Tho Hope Of Advent

This is the manuscript of the sermon I preached at Christ Church, Los Angeles, CA on Sunday December 9, 2018.  Biblical hope is built on faith. Hope is the earnest anticipation that comes with believing something good. Hope is a confident expectation that naturally stems from faith. Hope is a peaceful assurance that something that hasn’t happened yet will indeed happen.  Advent is a time of expectation and hope and it prompts us to pause each day in December and remember why Jesus came and why we celebrate Christmas.   Romans 8:24-25 NIV For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.To hear the audio click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.

The sermons that will take us to the end of the year follow the traditions of the Advent season.   Advent is a time or season that is celebrated by most of the Christian church world, that includes the Catholic Church, most Protestant denominations, and many non-denominational churches.  

The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” which is a translation of the Greek word parousia. Scholars believe that during the 4^th and 5^th centuries in Spain and Gaul, Advent was a season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany, the celebration of God’s incarnation represented by the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus, his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist , and his first miracle at Cana. During this season of preparation, Christians would spend 40 days in penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for this celebration; originally, there was little connection between Advent and Christmas.

By the 6^th century, however, Roman Christians had tied Advent to the coming of Christ. But the “coming” they had in mind was not Christ’s first coming in the manger in Bethlehem, but his second coming in the clouds as the judge of the world. It was not until the Middle Ages that the Advent season was explicitly linked to Christ’s first coming at Christmas.

Advent is a time of expectation and hope and it prompts us to pause each day in December and remember why Jesus came and why we celebrate Christmas

Advent starts the Christian year like January starts the beginning of the calendar year.  

The History of Advent                                 

Advent Today                                   

Today, the Advent season lasts for four Sundays leading up to Christmas.   In Advent, we’re reminded of how much we ourselves also need a Savior, and we look forward to our Savior’s second coming even as we prepare to celebrate his first coming at Christmas.

The themes most often used for the four weeks of Advent are Hope, Peace, Joy and Love

Advent really started last Sunday and had we started on time this would be the 2nd Sunday of Advent but as I told you the Holy Spirit had me preach about our not having  bear our burdens, alone.  Since I'm going to talk about hope today now that I think about about it that sermon I preached last week really fits the hope of Advent which was the  hope Israel had for the coming of the Messiah who would redeem them and free them from all the persecution they were suffering from their enemies.

Now Hope is (a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen).  Israel’s hope was based on prophecies of one coming to redeem Israel and deliver them from their oppressors.

Isaiah 7:14 NIV Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Matthew 1:20-25 NIV But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).  When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Isaiah 9:6 NIV For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Micah 5:2 NIV “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

Matthew 2:1-6 NIV After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:  “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

We know that Messiah is Jesus and it was him who said

Matthew 11:29-30 NIV Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

So today we're going to talk about hope the Hope of Advent. 

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.” It is not a blissful ignorance or wishful thinking but a subversive cheer that refuses to let circumstance triumph over courage, doubt overcome faith, or adversity conquer compassion. This is not easy; it is not our default setting. When we hit brick walls, the first emotion that naturally arises is generally not hope. Hope requires a strength that comes from focusing on a greater vision than what is wrong. We may not have every problem figured out, but we serve a God who loved this world enough to join us in it. We trust that when Jesus said, “Behold, I am making all things new,” he meant it. That’s hope.  Like faith isn't blind neither is hope.   It’s based on trust.

Faith is a complete trust or confidence in something. Faith involves intellectual assent to a set of facts and trust in those facts. For example, we have faith in Jesus Christ. This means we completely trust Jesus for our eternal destiny. We give intellectual assent to the facts of His substitutionary death and bodily resurrection, and we then trust in His death and resurrection for our salvation.

Biblical hope is built on faith. Hope is the earnest anticipation that comes with believing something good. Hope is a confident expectation that naturally stems from faith. Hope is a peaceful assurance that something that hasn’t happened yet will indeed happen. Hope must involve something that is as yet unseen:

Romans 8:24-25 NIV For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Titus 2:12-13 NLTAnd we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.

So while during Advent we celebrate the incarnation through the birth of Christ we at the same time wait patiently looking toward His return..

We can’t see Him yet, but we know He’s coming, and we anticipate that event with joy.

Max Lucado, one of my favorite Christian writers said:

"Hope is not what you'd expect; it is what you would never dream. It is a wild, improbable tale with a pinch-me-I'm-dreaming ending… Hope is not a granted wish or a favor performed; no, it is far greater than that. It is a zany, unpredictable dependence on a God who loves to surprise us out of our socks and be there in the flesh to see our reaction."

Hope is two-dimensional.

Advent teaches us to not only to expect hope for eternity, but we can expect hope for today. If Jesus could remain obedient to death on a cross, surely we can get through what seems hopeless for us today.

If we keep focusing on the lowly conditions in which Jesus came into the world and on His painful death on the cross, then we, too, can have hope for the days ahead of us.  Remember, what you are going through today is not to harm you but to strengthen you for what's ahead for you.

1 Peter 1:3-5 (HCSB)³  Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead⁴  and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.⁵  You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 

There's a Psalm that was around when Mary and Joseph were living in Palestine under Roman rule.  It was a song and prayer of lament which we learned a couple of weeks ago was a cry for deliverance. It was probably originally written when Israel was in exile in Babylon. They were in trouble and because of their rebellion had been rejected by God.  Sort of like we how we feel in difficult times. 

Psalm 80:1-7 (HCSB)¹ Listen, Shepherd of Israel, who leads Joseph like a flock; You who sit enthroned ⌊on⌋ the cherubim, rise up²  before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Rally Your power and come to save us.³  Restore us, God; look ⌊on us⌋ with favor, and we will be saved.  LORD God of Hosts, how long will You be angry with Your people’s prayers?⁵  You fed them the bread of tears and gave them a full measure of tears to drink.⁶  You make us quarrel with our neighbors; our enemies make fun of us.⁷  Restore us, God of Hosts; look ⌊on us⌋ with favor, and we will be saved.

They believed that if He rescued them that nothing could stop them.  We can feel the same way about our redemption from sin  and death.

So all Israel waa waiting for the one who would deliver them.  In fact they actually mention Him in their prayer of lament in a part of Psalm 80 that we didn't read a minute ago.

Psalm 80:17 (HCSB)¹⁷  Let Your hand be with the man at Your right hand, with the son of man You have made strong for Yourself.

The last prophet of the Old Testament Malachi said:

Malachi 3:1 HCSB “See, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. Then the Lord you seek will suddenly come to His temple, the Messenger of the covenant you desire — see, He is coming,” says the Lord of Hosts.

Then he ends his prophecy and  the Old Testament with this:

Malachi 4:5-6 (HCSB)⁵  Look, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome Day of the LORD comes.⁶  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to ⌊their⌋ children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

There was also another prophecy this one by Isaiah

Isaiah 40:2-3 HCSB “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and announce to her that her time of forced labor is over, her iniquity has been pardoned, and she has received from the Lord ’s hand double for all her sins.” A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.

Most theologians and historians believe that Malachi's prophecy was about 430 BC. 

Here's what happened about 400 years later, according to Matthew;

Matthew 3:1-3 HCSB ,In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Wilderness of Judea  and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near! ”  For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said: A voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord; make His paths straight!

John the Baptist was the one prophesied about by both Isaiah and Malachi.

God had promised The Messiah would come and save and rescue them and He did.  Not the way they expected through military victory but from sin and death. He didn’t come to save just Israel but all the lost.

Luke 19:10 (HCSB)¹⁰  For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

Romans 6:19-23 NIV I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

With everything that’s going on in this country and the world we may feel like the nation of Israel felt.   We’re in decline, we’re in trouble, we need a revival and restoration, but the reality is that the promised One has come and all power is in His hands;

Matthew 28:18 (HCSB)¹⁸  Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Because He did come….nothing can ever stop us not even death. 

John 11:25-27 HCSB Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live.  Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die — ever. Do you believe this? ” “Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I believe You are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world.”

We can have hope for a successful future.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (HCSB)11 For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 You will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

We can joyfully anticipate something better ahead; that is, if we maintain hope. We eagerly await something beyond what we could either think or ask.

Ephesians 3:20-21 NIV Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

While things may seem hopeless we should be reminded that the promised One has come in glory and power to rescue, revive, restore, and save. 

Here are some of the reasons why I have hope this Advent season:

●     The birth of Jesus over 2,000 years ago continues to demonstrate the amazing love of God to us. 

●     “God is already accomplishing and will fully accomplish His purposes in the world—regardless of the current state of godlessness in our day.

●     Jesus Christ is no longer a baby in a manger.  He has conquered death and now reigns at the right of God Almighty.  He will one day soon bring history to its conclusion, and we will all then be with Him in glory.

This is not just hope, but it is an Advent hope. It is the truth and expectation that God is working in our life now, in our present moment. It is a promise that what we hope for in his name is obtainable. It is a time to remember that the salvation God promised throughout all of history has already come, and we live in the hope of that salvation. We cannot settle for just the way things are, but must live in the awe and wonder of the memory of God’s promise.

Regardless of the trials you face during the Christmas season, the gift you need the most is the One who longs to live in your heart. Despite the tough circumstances you’re facing, God’s plan is the best plan for your life; He loves you too much to think anything otherwise.  No matter the ache or the longing, the sorrow or the suffering, the birth of Jesus brought hope and healing to the entire world. For this, we can celebrate with JOY!

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17 ESV

As long as you are going through something, then there is HOPE!

Heavenly Father,

Advent is a time for remembering and reflecting on the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Father, I pray that you will turn our hearts toward you as Christmas approaches.  Let us not get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season this year and miss the chance to celebrate the gifts of hope, peace, joy, love, that you sent to us on that first Christmas.

Father God, every word in scripture points to the gift of hope that we have because of Christ Jesus.  The Christmas story wasn’t the beginning of that message of hope because the old testament is full of glimpses of your plan to redeem your people and restore them into a relationship with you, but we are able to truly begin to see and understand just how great your love for us is when we read the story of Jesus’ birth in scripture.

It can be seen when we recognize that you didn't send your Son to be born in a fancy palace among the wealthy and the elite, but our King of Kings and Lord of Lords was born among common shepherds and livestock in a barn.

The family wasn’t ideal.  The surroundings weren’t grand.  The situation wasn’t without its’ difficulties, however, you came in the midst of all of that.  Emmanuel.  God with us.  God in the messy.  God in the dirty.  God in the difficult and the troubled. 

Your plan to redeem and restore mankind was to dwell among us, fully God and fully man.  You chose to come to earth in the fragile soft skin of a newborn baby and set aside all of the glory of heaven for one purpose.  You came to be with us.  You came to love us.  You came die for us, so that we might live.

Help us to see that you are with us.  Nothing is too difficult, too messy, or too dirty for you.  Jesus came to give us the gift of eternal life through the salvation that only you, our Heavenly Father, can give when we believe on your Son, repent of our sins, and confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior in whose name we pray. Amen

Sermon Audio