SPECIAL DAYS: Second Sunday in Advent

December 5, 1999 - LESSONS: Isaiah 40.1-11; Mark 1:1-8, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: An Awesome God

(Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

INTRODUCTION:

  1. Take your bulletin and write down an adjective or two which you would use to describe God.

(Give the congregation a minute or two)

MAIN BODY:

  1. Our words have a deep and abiding, and lasting influence on us and all with whom see attempt to communicate.
    1. Effect
    2. Impact
  2. Words develop from the use of our imagination.
    1. We try to create a picture of God.


      2. Illustration:

      The following story comes from Cal Samra, editor of The Joyful Noiseletter.(1)

      A story is told about Abraham Lincoln that he once was shown a painting in the home of a friend, and asked what he thought of it.

      "I think he is a good painter in that he observes the Lord's commandments," Lincoln replied. "He hath not made to himself the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, nor that is in the earth beneath, nor that is in the waters under the earth."

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

    Cal Samra continues: "The same might be said about many of the representations of Jesus currently being printed by publications and publishers of all denominations.

    "Many of these paintings can be variously described as ugly, grim, morbid, depressive, joyless, gruesome, macabre, bizarre, wimpy, uninspiring, tasteless.

    "Gazing upon any one of them, one wonders: Can this be Jesus? Can this be the Messiah, the God of love, the God of joy, the God of mercy, the God of courage, the Prince of peace, the Healer of depressives, the Great Physician, the Holy Mighty, the Holy Immortal, the Savior of the world?

    "Can this be the Jesus who said: 'Whenever you fast, do not Put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do' (Matthew 6:16, NASB)?

    "Can this be the Jesus who promised His disciples shortly before He was crucified: 'I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete' John 15:11, NIV)?

    "We know that Jesus attracted children to Him. Would a Jesus who looked like these artists' representations attract children, or scare them away? We also know that Jesus attracted the sick and the depressed to Him. Would a Jesus who looked like these artists' representations attract the sick and depressed?

    "I think they'd be scared away.

    "Image may not be everything, but if the devil is still determined to sabotage the Christian faith, one major strategy would be to enlist artists to distort Jesus' image and to make Him so unappealing that people would be discouraged from following Him.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

    "An Italian Dominican, Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) made this appeal to the painters of his day:

    'Paint Christ not dead but risen, with His foot set in scorn on the split rock with which they sought to hold Him down!

    'Paint Him the Conqueror of death!

    'Paint Him the Lord of life!

    'Paint Him as what He is, the irresistible Victor who, tested to the uttermost, has proved Himself in very deed mighty to save!'
     

  1. If you were to create a portrait of Jesus, what would it look like?
    1. So what adjectives did you write down?
    2. How do they help us with our imaginary picture?
  1. Here is my list of words.
    1. Impressive - Impelling
    2. Astonishing - Improbable
    3. Amazing - Awe-Inspiring
    4. Mind-blowing - Staggers the imagination
    5. Cool - Calm
    6. Overwhelming - Profound
    7. Formidable - Challenging
    8. Consistent - Dependable
    9. Empathetic - Compassionate
    10. You notice that I did not use the word, "Holy."
      1. God is holy.
      2. We must take the holiness of God seriously.
      3. Holiness is not something that creates fear but awe.

        (Top)    (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

         

(Top)    (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page) 

  1. We relate to, love, serve, reverence, worship, have faith in, pray to An Awesome God.
    1. God does not ever leave us nor forsake us.
      1. The Lord comes.

        2. (Isaiah 40:10 NRSV) See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

      2. You might have trouble with time.

        3. (2 Peter 3:8-9 NRSV) But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. 

    2. God does not leave us to flounder in the midst of our ignorance or angst.
      1. God wants us to come to repentence.

        2. (2 Peter 3:9 NRSV) The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 

      2. He sends his messenger to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

        3. (Mark 1:1-3 NRSV) The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. [2] As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, "See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; [3] the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" 

      3. The one who engages in the work of preparation is John, the Baptist.

        4. (Mark 1:7 NRSV) He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

     

    1. God does not seek to control or manipulate

      2. (Isaiah 40:1-2 NRSV) Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. [2] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

      (2 Peter 3:14 NRSV) Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish;

    1. God offers a vision a dream.

      2. (Isaiah 40:9-10 NRSV) Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" [10] See, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

(2 Peter 3:10-12 NRSV) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. [11] Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, [12] waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire?

    1. God provides for the fulfillment of purpose.

      2. (Isaiah 40:3-5 NRSV) A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [4] Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. [5] Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

    1. God offers assistance and help.

      2. (Mark 1:7-8 NRSV) He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. [8] I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." 

    2. God is truly awesome.

      3. (Isaiah 40:3-5 NRSV) A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [4] Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. [5] Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

      (Mark 1:7-8 NRSV) He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. [8] I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)

Conclusion:

  1. Sherwood E. Wirt, in Jesus, Man of Joy(2) writes about James S. Stewart, his beloved teacher at Edinburgh University who said:


    2. "'Don't be put off by these gloomy caricatures of Christianity. For God's sake, don't judge Jesus, the King of joy, by them! Try the real thing, not that miserable parody of the reality. Make friends with Jesus, stand where Peter and John and Andrew did, and look into his eyes, listen to the music of his voice, answer his challenge, rise and follow.'"

    Dr. Wert continues: "What is the Bible's ultimate purpose? To bring exhilaration and delight to you and me? No. It is to bring us back to God. The One who made us who wants us back in fellowship with him. He has something in mind for us to do. The Bible is a love letter to the whole world, but it starts with the person who opens it and reads it. It is the message of a Father pleading with his children. It is not some strange vibration out of the cosmos, nor is it a mystical distillation from the zodiac. Its purport is, "Come home, son. Come home, daughter." And it ends with the promise of the Holy Spirit that he will stay with us, will never decamp in rough terrain, and will bring us at our journey's end back to the loving Father who made us and the Jesus who saved us.

    "Here is where the joy enters: That welcoming party will be accompanied by a joy so exquisite in richness that nothing on earth or in heaven can compare with it."
     

  2. The same could be said for Christmas.
    1. Christmas has taken a bad rap.
       
    2. There are those who would concentrate on the pagan origins of some of our acts of celebration.
       
    3. They destroy the spirit of the season.
       
  3. God would encourage the joy and praise of the season.
     
    1. It is necessary to pay attention to what is being said and done.
       
    2. In the midst of it we anticipate the celebration of the birth, not of Santa Claus, but a Savior.
       
  4. The gift of An Awesome God. Amen!!!!

1. Can This Be Jesus?, More Holy Hilarity, pp. 179-181

2. Sherwood E. Wirt, Jesus, Man of Joy (Eugene, Ore.: Harvest House Publishers, 1999), 69.

(Top)     (Back to sermons for 2000)   (Back to sermons Home Page)     (Back to Shultz Home Page)