Advent Week 3: Hope

We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel.

My great joy and privilege to lead us through these four Sundays in Advent, taking a look at our Advent themes.

I'll remind you of the definition of the word Advent.

It means appearance or arrival, the coming of the Lord, if you will.

And at the Advent season, we look back on the first appearance of Christ into the world.

And we also look forward to his second appearing.

These classic carols that we sing, like Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and Joy to the World, and What Child Is This?

All of those serve us so well in reminding us that this is a declaration of good news.

And so the angels sang.

And what they sang about was this joy to the world, and how surprising that would come in the form of a small baby, an infant child who would be born into a peasant couple in a pass-through nation in the first century in Israel there.

And yet all of the Old Testament pointed forward to and found its fulfillment in the person and work of Christ.

And so the baby born in the stable, born there in that little manger, is actually connected to the Savior who died on the cross, who is connected and is the same person indeed, who ascends back into heaven after his death and resurrection, and then will return one day to set the world to rights.

And this is why I love Advent Season.

It's a looking back and a looking forward.

There's another word I wanted to define a little bit for us today because our subject for the day will be hope.

And hope is the expectation of a good not yet realized.

Think about that just for a second.

And I know we don't often think about these words and think about what they actually mean, but hope is the expectation of a good not yet realized.

And so we say we have Advent love.

This is the unbounded love of God.

We have the unquenchable joy of God available to us in Christ.

We have the inextinguishable hope of God available to us through faith in Christ.

And then we'll learn next week about the unshakable peace as well.

Oz Guinness is one of the uh guests that we had on our Friday night chat several months ago, and has become a friend over the past couple of years.

He has a book called Carpe Diem Redeemed, in which he says, Christians are called to enter and act in the arena of history with all the blood, sweat, and tears that such engagement demands.

They must have one eye on the world and their times, and another on a hope beyond history.

And friends, that is what is on offer, and that's what we're going to take a look at today.

If you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Luke chapter 1?

Luke 1 · chapter mention

We'll look at verses 1 through 25.

Luke is the third of four Gospels in the New Testament.

Luke writes, when you read Luke and the book of Acts, which he also appears to have been the author of both of those volumes, he's the only Gentile that we know of that writes a New Testament book.

And he writes as a physician, and Paul the Apostle refers to Luke as a physician in Colossians chapter 4.

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

That's how we know he's a doctor.

But he also seems to write as a historian and as a theologian.

He seems to understand.

And so he's a multidisciplined individual, well educated.

And look at verses 1 through 4, especially as he sort of introduces his gospel account, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us.

And notice that word accomplished or fulfilled, some of your English translations may say.

That's so important.

That means this was planned.

All of what he's going to tell us was planned well before.

So it's not just something, he's not just reporting on stuff he's seen, but he's reporting on stuff he's seen that was planned in advance by God.

Verse 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word have handed them down to us.

And so this didn't just happen for a few people, but it was handed down for us, the plural.

And I also love the fact that this was intentionally handed down.

And so we we love the fact that the good news of Jesus Christ, the good news of Advent, his appearing, uh was intentionally planned and intentionally handed down for us.

And there were eyewitnesses to the fact that Luke went and he interviewed, and reading all of Luke's gospel, you really do get the impression that he uh very carefully interviewed those people, and that as a physician, a man of science, and as uh writing as a historian and and and highlighting the theological importance of what he's talking about as well, you see that he really is a uh sort of a renaissance man of his time, and one that wouldn't have been fooled by mere myth or legend or fable.

And so he says, I'm I've been talking to eyewitnesses, uh servants of the word, and of course we know that uh one of Jesus' closest friends and disciples, John, refers to Jesus as the Word, he's the living word who came into the world, who was with God at the creation event itself.

Verse 3, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus.

That's the Greek name of either an individual or it could also be a general letter to those who are uh those who love God, because that's essentially what the name Theophilus means.

I myself tend to think that it refers to an individual, that he may indeed have had a patron, somebody that uh commissioned him to go and do this, to investigate all of this.

And uh he's writing a well-ordered account.

A physician would do that.

I know sometimes they kind of have messy handwriting when they write out their prescriptions, but they're very thorough and they're very given to detail.

And Luke is as well, verse 4.

So that you might know, Theophilus, you might know the exact truth, verse 4 says.

Oh, that's his intent.

Not that you may know the rumors, not that you may know sort of uh the legends that have that have popped up since uh Jesus disappeared from the earth.

No, that you might know the exact truth.

So his goal was to get to the facts and the real facts about the things that you have been taught.

So evidently Theophilus had been uh uh taught the story, or he had heard the story of Jesus, which of course uh we know the gospel sweeps the entire Roman Empire without anybody drawing a sword or firing a shot.

It's just such great news that God has come and brought redemption with him and that he's defeated our last and greatest enemy, death itself.

How did all of that happen?

Everybody's got those kinds of questions.

Is there really any place we can go to find that kind of love, that kind of joy, that kind of hope, and that kind of peace?

And Luke, throughout his gospel, is going to point to Jesus and say, Yes, there is.

Look, he's the one, you need look no further.

Let's see what happened as he gets into verses 5 through 25, this amazing story.

We don't often hear this part of the story at uh the Advent season or the Christmas season, but it's one of those things that happens before the angel appears to Mary to tell Mary that she's pregnant and carrying the Messiah.

This is something that happens, this is a little bit of a story that happens before that.

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, that would have been sometime between 37 BC and 4 B.C., when Herod the Great died.

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zecharias.

Now, some of your English translations will say Zechariah, some will say Zecharias, and those are just variant spellings of the same name.

I'm going to continue to refer to Zecharias here as it is in my New American Standard Bible.

In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zecharias of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

Well, Zecharias' name means God will remember.

And Elizabeth, her name means God is my oath.

And this is just amazing that this married couple, serving so faithfully, and we'll see their character and nature and their commitment and faithfulness to God in the next verse.

But I just want you to notice the live-body detail here.

Again, this isn't just a fairy tale book or a fiction novel.

These are real names, and they're names that would have been used in the first century.

You can cross-reference other historical references, and you find that some of these names would have been used in the first century in that particular part of the world.

And so we have Zecharias, who is uh he's a priest of a certain order, the order of Abijah, and he had a wife who was among the daughters of Aaron.

And so we even see their lineage here, right?

Her name's Elizabeth.

His name again means God will remember.

Her name means God is my oath.

God will remember that he has promised, that he's made promises.

I love that about this couple.

They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

What a great resume.

What a great thing to say about them.

As Luke goes around and interviews everybody, he finds out, and he who knows, he may have interviewed them, but I don't think so, but uh certainly probably well, probably interviewed people that knew them.

Why?

Because they're older, and you'll see this as we get through here.

They had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both advanced in years.

And so we have this uh uh kind of phrase that's used to describe the fact that these are a couple of senior citizens, likely in their eighties, uh, would be, you know, I don't think that would be too much of a stretch to suggest that.

It came about that while he, Zecharias, was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by Lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

So there are quite a few priests in that day and time, thousands in Israel, I would venture to say.

And they would take turns fulfilling their priestly duties in the temple.

And in the temple, according to uh I believe it's Exodus chapter 30, they would come in and burn incense twice a day, once at the beginning of the day, once at the end of the day.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

And the priests who would do this, would be assigned to do this, would actually draw by lots, and they would his name came up.

And so he's in there actually doing this according to the custom of the priestly office, as I say.

Check Exodus chapter 30.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

I think it's verse 7 there for that.

The whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering, and that would be the case.

People would come to the temple if they lived in Jerusalem or in or around Jerusalem, and uh during the um uh incense burning, uh, they would stand outside of the temple.

He's gonna go into what's called the holy place to do this, where this altar was, and they would be outside offering their prayers, and uh and they would have come uh and gathered there, and they're all waiting for him outside, right?

Well, an angel of the Lord appeared to Zecharias, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

And Zecharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear gripped him, and that just reminds me, we're all kind of that way sometimes, aren't we?

We're you know, when we gather to worship, which I'm so looking forward to again, and I hope that's coming very, very soon.

God please uh push back uh the the this virus and and we're praying, of course, for our medical teams and for our all those who have been sick.

Um and one of the reasons is because we do long to be together again.

We long to be the gathered people, physically gathered people uh um of the Lord.

And until then, of course, we're grateful that we're able to gather as we do and and trust the Holy Spirit to do what only he can do, and that's unite our hearts around uh the study of his word and as we worship together.

But this happened, and he's in there, and this angel shows up, and uh, just reminded me of how sometimes we get surprised when God actually shows up in some way.

Whether in this case an angel of the Lord sent to him, and this we'll find out is Gabriel, who's who stands in the presence of the Lord.

And uh, and and and yet God so faithfully shows up when we turn to him.

And I think that's another one of those things about this chapter that stirs hope in my own heart, perhaps in yours as well.

Well, Zecharias sees him, and he he it says here, fear gripped him.

He, you know, upon seeing this ghost uh like angelic being, whatever, he he might think it's a ghost.

He might think to himself, uh, you know, what is this?

This this being appears out of nowhere.

And the angel says to him, Do not be afraid.

Of course, the most often repeated command, uh, negative command of God or any of his emissaries is do not fear.

The most repeated positive command is that we would sing or worship the Lord.

But here the angel says, Do not be afraid, Zecharias, for your petition has been heard.

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John.

And Jonathan means Yahweh has been gracious.

So when you put all three of their names together, what you have is that God will remember that he has made oaths or promises, covenant promises to his people.

And he will be gracious in all of that.

Now, that doesn't mean you should go and try to figure out all the meanings of all your names around your family.

We we don't tend in our own day and time to select family names for the same reasons that they might have in their day and time.

But I love what this angel reminds uh Zecharias of here.

That God intends to fulfill his promises to them, but not only to them, but to Israel as well.

And that he will have a son, and that uh that son's name will refer to the grace of God.

Because uh John, their son, is gonna become John the Baptist, and he's gonna be the herald, the one announcing the coming of Messiah and God's grace on offer through Messiah.

So I'm getting ahead of myself.

I know.

I hope you'll you'll just hang with me on that.

But you will have glad, uh you'll have joy and gladness, verse 14 says, and many will rejoice at his birth.

And then the angel gives Zecharias the resume of the son he's about to have.

John, you he will be great in the sight of the Lord.

Oh, this is amazing.

Five different points to his uh resume.

He'll be great in the sight of the Lord.

He will drink no wine or liquor, which for them would have been a sign of dedication.

The Bible doesn't teach that you're not allowed to have a glass of wine at dinner or ever touch a drink or anything like that.

Drunkenness is an abomination to the Lord.

Yes, that's true.

The Bible does teach that.

But this was a sign of, much like the Nazarite vows, this was a sign of commitment and consecration, if you will.

And so, great in the sight of the Lord, uh, will not drink wine or liquor, will be filled with the Holy Spirit, that's wonderful, while yet in his mother's womb, and he will turn back many of the sons of the L of Israel to the Lord their God.

And it is he, that's five, who will go as a forerunner before him, uh the Messiah, in other words, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Oh, wow.

That's that's quite a resume when you think about it.

When you think, as, you know, if you're a parent and you think about your children and what they're, you know, what's gonna happen to them, what's gonna, how they're gonna develop, what's their character gonna be like later on, and all that sort of thing.

And here, in this particular case, as part of God's redemption plan throughout all of history, this angel comes and and sort of gives the story in advance to Zechariah.

So I love this.

And Zechariah says to the angel, How shall I know this for certain?

For I'm an old man and my wife is advanced in years.

Now, husbands, listen up.

Um, I think this probably, if there had ever been a TV show back then called The Good Husband, this would have disqualified Zacharias for any role in that TV show.

Um here's what he's saying, basically.

I can't, he's just sort of incredulous.

He can't really believe this.

And uh he's basing that on uh what he sees as the physical uh barriers to the whole thing.

Um how can this be true?

How will I actually know this?

I'm an old man, and my wife is even, she's even older, right?

So um again, it it sort of baffles him.

He's sort of astounded at this promise, this that's being on offer here, which is really amazing.

And the angel says to him in the answer to, you know, how can I know this for certain?

The angel's answer is, I'm Gabriel.

I stand in the presence of the Lord.

And so, and by the way, Gabriel is uh one of two angels in the entire Bible that we know the names of them, um, uh Gabriel and Michael, the Michael's the archangel.

Gabriel seems who who shows up a couple times, seems to have been tasked with the job of birth announcements.

And so he he's here telling Zecharias that uh he and Elizabeth in their advanced years are going to have a child, even though they've they've they've not had a child at all.

And uh back in their day and time, of course, that might indeed have been interpreted by their their culture and their society as a sign that God in some way was displeased with them, that they had done something wrong.

And so there would have been a religious and a societal uh sort of a stigma attached to them.

And they would have prayed and prayed and prayed for many, many years, I'm certain of that, and probably prayed so long as to have already given up praying for that same thing to happen.

Why?

Because they're advanced in years and older.

And yet, after praying for years and then not praying for years, here comes Gabriel, a messenger of the Lord, and God's got a plan because the odds never matter to God, you see.

Uh, and God has a plan, God is at work, and uh uh in this one particular case, God's gonna do something rather amazing through this couple's life.

So the the angel says, in answer to the question, how can I know this for certain?

He says, I'm Gabriel.

That's how you can know it for certain.

I'm the one that stands in the presence of God, right?

And I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

Notice the angels are never all about the angels, the angels are all about pointing to God, pointing to Christ, pointing to God's word in some way, God's covenant promises.

See, the angels are never about the angels.

And in our own day and time, of course, we uh some we we we find just lots of literature and lots of fascination and enchantment with angels.

Uh angelology is massive.

And uh, rather than the God that this angel points to, people get fascinated with the one that you know the sign rather than what the sign points to.

Behold, you'll be how how are you gonna know this?

You will be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their proper time.

And so here comes uh uh Zacharias with this question.

How can I know for certain?

Uh can you give me some kind of physical sign?

You know, I how how how will people believe me?

How will Elizabeth, my wife, believe me?

And so the angel says, Because you didn't believe that I promised this to you, uh the sign that you'll have is that you won't be able to utter a word until the child is actually born, fulfilled in its proper time.

The people were waiting, so the camera lens changes back to outside the temple area here.

Verse 21.

And the people were waiting for Zecharias, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple.

They wondered, you know, had he died, had had did he have a heart attack?

Did he collapse?

Did he faint?

Did he what what is keeping him?

Why isn't he coming out?

And um, and so when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple, and he kept making signs to them, and he remained mute.

And so here we have in the Bible the very first instance, the very first time where anybody ever plays charades on the planet.

Is it here's Zacharias trying to go, you know, literally as you mumble and stuff like that.

And there's an angel out there, and I, you know, what kind of sign was he?

How is he trying to convey this message to them?

I don't know.

I don't know what it looked like, but uh he's trying to act it out without being able to say it, without them know uh, you know, they're trying to figure it out themselves.

And imagine what happened when he went home, you know.

I mean, imagine what that would have been like to tell your wife that even though they're aged as they are, and and even though they haven't had a child all of these years, she might have thought he was hallucinating.

She might have thought something about something he had been longing for, you know, all those years ago, and and she might have had sympathy or empathy for him in some way.

But then just think what would have happened in a few weeks' time or in a couple of months' time, and her her belly begins to grow.

You know, it's just fascinating to think about what that must have been like.

So it came about, verse 23, that when the days of his priestly service were ended, that he went back home.

And again, think of him walking through the door, unable to speak.

His wife, what happened to you?

You know, and he's trying to act it all out again.

After these days, Elizabeth's wife became pregnant.

And this is Luke writing this, this is a doctor writing this.

And it will be Luke a doctor writing about the young virgin named Mary becoming pregnant as well.

I mean, if anybody had sort of a medical understanding for how babies are made and how that all that process is all uh you know unfolded, it's Luke.

He would have known that.

And yet here he is telling us exactly what happened in the case of Elizabeth and later in this book, in the case of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Well, after these days, Elizabeth, his wife, became pregnant.

She kept herself in seclusion for five months, saying, This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when he looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among men.

So God comes and graces her, and it takes away her disgrace among men.

One more verse, we'll we'll just move forward.

Now, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin, engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.

And so, as I said, Gabriel's job seems to be birth announcements, and there he goes, getting ready to say another.

What does this teach us?

What does this story teach us about Advent hope?

We certainly know there have been so many of us longing for hope in so many different categories.

And some would read this and identify with this specific category as well.

But there's so many other categories in which we're longing for hope.

Um the hope of heaven as we've lost loved ones over the years.

The hope of heaven as we age ourselves and their condition being aged as they were.

Um the the hope that someday the pandemic will be over, the hope that someday our jobs will return, the hope that someday the world will be set to rights.

All of that, you see, is on offer through the person and work of Christ.

But it's for now in the Advent season, it's a time of waiting.

Again, we look back to his first appearing and we give thanks.

We reflect on that.

We look forward in time, and we don't talk about this enough, and we need to at Advent, but but we look forward to his second appearing and the fact that he's going to come and set the world to rights and things like this, where there's disgrace, where there's disunity, where there's acrimony, where there's suffering and evil and violence and natural disasters, and all of those kinds of things in our world that that just show us our world is broken, that we as sinners are broken in it, and that we need outside help.

We need a redeemer, we need the hope of heaven to invade our world and to bring us the outside help that we need.

G.K.

Chesterton, talking about hope, said, as long as matters are really hopeful, hope is a mere flattery or platitude.

It is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.

Well, Zecharias and Elizabeth needed hope.

Israel needed hope.

You and I need hope.

The whole world needs hope right now.

And that's why I'm so glad that we come to this time of year and we begin to remind ourselves of the love and the joy and the hope and the peace that is on offer through the person and work of Christ.

This is what the biblical concept of hope is.

It's on offer as God begins to move in his world and to reverse the curse, if you will, and that one day we look forward to that day when he will set everything right.

So the first point I want to make as we take a look at Advent hope for today is that hope doesn't mean the total absence of suffering, difficulty, or despair.

God's plans and purposes for our lives may not always look like the circumstances that we would desire.

It didn't for Zecharias and for Elizabeth.

They'd gone all the way through their lives without having any children at all.

And perhaps had come to the conclusion that maybe the, maybe everybody else was right.

Maybe those self-righteous religious people were right.

Maybe God was mad at them.

Maybe they had done something wrong.

And who knows when he's in there and performing his priestly duty.

Um and faithfully so, because we were told here that they were both righteous.

I love that as part of their resume.

They were both righteous in the sight of God, that they had walked blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

It's just a it's just a reminder to me that whatever the circumstances that we might be living in, that doesn't mean that we're without hope.

The odds don't matter to God, you see.

He can do things that we think can't be done.

Just as Zacharias sits there and goes, after Gabriel says you can have a child.

How's that possible?

That's not possible, you know?

And so he asks that question.

Swindah says, Elizabeth's barrenness and advanced age, a double symbol of hopelessness, became the means by which God would announce to the world that nothing is impossible for him.

Yeah, that's right.

So along comes this baby that they named John.

And by the way, the crowd presses him to name the kid Zacharias, and he's going, no, I'm gonna go with the angel.

I'm gonna go with the instruction of the angel.

And uh and the and the name uh uh of Jonathan, you know, which which just has that God is gracious, that idea that God has been gracious to us, you know.

So here's this God who remembers that he's a promise maker and uh he makes oaths and he keeps his promises and he's gracious.

And see, this just all ties together so beautifully, doesn't it?

And so that becomes that their story of living all of those years without a child becomes the very scenario, if you will, through which God proves that nothing is impossible for him.

The second thing I think we learn here is the fact that we experience disappointment or suffering doesn't mean God has forgotten us.

Yes, Zecharias and Elizabeth had wanted a child, but in spite of things not going their way for all of those years, and for them literally decades.

I mean, I've, man, we've all grown up in a microwave world.

We we push a button and we get what we want.

You know, we're impatient when we when we send an email or a text or an Instagram post or something, and it goes all the way from here, all the way from our phone, all the way up to a satellite, and then all the way back down and through an entire network that goes around the world.

And we get impatient when it takes more than a microsecond for that to happen.

We're so used to wanting things our own way in our own time that we are so impatient with God.

And some of the some of the most amazing things that God has done in my life as I look back on it, and maybe you as you would just consider and reflect a little bit back, you might see that some of the more beautiful, powerful, transforming things he's done over a period of time.

It hasn't all happened in a microwave moment.

And it takes time sometimes for us to see what God has been up to, to learn to trust him in the still times and in the quietness, in the time of waiting, like Advent.

But if their story teaches us anything, it teaches us that just because we can't figure out what God is up to, it doesn't mean that God is inactive or that he isn't doing something.

See, Luke uses the word fulfilled, because there was a specific time when all of this was gonna happen.

Just like the angel Gabriel says, You're gonna be able to speak again, Zacharias, but it'll happen at a specific time when that child is actually born.

And that way you'll know that it was God that did this.

And that will give you greater courage to trust God again.

You will see that God's word has been proven true, that God's promise was right.

Advent hope reminds us that the end of the story of our lives and the consummation of the story of God and his glory among the nations throughout the world, all of that will be accomplished.

Faith, Oswald Chambers says, is deliberate confidence in the character of God, whose ways you may not understand at the time.

And that was true in Zechariah's time, and that was true all the way.

Reach back through every Old Testament story and every New Testament story, and you keep seeing that we human beings have to keep learning that story over and over again.

I don't know what you're waiting for, I don't know what you're hoping for, I don't know what you you you think God may have promised to you, or what you think God may have said.

And we always want to check because uh there's there's always inside of me an agenda that I want God to fit into.

And I always need to check what I think God has promised.

My ambitions, in other words, I need to check that with the Word of God.

I need to check that.

Uh, even my anxieties, I need to check those against the Word of God.

Because here comes the angel reminding Zecharias not to be afraid.

And sometimes I'm coming to conclusions based on my anxieties, and sometimes based on my ambitions.

And usually those are just, they just become vehicles for idols to flood into my heart.

Anxieties, why?

Because I'm afraid that God won't get it right.

Ambitions, because I'm afraid he won't get it right.

Anger sometimes because I'm afraid God got it wrong.

So I need to check my heart all the time and remind myself over and over again that God, just because I can't figure out exactly what he's doing, doesn't mean that he's forgotten me.

Doesn't mean that he doesn't know what he's doing.

Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God, whose ways we may not understand at the time.

And Yancy says, I've learned that faith means trusting in advance, what will only make sense in reverse.

And I, you know, okay, if you don't like the word only, say often.

That's fine.

Either way, I think that's true.

For most of us, a lot of times, we're looking in the rear view mirror, and it's making more sense there than it did in the windshield or in the side windows for us.

Oh, God, that's what you were doing.

How many of you have experienced that in your own life?

So, how do we find this hope of God?

Well, it just like with Zecharias, it ends up being a matter of trusting faith in God and his promises, doesn't it?

So, my third point is going to be this hope arises as we focus our attention on Christ, his character, his promises.

And how do we do that?

Well, through Bible study, like we're doing right here.

Taking a look at the account, not just letting it come to us through the media that likes to sort of come up with all of these uh really clever and novel uh interpretations of the life of Jesus that fit into some political or sociological agenda that somebody has, that they know they can kind of stir everybody up by telling some sensational story.

No, no, no, no.

Let's go back to the gospel records, where we get very carefully researched, close to the time period when Jesus walked the planet, and where we get eyewitness accounts, as Luke calls them right here.

And in the case of Matthew, especially, and John, those two gospels, both of those guys walked the dusty roads with Jesus.

John Mark may have as well.

And if he didn't, he certainly, as tradition tells us, was informed by the Apostle Peter, who walked the dusty roads with Jesus, sat by the campfires with him, went down to the river when they were baptizing people, saw him perform all these miracles, saw him walking on the water, saw him calm the storms and cast the demons out.

And they put their hope and their faith and their confidence and trust in him, but it was a process.

Even on the stormy sea, they're trying to wake Jesus up in their boat.

Don't you care?

Look at this storm.

And that's the way all of us are as we're going through our storms, facing our giants.

Lord, where are you?

Where are you in this pandemic?

Where are you in the crumbling of this economy?

Where are you, Lord, in in all the pain that we're going through?

Where are you?

Don't you care?

And we asked the same kinds of questions that people were asking back then.

And Jesus, this is the beautiful story of Jesus, and I'm so glad he came.

And I'm so glad we celebrate his having come.

In the boat that day in the storm, you see, he awakened and he said one word, and he calmed the storm, and he calmed the seas.

And we're told then that the disciples asked a question Who is this?

That even the storm and the seas obey him.

And Zecharias and Elizabeth, who is this?

They probably asked this question over and over and over again.

Look at John, look at our little boy.

Can you believe it?

Who is this?

God, who can do that and bring us hope even in our old age, that we might be able to serve God with gladness, to join God in the mission that He's got for us in this world.

Hope arises as we focus our attention on Christ, on his character, and on his promises.

Hope is not the thing itself, it's a byproduct of something else.

Just like joy.

If you fixate on hope, where do I find hope?

Where do I find it's a byproduct of fixating on Jesus?

Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith.

That's what we want to encourage you to do this Advent season.

Let's be conscious, to occasionally but intentionally turn off all of the devices and machines, to lay ourselves before the Lord, to go before him like Zacharias did, to go into the temple.

That means his presence, okay?

That would stand for his presence, wherever that might be.

Even if it's a closet in your prayer closet in your home, or just get alone in your home for a couple of minutes, ask somebody else to take care of what's going on in your house, and find some time to get alone with him, to listen, to pray, to express your longings, to turn to him, you see, and in turning to him, what we're doing then is we're opening our heart to him.

And he comes to us to bring us his love, his joy, his hope, and his peace.

My dear brother, our dear friend, so many of us, Scotty Smith, has said this: life between Jesus two advents, one, deepens our sadness over the brokenness in God's world and ourselves.

Two, fuels our humility and joy in response to what God has done about it in Jesus.

And three, intensifies our hope and commitment to missional living until the day of all things new.

If you find yourself running low on love, on joy, on hope, and on peace this year.

Please understand, and I love the way that Scotty ordered those things, and I love what Advent, when we look at it, it starts in the dark.

It starts in a time where for 400 years there's been no voice from God until this angel shows up to Zecharias and says, Guess what?

God has been at work behind the scenes, and now he's coming, he's bringing it all to the foreground again.

And that's just amazing.

And I want to turn to the Lord, and I want to encourage you to do that as well.

The Advent love of God has come to pronounce and declare to us joy to the world and to fill us anew with hope in his promises that one day there can be the peace of reconciliation between us and God, peace and reconciliation between us and others, and even peace and reconciliation in our own hearts over the past sins we've committed, over the present where we learn to trust him and walk in his peace and rest in his peace, and then to have that great hope of our future being sealed forever in the person and work of Jesus until the day of all things new.

J.

I.

Packer said the Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity, hope for pardon, hope of peace with God, and hope of glory.

I love to remind people that the Christian gospel is not just a fiction or it's not just a fairy story that seeks to deny reality.

Throughout the Bible, we read about a world that must endure suffering and injustice because of humanity's sinful refusal to let God be God, to not turn to God in repentance and faith.

And I want to encourage you again and myself over and over again because repentance is a way of life for us.

And the great news about repentance, when we talk about it from a biblical perspective with the gospel in mind, is that we already know the outcome of our repentance.

When we turn to him, we already know how he will respond.

And it's great news if we confess our sins.

He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And that's a very big three-letter word, all, isn't it?

Telling the entire story must include the news that we need redemption.

Telling the entire story includes the idea that the world was dark, that it was in sin and error pining.

And we needed a Savior to come from the outside to help us.

And hallelujah, praise the Lord, he has come in the person and work of Jesus.

In the bleak midwinter is a Christmas carol based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti.

In the first verse, Rossetti describes the physical circumstances of the birth of Christ in Bethlehem.

Well, the final verse shifts the description to a more introspective thought process and asks a question.

What can I give him?

Poor as I am.

What a great, you know, see, see, this is what the gospel always does, too.

It always stirs us to respond.

You see?

And so here's this song.

What can I give him?

How can I respond?

You know?

And and goes on to say, if I were a shepherd, I'd bring a lamb.

If I were a wise man, I would do my part.

Yet what can I give him?

I'll give him my heart.

And that's exactly what he's looking for from each and every one of us this holiday season.

I invite you to let this last song serve as your prayer of response to Christ for the kindness of his coming into this world and for the kindness of his coming to your heart to bring you the hope of salvation in his name.

Amen.