The Fourth Sunday of Advent
It is here, the fourth Sunday of Advent. It marks the final Sunday before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Today we light all four of the advent candles around the advent wreath: the Prophets candle, the Bethlehem candle, the Shepherds candle (which turns from purple to pink), and the Angel’s candle. As we have been talking about, each candle has s meaningful part in the Christmas story.
The middle candle, the Christ candle, will remain unlit until our Christmas Eve service.
Advent confession
Now that we are here at the fourth Sunday of advent, I have a confession to make. I have not been completely forthcoming with you regarding advent. I haven’t lied, exactly, but I have held something back from you.
You see, I have led you to believe that advent is all about a manger in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago. That is not entirely true. All that we have talked about up until this time has focused on that event. But that is not the only event of concern in the celebration of advent. In fact, it may even be argued that the manger in Bethlehem is not even the most significant element of Advent. So today, due to the stirring of my conscience, I will come completely clean with you. There is another aspect to advent.
Remember that I told you the meaning of the word ‘advent:’
Advent: to come, or to arrive
Jesus came, just as the prophets said He would come. He arrived in Bethlehem and we celebrate His advent. This is the First Advent.
There is also a Second Advent. It hasn’t taken place yet. There are even more prophecies, and Jesus’ own words, which tell us that He is coming again. He is not coming as a baby the second time, but “as lightning flashes from the East to the West.”
When we celebrate advent, we celebrate not just His first advent, as a Babe in a Manger, but we also celebrate His second advent, when He will come again. This series is entitled, “Great Expectations,” and there is no greater expectation that we have than to see Jesus upon His return. It is our Greatest Expectation.
THE KEYS OF ADVENT
So, let’s keep this very simple and very meaningful. There is a counterfeit Christmas out there, and it is anything but simple or meaningful.
Christmas in New York
At the Christmas dessert last week I talked with a woman from the church who took a trip with her husband to New York City the week before. I asked her how her trip went, and she said it was a sad trip. The city was all decked out for Christmas, but she could not find anything reflecting the true meaning and significance of Christmas. All she saw was about being big, and flashy, and expensive. It was commercialism at its max.
She said the one place she saw anything inspiring at all about the true meaning of Christmas was, surprisingly enough, at the Radio City Music Hall Rockets show. At the end of their show they had a live nativity with real animals. What an unusual place to find the true meaning of Christmas.
The holiday we see all around us at this time of year is an obvious counterfeit. Don’t be fooled by it.
A bogus bill
Some counterfeit is a bit more obvious than other counterfeits.
On Saturday, October 6 of this year, a man went into a grocery store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and tried to pass a counterfeit bill. Here was the plan: Pay for your groceries with a counterfeit bill, get the groceries free and get change for your fake bill in real money. Great plan!
So, he went through the line and handed the cashier the bill. You know those little pens that they have to tell if the bill is real or not? Well, the cashier didn’t even have to use it. Why? Because he handed the clerk a one million dollar bill.
First of all, do you think a grocery store cashier is going to have change for a million dollar bill in their cash register? Secondly, there is no such thing as a million dollar bill and never has been. The largest bill in circulation today is the one hundred dollar bill.
If you’re gonna make it fake, you might as well make it big. This also seems to be the motto when it comes to the commercialization of Christmas.
The whole story
So, here’s the whole story of advent, as simple as it gets:
1. Jesus came.
2. Jesus left.
3. Jesus is coming back.
Let’s take a look at a small piece of a conversation that Jesus had with His disciples:
John 14:1-6 (NKJV)
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
From this passage we see that: Jesus came, Jesus left, and Jesus is coming back.
1. Jesus came.
He said, “You believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus came as God in the flesh. Quoting from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14), Matthew puts it all together for us in his gospel when he says:
Matthew 1:23 (NKJV)
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Why did He come? If you’re living in heaven, I wouldn’t think that the earth would be a popular destination spot. It isn’t. He came for a specific reason.
§ To become one of us.
It Is Easy for You
The great writer Max Lucado tells about his neighbor who was trying to teach his six-year-old son how to shoot a basketball. They were out in the backyard. The father shot a couple of times, saying, "Do it just like that, son; it's real easy." The little boy tried very hard but he couldn't get the ball ten feet into the air. The little fellow got more and more frustrated. Finally, after hearing his father talk about how easy it was for the tenth time, the boy said, "It's easy for you up there. You don't know how hard it is from down here."
You and I can never say that about God. When Jesus became man and lived among us, he walked where we walked, he suffered what we suffer, he was tempted as we are tempted. He was Emmanuel which means "God is with us." (Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com)
2. Jesus left.
Jesus didn’t stick around. He didn’t intend to. He told His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” He told them many times that He was just passing through; that He was going to be crucified and rise from the dead. That was the plan all along.
§ To prepare a place for us.
Please see the irony in this. When Jesus came to earth there was no place prepared for Him. We know quite well from many Christmas programs that there was no room for Him in the inn. And yet He went to heaven for the express purpose of preparing a place for us. He deserved it. We don’t. There was no place for Him. He is preparing a place for us. Amazing!
Mary, Let's Go To The Barn
Here is a nativity story with an interesting twist: A grade school class was putting on a Christmas play which included the story of Mary and Joseph coming to the inn. In that class was one little boy who wanted very much to be Joseph. But when the parts were handed out, his biggest rival was given that part, and he was assigned to be the inn keeper instead. He was really bitter about this. So during all the rehearsals he kept plotting in his mind what he might do the night of performance to get even with his rival who was Joseph.
Finally, the night of the performance, Mary and Joseph came walking across the stage. They knocked on the door of the inn, and the inn-keeper opened the door and asked them gruffly what they wanted. Joseph answered, "We'd like to have a room for the night." Suddenly the inn-keeper threw the door open wide and said, "Great, come on in and I'll give you the best room in the house."
For a few seconds poor little Joseph didn't know what to do, and a long silence ensued. Finally though, thinking quickly on his feet, Joseph looked in past the inn-keeper, first to the left and then to the right and said, "No wife of mine is going to stay in a dump like this. Come on, Mary, let's go to the barn." And once again the play was back on course. (Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com. Adapted from a Story by John Simmons)
Beyond imagination
Jesus came to a dumpy place that had no room for Him. He is preparing for you and me a place that is beyond our wildest imaginations. Have you ever been to the Tour of Homes in Salem or the Street of Dreams in Portland where you can see some of the most elaborate and expensive houses around? Some of them are in the millions. They pale in comparison with what Jesus is preparing.
3. Jesus is coming back.
If, when Jesus came He had no intention of staying, why would He be coming back? There’s only one reason:
§ To bring us home
He said, “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (v.3)
Go to prepare a place
About four years into our marriage, I left home alone and traveled all the way across the country. I left my wife and our three-month old daughter behind and went all alone to Asbury Park, New Jersey. Our family was going to be moving there, but I went there first so that Dalene and Jenni would have a nice place to stay when they got there. I drove to a place where I had never been before. I knew no one there. I stayed in a pretty rough place – nothing fancy. I spent my entire time there looking for a place that my wife would like, that would be good enough for our new baby. What a job! (Remember, I said it was in New Jersey.)
Well, after many attempts, I finally found a place. I thought I did pretty well, but what would Dalene think? The place was ready, so I flew back to Oregon. I got Dalene and Jenni, we got a plane and went back to New Jersey together. I was anxious to show her the place. We drove up, I opened the door, and… she loved it. I did good.
Do you see the parallel? Jesus left heaven for earth. I left Oregon for New Jersey. You just can’t get a closer parallel than that! I was so glad to see my wife pleased with her new home. Jesus is excited about showing you your new home in heaven. (And it will be a lot better than an apartment in New Jersey.)
The Promise of Advent is a place prepared for me.
*** Ushers: Pass out key chains ***
There is a home prepared for you. The keys are accessible through relationship.
Hide-A-Key
Once we had moved back to Oregon, our baby girl now had a baby sister and the two of them were attending school near our home. Dalene was home when they got home from school. But we thought we should have a contingency plan. If the girls had to come home early from school or if Dalene wasn’t able to be home for some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to have a key hidden so the girls could get in the house if they ever needed to. But, where do you hide a key? Under the mat? Too obvious. We needed a place that was easy for the girls to get at, but not for someone else to get.
Then we had a brilliant idea. At that time we had a large dog named Sully. He was half Husky and half Labrador. When we weren’t home he stayed in a dog kennel in the back yard. We put the key right inside his dog house. If the girls needed the key, they could walk into his kennel reach into his dog house and grab the key, no problem. If someone else who didn’t know Sully wanted to get in, it wouldn’t be so easy.
This may be a poor illustration but the point is this: The keys to your heavenly home are accessed through relationship. For those who have relationship with Jesus, access will be no problem at all. He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of My Father.” For those who He doesn’t know, scripture says that He will say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
Jesus’ first advent is the key to His second advent. His coming as a Baby in Bethlehem and dying on a cross to open the way was to open the way for relationship with you and me to give us a place with Him for eternity in heaven.
Conclusion
Let’s end this service by reading a familiar story about Jesus’ first advent.
Reading of the Christmas Story
*** Luke 2:1-20 by Bill Noonan
It is here, the fourth Sunday of Advent. It marks the final Sunday before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Today we light all four of the advent candles around the advent wreath: the Prophets candle, the Bethlehem candle, the Shepherds candle (which turns from purple to pink), and the Angel’s candle. As we have been talking about, each candle has s meaningful part in the Christmas story.
The middle candle, the Christ candle, will remain unlit until our Christmas Eve service.
Advent confession
Now that we are here at the fourth Sunday of advent, I have a confession to make. I have not been completely forthcoming with you regarding advent. I haven’t lied, exactly, but I have held something back from you.
You see, I have led you to believe that advent is all about a manger in Bethlehem some two thousand years ago. That is not entirely true. All that we have talked about up until this time has focused on that event. But that is not the only event of concern in the celebration of advent. In fact, it may even be argued that the manger in Bethlehem is not even the most significant element of Advent. So today, due to the stirring of my conscience, I will come completely clean with you. There is another aspect to advent.
Remember that I told you the meaning of the word ‘advent:’
Advent: to come, or to arrive
Jesus came, just as the prophets said He would come. He arrived in Bethlehem and we celebrate His advent. This is the First Advent.
There is also a Second Advent. It hasn’t taken place yet. There are even more prophecies, and Jesus’ own words, which tell us that He is coming again. He is not coming as a baby the second time, but “as lightning flashes from the East to the West.”
When we celebrate advent, we celebrate not just His first advent, as a Babe in a Manger, but we also celebrate His second advent, when He will come again. This series is entitled, “Great Expectations,” and there is no greater expectation that we have than to see Jesus upon His return. It is our Greatest Expectation.
THE KEYS OF ADVENT
So, let’s keep this very simple and very meaningful. There is a counterfeit Christmas out there, and it is anything but simple or meaningful.
Christmas in New York
At the Christmas dessert last week I talked with a woman from the church who took a trip with her husband to New York City the week before. I asked her how her trip went, and she said it was a sad trip. The city was all decked out for Christmas, but she could not find anything reflecting the true meaning and significance of Christmas. All she saw was about being big, and flashy, and expensive. It was commercialism at its max.
She said the one place she saw anything inspiring at all about the true meaning of Christmas was, surprisingly enough, at the Radio City Music Hall Rockets show. At the end of their show they had a live nativity with real animals. What an unusual place to find the true meaning of Christmas.
The holiday we see all around us at this time of year is an obvious counterfeit. Don’t be fooled by it.
A bogus bill
Some counterfeit is a bit more obvious than other counterfeits.
On Saturday, October 6 of this year, a man went into a grocery store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and tried to pass a counterfeit bill. Here was the plan: Pay for your groceries with a counterfeit bill, get the groceries free and get change for your fake bill in real money. Great plan!
So, he went through the line and handed the cashier the bill. You know those little pens that they have to tell if the bill is real or not? Well, the cashier didn’t even have to use it. Why? Because he handed the clerk a one million dollar bill.
First of all, do you think a grocery store cashier is going to have change for a million dollar bill in their cash register? Secondly, there is no such thing as a million dollar bill and never has been. The largest bill in circulation today is the one hundred dollar bill.
If you’re gonna make it fake, you might as well make it big. This also seems to be the motto when it comes to the commercialization of Christmas.
The whole story
So, here’s the whole story of advent, as simple as it gets:
1. Jesus came.
2. Jesus left.
3. Jesus is coming back.
Let’s take a look at a small piece of a conversation that Jesus had with His disciples:
John 14:1-6 (NKJV)
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.” 5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
From this passage we see that: Jesus came, Jesus left, and Jesus is coming back.
1. Jesus came.
He said, “You believe in God, believe also in Me.” Jesus came as God in the flesh. Quoting from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14), Matthew puts it all together for us in his gospel when he says:
Matthew 1:23 (NKJV)
23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Why did He come? If you’re living in heaven, I wouldn’t think that the earth would be a popular destination spot. It isn’t. He came for a specific reason.
§ To become one of us.
It Is Easy for You
The great writer Max Lucado tells about his neighbor who was trying to teach his six-year-old son how to shoot a basketball. They were out in the backyard. The father shot a couple of times, saying, "Do it just like that, son; it's real easy." The little boy tried very hard but he couldn't get the ball ten feet into the air. The little fellow got more and more frustrated. Finally, after hearing his father talk about how easy it was for the tenth time, the boy said, "It's easy for you up there. You don't know how hard it is from down here."
You and I can never say that about God. When Jesus became man and lived among us, he walked where we walked, he suffered what we suffer, he was tempted as we are tempted. He was Emmanuel which means "God is with us." (Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com)
2. Jesus left.
Jesus didn’t stick around. He didn’t intend to. He told His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” He told them many times that He was just passing through; that He was going to be crucified and rise from the dead. That was the plan all along.
§ To prepare a place for us.
Please see the irony in this. When Jesus came to earth there was no place prepared for Him. We know quite well from many Christmas programs that there was no room for Him in the inn. And yet He went to heaven for the express purpose of preparing a place for us. He deserved it. We don’t. There was no place for Him. He is preparing a place for us. Amazing!
Mary, Let's Go To The Barn
Here is a nativity story with an interesting twist: A grade school class was putting on a Christmas play which included the story of Mary and Joseph coming to the inn. In that class was one little boy who wanted very much to be Joseph. But when the parts were handed out, his biggest rival was given that part, and he was assigned to be the inn keeper instead. He was really bitter about this. So during all the rehearsals he kept plotting in his mind what he might do the night of performance to get even with his rival who was Joseph.
Finally, the night of the performance, Mary and Joseph came walking across the stage. They knocked on the door of the inn, and the inn-keeper opened the door and asked them gruffly what they wanted. Joseph answered, "We'd like to have a room for the night." Suddenly the inn-keeper threw the door open wide and said, "Great, come on in and I'll give you the best room in the house."
For a few seconds poor little Joseph didn't know what to do, and a long silence ensued. Finally though, thinking quickly on his feet, Joseph looked in past the inn-keeper, first to the left and then to the right and said, "No wife of mine is going to stay in a dump like this. Come on, Mary, let's go to the barn." And once again the play was back on course. (Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com. Adapted from a Story by John Simmons)
Beyond imagination
Jesus came to a dumpy place that had no room for Him. He is preparing for you and me a place that is beyond our wildest imaginations. Have you ever been to the Tour of Homes in Salem or the Street of Dreams in Portland where you can see some of the most elaborate and expensive houses around? Some of them are in the millions. They pale in comparison with what Jesus is preparing.
3. Jesus is coming back.
If, when Jesus came He had no intention of staying, why would He be coming back? There’s only one reason:
§ To bring us home
He said, “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (v.3)
Go to prepare a place
About four years into our marriage, I left home alone and traveled all the way across the country. I left my wife and our three-month old daughter behind and went all alone to Asbury Park, New Jersey. Our family was going to be moving there, but I went there first so that Dalene and Jenni would have a nice place to stay when they got there. I drove to a place where I had never been before. I knew no one there. I stayed in a pretty rough place – nothing fancy. I spent my entire time there looking for a place that my wife would like, that would be good enough for our new baby. What a job! (Remember, I said it was in New Jersey.)
Well, after many attempts, I finally found a place. I thought I did pretty well, but what would Dalene think? The place was ready, so I flew back to Oregon. I got Dalene and Jenni, we got a plane and went back to New Jersey together. I was anxious to show her the place. We drove up, I opened the door, and… she loved it. I did good.
Do you see the parallel? Jesus left heaven for earth. I left Oregon for New Jersey. You just can’t get a closer parallel than that! I was so glad to see my wife pleased with her new home. Jesus is excited about showing you your new home in heaven. (And it will be a lot better than an apartment in New Jersey.)
The Promise of Advent is a place prepared for me.
*** Ushers: Pass out key chains ***
There is a home prepared for you. The keys are accessible through relationship.
Hide-A-Key
Once we had moved back to Oregon, our baby girl now had a baby sister and the two of them were attending school near our home. Dalene was home when they got home from school. But we thought we should have a contingency plan. If the girls had to come home early from school or if Dalene wasn’t able to be home for some reason, we thought it would be a good idea to have a key hidden so the girls could get in the house if they ever needed to. But, where do you hide a key? Under the mat? Too obvious. We needed a place that was easy for the girls to get at, but not for someone else to get.
Then we had a brilliant idea. At that time we had a large dog named Sully. He was half Husky and half Labrador. When we weren’t home he stayed in a dog kennel in the back yard. We put the key right inside his dog house. If the girls needed the key, they could walk into his kennel reach into his dog house and grab the key, no problem. If someone else who didn’t know Sully wanted to get in, it wouldn’t be so easy.
This may be a poor illustration but the point is this: The keys to your heavenly home are accessed through relationship. For those who have relationship with Jesus, access will be no problem at all. He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of My Father.” For those who He doesn’t know, scripture says that He will say, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”
Jesus’ first advent is the key to His second advent. His coming as a Baby in Bethlehem and dying on a cross to open the way was to open the way for relationship with you and me to give us a place with Him for eternity in heaven.
Conclusion
Let’s end this service by reading a familiar story about Jesus’ first advent.
Reading of the Christmas Story
*** Luke 2:1-20 by Bill Noonan
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