Between Two Advents

Tomorrow is the second Sunday of the season of Advent – a time of preparation for Christmas and the birth of the Son of God as a baby in Bethlehem. But did you know that Advent is not simply about looking back to Christ's birth? It's also about looking forward to His promised second coming. In one of my father's Advent sermons, he explained that we live “in a unique time-frame which relatively few other people since the beginning of time have known. … We are living between two Advents.”

“Traditionally, Advent not only has been the season of anticipation of Christ’s first coming into the world as a baby in a manger, but also has been a time to anticipate His second coming in glory at the end of history to establish his rule of righteousness and peace. … There is the first Advent, the revelation of God’s grace through Jesus the Christ, who came in the form of a man. … And then there is the second Advent, the final revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord and King over all people and all creation. This Advent yet-to-be will signal the ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of God. This is the hope of our gospel faith. With belief in these two Advents, we are enabled to live our Christian life in a fallen world. These two Advents are what keep us going.”

“Advent simply means ‘coming.’ … The first Advent or Coming, taken as unit, which is how it must be seen – Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection – is the guaranty of the defeat of evil, the down-payment on our ransom. Christ came into the world, subjected himself to everything that Satan could throw at Him, even died at the hands of evil men, but He rose victorious. He broke the back of evil. And so now it remains for you and me to spread this wonderful news, to give all people the opportunity to hear and believe it, so that when He returns to claim His kingdom and formally establish His rule, He will find happy, willing, and believing subjects to enjoy it with Him forever.”

“As bad as things seem to be these days, the Christian is given strength to hope [by the two Advents]. … We live day-to-day, fighting our skirmishes with evil, living the Christian life, but with our heads up, watchful, knowing that our salvation is always drawing nearer. There is great comfort and encouragement throughout all of the stresses and strains of living when you know that the Lord is there at the end, waiting to take you unto Himself.”

“Once upon a time, there was a little boy who sat on his father’s lap, sobbing because the next day was to be his first day of school and he was afraid. Until this point, his father had been with him in all that he did, and so now he wanted his dad to go along to school tomorrow and stay with him all day. But, of course, the father couldn't do that; this, the boy had to do alone. But his father succeeded in comforting the boy with these words: ‘I have been with you for the last six years and you know that I love you. Tomorrow when you go to school my body will not be with you, but I will think about you all day and, in a way, I will be there with you. And then when school is over, I will come and meet you at the bus stop and we’ll walk home together and you can tell me all about your day.’ The child was comforted by these words because this new, untested, and fearful experience was bracketed on either side, before and after, by the presence of a loving father.”

“This too is your source of strength and mine. Christ came; and Christ will come again. If we’re living for Him in the meantime, we cannot lose!”

From: "Between the Advents"

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:1-19; Mark 13:32-37