Glenn Adsett was a minister in China in the 1930s and 1940s. For preaching about Jesus, he and his family, his wife and two kids, were arrested and placed under house arrest. In the late 1940s, they were going to be allowed to leave, but they were told that they could only take 200 pounds of possessions with them. The family talked, even argued, for a quite a while about which toys, typewriters, decorations, clothes and whatever-else to take with them. Finally, they worked it all out and packed exactly 200 pounds together. Some members of the Chinese army came for them and asked if they were ready. “Yes, we are,” they replied. “Did you weigh everything?” “Yes, we did,” they said, and handed over the items for the soldiers to check. Just like they thought, the bag weighed in at 200 pounds on the nose. When the soldiers saw this, one of them said to the family, “Did you not weigh the kids? I thought you would have taken them.”
It’s easy to overlook some things. We all do – at different times and in different ways. But it’s a shame when what we overlook are the most important things. I don’t blame you if you happen to overlook the guy we’re talking about today every year as we prepare for Christmas. I have never seen him on a Christmas card. I haven’t seen his face, or even his name, on Christmas tree ornaments. Nobody plays him in the Christmas pageants. He’s never included in the front-yard manger scene displays, and you won’t even find him on the clearance racks of holiday items after Christmas has gone away.
You can have Christmas without him. Most of the world does. You can exchange gifts and decorate the trees and go to the parties and even go to church more than a few times. But you can’t celebrate Christmas without him – not the way God wants you to and not for the reasons your heart really needsyou to.
According to the American Psychological Association, 8 out of 10 people expect to be stressed during the holiday season. Do you know why? Of course you do. You have to get the perfect family picture by the Christmas tree. You have to find the perfect, not-too-expensive gifts for your friends and family. You have to host a great party on New Year’s Eve. You have to create lots of togetherness and holiday cheer while doing your best to avoid the family feuds, temper tantrums and overeating that have come to be pretty inevitable. You have to work hard to avoid the things that have made past Christmases painful. You have to find a way to not think about the fact that you’re lonely or single. Add to all those holiday preparations your regular life, regular chores, and regular expenses, all the while trying to recapture the magic of earlier Christmases, restore broken relationships and give your life an honest New Year’s Eve evaluation without having to talk about your shortcomings – and you end up with the most wonderful time of the year – for 2 out of 10 people.
8 out of 10 people expect to be stressed during the holiday season, which means that 8 out of 10 people expect to experience nothing close to the peace the angels were singing about to the shepherds on the first Christmas evening. And that’s not because God’s peace isn’t available anymore or because God doesn’t know how to work in a 21st Century world. 8 out of 10 people expect to have a peace-less, stress-filled Christmas because they overlook the message of John the Baptist. And, if your first reaction to that is, “Whatever,” then you’ve just proven my point. He’s easy to overlook.
Have you ever seen John the Baptist on a Christmas card? Maybe they couldn’t get a picture because he was always hiding out in the wilderness. That’s where he lived, in a place with no distractions, where there’s no glitter to distract your eyes; no large presents to obscure your vision. In the wilderness, there are no reindeers allowed and no ‘door buster’ sales that demand your attention. There’s nothing but you, the Baptist, and his message of repentance.
If you rush into the metropolis of Christmas madness without first making a stop in the wilderness; then peace - true life-calming, fear-erasing, confidence-creating peace - is one Christmas gift you will never find. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you will overlook one of the most important things you can do for your life.
(1) In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar – when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene – (2) during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. (3) He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (4) As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. (5) Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, and rough ways smooth. (6) And all mankind will see God’s salvation.’”
The word “repent” literally means to change your mind, which means John’s message was pretty straight-forward: If you come to him to be baptized, if you say your preparing to celebrate the birth of a Savior, then you have to admit that you need saving; that there are things in your life that need changing, which isn’t a new message. In Leviticus 5, God said, “If anyone is guilty, he must confess in what [specific] way he has sinned.” which means that confession isn’t just a nice thing to do for 20 seconds on a Sunday morning when the church puts a confession on a piece of paper right in front of you. A detailed confession is a prerequisite for being forgiven. You won’t be forgiven until you own up to what parts of your life need changing.
In Psalm 32,King David said, “I confessed … and [then] you forgave.” The book of Romans says, “If you confess … you will be saved.” “Confess your sins … so that you may be healed,” it says in the book of James. I John promises that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us;” which means that, if we don’t … he won’t.
Do you know what effluvia are? Effluvia are the toxic fumes given off by something that’s decaying. The ancient Romans, in their ongoing attempts to make life and death as miserable as possible for the people they caught, had a pretty disgusting torture technique involving effluvia. They would take the prisoner and tie them face-to-face with a dead, decaying body and watch as the effluvia became so wretched and so powerful that it slowly poisoned and killed the living person.
Repentance means looking at the sins in your past the way that prisoner looked at the dead body that was tied to him – with absolute disgust; wanting to run as far away from your sin as you possibly can and being determined to never, never see it again. It means believing that when God says, “The soul that is tied to any sin is a soul that will never be happy with him,” he means it. He’s serious. And it’s not just regretting the deeds of death you’ve tied yourself to in the past; but also, before committing any action or making any decision, it’s looking into your future and asking yourself what you will regret.
One of the reasons Tiger Woods is apologizing for his “sins” and “transgressions” is because he didn’t ask himself what he will regret once the truth all comes out (like it always does). Asking yourself what you do regret won’t help you the next time Satan assaults you with temptation. In the heat of the moment, you will always find someone to ok your sin, some emotion to make you feel good about what you’re doing. The women in bed with him and the sinful lust inside him both said, “We like what you’re doing. We want you to keep going.” If he would have based his actions on the question, “Will God like it?” of “Will my wife, Elin?” he would have done something different.
Do you know who Bernie Madoff is? A couple months ago he was convicted of the largest investment fraud in Wall Street history. Over the course of many years, he stole billions of dollars from his clients. After he was caught, after the truth came out, he said in an interview with the authorities, “I wish you had caught me eight years ago.” In other words, “I wish I would have asked myself what I will regret if I go down this road.”
The reason we so often don’t either admit what we have done or think about what consequences our actions will bring on us and those around us is because we are no different than our first Father Adam. When God asked him in the Garden of Eden very simply, “What is it you have done,” when God gave him a chance to repent of this world’s first sin, Adam didn’t confess. He tried to hide his self-created mess. And he told God why. He said, “I hid because I was afraid.”
Think of all the different ways we try to hide our fears. Some are afraid of having another argument with their spouse, so they hide that fear by refusing to talk to them. Some are afraid to be told their wrong, afraid that others will hear that they’re wrong; so they never raise their hand to offer an opinion to answer a question. Somework themselves to the bone, laboring all hours of the day, sleeping very little at nightbecause they’re afraid to hear someone say, “That’s not good enough” or “Someone else could do that better.” Some people hide their fears by telling jokes or being silly; others by being arrogant, boasting or creating tears manipulatively. Some have a drink before going out with friends because they’re afraid they won’t have confidence. Others immerse themselves in helping their children so they won’t have time to think about what they’ve done.
We dig deep valleys people will have to labor through before they’ll get anywhere close to knowing us. We build mountains and hills so high that everybody trying to figure us out will give up before they get anywhere close to the summit. We lay down long, winding roads and crooked paths so that nobody will ever find what’s really inside us. We make the path to who we are bumpy, not smooth, so that we can control what people see when they look at us; all of which boils down to the same fear Adam had in the Garden of Eden - the fear of unacceptability. If I tell the truth, if I confess who I really am, God won’t love me.
You know it. Adam knew that God commanded him to stay away from this tree, and he didn’t. Maybe you’ve been greedy when he’s already given you so much. You’vehad children, multiple children, outside of marriage. He commands you never to worry, yet you get so depressed. He tells you never to be afraid, but you are, so much. You bury yourself in work so that you don’t have to see your family. You’ve lied to your boss, your parents, your friends, your spouse and your children because we all know we have many things that are worth hiding.
And so we create these valleys of lying, mountains and hills for hiding, crooked roads of pretense and rough roads of avoidance as if we can hide from the God who already successfully walked through the valley of the shadow of death; who already scaled a skull-shaped mountain with a cross on top of it; who already walked a crooked road he despised to drink a cup that literally made God sweat blood and cry; who already tread his way through a very rough road ofnails, whips, thorns and pain to prove that there ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, aint’s no river wide enough to keep him from getting to you; from walking a road straight to your soul and saying, “I know exactly who you are. You are one whose robe has been washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb; whose name I will never blot out from the Book of Life, whose name I will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.” The most painful preparation for Christmas isn’t your confession. It was the Son of God becoming a fragile human; it was him taking the first step toward his crucifixion to keep a promise that there is no valley, mountain, hill, crooked or rough road, no regret, no past, no sin, no thing that will keep him from loving and forgiving you.
Our sins don’t separate us from God. Our impenitence does; our failure to simply tell the truth. In Psalm 32, it wasn’t David’s sin that ate away at his soul. It was his silence. “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.” John the Baptist doesn’t tell you to repent to burden you or embarrass you. Repentance is the only thing that truly frees you. King David said, “I confessed … and then you forgave.” The book of Romans says, “If you confess … you will be saved.” “Confess your sins … so that you may be healed,” it says in the book of James. I John promises that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us.” No matter how the rest of this month goes for us, having peace with God is the only gift that guarantees a great Christmas.