Dear Christian friends:

In the early years of my ministry, when I didn't yet have a car, I was riding a city bus in Spokane, Washington shortly before Christmas two women got on the bus at one of the downtown stops, loaded with full shopping bags and sat opposite from where I was sitting. After they were settled in one lady said to the other, "I don't enjoy Christmas anymore. When I was child I really looked forward to it. Christmas is for children."

During another Christmas season, in another city I was in the Post Office, standing at a table putting stamps on my Christmas cards. Suddenly a lady came up to my table, plopped here purse down on it, and began searching frantically for something. When she found it, she gave a sigh of relief, saying to me, "I thought I had lost my money. If I had lost it, there would be no Christmas for me."

I'm afraid that many of us, like these women, prepare for Christmas with emphasis only on the externals. Christmas is not just for children; the real Christmas doesn't depend on money. Jesus makes Christmas! We need to prepare our hearts, not just our homes.


From John's preaching we learn that we prepare our hearts for Jesus by confessing our sins. This is a serious matter. Many people make light of sin. The sitcom, "Soap" which was on TV several years ago made a lot of jokes about marital unfaithfulness and other flagrant sins. That is one way that people attempt to deal with sin.

Today also, we tend to do away with sin by not calling a spade a spade. We say, "He misspoke," instead of saying "he told a lie." When a government agent tells a flagrant lie to the people it is called "misinformation." In general we pretend sin is no big deal. But that isn't the impression we get from John the Baptizer.

John's preaching and appearance impress upon us that sin is a serious matter with dire consequences. John preached in an austere place, the wilderness; he was dressed in an austere manner, with a camel's hair coat and a leather belt. He ate austere food, locusts and wild honey. John deliberately rejected material things. He wanted to impress upon the people that he was deadly serious about what he preached, that he was sent by God with a life and death message.

Consequently, he baptized only those who confessed their sins, among whom were notorious sinners, such as the tax collectors and prostitutes. He did not baptize some of the respectable people, such as the Scribes and Pharisees, for they contended with him and refused to confess their sins, having deceitful, arrogant hearts.

John, "the voice in the wilderness," cried out to the people: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (verse 3) Sin has made the way into our heart crooked and difficult, made us dishonest, deceiving ourselves and others. To confess one's sins requires honesty and self-disclosure that can be disturbing and threatening. So, we really don't want to confess our sins.

Often we do not pray. Why? We say that we are too busy or that we don't know how to pray. That's our excuse, but really we are ashamed to go into the presence of God and level with him. By not praying we are avoiding God, trying to hide from him just as Adam and Eve did in the Garden when they committed the very first sin. If we are gung ho about prayer and worship, it's probably because we skip the confession, like the Pharisee in the temple.

Yet honest confession is a freeing experience. We no longer have to live a lie, hiding our sin, feeling guilty and depressed, worrying about being found out, that God will get us.

King David experienced this freeing nature of confession. After he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed in battle to cover up, he did not confess his sin for one whole year, until God took pity on him and sent the prophet Nathan to straighten him out. David writes of this experience in Psalm 32: "Happy is the man whose sins are forgiven, whose transgressions are pardoned. Happy is the man whom the Lord does not accuse of wrong, who is free of all deceit. When I did not confess my sins, I was worn out from crying all day long, day and night you punished me, Lord, my strength was completely drained, as moisture is dried up by the summer heat. Then I confessed my sins to you: I did not conceal my wrong doings I decided to confess them to you and you forgave all my transgressions."

By honestly confessing our sins to God, which He alone can help us do, the crooked paths to our heart are made straight. The hills of pride are leveled down and the valleys of despair are lifted up, and there is a highway for Jesus into our heart.

We prepare for Jesus to come into our hearts by confessing our sins. We also do this by accepting His forgiveness. Forgiveness was the chief purpose of John's preaching. In our text we read: "And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River." (verses 4-5)

John was not just a fire and brimstone preacher, but primarily one who pointed to the forgiveness of sins in the Christ. When Jesus, Himself, came to the Jordan a bit later, John said of Him, "Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29)

Forgiveness of sins is brought to us today, also through means, the means of grace. Baptism is probably the first means of grace that we use also. Our baptism, the one that our Lord commanded us to use, is very similar to John's. He used water; we use water. His baptism washed away sins, even as does ours. His baptism gave faith and new birth, just as ours does today.

While we are baptized only once, we should not forget it, but remember it each day and its significance. In baptism we have been united with Jesus in his death and in his resurrection. His death is now our death; his resurrection is now our resurrection. By faith in Jesus, I, with him, have suffered the curse of the law. By faith in Jesus, I, with him have fulfilled all the righteous demands of the law. By faith in Jesus, I, with him arise from the death of sin to a new and holy life. This St. Paul clearly shows in Roman 6.

We should use this means of grace, Holy Baptism every day as our teacher, Martin Luther, admonishes us in his Small Catechism, saying, "Baptism signifies that the old Adam in us should by daily confession and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts: and again a new man daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and true holiness. (Fourthly of Baptism)

The other means of grace are the Gospel Word and the Sacrament of the Altar. All three give the same blessings: forgiveness of sins, new life and salvation from all evil. We need to faithfully use these means of grace, these ways for Jesus to come into our hearts. As we have seen, Jesus comes into our hearts by confession of sins, by accepting his forgiveness and thirdly by relying on his might.

Jesus is the great, mighty One, of God. John acknowledges this in our text, saying, "After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. (verse 7) By his incarnation, by his holy life on earth, by his innocent suffering and death on the cross, by his glorious resurrection and his triumphant ascension into heaven Jesus has shown himself to be the great, mighty One of God. If he could and would do all that for us, is there anything else that he could not and would not do for us?

There is nothing that he could not and would not do for us. He is worthy of our full and complete trust in all the trials and adversities and duties of life. He is also, therefore worthy of our loving service, our continual worship and praise and our undying allegiance.

And we can give him this because he sanctifies us with the Holy Spirit. John says, "I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." (verse 8)

The Holy Spirit, through the means of grace, fills us with power, not only to confess our sins and to accept forgiveness of them, but also to do what pleases Jesus and honors our dear Father in heaven.

One of these pleasing works is the good work of calling unbelievers to repentance by helping to proclaim the Gospel here at Redeemer and in the city of Perris. There are, no doubt, thousands in this city who have not experienced the relief of honest confession, who have not been empowered to accept the forgiveness of sins, who know not the peace and the power of our mighty Lord. The Advent Christmas season is an ideal season to witness and proclaim, to let our unchurched friends and neighbors know the true joy of Christmas.

Another God pleasing work which we need to do is to confess our faults one to another here in our church family, and :forgive one another, even as we have been forgiven. Some of our brothers and sisters have been hurt and offended by thoughtless words and unkind acts. We need to take care of this family problem before Christmas, so that our hearts are truly prepared for our Lord's joyful coming, whether at Christmas or at the end of time.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray,
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today."
Amen.
(A Nativity Prayer, author Phillips Brooks)