Date:   12/09/07

Text:   Matthew 3:1-12

Title:   There Is A Voice

Theme: In this Advent season, among many voices, we are to hear the voice that calls us to come back to God.

Introduction:

  If I say, I hear a voice….. Your immediate response will be: is he ok? Is he hallucinating? When was the last time he had a check up? We are scared of hearing voices. We are skeptical of those who claim they've heard a voice.

  In the Old Testament hearing voices, especially God's voice was not unusual. Abraham and Jacob heard God speaking to them. Moses heard God's voice speaking to him in the wilderness. Young Samuel heard God calling his name at night. The text we read earlier is also about a voice. It is a about a voice coming out from the wilderness.

  Matthew quoted Isaiah 40:3, “ . 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Isaiah was prophesying that one day, there will appear in the wilderness, an individual who will prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah-King. Prophet Malachi in 3:1; 4:5, “ 1 “Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.” “ 5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.” After Malachi, there was no more revelation from God for 400 years. Those 400 years were known as the silent inter-testament times.

  And now in Matthew 3:1, “ 1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,..” vs.3, “ 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,“ The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight. ' ” Matthew tells us this John is the person prophesied in the OT. In our study of the 4 gospels, we learn that 2 gospels (Matthew and Luke) begin with the birth of Jesus Christ. And all 4 gospels wrote about John before Jesus started his ministry. The gospel writers, especially Matthew, clearly stated that John was the connection between the Old and New Testament. With the coming of John, God's revelation began to flow again to His people.

  Last week we began the Advent season with the instruction that while celebrating Jesus' birth that occurred 2000 years ago, we are also mindful of his second coming. These two ‘coming' events, cannot be separated. Now, on this second Sunday in the Advent season, we'll focus on how we are to live now as we prepare for Jesus birth. We want to see how John the Baptist and his message, is relevant to us today.

I.    The Advent season is a call to focus on things that matters to God. .

  Matthew and Mark both give us some details about how John lived. Matthew 3:4, “ 4 Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.”

  First, he lived in the wilderness. The wilderness is a very lonely place. In the OT history, prophets often prophesied that there would be a new exodus coming out of the wilderness. A Wilderness is a place where God meets his people. God met Moses in the wilderness. He met the Israelites at Mt. Sinai . He met David in the wilderness when he was escaping from Saul. Ezekiel saw some of his visions in the wilderness. Later Jesus, and then Paul all spent time in the wilderness, to be tested and drawn close to God. And now, we read that John lived in the wilderness.

  Secondly, John ate locusts sweetened with wild honey. Eating locusts and honey was not unusual in those days. In the Dead Sea Scrolls there were instructions on how to prepare locusts according to the Jewish ceremony laws, making it kosher. But the point here is that sweetened locust is all John ate.

  Nowadays, to keep oneself healthy, many individuals eat oatmeal, Quaker Oats, for breakfast. It's rather plain. Several weeks ago, we were invited to a friend's home for lunch. He asked if we'd prefer rice or oatmeal. I said, “what? Oatmeal?” For breakfast, it's ok, but lunch? Then he told me that he and his wife ate oatmeal for breakfast, lunch and dinner (with some other dishes, they had done away with rice). He said it's just like congee and it's healthy.

  Thirdly, John's clothes were made of camel's hair. This resembled what Elijah wore. This is also a garment of the poor.

  From this brief description of John, we see he lived a very simple life style. Nothing really impressive. Not flashy clothes or nice and luxurious housing. Being that voice in the wilderness, being the one who'd prepare for the Messiah's coming, John held onto what is important, what matters to God and lived a simple life. It was a strong contrast to the religious leaders of the day. They lived in comfort and luxury. They valued human traditions over God's law. Just seeing John's simple life-style was a strong indictment against the religious leaders of the day. Isn't John's life-style also a strong indictment of us who live in this present time when the pursuit of comfort, wealth, prosperity is the chief goal in life?

   Several weeks ago Oprah Winfrey ran a show named: Inside the lives of Hoarders. There was a story about one family. The mother was a shopaholic. Her 3 children reported to Oprah to get help. There was hardly any walking space inside the 3000sq.ft. home. A team of 100 people helped her to clean out the house. They took 8 weeks to clean out 75 tons of garbage; rented a 10,000 sq.ft warehouse to sell the belongings, which included 3000 handbags and 3000 pairs of shoes. $13,000 were raised.

Certainly this family is not the average Joe and we may be nowhere near that. Yet, isn't it true that we can all do a little reflection during this Advent season? We know that when Jesus, the Messiah came, he was not born in a palace, instead it was a very lowly, humble place, the manger, surrounded by dirty and noisy animals. Later, he told his followers and would be followers that he had no place to lay his head. If the Messiah king lived a simple life, how much more so do we need to live a simple life. A life style with little debt that will free us to do what God pleases.

Recently I was told that a young couple decided to sell the present house and move into a smaller condominium. The reason for this move was to reduce their debt and be free to do what pleases God. While others are moving up into bigger houses, they have chosen to move into a smaller house.

When I met many of the ministers and believers in China , I was struck by the simplicity of their life. This is one reason they are so free to go where God wants them to go, to some of the remote parts of the country. They have so much less to worry about. Their simple life-style humbled me and caused me to constantly reflect upon my own life-style.

How about us? How would we feel if John the Baptist or believers from Uganda , China came before us? From how we live, can others tell what really matters in our lives? You see, if we pursue wealth, health and prosperity, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to pursue things of God, such as Faith, Hope, Love, Holiness, Compassion and Humility.

II.    The Advent season is a call to get right with God. .

  John's physical appearance can make us feel uncomfortable. Wait till we hear his message. In essence, it was a message of warning. Matthew 3:7-9, “ 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham.”

First, who was his audience? Who came to the wilderness to hear him preach? There were Jews and gentiles. But he was specially speaking to the Jews. They were Abraham's descendents. They thought being Abraham's children, they would be alright. But John said, being Abraham's children was no guarantee that you were right with God.

  Secondly, John called them offspring and sons of vipers. In the middle east tradition, that was very harsh and derogatory. It's like calling someone a parent murderer. He told them they had failed to live up to the expectations as God's covenant people. You see, in the covenant, God's part is to love his people unconditionally and eternally. His people's part was responsible to live according to God's laws. But the Israelites had clearly failed. They had strayed away from God. They had not been right with God.

  Thirdly, John told them there would be a judgment coming. With the coming of the Messiah-King, there would be a judgment. When we look at Jesus' ministry, whenever he preached or performed miracles, there were those who followed him, but also people who rejected him. And we learn that when this messiah comes the second time in the future, there would be a final judgment. Those who believe him will be taken into his presence and spend the eternity with him. Others will be eternally separated from him.

  So, what was John's message? You have gone astray from God. You have sinned against God. Therefore, Repent. Don't think being associated with Abraham can save you from God's final judgment. The only way to escape God's judgment is to repent. What is repentance?

One Sunday School teacher asked his students: What is repentance? Many said, to repent means I am sorry. Then, after a while, a little girl stood up and said, “to repent means you are sorry enough to quit.” You may be very sad over what you did; you may feel great remorse over your sins. Yet this is not repentance. It's not just intellectual knowledge or emotional conviction that what I did was wrong and feel very sorry about it. It means a radical change and transformation of life. This is what John said in vs.8, “ 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” Just being sorry is not enough, there must be clear change of behaviors to confirm your repentance.

  What does it mean to us today? If you receive an invitation to a surprise birthday party; and you realized you are not in good terms with this birthday person, would you go? It will be difficult to go to a party of the person with whom you are not in good terms. Isn't this also true with Christ's birth? While we are preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ, we are to ask ourselves, are we right with God? If we are not in the right relationship with him, it will be hard, if not impossible to whole heartedly celebrate his birthday.

How would you describe your present relationship with God? Some may say, I have been coming to church for several months or years. Or my wife, or husband is a Christian. Or my parents or grandparents are believers. Or I have been a Christian for over 50 years. It is important to know that coming to church, or having our spouse or parents/grandparents who are Christians; do not mean that you are right with God now. It is our sins that separate us from God. Our sins cause us to slowly drift away from Him. Our sins make our relationship with God not right. Our sins make us unfaithful to the God who is faithful to us. And if we want to be right with God, then we have come to him and repent. We are to feel very sorry for our sins, so sorry that we want to quit sinning.

  How do we prepare ourselves to welcome the birth of this Christ-child? What can be better than having a right relationship with Him? Start by telling him how sorry we are for our sins. Then ask him to help us to change our behaviors, habits and thinking. Ask him to continue to transform our lives into his image.

III.    The advent season is a call to know who Jesus is. .

  John's life style and message convicts us of our sins and wrong doings. There is more to this. Vs. 11-12, “ 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” He is talking about the Messiah that is to come.

  First take a look at John's relationship with this Messiah. This Messiah was greater than John. He was not worthy to carry the Messiah's sandals. You see, in those days, the slaves were responsible to take care of anything to do with their masters' feet, such as washing, taking off and carrying the sandals. The students would do for their teachers everything a slave would do except dealing with the teachers' sandals. Here John said, “I am not even worthy to be the Messiah's slave.”

  Secondly, John told us that the Messiah would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit. OT prophets had announced that God would judge the wicked with fire, and pour his Spirit on the righteous. No one but God could pour out God's own spirit.

  Here, John clearly recognized the one whose way he was preparing was the Messiah, God himself. Yet he still didn't know who this Messiah was; what he was like. But how about us? When we read Matthew 3:3, “ 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “ The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;..” We know that this lord is Jesus Christ. John was preparing for Jesus' coming. Jesus is the Messiah whose coming is being prepared by John. Jesus is the son of God, he is God. According to John, he needs to be baptized by Jesus, the Messiah. This is why it was such a surprise to John that later Jesus asked John to baptize him.

  We certainly know that we are preparing for the birth of Jesus. It is equally important to know who this Jesus is. With the election year coming up, we're hearing plenty of statements about the candidates' faith. This past week, one candidate said, “I believe in Jesus is the son of God, savior for the mankind.” It sounds great. But knowing his religious affiliation, what he really meant was this: “Jesus was created as a spirit child by the father and mother in heaven.” This is not the Jesus we know in the Bible. This infant Jesus is the Messiah, He is God; he is God in flesh. This is the Jesus we worship.

Conclusion:

  From about 600 BC, there was no more revelation from God. God was silent to his people. It was during this time, many voices came forth. There were the voices of their religious leaders. These voices were calling God's people not to God, but to human interpretation of God's law, resulting in more burdens on them. There were voices calling for political freedom from the greek and then the Roman Empire . You see when God became silent, human voices took His place.

Now, 400 years later, with the coming of John the Baptist, God's revelation began to flow again. And of all the places, God's voice came from the wilderness. If we're there planning this, we probably would use CNN, and during the prime time to call people's attention. Instead, it was in the wilderness, through John, God spoke again. It was a message that continued on from the OT prophets. A message of calling his people to return to him. To repent of their sins and get right with their creator.

Isn't this also true with us today? There are so many voices around us. During this season, there is the voice of reducing Jesus' birth to an on rush of commercial activities. All kinds of advertisements telling us where to get the best deals. This year, since Christmas Eve falls on a Monday, we can expect all the last minute specials occurring on Sunday: 6am to 12pm for the early birds? There are also voices of special deals for two in restaurants; thus accentuating our loneliness during this season. I am certain you can also think of many other voices calling out to you.

In the midst of all these voices, I am so glad that you are here this morning, instead of doing shopping or being engulfed in self-pity. I am glad you are here because this place can be like a mini wilderness, where we can all listen to this voice of John the Baptist together.

It is a voice calling us to focus on things that matter to God. It is a voice calling us to be right with God. And a voice calling us to remember that this birth is really about God becoming flesh, who came and lived among us, full of truth and grace.