C, Second Sunday of Advent - Malachi 3:1-4 "My Messenger"

The text on TikTok, and the notice printed in the local paper read, “Jesus Christ appearing this Sunday morning at such and such a place and at such and such a time.” 

Would you be surprised God might use such a message to announce the coming of his Son to a spot near you?  The advertisement is nothing grand; its text does not stand out from other texts.  What if God chose to send a messenger or a message in this way, how might you react on hearing or reading of his coming?

For the purpose of this exercise let’s say the message is not false, but entirely true and Jesus Christ is coming to a venue near you.  The words of the ad are the preparation for his coming and the way he comes is to your church this Sunday. 

Excited? Scared? Perplexed? Thrilled? Perhaps you’re just a bit apprehensive that he’s coming, “Why’s he coming to my church?” you ask yourself.  “Where’s he comin’ from and how’s he gettin’ here anyway?” Rightly you’d be sceptical!

Malachi receives an oracle from the Lord.  He is a prophet, and this oracle is a word from God; a word of burden on Malachi’s heart if he doesn’t pass it onto the people.  It’s a word or an utterance which has overcome his heart and mind.  Put there by God himself to glorify God and raise the attention of those called to hear it.  This word was given to lift up, stir up, sit up, shake up, shape up!  But also, to ease, to exalt, to forgive, heal and help.

Malachi spoke in a time after some of the exiles returned to rebuild the temple in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra.  However, the messianic age did not occur with the reconstruction of the temple.  What they built was a building which stood in the shadows of the former temple of King Solomon’s day.

This temple lacked the physical appearance of the former temple, and also noted was a spiritual vacancy.  It seemed God no longer spoke as he had in previous times prior to their exile into the custody of the Babylonians. The Israelites and Jews looked back to the days when God spoke through the Judges, the priests like Samuel and Nathan, the prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.  God had spoken, and no one listen, and now God had stopped speaking.

Malachi was the last prophet to speak some 430 years before Christ was born.  He was the last to speak on God’s behalf against the perversions of popular practice. He was a lone voice echoing from the silence of God before God went completely silent for some 400 years. 

Malachi’s name literally means “my messenger”, he was a messenger, and we hear him herald the coming of two messengers, the last prophet, and then a great messenger, who himself would be the message.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.  But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.  He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.  Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. (Malachi 3:1–4 ESV)

Malachi’s message is harsh and sharp.  They have not been treating the Lord as their God; their righteousness was not acceptable as righteousness before the Lord.  They were not following God in the way he had willed them; in righteousness “to” the Lord.  Their worship of the Lord was a show which God was going to test as a blacksmith would refine metals, and as a fuller would cleanse and whiten fibre for fabric.

To be clear what the washing agent was for a fuller in their day, was human urine.  Not the fresh stuff, but that which was left to sit for a while, so the ammonia content was stronger and better for cleaning and bleaching the fabric. 

So, the show was going to be refined by fire and stood on like fibre worked in ankle deep urine.  But this is only a picture of who is to come.  To whom is the refiner’s and the fuller’s image referring?

The one to come came some 400 years after the fact.  John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the refiner, the fuller.

…during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.  And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 3:2–3 ESV)

But whom was he preparing and of whom did he proclaim?  He was calling the Jews and the Israelites to repentance for their sins against the Lord.  A preparation for the cleansing which was to come! This was preparation to make the people ready for the refiner, for the fuller.

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16 ESV)

So, Malachi left his fellow Jews with a picture of one coming to wash in the widdle of one’s own waste fluid and made pure with fire to remove the impurities.

And this one is the One and Only Son of God, Jesus Christ.  He has come once, and he is coming again.  Yet he has already put the refinement and washing process into place.  And he is coming again to finish what he has started.  He is coming to gather the gold and the fabric gleaming in God’s glory.

Now depending on how one might look at this we might see the ammonia of urine and the fire of refinement as something to be feared, as hurtful, and void of love!  We lose trust in God because of the trials and tribulations into which we’re subjected and suffer. 

When one falls into this temptation, they are like those who love wearing dross rather than silver or gold, who seek to swim in the proverbial piddle and poop that comes our way in this life rather than those who wear the white garments to come out of God’s cleansing and testing process.

On the other hand, Christ encourages his children, those who trust him, those who look forward in faith, to endure and persevere under the refiners and fullers of this life as a holy preparation for that which is to come.  An eternity of silver and gold, wearing robes of righteousness as white and as bright as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! 

For we are told… when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. (Titus 3:4–8 ESV)

Therefore, the refiner’s fire and the fuller’s soap, no matter how crude they may seem are only agents of cleansing and hope to focus you on Jesus Christ.  After all, Jesus has been submerged into the fuller’s fluid and fired with the refiner’s fires in the place of those who trust in him.

The message may not be printed in the paper, or read as a text on TikTok, that Jesus is coming to such and such a place at such and such at time.  But it is written on paper, in the Word of God.  He has been coming and has come amongst us when we gather in the Triune name, and in his Word to hear this teaching and promise of salvation and refinement.  Therefore, those who take their garments soiled in sin can make them as white as snow by washing them in the blood of Jesus.

You see Jesus has been baptised by the Holy Spirit into his ministry of the cross and with the fires of hell itself on Good Friday, so that the trials and temptations in your life might test us so we trust all the more the putrid and pungent plight of Christ being washed and refined for you, cleansing all of you this Sunday and every time the Holy Spirit calls and gathers us into Jesus’ presence. 

Jesus is the messenger!  He is the message!  I pray he is yours too. Amen.

C, Advent 2 - Luke 1:76-80 "Salvation Through Forgiveness"

Luke 1:76–80 (ESV) And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,  because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

There was silence in the land of Judah for four hundred years.  God was absent since the days of the prophets when Malachi was called to petition problematic priestly practices. Now Zechariah stood in the temple at Jerusalem to fulfil his priestly duties.

The glory days of Israel and its kings were long past.  The Jews, a fragmented dispersed people, after the rule of Alexander the Great and his Greco-Macedonian government,  now were being ruled by Rome and their appointment of Herod as the subordinate King of Judah.  To the displeasure of the Jews, Herod was not a Jew but an Edomite.

Zechariah came about his turn of duty in the temple through being chosen by lot.  Zechariah would have been honoured to have been chosen to perform this task.  His life would have been a quiet existence and this service at the temple would have been a high point even though events at the temple would have been far less grand than during the time of David and Solomon. Little did Zechariah know things were about to change.

And change things did!  Four hundred years of silence from God and then an angelic messenger speaks to him while he is in service to God.  Now having heard the message, Zechariah is struck with silence as a result of not believing he and his barren wife, Elizabeth, were to have a son and name him John. 

The angel says of John, “He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God,  and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:16–17 ESV)

Four hundred years beforehand, Malachi had proclaimed similar. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” (Malachi 4:5–6a ESV)

The silence of God for four hundred years is broken.  Now Zechariah endures nine months of silence, knowing God was to announce the Christ through his son which his wife, Elizabeth, was carrying. 

After John’s birth and at the time of his circumcision, full of the Holy Spirit, Zechariah’s lips are loosed, the silence is broken.  Zechariah praises God for John and what John was born to do. To be the messenger of God preparing the people for the way of the Lord.

Here again, Malachi had announced this, some four hundred years beforehand, saying, “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:1 ESV)

Even during Jesus’ journey to the cross, he points to what Malachi had prophesied about the witness of John the Baptist. Jesus says, “What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet.  This is he of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.’  I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:26–28 ESV)

But before Jesus’ ministry began, John had also been silenced.  He grew and became strong in the Holy Spirit, but he was consigned to a place in the wilderness until it was time to fulfil God’s mission to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins… to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:77& 79 ESV)

So, in God’s time, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ” (Luke 3: 2b–6 ESV)

When Zechariah’s lips were loosed, he reveals how John was going to prepare people for Jesus. This is by a knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.  Sin was put on the agenda.  John was proclaiming and giving a baptism of repentance to all who heard his call. John the Baptist was showing people that they were in darkness and needed a light.

We too are being prepared for Jesus’ coming!  Advent is a time of light in the darkness.  John the Baptist was called to be a messenger of light in the darkness, today as we travel through Advent towards the celebration of Jesus’ birth at Christmas, we too are called to see the shining light in the midst of our darkness.

However, what most of us seek for a saviour is not Jesus.  There are so many other things in the world that promise empowerment, luciferous light, and love.  It seems since we have seen the salvation of God, we struggle to stay in the light, and hinder hearing the Holy Spirit reveal Jesus through his word to us increasing faith.

We live in a dark world.   But we are further deceived when we relegate the darkness as something we are without, as if we are not contributors to the darkness.  We live in a dark world because of the darkness within!  Within each of us burns the light of human desire that seeks to make us shine as lights of the world. 

We all do well to determine what kind of light we are seeking to shine.  Are we reflecting and shining knowledge of salvation?  Or are we shining a knowledge of our good and evil? 

This light of good and evil is a little light of Lucifer.  It is a deception leading one away from the light of God. Many are finding themselves and many more will find themselves in complete darkness and all alone. This light of Lucifer is a temporary temptation to follow a light that’s transitory then terminates. This light does not give us the gift of the knowledge of salvation.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.  If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:5–10 ESV)

It’s time for us as the church of God to allow the light to shine on sin. It’s time to practice the truth!  Just as people came to John the Baptist confessing their sin, and received a baptism of repentance, we too are called to return in repentance to our baptism into Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Know and believe you have the light of Christ within you, willing you to confess your sin, so you receive the forgiveness of sin.  The Holy Spirit is shining the light of Jesus in the darkness within you, so you can stand before God without the consequences of sin. We have had our darkness demolished and it continues to be destroyed with the love and light of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, when we seek relief from long-felt grief turn us to the light of Jesus. When temptations come alluring, send your Holy Spirit to make us patient and enduring; guide our feet into the way of peace show us that bright shore where we weep no more. Amen.

C, Advent 2 – Malachi 3:1-4 “My Messenger”

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The notice in the local paper read, "Jesus Christ appearing this Sunday morning at such and such a place and at such and such a time."

Would you be surprised God might use such a message to announce the coming of his Son to a spot near you? The advertisement is nothing grand; its text does not stand out from the other ads in the classifieds. What if God chose to send a messenger or a message in this way, how might you react on hearing or reading of his coming?

For the purpose of this exercise let's say the message is not false, but entirely true and Jesus Christ is coming to a venue near you. The words of the ad are the preparation for his coming and the way he comes is to your church this Sunday.

Excited? Scared? Perplexed? Thrilled? Perhaps you're just a bit apprehensive that he's coming, "Why's he coming to my church?" you ask yourself. "Where's he comin' from and how's he gettin' here anyway?"

Malachi receives an oracle from the Lord. He is a prophet and this oracle is a word from God; a word of burden on Malachi's heart if he doesn't pass it onto the people. It's a word or an utterance which has overcome his heart and mind. Put there by God himself to glorify God and raise the attention of those called to hear it. This word was given to lift up, stir up, sit up, shape up but also to ease, to exalt, to forgive, and help.

Malachi spoke in a time after some of the exiles returned to rebuild the temple in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra. However, the messianic age did not occur with the reconstruction of the temple. What they built was a building which stood in the shadows of the former temple of King David's and King Solomon's time.

This temple lacked the physical appearance of the former temple, and also noted was a spiritual vacancy. It seemed God no longer spoke as he had in previous times prior to their exile into the custody of the Babylonians. The Israelite's looked back to the days when God spoke through the Judges, the Priests like Samuel and Nathan, the prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. God had spoken, and no one listen, and now God had stopped speaking.

Malachi was the last prophet to speak some 430 years before Christ was born. He was the last to speak on God's behalf against the perversions of popular practice. He was a lone voice echoing from the silence of God before God went completely silent for some 400 years.

Malachi's name literally means "my messenger", he was a messenger and we hear him herald the coming of two messengers, the last prophet, and then a great messenger, who himself would be the message.

"Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years. (Malachi 3:1–4 ESV)

Malachi's message is harsh and sharp. They have not been treating the Lord as their God; their righteousness was not acceptable as righteousness before the Lord. They were not following God in the way he had willed them; in righteousness "to" the Lord. Their worship of the Lord was a show which God was going to test as a blacksmith would refine metals, and as a fuller would cleanse and whiten fibre for fabric.

To be clear what the washing agent was for a fuller in their day, was human urine. Not the fresh stuff, but that which was left to sit for a while so the ammonia content was stronger and better for cleaning and bleaching the fabric.

So the show was going to be refined by fire, and stood on like fibre worked in ankle deep urine. But this is only a picture of who is to come. To whom is the refiner's and the fuller's image referring?

The one to come came some 400 years after the fact. John the Baptist came to prepare the way of the refiner, the fuller.

…during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 3:2–3 ESV)

But whom was he preparing and of whom did he proclaim? He was calling the Jews and the Israelites to repentance for their sins against the Lord. A preparation for the cleansing which was to come! This was preparation to make the people ready for the refiner, for the fuller.

John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16 ESV)

So Malachi left his fellow Jews with a picture of one coming to wash in the widdle of one's own waste fluid and made pure with fire to remove the impurities.

And this one is the One and Only Son of God, Jesus Christ. He has come once and he is coming again. Yet he has already put the refinement and washing process into place. And he is coming again to finish what he has started. He is coming to gather the gold and the fabric gleaming in God's glory.

Now depending on how one might look at this we might see the ammonia of urine and the fire of refinement as something to be feared. We might regret the trials and tribulations into which we're subjected and in which we suffer. But if we fall into this temptation we are like those who love wearing dross rather than silver or gold; who seek to swim in the proverbial piddle and poop that comes our way in this life rather than those who wear the white garments to come out of the process.

On the other hand, Christ encourages his children, those who trust him, those who look forward in faith, enduring and persevering under the refiners and fullers of this life as a preparation of that which is to come. An eternity of silver and gold, wearing robes of righteousness as white and as bright as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

For we are told… when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. (Titus 3:4–8 ESV)

Therefore the refiner's fire and the fuller's soap, no matter how crude they may seem are only agents of cleansing and hope for those focused on Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus has been submerged into the fuller's fluid and fired with the refiner's fires in the place of all those who trust in him.

The message may not be written in the paper, that Jesus is coming to such and such a place at such and such at time. But it is written on paper, in the Word of God. He has been coming and has come amongst us when we gather in the Triune name, and in his word to hear this teaching and promise of salvation and refinement. Therefore, those who take their garments soiled in sin can make them as white as snow by washing them in the blood of Jesus.

You see Jesus has been baptised by the Holy Spirit into his ministry of the cross and with fires of hell itself on Good Friday, so that the trials and temptations in your life might test us so we trust all the more the putrid and pungent plight of Christ being washed and refined for you, cleansing you this Sunday and every time the Holy Spirit calls and gathers us into Jesus' presence.

Jesus is my messenger and he is the message, I pray he is yours too. Amen.

C, Advent 3 - Luke 3:9-10, 16-18 "Chop-Chop"

The radio announcer says, "It's a quarter to eight!" Then the familiar sound of the ABC radio news opener fills the air — and all hell breaks loose. Lunch boxes, homework, jumpers, school bags, toothpaste, teeth brushed, hair combed, laces done, and out the door. Because the bus – she's a comin'!

It was amazing how the news opener would turn us towards what needed to be done, so we could get on our bikes and ride the half mile to the front gate where we met the school bus each morning.

You'd have thought we'd have learnt our lesson from the countless times before when our procrastination and playing caused us to be late — time and time again. But no! Being late for the bus was a regular occurrence, just as regular as the ABC news at a quarter to eight.

If we were out the door at a quarter to eight, just as the music from the opener rang out, it would be a leisurely ride on our bikes to the front gate where the bus would arrive at five to eight. But any later the ride turned into a panicked dash at the last minute.

Only now am I beginning to learn of my mother's dilemma — and my wife, her mother's dilemma — as we go through the same struggles to get our children out the door on time for school. But in all of this I remember mum's regular word of encouragement so we would not be late. Chop-chop! Chop-chop! These words burnt themselves into my brain just as has the ABC radio news opener. "Chop-chop boys, you'll be late for the bus, if you don't get a wriggle on."

John the Baptist came calling chop-chop! But it was not the school bus to which he was calling Israel's attention. He was calling Israel to turn and be prepared for the coming of Christ.

In his proclamation, John the Baptist appealed to the crowd, "The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." "What should we do then?" the crowd asked. John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. (Luke 3:9-10,16-18)

Chop-chop the axe is just about to swing! Repent and return, be the trees that bear good fruit, the axeman is coming to chop down the trees that don't bear the fruits of righteousness.

John's message was long in coming. He was the last of God's prophets but only after four hundred years of silence. Last week we heard from Malachi who said, "But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap." (Malachi 3:2)

And now John came proclaiming that Christ would come to "baptise with the Holy Spirit and fire". The launderer is coming to wash with the Spirit; the refiner stands ready to refine with fire!

John heralded that a new era was just about to begin; the axe was just about to fall on Israel like it had never before.

John reflects every proclamation of the prophets before him. These former prophets all called Israel to repent and return to God, and now John too cries out on behalf of God. But in his warning for Israel to chop-chop, the axe was ready at the root of the tree, as we hear God call through the former prophet Isaiah…

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people… (Is 11:1-5, 10-11a)

And so with us, the call to "chop-chop" is one we all need to hear. The new era is ongoing the axe is at the root of our hearts ready to chop out all unworthiness before God. God calls you to chop-chop.

In this new era the axe falls! The first to get the chop was John who came calling us to chop-chop. John suffered the consequences of his undiscriminating preaching by literally getting the chop from Herod; losing his head in calling Herod to repentance for marrying his brother's wife.

Then Jesus' ministry of baptism and fire swung into full swing. He swung the axe like it had never been swung before. Jesus put the Law in front of Israel calling people to turn from their sin to God. He revealed the failings of the teachers of the Law; demonstrating that they themselves didn't keep the Law as God desired. He showed the piety of the Pharisees to be a sham, in that their piety didn't lead to God's glorification but their own.

The people heard, chop-chop! Just like we kids heard before the coming of the school bus. Chop-chop! Just like Isaiah, John the Baptist, and all the other prophets had called the fathers of Israel to chop-chop. Now the music began to play, just like the quarter to eight news, as the Son of God came to chop-chop, chop into the heart of humanity's sin.

Jesus came with the Law, like no other. Not only did he enforce the Law, he extended it to the holiest extent. Hatred is now murder! Looking in lust is now adultery! There are now no loop holes in the Law. Chop-chop the axe is swinging!

The axe is swinging on us too! Christ brings to us this holiest of Law. He calls you to repentance! He comes bringing judgement on you, and me! He comes as the Launderer and the Refiner. He comes with a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.

John the Baptist brought this "chop-chop" message to the people, the same message which comes to you today. Like the crowd, the tax collectors, and the soldiers who asked John, "What should we do then?" we are also called to ask, "What should we do?"

What should you do? Christ has come and Christ will come again. Chop-chop, Jesus is coming!

The axe has fallen, on you and me! But unlike John and many of the other prophet of the Law beforehand who fell under the axe. Unlike many of the Israelites who fell under the axe of God's Law. The axe of the Axeman, the soap of the Launderer, and the fire of the Refiner came down on Jesus Christ in a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.

Never before had the axe of God's Law come down as hard as it did in Jesus birth, life, and death. The axe fell hard on Israel, and it falls hard on us, and Christ wore its full force on the cross. Chop-chop, God's One and Only Son got the chop, for Israel, for humanity, for you, and for me.

We are in the new era of Salvation now! The message of the prophets still stands but now their message stands together with the Apostles' as they point to he who took the chop for us being baptised into death and bearing the fires of wrath on the cross for us.

For us today who live between Christ's first and second coming the call is for us to chop-chop, and be ready for Christ to come again. And we ask, "What should we do?"

And the prophets, the Apostles, and Christ himself call us to chop-chop — to believe in the Word of God! Believe that Christ's baptism into death is binding your baptism into his life, that Jesus' fire of judgement and death at Calvary should have been your deadly eternal fire into death, and Jesus' resurrection is your hope of resurrection to eternal life with him.

The axe has swung! Chop-chop! You have been grafted onto the stump of Jesse! Now let Christ bear good fruit in you! Let the greatest fruit you bear be the fruit of faith that you are now in Christ unto eternity. Why? Because Jesus, he's a comin!

And so with joy, praise and thanksgiving we hear from Isaiah in chapter 12, "In that day you will say: 'I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.' With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." (Isaiah 12:1-3)

And finally from Philippians 4, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Amen. (Philippians 4:4-7)

C, Advent 2 - Luke 3:1-6 Malachi 3:1-4 "Known Unto God"

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Lieutenant Tim Logan and Sergeant James Wheeler were buried with full military honours at a cemetery outside Port Moresby on Tuesday December the first, this last week. Some sixty odd years after WW2 they were finally identified and laid to rest. In the midst of ferocious battle these men paid the ultimate price but no one knew what that price was for all those years until their remains were identified.

However, there were another two bodies buried. Unlike Wheeler and Logan, these other two individuals could not be identified and so their bodies shared a coffin and tombstone with the inscription, "Known unto God". No one will ever know who they were or what they did to pay the price which has rendered them unknown to the annals of history. Only God knows who they were or what they did.

Interestingly, in this situation, humanity has acknowledged God's existence as human knowledge rendered itself flawed. In an age when God is denied, or treated as flaccid, these unidentified men, dead and buried, testify to the all-powerful, all-knowing, and omnipresent God of heaven and earth.

These men lying in the unidentified grave, "Know unto God", now lie in silence testifying not to what they have done, but rather that God is and what he can do. Who would ever have known these "Known unto God" individuals would bear an inscription making God known unto us!

Similarly there was another chap that bore witness to God. He was nothing special to look at, and was calling people to prepare themselves with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. His name was John the Baptist, and he came from the desert into Judea making God known unto the people.

Isaiah spoke of John's preparation of the people, saying, "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all flesh will see God's salvation.' " (Luke 3:4-6, Isaiah 40:3-5)

Yet there have been many fleshy bodies that have endured crooked and rough roads making us ask, "Did they see God's salvation?" We might think of these four chaps killed in battle with only two of them recognised years after the conflict.

Even John the Baptist died in the most horrible way after being the herald for the coming of Christ. John lost his head, at the word of Herod, who sought to save face amongst his guests. Did John see God's salvation?

Many expect to be delivered out of trouble in this life, but in reality the trouble from which we seek to be delivered are only surface troubles which cover a much more serious trouble grounded in our being. Left untreated this greater trouble will never leave us. Not even unto eternity.

We might ask, "Did these diggers see God's salvation, or did John see God's salvation?" But for these men fallen in battle, their salvation is only known to themselves and God. Also John the Baptist's salvation is ultimately in the hands of God.

Yet with John the Baptist we hear his testimony to Christ in God's word. And John willingly baptised Jesus in the Jordan, baptising Jesus into a death that would ensure his salvation and the salvation of all those who believe that their baptism places them in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

So salvation is there to be seen for all those who believe in Christ by trusting they are sinners and by trusting Christ has power over sin through his death and resurrection.

Today we do not have John the Baptist preparing the way for us. Instead we have the Holy Spirit heralding Christ through his Word. The Holy Spirit opens our hearts to his Word, so we see Christ Jesus has come to us and is our salvation. We see Christ has come to us in baptism, he continues to come to be our Immanuel, the one true God with us, who lives in you and me. And because we have he who gives salvation living in us and breathing his Spirited Word in us, we also know God will come again to give us the fruit of our faith and hope – an eternity of peace in loving fellowship face to face with God forever.

But as we're made known to God, we can expect all sorts of trials to test us. And as we wait for Christ's return we might ask as Malachi asks, "But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap." (Malachi 3:2)

We can expect to be refined and washed time and time again in this life. When this happens do not lose hope. God disciplines those he loves. He may or may not save you from the temporary trials here on earth, but he will walk with you through these trials in order to save you from the eternal trial from which Satan and all his evil entourage are already condemned.

Salvation is ours! You are known unto God! God has been made known unto you! Trust in Christ who has come and will come again! God shows mercy to you through Christ, he remembers you because of Jesus, and he rescues you through his Son's death and resurrection.

Why, because the Son of God was "Known unto God the Father", known to bear your sin on the cross, even though he was known to be without sin. He bore the ultimate refiner's fire and we have been washed with the launderer's soap, the Word of God, in the waters of baptism.

God has enabled you to serve him without fear, for in God's sight you have been made holy and righteous in baptism unto eternity. You are known unto God, and are now free to bear Christ so God might be made known to others as you daily serve him all the days of your life.

But how do we do this? We serve God not so much by worrying what we should do; rather we serve him best by living in the hope of our salvation. And this is simply to live each day believing we are a part of his new reality. Our being is now being lead by Jesus towards a reality of peace and harmony with God, by the power of the Holy Spirit in God's Word.

So live looking towards the source of your salvation, Jesus Christ, and others around you will soon want to see what you see. As you live "Known unto God", God will be made known unto others, for Jesus' sake, Amen.