December 15, 2002 1 Corinthians 14:21-25
¡§Signs of the times¡¨
INTRODUCTION
Christmas is almost here. The signs are everywhere. There are Christmas songs that are playing on the radio, decorations all over town and presents under the tree. But do you know what the top five signs that Christmas is near are?
„X There are more pine needles on your carpet than on your tree.
„X The credit card is smoked along with the turkey and ham.
„X It¡¦s A Wonderful Life has been shown for the 13th time.
„X A trip to the mall and back is more challenging then the Indy 500.
„X You are pulling an all-nighter because of the words "Some Assembly Required".
Signs point us to the reality that something significant is getting ready to occur.
For the last three weeks now, we have been examining the gift of tongues and its role in the context of the church worship service. We have seen that when you place the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues side by side and compare them, the gift of prophecy is far more valuable for the church because it more clearly communicates God¡¦s truth to men. But the gift of tongues still has value. It has value to God because it allows the speaker to communicate praise and thanksgiving to God, and it has value to the church when the message is interpreted because we receive encouragement whenever we hear another¡¦s praises toward God. The gift of tongues also has value outside the church. It has value for God¡¦s plan to bring people into a saving relationship with Himself. As we will see today, tongues is a sign. It is a bright, neon flashing billboard that tells people that something out of the ordinary is going on here, and they had better check it out. Like the signs that point us to the nearness of Christmas today, this sign of tongues told people that something was coming ¡V soon, and they had better prepare themselves.
This morning, we are going to examine 4 effects that signs ¡V which the exercise of the gift of tongues was ¡V can have on people. In examining this passage, I have two goals for us. The first is that all of these effects that we are going to discuss will happen in you today or at some point during this Christmas season. The second goal is that you will see that there is an even greater sign than the gift of tongues that can bring people to Jesus and that you will let that sign shine in your life.
1. Signs can capture our attention. (vs. 21-22)
Usually during the holiday season, our family does some traveling to see relatives. We will head south down I-79 and then onto Rt. 19. Soon after hitting 19, we will begin to see signs for how far it is to Summersville. Signs for summersville always get our attention. They warn us of impending danger. Summersville is the biggest speed trap in all of West Virginia. Just outside the city, there are warning signs telling you that the speed limit has dropped from 65 to 50. If you do not pay attention to those warning signs, you will be facing the wrath of the police officer whose lights will soon be shining in your rear view mirror.
The first verse that we read today, vs. 21, is a loose quote of Isaiah 28:11,12, and he uses that verse to say that the gift of being able to speak in a language that you never learned is a warning sign to unbelievers. It is a sign that God is coming in judgment if they do not get their lives right before Him. The book of Isaiah deals with a time in Israel¡¦s history when they were rebelling against God. Instead of being the clear-headed spiritual leaders that the people needed, the priests were making no sense to the people because the words that they said were coming out of a drunken stupor. The priests would get drunk before they delivered their message. The drunken words that they spoke were incapable of being understood; almost as if they were speaking a foreign language. But the people didn¡¦t mind too much. If the people went to synagogue and received a message that they did not understand, then there was no response that they felt obligated to give. They could pretend to be ignorant of God¡¦s laws, and we all know that ignorance is bliss. When you are ignorant, you don¡¦t have to change your ways. So the people made no attempt to correct their priests and risk hearing a clear message from God even though the message was a good one. God¡¦s clear message to them was that He was offering them a place of rest where the weary could find strengthening. A message like that would get my attention especially at Christmas time. But that wasn¡¦t enough to get their attention, and they refused that clear message. They liked what they had better than what God offered. The people could go in to the service, sit and hear words that made no sense, and walk out ¡V unchanged. As far as they were concerned, they had done their religious duty. In response to this kind of attitude, God gave them exactly what they wanted. In essence He said, ¡§You like coming to the sanctuary and hearing words that you cannot understand? Fine; I¡¦m going to make it so that all the words that you hear will be words that you cannot understand. You didn¡¦t want to understand me; now, you won¡¦t be able to understand anything.¡¨ God caused an enemy nation to come and invade Israel and take the people captive back to their own land. They were forced to live in a foreign land among people that spoke a language that they could not understand. And every word that they heard was a constant reminder ¡V a sign ¡V of the judgment of God on their nation for their refusal to listen to His clear words.
In this same book where God used a sign to pronounce His judgment on the nation, He used another sign to tell them about the one who would come to bring forgiveness for their sin and release from their judgment. In Isaiah 7:14, it says, ¡¨Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.¡¨ God was going to use the birth of a child to catch people¡¦s attention. This was to be an unusual birth because a child would be born to a virgin. Have a young girl give birth to a child and proclaim to her father and her fiance that she had never had marital relations with any man, and see if that doesn¡¦t get somebody¡¦s attention. It was a sign. It was a sign that God was still at work among His people. It was a sign that God was not out there somewhere but that He was right there present among His people and that He wanted a relationship with them. That¡¦s why they called Him Immanuel. Immanuel means ¡§God with us.¡¨
One starry night several hundred years later, shepherds were out in the field watching over their flocks. Suddenly, the shepherds¡¦ boring duties were interrupted by the entrance of a visitor ¡V an angel. All around that angel was light that could only be described as the glory of God. The angel delivered a message to those shepherds. He said, ¡§This will be a sign to you: You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.¡¨ (Luke 2:12) After the angel delivered his message, it was as if the heavenly host could restrain their song no longer, and all the angels of heaven descended on that place. They sang out, ¡§Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.¡¨ (Luke 2:14) The shepherds had seen a sign, and the angels told them of a sign that they would soon see. It got their attention. Wouldn¡¦t it get yours? Could you imagine being in their shoes on a quiet hillside suddenly having your world invaded by inhabitants of heaven? Signs will get your attention. Once again, the sign delivered the same message as that delivered in the book of Isaiah. God would dwell among His people.
Are you ever tempted to wonder if God is really present in your life? Maybe you¡¦ve been looking for signs that God is real, that Christianity is legitimate, that God really is working in your life. Can I suggest that God has already given you a sign? The greatest sign that God wants your attention and that He wants to be a part of your life is that He brought children into your life. When God brought that bundle of joy into your life ¡V that little bundle that spoke its own kind of language and all those noises that you could not understand ¡V God was trying to speak to you. He was telling you that new life is possible and that He is the giver of that life.
When Jesus grew up into a man, the religious leaders of the day came to Him seeking for Him to do a sign to prove that He was who He claimed to be. Jesus told them that He would do only one sign for them. He would die, be buried and three day later, rise back to life. (Matt. 12:38-39) They didn¡¦t understand his offer then, and they didn¡¦t recognize His resurrection when it happened, but the sign was there. Jesus rose from the dead. New life is always a sign that should get people¡¦s attention. God gave them the sign, but they refused to give Him their attention.
For some of you, God has been trying to get your attention for a long time. You have been seeking for a sign like those Pharisees, not recognizing that God has been putting up signs all around you for your whole life. The signs are there ¡V the family member who tries to tell you about what God is doing in their lives, the new neighbor who reaches out to you in love, the new job that God blessed you with, the child that you hold in your arms. They are all signs from God. You¡¦ve been looking for a chorus of angels in the heavens, when God wanted you to pay attention to the child that you hold in your arms. That¡¦s the real sign that should get your attention and make you wonder about the power and grace and goodness of God. It should make you wonder at least enough for you to check out a little bit further what God has to say.
After Jesus¡¦ ascension back into heaven, God sent another sign. On the day of Pentecost, God gave His Spirit to the 120 that were gathered in the upper room. They heard a sound like a mighty rushing wind; they saw flames of fire resting above their heads, and they began to speak in languages that they had never learned. The people that heard them wondered at what was going on. It created a stir. It got people¡¦s attention. It drew a crowd. It made it possible for the next effect of a sign to happen.
2. Signs can change our direction. (vs. 23-24)
That journey that my family and I take covers a lot of territory, and the opportunity for getting lost is always with us. We know the signs to look for as we go along, and so long as we see them and are willing to change our direction according to what they tell us, then we will make it to our eventual destination.
When the angels left the shepherds on that night, they responded with a change of direction. They said, ¡§Let¡¦s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened¡K¡¨ It¡¦s interesting to me that they recognized what the real miracle ¡V the real sign was on that night. It was not the angels and their angelic choir that captured their attention. It was the promise of a baby. I fear that many of us would have stayed right where we were looking for another visitation from the angels rather than being obedient to find God¡¦s gift to the world. Because of the sign, these shepherds let go of their own plans for that night and for their lives and did what they had been instructed. They traveled to Bethlehem. They changed their direction.
The people spoken of in Acts 2 were gathered in Jerusalem from all parts of the world. There were people there from Media and Persia ¡V modern day Iran and Iraq. They had come from Asia, Egypt, Libya and Europe. They had come there with their own agenda and the direction of their lives marked out. They were on their way to the temple to perform the works that they thought were required in order to make God happy with them. But then they heard these 120 speaking the ¡§wonders of God¡¨, and the amazing thing was that they heard them speaking in their native tongue. These unlearned Jewish men were speaking Eyptian, Italian, Arabic, Chinese. It was a sign, and it caused them to change their direction so that they could investigate what the meaning of the sign was.
In 1 Cor. 14, Paul says that the desired result of someone speaking in tongues is that they take it as the sign that it is. It gets their attention so much so that they are willing to do some further investigation. And they decide to come inside the walls of the church. Look at what he says near the end of vs. 23 ¡§some unbelievers come in¡¨. And then again in vs. 24 ¡V ¡§someone who does not understand comes in¡¨. It¡¦s the idea of someone who has discounted the value or validity of Christianity and spiritual things up to this point in their lives. But God sends them a sign. It took the form of tongues for the people of Corinth. For us, it may take the form of an invitation from a friend during a particularly tough time of life. Maybe the sign that God used to get our attention and change our direction was the death of someone that we cared about. It was a warning to us that judgment is coming, and we dare not ignore what God is saying. Or maybe, the sign was that God chose to answer some special prayer. For many people, it is the birth of a child that gets them back in church or gets them to come to church in the first place. Whatever the sign that God uses to get your attention, it is enough to get you to change your direction ¡V to investigate further just as those shepherds did. Each of you is here today because God has done something in your life to change the direction that you were going. At one point, you were out there somewhere. Now, you are here. You are here to discover if God is real and what God wants in your life and what your purpose for being here is and whether or not God is really worthy of you changing the direction of your life permanently.
If I could convince you with words, I would. I would tell you that it is worth leaving the wilderness behind to find all that God wants to give you. The shepherds left their hillside in the wilderness to find the joy and hope that only Jesus brings. They were willing to allow God to re-direct their lives for the rest of their lives. From that moment on, they were walking on a different pathway with a different destination. I myself have experienced enough of what God has to offer to allow Him to re-direct my life permanently. But my words alone are not enough to convince you to change your life for more than just one day. That will take the power of the words that only God speaks. For us to hear God¡¦s words, we must be willing to listen.
3. Signs can get us to listen. (vs. 23-24)
Listening is important. For the shepherds out on that hillside, listening meant hearing the greatest news that had ever been told. They heard the angel say, ¡§Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.¡¨ (Luke 2:11) And then, they went to find that baby in the manger, and they listened to the words that Mary and Joseph told them - words about the angel¡¦s visit to each of them and what the angel had told them would be the course and purpose of this child¡¦s life. The people in Jerusalem who had gathered for Pentecost, they listened too. It was probably harder for them to hear because there were so many distractions. It was a holiday, a celebration ¡V much like Christmas. The crowds, the commotion, the vendors selling their goods. Above all that, they heard people speaking in their own language and that captured their attention. They thought at first that the 120 were either madmen or drunk. They were getting ready to dismiss the whole thing and walk away. But then, they heard Peter stand up and interpret what was going on. He gave the meaning of the sign that they had heard. The sign had gotten their attention and had brought them to a point where they were willing to listen, but it was the clear words of Peter that they needed to hear.
Listen to some of the clear, direct words that Peter shared with the crowd on that day. [read Acts 2:22-24, 33, 36] Many of the people in the crowd listening to Peter¡¦s words on that day, had been in another crowd only a little over a month earlier. They had heard Pontius Pilate say, ¡§What shall I do with the one called the King of the Jews?¡¨ And they had responded, ¡§Crucify Him!¡¨ They had seen the signs that Jesus had done proving that He was the Messiah ¡V that He was God Himself and that He had come to rescue from their sins. But they had refused to listen. They were listening now, and God was doing something in their hearts.
We human beings have a hard time learning to listen and we can get the message all mixed up. A teacher was reading the story of Jesus¡¦ birth to her day-care children one morning. As usual, she stopped to see if they understood. "What do we call the three wise men?" she asked. "The three maggots," replied a bright 5-year-old. "What gift did the MAGI bring baby Jesus?" she corrected. And the same 5-year old replied, "Gold, Frankensteins and smurfs!" -- Sent in to Christian Herald by Brenda Roberts, Stone Mountain, GA. http://www.sermons.org/xmasillus2.html The message can get distorted if we do not listen closely enough. Often though, our failure to respond to what we hear is not a matter of not understanding what we hear, but of not liking what we hear. If we don¡¦t like what we hear, we might very well choose to ignore it.
Husbands are notoriously bad Christmas shoppers for their wives, and I must say that I fit that mold. Tammy¡¦s kind of nervous about opening her gifts this year because, against her wishes, I bought her some clothes, and I usually do terrible at buying clothes for her. When I go to get Tammy a gift for Christmas, I will find myself in a position of not having listened very well when she told me what she wanted for Christmas. What she asked for didn¡¦t sound very exciting to me anyway, so I probably just ignored it. I¡¦ll end up buying what I want to get her for Christmas rather than buying her what she wanted for Christmas. It¡¦s kind of like the guy who bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring. A friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those sporty 4-Wheel drive Jeeps." "She did," he replied. "But where am I gonna find a fake Jeep?" That husband ignored what his wife said ¡V he didn¡¦t listen to her ¡V because his desires didn¡¦t fit with his wife¡¦s words.
Some of you are a lot like that husband. God has been trying to get you to listen to Him for a long time, but for one reason or another, you have chosen to turn a deaf ear to His words. Sure, the message has been garbled sometimes, and it has been delivered in words that you had difficulty understanding. That was part of the problem at the church of Corinth. Unbelievers would come into the church because of the sign of the gift of tongues, but when they got into the church, there was no one there to interpret what they heard. So they just dismissed the message and went back to their old way of life. So some of the fault for your not having responded to the message rests with me and others like me who attempt to share the message with you. We haven¡¦t communicated it in terms that you could understand. And since you couldn¡¦t understand it, you rejected the messenger thinking that he was crazy, and you rejected the message thinking it nonsense. But then there have been times, like there were at Corinth, where the message was so clear that you couldn¡¦t pretend it wasn¡¦t for you, and you couldn¡¦t pretend that you didn¡¦t understand. You heard people speaking God¡¦s truth, and you saw people who had been changed by that truth. You had to make a choice. You could either ignore it because what God said didn¡¦t fit with what you wanted or you could let it penetrate your heart and watch some changes begin to occur.
4. Signs can bring us into the presence of God. (vs. 24-25)
Paul says here in these verses that when a person finally starts to listen to the words that God is saying to him, some dramatic changes start to happen in his life.
„X He will be fully persuaded that he is a sinner. ¡§convinced by all¡¨
The story that almost every American mom and dad tell their children is that if they are not good, then Santa will not like them, and they will not get any presents. This same theory has worked its way into our view of God. A small boy was writing a letter to God about the Christmas presents he badly wanted. "I¡¦ve been good for six months now," he wrote. But after a moment¡¦s reflection he crossed out "six months" and wrote "three". After a pause that was crossed out and he put "two weeks". There was another pause and that was crossed out too. He got up from the table and went over to the little manger scene that had the figures of Mary and Joseph. He picked up the figure of Mary and went back to his writing and started again: "Dear God, if you ever want to see your mother again¡K!"
That boy recognized the same fact that Peter was trying to convey to that crowd in Jerusalem at Pentecost and the same realization that will happen in any church whenever the truth is declared in understandable language. We are all sinners. We have done things that are wrong. We don¡¦t have to be good to get God to like us. God doesn¡¦t love or welcome us on the basis of our goodness because none of us are good. We have all failed to measure up to the perfect standard that God has set.
Peter¡¦s accused his audience of being guilty of the murder of Jesus. And that accusation is true of all of us. It was our sins that caused Jesus to have to go to the cross. Isaiah 53:6, ¡§All we like sheep have gone astray; we have led everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him [on Jesus] the iniquity [or sin] of us all.¡¨ Peter told them that they were sinners. Surprisingly, his audience agreed with his assessment of their condition, and they showed the desired reaction.
„X He will feel deeply convicted of his sin. ¡§judged by all¡¨
Acts 2:37 says, ¡§When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart¡K¡¨ There was conviction. It was a stab in the heart because they knew that it was true. They stood condemned as sinners, and they wondered if they were going to have to go around for the rest of their lives with this load of guilt that they now knew they bore. They cried out to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ¡§Brothers, what shall we do?¡¨ Is there hope for us? Is there a way that we can be free from this guilt?
„X He will totally confess his sin so that nothing is hidden. ¡§secrets laid bare¡¨
Peter told that crowd that their situation was not hopeless. There was a way out. He said, ¡§Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.¡¨ (Acts 2:38) The way to get rid of the guilt that our sin brings on us is through confession. God says that ¡§if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins¡K¡¨ (1 Jn. 1:9) You can get rid of the guilt. You can get rid of that burden on your shoulders and start a new life. But only if you are willing to lay your heart bare before the Lord. You won¡¦t be telling Him anything that He doesn¡¦t know already. He knows you better than you know yourself. All you are doing when you confess is saying that you agree with Him that you are a sinner, that you¡¦re willing to leave your sin behind, and that you want Him to forgive you.
„X He will humbly submit to the rule of God. ¡§fall down & worship God¡¨
The person that has truly been convicted of his sin, confessed his sin, and received forgiveness for his sin will in humble thanks yield his life to the control of God over him. He will walk in obedience. He will live a new life. He will know that the cleansing, healing, and release that He receives could have only come from God which will cause him to¡K
„X He will loudly proclaim the presence of God. ¡§God is really among you!¡¨
The events that happened on a hillside just outside of Bethlehem resulted in shepherds coming into the presence of God. They bowed at the manger of Jesus. The events that happened in Jerusalem brought the presence of the Holy Spirit into the people that were there on that day. Peter promised the people that responded in repentance that they would ¡§receive the gift of the Holy Spirit¡¨ (Acts 2:38) When a church is healthy, God¡¦s Spirit is present in power which results in the conviction, confessing and forsaking of sin. And that becomes the greatest sign to an unbelieving world that something is really going on ¡V that these Christians really have something that they need checked out. See, a changed life will be a sign that no one can shut out and that no one can ignore.
