The countdown is on: how many days till Christmas. There’s not much time to prepare. Days are not the only things being counted. Dollars and cents are. Christmas cost. PNC Bank released this week the 40th annual “Christmas Price Index” which measures how much would it costs to buy all of the 12 Days of Christmas at today’s prices. You know them: a partridge and a pear tree, etc. Here is a sampling. Seven swans-a-swimming: $13,125; Eight maids-a-milking: $58; Nine ladies dancing: $8,308.12. The grand total for all twelve: $52,024.
The reality of the practical costs of Christmas for most folks is $923 for gifts, food and entertainment. For decorations, the cost for a natural tree will be $80 to a $100; $85 to $1,000 for an artificial one. You’re looking at well over a grand in preparation for the celebration of Christmas—the first coming of Christ.
For the Advent—the preparation for the second coming of Christ—the costs is far simpler according to Mark 1: 1-8, this Sunday’s Scripture reading of the Second Sunday of Advent. Mark gives a short list of things to do to prepare for Christ second return, the focus of the Advent Season. Each Sunday a candle is lit to remind the church to get ready for the bigger day. Mark tells us of a crazy man called John the Baptist who has the list already for you.
First, on the list: Repentance. Second, on the list: Renewal. As the candle of love burns down the wick, time is burning toward the big day. Now is a good time to make your list, and check it twice. The big day may be closer than we think.
First on the list is to repentance—a change in your direction. Mark tells of John the Baptist who cried for repentance to prepare for the people for the first coming of Christ.
2As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "BEHOLD, I SEND MY MESSENGER AHEAD OF YOU, WHO WILL PREPARE YOUR WAY; 3THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.'"4John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. 6John was clothed with camel's hair and [wore] a leather belt around his waist, and his diet was locusts and wild honey. 7And he was preaching, and saying, "After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals. 8"I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Mark is quoting Isaiah 40:3, which looks forward to the coming of another messenger "in the desert" who will go before the people of God in a second Exodus to prepare for the revelation of God's salvation in Christ. That messenger is John. His message is repentance:
v. 4…preaching baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Baptism, from the Greek word “baptizo”, means to immerse, submerge; to make fully wet. John’s cry out to the people for baptism was a call for them immerse themselves fully in acknowledging their sins, and of their need for a Savior. Immersion in the water was a symbolic display of the need for a spiritual washing. The people were called to come to repent and confess their sins. And they came, all the people of Jerusalem because they knew they were headed in the wrong direction.
Repent means turn from evil ways and seek a straight path to God. God’s people were headed in the wrong direction in Isaiah’s day, in John the Baptist’s day, and in our day. What directions are you headed: a disregard for your brother in need, infidelity toward the people you committed to love, or trust in idols of appetite which will not bring satisfaction or salvation.
A change of direction requires a confession of sin, that you are headed in the wrong direction. David confessed he was heading in the wrong direction with his confession in 2 Samuel 12:13 of his affair with Bathsheba. He confessed to God before the Prophet Nathan:
"I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 2 Samuel 12:13
On the second Sunday of Advent, your true Love ask of you, Repentance found under the Calvary tree.
Second on the list of preparation for the second coming of Christ is renewal—a change of identity. Mark tells us that John the Baptist pointed to the expectation of a greater baptism, a spiritual baptism what would give the people a new identify when Christ comes.
8"I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. 9In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; 11and a voice came out of the heavens: "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased."
The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove identified Jesus as His Son whom He was pleased with. If we are to be pleasing to God, we must be identified with and by God’s Holy Spirit.
John was a humble man. His cloths and diet testified of his humility; his focus, not on the physical comforts of life, but of the necessity of the spiritual. He said “One” is coming who he would not even be worthy to unloose his shoes because his mission and ministry were greater. The “Coming One” was looking to same men by renewing men’s souls.
That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:3:
You must be born again, anew.
Nicodemus didn’t understand. He was thinking physically: "I am old. Surely, I cannot enter a second time in the womb. Jesus replied "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and spirit.”
You must have another birthday—a spiritual rebirth. Paul reminded Titus in 3:5 the high agenda of Jesus to give men a new birth and identity:
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit…Titus 3:5
With this spiritual baptism, not of symbolic water, but of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we get a new identity, a new body according to 1Corinthins 12:13:
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1Corinthins 12:13
Conclusion
The countdown is of how many days till Christmas. There’s not much time to prepare. Days are not the only things being counted. The Twelve Days of Christmas—a partridge and a pear tree; seven swans-a-swimming; eight maids-a-milking—may cost you an arm and a leg. When you add in a tree with all the trimmings, and gifts under that tree, you may be hit for more than a grand.
Preparation for Advent—the second coming of Christ—need only cost you two things according to John the Baptist: First on the list is to repentance—a change in your direction. Second on the list is renewal—a change to a spiritual identity. In reality the cost of the second coming has been paid. What’s required of you is to put your name on His Gift to you--Messiah.
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