The Advent Message
A season to see the purpose, plan and power of God
This is the text of a message I preached at Roswell Alliance Church in Roswell, GA. You may watch or listen to it by following the link to the online service. The sermon begins at about the 13th minute.
Video: 39 minutes
Online Service — Roswell Alliance Church
Reading time: 7 minutes
Scriptures: Matthew 1:17-25; 2:13-14; 2:19-21
I want to look together at three things in these verses from Matthew’s gospel:
God’s purpose
God’s plan
God’s power
First, God’s purpose.
Advent is about celebrating Jesus coming into our world. Why do we make so much of the birth of this Jewish child 2,000 years ago?
The birth of Jesus is significant because Jesus is God’s answer to our problem. Our problem is two-fold.
First, we don’t know God.
Second, left to ourselves, God is not our God. He is not the God of the dead and we are dead in our sins.
Only by Jesus can we know God and by new birth in Him have life, both abundant and eternal.
Let’s look at these two issues.
We don’t know God. Remember Jacob at Bethel, when he was running away from home and had a vision during the night of a ladder reaching into heaven, and angels going up and down. Jacob awoke and said, “God is here, and I didn’t know it” (Genesis 28:10-22). Jacob was in the presence of the Almighty and didn’t know.
Or remember Israel in Egypt when God sent Moses to bring them out of their slavery. Pharaoh scoffed, asking,
“Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go?
I do not know the LORD, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
Pharaoh wasn’t to be ignorant for long. God vowed that when He was through, “Pharaoh and the Egyptians will know I am the Lord” (Exodus 7:5).
Israel was no better, even though they were the children of Abraham. God declared that they, also, “will know I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 29:46).
It wasn’t just those in the Old Testament who didn’t know God. Jesus had a conversation with a woman in Samaria who came to get water at the town well. When He asked for a drink, she was flabbergasted. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?”
Jesus answered, “If you knew, you would ask Him for water” (John 4:9-10).
So, here is the first part of our problem: We don’t know God, even when we are face to face.
Jesus reveals the second part of our problem during a conversation with some of Israel’s leaders. A group of Sadducees, who didn’t believe in a resurrection, asked a preposterous question about marriage in the hereafter. Jesus answered graciously, then addressed their disbelief about the resurrection. “God is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:27).
“God is not the God of the dead.” This means God is not our God, for the Apostle Paul says plainly what other scriptures imply: Without Christ, we are dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1).
God had warned Adam: “The day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die.” He and Eve went ahead and ate, and they died. Not that day, but they were dead in sin even as they lived. Their Creator was no longer their God, for they believed what they declared by their disobedience: We are our own gods.
So, this is our problem. We don’t know God and we live apart from Him. This brings us to God’s purpose and the importance of Advent: God will make Himself known. He will show Himself.
— 2 Timothy 1:9
God has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,
The word purpose means to set forth; to place before; to exhibit.
Paul emphasizes that, before time began, God’s purpose has been to make Himself known. God would show Himself. Foreseeing Christ would come, scripture declared,
A body you have prepared for me;
— Hebrews 10:5-7
I have come to do your will.
And so, Jesus is born. We come to our text. The birth of Jesus was like this, according to God’s purpose.
It is significant that Matthew presents Mary’s pregnancy within the history of God’s dealing with His people. We measure a pregnancy in three trimesters and Matthew divides Israel’s history into three equal trimesters of fourteen generations each.
Abraham to David to Exile to Christ Trimester 1 2 3
Paul said God’s purpose predates time, and we can see how these trimesters of God’s labor with Israel fit within the trimesters of time.
Christ to Adam to 1st Advent to 2nd Advent Trimester 1 2 3
Events in the news lead me to believe we are nearing the end of the third trimester of time. “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains,” said Jesus (Matthew 24:8). This Advent, we look forward to the Second Advent, when Christ returns.
We see, then, God’s purpose is to show Himself, to make Himself known. He does this
• In Mary. It was a matter of time before she would begin to show, and Joseph intended to put her away privately.
• In His people. Christ in us is the hope of glory, says Paul.
• In ages to come, when God will display His wisdom through the Church.
Advent reminds us our lives have amazing meaning when God shows Himself in us. On purpose, God sent Christ so that we not only might know the true and living God, but also live in Him, and He in us. And His purpose transcends time. In ages to come we will continue to live according to His desire that we know Him and manifest Him in His creation.
How can we despair when we know that God loves us and works all things together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)?
From God’s purpose to His plan.
Joseph had plans for his life.
• Career: carpenter, his father’s business, perhaps
• Family: Marry Mary, a young girl in town.
• Settle in Nazareth
The news about Mary changed his plans. The Law said to stone her, but Joseph shows mercy. He doesn’t want her to die, but he would hide her. He would have another bride.
God had a different plan, one that established everything Joseph originally intended. Joseph would be a carpenter and settle in Nazareth as he thought. The twist was God wanted Joseph to proceed with marrying Mary.
This corresponds to what Paul advised the believers in Corinth. “Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him….Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called” — 1 Corinthians 7:17, 20
This is good counsel for us. Certainly, God calls some to special work, but God wanted Mary and Joseph to have Jesus where they were. Paul saw this as the norm. Don’t be quick to forsake where God has you.
But, Joseph’s life does change in a way. Everything going forward revolves around Jesus. Each time God tells Joseph to do something, he obeys.
“Do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife.” Joseph “did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife.” Matthew 1:20, 24
“Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word.” Joseph “arose, took the young Child and His mother by night and left for Egypt.” Matthew 2:13-14
“Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” Joseph “arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came to Israel.” Matthew 2:19-21
God’s plan looks like this:
“those who live should live no longer for themselves,
—2 Corinthians 5:15
but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
Paul wrote this after The Cross. Joseph wasn’t there yet. He would say it this way,
“I no longer live for myself,
but for Him who came to save His people from their sins.”
We learn from Joseph that God may grant our desires, but He has an overriding desire for us to live for Him. Our lives are not our own.
From God’s plan to His power.
The angel greeted Mary, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28).
Mary is in a long heritage of women God has favored.
• Sarah bore Isaac,
• Rebekah bore Jacob and Esau
• Hannah bore Samuel
• Elizabeth bore John the Baptist
These were all barren, yet God in His favor blessed them with children.
His favor doesn’t end there. When Mary gave birth to Jesus, God dispatched angels with a message for the world:
“Good tidings of great joy which will be to all people” (Luke 2:10).
“Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14).
This is the message of Advent: God gave a young couple in Israel a child and, to us by extension, a savior. God has performed His goodwill toward us. Now is time of His favor. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).
God says to us what He said to Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?”
We live in the time when God still accepts us.
This is God’s power toward those He favors:
From the virgin (Mary) came a child.
From the barren came children—Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah and Elizabeth.
But here is an even greater demonstration of God’s power.
From the dead come the living.
The Apostles Creed reminds us we believe in Jesus Christ, who
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
the third day he rose from the dead;
King Herod despised Christ’s advent and ordered the massacre of children who were born around the same time. We are no better; we crucified Jesus.
But God raised Him from the dead.
And we who are dead in sin have been raised together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5).
This is the power of God. From the dead come the living. Those who were dead in sin live again by the power that raised Jesus from the dead and works in those who believe (Ephesians 1:19).
This Advent, may God birth in us faith to believe
God has fulfilled His purpose. In Jesus, God
has set Himself forth before His creation;
has made Himself known to those who did not know Him;
has shown Himself. When we see Jesus, we see the Father.
God has fulfilled His plan. A cloud of witnesses cries out:
“We no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who came to save us from our sins.
We live for Him who died for us and rose again.”
Let us join them, rejoicing how God has blessed us with His favor. The angel told Mary, “Call Him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
This is the Gospel, the power of God unto salvation.