Communion With the Christ:: The Season of Advent: The Hope of Jesus' Coming

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze,

and causes water to boil,” Isa:64:1-2a

During this time of year many Christians celebrate the season of Advent, which is observed over four Sundays and leads us to the Christmas-Nativity of Jesus. Advent is the beginning of many Churches liturgical year.

Advent means coming, and the first Sunday of Advent looks into the years to come to that moment when Jesus Christ will descend from the Heavens and be seen by all who dwell upon the Earth.

The coming of Jesus Christ is a real hope for all peoples in all nations. Jesus’ Advent, that is his coming, gives humanity a hope that the human race will not go extinct and faded into the darkness of death and non-existence, but rather, has a future ordained by the great Creator God who brought all things into being, the very God who called forth Abram out of Ur and led Israel out of Egypt and has come to us in the person of his Holy Son Jesus Christ. It is this God, who assures his human children that there is a true hope of a future awaiting us.

Hope

The coming of Jesus gives hope to a world which has been wracked with strife and countless problems that it will one day know peace, true peace, even when this peace seems remote amidst the turmoil of the world. Be assured that there will come a day when the heavens will be rent at the sound of the heavenly trumpet which will sound and all eyes will see him.

Christians have long watched for the fulfillment of this blessed hope of the coming of Jesus.

“while we wait for the blessed hope--the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Tit:2:13

This time of the blessed hope of the coming of Jesus and the conditions which will be resident upon the Earth and lead up to Jesus’ glorious coming is spoken of in Apocalyptic imagery, which was taught in the Rabbinical Schools of the day, in our Lord’s own Olivet Prophecy. Matt:24, Lk:21 and Mk:13.

Conditions

Jesus’ employing Apocalyptic oratory devices depicting human civilization struggling with conditions ranging from everything from spiritual deception to war, economic challenges, to natural disasters to epidemics; each challenge growing in intensity up until that moment when our Lord Jesus comes at the sound of the Heavenly Trumpet.

"Look, he is coming with the clouds," and "every eye will see him, even those who pierced him"; and all peoples on earth "will mourn because of him." So shall it be! Amen” Rev: 1:7

“then they will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory” Mk: 13:26

Come Down O Lord

This time of the coming of Jesus is what the Prophet Isaiah in a prophetic prayer expressed in Apocalyptic language when he cried out to the God of Israel to come and bring his salvation to Israel and to all nations. The Prophet was calling for the hope of the coming, the Advent of Messiah so that all nations, not just Israel, would know the one true God.

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil,

come down to make your name known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quake before you!

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,

you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

Since ancient times no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right,

who remember your ways” Isa: 64:1-5

This coming down of the great God to this earth is the hope of all humanity. This is the hope that Christians, that is, believers in Jesus live in continually. But not just someday, for in the message of salvation has Jesus come down to them through the Gospel. Jesus has come in all the power of deity even now to set the captives of this world free to live under his reign even now. To live as children of God, not just some day

When we hear the message of the Gospel which is sounded like a trumpet throughout the Earth, it is, as if, the Heavens have been rent asunder and we see our God in the person of God’s Holy Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus comes to us and when he does the high places of our lives, like mountains, are shaken, and brought down before him.

When we embrace Jesus as our Messiah, the Holy Spirit, like a fire, is kindled in our lives. When Jesus comes to us it is an Apocalyptic moment and the water of the Spirit boils within us and we are then moved to live out Jesus’ coming to us each and every day not just some day.

“Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil, (1-2a)

Having Come to Us

As we live out the hope of Jesus’ coming to us , others can see his coming in our lives and then they too can come to know Jesus through the people of God.

“come down to make your name known to your enemies

and cause the nations to quake before you!” (2b)

This means that, our lives are to be lived out in the Apocalyptic reality of the coming of Jesus. The lives of Christians are to declare as a trumpet that our God has come down as the Prophet has prayed.

Our God has, in the person of Jesus comes down and continues to come down to each and all through his Holy Son Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

We are as Christians to have our lives filled with the Apocalyptic reality of our Lord Jesus’ coming, his Advent to us, not just someday in the years to come but even here and now. Our lives are to be lived out with this present hope which is to declare the future reality of Jesus’ coming, his Advent, to all people.

This is Hope of the Advent season, the hope of Jesus’ coming to each and all now, not just someday.

Benediction: May we each and all live out the reality of our Lord Jesus’ coming to us through the Gospel, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen.