Churches all over the country will soon be making plans to recreate one of the most meaningful times of the year…the birth of Jesus…and with the Christmas season comes the Christian celebration of Advent.
Advent season stands between the already but not yet…the already was about waiting…when the Old Testament saints waited during the long period of time that preceded Jesus’ first coming…the time from Genesis to Matthew.
In 1744 Charles Wesley…John’s brother…a unique combination…John did the preaching and Charles did the music…Charles’ Christmas carol “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” centered around Israel’s long wait for their Messiah.
But also is the not yet…a time of waiting for us today on the second coming of Jesus…one sentence sums up Advent …it’s the time for the celebration of Jesus’ birth as well as His second coming.
We don’t have many details about the beginning of Advent…the actual celebration of Advent started around the 8th century…but the concept was discussed as early as 380 AD at the Council of Saragossa…here’s what’s strange about this council…this council made a formal declaration…almost 400 years after Jesus’s birth, that God became flesh in the form of Jesus.
The Advent Wreath is a recent invention to the celebration…originally it had 28 candles…24 small red candles and four larger white ones…a German Pastor devised the wreath to satisfy the children at a mission school who would ask every day…’Is it Christmas yet?’
They would light a new red candle each day…to help the children count the days until Christmas as well as a white candle on Sundays.
Eventually the red candles were discarded in favor of a wreath with just the four white candles and a fifth candle in the center…the four candles are lit on each successive Sunday of Advent while the center candle is lit on Christmas Eve.
There are various interpretation of the candles but the most common scheme is the first candle represents hope…it is sometimes called the “Prophecy Candle” in remembrance of the prophets, especially Isaiah, who foretold the birth of Christ…it represents the hope in anticipation of the coming Messiah.
The second candle represents peace…the third joy…and the fourth love…with the fifth center candle representing Christ.
The dates of Advent change every year…it begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day (known as Advent Sunday) and always ends on Christmas Eve.
Today is the first Sunday of the Advent season…this advent season I will be sharing a series of short messages exploring the various themes represented by the five candles on the Advent Wreath.
But our focus should not be limited to just the celebration of the birth of Christ …because Advent also means “coming” so, it is equally important that we focus on the second coming of the Lord as well…because He is coming back.
The story of the coming of Jesus doesn’t begin in the New Testament and it doesn’t end with a baby in a manger.
The entire Bible anticipates and tells of the great Messianic King who has come to bring hope to a dark and dying world.
For Pastors there’s always pressure to create a Christmas sermon series that is unique…fresh…and creative…but really…how many people don’t know what Christmas is about?
With respect to Advent…that pressure is only heightened by preaching something that the Bible never mentions…and for some there are questions as to why the church is even observing something that isn’t found in the Bible.
This morning we’re looking at how hope in Christ relates to Advent…to Christmas …and to our lives today.
Christians often confuse the word hope for wishful thinking…if we hope something will happen, we have no control over whether or not it will take place.
So, the most basic question of all is: What is hope? not just Webster’s definition, but the Biblical definition…we have to know what we are talking about before we can get very far into the truth about Biblical hope.
Ordinarily, when we use the word hope, we are expressing uncertainty rather than certainty…it’s a desire for something good to happen in the future.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible explains what Biblical hope is, Rom. 8:
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees why does he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Advent is the season of hope…waiting in hopeful expectation for the coming of the Messiah.
Hope is one of the three classic virtues of Christianity…faith…hope…and love are foundational in that they draw us to God and to each other.
In last week’s message I mentioned that Psalm 103 was a prayer by David in which he talks to his own soul and reminds himself to “bless the Lord” and “forget not all his benefits.”
Like David sometimes we just need to give ourselves a good talking-to with respect to what should be our hope in the future.
In fact…it has been said that the best sermon you can preach to yourself may be only three words: Hope in God!
Hope is like a reservoir of emotional strength.
—If I am down, I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to raise me up…without hope we only sink into self-pity.
—If I experience a setback in my planning — I get sick, or things don’t go the way I would have liked…I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to keep going and not give up.
—If I face a temptation to be dishonest…to steal…to lie…or to be unfaithful in my Christian walk…I look to the emotional reservoir of hope for the strength to hold fast to the way of righteousness.
That’s what differentiates ordinary hope from Biblical hope…Biblical hope is not just a desire for something good to happen in the future…it expects it to happen …Biblical hope is the confident expectation that something good will happen in the future.
Much of the Old Testament was centered on hope….in the Old Testament hope had to do with waiting for…looking for…and desiring something.
The hope to be delivered from their enemies (Psalm 25) …the hope to recover from illness (Isa 38:10-20) the hope that God would provide land…peace…and prosperity.
But there was also the promise of hope in something other than this world… especially for those who died…God made known his plan to bring his Kingdom to earth…to give them hope…and to raise the dead.
The anticipation of Advent is felt throughout the Scriptures…you can find whispers of the Christmas story from Genesis to Revelation…the very first mention of Christmas in the Bible shows up in the first three chapters of Genesis:
Genesis 3:15
I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.
God’s response to Adam and Eve’s sin isn’t only judgment; it’s Advent…God’s promise of a future Savior who will come and destroy the serpent which will be God’s means of reconciliation between Himself and man.
Moses had a Christmas story…in his final sermon to Israel before his death he informs them of God’s Advent promise that included a coming prophet.
Deuteronomy 18:18
I will raise up for them a prophet like you…I will put my words in His mouth, and he will tell them everything I command Him.
God’s people waited for the Advent of this new prophet year after year and generation after generation…then…When the time came to completion, God sent his Son [Gal. 4:4] …when Jesus came, they cried in relief, we have found the one Moses wrote about…(John 1:45) …He arrived on Christmas morning.
The Christmas story is full of examples of people who put their hope in and who waited patiently for Christ and were not disappointed.
Mary…was told by the angel that she would give birth to the Savior…when the baby was born she held the Savior of the world in her arms…Mary’s hope in Christ was not disappointed.
Simeon…a man who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord appear in the temple at the precise moment Joseph and Mary were bringing Jesus into the temple…he too put his hope in Christ and was not disappointed.
Anna…was a prophetess…Scripture says she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage…a strange way of saying she and her husband lived together seven years after they were married. [Luke 2:36]
She’s 84 and a widow…still putting her hope in God… Anna has an encounter with Jesus…strangely…Luke completely skips over their meeting and discusses only her response to seeing Jesus.
She gives thanks to God and speaks about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem…she was not disappointed.
BUT…least we forget…Advent is not just about those who waited for Christ’s first coming…it is also about us who wait for His second coming when He will banish all evil…He will make all things right…He will restore the earth…we will see Him face to face…and all our hopes will be fulfilled.
The Christmas season is a wonderful time of the year for many reasons…but one of the most important reasons is the hope that Christ brings to a lost world.
At times we’re like Isaiah who prayed that God would come down and reveal Himself…‘ that you would tear open the heavens and come down [64:1] he prayed this because he says ‘I live among people who do not know you [6:5].
What a tragedy to know people who don’t know the Lord…if God would only come down and reveal Himself people would believe…NO they wouldn’t… but…maybe…and hopeful during this time of year people will realize that Christmas is more than just a celebration…it is the coming of God to earth.
As we enter this season of Advent here’s the question…here’s what Isaiah was praying to happen…here is a trustworthy saying…Jesus came into the world to save sinners [1 Tim. 3:15] …that means He came to save you and to save me.
What are you doing during the time of in between?…the time God allows us to let go of everything that stands in our way of receiving God’s gift to us, the gift of Jesus.