Looking for a Sign

25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. On the earth, there will be dismay among nations in their confusion over the roaring of the sea and surging waves. 26 The planets and other heavenly bodies will be shaken, causing people to faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world. 27 Then they will see the Human One coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.”

Looking for a Sign

Have you ever been driving down the road and you were looking for a road sign that would give you directions?

Maybe its me, but I’ve always paid attention when I travel and try to remember signs or roadside attractions that serve as a reminder of where I’m at or how close I am to getting to where I am headed.

Signs don’t necessarily have to be on a post along the highway.

People in church often say “it’s a sign of the times.”

What time are they referring to?

It is actually a phrase from the Bible that Jesus spoke.

Matthew 16:3 (NIV)

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.

I think that a lot of us are looking for a sign. Here we are into our second season of Advent and this virus is again locking down the world. We learned of a new “variant” just this week. I’m not sure we are surprised that there are variants. Look at the seasonal flu, it’s never the same variant each year that we get immunized for.

People are making a choice to get immunized or loose their job. It seems like our government has gone crazy with spending money that we don’t have.

There was a Home Depot that was robbed just the other day out west. The thieves stole crowbars and hammers. Why you might ask? It is presumed that those tools will be used to break in to high end stores so that they can smash and grab stuff. In California it is a misdemeanor to steal less than $1,000 in merchandise from a store.

Just last weekend families were enjoying the beginning of the holiday season and some guy drives through the parade running over people, killing 6.

What is happening to our world? Are you looking for a sign this morning?

Jesus said there in verses 25 & 26

Luke 21:25–26 CEB

Look at what fear has caused. For us as Christians we know that these things are going to happen. The Bible contains lots of reminders that bad times are going to happen before the end.

Jesus said these things are a “foreboding of what is coming.”

He didn’t leave us without hope. This first Sunday of Advent is the Sunday of Hope. Look there at verses 27-28.

Luke 21:27–28 CEB

27 Then they will see the Human One coming on a cloud with power and great splendor. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, stand up straight and raise your heads, because your redemption is near.”

We are one day closer to our final redemption.

Jump down to verse 33

Luke 21:33 CEB

33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will certainly not pass away.

I don’t think it is to much of a stretch to say that He is talking about his spoken words but about himself as well.

The Apostle John opened his Gospel with these words:

John 1:1 CEB

1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

and you jump down to verse 14 and he wrote

John 1:14 (CEB)

14 The Word became flesh and made his home among us.

John refers to Jesus as "the Word." Of all the names of Jesus, this is probably the most puzzling names.

Paul quoating from the Psalms wrote:

2 Corinthians 4:13 (CEB)

I had faith, and so I spoke. We also have faith, and so we also speak.

For the Psalmist and Paul his words stood for his faith.

William Wordsworth the great poet said that "language is the embodiment of thought." He likely got that saying from this chapter here in John.

Jesus on earth was the outward expression that people could see of the thought, heart, and the love of God. Because of that, it was said of him that he was God present in the flesh.

I really love how the Message Paraphrase put that passage together

John 1:14 (The Message)

14 The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.

I think only John could have put it just that way. He was one of the beloved disciples, one of the three who were closest to him.

When he writes those words you can almost picture Jesus living in that house just down the street from you. The words in the original language means that he pitched his tent among us, lived with us just as one of us. No other word could be used that would mean more than the word "home."

Where a person lives, they make themselves known. At work I really don’t know what most of by clients look like because they have to wear a mask. A person may wear a mask when out in the public. Where a person makes their home, people know them, and their true self comes out in their home.

Jesus left all of the glory he had with the Father before the world was, leaving his Father’s home. He came down to earth and was born among us, among the ordinary people, among the everyday common folks.

He might have been born in a palace. He might have come in the full glory of adulthood, leading legions of angels in his train, but he chose to be born in the manger at Bethlehem, in the home of common everyday people

How close this brings Jesus to us! Thank God that, as the writer of Hebrews expresses it,

Hebrews 2:16–18 CEB

16 Of course, he isn’t trying to help angels, but rather he’s helping Abraham’s descendants. 17 Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way. This was so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, in order to wipe away the sins of the people. 18 He’s able to help those who are being tempted, since he himself experienced suffering when he was tempted.

I like that little touch where he says that he "had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way." That comes close to my heart. Jesus wanted to be like me so that he could understand my troubles and my weakness. How amazing is that?

This is the most marvelous thing in the world that he who had infinite riches, for our sakes, became poor.

He who had all power in heaven and in the earth, keeping his divine power, He came down and was born in Bethlehem as the child of a poor carpenter.

He became a part and a parcel of our humanity, just as completely wearing our humanity.

He who was God became a little babe and was subject to his parents, and grew in wisdom and stature, and toiled day after day in a carpenter shop, in that little town of Nazareth.

He grew weary and tired. He became hungry and thirsty. He made friends. He loved, hoped, and rejoiced. He bore pain, heartache, and loneliness and died. He did everything that we do except to sin.

Look at how close this brings the Savior to us!

For thirty-three years, he dwelt among us. He talked with us. He opened his heart to us. He shared all our trials. He who was God over all became the tenderest brother to rich and poor, ruler and peasant, high and low, the good and the bad. His was not the kind of goodness that frightened bad people away from him. How can we ever thank God enough for the Lord Jesus who moved into the neighborhood.

This is the Jesus I bring to you. The One who had all riches and yet came and shared your poverty. Have you had a challenging year? Have you been out of work? Have you had to figure out how you would make both ends meet?

I bring to you the Savior who made all the gold in the mountain secure, and came down from heaven where the streets are paved with gold, and took upon himself such poverty that he was able to say of himself, with all truth, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."

Do you get tired of life? Are the burdens too heavy for you to carry? Do you come to the end of your day tired and worn out?

I bring to you the blessed Savior who possesses all power in heaven and in the earth. He came and took upon himself our weakness, he came not to be ministered to but to minister. He wore out his life, in all humility of love, that he might know how to sympathize with every tired soul through all time.

Just think what it means to know that as the Savior stands before you in your weariness, knowing that he himself knows what it means to be tired out, and nervous, and sleepless. He says with inexpressible tenderness these words:

Matthew 11:28–30 CEB

28 “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. 29 Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. 30 My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

Are you in the midst of temptation? Does it seem like the devil has you in his cross-hairs? Does he lure you with his lying fascination and fiendish persistence day after day?

I bring to you the Christ who was tempted in all points like you are and who endured the agony of it on purpose that he might know how to help you in your temptations.

I bring to you the Savior who was hungry and faint and tempted by the devil, in the wilderness; on the pinnacle of the temple; on the mountain-top, and in the garden of Gethsemane, where the great drops of bloody sweat stood out on his forehead in the fierce agony of a trial. He comes to you and says with all love, “Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me."

But it is not only that the Lord Jesus came and dwelt among us in the flesh for thirty-three years, but ever since that time, he has been coming in a new incarnation to multitudes of human souls all around the world.

Someone once said that there are two Christmas days to every Christian, the day when Jesus was born in Bethlehem and the day when Jesus was born anew in his heart. No Christian can ever forget that glorious second Christmas morning.

The supreme evidence of the divinity of Jesus rests not merely on the historical fact that Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem and did live the life recorded in the gospels, with its miracles of mercy and love, and was raised from the dead in mighty power. Though there is nothing in history that has been substantiated so perfectly as that.

As convincing as all the facts and truth about Jesus, they do not compare with the remarkable fact that Jesus has been born in my heart. That he came knocking at the door of my heart when I was a sinner, and when with trembling faith I opened the door, he came in to live there.

That is the mightiest evidence that could ever be cited! The incarnate Christ in people, living his life of grace and truth there, lifting them out of anger, and hate, and lust, and sin of every kind. Making them live anew the gracious life of the self-denying Christ on earth that is a piece of evidence which no man can ever refute.

Benjamin Fay Mills was an evangelist in the later part of the 1800’s. He was holding revival meetings in Philadelphia, a man came in one evening wounded and bleeding. He was one of the roughest of the rough, who had been in a bar fight a few minutes before and was so horribly beaten that he fled to the church to save his life.

He was one of those men who had lived his whole life, from his very babyhood, in rough and wicked life. He had never in his life opened a Bible. And while in this place of refuge be listened to the truth, and the Holy Spirit touched his heart. In the agony of his conviction for sin, he began to cry out in the anguish of his soul, "God have mercy upon me, a sinner!" That night the Savior's pardoning love was shown to him, and the peace of God turned his agony for sin into thanksgiving for forgiveness.

He left the church a new man in Christ Jesus. The amazing thing is this. This man, restored to his right mind, and rejoicing in the saving grace of Christ, began at once to work for the Savior. All his hatred toward the men who had beaten him was gone. And he went straight back to them to tell them of his newfound hope and joy. They listened in amazement, and sixteen of the roughest men in Philadelphia within a few weeks were brought to Christ. No mere man could do that. It was the Son of God born anew in that man's heart.

Mark Guy Pearse, a Methodist preacher of the late 1800’s, told of a fisherman named Moses. Moses had found the Jesus and was constantly alert to every opportunity to do something for him. One day he was out fishing, another boat got tangled in his nets, and the man in the other boat began hacking away at the nets, swearing horribly.

Moses said calmly, "Don't swear, it hurts me to hear you;" but the man went on worse than ever. Not long after, one day when the that man was drinking in the bar, there was a storm that came up and his fishing boat got loose. Moses happened to see the boat drifting about, so he put out at the cost of a good deal of challenging work to himself, and brought her in, and put her safe.

When the owner came out and realized what had been done, he said to Moses, "What did you save my boat for?"

"Cause I couldn't help it."

"What do you mean? I cut your nets to pieces, and now you save my boat."

"I'd do anything for you."

"What do you call yourself?" said the man.

"I call myself a Christian," said Moses.

"I never saw one before; what is that?"

"That is a man that can love his neighbor as himself."

"What, you love me? you have broken my heart," and flinging his arms around Moses's neck, he burst out crying. And after that, there was not a better man sailing out of that harbor than that man who had been a drunken, swearing bully.

Mr. Pearse tells another story which beautifully illustrates the power of the divine Christ living in us.

A man named Anthony had been converted, and his wife was very bitter about it. To use the man's own words, "When I found the Savior, she said to herself, 'I will set to and see how much that man can bear,' and when I saw what she was about, I said, 'Lord, I will set myself to show her how much thy grace can do.' She went on bit by bit, till she became what you might call aggravating.

I used to get up and light the fire, and I said, 'Lord, let the fire burn with thy love;' that would preach her a sermon.

Then I used to clean her boots, and I said, 'Lord, let the boots shine with thy grace.'

Then I turned to fill the pitchers at the well, and said I, 'Lord, let 'em brim over with thy love,' I thought, that will preach her a sermon there's firstly, secondly, and thirdly.

Then I went out and filled the kettle, and I used to say, 'Lord, let it boil over with thy love.'

That went on for some months, and one Sunday evening I was praying for people at church, and before I got home it was eleven o'clock at night. When I came home my door was shut, bolted, and barred, and the wife was gone to bed. She would not let me in. I felt at first like kicking that door down, but I looked up to the elements, and went to the hedge by the churchyard, and there it seemed the Lord came and stood by me. I seemed to be talking to the Lord all the time, and I waited and waited, and at half-past two my wife came out sobbing and said, 'Anthony, can you forgive me?' I said, 'My dear, I have nothing to forgive.' She said, 'Don't say that; kick me, do anything to me.' I took her by the hand, and we went home and knelt down in our kitchen, and the Lord put his grace in my wife's heart, and we have been amazingly comfortable ever since."

No mere man could do that. But it is just like our Jesus to help us to do things like that.

What is happening to our world? Are you looking for a sign this morning? Jesus is here and he is coming again. Are you ready?