Advent three

Luke 3.7-14

Hymns: 19, 26, 16, 15

Finish this statement: "Christmas is the time to... pray for peace on earth? help poor people? bring smiles to kids’ faces by giving them gifts of toys and clothing? be together as a family to share love and fond memories of days gone by?" When you see how Christmas is marketed on TV and in the malls of America, it is all of the things I just mentioned.

How about, "Christmas is a time of repentance?" That word, ‘re-pentance,’ doesn’t go over too well in our secular world, does it? "Get ready for Christmas by repenting of your sins," sounds like something the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge would say just to spoil the Christmas spirit.

When was the world first put on notice that Christmas had arrived? It was 2000 years ago when angels told the shepherds that Jesus the Savior had been born in a stable in Bethlehem. That had zero impact on the world. It was 30 years after Jesus’ birth that John the Baptist, God’s messenger, pointed to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world. And the operative word that John used in calling on people to welcome Jesus into the world was ‘repent!’

Is the call to repent like being hit in the face with a bucket of ice water? Does it ruin your Christmas spirit to think about your sins and repent fo them? No, the call to repent does not dampen the Christmas spirit, although it can make you feel as though you’ve been hit in the face with a bucket of ice water...as it should.

When the world speaks of celebrating an "old fashioned" Christ-mas it means: make your own cut-out Christmas cookies and ging-er bread house, go into the woods and cut down your own Christ-mas tree instead of going to a corner lot where you can buy a tree that was cut down in Michigan a month ago and shipped here (don’t even think ‘artificial tree!’). An old fashioned Christmas: make your own Christmas cards and gifts, have the family together for Christmas dinner. That is an old fashioned Christmas.

But there’s something missing. If you want to celebrate Christmas the old fashioned way, you need to go back to the days of John the Baptist. CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS THE OLD FASHIONED WAY: REPENT!

We see that the people who went out to see and hear John fell into at two categories: hypocrites and those who truly repented and were prepared to meet Jesus. We’ll begin with the hypocrites, the people whom John spoke to first in our text (vs 7-9).

John was speaking to the religious leaders of the Jews when he called them a brood of vipers, the offspring of Satan who deceived the Jews in the same way Satan deceived Adam and Eve. It was a deadly lie Satan told Adam and Eve: "You will not die just because you don’t do what God wants," said Satan. "You will not die just because you repent of sin," said the priests and rabbis. "You are the descendants of Abraham; you are ‘good people.’" It was not in their vocabulary to say, as did the publican, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." The teachers of the law did not teach the people that they were not keeping the law, nor were they capable of it as God requires, and were therefore destined for hell when they died. Ra-ther their sermon/homilies contained the message: Keep on being a good person...keep away from pork and shell fish and other unclean foods...keep away from Gentiles...keep saying your pray-ers...keep on being a Jew and you will having nothing to worry about when you die."

There was no repentance...no admission of the guilt of sin and therefore deserving God’s wrath and eternal punishment. They were willing to be baptized by John not because they understood the need to repent and have their sins washed away but because they were willing to go through the motions...because it was the pious and religious thing to do. This is hypocrisy. This is pre-tending to need God’s forgiveness but, in the heart, not believing that God’s forgiveness was needed.

If you watch TV programs like Law and Order you’ve seen the detectives interrogating people who are under suspicion for com-mitting a crime. The people lie and lie and lie until the detectives nail them to the wall with overwhelming evidence and only then do they admit to the crime and plead for understanding. That’s not repentance at work, it’s fear of being punished...jail time but no genuine remorse with a change of heart to confess to the crime, accept their punishment and turn their life around...change their attitude about doing what is right, not doing what is wrong.

Do you have to be nailed to the wall under the interrogation of God’s law before pleading for mercy, for forgiveness? True re-pentance is not superficial. It is not just regret for disappointing God by not being as good as he wants you to be. Repentance does not make excuses for sin, blame the world or someone else for being a bad influence on you and then moving on with your life without making any changes.

Are you the kind of person who blames everything and everyone under the sun for your failings and is unwilling to take responsi-bility for your own sinfulness? When you are brought face to face with your failings, do you claim that no one loves you, no one cares, no one understands what you’re going through? That’s not repentance. Do you come to church or say your prayers and ask God to help you just so you can say that you’ve gone through the motions but have no intention of looking at yourself and changing your attitude, doing something about getting sin under control?

Look at the others who came out to see John (vs 10-14). Here is genuine repentance: it is the clear admission of the guilt of sin and the desire to change their attitude and life in order to show both the understanding of what it means to be forgiven of that guilt of sin and the desire to demonstrate that in their lives.

True repentance is the willingness to give of yourself for the good of others. If you are truly sorry for saying hurtful words, you will say kind words. If you are truly sorry for being selfish you will show generosity. If you are truly sorry for being insensitive you will show kindness and caring. Repentance will be evident.

Listen to the message John had for the people who saw their need for mercy, need for forgiveness because of their sins (v 15-18). These people were prepared for good news, they longed to hear that their sins would not condemn them because Jesus the Messiah came to fill their need of forgiveness by paying for their sins with his life, by removing the guilt of their sin through his death and resurrection. They were forgiven through faith in Jesus the Christ and their thankfulness was seen in their changed lives.

This is how to celebrate Christmas the old fashioned way. Repent of your sins, trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, rejoice in that forgiveness and show your love to Jesus by loving others.