You will see greater things than these - 1/17/2021
Call to worship:
L: Is your soul barren, and swallowed by thirst?
P: The fountain of God springs from desert sands.
L: Is your soul faint, and devoured by hunger?
P: The feast of God spreads from a few loaves and fishes.
L: Is your soul weary, and dreaming of sleep?
P: The voice of God bids the dead rise from their beds.
L: Is your soul homeless, and sheltered by fear?
P: The hand of God builds a home on the rock.
A: Let us lift up our hands! Let our lips praise God’s name! For steadfast love is better than life, and heaven’s power is greater than death!
Opening Hymn: Have Thine Own Way, Lord #382
1. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Thou art the potter;
I am the clay.
Mold me and make me
after thy will,
while I am waiting,
yielded and still.
2. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Search me and try me,
Savior today!
Wash me just now, Lord,
wash me just now,
as in thy presence
humbly I bow.
3. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Wounded and weary,
help me I pray!
Power, all power,
surely is thine!
Touch me and heal me,
Savior divine!
4. Have thine own way, Lord!
Have thine own way!
Hold o'er my being
absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit
till all shall see
Christ only, always,
living in me!
Opening Prayer:
O Lord, your word is rare in these days; there is no frequent vision. Wickedness is wrapped around our ears. Indifference is caked upon our eyes.
So speak to us through our children, God. They will be able to hear you, for when a thundercloud rumbles, they know the voice is yours. Appear to us through our children, God. They will be able to see you, for when a clown cries, they know the tear is yours. Come to us through our children, God, and we shall not be able to keep from asking, “What was it that God told you?”
Then they shall unstop our ears and open our eyes. Then we will know that you are the Lord.
Epistle Reading: 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
Children's Message (video)
Hymn: I Am Thine, O Lord #419
1. I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice,
and it told thy love to me;
but I long to rise in the arms of faith
and be closer drawn to thee.
Refrain:
Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to the cross where thou hast died.
Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to thy precious, bleeding side.
2. Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord,
by the power of grace divine;
let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
and my will be lost in thine.
(Refrain)
3. O the pure delight of a single hour
that before thy throne I spend,
when I kneel in prayer, and with thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend!
(Refrain)
4. There are depths of love that I cannot know
till I cross the narrow sea;
there are heights of joy that I may not reach
till I rest in peace with thee.
(Refrain)
Prayer of Dedication:
O God of Hannah, mother of Samuel and woman of God, who so longed for a child that she could no longer pray in words, receive our prayer. Grant us peace. For like Hannah, we have been barren. We have hoped. We have labored. We have expected. We have trusted. But our hopes fade, our labors get lost, our expectations have fallen. We want to trust again. Yes, Lord, we know Hannah well. Send us the same peace that you sent to her, even before she realized that she was with child. Amen.
Gospel Reading: John 1: 43-51
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Sermon Title: “You will see greater things than these” (video)
BEHOLD!!! You will see greater things than these. This statement from Jesus seems a lot like the opening to a magic show or something. And yet, we know that Jesus did not perform magic. He told Nathanael that he would see greater things than these because greater things would be seen by all.
Although Jesus didn’t use the opener, “behold”, he did tell Nathanael that he had seen him under a fig tree before Philip had even called out to him; and because of this, Nathanael was convinced that Jesus must in fact be the Son of God. There may have been more conversation around this event, but the point is that once Nathanael realized who and what Jesus was, he jumped in with both feet and offered himself to Jesus.
As mere mortals, sometimes we get hung up on the how’s instead of looking at the why’s. Jesus was not endeavoring to be theatrical with Nathanael, or any of the other disciples that He called. Rather, He was trying to make a point and to be expeditious in doing so. Jesus knew that He only had so much time to make this point while He was physically on earth. And His point was get the message of God’s love out to all people, near and far, and for that, He would need the assistance of those who believed in Him. You see, discipleship is active, not passive. We can’t just accept Jesus as our Savior and then recline into a chair with a box of Bon Bon’s. And when, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we actively take the message of God into the world, this is where the earthly and the heavenly meet.
In this report from John, we know that Jesus is identified as the One who fulfills the promises of Scripture.
Have you ever had someone make a promise to you and then break that promise? It hurts! At the very least, it is a disappointment. So when you think about the promises made to the people by God through the prophets for centuries, you wonder how they could believe for so long without any visible sign. And this is where human nature comes in. Not everyone held on the belief that the Messiah was coming because it had been so long since He was promised and then, when He did come, it was not the sort of arrival that many were expecting.
Even in Jesus’ ministry, He spoke softly and loved with kind words and actions. It appeared that He cared for the people in the margins of society more than He did the prominent religious rulers of the day. He didn’t ride down the middle of main street atop a great, white horse, waving banners and making pledges to end the persecution that so many had suffered. It didn’t make sense and so, many people left the side of God, thinking that after all this time, His promises surely had been broken. We, humans, walked away from God. And God loved us so much that He sent His only Son into the world to save us, not only from our sins, but also to reconcile us with Himself. He did not break His promises, but has fulfilled each and every one of them according to the time in which it is supposed to happen.
“You will see greater things than these.” Jesus’ words were promised by God, way before He spoke them to Nathanael; and they are repeated every moment of every day that we choose to keep believing in the promises made to us by God through His Son Jesus Christ.
In a world that seems to be full of beautiful things; sunsets, horses, trees in a forest, flowers in the spring, the face of a child who believes; we may think that we have seen every beautiful thing, every great thing. But Jesus says to us today, just as He did to Nathanael so many years ago, “You will see greater things than these.”
So I say to you all, look for the good for it is there; listen for the beautiful for it makes a glorious sound; feel the amazing for it surrounds you; and trust that God keeps every one of His promises and we will see greater things that what we have already seen.
Amen.
Closing Hymn: My Faith Looks Up to Thee #452