The Advent of the Christ | Titus 2:11-14

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Luke 1:67–79 ESV

67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, 68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people 69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, 70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; 72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, 73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us 74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, 78 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high 79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Luke 2:1–14 ESV

1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 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!”

Luke 1:67-

Titus 2:11–14 ESV

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.

The First Advent

The First Advent

Titus 2:11 ESV

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

This is the good news that the world has been waiting for.

From the moment of the Fall of man in the garden of Eden, when God first promised to send a son of Eve to crush the head of the serpent, the world has been waiting in distress for that promise to be fulfilled.

Waiting in distress is an understatement. Because when Adam committed that first act of high treason against God, he brought a curse on himself and on all creation.

That curse brought death into the world. And when I say death I don’t just mean that man was given a limited lifespan, but that man was now born with a fallen heart so that, if left to carry out his worst desires, would bring death to each other.

And we see that play out very quickly… The Fall takes place in chapter 3, and in chapter 4 we see the first murder committed. By chapter 6, the entire world has become so evil that God sends a flood to destroy them all except for just a few - not because they were without sin, but because God was faithful to His promise regarding the seed of Eve. And so God, by grace alone, preserved Noah and his family.

It wasn’t in man to be able to stay faithful to God, you see. Noah was a sinner and so were his sons and grandsons after him. Even Moses and Israel, the people chosen by God to be a people of His own possession - a people who were meant to reflect the glory of God to the nations… the judges, the kings, and even David himself, the man whom God said was a man after His own heart… they all failed to remain faithful to God.

Rather than worship God, they rebelled against Him. Rather than proclaim God to the gentiles, they instead adopted the gentile gods as their own.

As Paul puts it so bluntly in , quoting from the Psalms… “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one… All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

By the time that the story turns to Mary and Joseph, the world is in no better shape. In the Roman Empire, men were taken as slaves and butchered in arenas and in Collosseums for entertainment.

The emperor was elevated as a god to be worshiped and obeyed on pain of death. Whole nations, including Israel itself, were subdued by war and conquest, and the people forced to submit to Roman rule.

The whole world, and every kind of people, including Israel, were lost and dead in their sin.

It seems appropriate then that if God should visit His creation in such a condition, that He should do so in wrath and judgement. He is after all a holy God who hates sin.

He is the same God who destroyed the whole earth with a flood. Who caused the earth to open up and swallow rebellious people, who Isaiah the prophet caught a glimpse of and fell as dead saying “woe is me for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

The same God who slayed Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit. That same God… if He were to have come in wrath and anger against sin, He would be right and just to do so and to condemn every man and woman - including us - to eternal condemnation.

But He didn’t come in wrath. He didn’t come in judgement.

Paul says “The grace of God has appeared”...

Grace has come to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Israel expected a mighty conqueror who would wipe their enemies off the face of the earth. They deserved, and so do we, a judge with a sword, a rod of iron and robes dipped in blood ().

But instead, He came as a child. God in flesh.

And instead of bringing judgement, Paul says he came “bringing salvation for all people”.

This is the most incredible act of grace and kindness! Instead of coming to bring condemnation, He came to bring mercy.

Instead of coming to bring judgement, He came to bring mercy.

There wasn’t a single human being who had walked the face of the earth before Jesus, and nor has there ever been one since, who had earned such kindness.

As John puts it in , “God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son of God from the Father, full of grace and truth. For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

No my friends, grace is not something that can be earned. By its very definition, grace is undeserved. To get what we deserved would mean paying the just penalty for our sins against God.

The grace of God has appeared to us. Jesus came and lived among us - the second Adam. And everything that the first Adam could not do, Jesus did.

The birth of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ

He lived in perfect righteousness, always obedient to His Father’s will. He fulfilled every requirement of the Law. But He didn’t come only to live among us, but to die for us.

John 1:14 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:16–17 ESV

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

But God was merciful, not giving us what we deserve. And He was gracious, giving us what only Jesus deserves - eternal life - as a gift of grace.

Paul says in verse 14 that Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us...”

And this Jesus accomplished in full on the cross. There, hanging on a wooden cross, being nailed to it by men whose every breath and heartbeat was being given to them by Christ as they tortured Him, Jesus paid our debt to God in full.

The debt wasn’t paid because of what those men did to Him, but because of what God the Father did to Him.

You see the fact of the matter is that sin is sin, and God is just, and God said to Moses in that He “will by no means clear the guilty”.

God doesn’t sweep your sin or my sin under the carpet. God is good and perfect in all His ways, He is not corruptible and he cannot be bought. Since man sinned, man must die.

But the good news is that Jesus, the man, the second Adam, took our place on the altar as our substitute, and settled our debt by dying as our representative on the cross. All the fullness of the wrath of God against sin was poured out on His own Son.

Why?

To glorify God and to reveal His glory to His creation in justice, redemption and grace.

To redeem for Himself a people for His own possession.

To be faithful to keep the promises that He made to Adam, Eve, Abraham, to Israel, and to His elect through the prophets and through the Scriptures.

To display His grace.

Charles Spurgeon wrote: “In the person of Christ the grace of God is revealed, as when the sun rises and makes glad all lands. … it is an open declaration of the grace of God to every creature under heaven… When the Lord Jesus Christ came to Bethlehem, and when He closed a perfect life by death upon Calvary, He manifested the grace of God more gloriously than has been done by creation or providence. This is the clearest revelation of the everlasting mercy of the living God.”

Living in Light of the First Advent

Of course, such glorious grace demands a response from us. It should move us to a response.

Now some have heard this news and concluded that all will now go on to eternal life, since Paul says that Jesus brought “salvation to all”.

But this is a grave mistake. Paul does not have every individual person in view here, but every kind of person.

In verses 1-10, Paul mentions old men, old women, young women, husbands, children, young men, and even slaves. And having given all of those kinds of people exhortations on how to live, he gives them the motivation for it - “for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people” - every kind of people.

If Jesus brought salvation to every individual person, then there would be nobody in hell and no reason for any of us to live righteous lives from here on. But we know that’s not true.

Rather, Jesus brought salvation for every kind of person, whether young or old, slave or free, Jewish or Gentile - none are excluded, since it is all of grace.

Salvation is then applied to the individual person only when they believe this gospel and begin to trust wholly on the finished work of Christ.

We must respond to the call of Christ in - “the time has come, the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel.”

The salvation which Christ has brought is held up as sufficient for all

Another wrong conclusion is that which says that once we have believed this gospel, we are free to sin or to live without obedience without any fear of condemnation.

Some who hold to this kind of view refer to it as the Hyper Grace gospel, thinking that they are upholding the highest degree of grace; but actually, they are limiting grace, because they suppose that grace can save us, but can’t change us.

But what does Paul say? He says “The grace of God has appeared… training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”

Grace doesn’t set us free to sin, it sets us free from sin. Why would we ever want to run back to those things which Christ came to die to save us from?

Grace trains us. The word Paul uses here includes the ideas of educating, teaching, and disciplining. Grace teaches us educates us and disciplines us.

To do what?

First, the negative: Grace disciplines and trains us to say NO to ungodliness and worldly passions.

When you’re a young man who enters the army, or university, or joining a

Ungodliness - to not give proper respect to God and to His commandments.

The one who has received grace, is trained by the same grace to say no to sin. Not because we want to earn grace by doing so, but because grace has already been given to us.

Out of gratitude to God, we would not want to do anything that dishonours the One who bled and died for our sake.

But its not only saying no to actions and deeds, but also to passions, thoughts, emotions and feelings which dishonour God

Too many people are content to entertain sinful thoughts and desires, thinking it is OK as long as you don’t act on them.

Some have said, for example, that it is not sin for someone to have a same-sex attraction, as long as you don’t act on it. Paul rejects this concept and calls us to renounce all worldly passions at the source.

James 1:15 ESV

15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

You cannot say that it is OK to be angry with someone as long as you don’t act on it. Jesus said if you are angry with someone, even though you don’t act on it, you are a murderer at heart.

James

James 1:

James 1:14–15 ESV

14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Grace trains, educates, disciplines us to say no to all sin. Cut it off at the source. Don’t even allow yourself to be tempted to sinful thoughts and desires.

When a new recruit enters the army, or a young man moves from high school to university, or an orphan is adopted from an orphanage, or a drug or alcohol addict is taken into rehab, they usually first have to unlearn the bad habits they have formed over the years.

When the grace of God shone into our hearts and we believed the gospel and were saved, by grace God changed our hearts so that we would no longer have these worldly and sinful desires.

In fact it is one of the necessary fruit of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our hearts that we should no longer love our sin, but that we would hate our sin. If that is not true for you, then you have not yet truly met Jesus.

A Christian, saved by such amazing grace, could no longer be entertained by or enjoy those sins for which his or her saviour suffered and died.

And yet, even though our desires have been changed by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit at conversion, there are bad habits that remain which we must unlearn.

There are many sins and desires that God instantly removes from us at conversion, but others can linger. They must be unlearned.

But the grace of God trains us and disciplines us to unlearn them and to learn new, righteous, godly habits.

That’s the positive: Grace trains us to say YES to living self-controlled, upright and godly lives

We do this with self-control -

Grace trains us to say YES to

The first of these, self-control, Paul calls a fruit of the Spirit in . One of the gifts that God so graciously gives the new believer is a sense of self-control, soberness, and conviction to not only renounce sin, but to do good and to live obedient lives.

We are called not only not cut off the stains of world from our lives, but to reflect and project the image of Christ to the world so that they too will come to the light.

Every day we will be confronted with the temptation of all the old sins we once loved, and will interact with the lost who are still in the darkness.

This gift of self-control is exactly what we need to be able to live righteously in this battlefield of the present world. We are children of light living as outsiders, aliens and sojourners in a dark and fallen world that doesn’t know Christ

The worst kind of soldier is an undisciplined soldier who cannot exercise self-control. Such a soldier, regardless of his skill and talents, will be a liability and not an asset to his company, and he should not and will not be sent into the battlefield by his captain.

But grace trains the soldier of Christ to be self-controlled; undaunted by the dangers of the mission, unmoved by the tempting bribes of the enemy, and unwavering in his dedication to the mission.

Christians are all too easily influenced by the world. We make compromises with the world, give way to the world, take on the world’s habits, are entertained by the world’s sinful pleasures, become lazy to fulfill our mission as witnesses to a lost world.

The eyes of the lost, you see, are always on us.

It is reflected in how much we have allowed the world to influence how we worship, how we live, and even to water down and muzzle the gospel so that it is less offensive to a self-obsessed, God-hating world.

, how we live, and even to water down and muzzle the gospel so that it is less offensive to a self-obsessed, God-hating world.

But why would a Christian saved by grace ever want t

Why would a Christian, moved and motivated by grace, ever

But the Christian, saved, moved and motivated by the amazing grace that has been given to him in Christ, cannot make such deals and compromises with Christ’s enemy.

Could a Christian who has encountered such amazing grace be entertained by the

Grace moves us and trains us to instead live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.

By living in the fruit of the Spirit - loving each other and loving the lost, having joy in spite of hardship, peace in troubled times, expressing kindness and mercy towards those who hate us, showing goodness to those who do us harm, being faithful at all times to keep our own word and to honour God, being gentle in our dealings with others, and being self-controlled in all that we do…

… we will live righteous and godly lives that will reflect the beauty and goodness of God’s grace and glory to a lost world that so desperately needs Him.

All this we must do, not in order to earn or to be rewarded with grace, but because we are trained to do it - motivated and moved to do it - by the grace that has already been given to us in Christ.

It is grace that trains us to live this way “in the present age”

Now speaking of the present age, that phrase implies that there is still an age to come.

Paul says that

Now let this encourage you, because the harsh reality is that we are still living in an age of darkness.

The Christ has come, but much of the world is still lost in sin. We see it every day in the news, and in our own daily experiences.

Grace has appeared to us, bringing salvation to all who repent and believe. And yet, even we who have been changed by the grace of God, to our great frustration, still stumble.

We still sin, give in to sinful temptations and entertain sinful thoughts. We fail to always be disciplined, self-controlled, righteous and godly in all that we do.

How can we be so sinful and negligent after receiving such grace from God?

We are not always self-controlled,

What encouragement is there when we begin to doubt, when our struggles seem too hard for us to bear, when our efforts fall embarrassingly short?

Our encouragement comes from not only looking back to the first advent of Christ, but also looking forward to the coming and final advent of Christ

The Final Advent

Paul says that those who are saved by grace live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, while (verse 13): “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 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.”

The first advent of Christ is attached to the second advent of Christ. You cannot hold onto the first without also holding onto the second.

Because the second advent of Christ is just as sure as the first. Like the first, it was promised. Like the first, it will come.

John 14:3 ESV

3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

1 Thess 4:16-17

Matthew

Matthew 24:30 ESV

30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Phil 3:

John 14:1–3 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

1 Thessalonians 4:16–18 ESV

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.

1 John 3:2 ESV

2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Philippians 3:20–4:1 ESV

20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. 1 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

Romans 8:22–25 ESV

22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Romans 8:22-

In this hope we were saved - faith in the first advent of Christ; faith in His finished work on the cross to redeem us from sin, faith in His resurrection, and faith in His final advent when He will come to bring in the new age, the new kingdom.

That is what our hope should be in - our hope is not in our own faithfulness to God, our own ability to renounce sin or to live upright and godly lives. Those are but evidences of our faith… But our hope is in the coming of our Lord - both the first and the second.

You see, we are living between two ages. We live in the already and the not yet.

We have already been redeemed and saved from the penalty and power sin, but not yet from the presence of sin. We are “simil justus et peccator” - at the same time made righteous but still a sinner.

We have already received and own eternal life, and yet we have not yet taken hold of it.

Ephesians 1:13 ESV

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

Eph 1:

By now you might already have Christmas gifts that are lovingly and carefully wrapped and sealed, have your name written on them, placed under the tree. They are yours, they belong to you, they are promised to you. But you will not be able to take hold of them until Christmas morning.

Paul says:

Ephesians 1:13–14 ESV

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Here and now in this present age, we still live among sin and even in sin, but we are holding onto and hoping in a promise, a guarantee, an inheritance that has our name written on it.

We know that it is ours because the Saviour has already come to us in grace and gave himself for us to redeem us, to purchase us, to purify us, to take us as His own possession.

Let this encourage you and strengthen your faith and your hope - Christ is our gift, but not only that - we are His!

He purchased us to make us His own.

Each of us individually, and together as a people - His Church, His bride. We belong to Him, and He is coming for us.

Revelation 19:6–8 ESV

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Rev 19:6-

Yes, my brothers and sisters, we do not yet live as we ought, but praise be to God that by grace we no longer live as we once did, and that when our Saviour comes all lawlessness and transgression will be forever removed and we will be made pure!

Then we will be able to take hold of our promised inheritance and we will be with Christ forever - His cherished possession.

In light of such grace, may God ever help us to rest in His finished work, look forward to His coming, and move us by this glorious grace to be zealous for good works.

Zealous to do good, zealous to glorify our Saviour, zealous to enjoy Him, and zealous to proclaim His name.

A reminder, brothers, that before the first advent came John, proclaiming the coming Messiah and calling all to repent. Our calling is no different.

While we wait between the already and the not yet, looking forward to His coming, let us put the time to good use.

Motivated by grace, let us zealously look forward, eyes fixed on Jesus, and proclaim Him until He comes.