I) When I lived in Ottawa, KS there was a salvage yard especially for trucks -- big trucks, mid-size trucks, cabs of all sizes and trailers, too -- the truck salvage yard had it all. In reality it looked like a cemetery for old, broken down trucks. This salvage yard spanned a half mile location along the interstate -- making an eye sore in a lot of people’s minds. People even tried to get the county commission to make the salvage yard to put up some kind of fence to block the view of the "junky" trucks. The owner of the truck salvage yard claimed his inventory of old broken down trucks was valuable merchandise.
One person once said that it would be great if the trucks in his salvage yard could somehow be transformed and changed into new trucks. The person went on to say that it would be great if all the junky trucks could somehow be skimmed away and miraculously replaced by new, shiny trucks. Rather than the eye sore that people saw as they drove by the salvage yard they would instead see something beautiful -- or at least something more appealing than salvage and junk.
II) A long, long time ago there was a country evangelist who set up his tent and preached right there by the riverside. That way the evangelist was able to baptize the converts right there on the spot. This country evangelist would tell those who gathered under his tent that they needed a life change ... He told them that they needed to turn their hearts and lives back toward God. That’s what it means to repent.
This country evangelist got the town stirred up and excited about God again. Men and women were coming from all corners of the town to hear the evangelist preach and be baptized by the evangelist in the river.
One day ... a group of religious hypocrites came down to the tent to hear him ... to see what the stir was about. That’s when the country evangelist looked in their eyes and gave them a stern warning ...
"If you really want to change your life ... then start living a life that points other people to God. Don’t merely repent ... show the fruit of God in your life."
And then he told everyone there at the tent ... "If you think I’M turning heads & hearts back to God ... you haven’t seen anything yet. There’s another preacher & teacher coming that’s really going to get your attention. The guy that’s coming after me is going to be a Master Teacher ... and instead of cleaning you up with river water ... he’s going to cleanse you with the fire of the Word of God and with the Holy Spirit."
III) Can you imagine the looks on the faces of those who gathered by the banks of the Jordan River to hear John the Baptist preach? He didn’t wear the tailored made suits or robes that the other evangelists wore. Instead ... he wore camel hair rags ... something like an old pair of overalls.
The religious leaders of the day were really caught off guard ....in fact they were probably repulsed by this crude country evangelist. And then when he talked about this Master Teacher who would be purifying people with fire ... WHOA!!
It was ironic. Here was this dirty, rough-around-the-edges evangelist challenging these religious people about being cleaned up.
But that’s what Jesus did the first time he came. ... Jesus came to cleanse us and make us pure. He came to make us holy and to set us aside for God.
IV) Jim always thought he was a pretty good guy. Oh ... he made some mistakes once in a while ... but overall he thought he was OK. He knew that he wasn’t a BAD person.
Oh, he fudged on his income tax a little bit .. not really cheated he said .. just fudged a little bit. He would stay out on Friday nights and party once in while ... not really much ... just a little bit.
And in his work as a used car salesman ... he said he didn’t lie ... he would just stretch the truth a little bit about the cars he sold.
And then ... one day in a Bible study Jim had a spiritual awakening. He read the passage that told him that "all had sinned & fallen short of the glory of God. No one was completely pure ... except for Jesus." WOW!!! That really hit Jim hard. Really hard.
He was looking in the spiritual mirror and decided that he wasn’t as good as he thought himself to be. So he began to read the Word of God more ... and God’s Word burned a hole within his heart & soul. And the more it burned ... the better he began to feel.
V) That’s what the fire baptism of God’s Life-giving Word does ... the more we begin to read and listen to the Word that comes through Scripture... the less unwanted stuff we are left with and the more Godly stuff we become filled with.
The Word of God that comes to us living and breathing in Jesus Christ ... is the flame that purifies us from the inside out. To put it in another way ... the more we allow the flame of God’s Word to work within our lives ... the less room we have for the junk and waste that sometimes keeps us from God.
Nothing we do on our own can purify us ... nothing we do on our own or by ourselves can make us clean. Only ... ONLY the grace of God’s love & goodness has the power to make us pure and good and holy.
And the love and goodness of God’s grace fills us up as we study and learn and hear the Word of God ... and the allow it to soak in.
Some of you may be asking yourselves -- "What is this connection between the Word of God and the coming of the baby Jesus that we celebrate at Christmas time?
VI) READ > John 1:1-5, 14-15, NLT
In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. 4 Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. 5 The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. ...
14 So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. 15 John pointed him out to the people. He shouted to the crowds, "This is the one I was talking about when I said, ’Someone is coming who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before I did.’ "
Jesus IS ... the flesh and blood presence of the Word of God that came to baptize us with fire and make us pure.
VII) So ... what is it about this life-giving Word made personal in Jesus the Christ so positive and vital?
READ: 1 Peter 1:21-25, NLT
Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God. 22 Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts.
23 For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. 24 As the prophet says,
"People are like grass that dies away; their beauty fades as quickly as the beauty of wildflowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall away. 25 But the word of the Lord will last forever."
And that word is the Good News that was preached to you. Just as fire purifies and refines gold and other metals ... the flame of God’s Word purifies our lives ... refines our faith and cleanses you and me from the inside out.
VIII) That’s the good news in it all. We don’t come to God all cleaned up -- rather God, through the Holy Spirit and the living Word of God does the cleaning -- the purifying. God comes to us through Jesus Christ with all of our faults, pains, sorrows and hurts and then calls us to follow him.
We are called to follow Christ when we still have all that "junk" inside of us. No matter how much pain you have, no matter how much you have stumbled, no matter how much "junk" you think you have in your life -- God does not see you as "salvage". God comes to you with open arms and is ready to cleanse you and make you pure and holy and then set apart for a life of service.
But we participate in the cleansing process as we go. In some ways it seems like it just happens -- but we have to participate.
IX) God started the cleansing process through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Cleansing and new life is made possible as a gift of God’s grace.
God holds out that gift of mercy and forgiveness to us and says "here take this gift. Accept my love and mercy and participate in the new life I have for you."
That’s when our participation kicks in ...
1) Repentance brings us to an awareness that we are forgiven by God
2) Baptism by water and by the Spirit of God(inner and outward cleansing)
3) Continual and ongoing turning of our lives over to God
4) The Holy Spirit continues the ongoing process of cleansing us from the inside out: The Holy Spirit, working together with the Word of God,becomes a soul cleansing flame of fire in our lives, burning away the junk and helping the good seeds to grow
Repentance leads to Cleansing through Baptism and Cleansing by the Holy Spirit leads to A new life that radiates God’s goodness, love, and mercy
X) I can still recall sterilizing my daughter Melodie’s pacifier ... when she dropped it on the dirty ground we would place it in a pot of boiling water and the hot water would make it pure and clean again.
That’s what the word of God does for us ... not just the written Word ... but the living and breathing Word of God that became flesh and blood in Christ Jesus. ----
You are not junk. You are not some broken down human being living in a salvage yard. Rather you are a child love by God. God loves you so much that he sent his Son, Jesus to be born in this world.
God sent Jesus to be born in this world to show you forgiveness and mercy and to transform you by the cleansing fire of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. And
God will continually cleanse us over and over while filling us with God’s grace.
XI) I ran across this little prayer of the early church --
Come, O Holy Spirit, come!
Come like Holy Fire and burn within us.
Come like Holy Wind and cleanse us.
Come like Holy Light and lead us.
Come as Holy Truth and teach us.
Come as Holy Love and enfold us.
Come as Holy Power and enable us.
Come as Abundant Life and
Fill us,
Convert us,
Consecrate us,
Until we are wholly thine.
Come, Holy Spirit, Come!
John chapter 1 ... "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and was God."
The Word of God that came living & breathing in bodily form in Jesus Christ ... is still the Life changing Word today ... nothing we can do on our own will clean us up ...
But when we allow the Word of God to fill up the empty spots of our hearts and souls, God will graciously make us pure and clean ... setting us aside for God’s use and making us ready for the Kingdom of God.
