The Second Sunday of Advent
This is the Second Sunday of Advent and we light the second candle. The first candle is the Prophets candle and represents hope. The second candle is the Bethlehem candle. It represents humility and preparation.
Last week we talked about the Light of Advent. Today let’s talk about the Faith of Advent. There’s no better place to start than in Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2-5 (NKJV)
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” 3 Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel. 4 And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; And they shall abide, For now He shall be great To the ends of the earth; 5 And this One shall be peace.
This verse from the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament in relationship to Jesus’ birth:
Matthew 2:6 (NKJV)
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
Using this verse, the religious leaders were able to tell Herod and the Wise Men that the Messiah (‘Christ’ in the Greek) was to be born in Bethlehem. That wasn’t a big secret. There were discussions later about Jesus. Some people said, “Could He be the Christ?” Others, thinking he was born in Nazareth, not Bethlehem, said:
John 7:42 (NKJV)
42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
Jesus grew up in Nazareth, but He was born in Bethlehem!
There are two things that I would like you to consider regarding Bethlehem and faith.
What was promised is now a reality
When the prophet Micah wrote that prophetic word about Bethlehem, it must have seemed pretty far-fetched and far-off. Like all the prophecies, it was promised to happen, but it was not yet reality. The Bible says that Micah and others in the Old Testament only saw these promises from a distance. They died not having received the promises. To them it was a promise – a potentiality.
This isn’t true for us. It is not a promise that we look ahead to, but a reality that we can look back on.
The Faith of Advent is real.
Faith became reality when a young girl named Mary had a Baby Boy in Bethlehem, named Jesus. It is a perfect place for faith to become real.
Out of little Bethlehem came Greatness
Here is the second thing I want you to notice. Bethlehem was a nothing, little place. It was small and insignificant in every way. Yet out of this little, tiny city came the greatest event – the greatest individual – to ever walk the face of the earth. The impact of that city is still being felt today.
MUSTARD SEED FAITH
What does that have to do with faith? Consider a mustard seed. Notice how tiny this little seed is. It is like the city of Bethlehem. Out of this little seed comes a great plant. Jesus said to his disciples:
Luke 13:18-19 (NKJV)
18 Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
This seed is not a large tree, but it could be. It is a potential mustard plant – a virtual one.
1. Don’t be satisfied with virtual faith.
Some years ago, Madonna sang a song that said, “We are living in a material world, and I am a material girl.” That may have been true back then, but not so much anymore. We are, more and more, living not in a material world but in a virtual world.
Many prefer virtual relationships
With some 30 million people now involved world-wide [in online, virtual reality video games], there is mounting concern that some are squandering—even damaging—their real lives by obsessing over their "second" ones. That's always been a concern with videogames, but a field of study suggests that the boundary between virtual worlds and reality may be more porous than experts previously imagined.
Nearly 40 percent of men and 53 percent of women who play online games said their virtual friends were equal to or better than their real-life friends, according to a survey of 30,000 gamers conducted by Nick Yee, a recent PhD graduate from Stanford University. More than a quarter of gamers said the emotional highlight of the past week occurred in a computer world…
Edward Castronova, associate professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, says, "There's a fuzziness that's emerging between the virtual world and the real world." [Alexander Alter, "Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?" The Wall Street Journal (8-10-07)]
More than ever before, we are becoming accustomed to virtual living. Don’t be satisfied with virtual faith.
Luke 17:5-6 (NKJV)
5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
So, what can we do? The disciples asked, “Lord, increase our faith.” That is just like us. “Jesus, just make my faith bigger. Make it automatic and clean and easy. You just do it for me. Bigger is obviously better, so increase my faith.”
Jesus said, “You just need faith as a mustard seed.” What are you talking about, Lord. A mustard seed?! Do you know how tiny they are? Wait a minute… Just a few chapters earlier Jesus was talking about mustard seeds. What did he say? Once they are planted, they become a huge plant.
- You don’t need increased faith.
- You need planted faith.
If this mustard seed is going to do any good at all and become anything other than what it already is, it has to go into the dirty ground. The seed undergoes change. It dies. And it grows. The same is true of faith.
2. Plant your faith.
Faith will stay virtual faith, seed faith, until you plant it. So, how do you plant your faith? How do you bury your faith deep so that it can soar upward? I’m going to give you some specific ways to do it, but I don’t think you’re going to like it. I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like it.
- Sacrifice
Faith will face challenges and hardship. How faith reacts to sacrifice shows what it’s really made of. Real faith makes sacrifice. Phony faith talks a big talk but won’t make actual sacrifice. It is sorted out at sacrifice.
- Obedience
Scripture says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 15:22) Believing God and doing what He says is about the best definition of faith that there is.
- Action
Real faith takes action. You can’t just believe in things, but that belief must drive you to take action for faith to come to life.
James 2:26 (NKJV)
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
- Risk
By definition, faith will take you into situations without guarantees. If my response to God is, “Once I know for sure what will be required, and that it won’t be too much, and there is no possibility of failure… than I’ll do it.” That is not faith. There is always risk.
Hospital waiting room reading
I was in a hospital waiting room last week with a woman whose husband was in having surgery. I noticed sitting on the end table in the hospital waiting room was a Reader’s Digest magazine. The cover article along with a big picture right on the cover was (I’m not making this up) “Fatal mistakes that hospitals make.” That will challenge your faith!
Do you really want your faith to soar? It takes sacrifice, obedience, action and risk.
Faith without sacrifice is phony. Faith without obedience is misdirected. Faith without action is dead. And faith without risk is a total contradiction.
3. Take small steps.
This small seed doesn’t become a great tree all at once. The growth takes time. It is almost indiscernible at times, but it is happening. But it has to be planted. There has to be a start.
Planting is a nasty business. It means to take the seed and shove it down into the dirt. It isn’t clean. It is a mystery how all that dirt activates growth to bring a great tree out of a small seed. But it does.
- Get your faith dirty.
This is the challenge I leave you with. Get your faith dirty. Is your faith dirty? Has your faith experienced sacrifice, obedience, action or risk lately? For most of us, the answer is no. And our faith stays in its nice, compact little shell.
You and I do not need more faith. We need to use the faith we have. We need to plant it and watch it grow into something great.
Conclusion
Will you get dirty?
This is the Second Sunday of Advent and we light the second candle. The first candle is the Prophets candle and represents hope. The second candle is the Bethlehem candle. It represents humility and preparation.
Last week we talked about the Light of Advent. Today let’s talk about the Faith of Advent. There’s no better place to start than in Bethlehem.
Micah 5:2-5 (NKJV)
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” 3 Therefore He shall give them up, Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel. 4 And He shall stand and feed His flock In the strength of the Lord, In the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; And they shall abide, For now He shall be great To the ends of the earth; 5 And this One shall be peace.
This verse from the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament in relationship to Jesus’ birth:
Matthew 2:6 (NKJV)
6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ”
Using this verse, the religious leaders were able to tell Herod and the Wise Men that the Messiah (‘Christ’ in the Greek) was to be born in Bethlehem. That wasn’t a big secret. There were discussions later about Jesus. Some people said, “Could He be the Christ?” Others, thinking he was born in Nazareth, not Bethlehem, said:
John 7:42 (NKJV)
42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town of Bethlehem, where David was?”
Jesus grew up in Nazareth, but He was born in Bethlehem!
There are two things that I would like you to consider regarding Bethlehem and faith.
What was promised is now a reality
When the prophet Micah wrote that prophetic word about Bethlehem, it must have seemed pretty far-fetched and far-off. Like all the prophecies, it was promised to happen, but it was not yet reality. The Bible says that Micah and others in the Old Testament only saw these promises from a distance. They died not having received the promises. To them it was a promise – a potentiality.
This isn’t true for us. It is not a promise that we look ahead to, but a reality that we can look back on.
The Faith of Advent is real.
Faith became reality when a young girl named Mary had a Baby Boy in Bethlehem, named Jesus. It is a perfect place for faith to become real.
Out of little Bethlehem came Greatness
Here is the second thing I want you to notice. Bethlehem was a nothing, little place. It was small and insignificant in every way. Yet out of this little, tiny city came the greatest event – the greatest individual – to ever walk the face of the earth. The impact of that city is still being felt today.
MUSTARD SEED FAITH
What does that have to do with faith? Consider a mustard seed. Notice how tiny this little seed is. It is like the city of Bethlehem. Out of this little seed comes a great plant. Jesus said to his disciples:
Luke 13:18-19 (NKJV)
18 Then He said, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
This seed is not a large tree, but it could be. It is a potential mustard plant – a virtual one.
1. Don’t be satisfied with virtual faith.
Some years ago, Madonna sang a song that said, “We are living in a material world, and I am a material girl.” That may have been true back then, but not so much anymore. We are, more and more, living not in a material world but in a virtual world.
Many prefer virtual relationships
With some 30 million people now involved world-wide [in online, virtual reality video games], there is mounting concern that some are squandering—even damaging—their real lives by obsessing over their "second" ones. That's always been a concern with videogames, but a field of study suggests that the boundary between virtual worlds and reality may be more porous than experts previously imagined.
Nearly 40 percent of men and 53 percent of women who play online games said their virtual friends were equal to or better than their real-life friends, according to a survey of 30,000 gamers conducted by Nick Yee, a recent PhD graduate from Stanford University. More than a quarter of gamers said the emotional highlight of the past week occurred in a computer world…
Edward Castronova, associate professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, says, "There's a fuzziness that's emerging between the virtual world and the real world." [Alexander Alter, "Is This Man Cheating on His Wife?" The Wall Street Journal (8-10-07)]
More than ever before, we are becoming accustomed to virtual living. Don’t be satisfied with virtual faith.
Luke 17:5-6 (NKJV)
5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
So, what can we do? The disciples asked, “Lord, increase our faith.” That is just like us. “Jesus, just make my faith bigger. Make it automatic and clean and easy. You just do it for me. Bigger is obviously better, so increase my faith.”
Jesus said, “You just need faith as a mustard seed.” What are you talking about, Lord. A mustard seed?! Do you know how tiny they are? Wait a minute… Just a few chapters earlier Jesus was talking about mustard seeds. What did he say? Once they are planted, they become a huge plant.
- You don’t need increased faith.
- You need planted faith.
If this mustard seed is going to do any good at all and become anything other than what it already is, it has to go into the dirty ground. The seed undergoes change. It dies. And it grows. The same is true of faith.
2. Plant your faith.
Faith will stay virtual faith, seed faith, until you plant it. So, how do you plant your faith? How do you bury your faith deep so that it can soar upward? I’m going to give you some specific ways to do it, but I don’t think you’re going to like it. I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like it.
- Sacrifice
Faith will face challenges and hardship. How faith reacts to sacrifice shows what it’s really made of. Real faith makes sacrifice. Phony faith talks a big talk but won’t make actual sacrifice. It is sorted out at sacrifice.
- Obedience
Scripture says, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 15:22) Believing God and doing what He says is about the best definition of faith that there is.
- Action
Real faith takes action. You can’t just believe in things, but that belief must drive you to take action for faith to come to life.
James 2:26 (NKJV)
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
- Risk
By definition, faith will take you into situations without guarantees. If my response to God is, “Once I know for sure what will be required, and that it won’t be too much, and there is no possibility of failure… than I’ll do it.” That is not faith. There is always risk.
Hospital waiting room reading
I was in a hospital waiting room last week with a woman whose husband was in having surgery. I noticed sitting on the end table in the hospital waiting room was a Reader’s Digest magazine. The cover article along with a big picture right on the cover was (I’m not making this up) “Fatal mistakes that hospitals make.” That will challenge your faith!
Do you really want your faith to soar? It takes sacrifice, obedience, action and risk.
Faith without sacrifice is phony. Faith without obedience is misdirected. Faith without action is dead. And faith without risk is a total contradiction.
3. Take small steps.
This small seed doesn’t become a great tree all at once. The growth takes time. It is almost indiscernible at times, but it is happening. But it has to be planted. There has to be a start.
Planting is a nasty business. It means to take the seed and shove it down into the dirt. It isn’t clean. It is a mystery how all that dirt activates growth to bring a great tree out of a small seed. But it does.
- Get your faith dirty.
This is the challenge I leave you with. Get your faith dirty. Is your faith dirty? Has your faith experienced sacrifice, obedience, action or risk lately? For most of us, the answer is no. And our faith stays in its nice, compact little shell.
You and I do not need more faith. We need to use the faith we have. We need to plant it and watch it grow into something great.
Conclusion
Will you get dirty?
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