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John the Baptist was a prophet and we can learn quite a lot about prophecy from him.

Prophecy has three elements:

1. A prophet ANNOUNCES   an important message from God. John’s message was announced to the people of God and in a nutshell it was that they should “prepare the way of the Lord” or in other words, “prepare the way for the arrival of Christ.

2. A prophet ALERTS the people, that God is doing something very important. In John’s case that because of their sins and sinfulness, they were in a damaged relationship with God. God was doing something important about that.  He was sending his Son as a love gift to save them from their sins.

3. A prophet ACTS    on the truth he has heard from God.  He weaves that truth into the fabric of his life and commits himself to it. He walks the talk and people follow him because he does so. John preached repentance and baptised people as a visible reminder that they have repented and turned to Christ.

Advent is the time leading up to Christmas

• and it is a prophetic time for the Church.
•  It is a time when Christians are called to the special task of announcing the important message that Christ is the saviour of the world.
• The church is called to alert people to the dangers of their sinfulness and
• The church is called to act out or to live out the message of Christ to our community.

Only by doing this can we keep Christmas focused on Christ

And only Christians are called to this special task which makes Christmas a  meaningful time for the world.

Talk about Hong Kong.

            Non- Christians , capitalists  preparing for the Festive Season.

            All seemed empty and hollow and meaningless.

What Hong Kong and all our cities need is leadership from Christians to put Christ back into people’s experience and understanding of Christmas.

Christmas must needs be about Christ and about his significance in our lives.

But we need to start with ourselves.

We need to examine where we stand in this whole business of Christmas.  

What does Christmas truly mean to each of us? 

We need to prepare ourselves for the arrival of our king or we cannot help others.

In a sense we need to be our own prophets.

So..

1. We need to announce that important truth into our own hearts that we are sinners. Let us acknowledge and recognize the sin in our lives.

Are we arrogant, jealous, controlling, gossiping, vain, liars, negative etc?

Each of us must take responsibility for looking into our hearts to find the sin that spoils our relationship with God and others. 

We all have it. Paul himself wrote: “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”.

2. We need to be on red alert that we are not playing God in our lives.  See AA.

 Each of us needs the help of God to change the things that are wrong in our lives.

3.  We need to act on our convictions i.e. turn to God, actively include God in our lives by inviting Jesus Christ to be born again in the stable of our hearts this Christmas.

But wait …. There’s more….

As Christians, as prophets of God, we have a brief, a ministry to do that for the world in which we live also.

We need to be the prophets of the Gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

1. We need to Announce to the world the problem of sin. To help society identify and recognize sin e.g. the sale of children into slavery, discrimination against women, exploitation of the poor, destruction of the environment.
2. We need to alert the world to its need for God, in order to change injustice and unrighteousness.   E.g. the Pope – Brussels- E.U. Constitution.
3. We need to Act ourselves by taking appropriate steps to challenge a sinful status quo.   Halloween party.

The Church has a prophetic ministry in the world which you and I must not neglect to perform in our personal lives and in society.

For we are the church of Christ and God has chosen us to be his prophetic messengers.

PROPHECY:

            ANNOUNCE

An important message from God.

             ALERT

                                     People to  the truth

             ACT.

                                     Walk the talk.

ADVENT IS A PROPHETIC TIME.

ANNOUNCE:

                        Christ is the saviour of the world.

ALERT:

                        People to the dangers of sinfulness.

ACT :

                        Live out the message of Christ.

Personal lives:

ANNOUNCE

            That we are sinners

ALERT

            That we must include God in our lives.

ACT

            On that conviction and include God in our lives.

ANNOUNCE:

            That there is sin in the world.

ALERT :

That we include God in the decisions we take.

ACT:

For peace and justice.