The Candle of Christ

I want to thank you all for coming this afternoon. If you’ve been here the last four Sundays, you’ve probably heard some tough words.

Week one of advent we heard about Hope. We learned that Hope arrived in Genesis 3 when the first sin occured. And the only reason we need hope is because Jesus isn’t here. The Jewish people hoped for Jesus, the Messiah, for 4,000 years. Then he came and what they hoped for had arrived. They no longer needed hope, however, some hung on to it because they didn’t believe. Then Jesus died, rose again and ascended into heaven. And we again hope for his return. It will come one day, and on that day we will no longer need Hope Hence, blowing out the Hope Candle when I lit the Christ candle.

The following week we learned of the candle of Peace. This was a hard week because we heard that to make peace we have to be broken into pieces. Since the fall we have been at war with God and he wants to give us peace, but it is up to us to take it. Peace is not here now, we have shadows of it, hints of it, sure, but until Jesus returns, we do not have true peace.

The 3rd week the sermon title was “Joy is Not a Thing” that was not a title many people would associate with advent. But is was an apt title. We talked about material things and how they never last. Material things can’t bring us joy. In fact, we did learn I’m the type of guy who if I think something will bring someone else joy, I will get rid of it instead of keeping it around collecting dust for the sake of tradition. But we learned that Joy itself is not a thing, but a state of being. It’s more than happiness it’s what you choose to be instead of anxious or worrisome or fearful. We even used a word play to remember. Turn your worry in to worship, turn your fear into faith and all the Junk that’s left inside you turn to Joy.

Two days ago we lit the love candle and you would think that finally there would be a steady stream of uplifting words and nothing for us to work on. God loves you, now we’re good. But that’s not where we went. We talked a lot about how people are self righteous and how people say they love God, but hate people. The Bible calls them liars. In complete retrospect we learned that there is someone out there who loves us, and because there is someone out there who loves us, we too should love in return.

Why do 4 messages on advent and not let you leave all warm and bubbly? Why leave you, hopefully, convicted that perhaps there are areas in your life that aren’t perfect and you need work?

Plain and simple, we live in a fallen world and just because we are followers of Jesus, doesn’t mean that we are going to be given everything we want, some of our days are going to to be miserable, we will get sick, one day we will die. Just like non-believers.

Non-believers have hope. Not hope in the return of Jesus, but they hope for things to make their life better. Their hope will one day begone because without Jesus there is no real hope.

Non-Christians have a kind of peace. Not true peace. They have the world they have made around themselves and they are comfortable in it. To get in you have to break their world into peaces and hope they don’t put it together again.

People who reject Jesus have happiness. They can’t have true joy, because Joy is something you can only have in Jesus. But they have happiness. They grab this emotion and when it fades they dump whatever it was and move on to the next thing that gives them that emotion of happiness.

The only thing an enemy of God can have that is about .0000001% comparable to Love is Lust. And I’m not just talking sensual lust. We are talking wanting what isn’t yours Envy. We’re talking holding onto something we think fulfils us, but really just drains us.

The four things a non-believer has for advent is, False Hope, False Peace, A Draining Happiness, and Lust.

And so were all of us, until that Christ candle was lit.

Our hopes came true, Jesus is here.

Matthew 1:23 (ESV)

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

You and I both know it is impossible for virgins to have babies. So the world around Mary had a choice to make. Believe her and hope with her in the coming Messiah, or brand her a liar and make her life hard.

Have you ever wondered why a 9 month pregnant woman would have a hard time finding a safe place to have her child. I challenge this. No one in Bethlehem had hope, they saw a woman who became pregnant outside of marriage and wouldn’t let her have her baby in a safe place, instead they had to go to a place where animals lived, because perhaps they viewed her as one.

The world did not have peace, because in that day and time a man named Herod ruled the area. And Herod, a paranoid man, would, instead of keeping the peace, killed his own children who he thought were trying to take over the throne. He also killed the young in Bethlehem, because the coming King was, in his mind a threat to his throne. Herod died without peace.

There was no Joy in that time. Can you imagine after days of travel and then having to give birth in a dirty barn? Joy was not in great supply. But it was still there. When the shepherds came to visit the baby. Imagine this, you’ve just given birth in a dirty barn. Then a bunch of guys that smell like sheep coming in to look. I can’t imagine a mom in the world who would just say, sure, come on in. Do you want to hold him? And two verses come to mind

Luke 2:19 ESV

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Everything that was happening was too much for her. Instead of expressing anger or hate at the circumstances. She took everything with Joy and pondered them. It’s like experiencing an accident or tough break. It stinks in the present, but later you laugh about it. I think thats what Mary did. Second verse

Luke 2:20 ESV

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Can you imagine being in the lowest job imaginable and then being invited into the janitor’s closet to have a meeting with the CEO. That’s what happened. the lowliest of people got to see the King first. I can’t imagine the Joy that surged through their very selves. It must have been an uncontainable joy, because it burst out of them.

Finally the world did not know Love, it still doesn’t just to spoil it for you a little. But the very thing in all the universe that can be called True love came. Most church goers will answer with the number 2 when you ask how many gospels contain Jesus’ birth. I say three, but the 3rd one is very short

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The only being who can truly love with all of himself, left heaven, took on flesh and came to live with us. True love came to us. The world couldn’t recognize him, mostly because our definition of Love changes every five minutes. But, the very God who created us came here to save us, WHY? Because he loved us.

So, today we lit the Christ candle. Because being a follower of Jesus is what we’ve all been called to do. And when you are in Christ and Christ is in you.

Colossians 1:27 ESV

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

When we are following Jesus we are in the midst on Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.

If you are hear today and you’ve never known Christ as your savior, I invite you to accept him today. Because when you so, your False Hopes, False Peace, False Joy, and lusts, will be replaced with the genuine Hope of his coming. The Peace of God will dwell in you. The Joy of Christ will be yours to grasp. and the Love of God. his very special only true form of love there is, will live in you.

And if you are here today and you’ve know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, but have stepped away from the Christ candle, you’ve built up again that wall of false peace, or grabbed on to a false hope or vain happiness, I invite you to look to Jesus and turn back. Because, and if you know you know.

He’s where the Joy is.

Let’s Pray