The word “Advent” is derived from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming,” which is a translation of the Greek word parousia. So, Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the “coming of Messiah”.
Initially the focus was on the return of the Messiah or the second coming, but over time it looked to His first coming as well. But the church emphasized the coming of Jesus to a person through faith.
I would like us to consider three perspectives of His coming: the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem, the reception of Messiah in the heart of a believer, and the Second Coming of the Messiah when He returns.
Advent is a powerful reminder of what was, is and is still to come. The tradition of Advent dates to the early church after the Jewish Apostles.
After the protestant reformation, when many left the Western Catholic church and the protestant movement began, the tradition of advent was kept and continued each year.
I want us to consider advent from a Jewish perspective. Israel’s great hope was and still is, at least among the Orthodox Jewish community, the coming of the Messiah.
This Orthodox hope is expressed In Matthew 2:1-6 where we learn of wise men who come to Herod to inquire where they might find the Messiah. We all know This as a key feature of the Christmas/Advent story:
Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Gathering all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet: ‘and you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
They cited the prophecy of Micah 5:2. These Jewish leaders and scholars knew that the prophets foretold where the Messiah would be born.
So, the first aspect of Advent has to do with the Promise that God would send a Messiah who would deliver His people. This great hope was given to Moses by in Deut. 18:15:
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.
You may remember that when the Jewish people went out to John the Baptist in the wilderness, they asked him if he was the Messiah or Elijah, or the “prophet”. With each title, John said no.
“The prophet” they were referring to came from Deut 18:18 “I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”
Since Moses was the great deliverer of our people from bondage and the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh, our fathers in the time of Yeshua, believed that the prophet/deliverer would be like Moses.
Israel under Roman rule saw themselves as living in Egyptian bondage. They believed that the coming deliverer would break the yoke and tyranny of Rome and rule over an Independent Israel.
They were looking for a political and military Messiah who would deliver as Moses did overthrowing Rome. The prophet Zechariah gave them this hope in Zech 14:2-3:
“For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured … Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.
They were looking for a lion of a leader not a lamb. One who would lead Israel in throwing off the yoke of Rome. In fact, one of the disciples of Yeshua was a zealot involved in plots to overthrow Roman rule.
And so, when Jesus came in humility calling men to repentance rather than rising up against Rome He was rejected by lay people because he was not a military and political leader.
Then when He challenged the religious authority of the Sadducees and Pharisees they joined together to get rid of him. This wasn’t the first time something like this happened in Jewish history.
There was a time when Israel wanted a King like the rest of the nations. We read about it in 1 Samuel 8:4-7:
“Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. “Look,” they told him, “You are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have. “Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the LORD for guidance. “Do everything they say to you,” the LORD replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer.”
Israel was looking for a King to lead them in battle over their enemies and to bring them peace and prosperity. But they failed to realize that God already was their King who had the nations in His hands.
Sometimes Christians act like Israel. Over the centuries various Christian nations wanted an earthly king to rule over their land. But those who have genuine faith in Yeshua believe He is King who rules over His people and the nations.
So, the first aspect of advent is recognizing the humble and lowly Yeshua as the one prophesied to bring redemption to the world, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.
He came as the prophets foretold, born in Bethlehem and not as the Lion of the tribe of Judah but as the Lamb of God as the prophet Isaiah foretold: Is 53:6-7
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
The second aspect of Advent is the receiving Yeshua in our hearts, minds, and souls. It’s not enough to believe He was born according to the Scriptures or intellectually accept Yeshua at the Messiah.
To be redeemed means to be purchased, that our lives are no longer our own. When a person trusts that Yeshua died for their sin, they acknowledge that He is now Lord and King of their life.
Life from the dead begins when we understand and abide in that truth. Yeshua said in Mat. 16:25 “he who loses his life finds it but he who keeps his life loses it” Losing our life means letting God control it.
Paul tells us in Rom. 6:5-6 “Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Messiah so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.”
The message of advent receiving Yeshua as Messiah, King, and Lord of our lives. Paul describes himself as a bondservant or bondslave. Many fail to understand this because they’re not familiar with Torah.
The only scripture the early church had was the Tanakh. When Paul wrote “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” He was referring to the Tanakh, the Jewish Scriptures.
The definition of a bondslave comes from Torah in Exodus 21. It describes a Jewish man who because of debt became a slave of the person he was indebted to.
However, Torah specified that all such slaves were to be released in the Sabbath year. A bondslave differed from other slaves in that when the year of release came the bondslave gave himself permanently to his master in Ex. 21:5:
“But the slave may declare, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children. I don’t want to go free.’ If he does this, his master must present him before God. Then his master must take him to the door or doorpost and publicly pierce his ear with an awl. After that, the slave will serve his master for life.
The chief characteristic motivating his choice was his love of the master and the family that came to him in his bondage. He believed His master would take better care of him and his family than he could on his own.
Perhaps in his freedom he would become indebted once again and was fearful of whom he might become enslaved to after he left. But here he knew his master was good to him and his family.
So, he surrendered his life to his master trusting that serving him as his bondslave was better than serving himself.
This is exactly what happened to us when we came to faith. We were in debt and bondage because of our sin. Yeshua paid our debt and set us free. We freely chose to serve Him rather than ourselves.
Some of us did not understand that and soon went our own way, running our own lives. We strayed from serving our master and found ourselves ensnared and in debt because of our sin once again.
But the real joy of Advent is returning to our Master and becoming His bondslaves. Willing slaves of our Lord dying to ourselves and finding again the abundant life that comes from His care of us.
When we learn to die to self and live for our Master. The things of this world dim and the King and His Kingdom become our focus and delight. We learn His will in His Word which includes the promise of Ps 37:4-5:
Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. He knows what will bless us better than we do.
Finally, a third aspect of Advent is the Return of the Messiah.
One of the great reasons for us to be students of prophecy are the multitude of promises regarding the return of the Messiah. In fact, this truth is a motivation for a godly life: 1 Jn 3:2-3:
“Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Messiah appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure…”
God’s People have always been called to be holy as He is. Lev. 19:2 Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.
1 Pet 1:15-16 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
If we’re children of God, we’re called to be ready for the anytime return of Israel’s King. Our Messiah told us to be ready specifically in Luke 12
Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning, as though you were waiting for your master to return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks.
Yeshua uses 4 word pictures there to call his disciples to readiness. First, he says Be ready for His return by being “dressed for service” literally, “let your loins be girded.”
This was the same expression Moses used on the very first Passover when the Lord brought Israel out of bondage. They were to eat the meal that night with their loins girded and their staff in hand.
The verb used here indicates a state of perpetual readiness for action.
The second figure, “keep your lamps lit,” If you were expecting a midnight visitor, you would keep an oil light burning so that when he knocked on the door, you could see to let him in. The idea is, to be ready for our Master’s coming.
The third picture is of servants awaiting their master’s return from a wedding feast. Wedding feasts could last for days, often for a week. The servants would need to be ready when they heard their master arrive to open the door to serve him. This is the idea of the parable of the 10 virgins in Matt. 25. 5 were ready and 5 were not. Those not ready were locked out.
The fourth picture is of a thief breaking into a house in the middle of the night. If the homeowner had known when the thief was coming, he wouldn’t allow his house to be broken into. He would’ve been ready and waiting.
Then Yeshua states the application of all four figures: “You, too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect” (12:40).
This of course, is the second coming of the Messiah, and one of the essential reasons for the observance of advent. Scripture describes that he will first come for His bride: 1 Thess. 4:15-17:
We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.
Advent then is a reminder for His bride the church to be ready for His anytime coming. We are to be dressed in readiness, being clothed with garments of our salvation Messiah, who is our righteousness.
To have our lamps filled with oil and lit, filled with Spirit of God and living, walking and abiding in the Light of the Lord. To be looking and ready for our Master’s return being sure that when He does we are doing the King’s business.
Advent is a time to remember. A time to remember that as the prophets foretold the promised Messiah of Israel and the Nations has come.
A time to remember that we need to receive Him as our King and Lord and that we’ve been purchased by Him. His will must be our will He is our Master and if we will serve Him He will love and care for us through all the trials of our lives.
And it is a time to remember that the King is coming soon first in the clouds for His bride to bring them safely to the place He has prepared for them.
This season of advent I urge you to believe in the Messiah who lived and died to redeem and save us. May we welcome him into our hearts and allow Him to rule our lives. You will never regret it.
And finally, be ready for His return which will occur at any time. Let’s live our lives so that we will not be ashamed at His coming.
