Advent | Arrival

Me: Tonight we wait in anticipation for the moment we celebrate ARRIVAL, Advent.

But the reality is, for me and I would imagine for you, every time Jesus is born. Every time, it is in Bethlehem. Every time, there’s no room for Him in the Inn. Every time, the shepherds come. Every time, angels bask in adoration!

We lose the wonder of the extraordinary because

The story doesn’t change. SO that can make it difficult to feel and experience any version of wonder when we look at the story of Jesus’ first arrival.

Even more difficult, it can seem like there is ZERO connection between Jesus birth and our daily lives. Jesus becomes tradition not truth.

You: We can read a story about this baby Messiah but it can feel like reading about myth not a historical human who happened to be fully God and fully man.

Tradition and myth doesn’t silence that nagging experience all of us can go through when it feels like we are calling out to God and all we are getting in return is silence.

A singer-songwriter named Andrew Peterson wrote a song that I resonated with this week.

He sings, “It's enough to drive a man crazy; it'll break a man's faith

It's enough to make him wonder if he's ever been sane

When he's bleating for comfort from Thy staff and Thy rod

And the heaven's only answer is the silence of God”

Whether you are here and you have committed your life to Jesus or not, we all can resonate with that at some point. The question, “God where are you?”

God: We are not the first people to wrestle with that question.

In fact there was a 400 year period where that question was being asked and the silent response was defeaning.

To build up to this 400 year gap, let me catch you up with why this gap was so surprising.

In Genesis, after Adam and Eve were deceived and rebelled against God, God continued to speak to them, and promised that one day their descendent would crush the head of the enemy. This was thousands of years before a young woman who was still a virgin that she would give birth to this descendent.

For the centuries afterward, God slowly revealed more and more about this Messiah. The Anointed One. That He would be the one who would come in strength, to be a blessing to the world! To bring hope, peace, freedom, and love to the world!

He revealed this to His Chosen People, the Jews. He did this time and time again, regardless of their faithlessness. He continued to speak even when they worshipped other gods and refused to trust. To the Prophet Isaiah, He told Him about the Messiah being God with us, being born of a virgin, and being pierced for our transgressions. 700 years before Mary and Joseph made their journey to Bethlehem for a government census.

And He continued to speak to them even after their rebellion against God led them into slavery. He spoke to the prophet Malachi informing him that the Messiah would soon come as the greatest of prophets, like Elijah. 400 years before shepherds came to worship a baby alongside angels.

And then silence.

In our Bibles, we flip to the next page and all of a sudden Jesus is born! We lack the perspective of wonder surrounding Jesus birth because we can’t imagine the anticipation of His arrival that was only met with silence.

It reminds me of when Ali and I watched Downton Abbey this year. We had never watched an episode until we heard the movie was coming out, then binge watched this show and timed it where the next week after we finished the show the movie was in theaters. Each season bled into the next, and there was no anticipation because we could always just start the next episode. Versus the experience of some of our friends who faithfully watched the show and agonized for months between the seasons! And were overjoyed to see that these characters would return in a movie.

With Jesus’ arrival He also can just become tradition rather than truth.

But imagine what this 400 years of oppression and silence must have been like for Israel. For context, November 9th, 1620 the Mayflower landed on Plymouth Rock. 400 years of silence.

400 years of questions.

Isn’t that where we can live? Asking God where are you? Why would you let this happen?

I don’t come up here tonight with some simple answer. Because whatever the source of your questions and pain, I don’t want to disregard that.

Instead, I come with simple but powerful news.

Main Idea: Jesus has arrived!

While we see the birth of Jesus as expected, this is more wonderous and incredible than we could possibly imagine!

In fact, shortly after His birth He was taken to the temple for normal Jewish rituals.

Read

Simeon was captivated by this child, and it wasn’t because He was just as cute as baby Yoda. At the moment he saw Jesus He knew the game had changed!

(Read again his blessing)

He knew he was experiencing the most eternally significant thing imaginable.

CS Lewis talks about the greatest miracle is the miracle of Christmas. Not that a baby was born, but who the baby was. He was God with us.

Jesus is God in the flesh. He is God knowable. He is God touchable. He is the character of God. He is the essence of God. Jesus isn’t just loving, patient, kind, or generous. Jesus is love, He defines patience, His nature is kindness and strength, He is generosity.

At the moment the angels and shepherds bowed down in worship of God breaking into the human story in a new way, I can only imagine how great a sacrifice Jesus made when He left eternity to enter into our story.

He moved from constant worship in perfection, to planet death where He would be betrayed, exhausted, and would experience the brokenness of humanity in its fullness.

This is the true thrill of hope, Jesus has arrived! This is the reason for Joy, Jesus has arrived! This is the purpose of peace, Jesus has arrived! This is the ultimate demonstration of love, Jesus has arrived!

When we remember and celebrate the arrival of Jesus, just like it did for Simeon it has the potential to change everything!

How can we trust that God is good, strong, for us, and loving when it feels like anything but? Because Jesus has arrived.

You: Wherever you are emotionally tonight, wherever you stand with God, just know that the arrival of Jesus can be better news than ushering in Christmas tradition but brings us good news of life light and freedom.

It is the news that when it feels like God is silent, He is doing something beyond our comprehension. He has arrived.

Us: My hope for my tomorrow and yours is simple, that we would spend time tomorrow in awe and wonder at the good news that Jesus has arrived.