The Beginning
HEAR YE! HEAR YE!
Mark 1:1-5:
THE BEGINNING OF THE GOSPEL of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold I send my messenger before thy face, who
shall prepare thy way; the voice of one crying in the
wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his
path straight.” John the Baptist appeared in the
wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for
the forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him
all the country of Judea, and all the people of
Jerusalem, and they were baptized by John the
Baptist in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
Prepare thy way, God certainly did as he sent one who may be the
last messenger we may have ever picked. What would you do…what
would you do, if someone came to you dressed and preaching like
John the Baptist?
Mark 1: 6-8?
Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, and had a
leather girdle around his waist, and ate locust and wild
honey. And he preached saying, “After me comes one
who is mightier that I, the thongs of whose sandals I am
not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you
with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Sometimes in life we get so busy staring and judging the messenger
that we fail to hear the message from God.
In the words of the Psalmist, Psalm 85: 8-15
Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak
peace to his people, to his saints, to those who turn to him
in their hearts. Surely his salvation is at hand for those
who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Steadfast
love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace
will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the
ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.
Yea, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will
yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him, and
Sometimes in life we get so busy that we forget as the Psalmist says
In verse eight to hear what God the Lord will speak.
We get so busy judging that we loose our steadfast love and
Faithfulness to God and instead of feeling the kiss of peace we give
the kiss of hate.
In our anger toward life and the world we give nothing out to others
but a kiss of hate for we have no self-love for ourselves let alone
anyone else.
We get so caught up within ourselves of hating our life and the cards
that we have been dealt that we are callous to all we meet. But John
the Baptist did not let you, you know who you are god Jr., bother him,
for God sent John the Baptist on a journey to spread the Good News
about one who is coming that is greater than I. Spread the Good News
in humbleness and for the love of God the Father.
Last Sunday we lit the first candle of Advent, the candle of Hope.
The hope that one knows when they have a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ as their Lord the Savior. On this the second Sunday of
Advent we light the candle of Peace. Peace that comes when one has
Hope, for one knows they are not alone. The message that John the
Baptist was spreading was that there is hope and peace for all not in
this world but through Jesus Christ.
Hope and Peace with the message of Christmas for unto you this day
a child shall be born and his name shall be Emmanuel (God is with
you.)
Have you ever wondered if you start to hear the same thing all the
time, it starts to become less and less meaningful. It’s like the ads
on TV…”Come this Friday at 6AM to get the best prices of the year.
Doors open at 5:45 AM, DON’T MISS THIS ONCE IN A LIFETIME
OPPORTUNITY!!” At first you may get all excited about the good
price but then when you’ve been around the block a few times you
may relax and say, Oh well, maybe I’ll wait and see if they have an
after Christmas sale. You come to realize that J.C. Penny has one
day only sales all the time. The Saturday only, three-hour sale at
Sears will happen again, and when you go to Kohl’s to check out
the yellow dot items on sale you realize I didn’t want these before,
which is probably why they marked them down now, to get rid of
them. I wonder if this is how people, non-believers feel at Christmas?
Do the churches become saturated with spiritual sappy talk during
Christmas, just as some think I’d better show up for the Christmas
service to stay on God’s good side?
The message this morning is that God sends messengers, angels, to
Us who may be the most unlikely persons we could ever imagine.
For the words of the song say, This the season to be jolly, tra-la-la-la-
la-la-la but not everybody feels jolly this time of year. Not everybody
feels like somebody. Some feel like a misfit, you know the words
don’t you?
We’re a couple of misfits. We’re a couple of misfits. What’s the matter
with misfits, that where we fit in! We’re not daffy and dilly, don’t go
round willy nilly, seems to us kind of silly that we don’t fit in. We may
be different than the rest, who decides the test that we don’t fit in?
We’re a couple of misfits; we’re a couple of misfits. What’s the matter
with misfits?
If you feel:
If you feel that nobody knows how lonely my road, nobody knows
how heavy my load. Nobody cares how tearful my way, how dark the
night, how weary the load. Nobody knows, nobody cares, my every
burden nobody shares.
I believe that God does know what we are experiencing in our life.
God knows our loneliness. God knows of our tears, of the darkness
of the night and how weary is our load. God does care and that is
why God has a plan.
A plan that began in the beginning when God created the heavens
and the earth and on the seventh day he rested. God has a plan, in
the beginning when God sent John the Baptist into the wilderness
to spread His message of the three R Plan.
Repent of your sins and be baptized in the Holy Spirit and…
Receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior…
Reform your life to walk as a child of God.
God had a plan when the Angel Gabriel told the virgin Mary that she
was with child for she was in favor with God. At this very moment,
God may have chosen you to be John the Baptist of 2005 and the
message is still the same, to lead others to Jesus Christ.
May the message of salvation, of Jesus, never become old in our
lives as the message of Christmas sales for unlike the sales of this
world there is no follow-up sale wants one takes their last breath, as
we know life in the sin of the flesh.
The King Is Coming, and there will be someone you meet who will
need to hear the Good News and in their life at that moment it will
be the beginning of a new life style on this earth and for their
salvation.
For the first time in their life they may have seen the candle of Hope,
Happiness, Optimism, Perseverance, Endurance, for they are no
longer alone.
With this new found feeling of Hope they may have Peace and the
Presence of God, Everlasting love, an Attitude of I an okay.
With an inner Contentment of belonging, and Encouragement to
start a new day in their life.
If we mean what we say, MERRY CHRISTMAS, then we need to go
out and share what we know and believe so others may come to
know and believe in their lives.
1 John 1: 1-3
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked
upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word
of life. The life was made manifest, and we saw it, and
testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was
made with the Father and was made manifest to us. That
which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you,
so that you may have fellowship with us; and our
fellowship is with his Son Jesus Christ.
Let us pray,
My Jesus, my Savior, Lord there is none like you. All of my days I
want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort,
my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath,
all that I am never cease to worship to you. Shout to the
Lord all the earth let us sing, Power and majesty
Praise to the King. Mountains bow down and
the sea will roar at the sound of your name.
I sing for joy at the work of your hand,
forever I love you; forever I stand.
Nothing compares to the promise
I have in you. I sing for joy at the
work of your hand, forever I’ll
love you; forever I’ll stand.
Nothing compares to the
promise I have, nothing
compares to the
promise I
have in
you.
Amen
Image Courtesy: The Bread Site
12/04/2005JWM
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