Year B :Advent 2 - there are three, different sermons on this page
MK 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way" -- 3 "a voice of one calling in the desert, `Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' " 4 And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 6 John wore clothing made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
7/12/08
I don't know if "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" pinched their ideas from John the Baptist. Living in a deserted, perhaps frightening wilderness. Eating odd foods. Wearing unusual clothing.
One of the things contestants in the show miss is communication with loved ones and the outside world.
How do we communicate? Letter, email, telephone, text, voicemail, adverts, posters, newspapers, magazines.
Best way to communicate? In person
God communicated to us:-
1) Through prophet Isaiah.
Over 600 years before John the Baptist was born, inspired by God, Isaiah predicted John would come and prepare the way for Jesus. We have the record of God's communications with people in the Bible. Thi is the only O.T. Reading that Mark uses in all of his gospel.
2) God sent John.
John was weird and an uncomfortable person to have around. He challenged people to turn from wrong and to follow God's ways. Those who had the humility to do this were baptised. At this time non-Jews had to undergo Baptism as part of the rituals needed to become a member of God's people. So, by coming for baptism, Jews were saying that they had cut themselves off from God by their sin and were no longer true Jews. But their baptism signified a desire to start afresh with God. There was a problem though. Even though John challenged people and encouraged them to turn back to God, he couldn't give them what they needed. This is the continual strength and motivation to know God and to follow his ways. This is what John was pointing forward to.
3) God communicates with us by His Spirit.
When Jesus was on earth he could only be at once place at one time. Before he was crucified, resurrected and ascended he promised another paraclete. One who would be alongside believers. His Holy Spirit.
God's Spirit convicts us of our sin. Opens our eyes to see that we need a Saviour and Jesus is that Saviour. The Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith. He gives us the power we need to live for God. He gives gifts to God's people. He makes Christians more like Jesus giving the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.
We can communicate the good news of Jesus by what we do. 2 Peter 3:8-15a reminds us that followers of |Jesus are to be holy. Set apart by God and for God..
We are to be holy, set apart by and for God. 2 Peter 3:11, Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
How can we do this?
Jesus offers the opportunity of being baptized, the word means submerged or immersed, in His Holy Spirit.
We need to ask for and be open to the Holy Spirit. To work in our lives so they point to Jesus.
Giving a personal message is the best way of communicating. God has sent us a personal message. God has given us the power to live for Him and share His good news. Gospel, verse 1, means "good news".
He invites us to share it with others.
Father, we thank you for this very special time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. There are many who do not know about Jesus. Help us to be your messengers and share the good news. Amen.
4/12/05 10 a.m. Mark 1:1-8
We live in a world full of bad news. Terrorist bombings, inadequate health care, the prospect of having to work longer to get a pension, global warming, extreme weather conditions causing inconvenience, death and disasters.
I like it when they feature a piece of good news to warm one's heart at the end of the news.
Gospel means good news. The good news is that God has become a man, Jesus, born in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago. The good news is that Jesus showed us what God is like, showed and taught us what we should be like. He died and took the punishment for our sins. He rose again to offer us life. He is still alive and we can know Him as our friend and Lord. He is coming again to take those who have made Him their friend and Lord to be with God forever. Living in paradise with new, perfect resurrection bodies. Living a life unaffected by sin, sickness, death, disasters, accidents, and mourning. No more bad news.
Jesus restores us to a right relationship with God and promises us a fullness of life. Now and forever.
This week I discovered "Good News for Norwich" http://www.gnfn.ukf.net, a newspaper available free to residents of my home town. However, it has not been published since Christmas 2002.
The good news of Jesus is timeless, it will always be proclaimed. Mark records the Old Testament origins of the good news. 2 It is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way" -- 3 "a voice of one calling in the desert, `Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "
Romans roads were normally straight. This was to make it quicker to get to places and so there were fewer places for robbers to hide, for example around a bend. The first thing to do
was to clear the ground of rocks and trees. The army builders then dug a trench where the road was to go.
John came to prepare the way, verse 3, "make straight paths for him". Like a bulldozer clearing and levelling the ground before a road is laid. This involved him calling the people to repent. To do a U turn. To have a change of heart. To turn from following their own way to following God's way.
Baptism was a sign that people had made a new start with God. This was an affront to Jewish pride because baptism was something that Gentiles, non-Jews had to have in order to join the Jewish religion. So the Baptism by John of Jews was declaring that without repentance and trust in God they were not part of His people.
In advent we try to prepare ourselves to celebrate the first coming of Jesus as well as being ready for his second coming. Maybe we need to consider a U-turn, to put our pride to one side?
How can we prepare ourselves today? Not just for advent and Christmas, but for our whole lives?
A business man came to a priest asking for advice. The priest offered him a cup of tea. The man held out the cup and the priest poured, and poured and poured. Even when the cup was full he continued to pour until it had flowed out of the saucer and was forming a river on the floor. The businessman cried "Stop, what are you doing? The cup is full"
The priest said, "You are full of your own opinions, ambitions and busyness that I cannot show you the way until you empty your own cup."
How can we welcome Christ unless we are prepared to give him room? To turn from our opinions, our ambitions, our pride, our interests, our busyness.
Christmas is a time of contrasts. Of busyness, but loneliness. Of families, but of domestic violence. Of excess but poverty. Of wanting to do the right thing, but wanting it done our way. Of happiness and misery.
This is the desert, the wilderness, that John the Baptist calls from. He calls us to turn from the ways of the world and seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit, offered by Jesus.
The Greek word for baptism is one that involved immersion. I would like to ask you a question. The Titanic. Is it in the ocean or is the ocean in it?...
When we come to Jesus He baptizes us. He is in us and we are in Him. We have to empty ourselves of ourselves time and time again to get back on the straight path He calls us to follow.
The challenge for us this December is to reassess what we are doing. To be prepared to say "no" to the things that take our time, emotions, energy, and money away from where they should be. To be prepared to say an encouraging word to someone we take for granted or even criticize. To share a Christmas meal with someone who will otherwise be alone at Christmas. To stop being so busy so we may have more time with our earthly family, with our church family, and with friends. To spend a little less on presents and give to those who will have little or nothing, for example the Toybox Appeal that we are making at this moment.
Repentance is not about beating ourselves up, rolling around the floor in sack cloth and ashes. It is about reviewing where we are and where we ought to be. It is about making choices and sticking to them. It is about showing what we believe in by our actions. It is what we do that shows what we truly believe in.
I believe that God wants to bring repentance to this church for 2006. To turn away from coming to church to worship in a way that I want to coming to church to worship in a way which God wants us to worship. This is to give ourselves in praise, worship and service to Him. To break free of our wants, practices and traditions to put Him first. To be united in our service of Him. This has to involve more people helping within the church. But it also has to involve those who are serving to be working towards a common goal of enabling us to worship, serve and live as followers of Jesus and to draw others to Him.
Lets us spend a few moments reflecting.
What is important about Advent and Christmas?
What am I doing to show this?
Is there something God is wanting me stop doing?
Is there something Go wants me to start doing, instead?
What is my attitude to worship and service?
Is it about what I am giving? Is it about what I am wanting?
8/12/02 6 p.m. Mark 1:1-8
PRAY
The children's programme "Sesame Street" had a skit one time based on the old fairy tale where the beautiful princess kisses an ugly frog and the frog becomes a handsome prince. In the Sesame Street telling, however, the princess kissed the frog, whereupon she turned into a frog herself.
That is closer to the good news we celebrate at Christmas. God did not swoop down and survey the human situation from a safe distance. God emptied Himself. He put aside His heavenly robes to don the simple dress of a man.
The word Gospel literally means good news. Although there is no direct inner evidence of authorship, it was the unanimous testimony of the early church that this Gospel was written by John Mark. The most important evidence comes from Papias (c. A.D. 140), who quotes an even earlier source as saying: (1) Mark was a close associate of Peter, from whom he received the tradition of the things said and done by the Lord; (2) this tradition did not come to Mark as a finished account of the life of our Lord, but as the preaching of Peter relating directed to the needs of the early Christian communities; (3) Mark accurately preserved this material. The conclusion then, is that the Gospel of Mark largely consists of the preaching of Peter arranged and shaped by John Mark. It helps to imagine the book of Mark as a short, documentary film of edited highlights. Unlike the other Gospels, this one has little time for dialogue and personal reflection. The author is writing to a restless, impatient audience - people more like moviegoers than readers.
Mark introduces his book by saying, 'The beginning of the gospel about Jesus, the Son of God.' This is the greatest news of all time. Of eternal peace being declared between God and man through Jesus death on the cross, The ultimate peace treaty, signed in the blood of the Son of God. Humankind have to respond to this. By laying down their arms, their rebellion against God, by acknowledging his rule and authority over them and making anew start with God.
The greatest news of all time. The physically blind receive their sight. Spiritual blindness is removed like the scales that fell from the eyes of St. Paul.
This is the beginning of the gospel. A new chapter in God's dealings with humankind. This is reflected in our calendar. The change from Before Christ to Anno Domini, the year of our Lord. It is the end of God showing his grace, favour and deliverance principally to one people, the Jews. From now on God will chose people from all peoples to be his people. From now on people can no longer say, 'What is God like?'. Because from now on they will only need to look at Jesus to know what God is like.
This is the beginning of the experience of the rule of God in and through the person of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. God's kingdom has broken into human history. This new era will end one day. Then Jesus will return and then he will bring into being the kingdom of God in all it's fullness. A new heaven and a new earth. Another, and the final beginning. On that day all those who have repented, turned back to God and lived holy lives, will be in His presence for all eternity. Those who have refused to let God into their lives will have to reap the consequences of the choice they have made.
Mark declares that Jesus is the Son of God. Then launches into the account of John the Baptizer preparing the way for Jesus. Unlike the gospels of Luke or Matthew, which were probably written later, there is no genealogy tracing the human ancestry of Jesus. No account of the conception or birth of John or Jesus. Nothing about Jesus' life until he is about 30 years of age when we go straight into his baptism and public ministry.
Mark emphasises that Jesus is the Son of God. His divine ancestry. Equal to God. Having the same nature and the same glory, even though this was concealed in human form. Mark underlines this claim in Chapter 2 by telling the account of Jesus having authority to forgive sins, something only God can do.
Jesus is the author and the subject of the good news. Today's newspaper is tomorrow's chip paper, and next weeks waste paper for recycling. The Bible is the best seller. The good news of Jesus has been relevant for nearly 2,000 years.
We have the duty and joy of sharing that. As we relate to others in our everyday lives. As we pray for others to come to faith in Jesus.
In the first verse Mark introduces this good news and then he shows it is grounded in the O.T. Only time Mark refers to O.T. Reflects his concise writing and that he was probably writing for Gentiles, perhaps in Rome just before it was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 . He says it is written. Not it was written. This emphasises it's continuing significance for today. The words of Isaiah and other prophets quoted here were written hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. But they pointed to him, and the one who would precede him, 2,000 years ago. And they point to him today.
This shows the importance of the O.T. to Christians today. Some Christians think of it as inferior to the N.T. and that it should be disregarded, or at least not taken as seriously as the N.T.
The O.T. was Jesus' Bible. He quoted the O.T. to the scribes, the Pharisees, and the devil. The O.T. points to Jesus. Jesus is the key to understanding the O.T. But the O.T. also has much to say about God's relationship with his people and with individuals. It tells of his revelation, love deliverance, and undeserved favour. It shows how he wants his people to live. Not to earn his love, but in gratitude for what He has done for them.
So the O.T. points to Jesus. At times it is hard work to read and understand. But it is worth it. It also points to John and his ministry. We see from verses 2 & 3 that :
John was a bulldozer.
verse 3, make straight paths for him.
John came to prepare the way. Like a bulldozer clearing and levelling the ground before a road is laid. This involved him calling the people to repent. To have a change of heart. To turn from following their own way to following God's way.
John was a baptiser.
Baptism was a sign that people had made a new start with God. This was an affront to Jewish pride because baptism was something that Gentiles, non-Jews had to have in order to join the Jewish religion. So the Baptism by John of Jews was declaring that without repentance and trust in God they were not part of His people.
John was a preacher.
John was uncompromising in his lifestyle and his preaching. In Luke's gospel we have a record of some of his teaching. Not only to repent, but he tells those with 2 tunics to share with those who have none. John told soldiers not to abuse their position by extorting money or falsely accusing people. Tax collectors were told not to collect more than they were required to. His teaching was centred on loving others and fairness.
John was a messenger.
John pointed away from himself to Jesus. 7 And this was his message: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
We see in this statement the humility of John. Untying the thongs of a sandal was done before the feet were washed after one had come in from the street. The task was filthy and performed by the most junior slave.
John's baptism, important as it was, was only a baptism of repentance. More was required to put people right with God and to help them live for God. This is the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
However many times someone is baptised this will never make us clean enough for God. Only a personal acceptance of Jesus as Saviour and Lord can make us clean in God's sight.
However hard we try we can never hope to live life God's way without His Holy Spirit to lead, encourage and equip us. God gives his Holy Spirit to all who trust in Jesus. Like John all we need to do is to realise our unworthiness and powerlessness. We need to rely on God. Who has sent Jesus to die in our place. Who sends his Spirit to help us live for God.
We see the role of John the Baptist in John 1: ' 35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.'
Andrew and Simon had no idea what the next three or so years would hold. It would involve them in a new purpose in life. Giving up fishing , becoming fishers of men, sharing the good news. Leaving the security of their home town to travel around listening to Jesus preach, receiving his teaching themselves, and ministering in his power. They followed Jesus in humility, and wholeheartedly. Even if they had wrong expectations of what type of Messiah he was to be.
We have a certain hope. Jesus will return, something we focus on during Advent. Any delay is because God is patient giving people more time to repent. But when Jesus returns it will be sudden and unexpected.
Augustine wrote, 'He who loves the coming of the Lord is not he who affirms that it is far off. Nor is it he who says it is near. It is he who, whether it is far off or near, awaits it with sincere faith, steadfast hope, and fervent love.'
PRAY