Sermon Tone Analysis

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?

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* * * 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.

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* * * 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

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* * 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.

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* * 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.

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* * 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.

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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.

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* * * 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.

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* * * 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.