Can You Hear It?

(Pastor Dave Anderson preaches from an outline, which you can follow as you listen to his sermon.)


December 26, 2010: Luke 9:18-20, Can You Hear It?
Dave Anderson, Brewster Baptist Church

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Shhhh! Quiet! Listen! Can you hear it? Do you hear anything????

In the coming days the POST CHRISTMAS transformation will begin:

The real trees that are beginning to dry up will be taken down and out of the house

The fake trees will be brought to the basement – all the ornaments put neatly in boxes

Exterior lights will come on for one more night and slowly begin to fade away

The Christmas music that has filled the airwaves will disappear until next December

Christmas cards that have been hung up will come down soon – heading to recycling

All the gifts we received will be put away, worn, used, played with and shared

All the wrapping paper heading for recycling as well – all that work wrapping….

Our Nativity Scenes, the Crèche in our homes will also be put away

All the characters bubble wrapped and put in their boxes – the baby Jesus as well

It is all disappearing, going away, fading from sight, being put away….

Going…going…GONE!    January becomes somewhat dark, and dreary and drab.

But what about Jesus?    Let’s hang onto that thought for just a moment….

In Luke 9:18-20 we find a bold declaration being made

Peter is conversing with Jesus and Jesus asks “Who do you say I am?” vs. 18

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago who has come back to life.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”

This is the question you and I are left with even today: “Who do you think Jesus is?”

“Who is he, what is He, why is He?”    “WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?”

As we grow older our views and perspectives of Santa Claus begins to change/transform

We find dozens of movies and Christmas specials where we find people wrestling with this possibility, this idea of Santa Claus

We begin to lose our child-like innocence, our ability to dream big, and believe bigger

What about Jesus?    Again this question…. “WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?”

As is the case with Santa a child-like innocence seems to be needed to embrace Jesus

He Himself declared that in order to experience the Kingdom of God

We need to approach it/Him with a child-like faith….    Innocence….    Simplicity….

Jesus for many, for many even in the church has become a cute yet nocuous character

Great stories but what does it actually mean to me and for me today?

We get somewhat excited about Jesus at Christmas time and put Him away until Easter

In the wildly popular Christmas story/book/movie The Polar Express we find a boy

Struggling to believe in the notion of Christmas

There is this image of many older people no longer being able to hear the Christmas bell

Their lack of faith, their loss of the child-like innocence renders the bell SILENT

There are tremendous parallels for we as Christians, for many of us in the church

For us, what falls silent, that which we are struggling to hear is JESUS

When it comes to the Christmas bell in Polar Express, when it comes to Santa Claus

We have grown sophisticated, mature, intellectual…

Many could not hear the bell because they had outgrown this notion of Santa/Christmas

In the church when it comes to Jesus, the guy from Sunday school songs and Bible stories

We have grown sophisticated, mature, intellectual….

Much like Santa Jesus has His time and His place and His season

He like Santa has His movies, TV specials and songs

So I ask us the question Jesus asked His disciples: “WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?”

I am sure many of you have heard the phrase “Jesus Is the Reason for the Season.”

I have never like that statement, and I am sure many of you are now mad at me

It is a cute phrase but for we proclaiming to be His, should He not be more?

Does that Phrase somewhat minimize Him to something we put away with decorations?

Forgive me for the cynicism but for many Christians I am not sure He is even that –

“The Reason for the Season”

Even Christians talk about the weight of the Christmas season – of being too busy

We also get stressed out, overwhelmed and seem to be ready for it to end

If Jesus truly were the REASON shouldn’t our reaction be different? Enjoy it more?

Shouldn’t we find something magical – CHRISTMAS IS FOR THE CHILDREN

In Revelation 2 & 3 we find seven letters written to seven churches

The first of these letters is written to the church in Ephesus

They are commended – hard work, perseverance, not tolerating evil, overcoming….

Verse 4 John writes: “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you have done at first.” GO BACK TO YOUR BEGINNING

(I am not leveling this rebuke at our church family – I do share it as a wake-up call.)

In the Polar Express there is this struggle to recapture the meaning and spirit of Christmas

In the church in Ephesus and in the church today there is a similar struggle

We have a tendency to get busy, distracted, overwhelmed – with church and Christmas

If The Devil Can’t Make You Bad He Will Make You Busy!

This may have been the issue with the church in Ephesus – good people but distracted

Losing sight of the first love finds you and I unable to hear the bell ringing

The sweet sweet sound of that Amazing Grace – the bell that tolls for you and I

We look at the Gospel story – the life of Jesus and find people struggling with the person

Too up close and personal, too intimate, too convicting, too in your face, too loving

Too confrontational, too hard to follow, too confusing, too costly….

Might we at times be struggling with the same issues with Jesus

We meet Him, welcome Him into our lives, we feel the joy and then – sophisticated

We “grow up”

Talk to a lot of people you hear: I go to church, I help out, I am spiritual I am religious

I am moral, I believe in God, I worship on my own, I am a good person

We are good at doing church – the peripheral stuff – but are we good at doing Jesus?

I hear from many people who struggle to hear, or feel, or experience Jesus – His will

We want Him to be and feel real, we want something to grasp, something to hold onto

Shhh! Quiet! Listen! Can you hear it?

It was Jesus who said to them then and to you and I now:

“Come Follow Me” “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened”

“Abide in Me and I will abide in you” “Trust in God, trust also in me”

“Do not let your hearts be troubled” “I stand at the door and KNOCK”

“I will be with you to the very end of the age

In the Polar Express life got in the way of believing….

So also did growing up, responsibility, being bruised and worn by the world, tired

Is our plight in the church any different?

The Apostle Paul was a follower of Christ – sold out for Jesus – the “bell” rang loudly

Philippians 3:8  “What is more, I consider everything loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things, I consider then rubbish, that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him….”

Paul did not grow out of Jesus as he was bruised and beaten and worn by the world

He depended on Christ all the more….    Followed….    Abided….    Trusted in….

In The Polar Express we find a couple of lines:

“All you have to do to get there is to believe”

“It doesn’t matter where you are going, what matters is deciding to get on.”

The journey for the boy took place because he was curious, captivated,

innocence stroked       What we are talking about today is a matter of the heart

In the Christmas classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” the problem is simple

But I think that the most likely reason of all

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small

When the Grinch’s epiphany occurs it again centers on the heart

Well what happened then, well in Whoville they say

That the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day

The child-like faith that Jesus talks about does a miraculous and wondrous thing to our hearts – it increases our capacity to love, feel, experience and believe

That child-like faith, that child-like innocence is the cure for what ails many Christians

An aliment that is beginning to infiltrate and permeate many churches

Our ailment is not our sinfulness, our pride, our doubt or even our arrogance

Our ailment is simply this: DULLNESS

The Bible speaks of this faith journey as being an epic adventure, a wild journey to undertake, a passionate relationship, a battle of good vs. evil, a Messiah that pursues us

The Bible speaks of WONDER and AWE

In the Polar Express we are left to assume that as life’s demands increase in size

The sense of wonder and awe diminish, leaving people somewhat empty – the spirit of Christmas, the joy of Christmas a distant memory – THEY SIMPLY ENDURE

I the Christian walk we know that as life’s demands, and church demands increase in size

The sense of wonder and awe diminish, leaving people somewhat empty – the Spirit of Christ, the joy of Christ, the power of our initial contact with Christ a distant memory

WE SIMPLY ENDURE

The POLAR EXPRESS Video Clip

And many are left HEARING NOTHING – RING EMPTY BELL – We Want To Hear

In John 3:16 – ‘Whoever believes in Him….”    Do you believe?

WHO DO YOU SAY HE IS?

When we bring Jesus not just into life but into our lives – We again begin to hear the bell

Do You Believe?

Shhh! Quiet! Listen! Can you hear it?

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