The 4th Sunday of Advent...sermon post...about a month later

 



At Weymouth Community Church we are preparing for the lighting of the Christ Candle on Christmas Eve.  The songs have been selected; the individual candles are ready for distribution; and the logistics of conducting another service and one being with very limited lighting are being ironed out.  I think of Christians all over the world gathering to sing about the One who has come and is coming again!

Our sermon this week covered baby announcement and reveal #2.  The angel Gabriel first met Zechariah the priest and now he meets Mary the virgin.  It warranted another chart as these are side by side in the Scriptures.

Also, we added to the gospel explanation through the definitions of the names of the characters of the Advent of Jesus.

  • “God remembers” - Zechariah
  • “God is faithful” - Elizabeth
  • “God brings grace” - John
  • “God will add” - Joseph
  • “A rebellion” - Mary
  • “God saves” - Jesus
The God who remembers (Zechariah) after 400 years of silence is faithful (Elizabeth) to His words and covenants about a coming Messiah who will bring grace (John).  God will do this by adding (Joseph) a rebellion (Mary) that pierces our hearts so that we might be saved (Jesus).  

It should be challenging to see the response of Mary in light of what could have come.  She would have been seen as committing adultery.  She would have been up for a stoning.  She would have her baby to be considered an illegitimate child.  She was not sure of her betrothed's response, i.e. Joseph.  She could be facing this all alone and yet she says yes to God.  Would we do the same?

If you are around Medina, Ohio this Christmas Eve, join us at 8 p.m. and sing of the One who has come and is coming again.

Adam



A simple man serving a great God and the local pastor of Stillwater Community Chapel (stillwater-chapel.org). We are in our 38th year of full time ministry. God directed us to this local body of believers on the Western Range of the Rockies to grow with them in mission and mindedness of Christ.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Galatians #15 - Galatians 6:11-18 - "On The Road Again..."

Image
  Another week closer and it involves some more travel for the Wolfgangs.  I feel like the Willy Nelson song, " On the road again... "  I don't know if I agree with the next line though. " ...I can't wait to get on the road again. " One of the members of the church in Wisconsin calculated that I will travel well over 10,000 miles to make this transition.  Traveling mercies prayers please. Last Sunday we will look at Paul's final words to the churches in Galatia.  He brought them the gospel (good news) message of Jesus and what resulted were churches forming throughout the region.  The letter is to defend that message that our salvation comes from and is in Christ alone.  Christ's sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.  The summary statement of the letter is found in  Galatians 6:15 (LSB) .  " For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. "  Translated another way earlie...
Read more

God gave us a good weather window to travel...yeah God!!!

Image
  Berthoud Pass Here we are at the top of Berthoud Pass.  It was a whirlwind week to conduct a " hand off " service in Wisconsin on 3/17 and then preach a Palm Sunday sermon in Colorado on 3/24.  We give God all the glory for this happening.  So there are two video links at the bottom of this blog.  One is for the Wisconsin service and the other is for the Colorado service.  I racked up over 12,000 in the last 7 weeks.   I love to take these pictures sitting from the front row of chairs and listening to the one God has provided for the church I had been serving for 20 months.  I now have 3 and I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave us to serve Him in this type of ministry over the last 5 years.  It has been great to add to our daily prayer list Zach in Maine, Chris in Ohio and now Stephen in Wisconsin. This was our set up for the 2000+ mile trip.  No " hiccups " except for the strong eastern winds in Kansas.  Of course e...
Read more

Resurrection Sunday in a new space...Matthew 27.62-28.20

Image
  Resurrection Sunday has come and gone but it was a sweet day to be with the gathered saints of the Stillwater Community Chapel .  We are venturing through the Gospel of Matthew and this Sunday will take us back to Matthew 1.1 but last Sunday we were in Matthew 27.62-28.20.  It was a lot to cover so the white board was truly a help to keep me on track.  This year in my Resurrection Sunday message, I focused on the contrast of the cover-up story of the disciples stealing the body of Jesus fueled by a bride and the commission of speaking of a risen Lord fueled by boldness . After the service upstairs, we ventured downstairs to the lower level and had a great meal together.  The conversations around the tables allowed us to continue to talk about the passage of Scripture we covered upstairs.  Maybe this is a very informal picture of what happens at the  Waushara Community Church called the " Going Deeper " classes of the Come For More hour following t...
Read more