I. Reject Despair and Distraction 00:00
Jesus, we thank you that you are here with us, and we pray that you would guide us in this season of Advent to the coming of our Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, we’re right in the middle of it, I’ll tell you. We are in the middle of Advent, the preparatory season for the coming of Jesus. Can you feel it? There’s a lot going on. It’s the holidays. It’s busy. It’s chaotic. We’re getting pulled left, right, center, up, down. There are so many things to do. I don’t know if you feel that; I feel it. Today I want to remind you and encourage you to reject despair and distraction. That’s what I want you to think about today: reject despair and distraction.
Eric gave us a word at the men’s retreat that he ended up bringing on Sunday morning as well, and the word was victory: that God had declared victory, particularly to us, particularly in this season; that at the end of the calendar year, the beginning of the Christian year, God’s word for us was victory. Now, as we are encouraged by that word, victory, the enemy has two options, because the victory is already won. The price has already been paid. All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. But the enemy has two tools to limit the fulfillment of God’s purposes in our life, and those tools are despair and distraction.
Now, he who has begun a good work in you will see it to completion (Phil 1.6). You can hold on to that. That’s why Bishop Davidson last week told us to pull on the cord of hope, which is Jesus. And so wherever you’re at, pull on that cord of hope. We can have a hope. But I want you this morning to reject despair and distraction.
The enemy will seek to convince you that victory isn’t as certain as you once thought. He will convince you that maybe you misunderstood victory: “Maybe victory meant you suffer more and you don’t get what you want.” No. Jesus loves you and has paid, so that everything you do can be worked to your glory and his benefit, and vice versa. He is so unbelievably generous with us that everything in our life is actually pointing to his coming, just like the season of Advent reminds us.
In fact, I love the symbolism of the church. We’re lighting these candles as a way of marking time. And in a world that truly fights to grab your attention at every moment, it’s actually spiritual warfare to slow down and mark time, to say, “Today is the second week of Advent. It’s not just another day that I have to bear, that I have to make it through, that I have to grit and bear in the middle of a busy season.”
And so he tries to convince you that there really isn’t that victory for you. That’s despair. He tries to convince you to give up hope. But his other job, especially for us who are relentlessly optimistic (I’ll put myself in that camp), especially for those people: if he can’t convince you to despair, he will distract you. In fact, there are billions of dollars assisting him in his aim. And your little glowing rectangle is full of the tools and weapons of distraction, to convince you to pay attention to this, not to that. Because if you miss the victory God gains in your life, you miss the fullness of enjoyment that he has for you. There are times when God saves your life and you don’t even know it, because you weren’t paying attention. It doesn’t stop his goodness. But man, don’t you wish you could have celebrated that victory with him, if you had been paying attention, if you had been aware?
And so slow down and mark time this Advent season. Reject despair and distraction. Don’t get caught up in the parties and the toys and the shopping and the cleaning and everything else. Remember the reason for the season. Remember, Jesus is at the heart of this. Slow down and mark time. Reject despair. Reject distraction. Embrace victory.
II. Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand 04:21
On that note, let’s turn to the prophet who preached the antidote to despair and distraction, the prophet John the Baptist, who said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It says in Matthew 3, what we read in our Gospel:
1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 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.’” Matt 3.1–3
Now, when we say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” we don’t mean it’s around the corner. It’s not like Santa Claus: you better watch out, you better not cry, he’s coming to town. It’s actually not like that, where we have to wait for him to arrive on this one night. When he says the kingdom of heaven is at hand, he means it’s right here, right at hand, within your grasp. Repent and be in the kingdom.
Jesus talks about the wide way that leads to destruction and the narrow gate (Matt 7.13–14). The narrow gate is repentance. He is the gate (John 10.9), and our repentance enters into him. That’s really what repentance is all about. It’s a Greek word, metanoia. And I could geek out on the word, but let’s just call it this: it’s a transformative turning from one thing to another. And that’s what we’re called to do every day. That’s why Paul writes later, “Be transformed in the renewing of your minds” (Rom 12.2). These were all Christians he was writing to. But they needed to continue to repent. They needed to continue to be transformed and turn to God, to Jesus. That’s the narrow gate. It’s repentance.
So when you think, “Oh man, I missed the gate. I fell down. I did the thing I wasn’t supposed to do”: no, no, no. The gate’s right there. The gate’s always right there. The kingdom of heaven is always at hand. And by the blood of Jesus you can participate in it today, right now. It’s at hand.
So the battle is for your heart, but it’s fought in your mind. Repentance is simply changing your mind. It sounds easy. It is not. There was a great quote that talked about how the minute you realize you’re wrong, you’re no longer wrong. Because as long as you believe the wrong thing, you’re wrong, but you don’t know it. You can’t know that you’re wrong; it’s a contradiction in terms. And so what repentance does is transform us by the power of the Spirit. It brings us into the light, into the truth, all of these things that Jesus gives for us. And this is only accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit. You can’t think your way into the kingdom. You can’t repent your way into the kingdom without his grace. This is perpetual: being transformed.
III. A Christmas Carol 07:37
Now I want to bring up one of our favorite stories of all time, the one that you probably have seen some version of already this season. If not, get on it: A Christmas Carol. Ebenezer is living in hell. He is living in misery. He is in a place that none of you want to be: cold and alone and completely possessed by the spirit of greed. He has no freedom. He is in chains. Like Father Powell was telling us, when Paul was in chains and he was talking to his captors, it became very clear he was actually free and they were the ones who were captives. That’s Ebenezer. He thinks he’s free, but he’s bound. Just like that first ghost that came to him, Marley. He has that chunk of chains; and in The Muppet Christmas Carol they do such a great job: he’s dragging it up the stairs. Those things are present in Ebenezer’s life.
It’s an Advent story, not just a Christmas story, because in that night he confronts the truth. He is confronted with the truth. Let’s say that, and let’s remind ourselves that Jesus is confronting you today. It’s not our will. It’s him confronting you today, saying, “Repent.” And so he is confronted, and he is told, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That’s the whole story, the whole message. I’m not going to break it all down; we know the story.
But listen to what happens when he wakes up. Nothing in his life has changed. He is in the same bed when he wakes up the next morning. Every single relationship, every single burden and chain that he had circumstantially, is still there. But everything has changed, because he’s repented in the night. And so what happens when he repents at the end of this vision and he wakes up? I’m just going to read straight out of Dickens. He says, as he’s realizing:
“Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own…”
That’s the message to us as we mark time. The time before him was his own, to make amends in.
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!” Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. “The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world!”
What happened to him? He was born again. He repented. The kingdom of heaven was at hand, and he grasped it. Nothing else had changed. He hadn’t even made it up with anybody. He hadn’t done the things he needed to do. But everything had changed. Jesus had come. He had repented. The kingdom of heaven: that’s the Advent that we’re living right now. You don’t have to wait for Christmas. The kingdom of heaven’s right here. Repent. Nothing changed, except everything in him had transformed.
This is the Christmas story. That’s why it’s repeated. You know, it’s the same thing that you see in the Grinch, when his heart grew three sizes that day. He repented, and he’s very happy before he returns the gifts. That’s the secret. We all think that the stuff has to be made right first: “First everybody has to love me again,” or “First everybody has to forgive me again.” It’s like, no, it’s right here. You can repent and enter the kingdom right now. Then there’s work to do, which is great, because you’re doing it by the power of the Holy Spirit. And they said of Scrooge that nobody knew how to celebrate Christmas like him from that day on.
This is the classic Christmas story: It’s a Wonderful Life; even Elf, the dad, that’s his whole story. This is the story. What if your life right now is already better than you think, and the only thing you need is to realize it in repentance?
IV. Would We Have Listened to Him? 12:01
Now, we’re going to continue. And my question is: would we have listened to John the Baptist? Let me give you this description, in verse 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. 5 Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, 6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Matt 3.4–6
Now, next we’re going to talk about the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were not going to repent and confess. My argument this morning is that we are more like the Pharisees and Sadducees than the people in the surrounding region.
And all I mean to say is, how many of us would listen if they said, “Hey, there’s this guy. He doesn’t cut his hair. He doesn’t cut his beard.” “Okay, I’m tracking. Fine, no big deal. Beards are in.” “He also eats bugs and honey.” “What else?” “No, that’s it. That’s all he eats.” “Okay. Where do I go?” “Oh, go down to Dana Point. They’ve got that runoff where it meets the ocean. He’s right there. He’s sitting in the dirty water, and he’s saying, ‘Come here, let me baptize you here.’” “Okay. All right. What is he wearing?” “Oh, camel’s hair. He made it himself. It’s a craft project. It covers most of him. He has a little belt, so that’s good.” “Okay.” “And he is the prophet of the Lord, like Elijah come again.” “You lost me completely. I thought we were going to go and bring rotten vegetables to throw at him.” “No, you are going to get baptized by him.”
How many of us would line up? We see people every day. Look, you know the homeless people who hold the sign: “Doom is coming. The kingdom is here.” That’s what John sounded like. That’s what he looked like. Now, I am not saying that looking like that gives you some kind of authority. My point is that it’s our job to discern the word of the Lord, whoever speaks it. And sometimes… well, let me just say this: most of the time, God uses the foolish things to confound the wise (1 Cor 1.27).
And because we’re such good church people, let’s not miss what God is doing in the earth. John wasn’t preaching from a pulpit. He wasn’t in the synagogue. He wasn’t doing the right thing. He was out in the outskirts. And the people who came were those dirty sinners, those filthy scoundrels who wouldn’t have been accepted in the synagogue. Now, I’m obviously beating a drum that you’ve heard before, but I just want to remind us to be awake and aware this Advent. Where is God speaking to you where you would never want to listen? It doesn’t even have to be a holy person in order for God to speak to you. If you pay attention, God uses every chance he gets to encourage you, to challenge you, to call you upwards and onwards, to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is right here.” That’s the call that’s going through all this.
The question isn’t whether God is speaking. It’s whether we are listening. Which is really important, because it also says, in the very next chapter, Jesus says, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt 4.4). Are you hungry? Are you spiritually and emotionally needing something this morning? God is speaking. Come to the table. Listen to the words of God.
V. Systemic Injustice and God's Response 15:33
Okay, we’re repenting. We’re being awake and aware this Advent. And what I love about Advent more than any other season is that it draws out God’s response to the wicked injustice of the world. The things that we hate, the things that burden our hearts: God has a response to those things. And so we’re going to continue here, and I’m going to use what John says, and we’ll call back to our Old Testament as well. In verse 7 it says:
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his 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. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Matt 3.7–10
And in fact, we see this in our image over here in the corner. I think we might have even covered it up with our little acoustic panel. Sorry about that. But there’s actually an axe laid to the root of the tree in the icons of the baptism.
And what is going on here? Well, he’s saying that Israel, the wickedness of Israel and the sacrificial system, is being cut up and uprooted, and it’s being given to the church, the Christians, the people who will accept it. It’s this really challenging thing. It gets worked out through the whole New Testament. I mean, imagine: “Yeah, your promised Messiah is coming, and everything you’ve been doing needs to be uprooted in order for him to take his seat as the King.” It was an unbelievably challenging thing. We listen to that and we’re like, “Okay, who cares?” In the time, that’s why the Pharisees and Sadducees hated John. He said that God has come, and the judgment of God has come, not just on the sinners who are being baptized into repentance, but on the whole religious order that had fallen into corruption. So that Jesus said, “You are empty whitewashed tombs” (Matt 23.27). And so in this we see that God is doing a new thing.
VI. He Will Kill All the Wickedness in You 17:45
And I want to call us back… I don’t know if anybody here has been reading the Daily Office this week, but there’s this book called Amos. And if you are ever feeling really romantic and you want to read something with your wife, don’t read Amos. It’s a bad idea. It’s literally chapter after chapter where he says, “And this wickedness I lay before you, and this is how I’m going to punish you for that wickedness.” And God has a vast vocabulary and amazing images, and he just lays out judgment after judgment after judgment on the corruption of the world. And we think that’s a scary God.
Here’s the story that’s not being told when you read of the judgments of God. The story is not, “I will kill all those people that you hate so that now you can enjoy paradise.” It can read that way sometimes: “God, when will you banish the wicked from the land?” He’s like, “You ready? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The story is actually that he will kill all the wickedness in you. That’s the story when he’s calling out this fire and judgment. It’s not on those people over there. It’s on our own hearts. He’s taking away everything in you that is not of him, that’s not from him. And it hurts. There’s a reason the language is so severe.
So when the axe is laid to the root of the tree, what’s the tree for us this morning? It’s whatever in your heart God is telling you to repent of. At the moment of repentance, that axe cuts through. That’s what God does in our life. He uproots those things that are not of him. He’s making us like him. It’s not about them over there.
But at the same time, the promise that we heard in Isaiah this morning is that there will come a day when all of the wickedness, not just in you but everywhere, will be uprooted and thrown into the fire. Now, what if all of you is wickedness? That’s where you go. That’s what we mean when we say hell. That’s what I meant when I said Ebenezer was walking in hell. He was just full of wickedness, and God had to uproot it all in his life. Thank God he repented. There’s another way A Christmas Carol goes, where he doubles down. You may have seen it in friends of yours, or people. There are people who choose wickedness.
And so that’s why we have this balance, where I’m saying, what’s God’s response to systemic injustice? It’s both: you need to repent, and America is going to face a consequence for legalizing abortion. It’s both of those things. That’s the prophetic word throughout all of Scripture: that nations will be judged, and your own heart is what matters. It’s both. And so there’s hope in this. There is hope in this, because Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3.17).
VII. Pull on the Cord of Hope 20:50
And so those wicked judges, those wicked rulers, will be supplanted. Period. End of story. God is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And so we serve a better kingdom, and we look to a better day. But it starts with “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is right now, right here.” That’s the tension in Advent, between the right now and the “Yes, he is coming. He is coming soon.”
Now, what do we do? Well, remember the ministry of reconciliation that we talked about a couple of weeks ago? Every Sunday we’re told, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3.16). And we are entrusted with the ministry to reconcile people to God. And so when you repent in your heart, then you help other people reconcile to God and repent. That changes the world.
And so if you’re feeling it today, and you’re thinking, “But what’s going to happen to the hostages in Gaza, or the Palestinian people, or the Israeli people?”: you repent in your own heart, and you give them to God. [He] will bring goodness. You can just trust him in that. If it’s not good yet, it’s not the end. He’s coming. He’s coming soon. So don’t be distracted by the misery of the world. Don’t be despairing when you encounter misery in the world. Pull on the cord of hope, which is Jesus. And especially, repent of your own wickedness, for the kingdom of heaven’s here.
VIII. Baptized with the Holy Spirit and Fire 22:23
And so, keeping all that in mind, what does John’s ministry lead to?
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 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.” Matt 3.11–12
That’s that judgment. And if you are a baptized Christian here today, you’ve been baptized with fire. You do have the Holy Spirit. And he is continuing with his winnowing fork and his fire to burn up the chaff in your life.
Maybe your despair is over your own inadequacy. Not God’s goodness, but your own inadequacy: “I know God will provide, but I’m just not good enough.” I’m here to tell you that it’s Jesus who lives in you, not you. It’s his righteousness that counts. Pull on the cord of hope. He is faithful, sometimes more faithful than we want him to be, to burn up the chaff of our life, that he might live his life through us.
Very much an Advent message here this morning: repent, because he’s here; but also, he’s here, so repent. It’s both. It’s like, God is in you, and so you have the ability to just fall on him. Yeah, you’re not good enough. But he is.
IX. Fire or Fire 23:54
Okay, we’re going to end with… and this is maybe an indulgence on my part, but I think it’s beautiful, and beautiful words matter. And so we’re going to end with my favorite poem, one stanza from it that talks about this process, this Advent process, and what God does in our life. And so just listen to these words, written by T. S. Eliot. He says:
The dove descending breaks the air With flame of incandescent terror Of which the tongues declare The one discharge from sin and error. The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre— To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love. Love is the unfamiliar Name Behind the hands that wove The intolerable shirt of flame Which human power cannot remove. We only live, only suspire Consumed by either fire or fire.
That’s the invitation of Advent: to let God’s fire run through you, purify you, that you might encounter him more and more every day. Amen.