Advent 1 - 2021 - Luke 21:25-33

We all know that the church and our culture differ in how we see the world. We differ on the ultimate source of humanity’s problems and their solution. But, perhaps at no other season in the year is the church more counter-cultural than during Advent. The church and the world look at this season in completely different ways, so different, in fact, that those on the outside of the church look at the way we that carry on during Advent and they wonder what’s wrong with us.

While the world is overflowing with holiday cheer and warm fuzzies - lights and trees and shopping and family and apple pies - the church sits in darkness. While the sound track of the world becomes all those comforting holiday classics, the church’s music takes on a minor key and our readings strike an apocalyptic motif. The church is completely missing the point of the holiday season, right?

Why do we approach the lead-up to Christmas in this strange way?

Advent is the first season in the church calendar, and by design it calls us to remember a very important truth that the world cannot or does not want to understand. The only hope for any of us is for Christ to return and bring his Kingdom to earth. No amount of holiday cheer can solve the world’s most pressing problems. No amount of holiday cheer can put an end to wars, natural disasters, poverty, sickness, and death. Our only hope is for Jesus to come again. Advent reminds us that deep-down, Christ’s return is our greatest desire.

And listen. I know the effect that talk of the Second Coming of Christ has on many of us. We imagine fire-and-brimstone preachers. We imagine youth pastors scaring kids into loving Jesus. We imagine those people constantly predicting when then end will come. And because of these unfortunate tactics, some of us get uncomfortable whenever anyone mentions the end times. We want to check out of those conversations.

But we can’t dismiss the idea of Christ’s second-coming as secondary or even tertiary to the Christian faith. The desire of all our hearts to see a world free from violence and oppression and poverty and hunger and sickness and death - that world is only born when Jesus returns to bring heaven to earth. If you long for justice to at last fill the earth, that desire has a name. You desire for King Jesus to come.

And so we press into that desire during this season. Our sanctuaries darken to remind us that life is a struggle because Jesus is not physically present. We long for the light to come. Our music is in a minor key, to highlight our aching for resolution to the redemptive plan of our God. We yearn and wait for the Mission of God to be fulfilled when Jesus come again.

As we press into that desire during this season, we remember that Jesus has come and he will surely come again. And because we believe that Jesus will come again, the character of our lives is different from those who do not believe.

There will be times, more often than I wish, that Melanie and I will have planned to go somewhere in the evening, and one of us knows that time it is and the other is completely unaware of the time. So Melanie, who knows what time it is, is busy getting ready for the event. She’s getting dressed, putting on make-up, getting Peter ready to go, and I’m just chilling on my phone. I don’t know what time it is, and you can tell, because I’m not doing anything to prepare; whereas Melanie understands what’s really happening, and so she is getting things read. She is preparing.

Well, the church knows what time it is. We understand what’s really happening, because we recognize that King Jesus is coming again. And because we know what time it is, the character of our lives is different from those who are unaware of the time. We are preparing for the King’s return.

Advent reminds us that God’s people are called to prepare for Christ’s return. We are not idle as we wait. We are active. We are preparing. So for the next few weeks, we’re going to look at what it means to be a people who are preparing for the King’s return. What does that look like in our lives?

Because preparation is essential. I can’t tell you how many times Melanie and I were caught unprepared when we lived out in Colorado. It took us more than a year to fully appreciate that it could be 80 degrees in Denver, but when we drove to the mountains to go hiking or camping, it was 40 degrees and snow was still on the ground. Suddenly, our Chacos weren’t looking like such a good idea. There was one time when we drove our Honda Civic to a camping spot, only to find that the last leg of the road to get to the campground required an off-roading vehicle. We were trying to go over these massive divets and washouts in my tiny Civic. Eventually, we pulled over and tried to walk to the campground, but even then, we had no idea how much farther it was. We eventually turned back and drove all the way home, completely defeated - why? Because we had not prepared.

Preparation is essential, and if that’s true in hiking, than surely it’s true when it comes to eternity! So how do we as Redeemer church prepare for Christ’s return? What does the prepared life look like? That’s what we’ll look at in the coming weeks.

So let’s take a look at Luke 21 to find our first posture of preparation. Now, as you turn there I want to provide a little context, because we’re dropping into the middle of a lengthy teaching of Jesus. He’s in the Jerusalem, the plan to crucify him is already in the works, and he’s just come out of the temple. As he’s coming out, he tells the disciples that this wondrous structure was going to be destroyed.

Now, for the Jewish people, the temple in Jerusalem was the center of the world. It was the place where the glory of God touched down to the earth. If the temple fell, it must mean that the Lord was bringing the world to an end. The idea of the temple’s destruction was linked to the idea of the end of history. So, hearing Jesus predict its coming destruction, his disciples asked, “When is this going to happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” And this prompts the a lengthy teaching from Jesus about those two things: the destruction of the temple and the end of the age when the Kingdom of God comes in full.

Exactly how Jesus speaks on these two subjects is a heated debate, but everyone agrees he has both events in mind as he speaks. It’s like when you go up to a high point overlooking a city or a mountain range. My family just got back from the Smokey Mountains, and the house where we stayed was up on a hill, and you could see the range of mountains on the horizon. From our vantage point, the peaks of the mountains all looked pretty close together, they were almost touching. But if you checked a map, you’d see that they were actually miles and miles from one another. Well, this is what Jesus is doing, and he wasn’t alone in this way of teaching - the Old Testament prophets would speak in the same way. He’s speaking from that high point where, even if his focus is on a particular event, the whole mountain range is in view.

So Jesus is talking about both the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the age, and he’s preparing his disciples for both. We know from Roman historians like Josephus, that the siege of Jerusalem was a horrific event. I’m not going to go into detail, but he recounts that it was truly awful. Hundreds of thousands died, and hundreds of thousands were led away in chains. Jesus is right to say that Jersualem will be trampled underfoot.

But then his language changes in verse 25, and his vision widens to include the full mountain range, to include not just AD 70, but the time when the King returns to establish his kingdom on the earth. This was our reading:

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

Now, what is heavy enough that the heavens and the earth shake? What is glorious enough to through the nations of the earth in distress and cause the sea to roar? What is glorious enough to cause the powers of the heavens to quake? It is the Lord, himself. It is the Lord on the move. God is coming, and his glory makes the universe shake. And this is what Jesus says in verse 27:

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

The King is on the move. He is coming, and he is bringing his kingdom - his rule and his reign and his eternal presence. God will be present on earth, and in his presence there will be no sickness, no violence, no hunger, no poverty - everything sad will become untrue.

Verse 28:

Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

In the midst of all the distress that his disciples can expect to face when Jerusalem falls, in light of the distress and pain that we continue to experience today, what does Jesus call us to? He calls us to straighten up, to stand on tip-toe and look with eager anticipation for the Second Coming of Jesus. How do we live between the Advents? How do we prepare for the second coming of Jesus? We stand in eager anticipation for Christ to come again.

If we do not long for Christ to come again, than we have place our hope in something other than Jesus. If we do not yearn for Jesus to return, we have functionally come to believe that we do not need his Kingdom to find peace and joy in this life. We can find it in other things here on earth. We can find it in financial stability or material wealth. We can find it in our family or our friendships. We can find it in power and authority. We do not need the kingdom to come, and therefore we are not all that interested in the King’s return.

Neil Plantinga has a wonderful quote on this dynamic. He says:

When our own kingdom had a good year, we are not necessarily looking for God’s kingdom. When life is good, redemption doesn’t seem so good. That’s how things go. God’s redemption is good news for those whose lives are bad news. If you are a slave in Pharaoh’s Egypt or a slave in Mississippi, you want your redemption. If you are an Israelite exiled in Babylon or a Kosovan exiled in Albania you want your redemption. If you are a Christian is Sub-Sahara Africa, where AIDS is devastating whole populations, you don’t yawn when someone mentions the coming of Jesus. The coming of the Kingdom depends on the coming of the King and the coming of the King means justice will at last fill the earth.

Do we long for the King to return? Are we standing in eager anticipation for his Advent, for his arrival? If we aren’t, than we need to figure out where we expect to find redemption. If it isn’t the Son of Man, than what is it?

And this brings us full circle to the holiday season. It isn’t that enjoying a season of family and generosity and cheer is a bad thing. Because it’s not. On Friday, I was very excited to turn on some Bing Crosby. I love the traditions that our family has in this time of year. I love getting together with friends and family, eating great food, giving and receiving gifts. I love every part of this season. But at the end of the day, I don’t want a season of peace and joy, I want an eternity of it. At the end of the day, I don’t want a localized experience of peace and joy, I want it to be experienced on every square inch of the earth.

My hope isn’t here. My redemption isn’t here. But I can be sure that it is coming. Because Jesus is coming. And Advent reminds of that.

So as we enter into Advent together, I encourage you to spend this first week asking the Spirit to awaken in your heart a longing for the Second Advent. Ask that he would reveal the places where you have set your hope - the places where you are looking for redemption. And ask that he would direct your to the source of our true and eternal redemption: the coming of Jesus and the Kingdom that he brings.

Let’s pray.