Well, here we are another week closer to our Christmas Celebration. Most of us have probably made a few more preparations for our special celebration of that special day. But, like we mentioned last week, we sometimes can become too busy with the physical preparations for the celebration, that we neglect the spiritual preparations we need to make for the coming of the Lord.

Let’s take a look this morning at John the Baptist and his ministry of “preparing the way for the Lord!” These are the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah and quoted by Matthew to describe John the Baptist’s ministry and to remind us, this morning, that we too are to prepare the way for the Lord.

How do we do that? In what manner are we to “prepare the way for the Lord”? John the Baptist tells us first off that we are to prepare with repentance! John was related to Jesus (they were cousins) and was born for a very specific purpose and mission. John was to go before Jesus and prepare the hearts of the people who were there at that time. John was a wilderness preacher with a simple message. He did not go into the cities to preach, but rather stood outside the cities and spoke his message of “prepare for the coming of the Lord.” Matthew tells us in verse 5, “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all the surrounding area.”

What did those people come to see? Did they come to see John because, “His clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist”? Or did they come because they heard “John ate wild honey and locusts”? That all sounds very strange to us, and we would probably go to see someone like that out of sheer curiosity. But it wasn’t strange in those days, as most all of the early prophets dressed that way. Also, John’s diet was what it was because he lived in the wilderness and locusts were considered a “clean” food by Jewish Law. So if John’s diet and appearance were not overly strange to the people of that time, why did they come to see him?

They came because of his message! We are told, “In those days John the Baptizer came, preaching in the desert of Judea saying, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.’” The word translated as “repent” in these passages does not mean to “feel sorry about”. It means “to turn away from” or “to change one’s way of thinking”. So whenever you see or hear the word repent in scripture, try to remember that it means to change your mind, change your way of thinking, change your heart.

John is preaching: “Change your way of thinking, change your heart, change your life, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” That is why the people came to him. John was preaching a message of repentance for changed minds and changed lives.

John was also the one promised by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’” Isaiah had also said, “In Bethlehem Ephrata there would be a Savior born. The virgin will give birth. There will be one to prepare the way.”

So John stood out by the Jordan River and preached, and baptized and prepared the way for Jesus. That was why the people came, “Confessing their sins they were baptized by John in the Jordan River.” John’s baptism was a baptism by water that looked forward to the promise of fulfillment in Christ Jesus. Jesus would come and live, die, and rise again for the forgiveness of sins.

It is pretty amazing to me that John did not have to go into the cities and synagogues and wait and hope that some people might show up on a designated Sabbath day to hear him. Rather, John stood outside the city and the people came in great numbers to hear his message. John obviously had great power and could easily have abused it and told people to worship him. But he never did that. Instead John said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One Who is more powerful than I, Whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

“One Who is greater than I”. What a great way to prepare ourselves, to remember that it is the birthday of “One Who is greater than I” that we celebrate on Christmas Day. Jesus is greater than I. Jesus is greater than you. Jesus is greater than anyone! Jesus is the One who lived a perfect life.

So we prepare ourselves for His birthday celebration with repentance, with a change of thinking, with a change of heart, until we realize that when we come before God we come in the depth of humility. We come knowing that we do not deserve such a precious gift. It is by His grace alone that God gave His Son so that we could be forgiven of our sins.

And so we come with a change of our way of thinking, realizing that we are not so important after all. We come with a change of mind, realizing that without God and the gift of His Son, we would be lost forever. We come with a change of heart to prepare the way for the Lord!

What does the Lord promise us for our changed way of thinking, changed attitudes, changed hearts? He promises us that His forgiveness comes without condemnation, without penalties and penance. God’s love is freely given. Peter tells us so when the crowds realized they had put Jesus to death. Peter told them, “Repent then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

Repent, confess your sin, turn away from sin and turn to God. It is not a shameful thing to confess our sins and repent. Repentance today is much like the word sin. The world would like to shove it under the rug and forget about it. To repent in the worldly sense means to feel sorry, not that you did what you did, but rather, that you got caught. The world tries to deny any guilt at all, because we are “innocent until proven guilty.” So our natural sinful nature takes it a step further and says, “Let them find out if I am guilty.” People do not readily admit when or if they are guilty. Repentance in the world today sounds like this: “I am sorry if you feel I have done something wrong.” True repentance sounds like this: “I am sorry because I have done something wrong.” The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

True repentance shows our dependence on God when we say, “Lord, I have sinned. I sin every day and I sin a lot. Sometimes I sin openly and sometimes I sin secretly. Sometimes I sin with my words, actions and thoughts. Sometimes I sin when I do things I ought not to do, and sometimes I sin when I fail to do things I ought to do. For all this I ask your forgiveness.”

Godly sorrow brings the change from worldly thinking that says we cannot admit weakness. It is not a weakness to confess sin. Sorrow over sin shows our dependence on God. “Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity”, says the prophet Joel.

Confess and repent of our sins. What does the Lord say then? He says, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened and I will give you rest.” This is the word of our God saying, “Come to Me and I will not condemn you. I will forgive you.”

Our Lord is the only God like that. Allah is not like that. Buddha is not like that. No other “god” is like that. All of the false gods demand perfection or you are condemned. Our God says, “My Son is the only One who lived perfectly so that you may be saved from your condemnation!”

So, as we continue to move toward the Christmas day celebration, in the midst of all of the hustle and bustle, let us prepare for the Lord with repentance; a change of mind, a change of our way of thinking, a change of heart. Amen.