Advent: The Two Comings of Jesus: Resting in the First and Hoping in the Second

Well, it's the first Sunday in Advent.

The fourth Sunday is leading us into Christmas.

Advent means arrival or coming.

Advent's the season of waiting and hoping.

It's permission for us to wait powerless with open hearts to God's story for our lives.

And we aren't just preparing for Christmas during the season, we're preparing for the second coming of Jesus, which is so interesting that in Advent, the first Sunday historically is set apart for us to talk about the second coming of Jesus while we're preparing to think about Christmas, the first coming.

And so what we see is that we see Christ's first coming, so we think about it as Christmas in the cross.

Christ's first coming reckons us forgiven and righteous.

Fully his, nothing for you to add.

And then Christ's second coming will restore all the sadness to joy.

Fully restored.

So we're fully righteous now, and yet we're not fully restored.

We all long for this because we long for restoration, for things to be right.

On Christmas morning in our home, we release the girls into the living room and out they go.

And then we, our Christmas family tradition, is that we all open our stocking gifts together at the same time.

And so you know, wrapping paper starts to fill the floor.

And then after that, we go one gift at a time, one person at a time around the circle.

You go, and then you go, and then you go.

We all watch each person.

It takes 17 hours to do this, which is the big debate.

Do you rotate one gift one person at a time?

Or does like one person open all their gifts and then you go to the next?

Or is it just like a free-for-all, right?

No matter what, your living room is becoming a mess slowly, and all the control freaks, what are we doing?

Dying because you know there's a gift card down there somewhere.

So that's me.

Got my comfies on, got my slippers on.

Where the trash bag?

Anyone else spend Christmas Eve with a trash bag?

We're all the control freaks.

Trash bag people, raise your hand.

Trash bag people?

Yep.

We all need a trash bag person.

We want it restored.

Trash bag people.

Some of y'all have no idea what I'm talking about.

Trash bag people want it restored.

We want it back to the way it should be.

So we wait in Advent, right?

We wait in Advent.

We're resting what's already true, Christmas, but we're hoping in what's to come, the day of restoration, Christ's second coming.

We want it to be how it should be.

Our hearts are longing for that.

Your heart long, all of our hearts long for life and our bodies and our relationships and our finances and provision to be as it should be, for it to be restored back to the way it should be.

Maybe this idea of second coming for you is always spelt overly religious, fantastical, or maybe you grew up like me and it was always fear-based.

Like you better, you better, he's coming, he's coming for you, he's gonna get you, you know.

But as I've gotten older and my theology has become rooted more in Jesus alone and not my effort or my merit, and then my body, like I'm not as spectacular as I once was.

Can you believe it?

Like it's just not working like it used to.

Like my right hip, I don't know if your right hip or we want restoration.

I sat with a really sweet woman this week.

Her entire body is failing.

None of her body will cooperate with it.

Someone hurts you.

You experience depression or disappointment or discouragement, war, hunger, illness.

Your right hip.

We want it restored.

We want it to be the way it should be.

This is our hearts crying out for restoration.

We're fully redeemed now, and yet we're hoping for restoration.

Our passage this morning is Mark 13.

It's called the Olivet Discourse.

Because Jesus is on the Mount of Olives.

He's standing on the Mount of Olives and he's teaching his disciples.

Here's a view of the Mount of Olives from the Temple Mount, looking across the valley to the Mount of Olives.

So Jesus would have been over there on that little mountain teaching his disciples, looking back at the Temple Mount, and he was telling them earlier in Mark 13, the temple will be destroyed.

This is gonna happen.

Your temple that you love so much is gonna be destroyed.

He says, Hey, you should persevere.

This is gonna happen, but you need to persevere.

And then he starts to teach about his second coming.

We jump in Mark 13, verse 24.

Mark 13:24

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and powers in the heavens will be shaken.

And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.

And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

Point number one, sort of a macro point.

It's God is fully committed to love and redeem us.

The heart of apocalyptic literature in the scriptures is not fear.

The heart of apocalyptic literature is hope for those in Christ.

Where it looks like the whole world is sad and broken, there's no hope.

What could ever happen?

This thing just keeps going on and on and on.

It's horrible.

There's hostages in Gaza, there's war in Israel, there's war in Ukraine, our lives.

I mean, are you put together yet?

Are any of us put together yet?

Didn't you think?

Didn't you think you would be more put together at this point?

We need hope for a restoration.

And Christmas is God's love in the flesh, into our messy world.

Christmas in the cross gives us a foot into our full righteousness.

We are secure.

One foot is there in Christmas, the first Advent.

And one foot is in the second Advent.

Jesus' second coming, restoration.

And so we live with one foot in the first, one foot in the second.

Point number two is this by growing aware of our story's end, we prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ.

Verse 26 says, He's coming in the clouds.

Clouds in the scriptures, this word signifies glory.

In the presence of God, there's beauty, there is power, there's utter aliveness.

Don't you love that?

Utter aliveness.

Nothing is broken and nothing is sad.

Our hearts cry out for that restoration to come.

Now, let's quickly look at two phrases that jump out.

The first is in verse 24, after that tribulation.

That's the phrase, after that tribulation.

Now, if you remember our teaching from Revelation last year, we did a series of the book of Revelation, and we talked about two views of the end times.

If you remember this, the first view is dispensational premillennial view.

I'm sure you talked about it this week in your small group or dinner over coffee.

It's a very, very popular topic.

But maybe you did read the Left Behind book series like years ago, or you heard about it, or you saw it.

There's a rapture.

Christians are sucked up to heaven, those left behind.

There's a horrible seven years of tribulation before Christ reigns for a thousand years, and then there's an eternal heaven.

That's the summary of the dispensational pre-millennial view.

Maybe that's your view.

Fantastic.

We love that you're here.

Thanks for being here.

Maybe you don't have a view.

You don't care.

Fantastic.

We love that you're here.

Our church believes what is called the covenantal amillennial view.

Here's a summary of that.

We see much of the apocalyptic language in Revelation as symbolic or figurative, meaning the end times and the tribulation are the suffering we experience now between the first coming and the second coming, the first Advent and the Second Advent.

And our hope is that He will come again to restore all things.

Verse 27, this other phrase jumps out: gather his elect.

Who are the elect?

I mean, what was this talking about?

Certain people, not other people?

The elect in the mystery of God's sovereignty are those God has lavished love upon, called to himself by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.

If that's true of you, then you are the elect.

Now that doesn't answer, does God elect some and not elect others?

I've been studying for a long time at this point, and I'm just getting more and more okay with the mystery within God's sovereignty.

Now, what I do know is the gift that the doctrine of election can give you.

I do know this for sure, and this is that we can find a rest, unbelievable relief, that our faith is not about the strength of our own effort or merit to cause or maintain a relationship with God.

That our relationship with God is through Christ alone.

It is born from and sustained by his love for us in the cross and is objective and it is declared and given to us.

That's a gift.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says this about Advent.

The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.

Now, if we think back on the second coming, do you remember this artwork?

We looked at this when we studied Revelation chapter six, all that figurative symbolic language in chapter six, the second coming, the first horse, victory, the second horse division, the third horse, inequality, the fourth horse, death.

But the first horse is foremost.

The first horse is supreme.

So maybe you're here and you know the hurt and the chaos of those last three horses in your life and your heart.

But we have the first horse.

Victory.

And so as Christians, we're called to face our fear and our pain, to be on a healing path through that by the Holy Spirit in us, to move into healing.

Yes, we will cry more, but we will rejoice more.

Because we know the first horse is supreme.

We live in the already, but the not yet.

The story's still unfolding.

Look at the top of this painting.

See the very top, right up there.

Very small.

Overall is the Lamb and the Word.

See, the fairest judge ever is the most loving, approachable, humble creature ever.

This is how God has chosen to give himself to us in Jesus.

This is how he regards us, relates to us.

We may be groaning today, but we do have hope.

Mark 13, verse 28.

Mark 13:28

From the fig tree learn its lesson.

As soon as its branch becomes tender and put out its leaves, you know that summer's near.

So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near at the very gates.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until these things take place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Point number three is this God's story for your life and those you love, it's still unfolding.

Jesus wasn't wrong in verse 30 when he said, all this will happen during their lives, these people listening right then.

Because the temple was destroyed.

What he was talking about, just across that valley.

37 years later, in AD 70, Titus, Roman general, sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple.

Verse 28, Jesus gives us this image of a fig tree.

Now here's a picture of a fig tree.

These were all over Israel.

They are all over Israel.

And at the time in Israel, there weren't many plants that lost all of its leaves in the winter and then rebudded in the spring.

So when Jesus starts to talk about this, they all have this image clearly in their mind that when that tree buds, summer's near.

And Jesus is saying, I bring the ultimate spring, the ultimate new life, ultimate summer.

This is how we live in the already, but not yet.

Already fully redeemed, but not yet fully restored.

Already fully redeemed.

That's the new life we have in Jesus of the cross, but not yet fully restored.

Not yet the second coming.

Last week with our girls, we watched the Christmas movie The Holiday.

We're working our way through Christmas movies.

I don't know if you're into Christmas movies yet.

We're working our way through all our favorite Christmas.

It was a Nancy Myers film.

Anybody about Nancy Myers films?

They have the most amazing homes.

If you just need like a two-hour envy trip, just watch a Nancy Myers film.

The homes are amazing, just drool the whole time.

It was in 2006.

You've had time to see it.

I'm not going to feel too bad about all of this.

Iris is British.

She's British and she's a mess.

She has this love for this guy who's just a jerk.

He's just horrible, right?

You've seen it.

You're like, that guy's awful.

She just in love with this guy.

She's a mess.

She's heartbroken.

Amanda's American.

She lives in LA.

And she's a mess.

And she's heartbroken.

So they switch houses for a holiday.

Remember, Amanda goes to England, Iris goes to LA.

And of course, they each meet a sweet, good man on their holiday.

And the movie's unfolding.

You don't know what's gonna happen next, it's unfolding.

Will Iris stop crying?

Will she get with Miles?

Will Amanda open her heart?

Will Amanda commit to Graham?

Will she?

I mean, we want her to so badly.

And my girls can't talk more about this.

Just the whole movie.

Just talking about it and will they and how?

And like we're pausing it and talk it out.

Let's just let's just talk it out for a bit.

And they're asking us, will I risk it with mine?

Will Amanda open her heart to Graham and those two beautiful, cute little girls?

Will she commit to them?

Will she move to England?

How will like how will this work out?

Will it work out?

And we're like, hey, watch the movie.

Right?

Watch it.

You have to watch the story.

They're all incredibly sad in the middle of the movie.

But all the sadness will come untrue.

There will be a restoration.

You see my point.

You've seen it for about the last four minutes.

My point is, of course, we're all mid-movie.

We're all mid-movie.

The sadness, it will come untrue.

Some of us will experience restoration in different parts in this world.

But some of us won't experience full restoration.

None of us will experience full restoration until either heaven or Christ's second coming.

This is why the doctrine of eternal life, heaven, Christ's second coming, it actually means everything to our hearts.

Because our hearts long for restoration.

And that is not fear-based.

That is hope-filled for us.

Hope-filled.

I had two growth, grace, and questions.

Growth and grace questions for our hearts that came to me this week that I was pondering.

The first is this where do I need to move from fear to hope as God's story for my life is still unfolding?

Where do I need there's probably some area?

You need to move from fear to hope.

God's story for life is still unfolding.

Second, how am I living in the temporal world?

But I need to place my hope in the restoration to come.

Mark 13, verse 32.

Mark 13:32

But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows.

Not even the angels in heaven or the Son, but only the Father.

Be on guard, keep awake, for you do not know when the angels will come.

It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the evening or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep.

And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake.

Point number four is this our gross is awakening to the restoration of all things by King Jesus.

We want to awaken to that.

My in-law subdivision in Florida, it's gated by a guard gate and a guard.

And so when we go down there to visit, we pull up, pull up to the guard gate.

The guard steps outside.

I give him my name.

He goes inside, he checks a list, he looks at the list, he checks us off, he opens the gate, in we go.

He's the doorkeeper.

Never have they been asleep.

There's probably been 50 different guards at that guard gate over the last 15 years.

Never have any of them been asleep.

Now, from what I can tell, and I'm no expert on guard gates or security of subdivisions or anything like that, but what I can tell is if you have a guard, just kind of like the main requirement here is just like stay awake.

Like that seems, like that in a phone seems to be like the main part of this job, right?

Just stay awake.

Four times Jesus uses the word awake to be watchful, be like a doorkeeper and stay awake to what means the most.

The point is not to figure out some secret date of Jesus returning.

If you start hearing that, just change the channel and go somewhere else.

That's not the point.

It's a call and grace to live intentional, to stay awake, and in the Christmas truth.

That he is with you and he is for you.

And in the cross, that we are fully forgiven and fully righteous.

That he knows all of you and he loves all of you.

So, my brothers and sisters, welcome to Advent, these four weeks taking us to Christmas, where we rest in the first coming and we hope in the second.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the season where we get to rest in the truth of Christmas, in the gift of the cross, and we get to hope in your second coming.

As our hearts cry out to be righteous, may we find ourselves fully at rest in the gift of Jesus and the cross.

And as our hearts cry out for restoration, may we be filled with hope that there will be a day we are with you in heaven where there is no sadness or illness.

And there will be a day when all things are restored.

In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.