Lord of the Law

God’s Surprise Gifts to Us

Dr. Larry Thorson
December 16, 2007

Luke 3:1-6

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
       "A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
       'Prepare the way for the Lord,
       make straight paths for him.

    5 Every valley shall be filled in,
       every mountain and hill made low.
       The crooked roads shall become straight,
       the rough ways smooth.

6 And all people will see God's salvation.' "

It’s just a week before Christmas and there’s still so much to do to get ready. But that’s what Advent is all about, getting ready for something big that’s about to happen. What if Jesus was to come back this Christmas morning? How would it change how you get ready?

I’ve chosen John the Baptist to study during this Advent season because he was the master of getting ready. His whole purpose in life was to get people ready for the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of the world, Jesus the Christ.

But up until this point we’ve only looked at his parents who had waited a lifetime for God to answer their prayers for a child and then when they least expected it, like the perfect Christmas gift, John came into the world. Never, ever give up praying for something that you badly want. Our God is a God of surprises!

The Bible tells us nothing about how John grew up. Apparently that wasn’t important for the story. When the Bible leaves out something it’s not important for what we need to know. What we do know is that he was basically a hermit living off the barren land out in the desert when he got the call of God. In Matthew 3:4 we read

John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

Can you picture this hermit living out in the desert? That’s important to picture. Now let’s read how Luke describes John’s call from God in chapter 3.

Pontius Pilate, governor, Herod ruler of Galilee, Philip, ruler of some other place, Lysanias mayor of some town in Texas, high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas… This is a list of the most powerful men in society at the time of Jesus. It sounds like a picnic in Iowa (before the presidential caucus). They provided the political, economic and religious leadership for the people. Of all these important people, Luke wants us to know they weren’t the ones who heard from God, “the word of God came to John, son of Zechariah in the wilderness.”

That’s how God worked in biblical times. God would give his word to people who had little power or influence but who had learned to listen to him. Listening to God is not something that just happens, it’s something that’s learned.

We listen the way we were taught to listen. Ask a high school student what they learned in class on Friday and the typical answer is “nothing” or “stuff”. They have learned how not to listen to teachers. Since pastors are similar to teachers they’ve also learned how not to listen to sermons. That’s changing the way we have to preach sermons. I’m still in the dark ages in the way I stand up front and do all the talking for us. That’s not flying with the generations that are growing up with multi-media. But that’s another story.

The story for today is how John the Baptist and not the rich and powerful was able to hear from God. The word of God comes not to the normal places where it’s expected. It came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the desert wilderness.

We always think of the desert wilderness as a beautiful place to visit but hey, come on, we don’t want to stay there too long, there’s no internet connection there. I read a story last week in the paper about people who live along the Colorado River. Not the people at Lake Havasu but those further off. This is a place where when they want to go to town, the nearest, coolest town is Blythe, California and even that’s two hours away. Newspapers come only by mail. There’s no internet or cable connection. Instead they have two kinds of rattlesnakes, a blue headed one and a red headed one. We shouldn’t even mention the crawling creatures who bite after sneaking into their houses.

That’s desert wilderness. The wilderness is always seen in the Bible as a marginal place, away from the noise and busyness of society. It’s a place quiet enough to hear God’s still, small voice.

I don’t think you need to go to the Colorado River to find wilderness. Every Christmas has a little wilderness right in the city. It’s the thing that is unexpected, unplanned, and maybe even unwanted at first. You need to pay close attention to these marginal experiences at Christmas because holy things happen best there

One example for you this Christmas might involve a long time in an airport after a flight is canceled, and you are forced to just sit and listen. I’m not flying anywhere for Christmas this year but if I did I’d have all my gadgets to keep me from having to just sit and listen. That’s why cell phones now have movies, games and the capacity to hold the equivalent of 500 old albums not to mention free unlimited long distance calling.

The Sharper Image catalog came to my house last week and they were offering glasses that plug into your phone that gives you a big screen image of the video coming from your gadget so it’s like you’re sitting in a theater. Just count how many Christmas gift suggestions being marketed this year are designed to help you overcome your boredom. It’s like we’re afraid to be quiet.

Maybe your wilderness is finding the stocking of someone who died this year. Maybe it will come late at night as you sit alone staring at the lights on the tree because you can’t sleep. But I want you to know that you don’t have to run from the experience before you listen for the still, small voice. It might be your opportunity to hear a word from the Lord.

Once John hears from the Lord he sets out to obey it. For him it was to get people ready for the coming of the Savior. We read in verse three... He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The very first thing we all have to do to get ready for Christmas every year is repent. Now we usually think of repent as turning from our bad ways toward our good ways. But repentance also means turning from good activities that you normally do to do other appropriate activities. Think of all the things that you do at Christmas that you normally don’t do at other times of the year. If you don’t stop what you normally do during the year and turn around and do Christmas things you won’t be ready for Christmas.

That’s why this week I have to stop what I normally do on my day off, and turn around and head for the stores or I won’t have a very friendly Christmas experience at my house. Do you understand what I’m saying? John’s whole purpose is to get us ready to meet the savior and it all starts with repentance. We have to stop and turn around in God’s direction for right now. The first thing is to stop and listen.

This past summer I had a repentance moment at Raging Waters, the big water park in San Dimas. It was the end of the summer extravaganza for both our high school and middle school students. The kids went off with their friends and the sponsors were scattered out to keep an eye on them. I found myself sitting by myself with some time to reflect.

From the time I started here my whole emphasis has been to reach more kids for Christ. “Bring your friends” I constantly preach. But I was feeling frustrated because while more kids were coming they weren’t bonding together and they weren’t learning more about Christ. If they brought friends they would only get close with those folks. If they came alone they were lonely.

After that trip I decided to shut down our whole youth ministry and didn’t announce when we were going to start up again. I spent the month of September praying and seeking the direction of the Lord. Nobody pressured me to start back up again. The kids were patient. The words that kept coming to me were “make disciples”.

So in early October Coach Carter and I invited the middle school students on our list along with Debbie Borrott and Linda Garcia to a meeting in the new Middle School Club room in the Family Center. I told them I would train them to be leaders and disciples of Jesus Christ if they would come every Wednesday evening at 6:30, study the Bible with me and work together as a team. We started going verse by verse in the gospel of Mark and they don’t miss unless they have a school trip that takes them away. They take care of their own discipline problems and for the first time since I’ve come here we’re working together as a team. They even invited their friends and we’ve doubled in size.

What I want to do starting in January is to go back to the basics like I did with the middle schoolers. I want to create a network of weekly small groups of people who love Jesus Christ, who will love and care for each other and who want to be disciples of Jesus Christ. I can’t go to all those meetings but I can train and meet with facilitators to lead those groups.

The first group that’s launching is going to be led by newly ordained elder Keith Walley on Sundays at 9:00 in the Fireside Room studying a Christian classic, Knowing God. I need other facilitators who want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and are willing to meet with me to facilitate a group. You can even be a short termer, here just for the winter and facilitate a group. You can meet here, at homes, in rec centers, it doesn’t matter. You will be provided with everything you need for your group.

So your homework assignment for this week to get ready for Christmas and the coming of our Lord is to decide what you would have to change in your weekly schedule to join a weekly group that studies to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.