I'm going to brag on my worship committee one
more time. We thank you for that song. I don't
know if it kicked anyone else in the face, but
it kicked me. And that, what a powerful way to
look at a song that we know, come all ye faithful,
but what happens when that's not the case? The
beautiful thing is faithfulness, though that
is what we're striving to be. We're doing our
best as we can. We all will fall in that. And
I think that's a great bridge to where we're
going to talk about today. We heard it with the
Surley family as they talked about, I think it
was Jack that talked about, it's not always a
fun thing to go through purification. That there
are a lot of things in life, when we think of
purification, when we think about that process,
you might be like me, I go straight to the fire.
Right? That we're talking about. Things are refined
by the fire. A couple years ago, I think it was
two years ago, we went to the Cuyahoga National
Forest, right? Who was in the state of Ohio,
right? That just lost the Big Ten Championship
last night. Was that it? Good. Yep. First time
ever. Oh, we even got claps. Wow. First time
ever being a Hoosiers fan. Don't like it. But
understand that we went to go see a glass blower.
It's something that my middle son, Teddy, really
is intrigued by. And maybe he'll want to do that
for his life. That we watched them go through
this process of glass blowing. And just the heat.
It was unreal. It was very cold outside. And
the heat in the building was insane. But watching
what they were able to do with just a piece of,
I think it's glass, right? Glass blowing. That
makes sense in my head. Sorry. Is they created
something beautiful through all of this heat.
The purification process was unbelievable, right?
Teddy loved it and then asked us to buy it when
we were done with it. And the thing about glassblowing
stuff, it's not cheap. But it's because it's
worthy of something. It's worth a lot, especially
the time and effort to go through with it. And
that's exactly where Malachi is. Now Malachi,
a minor prophet, the last book of the Old Testament,
which I think is important. We'll get to that
in a minute. really builds on where Jeremiah
was last week, rooting our hope in God who keeps
his promises. We're going to kind of look at
the past, look at the present, look at the future
for this cross -shaped advent, as we called it
last week. We looked at Jeremiah's vision last
week of this righteous branch of David, this
Davidic prophet, priest, and king. Hope that
strengthens us in the past, in the present, and
guides our future. But this week, Malachi, right,
we went from major prophet to minor prophet.
Anyone know the differences between a major prophet
and a minor prophet? Anyone know? Length of book
is nothing super deep, right? Big book, long
book, major prophet. Minor prophet is just as
important as we see in that. Malachi brings us
to another dimension of hope. This El Peace.
A hope that is not only comforting, because we
need to be comforted by hope, but hope also...
And here's the rub. If we're okay with where
we are in this life right now, when it comes
to our discipleship growing to be more Christ
-like in our life, then that purification is
going to be really, really hard. Because one
thing we've all acknowledged, because you all
came to the table, is that you're sinners in
need of a Savior. And what does that mean? That
means there are issues, there are things in our
life that need to be purified out. That need
to be cleansed and cleaned. Jeremiah told us
what the Messiah will do. Malachi tells us what
the Messiah will make us become. There's future
tense in there. And this is an important shift
because Advent, as we learned last week, not
passive but active. We don't just look at the
manger and say, oh, that's cute. I don't know
anybody that has ever said that of a feeding
trough in a barn. But we look at the manger to
realize something different this morning. That
this baby king came to change us, to refine us,
and came to make us holy. And that is a lot.
And it's something, I guarantee you, when you
looked at your child, if you've been blessed
to have children, in that delivery room, in the
hospital, when you looked, I guarantee you that
Lori and Jim Holland, owner, did not look at
seven pound, eight ounce, I think that's... I
didn't know that was the joke. How many people
were seven pounds, eight ounces? I'm sure there
were some of you. Please, someone, don't let
me. Thank you, Randy. We were. That was a weird
place to laugh. Okay, but understand, I don't
think they looked at them or looked at me and
had those thoughts. No, they're looking and go,
okay, this is number two. We had Lynn. Now we
have Jim. Now we're done, right? Okay, we got
to go through the waking up. Hopefully he's not
colicky like Lynn was. You know, we think of
all those things. But think of what Jesus being
born, we think these things. It's not a passive
thing. It's what we're hoping for. So insert
that thought this morning. We are hoping to be
purified. And sometimes that is through the fire.
Hope is not passive, but it's transformational,
and that is active. So let's look first to the
hope from the past. So we're going to be in Malachi
chapter 3. We're going to start with verse 1.
Again, we use the ESV, the English Standard Version
here. Feel free, if you brought one of another
translation, that is totally fine. Malachi chapter
3. So if you went to Matthew, you went too far.
Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament.
Hope from the past that God sends a messenger
in verse 1. 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. So right off the bat, I am sending
a messenger. This is active. Now, what did I
say? This is the last book of the Old Testament.
And then you go into kind of this season of darkness.
And what they mean by that is there wasn't any
more prophets really that stepped on the scene.
That Israel, they were just kind of in this space,
in this place. You see the Roman Empire start
to take over halfway through this dark season.
Malachi being the last prophetic voice, 400 years
of silence. For some of us with kids a certain
age, you hear two minutes of silence and your
mind's already going to something bad is going
on. Who is hurt? What did they break? How much
is it going to cost? 400 years of silence. There's
discouragement. There's spiritual compromise
going on. The temple becomes perverted. The temple
becomes about money and power and authority kind
of being in line with Rome. They're waiting for
restoration. They're waiting for this Messiah.
And friends, they didn't live 400 years anymore.
So what happened? You had generational disappointment.
Things not showing up. Things not happening the
way you told they were going to. Into this moment,
God speaks something fierce. I will send my messenger.
I will come to my temple. I will fulfill my word.
So this messenger, who is it? John the Baptist,
right? Yeah, John the Baptist. The New Testament
answers this clearly. Because Mark 1 .2 quotes
Malachi 3 .1 directly. Luke 1 .17 says he comes
in the spirit and power of Elijah. John the Baptist
is now the forerunner. He steps on the scene.
He clears the path. The voice in the wilderness
saying something very profound. Prepare the way
of the Lord. 400 years of silence and now a light
comes. You're going to hear more about that tonight.
In our theology, what we understand is this is
another piece of the covenant of grace. It's
unfolding. God is initiating. God is revealing.
God is acting. God is on the move. Hope from
the past reminds us that God prepares his people
for his coming. He always has and he always will,
even today. And maybe you need to hear that today,
that God is still on the move. Maybe you've been
sitting in your own 400 years of silence. Maybe
you've been discouraged. Maybe everything's gone
spiritually cold. Everything seems to be distracting.
And maybe God needs to speak into that with a
message. Prepare the way of the Lord. Notice,
it doesn't say, when Eli's ready. When Jim is
ready. When Don is ready. It's not, ready or
not, here I come. It's, I'm coming. Prepare the
way of the Lord, which is where we find ourselves
in the present. We find hope for the present,
the Lord who purifies. Active language, verses
2 and 3 of chapter 3. But who can endure the
day of his coming? And who can stand when he
appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, like
a fuller's soap. He will sit as a refiner and
a 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. So I think we're right to go to
a fire. Whether it's a glass blower or somebody
else. For he's like a refiner's fire, like a
fuller's soap. These are not gentle images. Right?
I don't think. How many of you did the precious
moments thing? Right? Those little statues. You
can raise them while I'm proud. That's all good.
We didn't have this one. Right? Because it wouldn't
be cute. It's hard to put a nice face on something
going on like this. A refiner's fire or a fuller's
soap. The refiner's fire heats metal so intensely
that impurities rise to the top. So what? They
can be scraped off and discarded. A fuller soap
is a strong lye agent used to scrub and bleach
fabric clean. So there's a cleansing going on,
a scrubbing going on. Now, I don't know about
you, but I remember growing up. You guys, I'm
going to reintroduce you to my grandma Bonnie.
Remember her? She was like 4 '8", right, but
a ninja, okay? She's the one that when you would
talk back, she'd like out of nowhere hit you
right here. And I remember in junior high I asked
her why that was. And she looked at me and said,
because it doesn't leave a mark. And then just
walked away. I've never been more terrified in
my life. Right? She stood this high. I just remember
also growing up when she would give us a bath,
she would scrub us like she was trying to get
answers out of us. Right? I just remember like
after I was done going, am I bleeding? Because
it feels like it. Because she just wanted to
make sure that all of that stuff was off of our
bodies. Now, just so we're clear, like I was
really little. This wasn't like junior high because
that's weird, right? So this is like when you're
really little. These are things that are coming
out of therapy. But understand that when she
did that, she was being very active, right? She
was active in some of that, making sure we were
clean. I think we can use that same mentality
of what John the Baptist is telling us. He's
not going to come with hugs and kisses, right?
He's going to come with purification. He's going
to come with cleansing, much like the refiner
and the fuller. Malachi tells us the Messiah
doesn't simply arrive. He doesn't just show up
and say, I'm here. He purifies. That is the role
of the priest, the priesthood. We talked about
that last week. Malachi specifically says the
Messiah will refine the sons of Levi. Interesting.
What does that mean? In Israel, the priests were
the ones to be spiritual leaders. But in Malachi's
day, they had become corrupt, lazy, and half
-hearted in their worship. They made it about
them, not about Yahweh or the Lord. God's answer
is not, try harder, you'll get it. It's the Messiah
will come to cleanse. Now we have a catechism,
right? Reformed church, we have a heartable catechism
that helps us understand Christ our priest. Question
31. Question 31 teaches that Christ is our eternal
high priest who has offered himself as the perfect
sacrifice, continually intercedes for us, and
cleanses us from sin. So hear this today. The
messenger Malachi is telling you and me, 2025,
214 Ridge Road, you cannot purify yourself. The
Messiah himself will purify you. He is coming
to do a job. To purify his people because they
have become dirty. They have become tarnished.
They have become stain filled. And guess what?
I just described every one of our weeks. This
past seven days. We're dirty. We're stained.
We're in need of that purification. We're in
need of that cleansing. I don't know about you,
but that's hope for the present, the here and
now. For us today, refinement means four things.
God exposes us to what is impure. He removes
what is destructive. He strengthens what is holy.
He shapes us into a people that reflect him.
And I don't know about you, but there's the gut
punch. That when people see my life, not just
what I want them to see, but when they see my
life, do they see him? Refinement is not a punishment.
I think Jack said that up here. Refinement is
a preparation. For anyone who has walked through
a season of suffering, a season of self -inflicted
wounding, a season of sin, again, for those that
have walked through that, sometimes hope is hard
to grasp. Sometimes hope seems like this thing
that I'm trying to grab, but I can't. It's like
a moving target. But we need to understand something
about these seasons. Hope grows not in comfort.
It can't grow in comfort because then what is
our hope? Years. And then they will bring. Once
the priests are purified, worship is restored.
Once the people are refined, offerings become
acceptable again. I don't know about you, but
that tells us one of our goals in life. One of
our goals in the hope of Jesus is that we have
restored worship. Worship that is barrier -free,
distraction -free, free of ourselves that we
can give to God in worship. This was true for
Israel. This is true for the early church that
we just looked at in the book of Acts this fall.
It's true for us right here, right now. God refines
us so that our lives become worship, holy, pleasing,
and acceptable. The book of Romans reminds us,
12 .1, because it's giving us a hope. We worship
because we have hope. Not of just look what God
did or what God is doing, but God will do his
return. The refining work of Jesus continues
until the day he comes again. The Messiah's first
coming purifies our heart from guilt. The Messiah's
second coming will purify creation of all sin,
of all evil, of all decay. All the impurities
will be out. There will be no need for the refinement.
And Malachi points us forward to a day when every
impurity is gone, every injustice is judged,
every right is made wrong, and every heart fully
belongs to him. This is the future hope of Advent,
isn't it? This is what we're longing for, yet
we're slugging every day, some of us, harder,
sometimes deeper. in this struggle, knowing that
the hope is we will be made like him when we
see him again, 1 John 3 .2. So what do we do
for Advent now? Where do we take this from here?
How do we take this beyond the informational
meeting that we're about to have? Well, this
is the cross -shaped Advent I brought up last
week and I'll bring up next week. Remember that
lyric of you were born to die so one day I could
pray for you to save my life? I'm changing it
a bit this morning. That you were born to die
so we may be made new. Malachi shows us why.
The Messiah does not refine from a distance.
He doesn't lob a grenade. He refines by stepping
into your world. into my world, taking on flesh,
bearing our sin, carrying our impurities, and
rising up to make us clean. Hope is not just
that God forgives us, but hope that God will
transform us from the inside out. Advent points
to a Savior who comes with fire, not to destroy
you and me, but to refine us into what we were
meant and made to be. So my friends, let's be
refined by hope. How do we respond as a people
waiting for the Messiah who purifies? Three things.
First, we welcome his refining. Ouch. Lord, remove
what is not from you. We embrace his mercy. Thank
God. Right? Lord, cleanse me from your grace.
And we live in readiness. Lord, make me fit.
For your presence. Friends, this Advent, may
the refining fire of Christ give you hope, not
fear, not shame, not resistance, but hope. Hope
that he is shaping us into his likeness. Because
remember, the God who came the God who cleanses,
the God who is coming again, the God who is our
El Peace, who is our hope, who is our Messiah,
is with you even now. So lay it down, pick him
up, and get to work. Let's pray.