The Arrival - Week 12

Have you noticed that stores are putting out Christmas stuff earlier and earlier each year?

It seems like they haven’t even put the Halloween candy on clearance, but they are already putting out Christmas

I’m sure in the coming years, you will be able to buy a box of candy canes while shopping for your Labor Day barbeque.

And have you noticed that Black Friday is no longer just the Friday after Thanksgiving?

Stores are opening earlier and earlier on Thanksgiving Day to start their Christmas sales. Pretty soon, you will be having Thanksgiving breakfast (doesn’t a turkey and sweet potato omelet sound good?) with your family so you all can get to the store to start your Christmas shopping. For some of us, this may be good news.

The more Christmas candy, the more Christmas shopping, and the more holiday cheer the better.

Like Buddy the Elf, some of us just can’t get enough of Christmas

For others, this is obnoxious and annoying.

They’re thinking, “What’s the rush? Why is everyone in such a hurry for Christmas to get here? It’s all about making money, right?”

No matter how you feel about all this commercialism, it all points to an important idea: the excitement and anticipation that we all feel as we approach the Christmas holiday.

While many—both in and out of the church—look forward to things like family gatherings, exchanging gifts, and decorating a Christmas tree, we Christians remember the true reason for the season: celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This idea of anticipating and preparing for the coming of the Christ Child dates back about 1,500 years in the tradition known as Advent. Experts don’t really known when it started exactly, but there are references to the season of Advent dating back to the 5th Century.

The term, “Advent,” comes from the Latin word, “adventus,” which is a translation of the Greek word, “parousia,” which means, “coming.”

According to Christian tradition, we look forward to Christ’s coming in three ways during the four-week season of Advent: Christ’s first coming as a baby in the Nativity story, Christ coming into our hearts on a daily basis, and Christ’s eventual second coming to repair the mess we have made of this planet and to restore the Kingdom of God.

Let’s begin by turning our attention to some of the traditions of the Advent season.

The first one we will consider is the color of Advent.

Churches who follow the liturgical calendar—typically more traditional denominations—will decorate their sanctuaries in the color of each liturgical season.

The color of Advent is purple.

What do you think purple might represent?

Traditionally, the color purple represents royalty.

Back in the day, different colored fabrics had different prices depending on how expensive the dye was to color the fabric.

Purple dye was very expensive, so only the wealthy and royal could afford to buy purple fabrics to make their clothing.

Jesus is often referred to as the “King of Kings” and “Lord of Lords.”

The Magi came looking for a newborn king.

As God’s only Son, Jesus is the King above all others.

So many churches celebrate the Advent season by decorating in purple in anticipation of the coming King.

Here in America, we are not really used to the idea of royalty, so it might be hard to relate to this concept.

But, imagine if your favorite athlete or celebrity was coming to your house.

You’d probably want to clean up your house and decorate in their honor, right?

So, in the same way, we ought to clean up and decorate for the celebration of Christ’s coming.

Not just our houses or our church’s sanctuary, but our hearts as well.

We need to be sure we are prepared for His arrival.

A second tradition is the lighting of Advent candles.

There are a total of five Advent candles that are placed in an Advent wreath.

Four candles go around the outside, with one candle—the Christ candle—in the middle.

During the four weeks of Advent leading up to Christmas, a new candle is lit each week (in addition to the candles lit in previous weeks).

Typically, a special prayer is said during the lighting of the candles each week.

And then the Christ candle is lit on Christmas Eve.

Different churches and different denominations have different ideas about what each of these candles represents.

In one tradition, each candle represents a different player in the Christmas story; the first candle represents the prophets who foretold Christ’s coming, the second represents the angels who brought the first news of Christ’s birth, the third represents the shepherds who were the first to visit the newborn King, and the last represents the Magi who came from the east in search of the Christ child.

In another tradition, the candles represent hope, peace, joy, and love, respectively.

Christ’s birth brings us hope that through Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, we will be saved from sin and death.

Christ’s birth brings us peace in knowing that we are reconciled to God through Christ.

Christ’s birth brings us joy in knowing that we are God’s adopted children.

And Christ’s birth brings us love that we need to share with the world.

The reason I bring these things up is to encourage you to explore some of these rich traditions, some of which go back hundreds of years.

There are many more than we have time to discuss here.

A simple Google search will give you a lot to read and consider.

But our society pushes forward at a breakneck pace.

We are always looking ahead to the next thing—the next event, the next device, the next new thing.

But, sometimes we need to pause, slow down, and reflect.

There is so much meaning and richness to be found in these traditions, prayers, litanies, and rituals.

As you enter the Advent season this year, I encourage you to find one of these traditions and incorporate it into your experiences.

Pray that God would open your mind and your heart to see what you can learn through observing that tradition.

We are going to change directions now and go back in history a few thousand years.

If you think about it, Christians in the 21st century experience the season of Advent and the birth of Christ in a rather interesting fashion.

We spend four weeks in anticipation and preparation for an event that happened 2,000 years ago.

But let’s go back to the Old Testament times and consider some of the words that prophesied the birth of Christ.

The first prophecy about Christ’s coming is all the way back in Genesis.

After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, and after God dished out His punishments, God offered hope in the form of a prophetic promise.

God said in Genesis 3:15 that a Descendent of Eve (Jesus) would be bruised by the serpent (Satan), but the Descendent (Jesus) would crush the serpent’s (Satan’s) head.

In other words, Satan may have won the battle between Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit—and will likely win other battles—but Jesus will win the war.

This was the first of many prophecies of the eventual coming of the Messiah who would bring us victory over sin and death.

Many of the details of Christ’s birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection were predicted by various writers of the Old Testament.

In fact, there are over 60 prophecies Jesus fulfilled, such as:

The Messiah would be a descendent of Abraham (Genesis 12:3), Isaac (Genesis 17:9), and Jacob (Genesis 28:4)

The Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10)

The Messiah would come from the line of David (2 Samuel 7:12-13)

The Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14)

The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)

And the Messiah would go to Egypt as a child (Hosea 11:1)

These are just a few of the many prophecies He fulfilled—ones that relate specifically to Jesus’ birth. I think there are two things we can take away from this discussion of prophecy.

The first is how incredible it is that Jesus fulfilled over sixty specific prophecies during His lifetime—a number of them being prophecies that no normal human would have control over.

A person cannot choose their lineage, or their place of birth, or where their parents take them when they are a toddler.

And yet, one Man (Jesus) fulfilled all these prophecies.

Not only that, but there are not any prophecies that Jesus failed to fulfill.

It’s not like He scored a 95% and got almost all of them.

He fulfilled every prophecy about the first coming of the Messiah. To put this into perspective, a guy named Les Krantz did the mathematical equations to determine the likelihood that one Man could fulfill all the prophecies that Jesus did—over sixty.

The probability that one person could do 8 is 1 in 1017.

That’s a 1 with 17 zeros after it!

Our God is truly an awesome God.

But what does all this have to do with Advent?

Remember that Advent is a time of waiting and preparation.

It is a time of expectancy. For thousands of years, the nation of Israel waited for the coming of the Messiah.

They waited for this Savior to come to earth and restore their often-broken relationship with God. And yet, in the midst of all that waiting, God would send a message through one of the prophets about what to expect when the Messiah arrives.

These were not just hints or clues of what to look for—they were reminders that God hadn’t forgotten about them.

God still loved them and there were better things to come.

As we continue to talk about this season of Advent in the coming weeks, may these traditions we discussed and the numerous Old Testament prophecies be a reminder that God has not forgotten about us.

Our circumstances and surroundings may paint a pretty bleak picture at times.

It may seem that God has left the building.

But, every year during Advent, we remember Jesus came to this earth to dwell among us, to heal the sick and the broken, and to restore our relationship with God.

God stayed true to His word the first time, and He will stay true to His word again.

Even in the darkest hour, we can have hope.