Walk by His Spirit
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Transcript
Advent: My Hope Approaches
Looking Forward to Christ’s Appearing
November 30, 2025 - 1st Sunday of Advent
What is Advent? “Coming” or “Approaching”
What is Advent? “Coming” or “Approaching”
What is Advent?
For centuries, the Christian calendar has been organized around the life of Jesus. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. At Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Many Christian traditions observe a period of preparation before Easter called Lent. There is also a period of personal preparation prior to Christmas known as Advent.
Advent comes from a Latin word meaning “coming” or “approaching”. Advent points to the anticipation of an arrival.
The Concise Oxford English dictionary defines it as: 1) the arrival of a notable person or thing, and 2) in Christian Theology it’s the coming or second coming of Christ.
So on one level, Advent looks forward to the first arrival of Jesus as part of his incarnation and birth in Bethlehem. And on another level, we can also take this time to look forward to the Second Advent, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ as the victorious king!
4 Themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love
4 Themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love
NOTE: The “joy” candle on the third Sunday is usually the pink one.
Churches that observe Advent celebrate it on the 4 Sundays before Christmas, exploring the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. The wreath associated with Advent has 4 candles, with one being lit each Sunday. On the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Sunday of Advent, a purple candle is lit symbolizing repentance. On the 3rd Sunday of Advent, a pink candle is lit symbolizing rejoicing or joy. Some churches use all red, all blue, or all white candles instead. A fifth candle, a large white Christ candle, is lit in the center on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day symbolizing that Jesus is the light of the world.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Since Jesus is the light, candles make an appropriate symbol looking forward to the arrival of Jesus at Christmas. When you see candles through this message and throughout this season, think about Jesus being “the light” and his presence being “with us”.
Advent: My Hope Approaches
Advent: My Hope Approaches
This being the 1st Sunday, I will focus on Advent: My Hope Approaches. As I said earlier, Advent can mean the arrival of a notable person. At Christmas, Jesus is the notable person whose arrival we anticipate. Jesus is My Hope.
Jesus Christ: My Hope Incarnated
Jesus Christ: My Hope Incarnated
Jesus forever existed as God. And then he became incarnate in the flesh.
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 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).
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Jesus: My Hope. Matthew writes that he was called Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. But where does the name “Jesus” come from? And how is that connected to saving people? Let’s backtrack through time to discover the rich history of the roots of the name “Jesus”.
Jesus (English)
Jésus (French)
++Iēsous (Latin)
++Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς - Greek)
++Yeshua (יֵשׁ֨וּעַ - Hebrew)
++Yehoshua/Joshua (יְהֹושֻׁ֣עַ - Hebrew)
++Meaning: “Yahweh is salvation”
Jesus in English came to use from Jésus in French. The French version came from Iēsous in Latin. The Latin version came from Ἰησοῦς in Greek, which sounds a lot like the Latin but is spelled with Greek letters. The Greek version came from Yeshua in Hebrew. But the Greeks didn’t have an “sh” sound—and still don’t—so they substituted an “s” sound. The Hebrew name Yeshua is a shorter form of the Hebrew name Yehoshua which we brought into English as Joshua. And Yehoshua means “Yahweh is salvation” where Yahweh is the covenant name of the God of Israel.
This is why Matthew wrote in his gospel, “he will save his people from their sins.” In addition his name signalling salvation, the name of Jesus also signals his connection with the God of Israel.
So, embedded into the name of Jesus is the covenant name of God: Yahweh. Even his name, the name of Jesus, indicates that God is with us and that God is our salvation. This is our eternal hope: wrapped in mystery, wrapped in history, laid in a manger, and named Jesus: a name rich with meaning, our God, Yahweh, is salvation. In him, we have: HOPE!
And that hope was prophesied early and often.
Let’s go back to Creation.
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
God created everything out of nothing. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit were all there. Now you might be saying to yourself, “I recognize God the Father as the Creator in this passage. And I recognize God the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God in this passage. But where is God the Son?” Remember that God spoke creation through his word. And remember that God the Son, Jesus, is the Word of God. In the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew word “bara” for “created” is only used of divine activity.
Now let’s move to a parallel passage in the New Testament which speaks to the presence of Jesus as the Word of God at creation.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. 2 The Word was with God in the beginning. 3 All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.
The prologue of John is both easy and hard to translate. The language in Greek is generally simple. But it is challenging at several points to fully capture the nuances of language it conveys.
I selected the New English Translation, 2nd edition of the NET Bible because of the excellent way in which it wrestles with these challenges with transparent documentation in the generous translation notes. The NET Bible is available for FREE online at netbible.org.
Let’s not rush through the opening of John’s gospel. Let’s PAUSE for a moment and PONDER who Jesus is and why he gives us hope.
In verse 1, the Word was God can also be translated as “the word was ‘fully’ God” if you are going for a qualitative translation. The message here is that Jesus is completely God. “God the Son” is God in the same way that “God the Father” is God. Jesus is not merely “a god” as the New World Translation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses says. Jesus is one with the Creator. As Jesus himself says in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
In verses 1 and 2, John twice uses the phrase “in the beginning” to refer to Jesus being present at the divine act of creation. This recalls the opening of the book of Genesis where it reads “in the beginning, God created.” Jesus was present as a co-creator in the very act of creation.
In verse 3, Jesus was the Word of God through which everything was created. And nothing was created without Jesus. Everything was created by Jesus.
In verse 4, it alludes to Psalm 36:9 “9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” Since this Psalm earlier refers to God by his covenant name Yahweh, John again equates Jesus with God.
John 1:4 also refers to Jesus as the light of men, or mankind, or humanity. English has morphed a bit in recent years so some clarification may be in order. Greek has two ways to refer to men; one word refers to a male instead of a female; the other word refers to a human or mortal instead of a god. Verse 4 uses the second one, meaning, the life of Jesus is the light to those who are not God.
In verse 5, the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God is referred to as light, and his opponents are a kingdom of darkness. Verse 4 already identified Jesus as the light that appeared. In verse 5, by using the present continuous tense, “the light shines on,” John indicates that the light of Jesus is still shining and will continue to shine.
The end of verse 5 is challenging to translate because the final word has a larger semantic range than the English words typically used to translate it. English versions usually say something like, “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it,” or “overcome it” or “extinguish it” and so on. The Greek καταλαμβάνω can mean “to make something your own” in the senses of winning it, inheriting it, seizing it, catching it, or understanding it.
Because of that broad range of senses, I like what the NASB 2020 has, “And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp it,” since you can “grasp” something both physically and mentally, this helps to capture the broader sense of what’s happening here.
I also like what the NET, 2nd edition Bible has here, “And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.” Yes, the light of Jesus continues to shine on. And yes, the darkness has not mastered Jesus and is unable to understand, unable to overcome, and unable to put out the light of Jesus Christ!
John 1:1-5 tells us that Jesus was with God. And Jesus was and is God. Jesus is our creator. Jesus holds the power of life. Jesus is light. And Jesus came to save us! This is our hope.
My God who is my Savior Divine from the Old Covenant became something more. He became My God who is My Savior Incarnate in the New Covenant.
Let Jesus be your, “something more!”
Rest in the hope that Jesus’ incarnate divinity can invade your carnal humanity!
Jesus Christ: My Hope Anticipated
Jesus Christ: My Hope Anticipated
Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden.
Genesis chapter 1 is like a wide-angle lens, showing us how the universe came to be. In other Ancient Near East explanations of creation outside of Israel, the universe usually came to be through a cosmic war between the gods. But the creation account of the God of Israel is different. Israel’s God: Yahweh, created the universe peacefully, unopposed, through the creative act of His Word. And as we saw earlier, John equates the Word with Jesus.
Genesis chapter 1 also shows that creation was done in an orderly manner, indicating that the God of Israel is a God of order and not a god of chaos. On day 1, God created light. On day 4, God created light bearers: sun, moon, and stars. On day 2, God created sea and sky. On day 5, God created creatures to live in the sea and sky. On day 3, God created land. On day 6, God created creatures to live on the land, including humans. The theological message is that God is a God of order.
And when God created humans, something special happened.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
People are made in God’s image. Biblical scholars have noted this could also be translated that humanity is created not simply “IN his own image” but “AS his own image”. God’s image isn’t something we POSSESS; God’s image is something that we ARE!
When God finished each creation, He said, “It was good.” When God finished everything he had made, including humanity, He said, “it was very good!” This grants a sense of importance to the creation of humanity. It says that creation is incomplete WITHOUT US!
Genesis chapter 2 is like a close-up lens. It isn’t a second creation account. It’s a deeper dive into the details. God created Adam from the ground and placed him in the garden in Eden. God included the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the instruction not to eat from it. God created Eve from Adam’s rib. And humanity became a FAMILY. This was God’s design.
Eden was seen as a cosmic mountain or divine dwelling where heaven and earth meet and God is present with his creation. Being made as God’s image, humanity was supposed to take the divine order from Eden to the rest of the world.
In Genesis chapter 3, the serpent lied and denied the penalty of death for eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent deceived the couple into eating its fruit, apparently hoping that they would die. The serpent attempts to uncreate what God had created. In the creation curses listed at the end of chapter 3, the serpent is cursed first. And it contains a prophetic statement about the serpent being conquered.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [lit.: “seed”] and her offspring [lit.: “seed””]; he shall bruise [or “crush”] your head, and you shall bruise [or “strike”] his heel.
Enmity is connected to the word enemy and speaks a deep-seated hostility or hatred between groups. This was nor ordinary serpent, but the spiritual enemy of God in divine space. Therefore, this prophetic statement forecasts that one day a descendent of Eve would crush the head of the serpent or satan, “the adversary.” This statement is referred to as the Proto Gospel or “first good news” proclaiming the victory of the Messiah over sin and death. This was fulfilled in Jesus Christ through is death on the cross and his resurrection.
16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring [lit.: “seed”]. It does not say, “And to offsprings [lit.: “seeds”],” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring [lit.: “seed”],” who is Christ.
The hope of that prophetic promised continued on down through history through each line of the covenant family: Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, and on to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, also know as Israel. Eventually that line of messianic salvation reached to Jesus the Messiah himself.
45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
So through the breath of God, Adam became alive from the earth. And through Jesus as the Word of God, eternal life is given from heaven. Adam as a mortal, came from the dust of the ground and his body returned to dust when he died. Jesus was eternal, coming from heaven to earth that we might believe in him and receive the gift of eternal life!
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Adam’s disobedience led to more disobedience. Jesus came as our example of righteousness that we might learn righteousness by his example.
The Law of Moses pointed out how to live and what was right and wrong. But many people did the wrong things rather than the right things. Having the Law was not enough. There was a grace in the Old Testament where we could provide offerings that allowed us to approach sacred space and be with God. But the greater grace of the New Testament is that the offering of Christ himself turned us into a sacred space where God could live by His Spirit. Now, instead of GOING to God’s temple, we have BECOME God’s temple.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Paul makes it clear that when we receive Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. Therefore, good works are not a way to earn our way to God. Rather, doing good is a way to glorify God for the hope that He has given to us!
19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus my hope, Jesus my high priest has entered the heavenly temple and applied his own holy blood to the Mercy Seat. And now I have the hope of mercy from God.
Jesus Christ: My Hope Consummated
Jesus Christ: My Hope Consummated
After Jesus was crucified, all hope seemed lost. Then something amazing happened: The Resurrection!
1 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.
Yes, Jesus was resurrected! The angel told the women to tell the disciples that Jesus had risen. Everything Jesus said about himself was true and validated by this powerful event. Then later, Jesus appeared to the women himself. They grabbed his feet, showing that this wasn’t a ghost, hallucination, or vision. It was Jesus in the flesh—resurrected! And Jesus told them to go and tell his disciples. Because at that time women weren’t considered as legal witnesses, Jesus request to the women to testify to his resurrection honors their dignity as daughters of God.
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.”
Earlier in Matthew’s gospel, he wrote that Jesus would be known as “God with us.” As Matthew closes his gospel, he again reminds us that God is with us in the person of Jesus. Jesus says, “I am with you always to the end of the age.” This is one more way that the gospel writers signal to us that Jesus is God. Jesus is with us and will continue to be with us.
God with us. God to lead us. The Exodus out of Egypt had divine and human leaders. Our God, Yahweh, performed miracles and showed the way by a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. The human leader, Moses, lead the Israelites to the Promised Land.
Let’s revisit the name of Jesus. As we traced it through history, it derives from the name Joshua or “Yahweh is salvation.” In the Old Testament, two prominent people named Joshua emerge: 1) Joshua the leader after Moses and 2) a high priest also named Joshua. So the name Jesus creates this mental link back to the successor of Moses and to a high priest.
And Jesus is portrayed both as a new Moses and as the high priest of heaven.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
While my hope in Christ was completed by his resurrection, my hope will become even more complete and ever-present when he returns for me. We live with the hope that our king, King Jesus, will return for us. As he left into heaven, he will return from heaven to the earth to rule and to reign with his children.
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
Brother, sister, child of God, the return of Jesus Christ is our blessed hope. He redeemed us for himself. He bought us with his own blood. He gave us new life. He is ours. And we are his. And he will come for us again!
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, 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 encourage one another with these words.
So as we prepare our hearts for Christmas, let us remember that he came as a baby, that he became our Savior and Lord, that he became the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and that he’s coming again as our King! And we will be with him forever!
Let us remember that Jesus Christ our hope is approaching and that in him our hope is eternally renewed, not only at Christmas time, but every time.
My hope was born! My hope was resurrected! And My hope is returning again!
Jesus, my hope, is still approaching me! Let him come! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Advent: My Hope Approaches: Hope Incarnated, Anticipated, & Consummated
Advent: My Hope Approaches: Hope Incarnated, Anticipated, & Consummated
