Christmas 2025-Advent
Notes
Transcript
Handout
As we begin this morning, please turn in your copies of God’s Word to the Old Testament book of Isaiah chapter 7, we will be reading verses 10-14 shortly, so please have these verses marked and ready for that time.
As I mentioned in my weekly email, this morning we will be looking at the 4 parts of Advent that are traditionally celebrated by many churches as we approach Christmas. Generally I like to look at one advent each week in the 4 weeks approaching Christmas, this year with my mother’s passing, we had to make some schedule changes, which means I wasn’t able to proceed as normal. As a result, I decided to do all 4 this Sunday.
The word Advent itself derives from the Latin word “adventus,” meaning “arrival.” In the Christian liturgical calendar, it is a sacred season of anticipation, leading up to and preparing for Christmas day. It is a season of longing, wherein Christian worshippers stir their hearts and imaginations to yearn for the return of Christ and his Kingdom, as the ancient Israelites yearned for the coming of the promised Messiah.
For the believer, the anticipation is two-fold. First, we spend time anticipating the celebration of the birth of Jesus, His first coming. Secondly, since we have already experienced His first coming, for us today, we are also anticipating His 2nd coming, when He will return to rule and reign and usher in His millennial kingdom.
Virtually every area of Advent has some significance to it, of course there is significance in the 4 areas of Advent which are Hope, Peace, Love & Joy, all of which we will consider later this morning. But I also want to look at some of the other areas of significance.
First let’s consider the Advent wreath. What type of branches do we use for our advent wreath? (Evergreen branches). This is deliberate, just as it is deliberate for many homes in our area to plant evergreen trees near their homes. Generally evergreen trees are not adversely affected by the changing seasons. Which means that since they don’t loose their leaves, they provide a good wind break from the cold winds of winter, it is like they are always alive. This is not to say that when the leaves fall off of deciduous trees that they are dead, but they certainly can give that impression. So evergreen branches were chosen because they signify life.
Second, what shape is the wreath formed in? (A circle). Which represents eternity. A circle has no beginning or end.
Third, let’s consider the colors of the candles. There are 5 candles, 3 purple, 1 rose and 1 white. The 3 purple candles represent hope, peace & joy. The rose colored candle represents love and the white candle represents light and purity, it is also the Christ candle. There are also some other specific things the candles represent that go beyond their color, we will look at those things as we consider each candle.
But for now, let’s go before the Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
It is with great gratitude that we approach Your Throne this morning. Gratitude because we know that in You we have a hope born in the reality of what You have already accomplished, which provides for us hope for the future as well. We come to You as the God Who can provide peace even in the midst of chaotic times. We pray to You as the God Who goes well beyond just loving us, You are in fact love. Perfect love flows from you and You alone. And because of all these things You provide us joy for all eternity.
Heavenly Father, each Sunday we are provided an opportunity to give of our tithes and offerings as a part of our worship to You. Even as we do this, we understand that there is another offering, a greater offering that You desire from us. We sang of that offering earlier this morning. As I think back to what we sang, I pray that those lyrics would flow not just as words from a song, but the desire of our hearts. That we would live that which we sing; “I bring an offering of worship to my King. No one on earth deserves the praises that I sing. Jesus may You receive the honor that Your due. Oh Lord I bring an offering to You.” And Father, beyond the offering of worship, I pray that we would also bring ourselves as an offering. That we would daily live out Romans 12:1 and present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to You, which is our spiritual worship.
All of this flows from hearts of adoration, because “You stepped down from heaven, humbly You came. God of all creation here with us. In a starlit manger, Emmanuel, Light of the world here to save. May our hearts live what we sang, that we would “Adore, come let us adore, O come let us adore Him. The Lord, worship Christ the Lord. Let all that is within us adore”. We bring to You our lives, our love, our all. We fall at Your feet in humble adoration.
Now Father, as we look into the pages of Your Word, we ask that You would speak to each heart through the powerful truths of Your Word. That we would each be moved by the power of these truths, that we would be changed by the power of these truths.
We pray these things in the Name of Jesus our Savior, Amen
Now, would you please stand, in honor of the reading of God’s Word?
Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word, please be seated.
*Make sure to light the first purple colored candle!*
The Advent of Hope. Isaiah 7:10-14
When the Isaiah wrote and prophesied what we read in Isaiah 7:10-14, the southern kingdom of Judah was faced with a major conflict. At that time there were 2 major powers in that region. Egypt from the south and Assyria to the north. The smaller nations between the 2 had to band together with military alliances in order to survive. The 2 nations north of the southern kingdom of Judah were Israel and Syria. As these 2 nations were closer in proximity to the growing Assyrian Empire, they made a treaty and banded together. What we see taking place in Isaiah chapter 7 is these 2 nations surrounding Jerusalem to defeat Judah, place their own token king in Judah and thus these 3 nations would band together to withstand the Assyrian Empire. What they didn’t realize is that the king of Judah, Ahaz, had already made a secret alliance with the Assyrian Empire. This is where Isaiah comes on to the scene. He approaches Ahaz to challenge him to put his trust in God rather than the Assyrian Empire. Which brings us to Isaiah 7:10-14, let’s look at those verses again.
Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel.
Ahaz was the grandson of King Uzziah, who was a good and godly king. His father Jotham also followed the ways of God. Unfortunately Ahaz had completely abandoned the ways of his father & grandfather and completely turned his back on God. When Isaiah approaches Ahaz, he is giving the king an opportunity to turn from his wicked ways and return to the God of his father Jotham & grandfather Uzziah. With that in mind, God instruct Isaiah to bring his son Shear-jashub with him. The reason he brought Shear-jashub was in the meaning of his name, his name meant “a remnant shall return” or “a remnant turns”. God was providing Ahaz to be a part of the remnant that “turns” from his wicked way and “returns” to God.
Let’s look at what Isaiah says to Ahaz. The first thing we see is Isaiah tells Ahaz to ask “the LORD your God” for a sign. Big or small. In other words, God gave Ahaz the opportunity to ask absolutely anything of God and God would grant the request, no matter how big or small it might be. The whole purpose behind this was so that Ahaz would understand in the miraculous fulfillment of his request, that he didn’t need to trust in superpower nations for his survival, he need only trust in the omnipotent God.
But how does Ahaz respond? “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” He feigns a pious heart “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” The truth was, his refusal was 2-fold, first he had already made an alliance with Assyria, and second, he had no faith in God. By the way, did you notice the change we see in Isaiah’s response in verse 11; “Ask a sign of the Lord your God” and what he says in verse 13? “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?” Notice Isaiah moves from “the Lord your God” to “that you may weary my God”. In other words it was clear that Ahaz had no relationship with God, so Isaiah moves from saying your God to referring to my God.
While there is a lot of speculation as to all of what Isaiah is referring to in this prophecy that we won’t get in to this morning, ultimately we are completely clear that ultimately Isaiah’s prophecy in these verse is foretelling of the virgin birth of the Messiah 700 years in the future. Which becomes abundantly clear in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, verses 22 & 23 where we read; Matthew 1:22-23
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His Name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
So as we consider this candle, the candle of prophecy and hope. There are at least 2 important lessons for us.
Don’t be like Ahaz!
Ahaz had turned his back on trusting in the God of his father Jotham and his grandfather Uzziah, and chose to place his trust in man rather than God.
You know there will be many times in life where we have to chose between trusting in God or trusting in something or someone else. Some of those times will be pretty clear, where we will know that to head in one direction would mean we would have to violate something that is clearly taught in Scripture, but heading that direction is easier than trusting in God. That is exactly what Ahaz was faced with, and in the end it cost him dearly. One thing I have learned in my walk with God is this,
The safest place to be is at the center of God’s will.
Because Immanuel, God with us, can always be trusted, no matter what we face.
Trust in the prophecy fulfilling God.
As I close out this candle, I just want to remind all of us that Hope, for the believer, is not some wishful thinking that something may or may not happen, but a confident expectation based on the sovereign, all powerful God, Whom we can trust completely to fulfill all that He has promised, just as He fulfilled every prophecy concerning the first coming of Jesus including His virgin birth.
This brings us to the second candle;
*Make sure to light the second purple colored candle!*
The Advent of Peace. Luke 2:25-35
Before we look at Luke 2:25-35, let me tell you a little about Simeon and the times of Simeon.
I’ll begin with the times of Simeon. To the best of my knowledge Simeon knew nothing of the angel Gabriel’s appearance to Zechariah, announcing the birth of John the Baptist nor his appearance to Mary, announcing the birth of the Messiah. What he did know was that the Nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, had not had a spokesman for God for 400 years. As a Nation they had just lived through 400 years of silence. The Nation was in spiritual and political turmoil. There was no peace spiritually, and as a result there was no peace politically. These were dark days.
That brings us to the man Simeon. We find out about him in;
Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
We don’t know a ton about Simeon, but what we do know is very important. First, we know he was “righteous”. This righteousness was probably 2 fold. First, like anyone who has trusted God, righteousness was imputed or placed on him because of that trust. You’ve heard me mention multiple times that the believer is clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Well that was true of Simeon as well. But I get the impression that with Simeon, he also lived a righteous life. Now I’m not talking about living in sinless perfection. What I mean is, when you looked at Simeon, you could readily see there was something different about him. That faith he had in God had transformed him, he was unique and special.
The next thing we discover about Simeon is he was “devout”. The Greek word for devout meant that he had a deep reverence toward God. John MacArthur writes “It conveys the idea of being careful to obey and honor God so as to lead an exemplary life before others.”
The next thing we know about Simeon is, he patient, as he “was waiting for the consolation of Israel”. Which means that for himself and the Nation of Israel, he was waiting for comfort, encouragement and solace. Simply put, he was waiting for the Lord’s salvation. Additionally, based on what I read, I get the impression that his waiting included praying. The meaning of his name fits well with that, because the name Simeon means “God has heard”.
Which leads us to the next thing we know about Simeon; “and the Holy Spirit was upon him”. This solidifies my belief that Simeon was special and unique. He had been transformed by the Holy Spirit.
This leads us to the fifth thing we know about Simeon. “And it had been revealed to him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ”. Have I mentioned yet that Simeon was special and unique?
This brings us to how God honored this righteous, devout, patient, Holy Spirit led praying man. We see this in Luke 2:27-35
And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
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.”
33 And His father and his mother marveled at what was said about Him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
I love what we read in verses 29 & 30 “Lord, now You are letting your servant depart in peace, according to Your Word 30 for my eyes have seen Your salvation ”.
Simeon had been patiently waiting for “the consolation of Israel” and God let him see it literally in the flesh!
But I want you to notice something, something that should give us peace even in these perilous times. Simeon goes on to say “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.” Notice this was prepared for in the presence of all peoples a light of revelation to the Gentiles”.
In other words, the salvation of the Lord is for the Jew and Gentile alike. That should bring us peace.
The next Advent Candle is;
*Make sure to light the rose colored candle!*
The Advent of Love. John 3:16; Romans 5:8
The account of the birth of Jesus, God became Man, is the ultimate love story. Which we see, not only in the Scripture passages surrounding the birth of Jesus, but we also see clearly in passages like John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Here we see Jesus the light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to Your people Israel.” As He comes to display how great a love God had for this world. So great a love that he gave his only Son, that simply by placing our faith and trust in Him we have eternal life.
What makes this love story even more significant is when we consider what we read in Romans 5:8
but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In he didn’t die for us because of how special we are, but to demonstrate His special love to us.
Which brings us to the 4th Advent Candle this morning;
*Make sure to light the last purple colored candle!*
The Advent of Joy. Luke 2:8-14
If nothing else in life brings us joy, the love of God, as it was displayed through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, Who’s death on the cross paid the price for our sins, and then Who conquered sin and death once and for all when He rose from the dead 3 days later should.
Which brings us to the declaration of the angels in Luke 2:8-14
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
You know, Jesus desire is for all of us to have unending joy. That is why He came to earth and shed His blood on the cross. Which is why true joy is not dependent on circumstance but on our great God Who’s love for us is immeasurable.
Which brings us to the last candle this morning.
Make sure lo light the last Candle, the Christ Candle.
The Christ Candle.
With this last and most important candle, we consider how that baby, born in a stall for animals and laid in a feeding trough, went on to live a perfect life. Not that mankind would be impressed with Who He was, actually, for many, the opposite was true. He was despised, hated and rejected. Which we read about in Isaiah chapter 53 vs. 3. And then moving forward in Isaiah 53, how He "had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” despite the fact that “we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted”. How He was “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities”. How the “chastisement” we should have faced was placed on Him and thus “brought us peace”. How we were healed by “His wounds”.
All these things foretold in Isaiah hundreds of years before He was ever born, came true when He laid His life down on the cross of Calvary, paying the penalty for our sins, that we might, based on our faith and trust in Him and our acceptance of His great gift on the cross, receive His great gift of Love.
But thankfully, it didn’t end on the cross. Not at all, 3 days later, He rose from the dead, conquering sin & death, once and for all. Then, 40 days after He rose from the dead, just before He ascended into heaven, He gave His Jewish followers the command we see in Mat. 28:18-20
Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Which is what brings you and me here on this day. His Jewish followers were obedient to His command to go into all the world and proclaim His great love for us. That, in and of itself, was another great picture of love, because all of His disciples were willing to lay their lives down to share this truths of the Gospel.
The question for each of us here today is, what will we do with this the Ultimate story of Hope, Peace, Love and Joy, which Christ displayed for us? Today as we approach Christmas day, it’s a day most people gather around the Christmas tree and open gifts. But the truth is, none of us is required to accept any of the gifts we receive. The same is true with this gift of love from God. Even though God is all powerful, He does not force anyone to accept His gift of love. That is a choice given to each individual. Have you accepted His great gift of love? If not, why don’t you accept it right now?
Would you please pray with me?
Father, thank You for this gift that is unlike any other gift that has ever been given. Thank You for sending Your Son to save us from our sins. We forget what a wonderful and amazing gift our salvation really is. Fill us with your hope, peace, love and joy—a joy so complete and overwhelming that we, like the disciples, are compelled to share it with others. We are thankful for the certainty of heaven in Jesus. But until that day, we, like the shepherds, will choose to glorify and praise You. We will continue to rejoice in who You are and all that You’ve done. We thank You and praise You. And it is in Jesus’s name that we pray, amen.
