First Sunday of Advent (3)
Notes
Transcript
The Reverend Richard L. Pearson at one time served the Crescent Park United Methodist Church in Sioux City, Iowa. For several years that church had a living nativity scene.
On one particular night it was Pastor Dick’s job, along with a man who had a pick‑up truck, to get a pregnant ewe, which was bedded down in the parsonage garage, to the church. They went to get her about a half hour before performance time. Due to her delicate condition they carefully lifted her into the bed of the truck, and Dick rode in the back with her.
It was a bitterly cold night and the ewe evidently decided she had other plans. When the truck stopped at a light, she bolted and jumped over the tailgate. She started running down the busy city street away from the church with Dick in hot pursuit.
Passing cars slammed on their brakes to avoid hitting them. People yelled, pointed and laughed; and the ewe and preacher ran on. He finally caught her in a thicket at Briar Cliff College. They reloaded her into the truck and got her into place with two minutes to spare. Dick said all the way to the church, the lines from My Fair Lady kept running through his head: “Kick up a rumpus, but don’t forget the compass, and get me to the church on time.” (1)
I hope your Christmas season will not be quite that hectic. But time is at a premium during the Advent season, isn’t it? Our song could be, “Kick up a rumpus, but don’t forget the compass, and get me to Christmas on time.”
Welcome on this first Sunday in Advent.
Welcome on this first Sunday in Advent.
Many of us think of Advent as a time of getting ready for Christmas. On a practical level it is certainly that. Some of you may get a headache just thinking about all the preparations that must be made over the next few weeks. Lights and trees to put up. Parties to attend. Meals to plan and prepare. Presents to buy and wrap. How can you possibly get it all done?
The season of Advent, however, is about much more than getting ready for Christmas. Advent is the definitive announcement about our future. Advent is the announcement of a time when Christ shall return to establish his kingdom. Advent is a time of preparation for that final triumph over death and darkness. That is why Advent begins with this passage from St. Mark, chapter 13.
The future, we are all concerned about.Someone rightly said that we should be concerned about the future because we are going to spend the rest of our life there.
People are concerned about the future, you can tell this because of the number of people who call the one 800 psychic lines.
Four in 10 U.S. adults believe in psychics, according to polling by the Pew Research Center. Whether or not you’re among the believers, every psychic service isn’t considered a scam, in the legal sense. There are nearly 94,000 psychic businesses nationwide, offering palm and tarot readings, astrological advice and similar services. Industry revenue tops $2 billion a year, market research firm IBISWorld estimates.
Scam psychics prey on people who are grieving, lonely or struggling emotionally, physically or financially.
Especially the older people. Why? Because everyone wants to the know the future.
You say, not me pastor. But, if I could give you a book that promised to tell you about your future, how hard would it be to resist opening it to glance through it’s pages, just to see the ending.
Good news, I don’t have such a book. But what I do have is the promises of Jesus about the future. Jesus, who never lied, who never was wrong, who knows the beginning to the end of the story, that Jesus shows us what we can expect in the future.
Here is Mark 13 we discover so rather vague references to the future. It sound frightening, “Friday the 13th,” kind of frightening.
Look with at verse 24. What do we see? Tribulation, the Sun darkening, the moon not giving it’s light.
In the next verse, stars falling from heaven. and the heavens will be shaken.
What about the next verse. The son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
Then He will send his angels to gather his elect from the farthest ends of both earth and heaven.
One thing you can say for this event described here in chapter 13, it will be no secret coming. Not like his first coming.
This will not be a Silent night.
His first coming was, what you might call, a soft landing. This will be anything but.
A few shepherds in Bethlehem will not be the only ones to know about this, this coming will be world shaking
Instead of coming as a infant meek and mild, he will come with great power and glory.
Instead of a lone star shining, stars will fall from the sky.
Instead of angels singing, they will come with orders to take his people from the four corners of the earth and heaven.
The earth he came to save in his first coming, will pass away at his second.
There could be no bigger difference. No greater contrast.
He came as a helpless infant, he will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So, what do we know about this second coming? Here are three answer to that question.
The first answer is we will know it has happened.
The first answer is we will know it has happened.
That has always been a concern.
“Behold, I have told you in advance.
“So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.
“For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
Now lets look at Mark 13:21-23
“And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him;
for false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect.
“But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.
You will not miss the Lord’s coming. This one will be no secret.
But Secondly, we should know He could come at anytime.
But Secondly, we should know He could come at anytime.
“And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.
“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.
At first, I could not understand what all this talk of a fig tress was about.
As I was reading Cole’s commentary on Mark, it feel into place.
He said.
Mark: An Introduction and Commentary vii. The Parable of the Fig Tree (13:28–29)
This saying of Jesus seems to be merely a general countryman’s parable; compare the shrewd piece of weather-lore in Matthew 16:2, 3. When the trees burst into leaf, summer is coming—and very quickly in Palestine, as Schweizer notes. In the same way, says Jesus, these happenings will warn us that the second coming is at the very door (verse 29).
Look with me at Matt 24:36-41
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.
“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
“Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left.
“Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left.
Is there anything sinful about eating,? No, if it were, we are all in trouble.
Is there anything wrong with drinking? No.
What about marring, No, again.
Those are common practices we all experiences at some level. We have all had meals, we have all had something to drink, we have all been to a wedding.
Jesus was saying life will be going on as normal. Nothing special happening, when he comes back.
First, we will know it has happened. Second, he could come at anytime.
Third, we are to stay busy till he comes.
Third, we are to stay busy till he comes.
In both Matthew and Mark Jesus tells about servants who are to keep busy with the Master’s work until he comes.
Lets just look at one of those, in Mark 13.
“But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.
The church has spent too much of our time trying to guess when Jesus is coming back. And I confess, for a while I was captivated by the search for the day of his return.
Back in 1988, Edgar C. Whisenant, who was a former NASA engineer and Bible student who predicted the Rapture would occur in 1988, sometime between Sept. 11 and Sept. 13. He published two books about this: 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 and On Borrowed Time.
Eventually, 300,000 copies of 88 Reasons were mailed free of charge to ministers across America, and 4.5 million copies were sold in bookstores and elsewhere.
Whisenant was quoted as saying "Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong; and I say that to every preacher in town,"
Well, 1988 came and went. Sept 11 through the 13 came and went. Edgar C. Whisenant came and went. But the rapture did not.
It would take the average reader an hour and a half to read this book.
Seven million two hundred thousand hours. That is how much time was spent reading this book by the people who bought it.
All because they did not believe Jesus. He said no one knows the day or the hour, or even the year of His return. Not the angels, not the son, not Edgar C. Whisenant.
That was equal to 822 years lost. 822 years worth of work for the kingdom. 822 years worth of disciple making. Up in smoke. Why? To read a book that was proven to be false.
Whisenant died in May of 2001. How would to like to have been him explaining to Jesus why you wrote a book that wasted seven million two hundred thousand hours of Jesus’ followers time, because he did not believe Jesus.
I would rather be able to say, I was about my master’s work. But, what is the master’s work, you ask. He told us.
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
A better translation would be,
As you are going, going about life. You know eating, Drinking, going to weddings.
As you are doing life.
As you are GOING make DISCIPLES.
That is why we are here. To make disciples.
Yes, Jesus is coming back. Yes, we don’t know when, But also yes, we are to stay busy making disciples until he comes.
You have seen the facebook post that says, “You only had one job.”
We only have one job, Make disciples.
John Wesley put it this way,
You have nothing to do but to save souls. Therefore spend and be spent in this work. And go not only to those that need you, but to those that need you most. It is not your business to preach so many times, and to take care of this or that society; but to save as many souls as you can; to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to repentance.
We are to make disciples.
If we were to get a job review, how do you think we are doing.?
(1) Richard Pearson, Christmas Tales Revisited. Cited by Dr. Jim Standiford, http://www.fumcsd.org/sermons/sr122406.html.