12.20.2011

Waiting for Revelations

I was once invited to attend a Third Day concert that was by invitation only. The concert was limited to a small number of guests and was done at a cool little venue in downtown Nashville. I was really amped up about getting to go to this concert as I was a huge fan and they were also planning a question and answer time during the concert.

The concert was awesome and Third Day put on a great show as they had done the other times I had watched, but I went away with one thing from the concert that has stuck with me. They were asked a lot of question and they gave some serious answers and a few funny ones, but one question they gave an incredible answer to. They were asked if they could say one thing to the youth of the day what would it be. I do not know the names of all the band members, but one of the guitarists spoke up and answered. He said that he would tell them to quit living for tomorrow and take advantage of where God has them today.

I truly believe this ideology would turn the world upside down if Christians took the time to think about what it would mean in their daily lives. What if we quit worrying and just got to work. How about we quit focusing on trying to figure out what the heck is going on and just put our boots on. This sounds incredible but very few have grasped it, in fact I would say Third Day swung and missed just a little bit a few years later if you take there music as their life philosophy.

I do not know if it is there most recent album but Third Day released an album a few years ago entitled “Revelation.” While this album was a great listen the title track is a common held theology that leaves many people within the church full of questions, regrets and stagnation while the lost perish. You ask what this theology is? A look at the Christmas story found in the Gospel of Luke will shed some light.

Zechariah is the father of John the Baptist. Luke tells the story of John’s birth and starts with an angel, Gabriel, coming to visit. Zechariah is a priest and he had entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense to God. Now this might not seem like a huge deal but at the time this was considered a pretty dangerous job. The reason for the danger was due to how incredibly holy this place was. If a person came into this inner temple and did not have their junk together they would be struck dead. The priest would literally wear a rope tied to their leg so that if they did die they could be pulled out. Zechariah is alive and burning the incense when Gabriel comes to visit. Gabriel then tells him that his barren wife, Elizabeth, will give birth to the foreteller of Christ. Now if an angel of the Lord appeared to me, I would hope that at that point I would be ready to do what ever he said, but not Zechariah. Zechariah responded with a question, “How shall I know this.” This does seem like a unreasonable request, but God was not happy. Zechariah had to spend the next nine months not being able to talk. Why?

The Word of God is alive. The Word is true and it speaks boldly into our lives today. The Word is our perfect guide. My mom tells a story about when my father was stricken with cancer. She had been visiting with our Pastor and she had expressed her desire to know exactly what God would have her do. She says that our Pastor pointed at his Bible and said He (God) did. I do not think he was talking about just flipping your Bible to random page reading the first verse you see and doing what it says. When you really think about it doesn’t that seem a little crazy? The Bible makes more than a few commands, but I personally believe the main message is to make know the incredible name of the King. Now if that is to be our goal what are we waiting for. I have heard so many people, myself included, say that they are just waiting on a sign or revelation. Waiting for God to tell us exactly what to do, then we will do it. Imagine that you were a parent and you tell your son to go to the store and get some milk. Thirty minutes later you are looking for the milk and you ask your son where it is. He then gets up and heads to the car. He says as he is leaving that he was just waiting on a sign. What if the consequences were greater? What if you were nurse and you were caring for a patient? The doctor tells you to stop the patients bleeding. The patient bleeds until he is no longer alive. The doctor returns as you now have the bleeding stopped and ask what happened. You respond with you were just waiting on a sign before you started. These two situations would never happen, well the first might, but the next two happen more than just often. You are sitting in church and the church plans a mission trip. You tell God you will go if he will send you a sign. You ignore the Bible that tells about taking the Gospel to all people and you wait for some sign to be written in the sky. You never go. You are sitting in the stands at a sporting event. The person sitting next to you that you have spent many games getting to know reveals that they are not Christian. You tell yourself you will share the truth of the Gospel if God will show you a sign. You ignore the fact that the Bible has told you to share with all people. You never share.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah. Lets say that again. An angel of the Lord APPEARED to Zechariah. Zechariah could not take this as his sign though. He wanted to have more assurance that this was going to happen. The amazing thing about this though is that Zechariah had gone into this temple to meet with God and then when God shows up he ask for more proof. How many times have you said you will do whatever God ask of you, but ignored what He has already told you to do? Can you imagine how many people would be walking around deaf if God were still in the making deaf business? The Bible is not a hidden message that needs to be decoded, nor does it need to be verified. The Bible stands alone and its message is clear. Quit waiting on signs. The Lord said to make His name great. There does not need to be another sign. Could you imagine how many more people would have already heard the Gospel if we were not waiting on signs to tell them?

I hope this is not your sign. I pray that you take the Bible and it very clear message serious. Do not be apathetic to a lost and dying world. Take the commands of our Lord as exactly what they are and tell the lost and dying world of a Holy, Holy, Holy Savior King.