The Four Advents of Christmas

The Four Advents of Christmas

Christmas Eve, 2017

Introduction

St. Augustine famously said, “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.”  From the beginning, since sin and rebellion against God turned this world over to Evil, men’s hearts have yearned to be made right again with their Creator.  The Bible says, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves…” (Romans 8:22-23a).  This yearning is the sadness we feel when a loved one dies or develops a terminal disease.  Our desire for justice in a world full of violence, bullies, terrorism and systemic prejudice is the built into our souls.  It is the yearning that we all have for the holy and righteous God who made us. 

We live on the battlefield of the war between Satan with all his powers of evil and God himself.  You see, the Bible tells us that Adam and Eve, by their rebellious choice, handed the keys to God’s good Creation over to the Devil.  But the Creator did not abandon his Creation.  No. 

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”  John 3:16.

The First Advent

That is why Jesus came as a baby on that Christmas Day so long ago – just as we have read.  What the First Adam gave up in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of time, the Second Adam, as Paul calls him – Jesus – came to win back through his death and resurrection.  That is why we celebrate Christmas.  It was Christ’s first advent.  It was the beginning of the end of Satan’s rule.   I’m not a Lutheran, but I love their hymns!  Hear these incredible words of this Christmas hymn written by Johann Rist in the seventeenth century:

Break forth, O beauteous heavenly light,

and usher in the morning;

O shepherds, shrink not with affright,

but hear the angel’s warning.

This child, now weak in infancy,

our confidence and joy shall be,

The power of Satan breaking,

our peace eternal making.

(Better yet, hear it or sing it!)

Bach's Setting of "Break Forth..."

The Second Advent

Jesus’ first advent was a covert operation into the enemy’s territory and it inflicted a mortal wound on his power.  Jesus is now ascended into heaven and calls people to eternal life for those who will trust him and believe on his name.  But he will return to finish the work begun two thousand years ago.  He first came in weakness; he will come again in strength.  He came first as the Suffering Servant; he will come again as the Righteous Judge and turn this upside-down world to right.  That will be his Second Advent – his Second Coming – for which all who truly follow him eagerly await. 

The Third Advent

The first advent was and the second advent will be cosmic in scope.  It has and will affect everything.  But there is a third and fourth advent of Christ that is personal.  In fact, the third and fourth comings of Christ are dependent on you.  In the opening verses of John’s gospel, he writes:

He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:10-13

This is the third advent of Jesus in which we can all participate.  Jesus comes, when you invite him through faith, into your life.  It is a relationship – the only way to satisfy that yearning for God of which Augustine spoke.  I suspect in crowd as large as this there are some who have never experienced this third advent of Christ – being “born again,” the Bible calls it.  It is a simple matter.  But it will profoundly change your life.  It involves believing that Jesus came to die in order to defeat the power of sin and death.  Receiving Christ means that you repudiate sin in your own life – repentance, the Bible calls it – and turn from yourself to follow Jesus. 

The Fourth Advent

If you have received Christ into your life, then, on your day of destiny when your body finally dies, Jesus will receive you into his presence.  That is the promise of the fourth advent.  When Christ rose from the grave on Easter morning, he defeated not only the power of sin and Satan, but also the power of death.  Scripture triumphantly declares,

Death is swallowed up in victory.

“O death, where is your sting?

O grave, where is your victory?”

                                    I Corinthians 15:55

When a Christian’s body gives up its last breath, the Bible tells us that our spirit will be present with the Lord where there is fullness of joy.  This is the great hope and expectation of every believer in Jesus Christ.  And it is the anchor for our soul that sustains us through every trial and season of life. 

Tonight, as we celebrate the first advent of Christ, it is my prayer for you that you will receive the Babe who became the Man who is the Savior of the world.   If you will do that, then you will anticipate his coming again in glory or at your death when he will come to receive you in eternal life.