Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Mark 1:1-8
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  December 10, 2023

(10 count of silence before speaking while staring off to the right.) I’ve bet I’ve got your attention now, don’t I? Isn’t it interesting how we often try to get people’s attention by being louder. We’ll shout someone’s name. Perhaps we’ll throw their middle name in there to show them we mean business. But sometimes, the most effective way to get people’s attention is to be silent when they’re expecting you to yell or speak. Could that have been God’s tactic during the last 400 years of the Old Testament period? Throughout much of Israel’s history, God sent prophet after prophet to bring his Word to his people, to try and get his people’s attention. In fact, there’s a whole list of Minor Prophets whom we sometimes tend to overlook that were very important to the Old Testament people. But after Malachi, there was a pronounced silence: a 400-year silence where God chose not to send any prophets. 400 years where that faithful remnant waited and waited to hear more from God about the promised Messiah. Perhaps, God was using that silence to really get Israel’s attention. And when the silence was finally broken, he knew he had it. He had their attention and sent someone they wouldn’t be able to ignore, someone who was so captivating that the people would have to go out to get a look at him. That man who broke the 400-year silence was John the Baptist. 

What do you picture when you think of a successful preacher? A good-looking guy with an expensive suit and a perfect smile? Someone who can charm people with his rhetoric and charisma? Someone who draws them in by the thousands to his church and by the hundreds of thousands to his television broadcast? Why is it that we don’t think of someone who had a scruffier appearance? Why don’t we picture successful preachers wearing animal furs, maybe a buck-skin coat and coon-skin hat? Why don’t we picture them living off the land, eating what nature provides? Why don’t we picture them living on the wrong side of the tracks, the places where not too many people want to live?

Perhaps that’s not what comes immediately to mind, but that was John. Even for people of that time who didn’t have nearly the wardrobe selection that we enjoy, John had to be quite a sight, don’t you think? He wore an itchy, camel-hair robe with a leather strap to hold it on. He ate grasshoppers and wild honey–maybe the honey made them go down a little easier. He lived on the wrong side of the Jordan, the east side, where no one else wanted to live because it was so hot and humid and inhospitable. But John got people’s attention. Mark tells us that John was fulfilling what the prophet Isaiah had written: “This is how it is written in the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way for you. A voice of one calling out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”” 

And once the people came to John–that’s right they came to him: “The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him.” –John had a message for them from the Lord. It was a message of repentance. For centuries, God’s people had left God’s will in the rear view mirror. They had turned to other gods which are really no gods at all. So when all the people came out to John, no one was spared from his message. To the tax collectors, he told them they should stop collecting more than they had to. To the soldiers, he told them they should stop extorting money from the people. To the Pharisees and Sadducees, he calls them a brood of vipers. He told them to stop thinking that they were special just because they were Abraham’s children.  “God can make children for Abraham out of stones if he wants to!” John told them. No matter who came out, John preached God’s law in all of its severity to lead them to repentance. 

“John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins…“He preached, “One more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals! I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”” The people may have gone into the wilderness to see John, but they returned home seeing Jesus. That was John’s goal for his entire ministry: to prepare people for the coming of Jesus. “He must become greater; I must become less.” John realized that it wasn’t about him. He realized that he was just the messenger. He could have let the attention and the celebrity status go to his head. But instead, his dress, his diet, and his message show how weak and frail mankind is and just how much they need Jesus. The people went into the wilderness to see John the Baptist, but they returned home seeing Jesus. They returned home seeing Jesus because John spoke to them about their sin: that it’s real; that there’s no way that any person can justify his sin before God; that to imagine that you’re good enough for God is just as foolish as imagining a piece of grass is strong enough to withstand a nuclear blast. They returned home seeing Jesus because John spoke to them about a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins: that the solution to the problem of sin doesn’t come from within but from God; that with water and his Word God cleansed the sin that soils and made them clean. They returned home seeing Jesus because John spoke to them about Jesus; that he himself wasn’t the Savior, but that Jesus is; that the one who would follow him was indeed far greater than him but would become far less on the cross; that the power of baptism to save didn’t come from the one who baptized them but from their Savior who gave it to them. The people went into the wilderness to see John. They came back with much more, because John showed them Jesus. 

Listen to the forerunners! It wasn’t just the people in John’s time that needed to hear the message of the forerunners, we need it too! This season of Advent is a season of preparation. So what are we doing to get ready for Christmas? We’ve got presents to buy and decorations to put up and trees to trim and cards to send and all of those things are fine and good. But do they really prepare us for Christ? Because that’s what Christmas is all about. If we’re honest with ourselves, don’t we have to admit that those things can often get in the way of Christ? They take the focus off of Christ. They do the opposite of what John did. 

That’s why we still need to Listen to the Forerunners! John is still speaking to us today. He’s still calling us to repentance. He’s still encouraging us to examine our lives and root out the sin. Where have we been unfaithful to God and his Word? Is it in our relationship with God himself? Do things or people take a higher priority than him? Do we throw his name around carelessly, like some teenage slang? Are we reading his Word regularly? Are we gladly and eagerly hearing the preaching of the Word? Or perhaps our unfaithfulness lies in our relationships with others. Perhaps we’ve blown off our parents or disrespected our government leaders. Perhaps we’re still holding that grudge and are unwilling to forgive and forget the wrongs. Perhaps we are not satisfied with how God has blessed us and we are constantly longing for more. Where is the sin in your life? Listen to the Forerunners! Repent of those sins! Now is the time to expose it. Now is the time to wash it out before it destroys us, because that’s what sin does. Now is the time to prepare our hearts to receive our coming King! Listen to the Forerunners! Because they not only lead us to repentance, they also lead us to Jesus.

“He preached, “One more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals! I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” The people may have gone into the wilderness to see John, but they returned home seeing Jesus. That was John’s goal for his entire ministry: to prepare people for the coming of Jesus. And that’s the goal of the forerunners today! Just as John pointed people to Jesus, to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, so God’s forerunners today strive to do the same! Everything we do as a congregation, everything we do in worship is all about Jesus! It should never be about the pastor. I must become less; he must become greater. It should always be about Jesus. It’s my prayer that every time you leave this place that you return home seeing Jesus. Like John, we talk about sin; that it’s real; that there’s no way you can justify your sin before GOd; that to imagine that you’re good enough for God is as foolish as imagining that piece of grass is strong enough to withstand a nuclear blast. We talk about baptism and repentance for the forgiveness of sins: that the solution to the problem of sin doesn’t come from within you, but from God; that with water and his Word God cleansed the sin that soils you and made you clean. I pray that you come every time with the same prayer: “Let us see Jesus!”

That’s the message of Advent. That’s what we are preparing for. Our salvation is coming. When we see that baby lying in the manger, this isn’t just some heart-warming labor and delivery story. That’s our God, taken on human flesh to be our Savior. That’s our forgiveness. That’s our guarantee that no matter what we might have done, no matter how often or how far away we may have strayed, no matter how unholy or unrighteous we may have been, we are forgiven. Sin wiped away. Wrong doings forgotten. Punishment avoided because someone else took it. Our debt with God is paid in full. That’s the message of John, the message of the forerunners. Prepare to heart that same old story once again, because it never gets old. Listen to the Forerunners because your King is Coming. Confess your sins. Repent. And then you’re ready to hear again that incredible news of God’s love and what his love caused him to do. And when that news comes, let it fill your heart with joy and peace, the true meaning of Christmas, something very worthy of our full attention. Amen.