The Reality

Sermon Dec 5,21 Advent-Second week= REALITY? I want to ask a question, are we on life's journey to prepare ourselves for Heaven or Hell? For Conviction or for Condemnation. If someone asks you: What is Advent? Can you answer it? . * * * picture * * * Spiritual preparation Here's the answer: Advent is a period of Spiritual preparation in which many Christians remember the birth of Jesus Christ, also for His return to this earth to rescue us from darkness. Luke 3:6 The whole human race will see God's salvation. Celebrating Advent typically involves a season of prayer, fasting, hope, joy and of repentance, followed by ANTICIPATION of being with Jesus forever. It's to prepare for the REALITY in the future. That's Advent. . * * * picture * * * Prayer, Fasting . . Hope. We were NOT given a GPS system to guide us thru this life. If you want to understand your eternal destination, then this becomes a very special question. What are you using as a GPS to guide you? What are we preparing ourselves for? What is REAL? Jesus said that the Scriptures speak of Him and He is the Way, the Truth and Life, that's why we have ADVENT. The word "Advent" comes from the Latin term "Adventus" meaning the "arrival" of something with great importance. We all enjoy a beautiful sunrise. Every time we see the sunrise in all of its splendor after a very dark night, we certainly feel a sense of warmth and hope for that day and wish that, that daylight will come quickly. Melanie our daughter was born in South Africa.. Father's day inspiration .* * * Picture * * Melanie A sunrise over the African plane is stunningly beautiful and we couldn't wait to experience the next day's events on a safari trip after a very dark night in the African bush. Imagine, you look out your safari lodge and see this picture? . .That's exciting. .* * * Picture * * * An African sunrise is amazing. . . . Now, let's look upon Jesus, the bright morning star. We want Him to bring light and love into our fractured world just as we hope how the beautiful bright sun will bring light again. .* * * Picture * * * Jesus Christ . . . . The "Advent-theme" for this SECOND week is how to understand it as a REALITY. Understanding Advent is an integral part of this Advent season when we celebrate Jesus's birth during this coming season of Christmas. Many people get hung-up on celebrating Christmas. Whether the time is right/wrong is not important, the fact is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and we know that is true. As we move into this second week of Advent, the message in the Book of Malachi talks about how God prepares people to receive Him by sending a messenger who challenges some miss understandings or common perceptions. We know the world is currently in darkness as it was for many years and we are looking onto Jesus to bring light. Let's read . . . Malachi 3:1-5 Look, I'm sending My messenger on ahead to clear the way for Me. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Leader you've been looking for will enter His Temple. Yes, the Messenger of the Covenant, the ONE you've been waiting for. Look, He's on His way. A Message from the mouth of GOD-The-Angel-Armies. (. . . slide two . . ) But who will be able to stand up to that coming? Who can survive His appearance? Yes, I'm on My way to visit you with Judgment. I'll present compelling evidence against magicians, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless, anyone and everyone who doesn't honor Me. These are very strong words from God. That's why Advent is powerful and we must understand it as a REALITY to come. We read in Luke 1 of Zechariah, the Priest who prophesied the birth of John the Baptist, how he should prepare people to see how Jesus would meet our need for salvation like the rising sunlight that dispels this world that is in darkness. Yes, the world needs to understand that Salvation through Christ Jesus is the ONLY way. That's ADVENT. The wish of Paul in his letter to the Philippians is that believers must grow in their ability to "understand" the depth of God's LOVE and God's COMPASSION for all people. Our text for today is where John the Baptist's role is in the fulfilling of this prophecy: This is helping us to see and to understand and perceive the REALITY of it. It depends a lot on recognizing that we are sometimes blind. Sometimes we see something and believe its true, but it's not really true. . * * * picture Neuroscience * - Let me explain: Neuroscientists have been studying for years that human beings sometimes see or perceive things differently as they really are. These Neuroscientists have studied how the human brain takes our old beliefs (or expectations) and uses them to interpret what we are experiencing in the present. They have discovered distinctive brain signals that convert those beliefs into misunderstandings. They have also found how the brain uses these signals to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. In the book Perception: Our Bodies Shape Our Minds, it discusses how our bodies can influence our perception and decision-making (yes our bodies can influence our mind). People who were very tired from work or hunger or stress, thought that distances were much farther away than they actually were, showing how our functional need for food and rest can affect how we perceive REALITY. Just go and buy groceries on an empty stomach, then see home much stuff you buy. Or go on a hike for 5 km, you get tired then ask: How far is it still to go? Somebody says, Oh just another 1/2 km, and your mind says O no, that's still a very long way, I'll never make it. (1/2 km) Our children are great examples of this perception of incorrect reality: Juliet and I went on many safari trips about 3 hrs drive from JHB. We're all excited to see the wild animals, but we're hardly a few blocks away (10 minutes drive) when one of the children asked "are we there yet"? We can find that these twisted perceptions can affect us when it comes to our own faith. We can read scripture passages in the Bible today, and we think we understand what it means, but we often forget that we are reading it from our own cultural and up-bringing perspective, just like our children. .* * * * picture * * * . Bible The scripture was written in an ancient text to mostly rural people in the Middle East a long time ago. Only when we understand the timing of that era, that's when it becomes useful, because we learn a little more about cultural norms of the people to whom the scripture was written during the Middle Eastern time. By being aware of our natural preferences, we can understand the truth of scripture without resorting to take verses out of context and misapplying them. I understand that we are not the first church to misinterpret Scripture. The Jews living during Jesus's day were waiting for a Messiah, but their prior beliefs and expectations made them miss the TRUTH when Jesus finally arrived. Even the message of John the Baptist was not understood. Let me ask: How do you understand this? Luke 3:1-2 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John-the-Baptist, the son of the high Priest Zechariah in the wilderness. Who can tell me who is the real ruler is here? REALITY? Luke might have taken this opportunity to set the stage for us to understand John-the-Baptist's role, or he might be making known the many conflicting human "kingdoms" vs God's ONLY kingdom and God's way of moving into the world. - - - (Many human kingdoms vs God's ONE kingdom) . . . It was in this MIXED political period that "the word of God came to John the Baptist" in the wilderness. The "wilderness" has been described as a place of desolation, but at the same time, a place of provision- (We need a Savior, a provider in this dark wilderness today). Think about the Old Testament stories of Israel wandering in the desert for forty years with God's provision of manna and quail (Exodus 16), or a bit later of Jesus's experience with Satan's temptation in the wilderness after 40 days of fasting. Alone in the wilderness that's where you can really concentrate on the real TRUTH. We can speculate that John's time spent in the wilderness enabled him to be able to receive (perceive) the word of God fully. "Then John the Baptist went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins". John's response to receiving the word of God was to preach repentance (Greek= metanoia). It means more than a simple "I'm sorry." It means total transformation, a new belief, a new way of seeing oneself and others that results in a transformed behavior. The next few verses recount Isaiah's prophecy of the one preparing the way for the Messiah. Straight paths are the most direct and the least confusing ways to get where you want to go. Perhaps it's a metaphor to show how God's ways are better than human ways. A Straight Path to the TRUTH. John the Baptist went through the whole area around the Jordan River and told the people God's message. He told them to be baptized to show that they have to change their lives, then their sins would be forgiven. Luke 3:4-6 This is like the words written in the book of Isaiah the prophet: "There is someone shouting in the desert: Prepare the way for the Lord. Make the road straight for Him. Every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be made flat. Crooked roads will be made straight, and rough roads will be made smooth. Then everyone will see how God will save His people. (everyone will see how God will safe His people Advent= we are moving towards REALITY) The prophecy by Isaiah seems to say that for people to understand or perceive what God is doing, there must be a new perspective about REALITY of oneself and of the world. This "new way of seeing" is contrary to our typical education or expectations. We expect mountains to be high and crooked roads to be crooked. These verses symbolically portray the preparation we need in order to "see" Jesus in our world as being different than what we might expect, similar to what the ancient Jewish believers had to go through. See the REALITY of the TRUTH. .* * * * Picture * * * Jesus Christ . . . The "salvation of God" is Jesus: Emmanuel - God with us. The wording "shall see" here often means "to see with the mind" or "to perceive inwardly with a Spiritual perception" That's REALITY, that's the TRUTH = Spiritual perception Not a Christmas tree or a baby in a manger. But Spiritual perception Being able to see (or perceive) that Jesus was the Messiah required a new way of thinking, one that broke free of old pre-conceived ideas or expectations. This was true for Jews in the days of John the Baptist, and it is still true for us today, a new way of thinking. To perceive that Jesus is the Messiah & to move towards Him Jesus said, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father". Many people have NOT seen Jesus, and they do not realize (or perceive) that He is God in the flesh because He did not fit in with the character of the preconceived ideas of the coming Messiah? We run the same risk of being blinded by our own cultural and personal preferences unless we make an effort to transform the way we view Scripture of what it truly means. REALITY. Advent is helping us to prepare for the arrival of Jesus We must recognize we are affected by what we believe or what we favor. Because we are human, we cannot help but be affected by our culture, or our personal history and our education. Understanding this, helps us to take a step back and pause when we begin to feel self-righteous or inflexible when it comes to a particular issue. We need to take a moment to analyze whether our response to God's Word is motivated by His love for you and me and for others or maybe by our deep beliefs based on our previous understandings and preferences. Understand that the truth of scripture is bigger than the cultural context it was written in. We often recognize that scripture seems like it doesn't apply to us today. When this happens, it's usually because many people may be reading it with a modern, Western viewpoint rather than asking a few questions like: Who is Jesus really? Is He the Savior of the world, or just for those people who go to church? Repentance (metanoia) is how we prepare our hearts to properly perceive God at work in our world. When we absorb true "metanoia" (repentance) that's when we recognize our grasp of REALITY (or truth) that is affected by our personal beliefs and preferences, that we depend on Spiritual food just as much as our bodies need physical food and a good night's rest. We need Spiritual food, not just beautiful X/Mas lights or nice presents. We MUST remain open to the deeper truths of scripture that speak to our world today without getting caught in the weeds of legalism, where we pick and choose ancient practices that seem to suit us and expect others to follow. We realize that God's way of moving in the world is sometimes very different from what we might expect or even want, and we MUST continue to grow in our ability to "understand or see" what personal preferences stand in our way to love God, love our families or love our neighbors, or even love ourselves. Our minds can easily be fooled with old believes. More importantly, we can see that our human way of viewing ourselves, or others, and the world can easily be twisted. Just like our kids who said: Are we there yet? Many Christians know that Jesus was NOT born on Dec 25th, but by humbly accepting these limitations, holding an attitude of repentance (metanoia) and openness, and asking God for wisdom and discernment, we will be able to see and perceive the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work in our own lives and in the lives of others. Many times we ask our "Homestay students" who are from the Far EAST, do you celebrate Christmas in your country? Oh, yes we do. What does it mean to you? We're not sure but everybody is happy, we see nice X/Mas lights and we get presents. The Word of God can easily be misunderstood. Most Western countries are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to get presents. Many people see a Christmas tree, others see Jesus as a baby in a crib, or Jesus on the cross, while others ignore it completely, yet others see Jesus as our ONLY Savior (this is REALITY). Therefor the time of Advent is for us to prepare for His coming. It's important to prepare for this event. Advent is a period of Spiritual preparation in which many Christians make themselves ready to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, and also His return, whenever that might be. Celebrating Advent typically involves a season of prayer, fasting, and repentance, followed by anticipation, hope, and joy then share it with others in a humble way. Many Christians celebrate Advent not only by thanking God for Christ's first coming to Earth as a baby, but also for the risen Christ who is in our presence here today through the Holy Spirit, and prepare and anticipate His final return. Let's go back to this Scripture again: Malachi 3:3-5 Yes, I'm on My way to visit you with Judgment. I'll present compelling evidence against anyone and everyone who does not honor Me. Advent is a period of Spiritual preparation of what is going to take place soon. It's a journey towards the most astonishing and delightful event in all of human history. It's REAL and no one knows the day or the hour. It's a time to celebrate for our hope is in Jesus alone. I repeat the question: What are we preparing ourselves for during Advent? Heaven or Hell? Advent is a period of "preparation" of what is going to take place soon. The darkness of this world will be changed into light just like the bright morning sun that will change our dark nights to a bright morning light. Let's end with this Scripture: Isa. 9:2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine on them. Jesus said: Many are called, but few are chosen. Narrow is the road that leads to eternal life. We need a GPS and that GPS is Jesus Christ. Let's prepare ourselves ( "Spiritual preparation" ) with our lamps full of oil to be ready when Jesus returns. We're on life's journey to prepare ourselves for Heaven and Advent is the perfect time to prepare for it. . * * * Picture * * * Salvation * Jesus returns The whole human race will see God's salvation Stay tuned for next week. Week THREE of Advent. Amen . . . Let's pray 1