ADVENT • 2

Are You Prepared for Christmas?

SONGS FOR PRAYER

SET PRAYER

Unexpected God

God of timeless grace,
you fill us with joyful expectation.
Make us ready for the message that prepares the way,
that with uprightness of heart and holy joy
we may eagerly await the kingdom of your Son, Jesus Christ,
who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

reading for: Tuesday Night, 29 november

Matthew 3:1-12

Preparing for Christmas through Repentance

  • READ

    We have entered the season of Advent, a time of preparation to celebrate the Lord’s First Coming as we anticipate His Second Coming. In this season, we consider again the full significance of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

    The meaning and joy that Christmas Day and the soon arriving Christmas season easily escapes us unless we make a focused effort in these next few weeks to prepare ahead of time on all the promises of God that have come to fulfillment in Jesus’ birth.

    This Christian preparation stands is great contrast to our modern society’s way of preparation for Christmas – with all the glitter of Christmas trees and lights, Christmas music, Christmas sales and Christmas presents.

    How do Christians prepare for Christmas? Biblical repentance. It’s not about feeling sorry for our mistakes or trying to be a better person, where we dig up feelings of guilt and unworthiness, because of moral failures, or even dwell on fear of a day of judgment, when God will separate the wheat from the chaff. Instead, Biblical repentance, which John in today’s passage calls us to is to prepare us to reembrace and remember, how at Christmas, God the Father wrapped his Eternal Son in human likeness and gave him completely and unreservedly to us, so that He could be among us, and share in our human joys and sorrows, victories and defeats, show us the way back to the Father and ultimately heal and restore humanity - his broken image. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of Christmas – God is with us.  

    Firstly, John’s strange clothes and severe sayings are needful aspects of preparing us to receive the full meaning of this gospel. John is a voice crying out in the wilderness, evoking for the Jews memories of their ancestors’ painful journey through the wilderness, the problem of their hearts constantly turning back to Egypt, and their eyes ungrateful and blind to see God’s faithful leadership, provision and protection all the way through to the Promised Land. How could they be the children of Abraham when they did not possess the faith of Abraham not did they recognize the voice of God through John, whom Abraham heard and obeyed?

    Secondly, John’s baptism foreshadowed and pointed forward to a more radical baptism in Christ by the Holy Spirit’s power. This new baptism in Christ which was to come, would be the new life of being buried and raised to new life in Christ and adopted into the new family of God for both Jews and gentiles.

    Finally, the image of God’s judgement and wrath makes clear the urgency of recognizing that in the coming of Christ, God has judged the world and the old is passing away and the new has come through Him. It is in repentance that Christians reaffirm that this world and its ways, values and systems are passing away. This world with its new and volatile digital currencies is still, after all, an old world. Greed and selfishness still rule it. Wickedness and injustice still have their way. The promises of technology, medicine and education don’t bring healing and salvation to a broken heart or shattered family. It is through repentance that the Church, the Body of Christ is prepared once again for a radical trust in Christ, that only himself is able, and working to purify and heal us and through His Rule, bring Heaven to Earth and make humanity a ready and fitting dwelling place for God Himself.

  • REFLECT

    Turn your whole mind and heart towards Christ. In silence, give him your fullest attention. When you are ready, invite the Holy Spirit to wash over and purify you, confessing Him as the Christ, the Only Son whom the Father has given. Then look back over the year in gratitude and share with others how you have experienced the goodness of God this year which has brought you to this moment of repentance.

reading for: Wednesday Night, 30 November

Isaiah 11:1-10

Preparing for Christmas by Renewing our Longing for Christ & His Return

  • READ

The scripture passage falls into two distinctive parts, both dealing with Israel’s future hope for the coming of God’s kingdom. The first part reflects the hope for a righteous ruler in the line of David (v. 1–5); the second expresses the hope for an age of harmony and peace (v. 6–9). The first of these hopes makes the second possible.

The prophet Isaiah starts by highlighting themes of hope and a coming prince of peace. Looking at his current circumstances, he declares that Assyria will fall like a tree that will never sprout again. The scene changes when he turns to the house of David. Although David’s house is falling, also like a tree, from its roots a branch will sprout. However, all is not lost for the people of Judah, because from David’s descendants will arise a king of peace whose reign will be one of peace and righteousness.

This coming king, the promised prince of peace, will, like His ancestor David (1 Sam 16:13), carry the spirit of God on Him and in Him is the hope of salvation that the Jews are looking for. With the presence of the Holy Spirit on him, come wisdom and understanding, along with counsel and might as well as the fear of the Lord. Such a ruler will not rely solely on the immediate impression of his senses (v. 3, eyes and ears), but will rely on the qualities of covenant commitment, righteousness and equity (v. 4a).

These qualities are reflected in Psalm 72:1–2: “Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king’s son. May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.” Like Solomon the new leader will be skilled in knowledge and the gift of discernment (1 Kgs. 3:9).

The promise that this king of peace will embody and make possible, is one in which the whole creation will participate. The sign and signal of the new day will be the appearance of this new king who will restore the Davidic line, ushering in the eschatological realm in which God’s knowledge will cover the earth “as the waters cover the sea” (v. 9). This promised salvation will not come through human intervention but through divine action, in which the rights of the poor and the frail members of society will be respected. In this awesome vision, we see human beings, animals, the land renewed. All of Creation participates in this peace.

  • REFLECT

    In Luke 10:24 Jesus declares that this wonderful picture of Isaiah is now fulfilled in Him. He says, “For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” For the last 2000 years, the kingdom of God has been in our midst and the Risen Lord, through His Spirit-empowered Church, is continuing His mission and purposes in the world until He returns.

    How much has the hope and desire for Christ to reign in your life and his purposes to unfold in your circumstances, been a part of your life this year? Take time to turn to him and invite Him to reign in specific areas of your life and work as you prepare for Christmas.

reading for: Thursday Night, 1 december

Romans 15:4-13

Preparing for Christmas with Hopeful Assurance that in Christ, God Keeps His Promises

  • READ

    Hope is the theme that wraps around this concluding section of Paul’s long letter to the community of believers in Rome. In verse 4 he urges that they find in the “scriptures” (that is, the Old Testament) the encouragement that will produce hope. And similarly, at the end of the passage in verse 13 he concludes again, with the same encouragement: “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.”

    For many of us, hope may be something of a kind of last resort: it is what we do after all our planning and preparing is done; it is what we do if we cannot fix whatever the problem is. Such a perspective puts us at the centre of the universe, and God is only there to pick up the pieces.

    For others, hope is buying TOTO or going to the casino. It is imagining that there is some force in the universe that will come to our rescue and give us what we think we want. We depend on this “luck” or “fate” or “chance” for our lives to change for the better.

    Neither of these meanings is what the Apostle Paul’s means in this passage. For Paul, “hope” is more like “trust.” The ground for hope is neither the last resort nor random chance. The ground is God: God of “steadfastness and encouragement,” the “God of hope.” Because God is the guarantor of whatever is promised, the believer may live with complete confidence. What God has said, is what will be.

    In writing to a community of believers in Rome, which is made up of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews), Paul reminds them that are united because the gospel message is that the promises that God made long ago to God’s people Israel are now open to all others as well because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And so we find the first eleven chapters of Romans explaining how this has come about. Then, in chapter 12, Paul paints a picture of what this means for how this community is supposed to live in their new identity as God’s united people, despite their very real differences.  However, the summary of all he says in chapters 12–14 comes in chapter 15:7:“Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” In order to give glory and praise to God, Paul says, Christ has extended his welcome to all—Jew and Gentile alike. In order to fulfill God’s promises, Christ embodied God’s desire to widen the circle of divine love. So, if God has welcomed all of you, you are to be imitators of God and welcome others into communion and community. Hence, life in Christian community is to be shaped by the practice of hospitality, of opening one’s home and life to others. There is no longer insider and outsider. Now all are hosts and all are guests, because all have been welcomed into communion with God through His unlimited divine love, expressed in the sending and giving of His Son.  

  • REFLECT

    Who are you welcoming into your fellowship and friendship this Christmas? Who will you invite into your home and heart or to join you for Christmas Service? As a Life Group, make time in these next few LG sessions to pray for the family and friends that God has laid on your heart. Then give them a call.

reading for: Friday Night, 2 december

Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19

Preparing for Christmas by participating in prayer for God’s Reign of Righteousness unfolding through Christ

  • READ

    The psalm opens with a petition that God will give Jerusalem a king beyond all that they can imagine, who will bring a reign of justice and prosperity for all. This desperate plea calls for a ruler empowered by God who will serve the common good. In this season of Advent, we are also waiting—waiting not only for personal transformation but also longing for the consummation and transformation of our world in the coming of the Messiah’s reign of peace and justice.

    Power, peace, and justice are the abiding themes in this psalm as the psalmist explores the definitions of dominion ranging from Israel’s king to God’s reign in the world. The kind of picture the psalmist ultimately offers of power, peace, justice, and righteousness emerges in the form of characteristics of a king.

    The king is representative of God’s glory and goodness. In many ways, the king is depicted as an agent of God’s righteousness. The hope is that the king sees the world as God sees it, and defends the world’s most vulnerable people, bringing deliverance to the needy (v. 4). This may include offering jobs, providing shelter, and cultivating useful skills or meaningful work.

    This king will also crush oppressors and dismantle the sinful structures that keep God’s people from thriving. He will maintain determination in enduring hardships and sacrifice to overcome evil with good. These things will be done for all times and all generations (v. 5). The fruit of the king’s labours will be days when righteousness flourishes and peace abounds (v. 7). All that the sovereign is and does shall be life giving to the people, a source of  refreshment and renewal for the whole of creation.

  • REFLECT

    So what does it mean for Christian citizens and residents of our country today? Do we continue to uphold our current elected officials and other leaders in prayer, especially with matters of social justice, regardless of whether we agree or disagree with their decisions or the grounds for their decisions? Do we pray that that they will continue provide us with a framework for life-giving and not just harmonious living?

    Also, what does this say about our mandate as God’s “Royal Priesthood”, his sons and daughter? What does this mean for living with power and authority today? It is important to remember not to place too much trust in secular government, because they, like us, are only human. Rather, our need for a model ruler such as the one Psalm 72 paints for us reinforces our need for a Messiah, for Jesus, who never fails or forsakes us. As Christians, we look to Jesus as our ultimate example of righteous rulership, not to our earthly leaders.

    In the light of latest legislation passed, whether we agree with the decision or not, our national leaders have sought to forge the best way forward for the nation. While the wisdom of it remains to be seen, let us continue to pray for them, along with our church leaders.

Season of AdventCNL