God so loved the world that He prepared for His Son
Yesterday we hosted our annual live nativity here at Messiah. This was the first year that I was involved in the planning and preparations of the event. When I approached Darrell a year ago and asked if he would like me to take the lead on managing the project, after last night I understand why he hugged my neck and wept tears of joy. I thought it a bit of an overreaction at the time but having now managed the live nativity event I can tell you it was not. If anything, Darrell is to be commended that he did not check himself into a mental wellness clinic years ago.
That thing that happened yesterday, that was the result of some serious planning and preparing. There were six area coordinators who enlisted the services of teams of two to twelve people each. One of those teams collected donations for a charitable organization and a local family in need. The rest of the teams literally built a village, decorated that village, fitted costumes for the people who populated that village, and provided refreshments for guest who visited that village. Additionally, hymns were sung, music was played, and skits were performed. Finally, harvest strategies were implemented so that we can follow up with everyone who visited our live nativity and make sure they are invited to our Christmas Eve worship service. Y’all worked hard to make sure no detail was overlooked, no task was left undone, and no chore forgotten. As a result, I think our live nativity was a success. Now the only thing left to do is pray that God bless our efforts to His glory and for the good of our mission field.
It took an entire congregation of people working together to pull off the annual Messiah Johns Creek Live Nativity. I suspect those of you who were most actively involved in the planning and preparing of our live nativity are wondering if I have the phone number to that mental wellness clinic, I mentioned moments ago. The Messiah Johns Creek Live Nativity was the result of some serious planning and preparing, but it is nothing compared to the planning and preparing that God did to pull off the original event.
Today we continue our Advent sermon series, “God so Loved the World”. So far, we have been reminded that God so loved the world that He promised to send His Son and prophesied about His Son. Today, with the help of saint Luke, we are going to see that God so loved the world that He prepared for His Son.
In Luke 1:5 we read, “5 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.” Luke, in an effort to write a good and orderly account of the life and time of Jesus our Messiah begins by giving us a hook upon which we can hang our historic hat. Luke tells us the event he is referencing to happened in the time of King Herod. It is a reminder that our God is actively working in history and has been since the beginning of time. Our God spent a few thousand years making plans and preparations for the original live nativity. Entire empires were managed by Him. The Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and the Romans were used by our God to ensure that certain people were in the right places at the right times.
One of those people was a priest named Zechariah. Luke tells us both Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were. “6 upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.” When the priest was born his parents gave him the name Zechariah; a name which means “God remembers”. When his future wife was born her parents gave her the name Elizabeth; a name which means “the promise of God”. When in marriage Zechariah and Elizabeth became one flesh, their names spelled out “God remembers his promise.”
Zechariah and Elizabeth were good people, a fact that Luke highlights before telling us that, thought they were well along in years, they had no children. If a Jewish wife remained childless, this was considered a great disgrace to her and was sometimes thought to be the result of her sinfulness. However, as we are about to see, this too was one of the countless details that God included when making plans for the original live nativity. The fact that these good people had been married a long time and still did not have any children and were now thought to be incapable of having children ensured that more people would recognize the hand of God in what was about to happen next.
Luke tells us, “8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.” There were twenty-four divisions of priests. Each division served one week at a time. The task of burning incense in the temple of the Lord was assigned by lot. Casting lots was a way to determine which man the Lord wanted assigned to the task. The task of burning incense was considered such a high honor that a priest was only granted this privilege once in his lifetime and even then, not every priest was given this opportunity. The Lord planned it so that Zechariah, after all these years of waiting would receive this once in a lifetime opportunity at precisely the right moment.
When the right moment came, the Lord had Zechariah standing before the altar of incense. Zechariah is standing at the altar where atonement for sin was made. Priest had been standing before this altar for over a thousand years. For over a thousand years at this altar God had been reminding His people that a substitute for sinners was needed. It is here at this altar that the Lord arranged for a meeting between the priest Zechariah and the angel Gabriel.
So far, I trust that you have gotten a sense of the level of planning and preparation that was involved in pulling off the original live nativity. But up to this point we have largely seen how the Lord God managed the external affairs of this event. In the verses that come next, we are going to see the Lord’s planning and preparing get rather personal.
The angel Gabriel said to the priest Zechariah, “13 Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.” Gabriel explained this child would “17 go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Four hundred years before, through the prophet Malachi, the Lord God promised that he would send someone who would prepare people for the coming Messiah. Gabriel quotes the prophet Malachi to indicate that John, the son of Mr. and Mrs. “God remembers His promise”, was the one God had selected to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
You see, there was a lot of planning in preparation that preceded the original live nativity, but the most important preparations did not take place among the empires of the earth, nor did they take place in the household of a priest. The most important preparations took place… and continue to take place in the hearts of people.
The hearts of people need to be made ready. When John grew up, he demonstrated what it meant to be filled with the spirit and power of Elijah. Like a voice calling in the desert, John preached, “prepare the way for the Lord” “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Are you prepared to celebrate the original live nativity? You might say, well my decorations are all up, and my shopping is all done, my cookies are all backed, and my house is clean. Those are all important preparations that need to be made, but those are only your external affairs. My question is much more personal in nature. Are you prepared, in your heart, to celebrate the original live nativity? Are there things that you have done or left undone that you need to confess? Maybe in the stress of the season you have spoken a harsh word? Maybe with so much to be done you have neglected a loved one? Maybe in your desire to bring peace on earth and spread goodwill among men you have disrupted the peace and goodwill in your own home? A heart that holds on to sins such as these is a heart that turns away from the Lord, it is a heart that cannot truly celebrate the original live nativity. If upon honest reflection in the mirror of God’s law you discover that such a heart beats inside of you, then repent. Confess your sin, stop doing that sin, trust that the baby placed in the manger was born to pay for your sin, and pray that God would give you the strength to resist the temptation of that sin in the future. Repent and be made ready.
The hearts of people need to be prepared for the Lord. When a person turns away from sin, the first thing they see is their Savior. And I mean they truly see Him. They see Him not just as Mary’s precious baby laid in a manger and sleeping peacefully on a bed of hay while cattle are lowing. They see the physical manifestation of God’s plan of salvation. They understand because God so loved the world the central figure of the original live nativity “had to be” so says the writer of the letter to the Hebrews “made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” They understand that the baby Mary laid in the manger was put there by God to pay for the things they have done and left undone. He was put there by God to forgive the harsh words we have spoken, to forgive the neglect we have shown, and to forgive the disruption of peace and goodwill we have caused in our homes. Through the message of John, the Lord our God continues to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
The 2020 Messiah Johns Creek Live Nativity will be December 12th. That means we have 362 to plan and prepare for that event. I was hoping we could take a little time off to rest and recover, but based on what I learned this year, we are going to need a good chunk of those days to make sure our live nativity is the evangelism tool we want it to be. But before we schedule our next planning meeting, before we start making our preparations, let’s just take a moment to appreciate that the birth of Jesus, our savior is the culmination of thousands of years of planning and preparing on the part of our God who so loves the world. Amen