That’s All You’ve Got? Taken at face value, the angel’s sign is pretty unimpressive.
- Luke 2:12.
- Luke 4:17-21; Luke 4:41; Luke 5:14; Luke 13:18-21; 1 Corinthians 1:26-30.
- We get entranced by the Christmas story and the swaddling clothes and manger and don’t see it for what it is. In fact, as signs go, it’s not a real impressive sign.
- In fact, what happens in the verse that follows would make for a more dazzling, flashy sign: a host of angels appear, lighting up the sky with their brightness and filling the night air with their song. Standing in a dark field when suddenly it’s illuminated by a host of angels singing? Now that’s a sign!
- Except that’s not the sign.
- The actual sign from God is just a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in manger, which was neither the clothes nor the crib that a baby should have.
- Now let me hasten to add that there were good reasons that this was the sign. To cite one, Jesus would later share in His mission statement in Luke 4:17-21 that He had come for the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed. To be born in such humble circumstances certainly foreshadows the mission that He will give His life to. Still, the fact remains that a baby in poor clothing and a trough as a crib is not a showy sign.
- All these years later, we still often look for the wrong signs when looking for God.
- We want the flashing lights. We expect the booming voice from heaven. We desire mind-blowing coincidences. We hope for overwhelming resources.
- And there’s nothing wrong with getting those. Sometimes the sign from God is ridiculously obvious. Sometimes He’s almost screaming in our ear. Sometimes we’re left dumbfounded by divine appointments. Sometimes He pours out so much our cup and saucer are full and it’s still flowing. Those moments make for great stories and we should be thankful for them.
- The problem is when we presume that’s the way God works all the time. In reality, those flashy signs happen a minority of the time. If we want to see God more often, we need to embrace the unimpressive ways that God shows up in our lives, reminiscent of the unimpressive sign in our passage this morning.
- Now, why does God work so often with unimpressive signs? We get some signs from elsewhere in the Bible.
- Jesus did miracles and then told the person healed not to tell anyone (Luke 5:14). Jesus cast out demons and bound the demons from saying who He was (example: Luke 4:41).
- Jesus was bad at P.R.
- Why would He do such a thing? Why not publicize the miracles as much as possible?
- The miracles tended to attract the wrong kind of attention. It attracted people looking for a show. It attracted people who wanted a healing and then they’d be on their merry way. The miracles didn’t encourage the kind of devoted followers that Jesus wanted. Certainly they were confirming signs, but they could easily lead in unhealthy directions.
- An additional issue is the nature of the Kingdom that Jesus was inaugurating. He made it clear in passages like Luke 13:18-21 (the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast) that the Kingdom initially looks unimpressive and only later shows its impressiveness. It would make sense that such a Kingdom would often show up in believers’ lives in ways that did not appear outwardly impressive.
- In 1 Corinthians 1:26-30, Paul notes that the early church was full of people who were not impressive by the world’s standards. That too was part of God’s design, with God choosing the weak, lowly, and despised things of this world to shame the things that the world esteems.
- What do I want us to take from this unimpressive sign this morning? Simply this: too often Christians miss opportunities to see God move in their life or to see where God is already moving because they are looking in the wrong places.
- We’re looking for the fireworks, but God often works in quiet, obscure, or hidden ways. Let’s look into a few of the ways God may desire to do that in our lives that we may be overlooking.
What Are Similar Ways We May Miss God Trying To Enter Christians’ Daily Lives?
1. Jesus appearing in the form of a nobody.
- Matthew 25:31-46.
- What person will help you feel the closest to God? A pastor preaching an incredible sermon? Perhaps. A friend sharing words of encouragement? Perhaps.
- In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of the sheep and goats, which is a story about God’s judgment. There is a lot worth discussing in that sermon, but one point that I want to pull out this morning. In verses 37-39, the righteous ask the king, “When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” The king famously replies, “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
- What does that mean? It means that Jesus identifies with the broken, the struggling, the weak, and the hurting. As we help those in kind of situation, we will find ourselves close to the presence of God.
2. A quiet voice that speaks in the stillness.
- 1 Kings 19:11-12.
- Do we want to hear God speak to us? Do we believe that God still speaks today? I do.
- But we are surrounded by so much noise that it’s hard to find a moment of silence. Of course, most of the noise is there by our choice. TVs and cell phones, computers and radios – we hardly have a moment of silence.
- An interesting passage in 1 Kings 19 speaks of God’s voice coming in a small whisper. We imagine that God’s voice booms and certainly there are times when He could communicate in an overwhelming way. More often, though, God speaks to us in a still, small voice.
- If we’re never quiet, we won’t hear Him speaking.
- What does that voice sound like? In my experience, it’s not an audible voice, but you can sense God’s leading in your heart if you are quiet. As you pray, bring up a subject or person that you’re concerned with and ask God, “What’s the next step with this?” Be still before God and listen. It may not happen the first time that you get a response. What I often find is that what God eventually brings out is not a brand-new idea but just one that I haven’t been giving enough emphasis.
- Most Christians never hear God because they’re not listening for Him. Again, to go back to the unimpressive sign in the Christmas story, quietly listening doesn’t seem impressive. And yet that’s the way God speaks far more often than the booming voice.
3. Guidance from a dusty old book.
- 2 Timothy 3:16.
- We have Bibles everywhere. And yet we live in a society that is largely Biblically illiterate. The way it often ends up is this: many people respect the Bible; few people read the Bible.
- As Christians, we make an audacious claim about the Bible: that it is fundamentally different from every other book. We believe that the hand of God was in the writing of this book.
- What difference does that make? Well, it means that it’s a book that shares truth that we can trust.
- It also means that we can open the book and receive a word from God. It’s a book where you can have read a passage a hundred times and then a new truth will speak to your heart. It’s a book that can pierce your soul and speak to exactly what you’re going through.
- Many look at it and see a dusty old book. In truth, it is the living Word of God, ready to speak to your heart what God wants you to hear.
4. Serving in hidden ways.
- 1 Corinthians 12:1-31.
- We focus on those who serve within the church that you can see. And, no doubt, many of those jobs are important. But when we serve in hidden ways, God is often close to us.
- When we take a meal to the widowed neighbor who is recovering from surgery, God is close to us.
- When we jump in to fix a problem with the church building without being asked, God is close to us.
- When we spend five minutes before class talking to the student that most others ignore, God is close to us.
- God sees everything. He knows our motives. Hidden service has the advantage of not being done for an audience. It’s just us doing something for God.
