Hello and good morning again members and friends of Johnson Chapel CME Church. Todays homily is one concerning the season, title: The Forerunner with the beginning of Good News. . Hope to see you at the Chapel today. The Forerunner With The Beginning Of Good News Prayer: Father God, You knew us even before we knew ourselves. You know our hearts and You know our thoughts. Help us I pray to become better children for You. We sometimes wonder through life grasping at what we feel is our purpose in Your overall plan. Father give us the understanding that You made us that we might worship You, that we might praise You and so live our lives that we will one day be with You in your kingdom. As we hear the text for today’s homily, cause our minds to be attentive and to understand the context of what we hear and that we will absorb the texture of the homily that it may be digested and become a part of our being. Father, since You know that I Your servant have no words for this Your people, speak to and through me that we may be feed. Please, allow the words of my mouth and the meditation in my heart to be both pleasing and acceptable in Your sight, You are my rock, my strength and my redeemer, Amen. Isaiah 40:1-5 God’s People Are Comforted 1. “Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. 2. “Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD’s hand Double for all her sins.” 3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert, A highway for our God. 4. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; 5. The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Mark 1:1-3 1. The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, 2. happened just as it was written about in the prophecy of Isaiah: Look, I am sending my messenger before you. He will prepare your way, 3. a voice shouting in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for the Lord; make his paths straight.” Body of the Homily: Christian friends, many of us know of John the Baptizer; we know that he was a cousin to Jesus of Nazareth; some of know him as the son of Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, Jesus’ mother, and still others of us know him as the man who lived in the desert preaching baptism for the forgiveness of our sins, but his real mission on earth was that of a forerunner and proclaimer of the coming of good news. From the scriptures read from Isaiah and Mark’s gospel, we derive the title or hat hanger, “The Forerunner With The Beginning Of Good News.” A little about John the Baptizer: a. He was indeed the cousin of Jesus. b. He was the son of Elizabeth and Zacharias c. He was a preacher who lived in the wilderness area of Judah preaching baptism for the forgiveness of sin. d. His major reason for being born was to be the forerunner. The one who was to proclaim the coming of Christ to earth. His duty was proclaimed in the book of Isaiah, : “Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert, A highway for our God. 4. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth.” e. So now you ask why was all of this necessary? It is explained in the latter part of the scriptures of Isaiah, “The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Church, the reason for John the Baptizer being born and the reason was made clear, that he proclaimed the season we are entering into, the season of Advent, the showing forth of the Savior of the world. John came to proclaim the coming of the Christ. Amen, Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 09:45:01 +0000
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