Mungerfest 2023
Sermon Title: Listening in the Day
Munger Fest Service
Message: We listen to lots of people. Most of it, though, is inadvertent. We listen to music that happens to be playing, to television in the background, and other sources not necessarily of our choosing. The question today is - Who do you really listen to? Really? Who is it that you want to hear from? All of us have one voice that is above all voices. Jesus wants to be the one we hear, and the question is - is he the one?
The Extra Mile: Nicodemus is a complicated figure is Scripture. He appears in our passage this week, John 7:45-52, and in a couple of other places. Nicodemus appears in John 3:2 to have a conversation with Jesus under the cover of darkness about what it is to be born again. He also appears in John 19:39 at the burial of Jesus where he helps take care of the body of Jesus. The question is - does he ever realize who Jesus is? Many have heard of Jesus, but the Biblical witness is that we will not only hear but also believe? Is that us?
Scripture: John 7:45-52
Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
“No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
“You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”