Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog, page 42

"Waiting for the Messiah to Come" Christmas Eve Message 2019

Waiting for the Messiah to Come
Christmas Eve Candlelighting Service
December 24, 2019

Advent means “coming.” Christmas is coming...tomorrow!

Jesus has come and is coming again.

We say that every year, don’t we?

And with good reason. Because that’s what the Advent season is all about, focusing on the coming of the Christ.

“Waiting for the Messiah to Come.”

That’s the whole point of Advent.

This year has been very special because we’ve been focusing on the similarities between the two comings of the Christ.

The first coming and the second coming.

Not only are they the two comings of the same Christ, but the waiting for both comings is also very similar.

If you have your Bible, do something for me. Or grab one of the Pew Bibles in the rack in front of you. And find the Gospel of Matthew. That’s the first book of the New Testament. It’s the one we’ve been studying as a church for the last two years on Sunday mornings. We’ll be back at it this Sunday at 10am, and we’d love to have you join us.

What I want you to do is to pinch the Old Testament with your left hand.

Put your index finger on the outside of your Bible or at Genesis 1 and put your thumb at Matthew chapter 1.

Feel that?

That’s a whole lot of waiting for the Messiah to come.

Everything in your left hand is under the shadow of waiting for the Messiah to arrive on the scene for the very first time.

Now with your right hand, I want you to pinch the New Testament from Acts to the Revelation. So find Acts with your thumb and put your right index finger on the back of your Bible.

Except for the four gospels between your thumbs there, just about everything in your Bible pulsates with anticipation of one or the other of the comings of Jesus Christ.

And that’s how we’re living today.

Let’s think about how the left hand believers waited and how we as right hand believers should we waiting today ourselves.

On the First Sunday of Advent, Abe & Jordyn lit our first candle, and said that it was a Candle of Confidence.

Faithful believers have always fully trusted in God's promise of a Messiah.

The Old Testament there in your left hand overflows with strong and mysterious promises of a ruler who will come to rescue his people. And throughout the centuries his people waited with full assurance that he would come and bring each promise to fulfillment.

When Jesus met the woman at the well, she declared her confidence.

She said, "I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” And Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."

But His first coming was not His last.

Jesus has told us that He is coming again. So now like the men and women of old, we wait with confidence in His promises which are certain and sure.

We’ve been reading about that on Sunday mornings in Matthew 24 and 25. When He prophesied of His return, our Lord Jesus assured us, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."

Do you have confidence that Jesus is coming back?

Because sometimes it doesn’t seem like it. I mean, it’s been 2000 years since He ascended to the Father.

On the Second Sunday of Advent, Bob & Sylvia lit our second candle and said that it was a Candle of Patience.

Though God's people had confidence in God's promises, their confidence was often tried and tested. They had to wait a long long time for the Messiah to arrive!

Think about your Old Testament. All of those pages in your left hand.

Centuries passed. Kings came, and kings went away. Some kings brought some rescue, but all kings disappointed in many ways. For thousands of years, the Messiah did not come. And yet the people of God waited patiently.

The psalmist expressed this heart of patience in Psalm 130.

He said: “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”

And that patience was rewarded. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem. And He brought redemption through His blood.

And yet now we are called again to wait patiently for His return. Many centuries have passed once more. We wait in anticipation like watchmen for the morning for the return of Christ. We know that He is coming, but we do not know when.

Do you know when?

No. So we wait, and we wait some more.

Are you waiting patiently for the coming of the Messiah?

Now, don’t get me wrong.

“Patient” does not mean “passive.”

The waiting that we are supposed to do is a very active waiting.

On the third Sunday of Advent, two friends Amy and Renee lit our third candle and called it a Candle of Diligence.

Hard work. The very opposite of passiveness.

The waiting that we are supposed to do is a very active waiting.

It was for the lefthand believers, wasn’t it?

While they waited for the Messiah in the Old Testament, God's people did not sit idle. Prophets, priests, kings, and ordinary kingdom citizens continued to faithfully do the Lord's will and work.

The lefthand side of your Bible is full of purposeful activity!

Waiting in anticipation of the Messiah is never an excuse for laziness but instead a motivation for persevering in hard work. That’s what we’ve seen the last two Sundays in Jesus’ teaching about His return.

He said to stay busy:

Matthew 24:45&46, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.”

What do you want to be doing when Jesus comes back?

I don’t know about you, but I want to be busy doing what He left for me to do.

So while we wait, we work.

While we wait, we work.

What kingdom work are you doing with diligence while you wait for the Messiah to come?

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, the Kristofiti (that’s the plural of Kristofits, the Kristofi) lit our fourth candle, and told us that it was a Candle of Exuberance.

Which is just a fancy word for “joy.”

The people in your left hand, in the Old Testament always believed that the coming of the Messiah would usher in incredible joy.

Here’s one of my favorite verses in the whole Old Testament.

It’s from Isaiah 51. I’m going to be focusing on the Book of Isaiah in my devotions in 2020.

Listen to this. Isaiah 51:11

“The ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Doesn’t that sound good?

“Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

And so it was. On that first Christmas, what did the army of angels announce to the shepherds?

“Good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

Good news of great joy.

Do you have that?

Yes, we do. But there is more to come.

This is not all of the joy that there is.

Believe me!

The apostle Peter said, “Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

There is so much more to come.

One day “sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

There will be no more sorrow or sighing.

Can you imagine?

Christmas is hard time of year for many people. Because we feel the loss of so many of our loved ones.

Who is not at your Christmas table this year?

Who is not at your Christmas gathering?

Who is not here at church with you this year who always used to be?

That’s sorrow and sighing.

But when the Messiah comes again, gladness and joy will overtake His people, and “sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

Everlasting joy will crown our heads!

Joy to the world because the Lord is come!

How do you respond to that except to pray for and long for Jesus to come?!

Our last candle is the Christ Candle, and it’s a candle of expectance.

Confidence.
Patience.
Diligence.
Exuberance.

And expectance.

And by that, tonight, I mean longing.

Do you long for the coming of the Messiah?

Do you long for the return of Christ?

Do you long for Jesus to appear?

Because it’s all about Him.

Jesus is not only the reason for the season.

He’s also the focus of our expectation.

Hebrews 9:27&28 says, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people [That’s the gospel!]; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin [this time], but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.”

Are you waiting for Him?

With confidence, patience, diligence, and exuberance?

At the end of his life, the Apostle Paul said, “[T]he time has come for my departure.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day–and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Are you longing for Jesus’ appearing?

I think we often can’t wait for Christmas to come, but we are indifferent to the second coming of Christ which is so much more important!

If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you will long for Him to come and bring His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

We don’t know when it’s going to be.

So we trust.
And we wait. And we wait some more.
And we work while we wait.
And we believe.

But we also long for that joy to come in all of its fullness.

And we long for our Savior to come and rescue us from all evil.

And we even pray for it.

Do you know what is the last prayer in the whole Bible?

If you still have your right hand pinching the New Testament, look the last page by your right index finger.

Second to last verse of the Bible. Last prayer. What does it say?

“He who testifies to these things [Jesus] says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ [And here’s the prayer:] Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

That’s our prayer. “Come, Lord Jesus, come.”

“The Wonder Of It All” [Matt's Messages]

“The Wonder Of It All”
December 22, 2019
2 Corinthians 9:15

Just for a second, imagine being Mary that night after Jesus was born.

Skip past giving birth. Some of you know what that is like. Many of us will never know.

But imagine being there after giving birth.

And knowing yourself that it was a great miracle. Because you are a virgin. And a angel told you all of this was going to happen.

And you’ve swaddled the baby boy in cloths and placed Him in a manger because there was no room for you in the inn.

And then these shepherds show up with an astonishing story about a skyfull of terrifying angels singing gloria in exclesis deo, “Glory to God in the highest.” And then they’ve sought ought you and your little boy. And then after finding you both, they run out into the countryside to spread the amazing word of what they had been told about this little child.

Imagine being Mary.

What does she do then? After all that?

What do you do when all of that has been thrust upon you?

You wonder at it, don’t you?

Luke chapter 2, verse 19 says that “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

She pondered them in her heart.

She turned them over and over again and considered them and wondered what did they mean.

There is a popular Christmas song called, “Mary, Did You Know?” and basically the answer to that question is “Yes.” She did know.

The angel told her.
She heard it with her own ears.

And if you read her song, traditionally called The Magnificat, you can tell that she did know what was happening to her. She predicted it a lot of it herself. She was a true prophet and an amazing theologian.

Mary did know.

But she pondered.

She turned these things over and over and over again in her mind and heart.

Because who could know what was going to happen?

Not really. Even if you did know intellectually, how could you understand what you did know? How could you comprehend this story?

Because nothing like this had ever happened before or would ever happen ever again!

It was totally unique and strange and fantastic and marvelous and...wonderful.

O the Wonder of It All!

Just like Mary we need to take some time and ponder these things in our hearts.

That’s one of the benefits of holding a holiday of Christmas.

Just stopping and thinking about the wonder of the incarnation.

Have you taken time yet to stop...and to ponder this season what has happened that God became Man?

I think that’s what the Apostle Paul did when he erupted in praise in 2 Corinthians 9:15. He pulls “a Mary” and ponders just how amazing is the gift of Jesus Christ.

In the context of this letter, Paul is writing to encourage the believers at Corinth to participate in a missions love offering that was intended to go to aid the poor and suffering believers in Jerusalem.

They were taking up an offering and sending the money with the missionaries to help those other Christians in need.

And Paul was sure that they were going to participate, and he gave them some good reasons for it.

The biggest reason? God had been so gracious to them. They should be gracious to others.

God had been generous to them. They should be generous with others.

You know how just about every week, the guy who prays for the offering here says something like, “In this offering, Lord, we’re giving back just a small portion of what you’ve given to us.”

And that’s exactly right. Because God has been so good to us, we can be so generous to others.

That’s one of the reasons why we give gifts to each other at Christmas. To remind each other of the greatest gift that was every given to us.

And that’s where Paul goes with this last verse of chapter 9.

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

The key word is...“indescribable.”

Which I looked up in the dictionary, and it means, “You can’t describe it.”

Which does not mean that we shouldn’t try. There are words to describe God’s gift, but there aren’t enough words to do it justice. Does that make sense?

The King James Version has “unspeakable gift.” Which might give you the idea that it’s forbidden to talk about this gift. Speak not of this gift!

And that’s clearly not what Paul means.

But the King James also might give you the idea that there just aren’t words to use.

It’s unspeakably good.

The ESV, the English Standard Version says, “inexpressible” gift.

You almost get the idea from the ESV that you not only run out of words to describe this gift, but you run out of words all together.

Have you ever been left speechless at a gift?

A few years ago, I bought Heather a plane ticket to got Europe and visit her sister.

And she had no idea it was coming.

And on Christmas, when she opened up the gift, she just started crying and shaking her head.

My kids were worried there was bad news in that envelope!

“What is it?”

And she still couldn’t say.

Because it was just so good.

I’ll probably never top that one. And I probably shouldn’t try.

The Wonder Of It All!

Just think about this gift of Jesus Christ.

By the way, can gift be a Person?

We got a great gift on Tuesday when we went to the Pittsburgh Airport, and there was Robin Joy Mitchell!

Certainly a person can be a gift.

And the greatest gift ever is the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Now, don’t miss those two alternatives at the end of that verse.

“Perish” or have “eternal life.”

Those are the two opposite realities hanging over every single human being.

And the default destination is perishing.

That’s where we are all headed unless something diverts our path.

Thankfully, God’s indescribable gift is just such a thing to divert our paths.

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...”

And He didn’t just give Him to walk with us but to die for us.

A new friend of mine said on social media this week, “Our treason is the reason for the season” (Tim M. Shorey).

Jesus came because we were hellbent on our rebellion and needing a Savior.

And so He came.
And so He lived.
And so He died.
And so He lived again!
And so He ascended.
And so He is coming again.

Because the Father gave Him.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The Wonder Of It All!

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

The New Living Translation paraphrases our verse, “Thank God for his Son–a gift too wonderful for words!”

Does God’s gift leave you speechless?

If it doesn’t, why not?

I know that we talk about it all of the time.

One of the downsides of having a holiday every single year is that we can kind of get this on repeat like a broken record, just looping the same recycled thoughts every year.

Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, Manger, Wisemen.
Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, Manger, Wisemen.
Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, Manger, Wisemen.

But this is incredible stuff.

Don’t let it get “old hat” with you.

What do you need to do to cultivate a sense of wonder over God’s indescribable gift?

O, the wonder of it all.

On Wednesday night, I asked the kids what do you do when someone hands you an awesome gift? There are two main things.

The first is to receive it.

To take that gift and make it yours.

Have you done that with God’s indescribable gift?

The Bible says that not every does.

It says, Jesus “was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. [Jesus] came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him [who received the indescribable gift!], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God...” (John 1:11-12).

Have you done that?

If you have, what’s the second you do after you receive a truly great gift?

You say “Thank you.”

Which is what the Apostle Paul was saying in 2 Corinthians 9:15.

Thanks be to God...
Thanks be to God...
Thanks be to God...

"...for his indescribable gift!”

Fourth Sunday of Advent: A Candle of Exuberance

LEFC Family Advent Readings: Waiting for the Messiah to Come
Isaiah 51:11, Luke 2:10, 1 Peter 1:8-9 :: December 22, 2019
Week #4: Exuberance


“Advent” means “coming.” Christmas is coming. Jesus has come and is coming again.

During this year’s Advent season, we are pondering on how faithful believers have always waited for the Messiah and how we should anticipate His coming today.
           
[LIGHT FIRST CANDLE AGAIN.]

Our first candle was a candle of confidence. God’s people throughout the ages have always been able to fully trust in the coming of the Messiah because God’s faithful promises will never pass away.

[LIGHT SECOND CANDLE AGAIN.]

Our second candle was a candle of patience. God’s people have had to wait a long long time for the Messiah to arrive. Like watchmen waiting for the morning, they have patiently scanned the horizon.

[LIGHT THIRD CANDLE AGAIN.]

Our third candle was a candle of diligence. While they waited for the Messiah, God’s people have never sat idle. We work while we wait, staying busy until the Master returns.

[LIGHT FOURTH CANDLE.]

Our fourth candle is a candle of exuberance.

God’s people have always believed that the coming of the Messiah would usher in incredible joy. The prophet Isaiah predicted that on that day:

[READ ISAIAH 51:11.]

And so it was. When Jesus was born, the angels announced “good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” And that joy remains with us today even while wait for the greatest consummation of that joy still to come.

The apostle Peter says, “Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

May we be filled with exuberant joy while we wait for everlasting joy to crown our heads.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

"Well Done!" [Matt's Messages]

“Well Done!”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
December 15, 2019 :: Matthew 25:14-30

For the last 4 messages in our “Following Jesus” series through the Gospel of Matthew, we’ve been studying what Jesus taught about His own return. Matthew 24 and 25 is often called the Olivet Discourse because it was given on the Mount of Olives, and it’s also called the Eschatological Teaching, because Jesus is teaching here on the doctrine of Last Things, on the End of the World, and on His return.

After Jesus predicted the desolation of the temple, his disciples asked Him, “When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

And so Jesus launched into this eschatological teaching. I won’t try to reconstruct it all for you this morning. If you are interested in all of the details, you should go back and read the sermons on my blog or re-listen to the recordings.

Marilynn puts them all up on our church website and also makes CDs of them back there at the bulletin board. I think I saw 2 copies of each of the last 4 messages that you could play in your car, but don’t fall asleep while driving!

It’s okay to fall asleep in the pew while I’m preaching, but don’t do it when I’m preaching in your car!

I won’t give all of the details again, but I do want to emphasize again what Jesus emphasizes again and again, and that is that you and I don’t know when Jesus is coming back.

When is Jesus coming back?

We don’t know!

Why then do we keep acting like we do?

Last week, we saw that Jesus said that He might come back sooner than we expect.

We have to be ready. We have to “keep watch.”

Jesus said in chapter 24, verse 42, “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” In verse 44 of that same chapter, He said, “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

And He gave multiple illustrations of that concept. He said that He would come unexpectedly like a thief in the night. It could be sooner than you expect, so be ready.

It might be today.

But we also saw that He also said that He might come back later than we expect.

Remember the foolish virgins with their lamps but no oil?

They had all of that time, but they still were not ready for the bridegroom. They were not prepared and so they did not get to enjoy the wedding feast.

And what they weren’t prepared for was a long wait.

We don’t know when Jesus is coming back.

Do you know when Jesus is coming back?

Soon! Yes! But on God’s definition of “soon.” And it’s already been 2,000 years.

Jesus said in chapter 24 verse 36 that not even the angels in heaven know when He is coming back.

And He even said in that very same sentence that at that time He didn’t know when He would return.“Only the Father.”

We don’t know.

So, right now, we’re learning how to wait.

We’re learning to be ready.

We’re learning how to be watchful.

And it turns out that being watchful is a potent mix of constant expectancy and constant longanimity. [That’s a fancy word for “patience.”]

Expectancy and patience.

Patience and expectancy.

Constant expectancy and constant longanimity.

And, we’re going to find out today: constant industry.

Busyness, industriousness, the word in our Advent reading today was diligence.

Not just vigilance but diligence.

Or because of vigilance we practice diligence. Industry.

Because you see, there are different kinds of waiting, aren’t there?

The watching and waiting that we are supposed to do right now before the return of Christ is not at all passive.

While we are waiting for the return of Christ, we are not supposed to just lean back and lay around. It’s not that kind of waiting.

It’s not like waiting at the bus stop or the airport terminal. Where nothing’s happening. You just sitting there until your ride comes.

Some people in the Bible were like that. Some of the men at Thessalonika had quit their jobs and were just waiting around because they thought the return of Christ was right around the corner.

In 19th century America, some people thought they knew the day and the hour of Christ’s return, and they gave away their possessions and just waited around to be taken. “Beam me up, Lord Jesus!”

And then it didn’t happen like they expected, and they didn’t have anything left. How disorienting would that be?

What did Paul tell those men at Thessalonika? Get a job!

Get to work.

This “being ready” or “keeping watch” is not a passive thing like watching paint dry; it’s an active thing.

There are things to be doing while we are waiting.

We saw that last week with Jesus’ parable about the wise and the foolish servant at the end of chapter 24.

And now in the middle of chapter 25, Jesus tells another parable with a very similar set of characters and a very similar point, but He takes it much further.

And He puts these wonderful words into the mouth of the master when He returns and rewards His good and faithful servant:

He says, “Well Done!”

“You have waited well.

You have kept watch the right way.

You have stayed ready for my return.

Well done!”

I don’t know about you, but I long to hear that said to me.

And I long to hear it said for all those I pastor.

“Well done!”

Let’s start in verse 13. It goes with the preceding parable, but it’s ringing in the disciples’ ears when He launches right into this one.

And He’s just emphasizing His main point once again. V.13

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

Do you know when Jesus is coming back?

No. You do not.

It might be sooner than you expect.

And it might be later than you expect.

So you have to keep watch.

And while we watch, we work. V.14

“Again, it [the kingdom of heaven] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.”

Now that word “talent,” in the 1984 NIV and the 1611 KJV can be a little confusing for us because it doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

A “talent” in those days was a weight of valuable metal. It was the basic amount of metal a soldier could carry on his back. It was about 70 to 100 pounds of precious metal such as silver or gold.

So it was a sum of money. We actually get our word and idea of “talent” from this story here, so that our natural gifts and “talents” are abilities that we have been entrusted with by God.

And that’s a good application of this parable, but in the story, it’s a sum of money.

In fact, it’s a large sum of money. All three of these are.

A talent was roughly equivalent to 6,000 days of wages for a day-laborer.

So 16 to 20 years of wages.

How much money will you make in 6,000 work days?

Let’s say you make $35,000 a year.

If you worked every single day of the year, that’s about $95 a day.

$95 times 6,000 is $570,000. That’s one talent, give or take.

I think the 2011 NIV just says, “bags of gold.” That’s actually more like it.

So this guy is going away, and he’s doling out his fortune and entrusting it to his servants.

It doesn’t take a genius to realize who everybody is in this parable.

The master is?  Jesus.

The servants are?  His disciples. Or at least His supposed disciples.

Us. The servants are us. V.15

“To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey.”

Now, here’s point number one of three, marching towards hearing, “Well Done!”

#1. WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN RESPONSIBILITY.

You and I have been entrusted with great responsibility while we wait for the return of Christ.

What do you think these bags of gold stand for in this parable?

They are obviously important, because the story turns on them.

What are these bags of gold?

I think they are all of the resources and responsibilities that the Lord has entrusted into our care while we wait expectantly and patiently for His return.

So it is our talents.

It is our gifts.

And it’s also our money.

Whatever we have been given, large numbers or small.

And it’s also our opportunities. We all have different opportunities.

And it’s our callings and our work. I preached this exact parable four years ago when I was preaching on our work as our worship unto the Lord.

It’s also our privileges.

Do you know how privileged you are?

Every privilege is also a responsibility.

Every blessing is also a stewardship.

It’s everything we know. Our knowledge.

It’s our health. It’s our energy. It’s our lives.

We have been given these things in trust.

They are not our own. They are the Lord’s.

Because we are the Lord’s!

And it’s the Great Commission, too.

It’s everything that our Master has entrusted to us to take care of while He’s away.

What has He entrusted to you?

What’s in your garage? What’s in your bank account? What’s in your house? What’s in your pocket? What’s in your brain? What’s in your hands?

What has He entrusted to you?

Now, notice that the servants don’t all get the same responsibility.

They get different responsibilities based on what the Master determines is their abilities. So we shouldn’t worry about other people’s responsibilities.

We shouldn’t worry about what’s in other people’s hands.

We should just be concerned with what’s in ours.

And remember even just one bag of gold is a major responsibility!

What has He entrusted to you?

Because in this story, we’re supposed to do something with what we’re given.

While we wait, we work. V.16

“The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.”

Uh oh. You can tell that’s not going to end well.

But the first two do really well.

They put the money to work. That is probably they enter into business. They buy and sell. Perhaps real estate. Maybe commodities. They buy something, fix it up and then resell it for a profit. They don’t just invest it. They work it.

The point is that they put the money to work. They discharge their responsibilities.

They do something with what they were entrusted with.

What are you doing with what you are entrusted with?

It’s not yours.

It’s on loan.

What are you doing with it?

Are you investing it for the Kingdom?

For example, our Celebration Choir has the same number of Thursdays as all of the rest of us, but they have invested the last dozen or so to practicing for their ministry of music next Sunday.

What have you been given? And what are you doing with it for Jesus’ sake?

You guys filled 114 shoeboxes. You put together 30 gifts for 15 children in our community.

What are you doing with what you have been given?

What are you doing with what you have been given?

Elementary kids. What do you have?

What talents do you have?

Are you good at sports, at music, at art, at writing, at making things, at fixing things, and running things, at leading things?

Are you investing all of that for Jesus?

We have been given great responsibility.

Do you feel that?

Do you know how blessed you are?

Those blessings, every one of them, are bags of gold.

... The last couple of weeks, we’ve emphasized the question, “What do you want to be found doing when the Lord returns?” Because you don’t know when that’s going to be.

This story asks the question, “When Jesus returns, what will you be found doing with what you have been given?”

Because there will be an accounting.

#2. WE WILL GIVE AN ACCOUNT.

In this story, it happens in verse 19.

“After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them.”

Now, don’t miss those first four words, “After a long time...”

Notice again that Jesus left open the chance that His return may seem delayed to us.

Just like the bridegroom in the last story, this guy takes longer than you might expect.

Remember, Jesus Himself did not know when He was telling this story how long He was going to be away!

He knew so much, but He didn’t know that.

And so He prepared His disciples for Him to be gone potentially a long time.

But He will sure return, and when He does, there will be a reckoning.

We will all have to give an account.

The Master will ask, “What did you do with what I left in your hands?

How did you invest your life? Your gifts and your assignments?”

“Did you stay busy and active for the kingdom while I was away?”

"What did you with the kids I gave you?”
“What did you do with the spouse I gave you?”
“What did you do with the friends gave you?”
“What did you do with the free time I gave you?”
“What did you do with the education I put in your hands?”
“What did you do with the church I placed in your hands?”
“What did you do with the freedoms I gave you?”
“What did you do with the jobs I placed in your hands?”
“What did you do with your retirement?”
“What did you do with role in your community?”

“What did you do with what I left in your hands?”

We will give an account. V.20

“The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.' [A 100% return on his investment. That’s great. And look at what the Lord says to Him. This awesome. V.21] His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.' [Another 100% return on his investment.] His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'”

This is point number three.

 #3. WE WILL BE GIVEN A REWARD.

We have been given a responsibility.
We will have to give an account.
And if we have been faithful, we will be given a reward.

Look more closely at the Master’s words and soak them up.

Notice that the Master says the same thing to both faithful servants.

It doesn’t matter how much they were given. It just matters that they did something with it while it was in their hands.

Again, don’t get caught up in looking at other people’s bags of gold.

Jesus will say the same thing to all of His faithful followers whether you are a big name Christian or a no-name Christian.

V.21 “His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'”

First, the well done.

The attaboy.

That’s reward all by itself, isn’t it?

I love it when someone says to me, “Good job.”

It happened to me a number of times this week, and I can name all of them, and so I’m just lifted up today.

But all of those “good jobs” that people have said to me will fade, and I’ll be looking for another one.

And if I live for other people’s approval, I can be controlled by them.

But if I am living for this, “Well done!” then I will be controlled by this Master.

And that’s what counts!

And His “Well done!” will never fade!!!

Imagine that.

Are you living for that “Well done!” ?

I think so often we live for someone’s else approbation.

We live for someone else’s praise. Including our own praise of our own selves.

But while wait, we should work for the praise of this One.

But these two receive more than just His praise.

They receive more responsibility. V.21 again.

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”

That’s something, isn’t it?

This tells us something more about eschatology.

This tells us something more about what the kingdom will be like.

What it will be like in the new heavens and the new earth.

In eternity, we will not have less responsibility, but more responsibility.

There will be more work to do in the kingdom!

Now, it will be work with no curse, so it will be wonderful. Imagine work with no curse to put frustrating friction on what we can achieve.

But we won’t be just sitting around for ever, either.

Heaven will not be boring!

Anything but.

Part of our reward is more responsibility.

Are you living for that?

Are you being faithful right now so that you can be given more to do when the kingdom comes?

“You have been faithful with a few things [how every many I gave you]; I will put you in charge of many things. [And then the biggest reward:] Come and share your master's happiness!'”

He said the same thing to the second servant, “Come and share your master’s happiness.”

That sounds unimaginably good.

I don’t know how much joy the master in this story had.

But I do know that Jesus has limitless joy.

The kingdom is party.

It’s like the last story, of being invited into in the wedding feast.

The greatest party ever.

And we who are faithful get to enjoy His joy!

What a reward!

Are you living for that reward?

This gives us something to live for by God’s grace.

Notice how much grace is here. They are given these bags of gold and then they are given the master’s reward. This is all of grace and not legalism.

But grace is not opposed to effort.

Grace is opposed to earning, not effort.

Grace empowers effort.

So we who have been given much grace are empowered to give much effort.

So that we will see much reward.

Are you living for that reward?

Are you living for Jesus’ “Well done.” ?
Are you living for Jesus’ “Here’s more to do.”
Are you living for sharing in Jesus’ joy?

If you are, then you can expect a reward.

But if you are not, woe to you.

Because the opposite is also true. V.24

“Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'”

He seems mad at the master, doesn’t he?

“Why did you give me this job?

I don’t love you or trust you. I’m just sacred of you. So I disobeyed you.

Here’s your stuff back. I didn’t do what you asked.”

Jesus’ stories often have crazy endings, don’t they?

This servant doesn’t obey in the slightest.

He doesn’t know the Master’s heart.

He views the Master as a “vicious tyrant” (phrase from Grant Osborne).

He views the Master as harsh and unfair.

And so he rationalizes his disobedience away. He refuses responsibility.

And he does absolutely nothing.

Do not sympathize with this man in this story.

And do not be like him.

Do not be lazy with what the Lord has given to you.

V.26. “His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? [You think that I exploit people, do you?] Well then [if you are so scared of me], you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers [at least!], so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.”

You didn’t have to have ten talents.

You didn’t have to have 4 bags of gold.

Two would have been enough.

1.5 would have been enough.

1.03 would have been enough if that was today’s interest rates.

But you did nothing!

You didn’t risk anything for my interests.

Friends, don’t be like this man.

He refused to take any risk for His master.

The master’s been gone a long time, and this guy has nothing to show for it.

Just an assignment that he didn’t lift a finger to do.

And so for him there was no reward. No praise, no more responsibility, no joy.

What a scary phrase to hear from the Lord Jesus, “you wicked, lazy servant!” You sluggard, you slacker, you have been worthless.

He actually calls him “worthless” or “useless.” v.28

“Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The same thing He said in the last verse of chapter 24.

The condemnation of the judgment.

Unbelievers will lose the life and talents and assignments and treasures and all kinds of other gifts that they have received in common grace if they will not trust the Lord Jesus and show that they trust the Lord Jesus by obeying the Lord Jesus.

But those who do believe Him and trust Him and put their faith in Him will show it by being faithful to Him.

“For everyone who has will be given more and he will have an abundance.”

That’s what I want for all of us in this room.

Abundance. Now and forever.

And it comes as the fruit of faithfulness.

If we are faithful, we will be rewarded.

Because there are not three kinds of servants in this story.

There are only two.

There are wicked and lazy so called servants.

And there are good and faithful ones.

Which one are you?


***

Previous Messages in This Series:
01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)
10. You Are The...
11. Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible
12. But I Tell You
13. But I Tell You (2)
14. But I Tell You (3)
15. In Secret
16. Choose Wisely
17. Seek First His Kingdom
18. Generous
19. These Words of Mine
20. When He Saw the Crowds
21. When He Came Down from the Mountainside
22. Follow Me
23. Our Greatest Problem
24. Who Does He Think He Is?
25. Special Agents
26. Sheep Among Wolves
27. What To Expect On Your Mission
28. Are You the One?
29. Come to Me
30. The King of Rest
31. So Thankful!
32. Overflow
33. This Wicked Generation
34. Get It?
35. What Is Really Going On Here?
36. Baptizing the Disciples
37. The Treasure of the Kingdom
38. Living the Last Beatitude
39. Five Loaves, Two Fish, and Jesus
40. It Is I.
41. Worthless Worship
42. Great Faith in a Great God
43. The Pharisees and Sadducees
44. The Question and the Promise
45. Take Up His Cross
46. Like the Sun
47. Seed-Sized Faith
48. These Little Ones
49. If Your Brother Sins Against You
50. The Lord of Marriage
51. Drop Everything
52. First and Last
53. The Suffering Serving Son of Man
54. Shouting for the Son of David
55. Expecting Fruit
56. Come to the Wedding Banquet
57. Whose Image?
58. Acing the Test
59. What Do You Think About the Christ?
60. How Not To be A Leader
61. Malignant Religion
62. Fakes and Snakes
63. Birth Pains
64. The Coming of the Son of Man
65. No One Knows
66. Keep Watch

Third Sunday of Advent: A Candle of Diligence

LEFC Family Advent Readings: Waiting for the Messiah to Come
Matthew 24:45-46, Isaiah 40:31 :: December 15, 2019
Week #3: Diligence

“Advent” means “coming.” Christmas is coming. Jesus has come and is coming again.

During this year’s Advent season, we are reminding each other how God’s people have always waited for the Messiah and how we should anticipate His coming today.

[LIGHT FIRST CANDLE AGAIN.]

Our first candle was a candle of confidence.

Believers throughout the ages have always been able to fully trust in the coming of the Messiah because God always keeps His promises. His words will never pass away.

[LIGHT SECOND CANDLE AGAIN.]

Our second candle was a candle of patience.

God’s people have had to wait a long long time for the Messiah to arrive. Like watchmen waiting for the morning, they have patiently scanned the horizon.

[LIGHT THIRD CANDLE.]

Our third candle is a candle of diligence.

While they waited for the Messiah, God’s people did not sit idle. Prophets, priests, kings, and ordinary kingdom citizens continued to faithfully do the Lord’s will and work.

Waiting in anticipation of the Messiah is never an excuse for laziness but instead a motivation for persevering in hard work. When He prophesied of His return, our Lord Jesus reminded us to stay busy:

[READ MATTHEW 24:45-46.]

Blessedly, the Lord Himself empowers this diligence. “They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

May we commit ourselves anew to diligently work for the King while we wait for His return. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

"If we want to keep going, we need to keep stopping."

I've been reading a beautifully written book on the Art of Rest  by Adam Mabry an energetic young pastor whose bio wryly ends, "Adam is not naturally good at resting."

This morning, I read an insightful passage about how Jesus knew the importance of rest for His own life:

"If anyone had good reason to be running through the airport of life, it was Jesus. You and I have a lot we must accomplish, but it pales in comparison with the work facing him. Making a deadline is one thing; making a way for sinners to be saved is quite another. Add to that the fact that he only really began work on such a project in his final years of life here, and you'd think Jesus would have been an anxiety attack in sandals, and that taking time out would have been out of the question.

And yet...

Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5 v 16, NIV)

[He] went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone... (Matthew 14 v 23)

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. (Luke 6 v 12)

Jesus had so much to do that he made sure he stopped to sit with his Father. Why? Because he understood that moments of holy rest offer the reward of endurance. If we want to keep going, we need to keep stopping" (pgs. 104-105).

I'm pondering that today. How much more is that true then for us?

"Keep Watch" [Matt's Messages]

“Keep Watch”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
December 8, 2019 :: Matthew 24:45-25:13

This is our fourth message in Matthew chapter 24, often called the Olivet Discourse or the Eschatological Teaching because our Lord Jesus taught about the End Times on the Mount of Olives during that last crucial holy week. This is Jesus’ own teaching about Jesus’ own return.

I’m not going to go back and recount everything we’ve learned over the last 3 messages in Matthew. It would take the whole sermon time to do that. There are a lot of details here, a lot of complexity. And faithful Christians have disagreed on how to interpret many of those details over the course of church history.

So if you want to go back into that further, or if I’ve lost you along the way, I’d recommend going back and re-listening to those messages or reading the manuscripts of the sermons which I post on my blog. That’ll catch you up. And it might help you to fall asleep at night. Maybe both!

But, today, we’re not going to go back over Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the temple (in verses 1&2), or Jesus’ description of the Birth Pains that characterize the time between His first coming and His second coming (in verses 3-14), or Jesus’ prediction of the abomination of desolation which I believe happened in that generation (in verses 15 through 26), or Jesus’ prophecy of the actual coming of the Son of Man which will be obvious and glorious (in verses 27 through 31). And we’re not going to go back to verses 32 through 35 which give us a summation of that entire section of the teaching and end with our Hide the Word verse about the certainty of Jesus’ words coming true. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

We’re not going to go back there over all of those details.

But I do want to restate what we saw last week (in verses 36 through 44).

One, because many of you weren’t able to be with us last week due to the ice on the roads.

And two, because the point that Jesus was making then is the same point that He’s making now in today’s passage.

And the point is the point!

Jesus has gotten to the so-what, to the nub, to the rub, to the relevance of all of this teaching on the End Times.

We’ve seen it again and again–Jesus is focused in His teaching on eschatology on application to our hearts and our lives.

Application.

And here’s what He said was the application:

Keep watch

Spiritually speaking. Keep watch.

The main upshot of Jesus’ teaching on Jesus’ return is spiritual vigilance.

It’s watching and waiting and being ready for His return.

In the words of our statement of faith, the return of Christ “demands constant expectancy.”

Keep watch.

Why?

There is one big reason why we need to do that which Jesus emphasized over and over again in verses 36 through 44, and He’s going to keep doing it until the end of chapter 25.

And that is that no one knows when the Son of Man will come.

So let me ask you the question I ask all ordination candidates when we get to Article 9 of our Statement of Faith. See if you can pass an ordination exam question:

When will Jesus return?

What’s the right answer?  We don’t know.

When will the Lord come back? We don’t know.

When should we expect the Coming of the Son of Man? We don’t know.

Listen to verse 36 again, from last week.

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

Not only do we not know. The angels in heaven don’t know.

And more unbelievably, at that time, even the Son of Man in His human nature did not know when He would return.

If the Son of Man professed His ignorance on this point, who do we think we are to pretend we know or to speculate as if we do?!

I don’t know how Jesus could say it more strongly. So He just keeps saying it.

Listen to verse 42.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

You do not know.

He’s says that He’s going to come like a thief in the night. Not to steal things but to catch people unaware.

So He says that we must always be aware. We must always be spiritually vigilant, constantly expectant. V.44

“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Do you think He wants us to keep watch?!

What does that look like?

What would it look like for you and me to live our lives on watch?

That’s actually the theme of the rest of chapter 24 and chapter 25.

We’re going to focus on it for at least 3 more messages, right up to the New Year.

What does it look like for you and me to live our lives on watch?

I’d like to begin by asking the question that we ended with last week:

What do you want to be found doing when the Lord returns?

We don’t know when He will return.

So what do you want to be up to when it actually goes down?

Jesus asks a similar question in verse 45.

He frames it as a wisdom question like in the Proverbs. The contrast between the foolish and the wise. V.45

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.”

Pretty straightforward, isn’t it?

The master goes away, and leaves a faithful and wise servant in charge.

You can guess who the master is. You can guess who the servant is supposed to be.

What does that faithful and wise servant do while the master is away?

He does what he should do!

He does what the master wants him to do!

If he’s in charge of feeding the other servants, he makes sure they get their food and on time.

And it will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.

Now, Jesus is going to camp on this idea of giving an account of your actions while He is away and His giving out rewards for faithful service in the next chapter. I hope to study it with you, Lord-willing, next week. It’s that “good and faithful servant” story.

But He raises it here with this illustration.

What do you want to be doing when the master returns?

You want to be doing what He asked you to.

Is that what you are doing?

What are you doing with your life?

Are you living a faithful, obedient life?

Are you doing what your master has asked you to do?

Are you living out the values of His kingdom?

Does your life look like the Sermon on the Mount, for example?

When Jesus told us how to live if we are citizens of His upside-down, inside-out, already-but-not-yet kingdom.

Are you being faithful with whatever portion of that kingdom work you are supposed to be managing? Feeding those you are supposed to be feeding and on time.

“Who then is the faithful and wise servant?”

Is that you? Is that me?

The good news is that the master richly rewards the faithful and wise servant.

We can’t begin to imagine what that reward might be like.

In the parable, the faithful and wise servant is put in charge of all of the master’s possessions!

That sounds good to me.

What do you want to be doing when the Lord returns?

Because you don’t know when it’s going to happen.

Keep watch. Because:

#1. HE MIGHT COME SOONER THAN YOU EXPECT.

In verse 48, Jesus poses a thought experiment about the opposite of a faithful and wise servant. V.48

“But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Wow!

Notice once again that Jesus says that the master will come at an unspecified and completely surprising moment.

When this servant does not expect Him and at an hour the servant is not aware of.

Now, that’s partially the servant’s fault. Right?

This wicked servant has said in his heart that the master will be away for a long time, and so he reasons that he has lots of time to get things straightened up later.

And so he lets his true nature come out and take over.

He doesn’t feed his fellow servants. He beats them.

And he gives himself to wild, debauched, wicked living. Sinful pursuits.

“Oh, we’ll clean this up later. We have lots of time. Let’s have some fun! We can treat each right in the church later. Let’s brawl right now. And let’s party hearty! ”

What do you want to be doing when the Lord returns?

When I was a youth pastor, I remember one night we took the teens bowling. We had a good time and we were packing up to leave, and I was in the front seat of the church van with one of the students, and I remember very clearly he said to me very honestly, “I don’t want God to come back just yet. I still want to do some more sinning.”

Very honest!

He might come sooner than you expect.

And what if it’s today?

This guy in Jesus’ story thought that he had lots of time to repent.

But he sure didn’t.

And look where it got him. Verse 51 again.

“He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Remember who the hypocrites are from chapter 23?

“Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites.”

The fakes and the snakes.

The blind leading the blind.

The false and the wrong.

Looking good on the outside but on the inside only death.

Those who are unprepared for the return of Christ because they were hypocrites–not really believers and not really followers of Jesus–will go to torment.

What do you want to be doing when the Lord returns?

Or conversely and just as importantly:

#2. HE MIGHT COME LATER THAN YOU EXPECT.

We don’t know.

He might come later.

In chapter 25, Jesus tells another parable of the kingdom with the same point.

You don’t know, so keep watch. Chapter 25, verse 1.

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.”

Let’s stop right there and make sure we understand what is going on in the story because our Pennsylvanian weddings are not like first century Israeli weddings.

There were a number of traditional parts to a Jewish wedding at that time, and the ones that seem to be operative in this story are that the groom and his dad would often go to the home of the bride to make the final negotiations and arrangements for settling everything about the wedding and then the groom would process through the streets of their town back to his home for the wedding feast to begin.

The focus here is on the groom because he stands for Jesus in the New Testament.

Other passages focus on the bride which stands for the church in the New Testament. But that’s not the focus here. The focus is on the bridegroom and when will he come?

And other members of the community would be invited to the wedding feast.

Remember the wedding at Cana where they ran out of wine?

A bunch of people get invited.

And these young maidens were invited to join the procession through the streets.

It was apparently going to happen in the evening.

So they were given lamps.

I don’t think these are Coleman camping lamps.

It’s more likely that they were “large dome-shaped torches, fueled by rags soaked in oil and used for walking outside” (ESV Study Bible).

Like the Olympic torch.

And in Jesus’ story there are ten of them.

He makes five of them wise and five foolish.

Again with the wise and the foolish. In this story, you are either one or the other.

And the difference between two is that the wise took oil in jars along with their lamps.

But the foolish ones did not take any extra olive oil to burn in their lamps.

Now, many Christian interpreters have tried to figure out what the oil stands for in the parable.

You’ve probably heard a lot of the options.

The Holy Spirit.
Grace.
Good works.
Salvation.
The word of God.

The list goes on.

I don’t think it matters to get the point of Jesus’ story.

Especially because they are going to go out and get some for themselves later in the story.

The point is that they were not prepared for the bridegroom to take longer than they expected.

In many ways, these lit lamps were their tickets to the feast, and they had neglected to do anything to make sure they were ready to enter the feast if it took any real time of waiting.

They were foolish because that’s exactly what happened. V.5

“The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.”

There’s the key point of the parable.

“The bridegroom was a long time in coming.”

Some people think that Jesus led everyone to expect that He would return very shortly in the first century and that the church was in tizzy because He didn’t.

Is that what happened?

Well, Jesus did lead everyone to expect that He would return at a time that they don’t expect and that it could be very short.

That’s the last story about the wicked servant.

After the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in AD 70, the Coming of the Son of Man could be imminent.

But Jesus also explicitly left open the possibility that He might take a long time before returning.

From our perspective, a long delay.

He might come much later than you expect.

He said so!

It has been almost 2,000 years since Jesus told this story.

But that should not surprise us.

He said it might be so.

In the story, all of the guests are checking their watches and saying, “When is that bridegroom going to come? What are they doing in there?”

This is like the part in our weddings when they couple are taking pictures after the ceremony.

If you aren’t in the pictures, it seems like forever until they finally come to the reception and you get to eat!

Sometimes, I move on mentally. And I forget that we’re supposed to be waiting expectantly for the couple to arrive so the celebration can begin.

These young ladies fell asleep.

Was that bad?

Not in this story. Because both the wise ones and the foolish ones fell asleep.

It’s not wrong to sleep.

This keeping watch thing does not mean try not to go to sleep until Jesus returns.

Knock yourself out. Burn yourself out. Because Jesus might be here in any second.

No, this story is about Him taking longer than we might expect. So rest is going to have to be a part of the equation for us.

Rest, but be ready.

The wise virgins could rest because they were ready.

The foolish virgins shouldn’t have allowed themselves to rest until they were ready.

Because the bridegroom was a long time in coming. V.6

“At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' [Everybody scrambles around.] Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' [We have a responsibility to light the way for the bridegroom, the whole way from here to the feast. You’re on your own. So they take off.] But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.”

He might come later than you expect.

But that doesn’t mean you know how much time you have to prepare.

You’ve got to be prepared all of the time.

Isn’t it fascinating that they had all of that time and yet they were not prepared?

And nobody can do your preparing for you.

I sometimes wish that I could prepare people to meet the Lord myself.

There are a lot of people I would try to get ready for His return if I could.

And we all should urge people to do so.

But we can’t do it for them.

We can’t get anyone saved.

Not our kids.
Not our grandkids.
Not people we love.

We can urge them to prepare for the Lord’s return.

But everybody has to do it for themselves.

I have to do it for myself.

And you have to do it for yourself.

Have you done it?

Are you prepared for the Lord’s return?

He might come earlier than you expect.

So don’t delay.

He might come later than you expect.

So get ready to wait.

I think that a lot of preachers and teachers on the End Times don’t do enough talking about this aspect of Jesus’ return.

They get people whipped up into a frenzy that it could be soon. It could be soon! It could be soon!

And it could be soon.

We should be ready. We don’t know!

But we don’t know.

And Jesus said there might be what seems to us to be a delay.

So we ought also dig in and be ready for the long haul.

There were churches in the first century like in Thessalonika that made that mistake.

They were quitting their jobs and just waiting around for the Second Coming.

But Jesus didn’t say to quit your job.

Jesus didn’t say to not plan for retirement or to strategize for long term effect.

Those are good things to do. Go ahead and go to work this week!

Go ahead and save for retirement. Not to play your life away but to not be a burden to others and to be able to give to the Lord’s work in the future if there is a future.

Go ahead and build that organization that you think you’re called to build.

Go ahead and make long term plans. Because you don’t know.

You don’t know!

We have to stop pretending like we know!

Even the Son did not know.

Think about this. According to chapter 24 verse 36, Jesus did not know that it would be over 2,000 years until He came back to get us.

He knew that it would be at a time we did not expect.

Could be sooner. Could be later.

We don’t know.

The point is to be ready either way.

Patient and Expectant.
Expectant and Patient.

That’s what it means to keep watch.

Are you ready either way?

Like many of Jesus’ parables, it’s a crazy story.

These young ladies get some more fuel and come through the streets to the wedding banquet, and they are refused entry.

This probably would not have happened in real life.

They probably would have gotten shamed and then let in.

You dishonored the bridegroom by not lighting the way like you were asked, but whatever.

But Jesus puts a kicker on His story to show just how important this is in the spiritual realm. V.11

“Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

I do not know you.

Those are some of the scariest words in the Gospel of Matthew.

They were invited to the feast, but because they did not prepare in faith for the long haul of waiting for the bridegroom, they were not known by the bridegroom when they tried to get in after the last second.

After the last second, the door does not open again.

Are you ready?

Are you ready for the return of Christ?

You don’t know when it’s going to happen.

It might be sooner than you expect.

It might be later than you expect.

You don’t know.

The question is are you ready?

You don’t have to wait to find out.

You can get ready right now.

The Lord invites you to turn from your sin (He calls that “repentance”) and put all of your faith in trust down on Jesus Christ and what He did for you at the Cross.

And begin by faith to follow Jesus as your King.

It might be harder to do that than you might expect.

It might be more arduous.

It might involve more hardship and difficulty and bad times.

You’ve got to be ready for the long haul.

But it’s worth it.

He is worth it!

The Bridegroom is worth it all.

Verse 13.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”


***
Previous Messages in This Series: 01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)
10. You Are The...
11. Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible
12. But I Tell You
13. But I Tell You (2)
14. But I Tell You (3)
15. In Secret
16. Choose Wisely
17. Seek First His Kingdom
18. Generous
19. These Words of Mine
20. When He Saw the Crowds
21. When He Came Down from the Mountainside
22. Follow Me
23. Our Greatest Problem
24. Who Does He Think He Is?
25. Special Agents
26. Sheep Among Wolves
27. What To Expect On Your Mission
28. Are You the One?
29. Come to Me
30. The King of Rest
31. So Thankful!
32. Overflow
33. This Wicked Generation
34. Get It?
35. What Is Really Going On Here?
36. Baptizing the Disciples
37. The Treasure of the Kingdom
38. Living the Last Beatitude
39. Five Loaves, Two Fish, and Jesus
40. It Is I.
41. Worthless Worship
42. Great Faith in a Great God
43. The Pharisees and Sadducees
44. The Question and the Promise
45. Take Up His Cross
46. Like the Sun
47. Seed-Sized Faith
48. These Little Ones
49. If Your Brother Sins Against You
50. The Lord of Marriage
51. Drop Everything
52. First and Last
53. The Suffering Serving Son of Man
54. Shouting for the Son of David
55. Expecting Fruit
56. Come to the Wedding Banquet
57. Whose Image?
58. Acing the Test
59. What Do You Think About the Christ?
60. How Not To be A Leader
61. Malignant Religion
62. Fakes and Snakes
63. Birth Pains
64. The Coming of the Son of Man
65. No One Knows

Second Sunday of Advent: A Candle of Patience

LEFC Family Advent Readings: Waiting for the Messiah to Come
Psalm 130:5-8 :: December 8, 2019
Week #2: Patience

“Advent” means “coming.” Christmas is coming. Jesus has come and is coming again.

During this year’s Advent season, we are contemplating together how faithful believers have always waited for the Messiah and how we should anticipate His coming today.

[LIGHT FIRST CANDLE AGAIN.]

Our first candle was a candle of confidence.

Believers throughout the ages have always been able to fully trust in the coming of the Messiah because God always keeps His promises. His words will never pass away.

[LIGHT SECOND CANDLE.]

Our second candle is a candle of patience.

Though God’s people had confidence in God’s promises, their confidence was often tried and tested. They had to wait a long long time for the Messiah to arrive!

Centuries passed. Kings came, and kings went away. Some kings brought some rescue, but all kings disappointed in many ways. For thousands of years, the Messiah did not come. And yet the people of God waited patiently.

The psalmist expressed this heart of patience.

[READ PSALM 130:5-8]

And that patience was rewarded. The Messiah has come in Jesus Christ and brought redemption through His blood.

Yet now we are called again to wait patiently for His return. Many centuries have passed once more. We wait in anticipation like watchmen for the morning for the return of Christ. We know that He is coming, but we do not know when.

So we wait, and we wait some more.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.

“No One Knows” [Matt's Messages]

“No One Knows”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
December 1, 2019 :: Matthew 24:36-44

For the last two years, we have been following Jesus through the Gospel of Matthew, and we’ve just about reached the end.

We have reached Jesus’ teaching on the End, often called the Olivet Discourse (because it was delivered on the Mount of Olives) or “Jesus’ Teaching on Eschatology” (the doctrine of Last Things).

Jesus taught this during that Crucial Last Week, that Holy Week, when Jesus was crucified.

Jesus came to Jerusalem, wrestled with and denounced the religious leaders, and then predicted the desolation of the city and the temple.

And in chapters 24 and 25, Jesus teaches about that coming judgment of Israel and about His own return.

So this is Jesus’ own teaching about Jesus’ own return.

And, of course, that can be both exciting to learn about and also fairly complex and confusing.

Christians throughout the ages have disagreed about exactly how to interpret many of the details about eschatology.

Bible-believing Christians have agreed about the main points of eschatology. Jesus is coming back. Really coming back. He’s coming back in person. He’s coming back in the same resurrected body that He left in. And His return will be glorious.

Last time, we learned about the glorious coming of the Son of Man.

It’s described in verses 29-31.

V.30 “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”

But there has also been a lot of disagreement among faithful, Bible-believing Christians especially about the timing of Jesus’ return and the timing and order of the events surrounding that return.

In the last two (fairly long) sermons, I have endeavored to lay out my view, my interpretation, of what is going on in these two chapters.

I’m sure that I have gotten most of you lost along the way. It’s easy to do in these chapters. I’ve gotten myself lost a time or two! Thank you for your patience with me, and I’ll keep trying my best to show you what I see.

But there have been two guiding principles that have kept us on track so that even if we disagree or get confused on some of the details, the point of this teaching still comes through.

One principle is the same principle we have seen throughout the Gospel of Matthew and that is to keep your eye on the ball. Matthew is a theological biography of Jesus, and the whole point of the book is to answer the question, “Who is this Jesus?” by every means at Matthew’s disposal.

And that goes for these two chapters, as well.

Matthew doesn’t just want to lay out for us what is going to happen and when or how.

Matthew is concerned to show us who.

Jesus is the Son of Man. The mysterious and powerful eschatological figure promised by the prophet Daniel. Receiving a kingdom from the Ancient of Days and the coming in obvious glory and majesty.

And what He promises, He will deliver.

Jesus said in the last verse we considered last time, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

That’s quite a claim. You have to be quite a person to make good on that claim!

Keep your eye on the ball.

The second principle that guides us through our study of eschatology is that we always focus on application.

Prophetic teaching isn’t just information for information sake.

“O, that’s interesting!”

Prophetic teaching is always aimed at the heart. It’s always aimed at transformation.

It’s always aimed at application.

And that’s going to be even more obvious today and in the next few weeks.

Because Jesus is going to get away from giving us very many more details (almost any!) and instead will turn His focus on the “So What?” question.

“What difference does this make?”

We’re going to see that this teaching makes a big difference in how we are to live.

Stay focused on application.

Now, let me try to quickly summarize what we’ve seen so far in chapter 24 so that verse 36 will make sense.

Remember the disciples wanted Jesus to stay at the temple that He was turning His back upon in verse 1. And they tried to show Him how beautiful the buildings were.

But Jesus predicted (v.2) that “not one stone” of the temple would be left on another “every one will be thrown down.” Desolation.

And that prophecy rocked the world of the disciples, so that they came to Him privately on the Mount of Olives and asked (v.3) “When will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of age?”

And they assumed that was all one thing. The end of the world as we know it!

Did Jesus answer their question?

Jesus doesn’t always tell us what we want to know, but He does tell us what we need to know.

So Jesus taught them about what He called “The Birth Pains.” Those terribly difficult things that the world will go through up and down and time to time throughout the ages until His return. Verses 4 through 25.

Birth pains tell you that something big is coming and that it is inevitable.

But they don’t always tell you when.

So, I don’t think Jesus answered the when question for the disciples in that first part of chapter 24.

He did tell them (in verses 15 through 25) about the incredibly excruciating Birth Pain of the “abomination of desolation” which I think in Matthew refers to the destruction of the temple that happened in that generation, about forty years later, in the year 70AD.

And I think that Jesus told them in verse 34 that all these Birth Pains in including that awful one of the temple would occur in that same generation.

But He didn’t tell them when He would return.

He told them that He would return!

And that it would be obvious and glorious (vv. 26-31).

The coming of the Son of Man will be unmistakable like the lightning in the sky or the vultures with the carcasses.

And it will change absolutely everything!

V.31 “And He will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

That is going to change everything for us!

But He has not told us when.

He’s told us that it is near. Like a Spring leaf proclaims that Summer is near (vv. 32&33).

You don’t know when. It could take some time, but it’s surely coming. It’s around the corner.

But He has not told us when.

And in today’s passage, in verse 36, He tells us why He has not told us when.

You know why?

It’s because He didn’t know!

Matthew 24:36. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

What an incredible statement!

I think the “that day or hour” in verse 36 is clearly referring to the Coming of the Son of Man and all of the attendant events surrounding it, often called “the day of the Lord.”

We know it as the glorious return of Christ. What Jesus was teaching in verses 29-31.

And Jesus teaches that no one knows when that will be.

#1. NO ONE KNOWS WHEN.

“Not even the angels in heaven.”

And remember, the angels will have a big role to play when it all goes down.

But they don’t know.

What’s even more amazing. What’s almost unimaginable is that the “no one” includes the “Son” Himself!

“Nor the Son[!]”

And this is His day!

This is the coming of the Son.

And the Son says that the Son doesn’t know when it’s going to be.

“Only the Father” does.

Does that blow your mind or what?

In Matthew 24:36, Jesus proclaims His ignorance about the date of His return.

Now, that’s really amazing given everything we’ve learned about Who Jesus is in the Gospel of Matthew, isn’t it?!

Think about this Person we’ve been learning about for 24 chapters, and think about Who He has claimed to be. Keep your eye on the ball!

Just this same day, Jesus did that baffling Bible study on Psalm 110 with the Pharisees.

“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’

‘The son of David,”

‘Ok. ‘How is it then that David, calls him 'Lord'? For he says, ‘'The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’' If then David calls him 'Lord,' how can he be his son?’”

Yes, He’s the Son of David. But He’s also the Lord of David.

And God talks to Him like He talks to Himself.

Jesus is also the Son of God!

Son of Man and Son of God!

And ignorant of the time of His return.

Everything He knows!

He just told us in 35 verses what the world is going to be like for the last 2,000 years.

He knows that!

He knew about the Birth Pains.

He knew about the destruction of the temple.

And everything He said would happen has happened for 2,000 years!

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

But He also said that He didn’t know when He was coming back.

“Nor the Son.”

How can this be?

How can Jesus not know something like that?

I mean, He’s God, right?!

It’s the mystery of the incarnation.

When God the Son took on flesh, when He assumed human nature, He also took on limitations in that human nature.

We’re just a few weeks away from Christmas.

When Jesus was born, there was a whole lot He didn’t know!

The shepherds didn’t find Him in the manger, sitting up and teaching everybody about the Birth Pains of the Messiah.

Mary had some birth pains with the Messiah! But Jesus wasn’t teaching anybody anything that day. He was probably just crying away in that manger.

Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and people.

He was astonished. He was amazed. He learned things in His human nature.

Without giving up His deity!

Or the attributes of His deity.

The early church recognized the full deity of Christ and the full humanity of Christ.

The two natures together in One Person without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation to the use the language of the Creed of Chalcedon.

It’s mysterious. Because in His divine nature, Jesus remained and remains omniscient.

But in regards to His humanity, the Father kept this a secret from His Son at that time.

{Does He know now? I wouldn’t be surprised. But I don’t know.}

I do know that on that day, Jesus didn’t know.

“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

No one knows.

Now, let’s apply this some.

If even Jesus didn’t know when He was going to return, what does that say about you and me?

We don’t know.

We sure don’t know!

Whenever I’m leading an ordination council, this is the first question I ask when we get to Article 9 of our Statement of Faith.

And if they answer it wrong, they fail.

I say, “When is Jesus coming back?”

And if they don’t say, “I don’t know,” it’s an automatic fail.

This is one of those questions that if you think you know the answer, you’re wrong.

No one knows when. “Only the Father.”

And you shouldn’t try to weasel around it and say that nobody knows the day or the hour, but we can get a pretty good idea of the year or decade or century!

No!

Who do we think we are? If the Son didn’t know, how do we presume to pretend we do?

And yet so many people have been date-setters throughout the history of the church.

I can give you a long list of people over the last 2,000 years who thought they had it all figured out, and guess what, they have all been wrong.

In Acts chapter 1, Jesus said, “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”

“It’s not for you!”

Quit acting like it is.

So we shouldn’t speculate.

And we shouldn’t pretend.

And we shouldn’t listen to those who do!

Beware of those who act like they have it all figured out and all you have to do is buy their book, their tapes, their prophecy chart.

Because people like that hurt people.

Eschatology should make us humble.

Because we realize that there secret things that belong to the Lord and the Lord alone.

At this point, the Father was even keeping them secret from the Son.

We are not going to know.

And we should be okay with that.

Are you okay with that?

We are on a need to know basis.

And one of the things we need to know is that no one knows when the Son of Man will come. “Only the Father.”

Jesus is going to repeat this idea of not knowing, not knowing, at least 5 times before the end of this teaching.

Because it makes a big difference in how we live.

Jesus didn’t know WHEN, but He knew WHAT His coming would be like. V.37

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

Now, the point here is not how bad the world will be when the Son of Man comes.

Things were bad in the days of Noah, but that’s not what Jesus emphasizes.

Jesus emphasizes how normal they were, doesn’t He?

Life was happening. Eating, drinking, marrying.

Life goes on. Life goes on.

Even though Noah was saying that the judgment was coming.

Life goes on. Life goes on.

Until it doesn’t!

The judgment was sudden and unexpected and irrevocable. (Adjectives by D.A. Carson.)

Surprise!

“...they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

They didn’t see it coming. And that’s how the world will be. V.40

“Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”

Just like that; everything will change.

One day, you’re just working away together, maybe family; the next thing you know, you’re caught off guard and you’re separated forever.

Some to be with the Lord, some to be away from the Lord. Forever.

No one knows when.

You see how important this is?

How this changes everything?

Here’s where Jesus starts to really bring it home with application. V.42

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

From here on to the end of chapter 25, that’s the theme.

“Keep watch.” Stay ready.

Because no one knows when:

 #2. EVERYONE SHOULD STAY READY.

Get ready and stay ready.

That’s what it means to “keep watch.”

It means to be spiritually vigilant.

Like a night watchman.

Or like a hunter.

I have two sons that are into hunting, and I enjoy going out with them and watching them do their thing.

I’m not much of a hunter. It involves two things I’m not very good it.

Sitting still and being quiet.

I’m much better at wiggling and making noise.

It’s funny my sons haven’t invited me out to hunt yet with them this year?! Huh.

Andrew and Peter are great at sitting still and watching.

Scanning the woods.

I want to check my phone.

I want to read my book.

Everybody brings a book, right?

I don’t know how many times, Peter will say, “Deer.”

And I’m like, “Where? I missed it.” And I’m like flapping my arms, which scares them away.

Peter is a good example of vigilance, keeping watch.

Being ready.

And Jesus is talking here about spiritual vigilance.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

Everything might seem all normal, but the Son of Man is coming.

Did everybody know that this bad weather was coming?

It didn’t seem like it yesterday. It was such a beautiful day. I got in 8 miles of walking yesterday, and it just felt great. So normal! A little cold. But nothing like this!

But the weatherman said that the bad weather was coming.

And I had to just believe it and get ready.

Did you get ready?

Snow shovels, ice-melt, firewood stacked.

It’s coming. Not sure when, but it’s coming.

This weather did not take us by surprise.

Because even though we didn’t know exactly when it would hit (because the weatherman is not a prophet!), we knew to get ready.

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

He’s going to come like a thief. V.43

“But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.  So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Do you think that Jesus wants us to know that we will not know?!

He even compares Himself to burglar!

Not that He steals things, but that He comes unannounced.

If you knew that a thief was coming at 2am tomorrow morning, you’d be ready for him, right?

You’d set an alarm on your phone, and you’d put a lock on the door, and you’d be up and ready for the home invasion.

But if you don’t know. If it’s unpredictable, what then?

You have to be prepared all of the time.

You have to expect the unexpected. V.42 again.

“So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

It might be short.

Or it might be long.

We’re going to see next week that both of those are possibilities.

Shorter than we might expect and longer than we might expect.

We don’t know!

No one knows!

So we should stay ready.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about for at least the next two Sundays.

What that kind of spiritual vigilance looks like.

Our EFCA Statement of Faith calls it living with “constant expectancy.”

And we who are followers of Christ should never stop.

Let me ask you this application question as we go to the table:

What do you want to be found doing when the Lord returns?

What do you want to be found doing when the Lord returns?

This is serious stuff.

That’s a serious question.

Often we laugh at people who predict the end of the world, and especially those who set dates for it.

Because we don’t know.

But because we don’t know, we should all get ready and stay ready.

What do you want to be found doing when your Lord returns?

I want to be keeping watch.


***

Previous Messages in This Series:
01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)
10. You Are The...
11. Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible
12. But I Tell You
13. But I Tell You (2)
14. But I Tell You (3)
15. In Secret
16. Choose Wisely
17. Seek First His Kingdom
18. Generous
19. These Words of Mine
20. When He Saw the Crowds
21. When He Came Down from the Mountainside
22. Follow Me
23. Our Greatest Problem
24. Who Does He Think He Is?
25. Special Agents
26. Sheep Among Wolves
27. What To Expect On Your Mission
28. Are You the One?
29. Come to Me
30. The King of Rest
31. So Thankful!
32. Overflow
33. This Wicked Generation
34. Get It?
35. What Is Really Going On Here?
36. Baptizing the Disciples
37. The Treasure of the Kingdom
38. Living the Last Beatitude
39. Five Loaves, Two Fish, and Jesus
40. It Is I.
41. Worthless Worship
42. Great Faith in a Great God
43. The Pharisees and Sadducees
44. The Question and the Promise
45. Take Up His Cross
46. Like the Sun
47. Seed-Sized Faith
48. These Little Ones
49. If Your Brother Sins Against You
50. The Lord of Marriage
51. Drop Everything
52. First and Last
53. The Suffering Serving Son of Man
54. Shouting for the Son of David
55. Expecting Fruit
56. Come to the Wedding Banquet
57. Whose Image?
58. Acing the Test
59. What Do You Think About the Christ?
60. How Not To be A Leader
61. Malignant Religion
62. Fakes and Snakes
63. Birth Pains
64. The Coming of the Son of Man

First Sunday of Advent: A Candle of Confidence

LEFC Family Advent Readings: Waiting for the Messiah to Come
John 4:25-26, Matthew 24:35 :: December 1, 2019
Week #1: Confidence

“Advent” means “coming.” Christmas is coming. Jesus has come and is coming again.

Advent is a season of anticipation. As we anticipate the coming of Christmas, we remember how the people of God waited for centuries for their Messiah to arrive. And even now we anticipate the Messiah’s return.

During this year’s Advent season, we will meditate on how faithful believers have always waited for the Messiah and how we should anticipate His coming today.

Our first candle is candle of confidence.

[LIGHT FIRST CANDLE]

Faithful believers have always fully trusted in God’s promise of a Messiah.

The Old Testament overflows with strong and mysterious promises of a ruler who will come to rescue his people. And throughout the centuries his people waited with full assurance that he would come and bring each promise to fulfillment.

When Jesus met the woman at the well, she declared her confidence.

[READ JOHN 4:25-26]

The woman’s confidence was well placed. Jesus was the promised Messiah come to save His people!

But His first coming was not His last.

Jesus has told us that He is coming again. So now like the men and women of old, we wait with confidence in His promises which are certain and sure.

When He prophesied of His return, our Lord Jesus assured us, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Today, let us renew our faith in the certainty of His promises and wait with full confidence in His unfading words.

Come, Lord Jesus, come.