The Advents of Christ: Christ's Entrance
Notes
Transcript
Today is the First Sunday of Advent.
Ace Collins and Robert Webber wrote:
The history of Advent is rich and complex, with its origins deeply rooted in Christian theological reflection. Officially established by church leaders in the sixth century, Advent was originally meant to be a time when Christians reflected on the meaning of Christmas and when new believers spiritually prepared themselves for baptism.
Early Christians understood Advent as having three distinct meanings:
The coming of the Son of God to earth as a baby
Jesus coming into the lives and hearts of believers
The future return of Jesus as king.
Interestingly, historically, Advent was not the beginning of the Christian year, but its end. Originally, its themes focused on the second coming of Jesus, but gradually it also came to mean preparing for Christ’s initial coming. Today, we inherit both themes – the expectation of Christ’s second coming and the anticipation of his birth.
The early Christians developed the “church year” or “Christian calendar” as a way of learning about the birth, life, death, resurrection, and return of Christ throughout the year. At some point, the church year changed to start with Advent, then it moves on to Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Passion Week, Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Pentecost, and so on.
The “first advent” looks back to Christ’s first coming. The “second advent” looks forward to Christ’s second coming. We live between these two advents.
Many of us are familiar with Christ’s first advent. We are familiar with the events surrounding his birth because it has already taken place. But we may not be as familiar with Christ’s second advent because it has yet to take place. I hope that we will learn more about his second advent and have a greater anticipation for it, so that we can say with the Apostle John, “Come, Lord Jesus!”.
Most families have Christmas traditions, and many families also have Advent traditions. It is the time of the year in which we begin to think about the birth, the first advent, of Christ.
Let’s consider the advents of Christ during this season. Today we will start with the first advent, the entrance of Christ.
If you have your Bibles, turn to Deuteronomy 18 and follow along as I read this passage.
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen; to him you shall listen.
16 This is in accordance with everything that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Do not let me hear the voice of the Lord my God again, and do not let me see this great fire anymore, or I will die!’
17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him.
19 And it shall come about that whoever does not listen to My words which he speaks in My name, I Myself will require it of him.
I. Christ’s Entrance for His First Advent
Let’s look at Christ’s entrance for His first advent.
Christ’s first advent was prophesied throughout the Scriptures. Let us look at just a few selected texts.
After Adam fell into sin in the Garden of Eden we read:
14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all the livestock, And more than any animal of the field; On your belly you shall go, And dust you shall eat All the days of your life;
15 And I will make enemies Of you and the woman, And of your offspring and her Descendant; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”
God pronounced His immediate judgment on the serpent: he would be cursed. But God also promised a savior for mankind when He said that the woman’s offspring would bruise the serpent’s head. This is known as the “protoevangelium,” that is, the “first gospel.”
Adam’s family grew and he had numerous descendants. By the time of Noah, the world had drastically changed.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Things were so dreadful that God determined to make an end of all flesh. So, he commanded Noah to make an ark of gopher wood. God then destroyed all people, except for Noah, his three sons, and their wives, through a world-wide flood.
Noah’s descendants became numerous. About half way between Noah and Abram, we have the tower of Babel and God’s decision to scatter the people.
8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city.
After the tower and dispersion of people, we come down to Abram.
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;
2 And I will make you into a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
So, God’s blessing to all the families of the earth would come through a descendant of Abram.
God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and he had a son named Isaac. Isaac had twin sons named Esau and Jacob. God’s promise was to go through Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel. Because of famine, Jacob and his eleven sons were rescued by his son Joseph, who was Prime Minister of Egypt. So, the entire family lived in Egypt.
Four centuries after their initial arrival in Egypt, the people of Israel had increased in number. This increase caused concern for Pharaoh, who feared the potential strength of the Israelites. As a result, Pharaoh subjected the Israelites to brutal treatment and forced them into slavery.
During this period of oppression, God raised up a deliverer from among the Israelites. This deliverer was a baby who was named "Moses" was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, who found him and brought him up in the royal household.
Eventually, God called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt and guide them back to the Promised Land. This marked a turning point for the Israelites, as Moses became the central figure in their journey to freedom.
God also promised the people of Israel that He would raise up another prophet in the future, one who would be like Moses and continue to guide them.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him.
19 And it shall come about that whoever does not listen to My words which he speaks in My name, I Myself will require it of him.
One of Abraham’s descendants was King David. God made a covenant with David. God promised that one of David’s offspring would be king of an everlasting kingdom.
12 When your days are finished and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from you, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
More than two centuries after the death of David, God raised up the Prophet Isaiah. He ministered in a time of great difficulty. King Ahaz was king of Judah at the time. The Lord said to him in Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel.
This prophecy came to fulfillment with the birth of Jesus Christ, as we read in Matthew 1:18-25
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
19 And her husband Joseph, since he was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
20 But when he had thought this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
21 She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 Now all this took place so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled:
23 “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they shall name him Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,
25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he named Him Jesus.
Charles Swindoll and Roy Zuck wrote in their book Understanding Christian Theology:
Understanding Christian Theology The Evidence of Prophecy
Oxford University scholar H. P. Liddon noted that the Old Testament has 332 distinct predictions that were literally fulfilled in Christ.4 The probability of that number of predictions concerning one single individual coming true has been calculated as 1 out of 83 billion. With such odds, clearly these prophecies are not the product of human authorship alone. The God who knows the future and directs the course of history is the ultimate source.
Every prophecy in the OT about Christ’s entrance into this world, His first advent, came true.
II.Christ’s Entrance for His Second Advent
Understanding How God kept His promises for the first advent, let’s look at Christ’s entrance for his second advent.
During Christ’s last supper with his disciples, He inaugurated what came to be known as the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. He spent time teaching and encouraging His disciples because the next day He was to be crucified. And, of course, we know that three days later He was resurrected back to life, but at that moment the disciples did not know that. In order to encourage their sorrowful hearts, Christ said, in John 14:1-3
1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
2 In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.
Christ wanted to assure His troubled disciples that one day He will come again and take His disciples to himself.
Three days after his crucifixion and burial, Jesus was resurrected back to life again. He then spent forty days teaching his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. On the day of his ascension, he once again exhorted his followers to make disciples telling them, Acts 1:8–11
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”
9 And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were watching, and a cloud took Him up, out of their sight.
10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, then behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them,
11 and they said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
About twenty years after Jesus’ ascension, Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica. There was confusion about when Jesus would return as well as what would happen to Christians who had already died. So, Paul wrote to clarify what happens to Christians who die and about the second advent of Christ.
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as indeed the rest of mankind do, who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose from the dead, so also God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.
15 For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
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.
17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
There are numerous prophecies regarding the entrance of Christ for his second advent. Admittedly, there are not nearly as many as there were for his first advent. But they will also all be fulfilled.
Even though we have less prophecies about the second advent, we must be ready for Christ’s entrance.
There is an Italian legend about an elderly woman visited by the Magi a few days before their visit with Christ.
The Magi stopped and asked directions to the child. She offered them hospitality for the night but they wanted to go and find the Christ. She declined their invitation to join their journey.
The Magi told her in order to find the Christ she could just follow the star and she would find Him. Befana stayed to clean her house from the dust of these travellers. It took her the rest of the evening to clean, do laundry and other housework she wanted done.
Once she was ready to leave she took a small doll made of straw that she wished to give this baby. She left her clean home, set on following the star. However, the sky had clouded over and then began to rain. She became drenched and the doll was ruined in the rain and she could not find the Christ.
Legend has it that on the eve of the Epiphany, she takes a bag of children’s toys, candy and fruit and stops at every house that has a child and leaves gifts. Her hope is that one day she will finally discover the Christ.
The story is a legend of course but we must not miss a point this story makes. One day, and it may be soon, Christ is coming back again.
The question we each must answer is this: Am I ready for the second advent of Christ?
You may ask, “How may I be ready for the second advent of Christ?” It is very simple. Repent of your sin. And believe that Jesus is the Son of God and Confess that He is the Savior of sinners.
Let’s pray.
