There is More to Christmas Than Hope!

Text: Luke 3:1-17

Focus: Repentance

Function: To help people see the justice of holiness instead of the sin of consumerism.

Form: Storytelling

Intro:

You know the story of how Mary went to see her cousin Elizabeth when she was pregnant.

• God sent her to see her. The two cousins were very far apart in age. Elizabeth was in her 80’s and Mary was somewhere between 14 and 18.
• God sent her to encourage her and God sent her to protect her from the gossip that people will automatically do when they have a reason to believe that there is a scandal.
• They both knew that what was happening to them was a miracle.
• God sent Mary to Elizabeth, a wise older Godly woman who gave her council, moral support and encouragement.
• It is a great picture of how things happen in the Church. It is a great picture of how things happen here at Bear Creek.

(SHOW) The story of John the Baptist.

So, Cousin Elizabeth has a baby boy born 3 months before Jesus is born. John the Baptist is what he is called.

He starts his ministry about a year before Jesus starts His ministry.

But John goes about it in an odd way.

He moves into the desert, joins a group called: “The Essenes” and lives a simple, sort of monastic lifestyle. Actually, the Essenes were this group of Jewish believers who believed in simple living. They sort of correlate to modern day Amish.

Most people think they are quaint, and odd. Most people notice an Amish buggy when it drives by, or they notice an Amish couple in the store. Because they are odd, they make great characters for movies.

But the thing is, because they are different, they are noticed.

And John the Baptist gets noticed. All of a sudden, God’s Holy Spirit comes inside of him and he starts preaching out in the desert.

And the odd thing is, people start leaving the comfort and security of the town, to go out into the desert and bear the heat to listen to this guy preach.

He becomes a phenomena. Everybody starts talking about him.

(SHOW) John’s message is a hard word of self-denial, repentance and the coming judgment of God.

It is not a message of hope.

And yet, this story of John the Baptist is included in scripture right along with the rest of the Christmas story.

What do we learn from that?

(SHOW) There is more to Christmas than hope.

That is a weird statement. It is a little shocking. The intent is to get our attention and consider what he is actually saying. I want to break down the real message, the way John the Baptist gets into the heads and the hearts of the people who flocking to hear him.

I would read this passage, especially when I was growing up and hear about repentance, listen to him calling them “a bunch of snakes,” and hear the words about the axe being laid at the base of the tree and the tree being cut down and thrown into the fire.

And then he says, that people aren’t born into faith, being part of a family that worships God doesn’t mean that you are automatically Jewish or Christian.

John is yelling at them and telling them to not act like they are godly, but to truly be godly.

And I have heard a lot of sermons about that concept. I would, and do, squirm in my seat and think about that bad thought I had, the way I leered -for a moment- at someone different from my wife, the way I laughed at a cruel or dirty joke. I would squirm when I haven’t succeeded in resisting sin, or harboring a grudge against someone, or listening to gossip, or worse, spreading gossip.

And the fear that I was not actually repentant would fill my mind and I would live in fear that somehow, after trying so hard to be a Christian, I would be one of the ones who was condemned.

And I want to make sure that this kind of preaching stays true to the scripture and honors the grace and hope freely given us by Jesus. That hope we celebrate at Christmas.

Because if that preaching merely uses fear, or misdirects holiness to some false standard of what it means to be righteous, then it is condemned in scripture.

Paul said, if anyone preaches a gospel different that what you first heard, they should be condemned for lying about God’s Word.

It was a problem then, and it is a problem now. Paul talks about it quite a bit in the book of 2 Corinthians. The church’s faith has been corrupted by preachers who claim a false authority, put them back into the bondage of legalism and keeps their focus off of Jesus and the things that Jesus preached as important.

At one point he points to preachers who falsify the moving of the Holy Spirit with mere preaching tricks that are designed to stir up emotion, mainly anger, as a substitute for the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is like they know how to feed on people who are so covered in shame that they submit themselves to abuse from the clergy.

Look at this verse: (SHOW) 2 Corinthians 11:20 You are even patient with those who order you around, or use you, or trick you, or think they are better than you, or hit you in the face.

Some people are attracted to that kind of preaching. And hopefully you are thinking, “Pastor, you seem to be getting off the subject of Christmas.”

I am not. I want to keep us focused on the true gospel and remember that there is more to Christmas than hope.

The more: John the Baptist is talking about  repentance.

(SHOW) Accepting and receiving Christ includes the necessary act of repenting.

Now, I am not about to stoop to the level of those charlatan preachers who know how to manipulate a crowd by shaming them.

That is not the way the Holy Spirit works.

But I do want to preach about repentance today.

To sincerely celebrate Christmas, to sincerely practice the Christian faith means that we become a people who have been changed by God. We make the choice to live our lives the way Jesus taught us instead of the way we were used to living.

(SHOW) Repentance is choosing to live the way Jesus taught us to live instead of the way culture teaches us to live.

Now John the Baptist’s sermons are more than what I do. John the Baptist was a prophet. He didn’t sit down and write it out, look up bible texts to make sure he is staying true to God’s word. He didn’t add his flavor, personality or even his own stories to illustrate his points.

He didn’t preach sermons. He spoke under the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

So, when he called out the crowd for its insincerity, he wasn’t judging them with his own opinion or theology. No. God was speaking to them through him.

This isn’t the phenomena of those crowds that listen to preachers who shame and abuse them that I mentioned earlier.

These aren’t sick people who like to be abused.

These people are compelled to hear his words.

It isn’t emotional trickery. God’s Holy Spirit is burning these words into their heart.

John institutes a whole new practice for those ancient believers. He baptizes them. There is nothing in the OT scriptures that command baptism. It is merely hinted at in a couple of places.

And the people are flocking to him.

And God shows him that some of them are not sincere.

So here he is, the prophet who has captured the imagination of the whole nation. Many hear his message, repent and are baptized as a symbol of their repentance and commitment to actually live the Christian life.

(SHOW) The message of repentance is included in the Christmas story.

But because he is popular, another large crowd wants to look like the rest of them.

They are insincerely getting baptized.

• And God is calling them out.
• And they hear him.
• The word convinces, convicts them of their hypocrisy.

And in humility and sincerity, they simply ask him: (SHOW) “What is genuine repentance?”

If he preached that today, the crowd would cry out: “How do you know we aren’t sincere?”

Now I mentioned that repentance is changing your life to live the life that Jesus taught us. It means we turn away from sin and obey God.

And I am fascinated by the four specific things that John says.

Two of the things he says are to the whole crowd and then two things are to specific groups.

He isn’t outlining 4 rules as if that is all that is required, but his answers, both to everyone and to the two groups, explain the spirit of mercy behind true repentance. (repeat)

So, what does he say?

(SHOW) To everyone he says: if you have two coats, give one away to a poor person. If you have extra food, give it to a poor person.”

I have seven coats. Hmmm.

Remember, he is painting a picture of what repentance, righteousness, godliness, and true faith looks like.

He doesn’t say “go to church every Sunday, pay your tithe, sing the hymns, and stop cussing.”

These people were already doing that.

In all of his statements, (SHOW) His description of repentance has to do with their generosity, mercy and honesty.

The specific sin that he is talking about here that the people need to repent from is hoarding.

The warning is clear; the axe is laid at the tree to be burned in a fire.

Apparently, this is a big thing to God.

I was listening to “the Story” on NPR last Wednesday. A woman who grew up in Bulgaria was telling how before the Berlin wall came down; they would get up at 5 in the morning and get in lines at the local grocery stores. The whole family would go to different stores and wait until the stores opened at 8:00 in the hope that they would be able to purchase milk and bread.

She said that the people in line weren’t nice. Once the store opened, nobody was polite because it was a matter of survival.

I thought about those people waiting in line for survival and Black Friday here in America.

I know for many it is fun, and I am not going to condemn it. People can save a lot of money.

But let me change the title of the sermon a minute to put this statement into perspective: (SHOW) “There is more to Christmas than presents.”

Now, two weeks ago we saw that there is a good theology around the tradition of presents as it reflects the example of Saint Nicholas and God’s own gift to us in Jesus.

But John the Baptist is getting to the heart of people and saying, there is more to life than material things.

The next two items he mentions have to do with the way we do our work.

The first two were about generosity and mercy.

The second two are about mercy and honesty.

Mercy is included in both answers.

He answers the question from two specific groups. These groups were the ones that everyone else used to feel good about themselves by looking down on them as being terrible sinners.

The tax collectors and the Roman soldiers.

He tells the tax collectors to be completely honest and don’t cheat anyone. After all, the tax collector could fudge the numbers and make people pay more, pocket the difference. And if they refused, well, there was the Roman soldier standing there with his sword.

He explains this principle: (SHOW) A Christian society makes sure everyone gets a chance.

To the Roman soldiers: He doesn’t tell them to put away their swords and change professions. I am kind of surprised by that.

But he does tell them to be content, not to be cruel and to treat everyone else like they are human as well.

I wish John the Baptist could step into both houses of Congress these days and speak to the mean-spirited rhetoric that is going on.

He can’t but we can speak to our neighbors about what it means to be righteous and just. We can do it by example

John could remind them that “the axe is laid at the tree and God cares about how we as people live in relationship to generosity, mercy and honesty.”

So what do we do? Let us resolve to let the true Spirit of giving, generosity and hope be ours the whole year, not just the Christmas season.