Back to the 12 Voices of Christmas Homepage >>

Click HERE to Listen

Are you ready?

Well, get ready. Prepare the way! The Lord's day is at hand. When He comes, He will thresh the wheat. He will separate the grain from the chaff. The grain He will gather to Himself, but the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.

What? What do you mean, negative preaching? I think that's very positive. Positively, prepare yourself. Positively, the Lord is coming. Positively, you'd better be ready. Positively, He will not abide iniquity. What's negative about that?

What? Not very Christmasy? I'm sorry. I don't even remember the first Christmas. I was only three months old at the time. My parents told me about it, though. In fact, my father was the first to have news of it. He was Zacharias, a priest in the division of Abijah. The angel Gabriel met him at the altar of incense in the temple and told him that I would be born as the Messiah's forerunner.

My father used to teach me from the Prophet Malachi. "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord, and he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse."

"That is you, John," he would say. "God has given you the ministry of Elijah to prepare the way of the Messiah." I think he hoped I would follow him in the priesthood. Ha! As if I could be a priest! Those compromised, corrupted nest of snakes! The ax is laid to the root, and every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire! They call themselves priests? Not my father, of course. He was a good man. And there were others like him. But the temple is no place for an Elijah.

Elijah had it right. Ahab, the king of Israel, heir to the promises of God, he erected altars to Baal, a temple to Baal, and he went up to worship. He put a nation to sleep, but Elijah woke them up. He stood against the king. "As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."

And he went to the wilderness beyond the Jordan and he ate whatever the ravens brought him. So I wear these rough clothes. I eat wilderness food. Those who wear silk and linen are found in the temple and in king's palaces, but when the wrong king is in the palace it is time to announce judgment and then head for the wilderness. That is Elijah's way. It is the Lord's day and judgment will begin with the household of God. So prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God, for He comes to judge the earth and with righteousness to judge the world and the peoples with His truth!

Jesus was a cousin. Before my parents died, they told me about Mary and Joseph and their son--her visit while my mother Elisabeth was still pregnant with me. I knew Jesus was God's Messiah. But we didn't meet. After my parents died, I was taken by a friend of my father, another priest. I stayed long enough to learn the scrolls, but I was not born to be a priest for the temple. I would find my own way.

I always wondered when it would happen--when Messiah would be revealed and bring forgiveness, establish righteousness. I waited. I was 20. Then 25. Then 30. When I couldn't wait any longer, I started preaching in the wilderness along the Jordan.

I became the Baptizer. I had seen people baptized before, up in the communes. Seeing that only made me think that here was a sign, not just for a few but for all the people. Not just for one class, some elite ceremonial rite, but for everyone who would turn from their sins and declare they were ready to receive the promised King of God. Here was a mark God would put on the people of His promise who would be His. I baptized because I didn't want to be some curiosity, a freak preacher that people could hear and then forget and not be different. Not agree with God and offer themselves to Him.

So I baptized with my preaching, that people would have to do something to take their stand, to show that they were committed. "Come, and get wet!"

They were ready to hear. Great crowds came. God was calling them out. Many men came to me and I taught them. I taught them to pray. I taught them to preach. I taught them to baptize.

Some of my disciples were from other countries, come to Jerusalem for just the season. When they went back they took the message with them. "Repent, for God's kingdom is very close! God's King will soon appear! You must be ready!"

All the time, I knew He would come. I watched the crowd. I expected Him. And He came. I baptized Him. I saw the sign of God's Spirit upon Him. Some of my disciples left me to follow Him. I knew the day had come at last. I grew bolder and more urgent in my preaching.

Herod arrested me for some of that urgent preaching. I sit in his prison. He thinks I'm funny. He has no idea what it's all about, but I amuse him. How is it on the outside? The kingdom has not come yet, has it? Was I wrong? Could I have been mistaken? Why is a man like Herod still on the throne? Why is the priesthood not cleansed? Why do people still live as if God were not the righteous Judge?

What am I saying? The King has come to His people. There still is time for men to seize the kingdom, to press their way in before the end. Now is the hour of salvation. Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts! Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

I am the voice of preparation. Not for a baby on a quiet starry night. Christmas is too big for that. So get ready. Not for a cute little baby, but for a King coming to reclaim His kingdom who will wait no longer for the rebellious to turn back. The Lord's day is coming, a great and terrible and day, wonderful and marvelous. Prepare the way!