ADVENT: Getting Ready for Jesus


11/27/2011 - Hope



I love that video, especially the constipated donkey that clears out the nativity scene and the burnt, organic, gluten-free Christmas cookies! Love them too!

Christmas Spirit the right way. That's what we all want to have this year. We want do Christmas God's way. We want to worship more, we want to give more, and love more, and trust God more with all the tough stuff that's on our plate ... and there's a lot of tough stuff, isn't there ... the debt and the depression and the divorce and the unemployment and the illness and the worry and the grief that many of us have experienced this year and are experiencing right now. It never goes away, does it?

Yet in the midst of it all we don't want those things to rob us of the true spirit of Christmas. The hope. And the joy. And the peace. And the love that God showed us when he stepped out of eternity and became one of us for your sake and for my sake, Emmanuel, God with us, God for us. We need not face life alone.

And to help us celebrate Christmas the right way we're going to do what God's people have been doing all over the world for centuries. We're going to observe the four Sundays of Advent and the timeless themes they represent. Hope. Joy. Peace. And love. That's how we're going to get ready for Christmas this year and the birth of our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word Advent comes from the Latin word "Adventus," which literally means coming or arrival. Advent anticipates the coming of Christ, both his first coming that we celebrate at Christmas and his second coming which could happen at any time. Like Lent in the spring, Advent is a season of preparation. It's a time for us to get ready for the baby Jesus and it begins today, Sunday, November 27.

And to help us focus on the four themes of Advent we're going to light a candle each week, one candle for each Sunday. Traditionally, deep purple has been the color of Advent because historically deep purple was the color of robes worn by kings. And we're celebrating the birth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And so our candles are purple with a white candle in the center that we'll light on Christmas Even to represent Jesus as the light of the world.

And the first candle of Advent represents hope (Light candle and just have the word "Hope" remain on the screen). Advent begins with hope. We all need hope. Someone has said that, "We can live about 40 days without food, about 3 days without water, about 8 minutes without air, but only about one second without hope."

A while back I read a true story about tough 24 year-old marine who had been held captive by his enemy in a prisoner of war camp. For two years he survived in pretty good health and had done well because the commander of the camp had promised to release him if he cooperated. And so he did. But as time passed, he realized that he was being lied to. And when the full realization of that deception hit him he lost hope. He became a zombie. He refused to do any more work, rejected all offers of food and encouragement, and just lay down on his bunk sucking his thumb. And in a few weeks he was dead. He lost hope and it killed him.

Webster defines hope as "the expectation of something desired." Hope always looks to the future. Hope always stands on tiptoes. Hope keeps us going. It keeps us alive. Without hope, something inside all of us dies. Like water to a fish. Like air to a bird. Like music to a song. We all need hope.

Israel needed hope in the years leading up to the birth of the Messiah. All throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, God had promised that one day a Deliverer would arrive on the scene, an Anointed One, a Messiah, a Liberator from bondage, a Rescuer of all humankind, someone strong enough to finally and forever defeat evil.

That hope began all the way back in the Garden of Eden when God said to the serpent in Genesis 3:14-15, Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. 15And I will put hatred between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

Bible scholars call this passage "the first gospel" because it describes in veiled terms the future defeat of Satan by the seed of the woman who would be Jesus, the Messiah, born to a woman. He would crush Satan's head one day, but in the process he would be wounded. Satan would strike his heel which is a picture of the cross and how Jesus was wounded for our transgressions as it says in Isaiah 53:5.

So hope begins early in the story of God, the hope that one day Satan and his evil ways would be crushed. Messiah would come from the seed of a woman. He would be a human being. And as we read through the Scriptures his identity becomes more and more specific. Later on we discover that this Deliverer would come from the seed of Abraham and then from the nation of Israel and then from the tribe of Judah, one of the Twelve Hebrew Tribes, and finally from the royal family of King David himself.

The great prophet Isaiah talks a lot about this Messianic hope. In Isaiah 11:1-3 he writes, A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him - the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord - 3and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Isaiah refers to the Messiah as the shoot that will come up from a dead stump that will grow into a Branch that will bear fruit. Jesse was the father of David, Israel's greatest king. But when Isaiah wrote this passage David had been dead for about 300 years and it looked like God's promise of a Messiah was dead too. But it wasn't dead. Out of the stump a small shoot came up. And that tender shoot was Jesus, born as a tender, fragile baby in Bethlehem, the city of David.

Jesus would be the Branch that would bear fruit. He would be the one who would be a delight to his Father and do what the nation of Israel had failed to do which was to be a holy people and a light to all nations. God's promise of a Deliverer would finally come true in the person of Jesus.

But he wasn't the Messiah that many were looking for. He didn't come riding in on a white horse dressed in a purple robe ready to vanquish the Romans who were oppressing his people at that time. He didn't come to set up a throne on which to judge the world. Instead, he came as a humble servant to carry a cross on which to die. But in his death and resurrection he extended his kingdom beyond the borders of Israel to include anyone and everyone who believes that Jesus is the Son of the living God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who died on that cross for their sin. And when we believe in him we have our sins forgiven and the hope of eternal life.

The apostle Paul reaches back and grabs that Isaiah passage when he writes this in Romans 15:12-13, And again, Isaiah says, "The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope." 13May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hope! That's what Jesus offers all of us. Overflowing hope. Do you have that hope this morning? Has the God of hope filled you to overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit? God wants to give you hope today. And it's because of Christmas and the coming of Messiah, the Root of Jesse, that we can have hope.

We can have the hope of eternal life which is both a present and a future reality. We can have the hope that our life will extend beyond the grave. The hope that there is more to this life than this life. The hope that the best is yet to come for those who believe in Jesus. That hope alone helps us deal with the tough stuff we face here and now.

One of my favorite gospel stories is found in John 11 when Jesus interrupts the funeral of his good friend Lazarus and offers these timeless words of hope and encouragement to all who believe. In John 11:25-26 he says, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? Do you believe this?

Over the years I've attended two kinds of funerals. In fact, I've officiated at two kinds of funerals. Both have had plenty of tears and other expressions of grief because it's never easy to lose a loved one. It's always hard.

But the funerals where Jesus is NOT present, where Jesus is NOT believed, have an air of finality, a gloom of doom, a dark climate of uncertainty about anything beyond the grave, a futile sense of hopelessness. They are sad, depressing events.

But the funerals where Jesus IS present, where Jesus IS believed, are almost like celebrations. There's still plenty of tears and grief. But there's hope, hope that that loved one is out of their suffering and out of their pain and safely home in the arms of Jesus, the Savior that they knew and loved.

And there's the hope that we'll see them again, like Mary and Martha saw their brother Lazarus again after he came out of the tomb, and like the disciples saw Jesus again after he was resurrected.

Jesus offers all who believe the hope that one day our bodies will be brought back to life. And we will receive a new body, a glorified body, a resurrected body, built to live forever on a resurrected, new, rebuilt earth. And I guarantee you that you will be happy with your new body. You may have issues with your body now, but you won't then. No cosmetic surgery needed!

Which is why in those settings I love to read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14, Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

Paul doesn't even refer to believers as dying in this passage. Instead, he uses the image of falling asleep. Sleep is peaceful. It takes us away from the hurt, the pain, and the stress of this world. That's what death does for those who believe in Jesus. Sleep is temporary. A person who's sleeping will eventually wake up. And so we'll wake up one day when Jesus returns, to enjoy God's kingdom in all its fullness. We're not going to sleep through it! Sleep is a wonderful thing that we look forward to at the end of a long, hard day. That's the hope we all have in Jesus. Death is not final. Instead, death is the doorway to a better life.

The great writer C. S. Lewis, an atheist turned believer, once said, "Christians never say goodbye. They only say, see you later." I love that. And we can say that because of the hope we have in Christ of a life that extends beyond the grave. And that hope is offered to all who believe in Jesus.

Do you have it? Has the God of hope filled you to overflowing with that hope this morning? I hope so. And if you don't have that hope and you're not sure about your eternal destiny, please talk to someone who has that hope so that they can help you have that hope too.

But eternal life is both a future and a present reality. Not only do we have the hope of a life that will last forever. We have hope for this life right now because eternal life starts right here. Jesus described eternal life this way in John 17:3, Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Eternal life is about knowing God and trusting Jesus in the midst of a life that can very hard and very messy. Life is a journey, but it's not an easy journey. It's a journey full of pot holes and detours and U-turns and dead ends. And sometimes life doesn't make a whole lot of sense does it? Often we wonder why the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer? That's an age old question for which no one has the answer. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do they happen to me?!

But it's in those times that we lean hard on the reality of Christmas and the truth that Jesus is Emmanuel which means "God with us." Our hope is not that everything will get better, at least not in this life. Sometimes things don't get better. They get worse! Our hope is that we can get through anything because God is with us. The message of Christmas is that in the messiness of life, messed up marriages, messed up families, messed up systems and cultures, God is still Emmanuel, God is still with us. God is for us. That's our hope.

Jeremiah 29:11, the most popular Scripture verse found on graduation cards says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

God wants us to live with hope! I love the image of a tapestry. If you've ever seen a beautiful tapestry you know that from one side it's an intricately woven work of art, blending together all kinds of threads of different lengths and colors to make an inspiring design. But when you turn the tapestry over, all you see is a tangled up mess of thread, some short, some long, some smooth, some rough, some knotted, some cut, and all going off in a thousand directions.

I believe that God wants to weave a tapestry in the life of each one of us. And the picture he's out to design is a picture of his Son, Jesus Christ. He wants to make us more like Jesus. But right now all we see is the back and it can look so ugly and messy. But from God's vantage point, every twist, every tangle, every knot is designed to make us more like his Son. And that gives me hope. Hope that God is making something beautiful out of what can often look like a tangled up mess.

And once again the prophet Isaiah helps us out here when he writes these words in Isaiah 40:28-31, Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

On this first Sunday of Advent do you have that hope this morning? The hope of that in the midst of the mess God is out to make something beautiful out of your life? The hope of eternal life that lasts well beyond the grave? That's the hope that Christmas brings and that's where Advent begins.

Questions of the Week

  • How would you define hope from a Christian perspective? What does hope look like in the life of a person of faith?
  • Can you think of a time in your life when you needed to have hope? How did you respond? How are you different today as a result?
  • Advent is the season when we look forward to celebrating the coming of Messiah. What are some hope-filled practices that we can use during this season to remind us to have hope? How does our culture make it difficult to hope?
  • Would you consider Valley View to be a community of hope? How can we encourage each other to practice hope in our lives together?