Pastor Fred started off the Advent Season and the birth of Christ in Isaiah 9. Seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, the promised Messiah, the Prophet Isaiah foretold of the coming Messiah and that all governments will be on His shoulders and that He would be given names like Almighty God, Prince of Peace, Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father and the greatness of His government will know no end. It will all also be filled with pace and justice and the coming Messiah will reign on David’s throne forever.
The season of Advent is really a time of waiting and expecting. Just as parents wait for the birth of their child, the nation of Israel was waiting on the promised Messiah. They were tired of being subjects to kings and foreign powers where they had no rights. Sure they were allowed to worship, but their worship often included rules that God never gave and they also may have had other religions of the day infiltrate their worship. At least they had to contend with people who thought, ate and worshiped differently than they did. It got to the point we’re different Jewish sects were formed to overthrow the current foreign regime so Gods Kingdom could be set up. In essence, Advent is about waiting for the coming of the Messiah in a fallen and broken world. In the twenty first century, we are not waiting for the messiah to be born, but to return as king. How are you preparing for the return of the promised Messiah who is coming to separate the wheat from the chaff?
According to John 1:14, Jesus became man and dwelt among us. What does that mean. The first one is that Jesus is all man and still all God. To my knowledge, there are no other world religions that have their gods take on human form while still maintaining their deity. Jesus came so He could not only provide the ultimate sacrifice, but to also reveal God the Father to us. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus claims that He and the Father are one and if we have seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. I encourage you to read Philippians 2 this week and ponder what it means for Jesus being equal with God, put on flesh and to serve His creation.
The next aspect is that even though Jesus was all man, He still had authority and sovereignty. The demons recognized Jesus and He cast them out. He also healed the sick, raised the dead and calmed the storm. When I was in college, there were times that the professor stopped lecturing and they became a student like us. Whether it was the sharing of a personal story that related to the subject matter, or for a few minutes, treating the class as equals and discussing something important that was related to what they were teaching. I remember having a conversation with some fellow students and a professor in his office about Advent. I thought it was cool and meaningful and I remember the professor validating our conversation while giving us something to think about. We still treated him with the respect he deserved, but we also took the opportunity to have a more personal conversation with him even if what’s for a short timeI also had to realize the next time we were in class, he was the professor and had the authority. The same is with Jesus, even though He became man and dwelt among us, He is still God and we need to remember that
The last aspect of Jesus we will cover is His divinity. If Jesus wasn’t perfect or divine, we still be lost in our sin and an eternal relationship with God is out of the question. His divinity is what gives Him the authority over death and is what made His sacrifice on the cross valid and applicable. Jesus being divine means that He was perfect and sinless, which this allowed Him to take our sin and punishment. If Jesus wasn’t divine, would He be any different than us?
To wrap it up, here is my question we could ponder through all of the Advent Season. Who is Jesus and why does that matter to me? On of Jesus famous questions to His disciples was “who do you say that I am?” There are countless answers, but if it doesn’t come down to Lord of all and my personal Savior, we are in trouble. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis wrote once, Jesus is either Lord, Liar or Lunatic and we not only decide which one He is, but live it out and deal with the consequences
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