Great Expectations

For almost all of our kids, Christmas comes not too long after their birthday. So any disappointments they had, gifts they didn’t receive for their birthday, that anticipation transfers right over to Christmas.

Advent

In the liturgical calendar, “Advent” starts tomorrow.

> a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the nativity or birth of Christ and his return in the Second Coming.

Expectations built by prophesies of the Messiah.

What to Expect When You’re Expecting

Church tradition is that Luke interviewed and spent time with Mary and learned the story of Jesus’ birth from her. So he writes of how Mary learned of Jesus’ birth.

Luke 1:26–33 ESV

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

To Mary it is revealed: the time is now! The long awaited “when” is here.

We’ve been studying the prophets, and there are some common threads throughout them. We hear the glory of God, and the call to repentance. The call to justice and righteousness.

And again and again we hear the need for a Savior… and that God is sending a Messiah.

Who told Mary??? The angel Gabriel. You remember that guy? The same angel that kept showing up to Daniel!!!

(By the way, if an angel, messenger of God, appears to someone and tells them a message from God, and then that person tells someone else, what do we call that person? Prophet!) Mary is a prophet of God, as is Joseph.

Maybe 500 years earlier, Gabriel is revealing to another prophet.

From Daniel.

Daniel 7:13–14 ESV

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

300 years earlier, to the prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

And writing at the same time, God reveals through the prophet Micah where the Messiah would be born:

Micah 5:2–5 ESV

2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5 And he shall be their peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads in our palaces, then we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men;

2-300 years earlier, roughly 100 years before Christ, the prophet Nathaniel speaks to King David:

2 Samuel 7:12–17 ESV

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Yes, Solomon is the near fulfillment, and he does in fact build a “house for YHWH’s name...” but what was all that throne forever stuff??? In expectation of Jesus, on the throne forever, building a house for the LORD of us!!!

But even before David, to generation after generation, back to Moses who saw a prophet coming after:

Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV

“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

And 400 years before that, to good old Father Abram! That very first promise that created the people of Israel in the first place:

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

But even that, not the beginning. All the way back to the beginning, from the very moment of the fall, there was promised a Savior who would destroy dragons!

Genesis 3:14–15 ESV

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Enter into expectation

The sense of expectation. Desperate expectation.

All of God’s people, all of Creation, waiting for salvation. Waiting for God.

What’s He going to do?

What will the Messiah, the Anointed One, be like, look like? How will we know him? How will he come?

The vast majority of the people of God missed Jesus. They missed the Messiah. Maybe because they weren’t looking for him. Because he did not conform to their expectations (more about that next week).

In advent, we enter into the expectation of the Messiah. As they would have felt it for thousands of years: the desperate need for a Savior.

And, more present to our own need for a Savior, to return once more and make all things new. All things good. All things perfect and whole.

We practice expectation.

Enter into Christ-Mass Celebration

That we don’t treat Jesus like my kids treat last years Christmas presents. Or the year’s before that.

Most of those things, gone by the way side. In the trash or donate pile.

Unremembered. Uncherished. Taken for granted.

Joy, unspeakable joy!

Behold, we have a Savior!!!

Everything changes. Let’s count the years up to and after this day.

And with the angels we seeing:

Luke 2:14 ESV

14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Related Media

Related Sermons