Hope Came
The Night Everything Changed • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewFirst Sunday of Advent. Hope came when Jesus was born
Notes
Transcript
Today we Begin the Advent season
It is a time for us to reflect and prepare as we anticipate his second Advent, or Coming.
The candles that we light each week are symbolic of the light of Christ.
Each week we light in increasing number over the Advent season to point to the growing anticipation of Christ’s imminent coming.
Like the Children of Israel we patiently wait, preparing and watching.
Today as the first Sunday of Advent we remember hope.
Our text today is John 1:1-14; if chair Bible pg. 710
Are you ready for the message God has for us today?
Cool lets begin!
The Word was God
The Word was God
John opens his witness to the life Christ by telling not about his birth, nor his lineage, or even what was happening at the time of His birth.
No he takes us back before the beginning to let us know The Word was at the beginning, and not only was he with God, he was God!
In telling us this it means that there is not a single thing that was made that was not created by Jesus, not any part of creation or anything in the world. The Word was involved in all of it.
The words of verse 1 Echo back to Genesis 1:1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Telling us that the Word was there and something more.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In verse one we have the very simple word “was” yet it may be simple but it very significant.
In this word John is telling us the Word has continuously existed since before the beginning.
Continuously with no beginning!
What is the “Word”?
Well “word” is the Greek word Logos, the ultimate communication of the truth about God.
This is also telling us that the action of creating was done by the Word.
So the Word we are also told was with God and was God!
Thus the word was one of the personalties of the Godhead, what we call the Trinity.
Well who is this Word?
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word is Messiah, Jesus, the Son of God.
How does this tie with our anticipation of Jesus, his birth, and hope?
Look again at verse 14.
That verse is how we tie this passage with the Birth of Jesus.
We look around creation and understand that all things we created by Jesus as the Word.
The implication of everything being created by Jesus is that the body, the flesh Jesus the Word put on was also created by Him.
That may seem odd but remember Jesus as the Word has always been with God and was God, which we learned is implied by the word “was” in verse 1.
Jesus, the Word, dwells among us coming into the world as we all do, as a little child.
4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.
Such an important part of what we remember in the Birth of Jesus.
Hope in the Season
Hope in the Season
The night everything changed, hope came.
The promises of the Hope of Israel in the pages of the prophets were fulfilled in the life of this little child.
At the temple when Jesus was presented at 8 days old there was a man Simeon.
29 “Now, Lord, You are letting Your bond-servant depart in peace, According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation,
31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all the peoples:
32 A light for revelation for the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
For every tribe, tongue, and people, there is hope in tis little baby.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.
That includes us as believers in Jesus who have been given the right to be called the children of God through Jesus, this little baby.
John in his eyewitness testimony states that this is a reality. It is not some fable, legend, or myth.
This is indicated in the words “became” and “dwelt” in verse 14.
Then the reality is that for thirty years God lived among us and those with Him recognized Him as the Son of God, full of the glory of God.
What is the Hope for Us?
What is the Hope for Us?
For so long God had been promising of a coming Messiah.
The people patiently waited, yet so many missed it because they were looking in the wrong place.
For us we learn that through Jesus those promises were fulfilled.
That means that God keeps His promises Titus 1:2-3
2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,
3 but at the proper time revealed His word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior;
So he came once then he will in fact come again
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Expanded in 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10
7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us, when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels
8 in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
9 These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,
10 when He comes to be glorified among His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—because our testimony to you was believed.
This is why for us Advent is a time of preparation and hope.
We need to prepare for His second coming, which we do impart by remembering his first coming.
Going back for a season to the night everything changed when God put on flesh and was born in to this world.
It started with a little baby and everything changed.
Conclusion
So on this first Sunday a reflection question we should ask, are you ready for his return?
Are you watching?
These are things we as the people of God are called to do.
This is a great time to remove distractions and focus on a time of preperation and hope.
Remember the words of Jesus in Revelation:
12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward each one as his work deserves.
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life, and may enter the city by the gates.
With this in view let’s sing again with Jesus in mind How Great is Our God!