First Sunday of Advent: Hope (2021)

Sing: O Holy Night

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. We get to light the first candle, the Hope candle.

Have you ever given much thought to Advent and why it’s called Advent and what it is supposed to represent?

According to the American Heritage dictionary, advent means, “the coming or arrival of something or someone that is important or worthy of note.”

Think about times when you are waiting for someone you love to arrive. You probably anticipate their arrival. You expect them to arrive soon. You might look out your windows and watch for their car, hoping to see them soon.

Advent is a time of anticipation. We are looking forward to the celebration of Jesus coming as a baby.

I remember after I was engaged, once the wedding day was set, I had a calendar and I checked off the days in anticipation of the wedding. I did the same thing when I was pregnant. I had the expected date of birth circled on a calendar and I marked off the days and weeks, counting down the days to their arrival.

This Christmas Advent time is the same idea. We are waiting to celebrate the day of Jesus’ birth because that marks the day of His arrival as a baby on earth.

Many people have advent calendars and check off the days, counting down to December 25th. We have a wooden house that has 25 tiny doors. Each day, starting December 1st, we open one door and read a paper that has an activity written on it telling us to do something fun or meaningful that day. It creates a very vivid daily reminder that lets us know exactly how many days are left until Christmas Day.

There is something about Christmas time that makes me want to stretch every day out to its last second. I don’t want to miss out on any time at Christmas time. I never want it to hurry up and be over with. I want it to last as long as possible. My youngest asked me the other day, “what is it about Christmas that is just so wonderful?” I told her I think it’s the special stuff we do. Besides celebrating Jesus’ birthday, I think the lights, the music, the decorations, the togetherness, all of it added up, just makes it the most special time.

What if we treated every day like it was Christmas? What if we tried to squeeze all the beautiful things out of each day, every day? When my kids were young, sometimes one of them would say, “I’m having a bad day.” Whenever I heard that, I always said, “There are no bad days. Every day is a gift.” Bad things might happen on any given day, but there are no bad days because every day is a gift from God. Every day matters. Every day should be treated as something special.

I think one lie or trick of the devil is to get us to waste days. He would love us to think that we have unlimited days to spend wasting away doing meaningless, stupid things. But life is short! There is no time to waste!

The Psalmist prays in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

I think that means we are to use wisely each day that we have, understanding that our days are numbered. We should evaluate ourselves and see if we treat each day like it is infinite, like our lives will just go on forever or if we give consideration to how we spend our time each day. Do we spend our time doing things that matter? Are we trying to make this life count? Or do we just want it to be over?

Each of us has only a certain number of days to spend on this earth. Each day is significant. Do we waste our days? Or do we try to focus on what is important? Do we spend all our time on temporary things or on things that will last for all eternity?

Philippians 3:7-16 (ERV) explains this beautifully. Paul has written to the Christians in Philippi while he is in prison. He is talking about all the things that he used to think were important. Like how he was a Pharisee and was so proud of the way he followed the law of Moses. Then he says, “At one time all these things were important to me. But because of Christ, I decided that they are worth nothing. Not only these things, but now I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Christ, I lost all these things, and now I know that they are all worthless trash. All I want now is Christ. I want to belong to him. In Christ I am right with God, but my being right does not come from following the law. It comes from God through faith. God uses my faith in Christ to make me right with him. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him from death. I want to share in his sufferings and be like him even in his death. Then there is hope that I myself will somehow be raised from death.

I don’t mean that I am exactly what God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal. But I continue trying to reach it and make it mine. That’s what Christ Jesus wants me to do. It is the reason he made me his. Brothers and sisters, I know that I still have a long way to go. But there is one thing I do: I forget what is in the past and try as hard as I can to reach the goal before me. I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven.

All of us who have grown to be spiritually mature should think this way too. And if there is any of this that you don’t agree with, God will make it clear to you. But we should continue following the truth we already have.”

Paul says that he has hope that when his life on earth is over, he will be raised from death, just like Christ was raised from death. He doesn’t care anymore about the things he used to care about. Now he just wants to spend each day trying to reach the goal that God has set before him. He is running toward the prize, which is life with Jesus in heaven. That is his hope, that is his focus.

As believers, that should be our attitude about life, too. We should be like Paul and focus, not on the things that don’t matter, but on our goal of eternal life with Jesus. One day, our days here on earth will run out, and we will be with Jesus. What will He say to us? Will He say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” or will He show us how we wasted our days?

The thing is, none of us know exactly how many days we have on this earth. If you knew you only had 6 months to live, would you make any changes? What would you do differently? That is a question I like to ask myself every so often. It helps me evaluate if I am spending my time wisely or if I am wasting it. I think it’s harder for young people to think of their lives in this way, because when we are young, most of us feel like life will go on forever. But whether we are young or old, healthy or ill, we all could have our time here drawn to a close at the same moment. Jesus has promised that He will return. That day could literally happen at any moment. Is that something you think about very often?

What if we treated everyday like we were in a time of advent for Jesus’ return? What if every day we thought about Jesus’ arrival here? We don’t know which day He will return, only that He will return. It could be later today or it could be 2,000 more years from now. What if we treated every day like it was a countdown to His arrival? Would you live any differently than you do now?

Some people do not have this hope of Jesus’ return. They think that this life is all there is or they think they get another go around through reincarnation.

Without hope, what do we have? Like Job asks in Job 27:8-10,

8 For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, when God takes away their life? 9 Does God listen to their cry when distress comes upon them? 10 Will they find delight in the Almighty? Will they call on God at all times?

What hope do those who don’t believe in God have? It’s a rhetorical question, but it’s the ultimate question. What do we have if not hope in our Savior?

It is a question all people must ask themselves.

For us Christians, we have this hope of His return. We have the hope of eternal life with Him.

Because of that, our lives should look noticeably different from the lives of the people who do not have this hope. This hope should effect every day of our lives. For example, I have a friend who’s friend is in the hospital. His family has been told that they should say goodbye to him. The doctor does not have hope of his recovery. My friend shared this information asking everyone to pray for him. She said she still has hope that the Lord with heal him. I agreed with her and I told her that there is always hope because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. The doctors don’t know how many days someone has left, only the Lord knows how many days each of us have. I don’t know what God will do, but I am joining with my friend in prayer and asking God to do a miracle. We never have to give up hope.

This hope should influence and effect everything that we go through. It should be evident in the way we live, that our lives are an anticipation, an advent season, of the big event that is to come. One day, Jesus will come to either take us individually to heaven or He will come again to judge the world. In the meantime, we are in an advent season waiting for Him to come.

If our faith is in Jesus, then that means that no matter what we go through, no matter what each day brings, we can have hope.

Paul says in Romans 8:18-25, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

We have “hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” That means that we have hope that not only those of us who are the children of God, but all of creation will be set free from the bondage of decay. All of us who believe in Jesus, and all of nature, will be given new and glorious life when Jesus returns. All the suffering that we and nature experience in this present time it is nothing compared to the glory that we will all experience when Jesus comes back.

This time that we are in, Paul compares it to the pains of childbirth. We are groaning, waiting to give birth to a new life. We are waiting, just like a mother waits, hoping for the new life to be brought forth.

The birth metaphor works even further. After a baby is born, we don’t hope anymore for the birth of the baby because the birth has already happened. We only hope for what has not happened yet. Hope that has arrived, that is seen, is no hope at all. Hope is waiting, anticipation, an expectation of something or someone to arrive.

Once Christmas Day arrives, we don’t hope for Christmas Day to arrive any longer. There are no more little doors to open. The day has come! The wait is over! Hope only exists in the waiting.

This Advent season, most people are preparing for Christmas. Whether it means the celebration of Jesus’ birth to them, or simply a day to exchange presents, people all around the world are opening advent calendars and counting down the days. We know exactly how many days are left until December 25th.

What we don’t know is when the last days of our lives will be or when Jesus will return. But for us Christians, we shouldn’t dread either of those days. We should look forward to that time with hope. We pray together, like John says at the end of Revelation, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

This first week of Advent, let us prepare, not only our hearts and homes for the celebration of Jesus’ birthday, but let us prepare our hearts and homes to be ready for Jesus’ return. We wait in ready anticipation of His second coming. We wait in hope.

Sing: Let There be Peace on the Earth Tonight

Pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this beautiful Christmas time, this season of Advent. Help us, by Your Holy Spirit, to ready our hearts to worship the Newborn King. We look forward with happy anticipation to celebrating Jesus’ birth with all the joy and fun that brings. Help us to look forward with even greater hope to Jesus’ return. In Him, Whose name we pray, amen.