Born, Born, Born to Living Hope!
The word Advent comes from the Latin word “adventus” which was translated from the Greek word “parousia” – which means “coming.” Parousia was used to describe both Jesus’s first coming at His birth and His second coming. Advent is not only about looking into the past, remembering and celebrating the birth of Jesus, his first coming, but also looking forward to His return with anticipation, joy, hope, to prepare ourselves and be ready for his second advent or coming. Advent helps us to refocus our hearts and minds on the Lord Jesus during this season. This refocus is necessary and very important because we have a problem.
We can become so focused on Christmas trees, decorations, gifts, family, meals, cookies, and singing Christmas carols, so much so that the season is easily trivialized as simply celebrating the birth of baby Jesus. But after the season, when we have put away the decorations, entered the new year, and face again the tedium and challenges of daily living, what happens? What do we do with Jesus? Do we put Him away on a shelf somewhere like the decorations until next year, until the next Sunday service, until the next crisis? Jesus’ first advent is past history, and his final advent is so far off, it’s not relevant, He is not relevant to daily life. Do we live with the knowledge and awareness that the baby Jesus is the Lord who came, is coming to us every day, and will come back; that He is our very present, ever-present help in trouble? (Ps 46:1)
I have talked many times about practicing the presence of the Lord. Brother Lawrence, a monk in the 17th century wrote a little book called The Practice of the Presence of God. He says, “the practice of the presence of God ... is to find joy in his divine company and to make it a habit of life, speaking humbly and conversing lovingly with him at all times, every moment …”
Wouldn’t that be a wonderful outcome for this Advent, to know the presence of God in our lives as we’ve never known it before? When the work and the challenges of daily living stare us in the face, wouldn’t a sense of God’s presence improve our attitude? Wouldn’t a sense of God’s presence change the way we do our work, study, play sport, everything? When we are going through times of suffering, maybe even to the point of despair, wouldn’t a strong sense of the presence of God help us to have hope, to persevere, and to rejoice in the midst of suffering? A growing knowledge of God’s presence comes from learning more about God’s advents, his comings to us.
1. The Bible Is Our Book of Advents
From the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation, the Bible is a Book of Advents. The Bible is God’s living Word by which the Spirit assures us that Jesus keeps coming to us, is present with us, and is leading you and me to a wonderful future. The Old Testament is a great source for deepening our sense of Jesus’ coming to us, of Jesus’ advents. “Old Testament?” you may ask. “Jesus was born in the New Testament.” It’s interesting how many people think that Jesus came into existence only when he was born.
We all know waiting rooms. It’s a place where you wait to see someone, to do something, for something to happen — doctors, airports, interviews, etc. Some may think that the Old Testament was like a waiting room. Jesus was just hanging out in the Old Testament waiting to be born and to do all that he did so long ago. And now that he has ascended, he’s not really here with us in the times of our lives. We can easily slip into the idea that Jesus is back in the waiting room of heaven, just waiting around until he appears at the end of the world. This is not true. Our Book of Advents shows that Jesus was already making advents in Old Testament times. And He continues coming to us. He is with us always.
2. “Before Abraham was, I am”
In John chapter 8 Jesus tells us that he indeed was present in the Old Testament. In this chapter, He is talking with some Jews who were very proud that they were the descendants of Abraham. He told them, “I speak of what I have seen with my Father” (v38). In other words, Jesus says he has personally seen things with God the Father. Well, they kept harping on Abraham, so He finally tells them bluntly, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” “Before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58). Not “I was” but “I am.” He claims to be eternal, not merely older than Abraham. Notice, the same identity, the same Name that God gave Moses in Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am … I am has sent me to you.” Jesus is the LORD.
When Jesus was praying to the Father in John chapter 17, he said, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” Again in that same chapter, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (Jn 17:5, 24). And from the last book of the Bible, Revelation, Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rv 22:13). Now really, do you think the One who is at the center of all things was just waiting in some “waiting room” in the Old Testament?
Jesus, the Son of God, was there and active. Among his many Old Testament advents, He was present in a surprising birth announcement to Abraham and Sarah. We know their story from Genesis chapter 12: ‘The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. … and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. ” (Gn 12:1–3; cf. Acts 7:2–8).
Who is “the LORD”, Yahweh, that spoke to Abram? Was that just God the Father, while Jesus was off in the “waiting room” waiting to be born and the Holy Spirit was waiting even longer for the day of Pentecost? No, Jesus was part of this advent to Abraham, and so was the Holy Spirit. “Before Abraham was, I am.” The Bible teaches us that the true God, Yahweh, is the Triune God, three persons in one God. That’s why in the Athanasian Creed we confess, “the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; and yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord.” All three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are involved in our salvation.
Already in eternity, the Triune God has determined that the blessings of the nations, the salvation of the world, would come from the offspring of Abraham. If Abraham’s line is going to bless all nations, you’d expect Abraham and Sarah to have a child. But there they were. They had none, and Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah was 99 years old. Obviously, they could no longer have children.
Let’s page ahead to Genesis 18, another advent of the Lord to Abraham. “The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.” “The LORD appeared …” Some people have speculated that these were the three persons of the Holy Trinity, but the Bible doesn’t say that. Most likely, they were angels. Usually, in the Bible, the Lord appeared and spoke to people through angels. Three may symbolize and represent the Trinity but they are not the three persons of the Trinity. The LORD, Yahweh, appeared and spoke. And we know that Yahweh is God the Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit. He, the Lord, Yahweh, was announcing the birth of a son to Abraham and Sarah. “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” A birth announcement is coming. “Before Abraham was, I am.”
3. Born, Born, Born, to Living Hope!
Isaac was born, and birth announcements kept coming for centuries to come, birth announcements all leading to the Son of God coming and taking on our human flesh, the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. We don’t read the first chapter of Matthew very much. It’s boring. It’s a genealogy, but it is important and very revealing. “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob ...” And on and on it goes through centuries until the genealogy climaxes, “and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ” (Mt 1:1–2, 16).
This genealogy of birth announcements has a very personal aim, you and you and you, us. This eternal Son of God, “was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Pt 1:20–21). He came for you and me, for our sake.
The title of our sermon is, Born, Born, Born, to Living Hope! This saving history has been coming straight to us. Isaac was born, Jesus was born, and we have been born to a living hope.
The birth of Isaac was to Sarah and Abraham, without any doubt, a miracle. Rom 4:18-21—’Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.’
But the birth of the Son of God to the Virgin Mary was even more miraculous than the birth of Isaac. Isaac was born to a human father and mother, but the holy and sinless Son of God had no earthly father. When Mary asked the angel, “How shall this be,” he answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). Nothing is impossible with God. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Gen 18:14). When the angel told Mary that her relative, Elizabeth, was going to have a child in her old age, he said, “For no word from God will ever fail” (Lk 1:37).
And now these births, all the births in Matthew’s genealogy, come to us. Because of all these births God has caused us to be born again to a living hope. 1 Peter 1:3-5 — “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
The Son of God took on human flesh. He went to the inescapable destiny of sinners, death under the just judgment of God. Jesus was dead, totally dead, but the Triune God raised him to life. That’s what only God can do. Nothing is impossible for Him. His Word never fails.
We were dead in our transgressions and sins (Eph 2:1), but the Triune God gave us birth from sin and eternal death to new life and heaven. He has given us a new birth, a miraculous birth because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Triune God intended this for us from eternity. And your baptism is God’s birth announcement that you have been born in Christ to a living hope, to an inheritance reserved in heaven for you. Like Abraham and Mary, now you, are born, born, born, to living hope!
4. The Advents of God into Our Lives
I pray that our Advent activities this season will encourage you with the advents, the comings, of God into your life. Our Book of Advents teaches us that Jesus wasn’t in the “waiting room” in the Old Testament and He’s definitely not in the “waiting room” now. Birth announcement after birth announcement, the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, has been coming to you. HE is present with us every moment, all the time. These comings lead to and enable us to practice of the presence of God ... to find joy in his divine company and to make it a habit of life.” Isaac was born, Jesus was born, and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has given you a new birth to the hope of life. Therefore, we live with faith, hope, and love. We rejoice, “We praise You, O God!”