Preparing For Advent

Date:  November 27/28, 2004

Topic:  Advent

Title:  Preparing For Advent

Theme:  Advent

Verse:  Jeremiah 7:23

I will be your God and you will be my people.

Object:  Oil and a Crown

Message:  Isaiah was a prophet.  He told of the coming of Jesus, our Savior.  God wanted to be the one who would lead and take care of his people.  But, the people rebelled against God and demanded kings, just like all the people around had demanded.  So, God gave them kings.  As it turned out, there was one bad king after another.  And God sent prophets to the people and the kings to remind them of the agreement – the “covenant” – God made with them:

“I will be your God and you will be my people.”

Now the way the people made someone a king was to pour a bit of oil on their head.  The one who was “anointed” this way with oil become the king.   The prophets began to tell the people that God would send them “an anointed one” (the word they use to say “anointed one” in Hebrew is “Messiah”.)  In fact, they said that this Messiah would be called “Emmanuel”, which in Hebrew means, “God is with us.”

So the message of the prophets was about a promise – That God would save His people from all that they were suffering: tears, sadness, illness, and even death.

God was preparing His people for the coming of Jesus, the Christ (Christos in Greek means the “anointed one”.) 

As we enter into this Advent season, we remember that God did send the “anointed one”.  Jesus has been born.  We are God’s people, and He is our God.

Prayer: God, thank you for sending us your Son, Jesus.  He is the “anointed one”.  He is our King.  We are your people.  Amen. Resource:  www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Advent/preparing-children. html