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December 3 - Luke 1:1-17 - "Preparing the Way"

MPC 5^th June 2017.

Phil Campbell

My sympathy to you today if you've grown up with what's widely known as middle child syndrome.

Number 2 in a batch of 3.

I mean, you had your moment of glory. For a year or two or three maybe when as the youngest you were the focus of attention for a while.

But then the baby came. And you were relegated.

You were never the one who got to do things first. You got the hand me down clothes. And your position as baby; was usurped. By an impostor.

Some people. Never recover. From middle child syndrome. Never the focus of the family.

There are other ways it happens as well. I mean, maybe you're a twin. I know lots of twins. But how bad is it if you're the younger twin?Even if it's just by 30 minutes. Somehow cast in the junior partner role. For the rest of your life. Just because of the random queuing order in the birth canal. You're doomed to be second. In every way.

Okay. Maybe I'm overstating it. If you're a twin you can tell me later. But after the question are you identical, it seems it's what everyone wants to know. Which one of you is older? In the bad old days it actually affected the inheritance. Who'd get the farm. Who'd get the title. Who'd get to be lord of the manor.

But look, there are other ways of being overshadowed as well.

Maybe you're the one whose best friend is always smarter. Whose best friend is always better looking. Whose best friend is more sporty.

Maybe you've spend your life being the one who wasn't noticed. The last pick for the team. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Always the best man. Never the groom.

If that's you, I want to say, "Welcome to the world of John the Baptist."

The un-noticed, uncelebrated sidekick; who in a sense is nothing more than the warm up guy for Jesus. The guy who features in the opening pages of every gospel account. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And yet nobody celebrates.

John. Is the other kid. Of Christmas. The un-noticed one. Famous only as a fore-runner. Of the one he runs before.

John the Baptist.

Did you notice in Luke's gospel, it's odd. Chapter 1. Just when you expect the story of Joseph and Mary and the birth of Jesus. There's another birth story. And another couple. Who maybe aren't so familiar. Because we so easily overlook them.

Luke 1 verse 5 to 7.

In the time of Herod King of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless, because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.

And the story unfolds. An angel. Verse 14. An announcement about a birth. Verse 13 and 14. Look at the words. So full of promise...

Do not be afraid Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice... because of his birth.

Now again, this is great news. And yet in verse 26, in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy... there's another angel announcement. To another surprised couple. About another birth.

That's going to leave poor John forever overshadowed.

Over the next couple of weeks, we're going to see why.

Starting with today... a look at the Old Testament background. That set the expectations. For the events of the first Christmas. Getting ready. For the one who's going to get us ready for Jesus.

This morning we're going to touch down briefly in the key Old Testament passage that sets the scene. For John. Who'll set the scene. For Jesus.

Words of the prophet. Isaiah Chapter 40. Speaking at a time when the nation of Israel is in exile.

When the city of Jerusalem has been left behind smashed. And the people dragged half way across the Babylonian empire to Baghdad the banks of the Euphrates River. At a time when the Babylonian Empire covered Syria and the top half of Saudia Arabia; Southern Turkey. Swallowing up little Israel was just an afterthought.

In other words, all the same places were in the headlines back then. As are now.

Israel. Was crushed. But here's the thing. Isaiah says to them, better days are coming. Isaiah says, after Israel's long years of servitude. There's going to be a new start. That after long years under God's hand of punishment. There's going to be a new hope. Not just a homecoming. Not just the wall rebuilding you can read about in Nehemiah. But something much better. In the days up ahead. Sins forgiven. hearts changed.

Take a look at his words. Isaiah chapter 40. From verse 1.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Now do you notice as Isaiah looks into the future, as he looks beyond the time of Israel's suffering; as he looks to a day when there's going to be comfort. He said the first thing that happens, there's going to be a voice. In the wilderness.

There's going to be the voice of one calling out - get things ready. Start the road-works. Flatten the mountains and make a highway. Not literally with the shovels and the road crews, though they actually do that when the Queen comes. But in the heart sense. In the personal sense. In the hearts of every person in the nation. Humbly examining their inner lives.

A voice. In the wilderness. Saying get ready. Setting the scene. Making sure everything's set up just right. For what's about to come next.

I've met a guy with a job like that.

His name is Scott Anderson. Back in 2011 I was helping organise John Piper's visit to Brisbane. If you haven't heard of him, John Piper is a big time American preacher.

And in the couple of days leading up to the event, Scott Anderson flew in. To make sure everything was ready. Scott Anderson's job was to check out the venue. To make sure the size was right. To check out the hotel. To make sure the room was right. To check out the program. To make sure the timing was right.

And look, the night before the big event, Lou and I took Scott Anderson out to dinner. Scott was a nice guy. And we all treated him as if he was important.

But then Piper arrives. In person. And Scott Anderson steps back into the shadows. Almost invisible.

His job. Was done. And he knew as well as anyone, it wasn't about him. It was about the one who was coming.

That's the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way.

The warm-up guy.

Now to be honest, I actually felt a little bit sorry for Scott. It seemed just a little bit unfair. I mean, to be honest by the end of it I thought John Piper might have been just a little bit over rated.

Lest you're feeling that way about the fore-runner we're looking at in Isaiah 40 though, I want you to catch a better glimpse of the one he'll be announcing. Because it's important when we come back to the gospel accounts and meet John the Baptist.

If you've got a bible open at Isaiah 40 and you're new to this stuff, or if you look at the words again on the screen, I want to remind you of a little rule of English bible translations... that you might not have heard before or you might have forgotten. And that is, when you see in our English translations the word Lord... in small capital letters. It's translating the original Hebrew word YAHWEH. Which as we saw in our series on Exodus earlier in the year; is the personal name of God. The maker of the cosmos. The God who spoke to Moses from the bush. The redeemer of Israel.

So if you look at the screen again, notice what it's saying. About the coming one; who's being announced.

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level , the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people shall see it together For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Now did you get that?

The one who's coming is God himself. YAHWEH God of Israel.

The one who's going to come, the one the voice will be announcing, the one who's going to bring an end to Israel's hard times, the one who's going to bring resolution to Israel's exile, the one who's going to put everything right... the one who's going to forgive sins and change hearts... is astonishingly, somehow going to be God himself. Stepping into history.

The one who the fore-runner is going to announce... is going to be the Lord God in person.

The theological word for it is incarnation. That the God who is outside time and space and beyond our dimensionality; is going to step into it. The God who is spirit. And yet somehow is more than material not less than it. Is going to somehow limit himself. And become part of his own creation.

For the sake of his people. He's going to become one with them.

And this voice in the wilderness... is going to be saying get ready. I mean, why wouldn't you want to be ready for something like that.

Just as a side point, I don't know if you've often had Jehovah's Witnesses at your door. If you talk to them, they'll tell you stuff like the New Testament never mentions Christian doctrines like the Trinity. Like God became flesh in the person of Jesus. The incarnation. That the Bible never actually says that or spells it out in black and white.

And then they go on to argue with all the places where the Bible does actually spell that out in black and white and they say, well, our own translation is much better.

I beg to differ. But I also want to point out that sometimes it's not just what's there in the clear verses like John 1 verse 1 that's making the point. But it's what's there in between the lines as well.

Like what would it mean if a passage like Isaiah 40 was quoted; where there's the voice calling in the wilderness; and then comes the one Isaiah says was coming. Who is it again?

Let's touch down quickly in Mark's gospel. And see how it plays out. Mark 1. From verse 1.

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way"-"a voice of one calling in the wilderness,
'prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.'"
And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Now see, it's making an astonishing claim already, isn't it? Or at least it is when you keep reading. This Lord John's preparing the way for; it's Jesus of Nazareth. But if you know the Isaiah quote already, it's loaded with expectation.

And no wonder Mark tells us the whole Judean country side was crawling with people who'd come out to hear him preaching. And then hand over the stage to Jesus.

Who because he is actually God himself incarnated in human flesh... means John's more than happy... to play second fiddle.

More than happy to step back into the shadows. More than happy to be just that other kid in the Christmas story. Just that other preacher. Preparing the way.

Friends, as we launch this Christmas season, we're going to be take a fresh look at John the Baptist each week over these next few Sundays. But that's only because John's going to help us get a sense of the magnitude of what's happening. In the coming of God incarnate.

John's one job. Was to say get ready. Make a straight path for him. Let Jesus be the one who reshapes and redirects your life. Who reshapes and redirects your priorities. Who defines for you what's right and what's wrong and what's important and what's trivial. What to strive for and what to let go.

In a study of just over a thousand sixteen year olds in the UK, a team of researchers found that the only life ambition for more than half of them ... was to be a celebrity. Not talented. Not develop a skill or a profession. just be famous.

The author Orville Brim has written a book called Look at Me... The Fame Motive From Childhood to Death. And he looks at the way social media, and TV shows like The X Factor, they're all feeding on that same desire. To be somebody. To be noticed.

The bad news, he says, he's calculated there are only about 30,000 celebrities at any one time. While there are he estimates for America four million people whose goal is to be famous. Leaving 3 million nine hundred and seventy thousand of them... feeling constantly disappointed. At not being noticed. At not making it.

He says, "The fundamental truth about the fame motive is that it's never satisfied and people have to live with it all their lives. However hard they try to become famous, they'll fail to get what they're after.

And when reality sets in, he says, when you finally realise you're not going to make it; you start protecting yourself from a feeling of failure. He calls them 'cognitive strategies' - you blame someone else for your failure. You find new people to compare yourself with who are even less successful. You devalue other people who succeed.

What a sad way... to live your life. Maybe that's you. Either still burning with ambition to rise to the top. Or realising you can't and won't. So there's a bitterness. A disappointment. Always putting other people down? Always comparing? Desperately. In all kinds of ways. Wanting to be first. Resenting that you're not.

See, John's more than happy to put himself second to Jesus; because he knows exactly who he's dealing with. This is the long promised visit of God himself. In human flesh. Why wouldn't you put yourself second? And when you've done that, all kinds of other things follow. That get life back into balance.