Advent Week 3:What does it look like when God comes?
December 5-11
This week builds us up to the third Sunday of Advent., the season that includes the four Sundays prior to Christmas Day. These weeks serve as a reminder of Israel’s wait for the Messiah prior to Jesus’ appearance on earth as well as a reminder that we wait again today for Christ’s second coming. Christ has come...Christ is coming again!
Our main passage this week is Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11. This passage might be considered the text that Jesus used to preach his first public sermon. As is the case for so many preachers, his first sermon didn’t go too well (see our reading for Thursday). But the result of Jesus’ sermon wasn’t his fault. It was the misunderstanding and hardness of those who heard him.
Jesus was preaching the description that was and is the picture of good news (“gospel”). With Jesus’ arrival in the world as the Son of God, the Incarnation of God, the very embodiment of God within humanity...came the arrival of the very message of God: good news to the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed.
This is good news in this season! Christ has come and Christ is coming again - even now - we believe that good news is bursting forth because Christ has come and is coming again.
As you go through this week, pray and seek that you can turn your eyes in such a way to see Christ in the situations around you. What good is happening? In your own life? In the lives of others? Recognizing these things helps us cry with the psalmist: Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ May the Lord bless you as you seek his Word this week!
Monday, December 5 - Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Tuesday, December 6 - Psalm 126
Wednesday, December 7 - Matthew 1:18-24
Thursday, December 8 - Luke 4:14-30
Friday, December 9 - John 1:6-8, 19-28
Saturday, December 10 - I Thessalonians 5:16-24
Sunday, December 11 - Come to worship with your church family!
