Able Church Message on Advent
Week One’s Theme – Hope and Promise
Introduction: if you have ever seen an advent wreath you may have wondered how that relates to the Christmas story. Advent is a tradition that dates way back to the 1300s so it has a long history of being observed by many church denominations but in particular the Catholic and Lutheran ones.
The tradition uses a wreath much like you see in churches all across our country with the participants lighting a candle every week which represents a theme for that week of the upcoming holiday.
The word Advent itself is Latin for the word “coming” and that’s what we are celebrating. The future coming of Jesus to claim His church and bring her home to be with Him for ever and ever.
Revelations 19:7-9 (NLT) Let us be glad and rejoice and let us give honor to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. 8 She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.
Our first candle represents Hope and Promise. Hope is a large ingredient in our faith as we trust God’s word to give us a glimpse of what the future holds for us as believers in Jesus. What does the Bible say about our hope?
Hebrews 10:23 (NLT) 23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
Romans 15:13 (NLT) 13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our source of hope comes from God himself as we trust Him for everything in this life. Without hope we as believers would be crushed – never being able to hold onto the many promises God has left us with in His word.
Our theme of Promise is a little different. We make promises to assure others that our word is good and trustworthy. God made some 48 promise’s many years before the birth of Christ that a Savior would come and deliver the Jew from their bondage of sin and every one of those were kept.
Isaiah 7:14 (NLT) All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)
Isiah 9:6-7 (NLT) For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity…
So much more could be said but we see that when God makes a promise, we can trust it will come to fruition just as all 48 promises did regarding the coming of Jesus the Messiah. That in itself is a miracle that no-one has ever come close to duplicating in making predictions for the future. One web site stated that for 48 prophecies to come true one would have to overcome the odds of 10 to the 157 power. That is 10 with 157 zeros after it. Only God could overcome that level of difficulty in predicting the future. Next week we’ll look forward to our week two of the Advent season with the theme of preparation or waiting on God’s promises.
God bless and remember if you need someone to pray with or understand Jesus better with please contact us at The Able Church 920-497-8022.
If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, I encourage you do that today. Pray this simple prayer – Jesus I know I’m a sinner and I need the forgiveness your blood gives me when you went to the cross. Please cleanse me of my sins and be my Lord and Savior. Help me to live for you every day going forward in Jesus’ name – Amen.