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Original airdate: Sunday, September 8, 2019
*** SHOW NOTES (not a transcript) ***
Lead:
What’s a sign, and how should you think about ‘em on the road of life?
Intro:
Think about this quote:
If art truly serves as a signpost, a map, then we as Christians are called to be the guides. ~ Matt Capps
If Christians live and love like Jesus, through their art or the rest of their lives, why is that powerful? Because people see it. Well, that’s what signs are, and why this is kinda cool we’ll get to in today’s Thinking & Reflecting segment.
Yesterday we talked about reason. Today we connect that to signs and seeing.
Sponsor:
Bible segment (read along with The Bible Project):
Passage: Mark 7-8
Translation: NET (New English Translation)
Verses: 75
Words: ~1587
Thinking/reflection segment:
The Greek word for “sign,” sēmeion, means a visible event intended to convey meaning beyond that which is normally perceived in the outward appearance of the event.(1)
SIGN, sīn (אוֹת ’ōth, “a sign,” “mark,” מוֹפֵת, mōphēth, “wonder”; σημεῖον, sēmeíon, “a sign,” “signal,” “mark”): A mark by which persons or things are distinguished and made known.
In Scripture used generally of an address to the senses to attest the existence of supersensible and therefore Divine power. Thus the plagues of Egypt were “signs” of Divine displeasure against the Egyptians (Ex 4:8 ff; Josh 24:17, and often); and the miracles of Jesus were “signs” to attest His unique relationship with God (Mt 12:38; Jn 2:18; Acts 2:22)...
The faith that walks by signs is not by any means to be lightly esteemed. It has been allied with the highest nobility of character and with the most signal achievement....
The sacramental use of the sign dates from the earliest period, and the character of the sign is as diverse as the occasion. The rainbow furnishes radiant suggestion of God’s overarching love and assurance that the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy the earth (Gen 9:13; cf 4:15); the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a reminder of God’s care in bringing His people out of bondage (Ex 13:3); the Sabbath is an oft-recurring proclamation of God’s gracious thought for the well-being of man (Ex 31:13; Ezk 20:12); the brazen serpent, an early foreshadowing of the cross, perpetuates the imperishable promise of forgiveness and redemption (Nu 21:9); circumcision is made the seal of the special covenant under which Israel became a people set apart (Gen 17:11); baptism, the Christian equivalent of circumcision, becomes the sign and seal of the dedicated life and the mark of those avowedly seeking to share in the blessedness of the Kingdom of God (Lk 3:12–14; Acts 2:41, and often); bread and wine, a symbol of the spiritual manna by which soul and body are preserved unto everlasting life, is the hallowed memorial of the Lord’s death until His coming again (Lk 22:14–20; 1 Cor 11:23–28). Most common of all were the local altars and mounds consecrated in simple and sincere fashion to a belief in God’s ruling and overruling providence (Josh 4:1–10).
Signs were offered in proof of the Divine commission of prophet...
With increase of faith the necessity for signs will gradually decrease. Jesus hints at this (Jn 4:48), as does also Paul (1 Cor 1:22). Nevertheless “signs,” in the sense of displays of miraculous powers, are to accompany the faith of believers (Mk 16:17 f), usher in and forthwith characterize the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, and mark the consummation of the ages (Rev 15:1).(2)
Wisdom segment:
Passage: Psalm 79
Translation: NET (New English Translation)
Verses: 13
Words: ~213
Love you!
-R
Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. Follow him on Twitter -- @RogerCourville and @JoinForTheHope – or his blog: www.forthehope.org.
Sources and resources:
(1) Eugene E. Carpenter and Philip W. Comfort, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000), 391.
(2) Charles M. Stuart, “Sign,” ed. James Orr et al., The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia (Chicago: The Howard-Severance Company, 1915), 2789.