Advent Week 1: We Remember and Prepare Our Hearts in Hope

The season of Advent brings us an opportunity to refresh our hearts to the truths of Jesus Christ. Al Mohler with a quote from the SBTS Advent Guide shares, “Advent is the church learning to wait well. We rehearse the promises already fulfilled in Christ, even as we long for the promises yet to be seen.”

Promise > Fulfilment > Waiting.

Over the next few weeks, we will look at each representation of Advent including Hope, Peace, Joy, Love and Christ.

To begin Advent, we look at Hope. God has weaved the thread of Hope into His story of redemption before the foundation of the world. Long before any shepherds on a hillside, long before any Wise Men followed a star, long before a census was taken, God gave hope in His promises, power and very presence. When we think of Hope before Christ’s first coming, we remember the expectation of a coming Messiah.

Why Do We Need Hope?

Tripp puts it this way, “You don’t celebrate the coming of the Messiah unless you understand why you needed Him to come. Advent should be a season of remembering your desperate condition and the glorious grace of God that met you in that desperate state.”

After Adam rebelled against God by disobeying His command, sin entered the world. (Romans 5:12-21) Since that day in the Garden of Eden, sin has separated mankind from a Holy and righteous God. Yet God did not abandon His creation. We see the first mention of the Messiah in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Hope is sparked in Gen 3:15 for a lost and dying world. A deliverer would come. He would be born of a woman, and He would crush the head of the serpent.

The Promised Messiah Brings Hope

We look forward to God’s prophet Isaiah as he describes the hope of the Messiah in the midst of great darkness as described in verse 2 of Isaiah 9:

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”

This child promised is the hope for all people. One theologian says, “this prophesy is not wishful thinking from Isaiah, but divine certitude sealed by the Zeal of the Lord.” For God’s people, the future is not attained or secured by any human effort. The future is secure because of what God has said.

The promised Messiah brings hope even in the titles Isaiah proclaims from the Lord:

Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God
Everlasting Father
Prince of Peace

A Groaning Hope

The Apostle Paul will echo this hope in his letter to the Roman Church when he wrote:

8 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

The glorious truth of the hope for Christians is not that we are optimistic, it is that we hope in knowledge that God will finish what He began. This is where we live in the already but not yet. We stand firm in the hope that Christ fulfilled promises in His incarnation, and He will fulfill all things at His return.

Mohler again reminds us: “We wait. We trust. We groan. We hope.”

Hope Born to Us in Flesh

The seed promised in Gen 3:15 was born as Jesus Christ, and hope for humanity was given a name: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

JC Ryle says, “the central truth of the Christian faith, that the very God of very God became very Man of very Man, all for our salvation.”

This truth invites us to recognize that our hope in Jesus is not an anxious pacing, it is a rest that comes from a heart changed by the Gospel.

Closing Thoughts

Here’s three things we can do to recognize hope for Advent this week:

Remember God’s Faithfulness

Don’t we see this in scripture?

Israel would be intentional to remember the Exodus
David would write Psalms to remember God’s faithfulness and deliverance
The church gathered on the first day of the week to remember and celebrate the Resurrection

Take time to intentionally remember God’s faithfulness and allow that to be a reminder for present hope.

Rest in the Finished Work of Christ

Meditate on God’s Word that shows us our hope rests in what Christ has already accomplished. Rest in the Gospel that saved you, is saving you and will save you.

Look Forward in Hope

Christ has come, and He is coming again. Ryle, “The Advent of the King is not yet finished.”