November 27, 2022 ~ First Sunday of Advent ~ Sermon and Zoom Worship Video Link

This is the Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/uN0ERbCZy5yPb4aLJ2IoF_KeNcJFcgPWMMcunN37IJXquaMnefDhs66ZALl0keI.QlmCR4unbry9fqyA

1^st Advent/Baptism/New Members                                                     11/27/22—Highland—Meute

Advent Series: “Something Greater”

Inspired by the devotional by Thomas G. Long and Donyelle C. McCray, “A Surprising God”

Isaiah 2: 1-5; Luke 11:29-32

Pearl: Be a sign of God’s love and goodness.

Function: To enlist listeners to be signs rather than looking for signs—signs motivated by the sign of all signs: Jesus Christ.

Jesus became frustrated at the recurring requests for signs, miracles, and wonders.

1. Earlier in the chapter in Luke’s gospel is recorded the side-note: “Others, to test [Jesus] kept demanding from him a sign from heaven” (11:16).
2. Why do you think that people did this to Jesus?
   1. They likely did this to him because of the weakness of their faith in God. The had some faith but not much or not enough to generate any real power.
3. Why do we still today seek signs?
   1. For similar reasons actually. Weak faith. Poor vision. Eyes focused on things other than fully focused on God.
   1. Forgetfulness of all that we have.
   1. We are gluttons for what is flashy, big, and “successful.”  
4. And why do you think that it so frustrated Jesus?
   1. It frustrated him in his day because he was proclaiming that the “reign of God” was at hand. It was present.
      1. He had actually worked many signs and wonders.
      1. But the people could not get enough.
         1. They could not get enough signs because they did not appropriate what they saw and heard with their own eyes and ears and then, in turn, make their own.
5. Really, God’s people Israel had many signs in their own salvation history.
   1. The greatest sign was the deliverance from Egyptian slavery. This “Exodus” was the perennial sign to be remembered.
      1. Because of that unlikely, miraculous deliverance, God’s people could press on in faith in God and represent God’s love and goodness to the nations.
      1. But they got timid and they looked at their fears rather than at their faith.
      1. And we do the same, don’t we?

God did provide signs to some who were about to tackle monumental tasks.

1. Abraham was told he would be the father of many nations. The stars in the sky were to signify the number of descendants that would generate from him and his wife Sarah. This was told him when he and his wife were very up in years. It was so preposterous that Sarah laughed when she heard this promise of God to them.
2. Moses received a visit from God in the bush that burned but was not consumed.
   1. Then added to that were 12 massive plagues given by God for his use in getting across his message to the Pharoah.
3. Gideon was charged to reduce an army of 10,000 soldiers down to only 300 to fight against the Midianite army.
   1. So unsure at these orders, Gideon pressed God for a sign asking God to put the morning dew on a fleece and keep the ground around it dry. God did this for Gideon.
   1. Then he presumed to ask for one more sign asking that God put the dew on the ground and not on the fleece the next day.
   1. God did what Gideon asked. Why? Because Gideon faced a daunting challenge.
      1. But apparently, he needed not fear so much! God was with him.
4. Signs have a checkered past, anyway.
   1. An African-American quilter of the 19^th century, Harriet Powers, depicted biblical scenes in which divine signs were misinterpreted or ignored.
      1. Noah’s neighbors scoffed at him instead of joining him in the ark.
      1. Jonah refused the assignment in Nineveh and found himself in the belly of a whale.
      1. A heavenly dove descended on Christ; humanity ignored it by crucifying him.
      1. To show that the pattern of misreading signs continued centuries later, Powers included additional quilt panels that recount scenes from more recent history.
         1. Atmospheric events which were to indicate divine judgment:
            1. Eerie darkness persisted throughout the day on May 19, 1780 (later attributed to pollution).
            1. A meteor shower which prompted waves of terror in 1846.
            1. There was a panel for November 13, 1833, a night when falling stars dotted the horizon.
               1. Maybe God hoped that a sky of falling stars would inspire awe but instead cows and horses screamed in terror,
               1. birds screeched,
               1. dogs panicked and ran in circles.
               1. And humans? They thought the world was coming to an end.
5. The thing about signs is that they come with the responsibility of faithful response.

But even better than that, be a sign of response yourselves for Christ!

We live in and with the sign of all signs: Jesus Christ!

1. Jesus said two times “something greater is here!” What was he talking about?
   1. He was referring to the kingdom of God being present.
   1. He himself was pronouncing it so.
   1. As God in the flesh, Jesus himself, was the sign of all signs. He was the sign which would never be eclipsed.
2. Since the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we have all that we need.
   1. We need no more signs.
   1. Put your faith into Jesus Christ. Trust him.
   1. Take up his mission of love and justice.
   1. Live into his reality and know that you are on the right track.
   1. Stay focused on the will of Christ and life will be what God intends.

Be signs yourselves!

1. Over the last several weeks I’ve noticed a billboard driving Route 1 south soon after entering MD from PA. It contains the large message, “Billboards Reach Everyone.”
   1. Of course, those who put it up are seeking advertisers. But I usually do look at billboard signs. Do you?
   1. We should be billboards; we should be signs of God’s love and goodness, and we will reach everyone.
2. You received a sign yourself: baptism.
   1. Having received this sign, you are destined by God to be a sign yourselves.
   1. You received faith from God; you were signed, sealed, and delivered  to represent Christ by being a sign.
      1. “Our calling is not to seek signs but to be signs—moving through the world as signs of his joy, mediators of his compassion and justice.
      1. Announcing the end of the present age, we are signs of the new world that is to come” (Surprised by God, p. 14).

Be signs and reach everyone!