Title: Repent and Wait
Contents
Luke 3:1-6
repent and wait
Advent begins today through Christmas Eve. Advent is called ‘advent’ in English, which means ‘coming down’ and ‘The Advent.’ means the first coming of Jesus, and ‘The Second Advent.’ means the second coming of Jesus. As such, Advent is a feast that symbolizes the first and second coming of Christ, A.D. It has been preserved since the 4th century. This Advent is celebrated on four Sundays over four weeks, and has four meanings. The first is the feast to announce that the Son of God took on flesh and came to this earth. The second is the period of preparing and waiting for Christmas, just as the ancient Israelites waited and hoped for the coming of the Messiah. Third, it is a period of humbly examining oneself with repentance and submission to receive the Lord and preparing a place for the Lord in our hearts. Finally, it is a period of preparation while waiting for the Lord to come again. In other words, just as John the Baptist became a guide for Christ, it means that the saints must also be prepared and prepared as guides for the Lord who will come again.
As such, Advent is a season of waiting. So, during the four weeks of this Advent, I am going to preach on the subject of waiting. Today, we will be preaching under the titles of ‘Repent and Wait,’ next Sunday, ‘Rise and Wait’, on the third Sunday of Advent ‘Sing and wait’, and on the fourth Sunday ‘Wait for the news’.
Waiting It's a thrill. Among our songs, there is a song called ‘Is the Lord Coming’. “Forget-me-not-forget-me-not-dreaming riverside, is the moonlight-long road coming, the wind blowing in the reed forest, is it a song of your footsteps, the sound of flowing water? Come, lilies dreaming of the field I, the moonlight is my love coming?” If you waited for the person you love so desperately, would you mistake the sound of a reed for your footsteps and the sound of flowing water for your song? ? Being able to wait for someone and something like this is a happy thing. Just having something to look forward to makes me happy. No, just because you deserve to wait is a happy and beautiful thing. That's right. A person with patience is the happiest person in the world. In his poem ‘Cross’, the national poet Yun Dong-ju described Jesus on the cross as ‘a man who was suffering but a happy man. A person who lives while waiting for the promised future is a happy person no matter what hardships they face.
Waiting is happiness. So Noah endured the ridicule of the people and built the ark for 120 years. Abraham waited 25 years waiting for God's promise. Jacob spent seven years counting as a few days to get only one woman, Rachel, whom he loved. Joseph waited 14 years for his dream to come true, enduring all kinds of conspiracy and suffering. David was anointed king and was driven away for seven years, waiting for that day to come. After receiving the promise to meet the Messiah, Anna did not leave the temple for 84 years and waited for the day to see the Messiah. All the great characters of the Bible were people of waiting.
But more than anyone else, the price of waiting is Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame.” What does “for the joy that is set before him” mean? It refers to the salvation that Jesus will accomplish by coming to this earth in a human body. The joy of Jesus is that you and I are saved. Jesus was stripped naked for the joy of completing this salvation. He suffered all sorts of shame, shame, and humiliation. He was beaten with a scourge of flesh. He was spit on, and his beard was pulled out. He wore a crown of thorns and was nailed to his hands and feet. He endured that terrible pain to save us. It is not easy to endure suffering and wait. That's why many people fail to cross the threshold of success. However, Jesus suffered on the cross to save you and me and waited for the completion of salvation. Jesus is the price of waiting.
We can meet another person of waiting in the text that God has given us today. He is John the Baptist.
1. John the Baptist is a man of waiting.
Read verses 1-2 of the text together. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturae and Tragonith, and Lysanias of Abilene. And while Annas and Caiaphas were tetrarch and high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.” Amen.
Tiberyo was the former emperor and adoptive father Augusto, who was born in A.D. Upon his death on August 19, 14, he succeeded him as emperor. Thus, “the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius” is A.D. It will be around 28 years. Pontius Pilate A.D. From 26 to 36, he served as the 5th governor of Judea. Herod's father, Herod the Great, was born in B.C. After four years of death, he was appointed tetrarch of Galilee and Berea. Philip was also the son of Herod the Great and ruled over Idumea and Tragonith in northwestern Palestine. Annas was the high priest, but was dismissed by the Roman emperor, and after several high priests, Annas' nephew and son-in-law Caiaphas became A.D. From 18 to 36 he served as high priest. Although Annas was dismissed by the Romans, his influence was so strong that Caiaphas was the official priest, but the actual influence was exercised by the retired Annas.
The reason Luke, the author of Luke's Gospel, lists the political and religious leaders of the time in the text is because the invisible battles arising from the power struggles of those leaders reflect the conditions of the times. Israel, a Roman colony 2,000 years ago, was in an indescribably dark and gloomy reality. It was very unsettling both politically and socially. The morals and ethics of King Herod were so low that he took his sister-in-law, the wife of his brother Philip, to be his wife. There were frequent robberies everywhere, and all kinds of immoral acts were rampant. Religiously, only the ritual remained, and the kernel disappeared.
Those times were really chaotic and dark. However, the Israelites did not lose hope while living in such a time. The hope of the people of Israel is the long-awaited idea of the Messiah, which has been persistently passed down for 2,000 years. Even if they lose their country, are ruled, wander from one country to another, and go through all kinds of hardships wherever they are, what the people of Israel will protect and cherish until the end, that is the long-awaited thought of the Messiah. The long-awaited longing for the kingdom that the Messiah will come and fulfill, this long-awaited idea of the Messiah, has not been diluted or changed no matter how many years pass and no matter how many difficulties come. The nation of Israel was strong because of this long-awaited idea of the Messiah, and because of this long-awaited idea of the Messiah, they overcame many adversities and were able to survive because of this long-awaited idea of the Messiah.
However, for about 400 years after the prophet Malachi, the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah and gave hope and courage to the people of Israel ceased. And then a prophet who announced that the Messiah would come again appeared, and he is John the Baptist who appears in today's text. So, when John the Baptist appeared and preached the gospel in the wilderness, the Israelites gathered in the wilderness to hear the prophet's cry as if they had met rain in a drought. John the Baptist said, “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight his way!” he exclaimed. Let's read verses 4-6 of the text. “As it is written in the book of Isaiah the prophet, there was a voice crying in the wilderness, saying, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the way for his coming; every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hillside will be made low, and the crooked will be straightened, and the rough way made smooth. All flesh will see the salvation of God.” Amen.
These words were exclaimed by the prophet Isaiah, and just as the person who will prepare the way for the king goes ahead and prepares the way for the king before the king arrives, so before the Messiah comes, someone who will prepare the way for the Messiah will appear and prepare the way for the Messiah. is to do In the old days, when the road was not as well maintained as it is today, it was paved every time the king went out of the palace. Where there was no road, a road was made for the king's procession. Crooked roads were corrected, and dirty roads were cleaned. And after the king came, the road was called the royal road. A large number of people were mobilized to pave the road and build a bridge for only one king.
In 'Noryangju Gyodo Seopdo', which depicts the procession of the king crossing the Bishop of Noryangjin to Seoul on the last day of the 'Round Haengbanchado of King Jeongjo', the bridge was completed in 11 days by mobilizing 48 boats over a 600m river. The procession of kings crossing over is majestic. A bridge was built over the river for only one person, the king. In the picture, 1779 people and 779 horses are depicted on the king's procession, so countless people must have been mobilized to help the king's procession. Daechwita was played when the king came, and instruments such as nabal, nagak, yonggo, bellows, gong, and taepyeongso were mobilized. This ancient procession of kings was majestic and majestic. In the neighborhood where I lived as a child, civil servants came out one day and they were cleaning the streets of the neighborhood, sweeping them, giving away broken houses for free, and painting the messy walls. And a few days later, the president came to our town.
The “way of the Lord” in today's text refers to this royal road, which means the way that the Lord, the Messiah, will come. In other words, the cry of John the Baptist, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the way of his coming” is “Prepare the way for the Messiah.” And take the king along the way.”
Just as the Israelites waited for the Messiah 2,000 years ago, believers living today must wait for the Messiah who will come again. If you do not wait for the Lord of the Second Coming, you cannot be called a Christian.
2. We must repent and wait.
There are two types of waiting. One is passive waiting and the other is active waiting. Passive waiting is vague waiting. Waiting is waiting with meaning and meaning in itself. However, active waiting is waiting for the target to be prepared and waiting. Oriental thinking is passive waiting. Tired of waiting, it becomes a stone and a flower. So, most of the legends about waiting within us end up with the legend of becoming a mangbu-seok. Oriental thinking is introverted. heading inside. Although China has a large land and a long history, it is still not free from backwardness. Do you know why it didn't develop? This is because, since ancient times, if you only had money, you spent it all on building a castle. Take turns to build castles and raise walls. I keep blocking it. And living in it. So can it be developed? See the Great Wall. See China's proud Forbidden City. Wasn't it closed all over the place?
However, Western thinking is extrinsic. facing out. Look at America. They pave the way wherever they go. Before building a house, the roads are cleared first, and the railroads are laid out first. So, didn't you connect the vast land, which takes six hours by plane to cross east and west, like a spider's web with railroads and highways? A few years ago, my family and a friend's family rented a van to plan a cross-continental trip to the continental United States, but canceled it because it was impossible to cross in ten days. Since that great country is connected like a spider's web with highways and railroads, there is development and it is strong. Korea also built highways in the past and called it the ‘industrial aorta’.
If you really wait, you should pave the way, not just sit and wait. You have to make a good way. You need to straighten the curved road to make a straight one. When I came to Chuncheon by bus 30 years ago, I don't know why the roads are so winding. Now bridge the winding road and dig a hole