Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Announcements

Prepare for Worship

Call To Worship

216 O Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Confession

Prayer of Confession

Assurance of Faith

Worship

245 Exult in the Savior’s Birth

216 O Come, O Come Emmanuel

224 Joy to the World

Prayers of the People

Prayer Request

Lords Prayer

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done

in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.

Amen.

Prophecy Fulfilled

Welcome to the first week of Advent.

Introduction to advent.

Not an exhaustive history, became part of church tradition in the 4th or 5th century.

Every church is filled with some form of tradition or another.

Ever family is filled with tradition.

We must remember that tradition in and of itself is neither good nor bad.

It is what the tradition does for the participant that truly matters.

If our traditions point us to honor God and turn our focus to him then they have a form of inherent goodness.

If our traditions make us turn inward and focus on ourselves, our own wants, and pleasures then they fail to meet the mark of a tradition that we should continue.

I think each of us will agree that as we enter into this holiday season, that our Christmas traditions, western, American, traditions of how to celebrate the holiday for the most part fail to point us to Christ as the reason for celebrating.

I think this is why a tradition such as advent, 30 days of focusing our hearts on the incarnation of God in Christ, is a tradition that we can come to anew, or revive in our lives if it has been neglected.

So lets turn our focus today on the Practice of advent.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, this day corresponds with the first candle.

The first candle symbolizes hope and is called the "Prophet’s Candle."

The prophets of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, waited in hope for the Messiah’s arrival.

The purple color symbolizes royalty, repentance, and fasting.

So this week as we turn to Gods word, we seek to understand better the hope that the people of Israel found in the words of the prophets regarding the coming Messiah, and how we can look back at that hope and find hope in God’s future promises to us.

Fulfilled Setting Setting

In order to see how hope was found in the prophecies that were found in the Old Testament, we must first understand the historical setting of the time of Chirst’s birth.

The Jew at the time of Christ birth had lived under Roman rule for about 60 years.

Though relative peace ruled the land, Pax Romana, there was no true freedom to live and manage their country as they saw fit.

This coupled with the timeline of Daniels 70 weeks prophesied in Daniel 9, led them to be looking fo the coming Messiah.

Daniels 70 Weeks

So I mention Daniels 70 weeks.

Daniel 9: 24-26

24 “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

25 Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks.

Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.

26 And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing

This was the prophetic count down by which the people of Israel looked forward to the coming of the Messiah.

Daniel prophesied that after 70 weeks are decreed to bring salvation.

These weeks were allegorical weeks of years.

So 7 years equaled one of the weeks.

So 70 weeks was 490 years.

But if you look at it closely the last week is a period of tribulation after the messiah is cut off or killed.

So they knew that in the 483rd year (the 69th week) the Messiah would come on the scene.

And they had a stating point from which to measure.

When the word went our to restore Jerusalem.

Which could be traced back to the reign of Artaxerxes and his decree regarding Jerusalem in 457 BC.

This put the Messiah coming on the scene in about 26 AD.

The year that Jesus’s ministry began.

Needless to say they knew at around the time of the birth of Jesus (8BC to 4BC) depending on who you does the calculations.

That this Messiah, this new King would be born.

Daniels 4 Kingdoms

But the timeline was not the only prophecy from which they had to draw hope.

Daniels vision in Daniel 2:31-35 speaks of 4 kingdoms, or empires.

Beginning with the Babylonian empire.

You saw, O king, and behold, a great image.

This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening.

32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.

35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found.

But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

The people knew that they were currently in the 4th kingdom, that of the Roman Empire.

And this mean that the stone would rise up, crush the image and become a great mountain that filled the earth.

This would be the Kingdom of the Messiah that would never have an end.

Dan 2:44

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people.

It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever

Isaiah’s Promised Kingdom

And what did this promised Kingdom look like?

Is 2:3-4

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the LORD

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

3  and many peoples shall come, and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth the law,

and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.