Second Sunday of Advent.
Sermon Title: Three feet away.
Scripture Text: Mark 1:1-8
ILLUSTRATION:
During the gold rush, a man from Ohio traveled to California. It had taken him months to get there. He had to get a claim and register it and buy tools before he could start mining. The Ohioan had been mining for months. Finally after all the hard work and finding nothing quit his claim. He was just plain tired and worn out and he couldn't go on. He sold his claim and equipment to another man who resumed mining where he had left off.
The new miner was advised by a surveyor that there was gold only three feet away, again three feet away from where the first miner stopped digging.
The surveyor was right, which means the first miner was a mere three feet away from striking gold before he quit.
The Moral:
When things start to get hard, try to persevere through the adversity. Many people give up because the work becomes too difficult, tedious, or tiresome–but often, we're just 3 feet away.
Scripture Reading:
Mark 1:1-8 NLT
1 This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began
2 just as the prophet Isaiah had written:
“Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
and he will prepare your way.
3 He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
Clear the road for him!’”
4 This messenger was John the Baptist. He was in the wilderness and preached that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. 5 All of Judea, including all the people of Jerusalem, went out to see and hear John. And when they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. 6 His clothes were woven from coarse camel hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food he ate locusts and wild honey.
7 John announced: “Someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to stoop down like a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. 8 I baptize you with[d] water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!”
John the Baptist - History
John’s parents were from the tribe of Levite. When they came over into the promise land they didn't receive any land like all the other tribes did and the people in those tribes. The people of the other 11 tribes were suppose to provide for them. Their sole purpose in the beginning was to take care of the Tabernacle where God dwell. As time went by they were in divided into 52 cohorts to serve in the Temple for one week at a time. There were full time Priest there all the time in the Temple serving the people of God.
Because he was probably left without parents because of their age when he was born. Most think he settled in with the Essenes. The Essenes were a Jewish mystical sect somewhat resembling the Pharisees. They washed and prayed and most were celibate and didn't have families. They felt the end was close. They worshiped God in many ways. The Romans destroyed their homes that were in a place that the Romans took years to conquer. The left for us parts of the Bible that are being studied today.
That was John’s history but his present times were a time of teaching about the holy one of God coming of which he wasn’t clean enough to untie his shoe lases. It was this Holy one of God that came to John to be baptized by him. It was here that God the Father said:
Matthew 3:17 KJV
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
All the things John had been through in his life and now was blessed by Jesus the Christ to come to him to be Baptized.
John hits an extremely hard time:
The Beheading of John
Mark 6:…17 For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married. 18 For John had been telling Herod, “ It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife! 19 So Herodias held a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. Berean Study Bible
--And did kill his earthly body in the end.
After a long time in prison several things happened and John sent his disciples to see Jesus
John's Inquiry
Matthew 11:1 After Jesus had finished instructing His twelve disciples, He went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. 2 Meanwhile John heard in prison about the works of Christ, and he sent his disciples 3to ask Him, “Are You the One who was to come, or should we look for someone else?
Some thinks this was John having doubts. I don't think they were doubts at all. I think he sent these disciples of his to speak to Jesus to embolden them to Keep On With God’s Work. He sent them to meet the Son of the Most High God.
All that he has been through and stood up against and preserved thought to give up at the end of his life. I don’t think so. He knew what was coming. His death was coming and he had done what God had ask him to do. He was going to his reward.
Today I ask you: What do you think you would have done with all these difficult things that John lived?
Many here today are going through hard times or have gone through them and may go through them again.
Are you and did you and will you preserver or will you give up – when the Gold is Three Feet away.
