A New Year of Anticipation
Rev. Louis W. Ellerbrook
The Christian New Year • Sermon • Submitted
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Happy New Year!!!
Last week was the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the Christian New Year. We heard from Paul in Romans 13:11 – 12 that we know what time it is, or at least we should, and that it is time to wake up to see what God is doing.
As we live into a Christian New Year, we do not observe the seasons to be more religiously devoted. We are living out a different story in real time.
All calendars are religious calendars. All calendars tell us what to devote our lives to, or where the devotion of our lives lies.
Calendar – Important
Clock – Urgent
Canon – Ultimate time piece
It tells us the beginning of the Story
The middle of the Story
And the end of the Story
Ultimate break into the important and transform the urgent
Two ages BC/AD
But the New Testament puts it in a slightly different way. There is the Present Evil Age and there is the Age to Come. Each is a circle but they overlap slightly, like a Venn Diagram. We live in the overlap. The Present Evil Age is ending. The Age to Come has dawned. But the Present Evil Age has not fully ended, and the Age To Come has not fully entered.
Paul’s words, You know what time it is. We are somewhere in the middle of the beginning of the end
Two Seminary words
Eschatology – Study of last things, end times
Apocalyptic – an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known and which could not be known apart from the unveiling
describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world.
There are Apocalyptic writings in the Canon of Scripture – unveils a revelation
The world would use it as Doomsday proclamations, to raise up terror and fear
If we anticipate the Doom and Gloom of a worldly apocalypse we will expect to find doom and gloom.
What we anticipate we begin to expect.
Jack in the Box
Perfection
Alarm Clock
Anticipate, joy, dread
Rev 21
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” [1]
Luke 21:25 – 28
25 “And there will be strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. 26 People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth, for the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. 28 So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up, for your salvation is near!” [2]
We focus on the wrong parts…We should focus on God will be with us, salvation/redemption is near
We don’t know when the end will come
And despite what some claim, we don’t know much about what will happen or how it will happen
But what we don’t know, or what we don’t understand can’t stand in the way of us digging deeper in knowing Father, Son Holy Spirit
Learning what he has done and anticipate what He will do
Learning his voice, and listening for what He is trying to tell us
Again, What we Anticipate we begin to expect.
Football sign or signal to snap the ball
Conversation – argument
If we begin with the End in mind, if we begin to anticipate the End, we can live a life worthy of the calling God has placed on us
We want to live with Eschatological Hope, rather than live in Apocalyptic Anxiety.
Eschatological Hope – We know how the story ends! And we can live remembering the End
We don’t have to live in Apocalyptic Anxiety, in a sense of fear and foreboding
What we anticipate we begin to expect
Swords beaten into plows
No More studying warfare
Wolf lying down with the lamb
New heaven & new earth
Advent – one who is coming
Advent begins not with the first coming of Jesus, but with the second coming.
Mystery of faith
Christ has died
Christ is risen
Christ will come again
What we Anticipate we begin to expect
The world has made the story of advent a ramping up to the story of Jesus birth.
The words we use should tell us there is more to this season than just celebrating Jesus’ birth. The word Christmas is a combination of Christ’s Mass. The worship service of Communion around the time of Jesus birth. Birth to life to death to resurrection to ascension to coming again
The world wants to jump over Advent, forget that Jesus is coming again, focus on the cute innocent baby that can’t possibly mess with the world’s power structure
Pretty angels singing , shepherds and wisemen, over look the mass murder, overlook that we want Christmas to be from the day after thanksgiving up to Christmas Day. Forget that Christmas Day begins the season, the 12 days of Christmas. Forget that the Christian New Year with its seasons points us to the ultimate, but allow it to be crowded out with what we deem important, what others tell us is urgent
What we anticipate we begin to expect
We know when Jesus returns glorious things will happen.
We do not hope these things will happen one day, at some point…We are hoping from the future! We have an anchor in the future in Jesus Christ.
When – we don’t know
If – without a doubt
Pessimism Optimism
We are all somewhere on the spectrum. Too many are captured by cynicism
Cynical abot the future
I’m a realist – pessimist/cynicism
What each one of us should be is a hopefulist!
We have an anchor in the future
We know how it is going to end
But it hasn’t happened yet
Lots of days since the promise Jesus will come back
Not procrastination
GOd hasn’t forgotten
2 Peter 3:8 -10
8 But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. [3]
The Lord is not slow, he is patient
On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Good News we are not out of time, yet
There is time for you
Me
Families
Neighbors
But there will be an end to this season
When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else—something it never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it. (C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity [New York: HarperCollins, 2011], 65)
What are you anticipating? The same old same old? God still at work bringing us closer to Christ’s Return?
Choose today, anticipate His work, expect his presence
[1] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Re 21:1–4). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
[2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Lk 21:25–28). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
[3] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (2 Pe 3:8–10). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.