Good Morning.
Before I get into the meditation for today, I would like to share a story with you that I recently read. As far as I know, it’s a true story about a man who had just bought a brand new Jaguar. It goes like this:
A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door!
He slammed on the brakes and spun the Jag back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. He jumped out of the car, grabbed some kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!!" Building up a head of steam he went on. "That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?!!"
"Please, mister, please. I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do!" pleaded the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..."
Tears were streaming down the boy’s face and dripping down his chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and God bless you," the grateful child said to him. The man then watched the little boy push his brother down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long walk back to his Jaguar... a long, slow walk. He never did repair the side door. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention.
God whispers in your soul and speaks to your heart. Sometimes when you don't have time to listen, He has to throw "a brick" at you. It's your choice: Listen to the whisper--or wait for the brick. …………….
I don’t know about you, but given what has happened to me in the past, that story really hit home.
I kept hearing the whisper during my young adult years, I paid only a little mind to it, never listened, and kept on heading in the direction I was. Eventually, as I got older, I heard the whisper a little more, attended church regularly, but never really listened to it. It wasn’t until I got hit with the brick, when my business crashed and I got into trouble with the law, that I finally listened.
What about you? Where are you now? Whisper or Brick?
Our meditation text for today has a lot to do with those questions. In it a man named John – Some of you may know him as John the Baptist – had been wandering in the desert most of his young adult life. During his wandering he ate bugs, locusts, and honey for nourishment. He wore a robe of sackcloth – a kind of burlap – for his regular clothing which may have provided some coolness during the day, was hard to clean, and camel fur which kept him warm during the evening. Temperatures in the desert soar above 100 degrees during the day, and swing to below freezing at night.
John most likely was a sight to behold. His hair was probably very long and ratty, he probably was very dirty and didn’t smell too well. He probably didn’t fulfill anyone’s idea of what a prophet should look like.
But God had a mission for him. I suppose one could speculate that during John’s time in the desert, God was conditioning him to fulfill His – being God’s – purpose in life.
What caused John to wander in the desert? To the extent of my knowledge I don’t know. We could speculate that perhaps he was out there to hide from someone or something. Perhaps he had gotten into trouble, and his existence in the desert was the result of being hit with a brick. We don’t know for sure. There is no reference to what his reason for being in the desert was, except that he was being molded by God to fulfill this prophecy of Isaiah:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 xEvery valley shall be filled,
yand every mountain and hill shall be made low,
zand the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
aand all flesh shall see bthe salvation of God.
This prophecy is the prophecy concerning Elijah, the prophet who was to come before Jesus Christ, to proclaim a message of Repentance and Hope in the coming Savior.
What is Hope? What is Repentance?
Let’s start with repentance. In our meditation text for today Luke 3:3 says:
And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming sa baptism of repentance tfor the forgiveness of sins.
John, God’s messenger, speaks here of a “baptism of repentance” for the “forgiveness of sins” Throughout the new testament there are two types of baptism indicated in the original Greek language. There are “baptizo” and “baptizmai” which are similar in indicating a washing with water. And there is “baptizma” which means to suffer greatly.
The baptism in our text refers to the latter meaning to suffer greatly.
Repentance here in the original Greek is “metonia” which means a change of mind as a result of regret or remorse. And, the word “repentance” here is intended to describe the word “baptism”.
So in essence the definition of the baptism of repentance means a change of mind due to the suffering one has endured that will influence his or her action if presented with the situation again.
This does not mean it is a mere sorrow for a moral lapse and sin against God, or guilt alone, but it is an annoyance at the consequences of an act or course of acts and chagrin of not having known or done what was right.
Another way of putting it is when you do something wrong and your reaction is “Why did I do that? Man that was stupid. I should have listened or I should have known better. I’d better not do that again. Boy I feel bad about that, please forgive me.” That is the repentance that John is talking about here. It isn’t just feeling bad about something and continuing to do it. It is much more complex. Just like our Jaguar owner’s reaction when he found out why his car got hit by a brick, this is God’s desired result of us being hit with a brick. He wants us to pay attention to him and what he has to say.
Some of you may say “well yeah, I’ve done that, I’ve repented, but I keep on doing it.” What about that?
Well, men / ladies there is hope. Hope comes in the form of Forgiveness.
John proclaimed a baptism of repentance that we just learned about. He also said this repentance was for the forgiveness of sins.
When we sin and are made aware of it through any means from a whisper to a brick, what does God tell us to do? Repent. For what reason? To receive forgiveness. To whom do we repent? To God and to those we’ve sinned against, if possible. How many times do we do this? Every time. There’s no limit.
Matthew 18:21 tells us of a disciple of Jesus’ named Peter who asked him a question about forgiveness.
“Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often ywill my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? zAs many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
Jesus here is not saying that seventy times seven equals 490 so you are forgiven up to 490 sins so make good use of them. No. What he is telling Peter, with his symbolic use of multiples of 7, is forgiveness is eternal, it never runs out for the repentant sinner. You keep repenting, he keeps forgiving.
It is also important to remember this forgiveness is complete. There are no conditions. If you repent of your sin to God, he tells us he will wipe the slate clean. Not because we have done something ourselves to earn that forgiveness, but because of what Jesus Christ did for us through his death and resurrection.
The condition of repeating sins over and over is definitely not unique. We all do it. It is because of our sinful nature. We are sinful from birth. Sin entered our lives thousands of years ago when Adam and Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit. Our sinful nature is here to stay, but God demands that we live a perfect and holy life. How can we do that if we are by our own very nature sinful?
The writer of most of the Gospel books of the Bible, the apostle Paul, wrote in the Book of Romans about this very same problem. He writes in Romans Chapter 7 verses 7 and beyond. “What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.” The law being referred to here is Biblical, Civil, and Moral law. And the law shows us our sin. Paul continues, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin…… I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want…..but I do the very thing I hate.” Paul is speaking of all sin and every sin here. He continues, “I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” He then follows with, “when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.” And finishes with “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” In essence, Paul is telling us here there is nothing we can do about our sinful condition. We are slaves to it. There is only one way out and God tells us. He says in 2 Corinthians 2:19:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
His grace was manifested when Jesus died on the Cross for you and me.
Repetition of or addiction to a sin is a ploy Satan uses to wear you down. He wants to wear you down to a point where you quit repenting. He uses the temptation, and the empty promise of feeling good through addictions and repeat sins against you…. to separate you from the love of God, and the salvation His Son Jesus Christ earned for you through his innocent death on the cross.
He knows that if you quit repenting, you will drift away from the blessing of eternal life that God has given to you freely as a gift of his grace, through faith in his Son Jesus Christ. And then he has you.
You may say, “but I’m sick of this sin over and over again….” God can relate and he has made a promise to all of us he says in 1 Corinthians 10:13:
No temptation (or sin) has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out, that you may be able to endure it.
What is this way out? God puts (Himself through his Word,) people, places, and/ or things in our midst to help us through these trials and in some cases hit us with a brick. God uses people like me, Rick, Bonnie, Ministers of the Word, and different authorities to help. He uses places like jails, hospitals, rehab centers, and safe houses to help. He uses things like 12 step programs, bible studies, mentoring programs, and yes, “bricks” to help.
God wants you to keep repenting. We want to stop sinning over and over again because of what God has done for us by his Grace. We want to do everything we can to stop sinning because of His love for us.
The message John the Baptist brought to the people along the Jordan River and to us was, in part, a message of repentance. We learned that repentance is a change of mind and that once we repent and ask God to forgive us, forgiveness is given freely and without condition. We learned that when we repent of sins over and over again, God forgives over and over again. Repentance and forgiveness then, are a result of and work together with our belief in Jesus as our Savior and what he has done for us.
John’s message was also one of hope. Hope in a Savior that was about to come and begin his ministry, who later in Luke chapter 3 verse 16 John described as
“he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
This hope, …..a true hope…..was brought to us through a virgin birth over 2000 years ago.
Jesus is the Savoir promised to us in the beginning by God the Father. The Son of God, born of a virgin in a stable in Bethlehem. An infant who would grow and live a perfect life in our place to freely give himself as a pure and holy sacrifice and take upon himself the punishment that we deserve and through his blood, suffering, and death, win for us eternal life with him in heaven. We do not deserve it nor are we entitled to it, but we have been given it as a gift by the grace of God and His love for us as He sees us through His pure and holy Son. What more do we need?
God loves us and wants us with him, in heaven, for eternity. This has been given to us freely. All he asks is for us to believe.
Amen
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