Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus
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Announcements
Fellowship Meal - December 7 at 6:00pm in Fellowship Hall
Scripture Reading: John 1:9-13
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Prayer and Music Service
Sermon Reading: Matthew 24:43-44, Romans 13:11-12
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Prayer
This morning, we begin the season of Advent. We’ll be looking at the passages of Scripture in Matthew 24 and Romans 13, so turn to those and keep them ready.
This week I have been thinking about the old hymn, “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” Jesus is coming. That’s what this whole season called Advent is all about. It’s about preparing ourselves and being ready for our Messiah, Jesus Christ, to come.
The first time Christ came to earth, almost nobody was looking for him. God had to go to great lengths to alert people to his presence. He sent an angel to tell Mary and Joseph, but no one else had such a warning. Elizabeth knew, but even she had to have an alert from her own baby leaping for joy.
Then when he was born, God the Father had to undertake incredible feats - skies full of angels and a star in the east - to bring attention to Jesus’ birth.
But that doesn’t mean that no one was ready. People had been expecting God to deliver his people for ages. Luke 2 tells us that Simeon, an elderly man known for his righteousness and devotion to God, blessed God when he held the Christ child in his arms:
29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;
30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”
There was also a prophetess, named Anna, who overheard Simeon’s blessing. Look at her response:
38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
So there were some who knew God would send his Messiah, and were waiting for him to come. Jesus is coming again - are you looking for him? Are you getting ready?
We often have to prepare for arrivals. Some of you have gone through a whirlwind of activity this last week - you’ve had to prepare for family to come to your house for Thanksgiving. You spend days or even weeks getting meal ideas, buying groceries, making sure you have enough linens out and all the beds are made, you clean crevasses that you forgot you even have.
Then comes the cooking…oh, the cooking! Days before, the oven fires up and the kitchen is already giving forth aromas of a feast to come. And dishes…more dishes than you thought possible to wash! You start to think that you will never finish washing, and then dozens more suddenly appear out of thin air! It’s a good thing dishwashers and stove tops don’t ever go on strike!
And it’s all for hosting a few folks for a little while. A meal, or an overnight stay, or even a few days later, the guests have returned home and then the cleaning recommences - those dirty sheets aren’t going to wash themselves, ya know.
Think of how much preparation goes into one Thanksgiving, and you’ll quickly appreciate how much effort it takes to get ready.
But do we prepare for our most important arrival?
Every year, we celebrate the arrival of God Incarnate - Jesus Christ our Lord. Incarnate, for those who may not know that word, simply means “in the flesh.” Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, God Incarnate. He is Immanuel, God with us. He is divinity wrapped in human form, fully God and yet fully man. He is not God simply appearing human, like a hologram. He is not man who is exalted to be like God. He is God AND he is man - a beautiful example of God going to whatever lengths he needs to in order to redeem sinful humanity and restore us from our broken estate to right relationship with himself.
If God goes through so much trouble to get here, among us, then what do we do to be ready for him to come? How can we live the words of the Christmas hymn, “Let every heart prepare him room?”
This morning, I want us to consider two passages that address getting ready. They come from different contexts than Christmas - both actually relate to Jesus’ second coming.
Spoiler Alert: we need to be ready for that, too!
Begin with me in Matthew 24. This whole chapter revolves around a question posed in verse 3:
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus’ answer raises hundreds of more questions and debates that have raged through the last couple of centuries. He tells the disciples to watch out for those who falsely claim to be the Christ, to not shy away when things go from bad to worse, but to continue spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth. He tells them to watch for the Abomination of Desolation, and to be ready to flee when he appears. He urges them not to believe false claims that Christ is somewhere.
He tells them of the terrifying events surrounding his return: the sun and moon go dark, stars plummet from their heights, and the heavens are shaken out like a dirty rug. Then Christ comes, and all earth will see him as he truly is: the exalted king.
All of this leads to Jesus’ main focus: we need to be ready. Learn from the fig tree - when it starts to bear leaves, summer is on the way. Know the signs - get ready. Then Jesus tells them a tough truth to hear. Every one wants to know when - when will you return? When will you establish your kingdom? When will the end come? But Jesus tells them:
36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
In other words, Jesus says, “I don’t know!” In his humanity, Jesus gave up the right to have all the answers. He surrendered, for the time of his earthly appearing, that perfect knowledge. So he says “Only the Father knows.”
The fact is: we don’t know when Christ is coming back. We do not know the day or hour. We can’t just mark the calendar and plan our preparations. It’s not like a Thanksgiving or Christmas, where there is a day on the calendar for us to anticipate and prepare with certainty. We must live in a state of constant vigilance, always ready for our Lord to return.
Jesus tells his disciples that his return would be like the days of Noah. Everything continued as normal - people were doing everyday things. There were marriages and funerals, plantings and harvests, births and deaths. There was no sign to that day of the coming doom but a crazy old man building a giant boat, but he’s been building that boat for 120 years.
Think of that - 120 years! I’ve never built a boat, but I imagine that took a lot of effort. Can you picture it? 120 years of Noah being too busy to do household chores because of that boat. Faucets leaked for a century because Noah didn’t have time. His honey-do list must have grown extremely long during that century plus of boat building. There’s 120 years of lost memories; Papa Noah wasn’t there. He wasn’t there to watch football games on Thanksgiving, he wasn’t there to see first steps and first words. Think of the missed opportunities.
But Noah was getting ready - he knew God was going to act, and in faithful obedience Noah prepared for God’s judgment. And Noah saved his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law by his faithfulness to get ready.
We must be ready! Christ is coming back, and we must be ready.
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
To Be Ready, We Must Stay Awake
To Be Ready, We Must Stay Awake
Jesus stresses that we must be awake - that doesn’t mean only that we’re not asleep, but that we are wide awake. The word has the idea of alertness - of carefully watching. It’s being awake after your morning coffee, not before! Why must we stay awake and alert to what God is doing? Because we don’t know when he’s coming, but we know he is!
Jesus brings this idea home with an illustration. Suppose you get a phone call this afternoon from Mr. Thief. He calls you to explain that your house is on their robbery list for tonight, but he doesn’t tell you what time he’s coming with his band of merry men. What would you do? Not go to sleep! You’d meet them with your own merry band - and I bet at least two of those fellows would be named Smith and Wesson! You’d make sure you’re ready, no matter when they come.
So we must do with Christ. Christ is coming. He is coming figuratively this Christmas - are we ready for the birth of our King? He’s coming again in glory - are we ready for our King to reign? We must stay awake and vigilant!
Second:
To Be Ready, We Must Stay Engaged
To Be Ready, We Must Stay Engaged
Now let’s look at Romans 13. Paul also talks about the need to wake up:
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.
Notice Paul expands on Jesus’ words. He not only sounds the alarm clock to wake us from our slumber, but he gives us a reason to get out of bed - our salvation is getting closer! As we live each day, our salvation is nearing closer and closer to its consummation.
That’s not just a cheesy saying, “Every day we’re one day closer than before...” That’s a true statement, but it’s not trivial. That means that we are getting closer and closer to our goal, inching ever so slightly toward God finally finishing the good work he has begun in us. So rather than just sitting back and waiting for the end to arrive, we should be all the more anxious to get to that promise.
What would you think if your team’s defense said, “we’re up by a good margin and it’s getting close to the end of the game. Let’s just stop trying.” Would that work for you? What if your doctor said “you’re too old to treat anymore - just cope with all your aches and pains on your own. I quit.” How would that work for you? Or what if just two days before graduation, your grandkid just decided, “I’m tired of school. I’m dropping out.” Would you approve?
Then why would you stop serving God? The fact is that we cannot retire from Christian living, Christian fellowship, or Christian service. There is no exit strategy, no 401(k) that gives us enough faith or brownie points with God to earn our right to rest on our past efforts for Christ. God does not call us to serve our time then quit, he does not except the excuses of “I’ve done enough” or “Let some one else serve now,” or even “I’m too old” or “My back just won’t hold out any more.” The nature of service will change with achy backs and older age, but the call to serve is just as valid from the day we accept Christ until the day we die. For us to be truly ready for Christ to come we must stay engaged in the work of the Father! We must stay engaged! Time is running out! Don’t give up now - we’re getting close to victory! Stay in the fight!
Third
To Be Ready, We Must Stay Pure
To Be Ready, We Must Stay Pure
12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
The wording here is of purity. Jesus doesn’t want us merely to be looking for him; he wants us to be living for him. He demands that we surrender not only our hearts, but our minds, souls, and strength to him as well. Every bit of us belongs to Christ - either Christ is Lord of all, or he is not Lord at all. So we must be pure.
Paul says it is like clothes - we “cast off” darkness and “put on” light. That imagery of “cast[ing] off the works of darkness” is used in Mark 10 of a blind man named Bartimaeus sitting be the road. When he hears that Jesus is coming, he cries out to Jesus for mercy. When Jesus tells them to call him over, the blind man throws off his cloak and jumps up and comes to Jesus. That’s the picture - throwing it off and not even caring where it lands, but pursuing something so much better that what you threw off doesn’t matter anymore.
And the phrase “put on the armor of light” is not merely just throwing it on in a rush. This isn’t a hiding behind a “Christian demeanor” ungodliness. That must be totally discarded. Putting on the armor of light means that we are living in purity and protecting that purity. Think of the armor of God in Ephesians 6 and how it protects from Satan’s attacks. The armor of light is the same thing, protecting the purity of the Christian who is ready for Christ’s coming. Don’t live in sin, Paul says, but put on Jesus Christ himself and live for God, not for self. That’s staying pure. That’s being ready.
One more passage for us to consider. Look at Isaiah 2:1-5:
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.
Jesus is coming.
Are you awake?
Are you engaged?
Are you pure?
Are you ready?