearts for Christmas if we gave more away than we spent on ourselves for Christmas. Being generous - that’s one fruit of repentance.

It wasn’t just the crowds who asked, “what should we produce;” even the tax collectors and soldiers were cut to the heart and wanted to change their ways: Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “Teacher, what should we do?” He replied, “Collect no more taxes than the government requires.” “What should we do?” asked some soldiers. John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.” Luke 3:12- 14

Both of these groups took advantage of people. In fact, the word Luke uses for exhorting money, is a word that means to shake a person forcefully. Soldiers intimidated people in that day to line their pockets. We have a hard time seeing the relevance of these groups today. So I would say it this way – don’t use people – or putting a more positive spin on it: Treat People Right!

The idea here is that the fruit of repentance is really about loving our neighbor. Listen to how Paul speaks of this in Romans 13: Owe nothing to anyone – except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal, you must not covet. These and other such commandments are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.” Romans 13:8-10

What John did in clearing the way for Jesus was to remind people that what really matters most to God is love. You see, what people need to see from you and me this holiday season, is not our lovely homes, but the love in our hearts: they need to see our generosity and they need to feel our respect.

The ultimate trapping of Christmas is our Love for others! Obviously, the road is cluttered more at Christmastime than at any other time of the year. It’s cluttered with Santa and his reindeer, with parties and presents, just like it is every other year. But we have the one thing that can clear the clutter – it’s love.
When we love we can open hearts. And when we love we make room for Jesus.

May we make ready for Jesus by making room to love others this season.

Let’s pray.