Sermon for Luke 21:25-36 -
Signs of the End of the
Age
Lift Up Your Heads -
Advent 1
A. J. Gordon was the great Baptist pastor of the Clarendon
Church in Boston, Massachusetts. One day he met a young boy in front of the
sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously.
Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I
trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I'm going
to play with them, and then I guess I'll just feed them to an old cat we have at
home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don't
want them, they're just little old wild birds and can't sing very well." Gordon
replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it's a deal, but
you're making a bad bargain." The exchange was made and the boy went away
whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the
church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling
creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the
pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ's coming to seek and to
save the lost -- paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me
the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released them and they
winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, 'Redeemed,
redeemed, redeemed!'"
This is Advent. And the message of these times is the song of those wild birds.
It's the song sung in every carol this season: Redeemed! It’s the meaning behind
every gift given under the tree: Redeemed! It's the Word the shepherds heard:
Redeemed! It's the assurance Mary received: Redeemed! It's the star the Wisemen
followed: Redeemed! [Depending on your style you might omit the repetition of
"Redeemed" at the end of each sentence but allowing it at the end of this
paragraph.] You and I have been trapped by sin, but Christ has purchased our
pardon. He who has this hope in his heart will sing, and you know the song:
"Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"
Will YOU hear the song this season? Will YOU see the signs this Christmas? You
can, if you will stand up and lift up your heads. It is all around. Don't you
know that...
1. Our Redemption Is Written in the Heavens.
2. Our Redemption Is Witnessed on Earth.
3. Our Redemption Is Wrapped in Our Hearts
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