Jesus IS returning ... be ready! (CC)
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First Sunday of Advent December 2, 2012
Sermon Text: LUKE 21:25-36
This morning's sermon text recorded for us
in Luke's Gospel where we read from Chapter 21,
beginning with Verse 25:
"THERE WILL BE SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS.
ON THE EARTH, NATIONS WILL BE IN ANGUISH
AND PERPLEXITY AT THE ROARING AND TOSSING OF THE SEA.
MEN WILL FAINT FROM TERROR, APPREHENSIVE
OF WHAT IS COMING ON THE WORLD,
FOR THE HEAVENLY BODIES WILL BE SHAKEN.
AT THAT TIME THEY WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING
IN A CLOUD WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY.
WHEN THESE THINGS BEGIN TO TAKE PLACE,
STAND UP AND LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, BECAUSE
YOUR REDEMPTION IS DRAWING NEAR."
HE TOLD THEM THIS PARABLE: "LOOK AT THE FIG TREE AND ALL
THE TREES. WHEN THEY SPROUT LEAVES, YOU CAN SEE
FOR YOURSELVES AND KNOW THAT SUMMER IS NEAR.
EVEN SO, WHEN YOU SEE THESE THINGS HAPPENING,
YOU KNOW THAT THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR.
"I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, THIS GENERATION
WILL CERAINLY NOT PASS AWAY UNTIL ALL THESE THINGS
HAVE HAPPENED. HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL PASS AWAY,
BUT MY WORDS WILL NEVER PASS AWAY.
"BE CAREFUL, OR YOUR HEARTS WILL BE
WEIGHED DOWN WITH DISSIPATION, DRUNKENNESS AND
THE ANXIETIES OF LIFE, AND THAT DAY WILL
CLOSE ON YOU UNEXPECTEDLY LIKE A TRAP.
FOR IT WILL COME UPON ALL THOSE WHO LIVE ON THE FACE
OF THE WHOLE EARTH. BE ALWAYS ON THE WATCH,
AND PRAY THAT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO ESCAPE
ALL THAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN, AND THAT YOU MAY BE ABLE TO
STAND BEFORE THE SON OF MAN."
This is the Word of our Lord. Let us pray:
Glorious and gracious God, may the words of my mouth
and the meditation of each of our hearts
be acceptable in Your sight, our only source of
hope and comfort. Amen.
[Text taken from the HOLY BIBLE:
NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, 1973, 1978, 1984,
used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers]
Dear Followers of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ:
I find it a little bit ironic,
that people think
the 12 days of Christmas
is such a difficult thing
to celebrate
that historically the church spent
up to 28 days of Advent
preparing to celebrate Christmas.
And then feasted and had a festival
for 12 days.
Nothing like that crazy song about what your true love
gives to you on each of those days.
But there's no reason why we can't as the children of God
celebrate by giving 12 gifts
to those people in our lives
the abundance of what God has given to us ...
showered upon us
in His righteousness ...
in His holiness. What a reason for us to rejoice
and celebrate. I find it so ironic
that there are people who think celebrating for the 12
days after Christmas is such a
difficult thing when in July we start
with Christmas sales.
When in October, there are things that
you can decorate with your house available
everywhere for you to purchase.
We have been celebrating and getting ready for
Christmas for months!
And I know that some of you are absolutely already
sick and tired of it.
And it's December 2nd.
Some of you
have just ignored it.
Not gonna think about it. Not gonna look at it.
Not gonna worry about it.
And I think that sometimes as Christians
we fall into that same trap
with the fact that Christ is going to return.
We hear about it. We read about it in Scriptures.
We know that it is coming.
But we just ignore it.
Put it out of our minds. Not even
worry about it. Don't be concerned.
Then we need to come back and hear what our Savior says
to us this morning:
"BE CAREFUL ... be very,
very careful.
Because realize the signs
of Christ's coming are all
around us. They have been there since Jesus
Himself talked about famines and wars
and rumors of wars. The fact that the
love of most people is going to grow cold. That husband is
going to turn against wife. And there's going to be
strife in the world. That there are going to be
difficulties for the church; it will be persecuted.
All of these things have happened!
And it is a reminder to us
to see those things. Jesus said
to His disciples: Look at the fig tree. When you know its
got leaves on it, you know that summer is coming.
But that should also remind you that Christ is coming.
When you go into that store in October
and see those Christmas decorations,
think Christmas is coming and remind yourself that
Christ is going to return.
That Christ is going to come and take His Church
to be with Him. On that great and Last Day
of Judgment, for us as the Church
it's going to cause us to stand up and look to the sky.
Raising our voices,
praising God that He has fulfilled and
kept His promises. That He has come to take His Church
to live triumphantly with Him
in heaven. But our sinful nature
is always there.
And it wants to put fear in our head. It wants to put
doubt in our mind. It wants us
to get sidetracked. It wants us to not be aware of
what is happening around us.
And that's why Jesus is so important to say:
Be careful! Be watchful!
Know what is going on and
think about what is happening.
Think about what is going on. And maybe we need to do that
throughout this season of Advent, not just
when Christ was returning, but what are you
preparing to celebrate in a few short weeks?
What is the reason for the
hope that you have? It is Jesus Christ
come into this world
to save sinners.
To save us!
To offer Himself as that living
sacrifice for my sins and for your sins
and for the sins of the entire world.
There IS our JOY!
That is what causes us to sing
with a heart filled and overflowing
with love. And it is that same thought
that we have for Christ in His return
who is coming to save us and take the
world ... take us out of this world of sin,
and destruction,
and chaos to our heavenly home
that is filled with His holiness.
And His perfection. And His order.
We need to be careful
so that we are not getting
swept away in a current of thought that puts that
in the back of our mind.
It is something that we live with each and every day.
Reminding ourselves to look for His returning.
To pray for His returning. To stand on
our confessional feet and say
He is going to come. And all eyes
will see Him; even those who pierced Him we're told in
Scripture. He will come with all
of His angels in the grace and gloriousness
of who He is!
To judge humanity. And those who
believe in Jesus Christ will be told
to come and take the inheritance of their
heavenly Father. To live
in the holy mansion of God
for all eternity.
That's what we look forward to.
And that's what we should be concerned about these days.
Praying for that as well.
Praying each and every day that we can continue to
live our faith. To grow in the
knowledge of our faith. To study
God's Word. To pray that God would comfort us
with the knowledge that our sins have been forgiven.
To realize that we stand in God's presence,
not on the basis of how wonderful we are
as individuals. But how grand
and glorious is God's Son!
That He has given to us
His righteousness!
He has shown us His love
and we look at the prayer that Paul made for the church in
Thessalonica that that love
that was among them would continue to grow.
Continue to be made strong
for each other. To pray for each other. To pray
for those who need to hear the Gospel.
To pray for the fellow believers across the globe.
What a wonderful opportunity
we have as the children of God
to do that for each other.
To encourage our congregations across
the world by praying for them.
That God would bless their outreach efforts. That God
would make them strong in the face of persecution.
That God would come to us and make us
strong and steadfast in our
confession of what this season
truly celebrates:
The love of God in sending a Savior
who saves sinners.
That He has called us by name
to be His own. What a tremendous
blessing that is for us.
It is a reason for us to rejoice.
It is a reason for us to celebrate
not just the 20-some days of Advent.
Not just the 12 days of Christmas.
Not just the high and holy festivals
that the Church has set aside,
but each and every morning with the rising of the sun
to devote ourselves to our
Lord and Savior.
To pray to Him with thanksgiving for the blessings
that come to us new every morning by His grace.
To be careful
to do that. To get back
to truly what is important in our lives.
What we enjoy in our lives.
What supports us in our life of faith.
To make those our top priorities each and
every day. And all the rest will follow.
All of those other blessings will
come into our lives and we will have that joy.
We will have the love of the people around us
in the faith. We will see
with our very eyes the signs
of God's presence in our lives.
And know that that is what our eternity is all about.
There is gonna be
a lot of celebrating coming up in the next few days.
So be careful.
Be watchful. Be mindful that our Savior is returning.
That He is coming again.
Spend some time in prayer
to prepare yourself to receive Him
as the Lord of lords and King of kings.
Amen.
Let us rise.
Now may the peace of God which goes beyond all of our
understanding, keep your hearts and your minds and
especially your lives in the one true faith unto life
everlasting. Amen.