Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship – BLCF Church Message for Sunday:
‘Advent: Filled with the Joy and Peace in Believing’
© November 30, 2014 by Steve Mickelson
Revised Sermon Shared by Steve Mickelson at BLCF on December 1, 2013
BLCF Bulletin November 30, 2014
BLCF Call to Worship and Prayer:
Responsive Reading #632 (God’s Redeeming Love of Prayer – From John 3 and 1 John 4); Prayer
Hymn #248: And Can It Be That I Should Gain
Today’s Scriptures: Isaiah 9:2-6, Luke 1:30-35, Romans 15:12-13
Isaiah 9:2-6 (ESV)
2 [a] The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon[b] his shoulder, and his name shall be called[c] Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Footnotes: a. Isaiah 9:2 Chapter 9:1 in Hebrew b. Isaiah 9:6 Or is upon c. Isaiah 9:6 Or is called
Luke 1:30-35
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.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”[a]
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[b] will be called holy—the Son of God.
Footnotes: a. Luke 1:34 Greek since I do not know a man b. Luke 1:35 Some manuscripts add of you
Romans 15:12-13 (ESV)
12 And again Isaiah says,
“The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope.”
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Let us pray…
This is the first Sunday of Advent, where traditionally Christian Church observes the first of the four Sundays before Christmas Day, or the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace and the author of our salvation.
For our lesson today, let us look at the first Advent observance. In Isaiah 9, verses 2 to 6, we have an account by Isaiah, a Prophet of God, written some seven centuries before the events took place. The prophecy describes a world not too different from our world today, some twenty seven centuries after Isaiah’s time. In both times, people walk and dwell in darkness. Darkness being both sin and sin’s judgment thanks to the influence of Satan, who after all, is the Prince of Darkness.
It is noteworthy that people have tendency to want to see, hear and read, a long story in short form. That is why such publications as Readers Digest are successful in condensing relatively long articles and books into shorter versions of the original. You may be aware of the frequently used acronym “KISS”, which stands for “Keep It Short Stupid.”
Reading (sic) Digest
It is not surprising that Christian Churches today frequently represent the advent or coming of the Christ Child as the four Sunday’s or month prior to Christmas Day, when Isaiah’s prophecy was revealed some seven centuries previously. We talk about Mary’s encounter with an angel less than a month before the event, condensed from nine months that a pregnancy requires.
It is understandable that even some Christians assume that there is brevity in the duration of time it took between the prophecy and birth of Christ. What do I mean about brevity. Time for our wikibits for a quick definition:
brevity /ˈbrɛvɪtɪ/ noun (pl) -ties
- conciseness of expression; lack of verbosity
- a short duration; brief time
Word Origin and History for brevity Expand
– noun c.1500, from Latin brevitatem (nominative brevitas) “shortness” in space or time, from brevis “short”.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/brevity
My dad was a career journalist who would often say that the newspapers he worked for expected him to write the first paragraph of an article as a complete synopsis of all the important details of the story.
This was done so that a copy editor could cut paragraphs from the bottom of the article, as needed to make room for other important articles to be inserted, just before press time. We find Wikipedia has an apt description of this technique of “copy editing” used for print publications, as well as other forms of news media:
Article Publishing (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
While a good conclusion is an important ingredient for newspaper articles, the immediacy of a deadline environment means that copy editing often takes the form of deleting everything past an arbitrary point in the story corresponding to the dictates of available space on a page. Therefore, newspaper reporters are trained to write in inverted pyramid style, with all the most important information in the first paragraph or two. If the less vital details are pushed towards the end of the story, then the potentially destructive impact of draconian copy editing will be minimized.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_(publishing)
Journalism (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The role and status of journalism, along with that of the mass media, has undergone profound changes over the last two decades with the advent of digital technology and publication of news on the Internet. This has created a shift in the consumption of print media channels, as people increasingly consume news through e-readers, smartphones, and other electronic devices, challenging news organizations to fully monetize their digital wing, as well as improvise on the context in which they publish news in print. Notably, in the American media landscape, newsrooms have reduced their staff and coverage as traditional media channels, such as television, grapple with declining audiences. For instance, between 2007 and 2012, CNN edited its story packages into nearly half of their original time length.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism
We see today that society has become used to receiving information in a format that is both short and condensed. Even the latest media forms try to convey message in the form of a short sound bite:
Sound bite (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
A sound bite is a short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio, often used to promote or exemplify the full length piece. In the context of journalism, a sound bite is characterized by a short phrase or sentence that captures the essence of what the speaker was trying to say, and is used to summarize information and entice the reader or viewer. The term was coined by the U.S. media in the 1970s. Since then, politicians have increasingly employed sound bites to summarize their positions.
Due to its brevity, the sound bite often overshadows the broader context in which it was spoken, and can be misleading or inaccurate. The insertion of sound bites into news broadcasts or documentaries is open to manipulation, leading to conflict over journalistic ethics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_bite
- Shakespeare ala twitter
The danger in the brief sound bite is passing on misleading or inaccurate information. Can you imagine The Sermon on the Mount being recorded as a twitter, with a limit of only 140 characters, or the having to condense Paul’s Letters of the Romans down to a single paragraph? Imagine what would be lost. The apostles could ill-afford to cut the Gospel as a matter of convenience to its readers or by restrictions dictated by the publishers of the medium. We need to be mindful how of long it took for the promise of a Messiah bringing to reach its completion.
Isaiah had predicted that into the darkness, a great light will come. Often the Scriptures refer to the presence of light and fire as indicative the power and presence of God. We see that the light that comes will be a child, called Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace and Mighty God. Isaiah describes the advent of Jesus Christ some 700 years in his future.
Between the time of Isaiah and the birth of Christ, there were centuries of darkness: sin, suffering and death. Like today, where people of faith wait for Christ’s return, generations have waited with anticipation for the fulfillment of a prophet’s vision from God.
Even the people of Israel, who were delivered from the bondage of slavery in Egypt to God’s “Promised Land,” which was not just a land of milk and honey, but a land where the people would see Promise of a new Covenant, through Jesus Christ come to past.
In our second Scripture Verse for today, Roman’s 15, verses 12-13, the Apostle Paul quotes Isaiah, pointing out that root of Jesse a ruler will come, who gives hope to the Gentiles. You may recall that Jesse was the father of David and only after 600 years does a king arise among the descendants of David. And how will this new king rule? For the answer to this question, let us review Isaiah 11:1-5 (ESV):
The Righteous Reign of the Branch
11 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
Both of today’s Scripture verses offer the promise of peace. Isaiah 9:6 states:
6 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.
The Apostle Paul echoes this message of peace in Romans 15:13 where we read:
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
But what is meant by the “root of Jesse.” We know that Jesse was the father of King David, but our wikibits, from biblestudytools.com, provide us with a better, more comprehensive understanding of this Scripture prophecy from the book of Isaiah:
In Isaiah 11:10: there shall be a root of Jesse.
This prophecy is applied to the Messiah by the Jews, who say,
“that when the King Messiah is revealed, there shall be gathered to him all the nations of the world, so that that Scripture shall be fulfilled which is written, “there shall be a root of Jesse””
This character, “the root of Jesse”, may be understood of Christ with respect to his divine nature, who, as God, was before Jesse, and the author of his being, as of all creatures; just in such sense as he is called “the root and offspring of David”, ( Revelation 5:5 ) ( 22:16 ) ; the root of David, as he is God, and the offspring of David, as he is man; unless both are to be interpreted of his human nature, as the phrase here also may be, and denote his descent from Jesse as man; and so the Jewish writers interpret it as well as some Christian ones.
http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/romans-15-12.html
Who is the first to witness the fulfilment of a 700 year old prophecy that describes the advent of a new king who is also God? It was Mary.
The Bible tells us that for important messages, God often relied upon one of His angels to inform Mary of God’s plan, particularly when the message may bring worry or fear to the recipient. We find an example of this in Luke 1, verses 30-35, which is found on the back page of your bulletin:
Luke 1:30-35
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.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”[a]
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[b] will be called holy—the Son of God.
Footnotes: a. Luke 1:34 Greek since I do not know a man b. Luke 1:35 Some manuscripts add of you
Mary is informed by God’s angel that she has been chosen to be mother of the Son of the Most High or the Son of God, who will be a descendant of King David, who you recall, was the son of Jesse. And this be King shall reign forever.
The angel’s message to Mary causes her to ask the angel how she can have a child, since she is a virgin. The angel then explains to Mary that by power of God she will become pregnant to the Son of God.
Just as God had breathed life into a lump of clay to make Adam, and use a rib from Adam to form Eve, God will bring forth His only begotten son through Mary. Mary was the only person to witness all of these important events in the Life of our Lord:
She was first to know the Advent of Jesus’ birth, at the wedding in Cana where Jesus performed his first miracle, witnessing his crucifixion, his resurrection, and his gift of the Holy Spirit.
Our study today gives a perspective of an event from three different people, in three different time frames. Isaiah tells of the birth of Jesus as a prophetic vision some 700 years in the prophet’s future.
Next, Luke tells the same story as a visitation by an angel to Mary in her present time.
Then, in the verse from Romans, Paul gives a perspective of Isaiah’s vision and Mary’s angelic message reaching fruition as an event in Paul’s historical past that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, came to bring hope to humanity, salvation to all people and light into the darkness of the world.
And finally, we see that the Prophet Isaiah, Jesus’ mother Mary and the Apostle Paul are people of great faith. Their faith is a product of the revelation and understanding of God’s purpose by way of the Holy Spirit.
As apostles of the Lord, we are commissioned to open the eyes of others to the truth of the Scriptures, which records the Gospel of Christ Jesus, the Word made flesh.
Let us pray…
Lighting the First Advent Candle: Prophecy and Peace
Inside today’s bulletin is a few paragraphs from Wikipedia giving a synopsis of the Christian practice of lighting candles on the four Advent Sundays just prior to Christmas Day. I would like to direct you to the second paragraph, which reads as follows:
Advent Candles (from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
In Protestant churches it is more common to use four red candles (reflecting their traditional use in Christmas decorations) because rose vestments and decorations are not commonly used in Protestant churches. Blue is also a popular alternative color for both Advent vestments and Advent candles, especially in some Anglican and Lutheran churches. This is in keeping with the liturgical seasons; blue means hope and waiting, which aligns with the seasonal meaning of Advent. Other variations of the Advent wreath add a white candle in the center to symbolize Christmas, sometimes known as the “Christ candle.” It can be lit on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. White is the traditional festal color in the Western church. Four red candles with one white one is probably the most common arrangement in Protestant churches in Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advent_wreath
So in anticipation of the advent Isaiah’s prophecy, and Mary’s revelation of the birth of the Messiah, we light the first Candle of Advent, which is called the candle of prophecy and peace.
Hymn #102: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
Benediction – (Romans 15:13):
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
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