Unbelief might be a theme you wouldn’t think about at Advent. These weeks before Christmas are a time when people seem to have all kinds of reasons to get “in the spirit”. Christmas specials on TV, shopping, decorations, parties, time off from school and work seem to sweep people away, whether they want it to happen or not. All of this activity can almost become a means to an end. Who needs Christmas when there are so many other trappings to keep us occupied! It can be difficult to find God or Jesus anywhere in the Christmas season.
The example for us Luke 3 might seem like an extreme example – how many of us have had an invitation to Christmas from an angel?! It is that extreme of Zechariah in the temple that proves the point. Many times in the Bible, people see things that should shock them – signs that must point to the existence of God – but there is no faith. Faith isn’t created by evidence. In 13 years I have yet to prove the existence of God. Nowhere in the Bible does God ever call us his debate team. He sends us out as his witnesses. He does this this because he knows that he is the one who will create faith, not a well presented, clever argument. Faith comes by hearing the message. For further study compare this account in Luke 3 to Mary’s conversation with the angel. Their responses aren’t that different, but one was based on faith and other on unbelief.
This is the second meditation from our Wednesday Festival Advent Worship Service – The Coming of Our King. To hear the first mediation from Genesis 3, please click HERE. For the third meditation based on Isaiah 35, please click HERE.
Topic(s): Advent
Book(s): Luke
Tag(s): Advent, unbelief
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg