Advent 2018

Advent 2018

The First Coming of Christ, Part 4: Come, Long-Expected Jesus

In a world filled with poverty, injustice, oppression, hatred, and strife, God sent good news of a coming Savior who would set the world right and bring peace on Earth, good will to men. Fulfilling the promise given in the last book of the Hebrew scripture, and breaking a 400 year drought in the prophetic ministry, God announced the birth of a great prophet to prepare the way for the coming Savior. Yet today, two thousand years after these events, the world is still filled with poverty, injustice, oppression, hated, and strife. We, too, await the final fulfillment of God’s promises to set the world right through Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of the World.

Two Women and Their God

We may find it today to be a challenge to feel the drama of the Advent story, i.e., the first coming of Jesus Christ. If we said aside the nostalgia of “the holidays” and focus on this story, we will be amazed by the work of God. In Luke 1:39-56 we are thrust into the story of two women and their God—two women caught up in the glory of the most momentous period in human history. Both are participants in the drama of angelic appearances, prophetic utterances, and miraculous conceptions—one son to be a great prophet and the other to save his people from their sins.

The First Coming of Christ, part 2: Mary’s response

As we continue the story of Jesus’s first coming, we find Gabriel now appearing to Mary. Luke’s account of Gabriel’s conversation with Mary tells us much about who this child will be: the fulfillment of prophecy, and a very unique individual at that. We learn important truths about Jesus’s nature, and we see a right response to God’s revelation: faith even through amazed wonder at seemingly impossible promises.

The First Coming of Christ, part 2: Mary's response

As we continue the story of Jesus’s first coming, we find Gabriel now appearing to Mary. Luke’s account of Gabriel’s conversation with Mary tells us much about who this child will be: the fulfillment of prophecy, and a very unique individual at that. We learn important truths about Jesus’s nature, and we see a right response to God’s revelation: faith even through amazed wonder at seemingly impossible promises.

The First Coming of Christ

We are entering into a season of remembrance of the greatest period of time and the most influential events in human history. This period centers on the person of Jesus Christ and his entrance into our world, when the divine took on humanity. This is his First Coming, or the First Advent. All of history and the foundation of our lives is built upon this Person and these events.