Advent Means Hope
Advent Means...

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Today, we begin Advent. What does Advent mean? That’s the title of our series, “Advent means______” What does it mean? Well, as we mentioned earlier, the word, “Advent,” comes from the Latin word, “adventus,” which means “coming,” “approach” or “arrival.”

When we expect guests at our house, don’t we turn the lights on, especially the light out front? Don’t we unlock the door and get our houses ready in anticipation of the arrival of guests?

In like manner, at advent in our churches and in our homes, we turn on the lights and we get ready to remember. Not only that Christ has come, but that He is coming again. We remember both advents, the truth of the reality of His first coming and in anticipation of His next coming.

Speaking of anticipation, that’s what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about the word, “Hope,” because advent means hope. At Jesus’ first advent, He was proclaimed as Savior. We read from the angels, in the book of Luke, speaking to the shepherds at night. Luke 2:11, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This is the first advent.

In His second advent, He will return as King and will gather all those as Paul says who “have longed for His appearing.” That’s who we are. That’s what hope is; it’s anticipation. It’s expectation. It’s waiting with a sense of longing and here we are; we rest between two advents. We are the people of God. We are aware of His first appearing and we look forward, in hope, to His second appearing.

Do you remember the sense of anticipation you had when you were children approaching the Christmas season? Do you remember when the Christmas tree was going up, you were preparing and you were thinking about it? We tend to lose that sense of anticipation.

I remember that there used to be this catalog that would come out, along about late September. This would give you a full three months to “dog ear” and circle everything you could. For me, it was the Sears wish book. (Picture on screen) I still remember this one; this book is dated 1968. I don’t know where some of you were in 1968. I remember this. My brother and I went through this catalog. We had it “dog eared, wish pages marked and underlined. We had great anticipation of what Christmas was going to be that year. I think that’s what Sears had in mind; they gave the children three months to drive their parents crazy with anticipation. We had that wish book for 60 years, from 1933 to 1993. Sears put that out every year until 1993.

Amazon has “picked up the torch,” if you will. Even though they’re an online digital company, they recognize that there’s still power in putting out a catalog. This year marks the third year they’ve put out their own “wish book.” Here’s a picture of the one they sent out this year. (Picture on screen). It’s entitled, “Amazon’s Holiday Dash.” They didn’t want to just come right out and say that we ripped Sears off, but this is a wish book.

The thing that I would say to you today is we need more than a wish book. We need more than a “wish book.” We need hope, because hope, biblical hope is stronger than any “wish book.” You know, we’ll say the word, “hope,” like a wish. We’ll use it as a synonym. We’ll say, ‘I hope it doesn’t rain today.’ We have no confidence whether it will or not; we have no control, promise or expectation. We just throw it up like wishes.

But biblical hope, blessed hope is more than a wish. It’s a confident expectation that what God has promised will surely come to pass. That’s biblical hope because it rests in Christ Jesus.

I wonder today, do you have that kind of hope? Do you have the kind of hope that is secure in the person of Jesus?

As I look around our world today, I see a lot of hopelessness, don’t you? I see a world that’s often without hope. When we watch the news, does the news give us hope? No. The news from around the world shows how hopeless our world is today. I remember, when we were younger, that it seemed like the world was full of hope and possibilities. Perhaps, as we get older, that’s what changes. When we’re younger, we are looking forward to graduating from school. We are looking forward to meeting that certain someone and getting married someday. We hope to have children. We had this anticipation about the future, about the unknown, the mystery, the things that were coming. We hope to purchase our first home. That’s exciting. We hope to have a car. These are the kind of things you start thinking about and then, as you get older, you’ve kind of worked through a lot of those and you start hoping for other things, like, I hope to have a good vacation. Maybe we’ll go to the Bahamas this year. Then, you get a little older and you think, I hope we have a good weekend. Then, as you get a little older, you say, ‘I hope I can get out of bed in the morning.’ The truth is, the older we get, if we allow it, the more hopeless we can become. The other thing that can happen that can really cause hopelessness is the things you’ve put your hope in that never come to pass and make you feel that there’s nothing to hope for.

I don’t know where you’re at today, but I want you to hear this: There is hope in Christ Jesus. Get your hopes up. You can have hope in Jesus Christ. That’s the invitation of the advent season. It’s a time to reflect. It’s a time, in this busyness of life, to slow down and remember Jesus has appeared and He will appear again.

That’s what Paul was writing to his disciple, Titus, his “son in the Lord.” Paul sent Titus down to the island of Crete to secure that church down there that Paul had planted it. Paul sent Titus down there to be the elder, the chief elder of that church. Paul wanted to encourage Titus to rest in the hope, the blessed hope that we have in Jesus Christ.

I believe, today, that we can have that hope, that blessed hope in Jesus. As we look at the text today, I think we’ll see why the hope we have in Jesus is a blessed hope. Let’s look today and we’ll be looking for three reasons why the hope we have in Christ is a blessed hope.

Titus 2:11-14 (ESV) 11 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” This is God’s Word. Amen.

WHY THE HOPE WE HAVE IN CHRIST IS A BLESSED HOPE:

1. Because it is anchored in the grace of salvation.

The hope that we have in Christ is a blessed hope because it’s anchored, it’s tied off like a rope, it’s tied off and anchored in what Christ has already done. If you look at verse 11, you’ll notice that the word, “appeared,” is in the past tense . It says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation…” This points to the grace of God, which is the favor, the unmerited favor of God. This is what we have in Jesus. Jesus is the greatest gift of all time. It says in the Bible, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.”

He’s the greatest gift. It’s an unmerited favor; that is what the word, “grace,” means. You see that Paul is writing this in the past tense in verse 11, that Christ Jesus has already appeared. That word, “appeared,” is in the text twice. Do you see it? It’s in verse 11 and it’s again in verse 13. In the Greek, it’s the word that, today, we get the word, “epiphany,” from. It’s the idea of “appearance” or of “coming to see a great light.”

In the Latin Vulgate translation of Titus, it actually says “advent.” It’s where we get the word, “advent.” Paul says it here in the past tense in verse 11. Then, in verse 13, he says it in the present tense, like a participle, that it’s something happening now, but I, first, want to focus on verse 11 and then I want to, also, focus on verse 13 where he says, “blessed hope.”

Do you see, in verse 13, “our blessed hope?” The word, “blessed,” could be translated “completely, “happily, “content,” or “to be blessed to the max.” He says that it’s a blessed hope. This hope, as we’ve mentioned before, is not the word that we use commonly when we say the word, “wish.” If you think about a wish, a wish is really dependent upon the power or the strength of the one who’s making the wish. Hope is not like, If I hope hard enough, this will come true. No, this hope, this “blessed hope,” rests, not in a person’s strength, but in the person of Jesus and His faithfulness that He has already come.

This hope is tied, like a rope, anchored around the cradle, the cross and the facts of the gospel of Jesus. He has appeared, the grace of God bringing salvation has already happened; it’s already happened. That’s what advent is about. It’s about taking a moment to slow down for just a bit in the busyness of our lives and to reflect and remember, because we’re a forgetful people and we easily forget the important things. We get caught up in the temporary things. We get worried and bogged down, but, just to pull away for a minute, like we are doing this morning and say, ‘He did come.I believe that and my hope is anchored in that truth that He came and I believe in Him.’

Have you placed your belief in Him , that He’s the Lord Jesus, He died for your sins, He was raised on the third day and He lives today? If you have, you have that blessed hope in Christ Jesus.

It’s what Peter was talking about in 1 Peter 1:3 (ESV) “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” This hope that we have is not a dead hope. It’s a living hope because Christ is risen. Our faith, our hope is anchored in the reality of His death, burial and resurrection.

Hope and waiting go hand in hand. I would say that Americans, above any other civilization on planet earth, love waiting the most, don’t we? No, we don’t. We’re not very good at waiting. We hate to wait. There’s something about hope ; it demands waiting but not passive waiting. Hope waits with expectation and to wait, not passively but patiently, always looking back.

Here is what Paul is saying to Titus, ‘Remember what it was like before He came?’ Speaking of that, the whole old Testament, it’s about the people of God before He came. They were all waiting for the first advent and they were waiting with hope.

There’s over three hundred Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament; three hundred places where it predicts what the Messiah will be like and where He would be born. It says in the book of Micah that He’d be born in Bethlehem and that He would be born of a virgin. Isaiah, chapter 53, describes how He will be crucified and how He will suffer. Psalm 22:1 even tells us the last words He’ll say up on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Threehundred times back here and they’re looking for Him.

It reminds me of an old man named Simeon. Maybe you’ve heard of him. It’s in the book of Luke chapter two. It’s the part of the Christmas story that we often overlook. Old Simeon had been waiting. He had studied those three hundred prophecies. He had been waiting for the Messiah to come. We read in Luke 2:25-26 (ESV) 25 “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

That word, “Christ,” is the Greek word for “Messiah.” It means the same thing. Messiah and Christ both mean “the anointed One, the promised One.” Here’s Simeon, he’s waiting for the first advent, the Holy Spirit. He’s getting old now, but the Holy Spirit told him that he would see the Messiah before he dies.

If we continue in the story, he’d been going to the temple, every day, looking for the Messiah. The Holy Spirit told him that he would see the Lord’s Christ. Here He comes, on the eighth day after his birth, which was according to the law of Moses that a firstborn son was to be brought to the temple to be circumcised on the eighth day. Here comes young Mary and her husband Joseph; they come, bringing their first born.

If you’re a parent, you know how you were with your firstborn, right? You remember, when you first had to check them in the nursery the first time. You didn’t want to do it; some of you still won’t do it. I’m That’s how it feels with the firstborn. Then, after you have the third one, you just throw them in there. You know what I’m talking about; you’re so careful with that first one.

Here comes Mary, Joseph and newborn Jesus; it’s the eighth day. Old Simeon comes up to them and says, ‘give me that baby.’ Can you see Mary? Simeon takes baby Jesus, lifts Him up in the air and says, Luke 2:29-32 (ESV) 29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Simeon prophesied over the newborn Jesus.

Joseph and Mary are marveling at this; it’s not just the shepherds that came. It’s not just angel Gabriel. We’re getting blessings from so many people. They’re marveling and then Simeon blessed them. Simeon said to Mary, His mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” This baby will be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Simeon foresaw that this Messiah would fulfill. not just part of the Old Testament, but even the part that He would be a sacrifice for our sins.

Old Simeon was waiting for the first advent, but we’ve already received it. It’s already happened. Our hope is anchored there and now we can look far, with hope, with just as much assurance, knowing that what He has done, He will do again. That’s advent; He will appear again.

Do you have this blessed hope? Today, it begins by making a decision to receive Jesus yourself, to receive Him and say, ‘I want You to be Lord of my life. I’m a sinner. I need a Savior. I believe that You died on the cross for my sins. That You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe the facts of the Gospel. Come into my life. I surrender my life to You.’ Have you done that? That’s how hope begins. That’s how it’s anchored; it’s anchored in the person of Jesus. This is the first reason we can have this blessed hope in Christ, because it is anchored in the grace of salvation.

WHY THE HOPE WE HAVE IN CHRIST IS A BLESSED HOPE:

2. Because it is being trained in godly living.

This blessed hope is being trained in godly living. We’re now in the present tense. If you’ll notice these verses, Paul begins in the past tense. He moves into the present and then into the future, but now, we’re at the present, in this present age. We’re at verse 12 now; he says, “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,” There’s some stuff to say, “no,” to and there’s some stuff to say, “yes,” to. To live self-controlled, upright and Godly lives when in the present age. This is present tense hope. This is how to live in hope right now in the present age. What unusual language. It’s as if this present age is something that will have a beginning, a middle and an end, because it will.

I wonder where we are in this present age? The present age is now 2000 years old. Where are we? Are we at the beginning? No, the beginning of the present age took place at the first advent and here we are, 2000 years later. Are we in the middle of the present age? I don’t think so. I think we’re well past the middle, even as we watch the news and see all the activity in the Middle East, we have to remember that, for most of those 2000 years, there was no state of Israel from 70 A.D. until 1947. There was no Israel. There needs to be an Israel for the prophecies concerning His second coming to come to pass. There’s been an Israel ever since 1947. The world wants Israel to disappear, but it keeps on being here.

We don’t live at the beginning of the age. That’s when the first advent was. I don’t think that we live in the middle of the age. This present age is coming (tik, tok, tik, tok) near the end. The end is when He’s coming again. Do you understand that the time is short? This present age is an age where we, first of all , should renounce or say, “no” to ungodliness.

Jesus could come today, so I need to get my house in order. Some of you are in my small group and last week it was at my house. It was at my house last week. My wife and I cleaned up. It was cold in the middle of the week, so I put logs in the fireplace and had newspaper under the logs to get it ready to light. I got the coffee ready to brew, so all that we had to do was push the button to make coffee. We had all of our lights on. We had the place decorated for Christmas because company was coming. We knew exactly what time they were coming or what time they were supposed to come. We were looking out the window, I heard a car door shut. I had better open the front door. That’s what you do when you expect guests; you make preparations.

Paul says, ‘in the present hope to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. Temporary stuff that will give you hope for a moment, but it just wears out.’ It loses that “new car smell” almost immediately. Stop worrying about that stuff and, instead, start waiting and living as if Jesus could show up today. That’s what it means to live “actively waiting with hope” in the present age.

How do we do this? One way is to get your thinking right. You say, “no,” to “stinking thinking” and put on a new way of thinking, a sober minded way of thinking, looking forward.

It says in 1 Peter 1:13 (ESV) “Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” What if He knocks at the door today? Lord Jesus, is this the day that You’re coming back? But, we’re so busy. We get up in the morning and tend to pray, ‘Lord, I have this, this and this to do today. Can You help me with these things that I have planned for myself?’ We give Him our “laundry list.” ‘Could you clean this? Wash that and make sure to not put colors with the whites.’ We’re very detailed about what we want, what we plan and what we need. It’s all worldly and it will all pass away. Oh, it’s important, but I’m sure you’ll forget about it tomorrow. You’ll have a “new list” tomorrow, but Jesus is coming again. He’s coming again. He’s coming again and this present age will soon be gone, so renounce the things that are temporary to this world. Put them on “the back burner” for a while and say, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do today? I’m hoping for You. My hope is in Your soon return.’

It says in the book of Romans that we need the Holy Spirit to help us with this. Romans 15:13 (ESV) “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” One of the marks that you’re walking in the Spirit, that you’re living for Jesus, is that you have so much hope. You’re overflowing it onto other people, so that hopeless people get hope. They just want to follow you around and get some hope because you have a fountain of hope flowing out of you in this present age, because you know He has come and He is coming again.

Through the years, we’ve taken several mission trips to places around the world. This coming year, we’re planning to take our fifth or sixth church trip to Uganda. Some of you have already attended the informational meeting and others may still show some interest in our upcoming trip. Because some of us have been to Uganda, we know what to expect and we also know that there’s some preparations in the present. We need to go ahead and make sure that we get our passport because you have to have a passport to travel to Uganda or out of the country, right? So that takes a little time. You can’t wait until the last minute to get your passport. You can’t just get to the airport and say, ‘Oh, I forgot to get my passport.’ They won’t let you get on the plane. You will need to get your shots. I hate to tell you this, but if you go into a third world country, you will need some shots. There’s a place in Raleigh where we send people; they’re experts with international trips and know which shots you will need. You will need shots for dengue fever, yellow fever and others. There’s a whole list of shots. You line up and they hit you in both arms; you must get them. You must raise funds, pray, plan and prepare. You must pack. All this stuff has to happen in the present because hopefully you’re going, but in the present you have to actively prepare.

Hope prepares in the present age. You will need a “passport” to get to heaven; it just says “Jesus” on the front. I’ve got a blue passport that says “United States of America ” on it. Open the passport up and there’s a picture of me and other stuff that says I’m a citizen of the United States, but I’ve got a better passport. It’s a passport for heaven because I’m a member of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Are you a member of the Kingdom of Heaven? You need a passport. You need to pack and get ready. You need to be prepared. We’re going to say “no” to some stuff and “yes” to some stuff in this present age.

WHY THE HOPE WE HAVE IN CHRIST IS A BLESSED HOPE:

3. Because it anticipates the glory of Christ’s return.

It anticipates the glory of Christ’s return. Now, this is a future hope. We’ve talked about the past hope. We’ve talked about the present hope. Now, this is a future hope that’s waiting for the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We are in verses 13 and 14, 13 “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” He’s not only our Savior,He’s our God. Make no mistake. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He’s coming again. He gave Himself for us. It says that He purchased us with His own life. He did that back here and that is the same Jesus who’s appearing to is in the future.

He will come, this time, not as one Who was born amidst those humble means, not as one Who walked upon this earth and got His feet dusty in those sandals, walking the via Dolorosa in Jerusalem. No, He will come as the glorious shining one, Who, when John saw Him in the book of Revelation, fell out like a dead man when he saw Him, He was so glorious. This is the one Who’s coming again. He won’t be coming in a stable. He won’t be coming to Bethlehem. He’ll be coming through the eastern gate of the city of Jerusalem. The Muslims, presently, have it bricked up, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I don’t think it’s going to be a problem for Him to pass through the Eastern Gate.

He’s coming again and when He comes again, He comes to redeem us from lawlessness. He’s already paid the price. He’s already paid online and He’s waiting for delivery. Delivery of what? Where do you see that, Gary? It is in verse 14, he wants “to purify for himself a people for his own possession.”

Why did He die for you? Love motivated Him. What was His reason? He wanted you. He wanted you . What does God need? He doesn’t need anything. What does He want? He wants you. He wants you for His own possession. He wants you as part of His family. He’s coming back again to take those that He has already bought and paid for. He’s coming for “pick up.” He’s already paid; He has the receipt. He’s coming for pickup. He’s coming again.

He’s coming soon and He’s coming to redeem us from our sinful lives, purify us and get us ready for heaven. He wants us to be those people that are zealous and on fire for good works. In other words, He’s restoring our original purpose that God always had for humanity, that we would be the “Imago Dei,” the image of God, spreading His glory.

When we see Him, when we see the Glorious One, we become reflections of His glory. We become His glorious ones as his possession. That’s what we look forward to. That’s what advent is about.

There’s something that God does to expectant mothers. I don’t know how He does it. I’s some kind of “mother amnesia” that for nine months, she labors and she awaits, with hope and expectancy, for a child. Then, that last bit of labor is the most urgent and the most suffering, but, as soon as the child appears, (and I’ve been there three times with my wife) she goes from groaning to smiling and tears of joy when she sees the child’s face. She immediately gets amnesia about what she went through, because compared to the glory, the weight of the glory is so much greater than the suffering that it fades away.

That’s what Paul was writing about in Romans 8:18-25 (ESV) 18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us… 23…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.”

In this hope, we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But, if we hope, we hope for what we do not see and we wait for it with patience like an expectant mom. We’re in the present age right now and there’s suffering, there’s groaning and there’s trouble, but there’s a day coming where that glory will cause us to forget all of those things, as we see the risen Savior in His glorious appearing.

Do you have this hope? Hope that’s anchored in His past works of salvation? Hope that trains us in the present to take our eyes off of temporary things and to put them on eternal things? Hope that looks forward to His glorious appearing? This is advent, advent means hope.

Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, our hope is in You. Our hope is in You. I pray for the person here, today, that is listening right now. Maybe you’re in this room, the next room or watching online , but right here, right now, would you decide to anchor your hope in Jesus? You can do it right now In prayer. You can make a decision, right now, to follow Him. Pray with me. Make a decision right now. ‘Dear Lord Jesus, I’m a sinner. I need a Savior. I believe that You died on the cross for my sins. I believe that You were raised again on the third day. I believe that You’re alive today. I invite You to come and live in me and forgive me of my sins. Give me that living hope. I want You as my Savior and my Lord. I commit to follow You for the rest of my life. Thank You for saving me.’ If you’re praying that prayer of faith, believing, He will do that very thing. You’ve asked. That’s why He came. Other are here today and you have received Jesus. You’re a Christ follower, but you’ve been feeling hopeless. Maybe, it’s because the season reminds you of someone you’ve lost. Maybe there’s an empty seat at the table. Maybe there’s something else going on in your life. There’s suffering, there’s trouble and you’ve lost hope right now. Would you pray with me and put your hope back where it belongs? ‘Dear Lord Jesus, we believe, we know that we’re Your possession. We know that You’re coming again. Forgive us for taking our eyes off of You. You are our blessed hope. You are our living hope.’ I pray now for that one who is missing a loved one this season that they would be comforted by this hope and I pray for that one who’s experiencing trial and difficulty that they would know that it is temporary and to have their hope in You, that You will meet their needs. Lord, we thank You that we have this hope. Forgive us for taking our eyes off of You. We pray it now in Jesus’ name. Amen.