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December 8th, 2025 - Mark Turman - The Best Way to Prepare for Christmas

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December 8th, 2025 - Mark Turman - The Best Way to Prepare for Christmas


00:00 Introduction: The Second Sunday of Advent

00:15 Advent Calendars: Traditions and Oddities

02:09 The True Meaning of Christmas Preparation

02:55 Historical Perspectives on Christmas Traditions

05:08 Biblical Insights: Preparing for Jesus

06:04 John the Baptist: The Forerunner of Jesus

07:29 The Importance of Repentance

15:44 Practical Steps for Repentance

24:59 The Universality of Sin and Need for Repentance

28:19 Repentance and Intimacy with Jesus

32:19 Personal Reflection and Communion

[00:00:00] 

[00:00:00] Introduction: The Second Sunday of Advent

How many of you, uh, even thought that this was the second Sunday of advent, the season of preparing for Jesus to come, uh. Let's talk about what it means to get ready for this. 

[00:00:15] Advent Calendars: Traditions and Oddities

Uh, I was listening, uh, on my way to Dallas this week to the radio, and, uh, they came up with a little interesting conversation about strange advent calendars.

Uh, one of the things I miss about not having young children in my home is that we had a 25 day advent calendar that we put on the wall every year, had all these little bitty, uh, two inch boxes and the kids got super excited. They would fight with each other for whose turn it was to open up that calendar date and pull out whatever little trinket or symbol was inside there to remind them of Christmas and how many days it was until Christmas would come.

I went on Amazon. Two full pages of different [00:01:00] kinds of advent calendars that you can get for your family and for your kids if you want, of all kinds. But the radio station was talking about odd advent calendars. One of those calendars was of all things a Jack Daniels calendar where every time you open up the little box to celebrate the day, there was another shot of whiskey.

Waiting on you. Don't recommend that necessarily. There's another one that was, uh, built around the physicality of life, and they called it the anatomy advent calendar. Uh, kind of like the game operation that you remember, right? Every time you open up one of the dates, there was a different bone, or, you know, uh, I don't know what I, I just don't even wanna go down that road.

Uh, and then the one that might have been the most strange. Was you could get an advent calendar of mystery meets from all over the world and open up a [00:02:00] calendar date in the season of Advent, and there would be a different kind of meat. How strange could that be? 

[00:02:09] The True Meaning of Christmas Preparation

This is the season of preparation, the season of anticipation that we're going to celebrate the incredible, miraculous coming of Jesus.

Not only that he came, but how he came. But Christmas has sometimes not always been properly prepared for. I've been reading Janet Denison's little advent book called Waiting for Christmas. You can get this@denisonministries.org if you're interested. I meant to bring some, but I forgot. Sorry. But, uh, if you wanna jump in still two and a half weeks till Christmas, and this will help you have, uh, a short, very quick thought about what it means to prepare.

For the arrival of Jesus and his presence. But listen to what Janet wrote on the second day of Advent, uh, Christmas. 

[00:02:55] Historical Perspectives on Christmas Traditions

As you and I know it really started to form and to be celebrated around the [00:03:00] year 3 36, all these traditions that we still celebrate, like advent and calendars, those things started to become very normative.

Some of you may have aspirations of I, as I do, of going and. Visiting Colonial Williamsburg because they do Christmas really big. And if you've ever been, please give me some advice, but listen to this. Janet writes, the changes that have occurred in the last 200 plus years in our American Christmas season might redefine our own ideas about traditions.

In an article on the Colonial Williamsburg website, the author quotes a description of a typical Christmas season from 1680. There was good wine in all kinds of beverages. They must have been the first ones to come up with that whiskey calendar. There was all kinds of beverages and there was a great deal of carousing.

The celebration was at the home of William, [00:04:00] William Fitzburg, or Fitz, you, I'm should say, who provided entertainment. There were three fiddlers, a adjuster, a tightrope walker, and an acrobat who tumbled all over the place. You might think that that was simply un-Christian as a celebration in early America, but as the same article notes, not all English settlers celebrated Christmas.

The New England Puritans declared that the observation of Christmas was illegal. The early in early America Christmas had become a pagan celebration of a holiday from work. And the Puritans reacted to that celebration by stopping Christmas altogether. For those of us who long for the traditions of old, we might wanna rethink our position.

Imagine if Christians today tried to stop the holiday because we thought too many of [00:05:00] us had made it about Santa football and consumerism. What would it look like? 

[00:05:08] Biblical Insights: Preparing for Jesus

I wanna talk to you about how to prepare in perhaps the best way to receive and rejoice in the coming of Jesus. If you have a Bible in front of you or there on your phone, you might want to turn with me to Luke chapter three, and to listen to this story as we think about preparing people and preparing ourselves for the arrival of Jesus.

This is not from the Christmas story. But rather from the advent of Jesus into his public ministry. It says there in Luke chapter three in verse one, in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was Tetra of Galilee. His brother Philip Tero of the region of Iia and [00:06:00] Tricon and Lyce.

His cist was Tero of Abilene. 

[00:06:04] John the Baptist: The Forerunner of Jesus

During the high priesthood of Anis and Caia, Caiaphas, God's word came to John, the son of Zacharia in the wilderness. He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah.

A voice of one, crying in the wild, crying out in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight, make his path straight. Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be made low. The crooked will become straight, the rough ways smooth, and everyone will see the salvation of God. He then said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, brood of vipers.

Who warns you to flee from the coming wrath. Therefore, produce fruit consistent with [00:07:00] repentance, and don't start saying to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father for I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones. The acts is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn't produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Wow, that doesn't sound like a message of joy and comfort does it? 

[00:07:29] The Importance of Repentance

Jesus was about to make his appearance in public first as a rabbi, then as a miracle worker, and ultimately as the savior he was born to become for us and for our sin. I think this story really unpacks for us. One of the most, if not the most important ways for you and I to prepare to receive Jesus a Freshs and a new this season and every [00:08:00] season, and that is through the rhythm and practice of repentance.

You get a sense of how important this is. Notice how precise the spirit of God leads Luke to talk about this and to introduce. This coming of Jesus into his public life. There are seven leaders named at the beginning of this account. Five of them are political, two of them are spiritual. But even though they are spiritual leaders, they are probably merely puppets doing the bidding of the political leaders at this time because of the way that Rome had come to dominate.

Four of these seven leaders are actively involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. Just three years later, we know them well. Pilate, Herod, others that are named here, Caiaphas [00:09:00] and Anis, they are directly a part of the Easter story, but they are here first mentioned at the beginning of Jesus's public life. All of this precision, all the calling out of these leaders in that particular moment has a, a reason behind it.

I think one of them is, is to say that this is important. As a matter of fact, the life and ministry and calling of John and Jesus, nothing is more important. Because it brings us into reconciliation with God. That's what the Glad Tidings of Christmas that the Angels sang about. That's what they're all about, is that Jesus coming was not just simply to give us a season to celebrate and songs, to sing with all joy, but rather to come and to repair and to restore our relationship with the living God who created us.

I think. Luke is also precise in this moment under the [00:10:00] spirit of God because he is declaring the reality, the unquestioned reality, not only of this strange figure named John the Baptist, but the one that he was announcing, Jesus, that this really happened. This guy named John who was this strange figure, the son of Zacharia is the last of the prophets of the Old Testament making the way ready for the coming of God's Messiah for our sin.

Now you know something of this guy named John who was waiting in the wings of the wilderness. This is the way he is depicted in the drama series, the chosen near the end of his life. We know that John was not exactly like Jesus, but he did have a supernatural birth in, in a story that you can read in Luke chapter one and two.

You know that this cousin of Jesus would be about six months older than [00:11:00] him and that he was born to senior adults, just like that early figure in the Bible. Isaac, who was born to those who were ready to retire and head to the nursing home. John had that same kind of supernatural, miraculous birth. You have to wonder.

You have to wonder, when John became seven or nine or 12 and he was off to school like the rest of his friends, perhaps even with Jesus, that it was his. His elderly parents, his senior old, what was, you know, when they had grandparents day, John just brought what people thought were his grandparents, but were actually his parents.

How did that feel to John as a child that his parents were perhaps twice the age or more of everybody else's [00:12:00] parents? What did that feel like to John, what it would feel like if he signed up for the soccer team? Any of the other activities that might have been characteristic of the boys of his day. He had a story perhaps that his father, Zacharia and Elizabeth, that they had to work it out in their own relationship and in their own mind.

When do we start telling John about the uniqueness of calling that God has for his life as the announcer of what God is going to do next? How do we help him understand that his life is gonna be unique, it's gonna be different. When does it become clear to John that this is going to be the reality? And he begins to move into different environments and places like the wilderness.

When did he decide to go and to be waiting in the wings until it was time to announce Jesus? But his message is clear. Even though we would ultimately learn that [00:13:00] John would not have a long life, but have a strong legacy of being the announcer in the spirit of Elijah, even though we know that John was waiting until God called him out of the wilderness to tell people to get ready and to ready their lives through this thing called repentance.

It's not a word that I often hear at Christmas. It's a simple word in its definition. It just means to turn or to turn around, to turn away from the direction of sin and back in the direction of God to reorient your life in every way to and toward and for the kingdom of God. As Jesus said in Luke 6 33, that this would be the essence of our life in the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy.

This very beautiful and poetic description that [00:14:00] sin makes our lives crooked. Sin brings us into the valleys, into the pits of life that we wonder if we're ever gonna get outta sin, confronts us with mountainous realities that seem impassable, but the one that John is announcing is coming to change that and the way that we prepare our hearts.

Through repentance, and that repentance straightens out our path, it fills up those valleys. It brings down the mountains that seem insurmountable to us, and it begins to reconnect us to God and to the abundant life that only he can give. The best way to get ready to receive Jesus, to celebrate his birth is to repent from anything and everything.

That is keeping you from him, anything and everything. In a few minutes, we're gonna celebrate Jesus's [00:15:00] sacred meal, the Lord's Supper, where we remember his cross, his death, his suffering, his resurrection for us and for our sin so that there would be victory over sin and death the way that we step toward that.

Initially and continually is by getting comfortable or at least committed to the consistent practice of repentance, of turning away from whatever sin is in our life and coming back to a refreshed and renewed commitment to Christ. So before we take these elements and before we remind ourselves not only of Christmas, but also of Easter.

[00:15:44] Practical Steps for Repentance

There's two or three things about repentance I wanna point out to you from this story. Maybe they'll be helpful to you to embrace this spiritual practice with greater consistency and with greater joy because it is [00:16:00] repentance that restores us to Christ and puts us on the path of holiness, of beauty, of overflowing faith, love and hope.

One of the things I want you to remember is that repentance is really, really serious. John steps out of the wilderness into the region of the Jordan, and he begins to call not just a few, not just the worst of the worst or the most elite, the most arrogant. He calls everyone in Israel at this first step to come and to repent and to demonstrate their repentance through the cleansing symbol of baptism.

That was a practice in their day that had grown up over the previous 400 years since the last prophet had spoken. It was a symbol of God's cleansing, of God's taking away of sin, of restoring the purity and beauty of what God intended. John steps out and begins to announce this message of the kingdom of God, the [00:17:00] coming Messiah, and the need to confront and re repent, to turn away from your sin.

And he was not exactly what you would call a, um, warm and fuzzy pastor because when the people start to gather in a crowd, how does he begin his sermon? You brooded of vipers? Yes. Vipers are snakes. Just like the snakes you would find in the woods around possum kingdom in any spring or summer day, they are just as deadly, if not more so that's not exactly what we would call a seeker friendly introduction to your sermon and message, but he's calling them to confront the same thing that you and I need to confront, which is the reality and the seriousness of our sin.

This sin that has broken our lives, that has made it crooked and thrown us into the pit, put us in front of impassable mountains in our lives. Sin is a [00:18:00] huge deal, and even at Christmas time, we need to allow the word of God and the calling of God to holiness, to confront us to remember over and over again through the songs and the celebrations and the symbols of Christmas.

That this beautiful, amazing child that was born in a manger and a stone cradle had a purpose in coming, and that was to a cross because of us. It is our sin that put him there. It is our sin that condemns our lives. It is our sin that places us before the wrath and judgment of God and that it is God in His love and through His son, that he came to show us mercy, to give us the opportunity that we might turn in faith and trust in him, that we might walk away from our sin so that we can walk with him and nothing matters more.[00:19:00] 

So this morning, I don't know why providentially, God decided to put each of us in this room, and I don't know why. When I began thinking about what God might want me to say to you this morning, I don't know why this topic became pertinent, but it has. And the one thing, the one thing we can never do. Claim any other pathway into a right relationship with God.

We can't claim that it was because we had great godly parents or grandparents. It can't be because we were born as Americans. It can't be because we have achieved a certain level of success or that we just think of ourselves as generally good moral and upstanding decent people. The reality of it is. Is that we are desperately in need of the grace of God and the only way to access it is through repentance from [00:20:00] our sin and faith in this savior that we celebrate named Jesus.

The second thing I want you to realize is that repentance, in order for it to be real, has to be relevant to you and to your life on a daily basis. Lemme read to you what happens in the next part of the story as John is confronting them with their sin, calling them a brood of vipers. The people are pierced in their heart.

They're they're afraid. As, as you and I might remember experiences in our life when we heard kind of a fire and brimstone kind of message, maybe when we were teenagers or young adults at college, or even more recently than that. But the people are disturbed, and so three different groups are called out that come to him.

The crowds say in verse 10 of this story, what then should we do? Asking John what repentance should look like in their lives. The crowds were asking him. [00:21:00] So John replied, the one who has two shirts should share with someone who has none and the one who has food must do the same. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and they asked him, teacher, what should we do?

He told them, don't collect any more than you. Then you have been authorized. Some of the soldiers listen to that. Some of the soldiers also questioned him. What should we do? He said to them, don't take money from anyone by force or false accusation and be satisfied with your wages. Think about that conversation with me for a few minutes.

Now, you and I know that there are just some people like this guy in the next picture that absolutely needs to repent or needed to repent before he passed away. Bernie Madoff led the largest Ponzi scheme that the world has ever seen and, and through fraud, separated people from their [00:22:00] finances, from their wealth, and from their security leading into their senior years at a level that is just astounding if you learn his story.

We can understand how people like this needed to be called to repentance in the message that John was announcing. But there's more here than just the worst among us. The crowds are instructed by John to confront their own selfish and sometimes silent greed and to become people of generosity. A lot of the efforts that we u usually engage in at this time where we take a little more interest in the poor, where we gather up toys for uh, families and for children that don't have enough where we put together food baskets.

A lot of those traditions come out of this part of the story because we kind of all know [00:23:00] deep in our heart that there is something envious and something greedy that. Seeks to take over our lives. It had to be astounding that the tax collectors who were considered sellouts in their day, Jewish people who had contracted themselves out to the Roman government as the Roman government oppressed nations like Israel that they had taken over.

These tax collectors for some reason, were drawn out to listen to John and John confronted them saying, look, don't play games here. Take this seriously. This is, this is the most important stuff, but the tax collectors are touched by the message and John says, stop your racketeering. Stop trying to gain the system in such a way that you not only get paid, but you get paid extraordinarily.

We in in extraordinary ways that are just lining your pockets. This really sets up the foundation for why that story of Zacchaeus that we, little man who [00:24:00] climbed up the tree. Jesus went to his house that day and the evidence of his repentance becomes what? He stands up as a tax collector who has been bilking people out of their resources probably for years.

And he says, Jesus, I just gotta tell you, because of you, because of what you've been saying here in my house, I will now repay every person that I have ever treated wrongly or defrauded. I will repay them. And Jesus says in response to that, he says, today, salvation has come. To this man and to his house, and even the soldiers.

Now, we're not sure if they're temple soldiers or Roman soldiers who just are watching the crowds, but the soldiers come and say, what are we supposed to do if we repent? What is that supposed to look like in our life? And look, Jesus again, makes it relevant. Stop using your power and your position to extort the people so that you can line your pockets.

There's a lot of things that jump out of this to me. 

[00:24:59] The Universality of Sin and Need for Repentance

[00:25:00] The first thing he says is that these crowds and these tax collectors and these soldiers, they are intended to convey to us the universality of sin and the need for repentance. It's not just some of us or the worst of us. It's all of us. And your sin doesn't look like my sin, and my sin doesn't look like yours, but we all have a sin problem.

And we are all in need of hearing the call in a fresh way at Christmas time to repent. It has to be relevant to you and to the way you live and to the people you interact with and the way you treat others and the way that you hear the voice of God calling you. It also strikes me that this conversation is so material.

It is so financial. 'cause that's so much of where our lives are lived, right? It's lived in the transactions of our day, [00:26:00] and many of them are financial, but they are also material and relational in other ways. This is why, as I said, these traditions of caring for the poor are so much a part of our faith and so much on our mind at seasons like this.

But this is also a great reminder for you and I to think more deeply. Continually about how we use our lives, our time, and our resources. We have this wonderful tradition here at PK Chapel. We never start on time. We're really good at that. We never take an offering, we say, which is what we really mean by that, is we never take an offering in the worship service, and we don't have any members except to the degree that.

We just kind of feel like we're members with each other of the body of Christ. And you know, I'm not so sure that we can really keep that though, guys, because the very heart of what it means to be a Christian is to [00:27:00] offer yourself every part of yourself, including your finances, including your, is to offer your entire self to God on a daily basis, and that includes your finances.

What's your plan? What's your commitment to take care of the people around you? Not just once a year or a few times a year, but in a continual way? Because that's the other thing that John is saying here, that repentance, real repentance when it is relevant to your life, it's not just somebody else, it's all of us.

It can be very material and relational, but it is absolutely continual. This is a practice. This is a spiritual discipline, a rhythm. Faith that needs to become more and more at the forefront of our lives. That repentance is not something we occasionally do, but something that we consistently, [00:28:00] continually daily do.

And I'm gonna give you an opportunity for that in just a minute before we pass the elements for the Lord's Supper. The one thing that rep repentance cannot be is nebulous. It needs to be specific. The last thing I want you to say is that repentance. 

[00:28:19] Repentance and Intimacy with Jesus

Repentance has this wonderful power to lead us into greater intimacy with Jesus.

It leads us and links us to Jesus in fresh ways. Let me read to you how this little encounter with John the forerunner ends. It says in the 15th verse, now, the people were waiting expectantly. Doesn't that sound like Christmas? Now the people were waiting expectantly and all of them were questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.

John answered them all. I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. [00:29:00] I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff will will be burn, will burn, he will burn with fire that never goes out.

Then along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. But when John rebuked Herod the Tet Rock because of HEROs his brother's wife. All the evil things he had done. Herod added this to everything else. He locked John in prison. We are impatient people, as were they. John was telling them many good things, but also being very clear about the truth.

Repentance would lead you into a right relationship with God to be a part of the great harvest of salvation. But to refuse to repent, to deny your need to [00:30:00] reject the call would turn you into chaff and a place of separation from God for all of eternity. But among all the things that John said, both good and hard, his call to repentance was generating anticipation in them and hopefully in us.

That something special was coming, something amazing was coming. Someone even more unique than John, John says, it's not me. It's not about me, it's about him, and it's about your relationship with and to him. And repentance is the key that opens the door. I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals. Because the one who is coming, he's the only one who is just, he is the only one who can justify.

He is the only one rightful to judge and he [00:31:00] comes with healing in his hands. I have this sense that we all long for heroes. I know I do. We keep looking for them. I hope you have some heroes are important. We also face the temptation of turning people, oftentimes pastors or politicians or celebrities. We turn them into quasi messiahs because we are impatient or because we just don't really understand how this faith thing works.

And so we go looking for a substitute because we want somebody to come riding into our lives. To make all things better on our terms and on our timetable rather than on God's. John says, Uhuh, it's not about me. It's not about [00:32:00] anybody except Jesus and your relationship to this living God. Don't let anything or anyone become more central to you than him by regular.

And eager repentance. 

[00:32:19] Personal Reflection and Communion

Lemme tell you a little story from last Saturday. Judy and I were sitting at the breakfast table having coffee last Saturday morning, and we hadn't done anything to prepare for Christmas and we had the conversation that we've had just about every year for the last, I don't know, five or 10.

We looked at each other over coffee and we said, we're gonna decorate. Neither one of us answered. We just sighed because we'd just finished seven straight days with our grandkids, seven, five, and one. [00:33:00] And oh, by the way, we knew without saying it to each other, nobody's coming. They don't come to our house anymore.

We go to them and we got busy lives. We got full-time jobs. We'd like to entertain more perhaps, but we are just really tired by the time you get to the end of the day and the end of the week. And so we didn't say anything. We just sighed, took a few more sips of coffee. Judy went to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and in that moment I felt like the Holy Spirit pushed me.

So by the time she came back in about 10 minutes, the Christmas tree was already standing. Now confession, it's a pre-lit artificial tree and it takes all of six and a half minutes to assemble and light it. It is an amazing gift of [00:34:00] God's grace in my life. Okay, Judy never asked me why I went and got the tree.

Why we would spend the next several hours last Saturday getting our house ready. She never has asked me why in this morning. She's probably wondering, why are you bringing up this story?

I'll tell my wife why, and I'll tell you as well. I went and got the tree because the Holy Spirit seemed to say to me, if nobody but Jesus was coming, would you decorate?

If nobody but Jesus was coming, would you ready your heart? Would you repent? Would you take a moment as we get ready for communion to just pray? It would be a tragedy above all things to talk about repentance [00:35:00] and to not to not do it. So with your heads bowed and eyes closed, let me remind you a little bit of what the Bible says when it uses this word.

Acts chapter two, the early days of the founding of the church, part of the sermon was Repent and be baptized, each of you, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Luke 15, the most familiar story that Jesus ever told the story of the prodigal son.

There is more joy in heaven when sinners repent.

Jesus' First, sermon Mark chapter one. Unless you repent, you will perish. Acts 17. Therefore, having [00:36:00] overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent. Acts chapter three, one of my favorite. Therefore, repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out. That seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

And that he may send Jesus who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.

Lord, we want in every way to know you better Lord, in these quiet moments at this special chapel, as your spirit is here among us and in us by faith. Before we remember not only Christmas, but the cross. Lord, send your [00:37:00] Spirit to speak to our hearts about anything that we need to turn away from. Anything that is not right.

Anything that is not pleasing to you. Anything that dishonors you, that disgusts you, anything that is blocking our way and relationship with you, God convict us Of those things that we might turn.

Lord, would you also come and speak to us about the things that we have failed to do, the things that we have ignored and omitted in our lives, whatever callings that you may have to us and upon us for how you want us to live and serve with you. God speak to our hearts whether they are [00:38:00] small things or medium things are really big, huge things.

Jesus, we are so, so grateful that you were willing to come on your mission of mercy, to forgive us of our sin. That you not only came, but you spoke the truth, and you filled us with compassion and you went to the cross, that there might be an appropriate and adequate atoning sacrifice for our sin.

Lord, as we take these simple elements. As they, as they give a sensation to our tongue and to our throat, let them [00:39:00] be an a reminder of what it means to take you into our lives by faith. Let them be a reminder of the incredible gift of mercy and forgiveness and reconciliation with you and God. May they be the motivation.

The grateful motivation for consistent repentance in our life.

As you receive the elements this morning, take this time to reflect on all of God's goodness to you.