Advent is upon us.

Christmas is almost here! It is that perfect mix of people, presents, anticipation, and pay-off that builds on itself year after year. I find that even as an adult the joy of Christmas is reignited as I see my children enjoy this season for many of the reasons I did as a kid.

When I was little my favorite Christmas tradition sneaking out of my room to do secret-squirrel spy missions and watch my parents set out presents under the tree. There was something about the anticipation of the gifts, on the already but not yet nature of the unopened gift, that raises excitement to an almost fevered pitch. This is evident in the fact that, after another successful gift-spying mission, I wouldn’t sleep. I couldn’t. My brain was on overdrive with holiday cheer. I lay in bed until I couldn’t handle it anymore and then tiptoe downstairs to open my stocking. We could open stockings, but no gifts, before they were awake.

While I don’t lose nearly as much sleep these days, this anticipation is the heart of the Advent season. 

Christmas, as Charlie Brown reminds us so beautifully, is about more than stuff. But how do we do keep ourselves focused on the true purpose of Christmas?

We start by celebrating Advent. All three of them, actually. Advent refers to the anticipated arrival of someone or something. It’s often used to refer to the promised arrival of the Messiah that was repeated throughout Hebrew history and Scripture.

• “Your house and kingdom (speaking to David) will endure before me forever, and your Throne will be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:16
• “Shout for joy, for your king has come, riding on a donkey!” Zechariah 9:9
• “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” Micah 5:2
• “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.” Isaiah 9:2

Advent #1: Christmas 

This first of the three Advents is fulfilled in Jesus:

Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah proclaimed throughout Hebrew scripture and heralded by angels to shepherds that first Christmas night (Luke 2:8-12). As we’ll see, he came for more than the salvation of mankind, but not less.

Jesus made sure people knew it too. 

When he began his public ministry Jesus went back to his hometown of Nazareth, stood up on the Sabbath in synagogue, and read from the prophet Isaiah:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’” (Luke 4:18-21).

The first Advent has already come: Jesus is the Messiah! Our celebration of Advent is the celebration that this has already happened! We live in light of forgiveness available, salvation already won. In this era of the Messiah we don’t bide our time; we live in victory over sin and darkness and we exist on this planet to help other people experience freedom in Christ (Ephesians 2:10). We talk to Jesus every day, we read our Bible so we remember what we look like (like Jesus), and we do the good works he’s called us to do. Which brings us to the second Advent: The promised arrival of the Holy Spirit.

Advent #2: Pentecost 

Throughout the Old Testament, God promises to fulfill his great Rescue Plan of forgiving the sins of the world, but he doesn’t stop there. Salvation in Christ is no less than complete forgiveness of sins, but it’s also a good deal more. In Christ God enacts his incredible mercy by not giving us the punishment we deserve when we trust in his Son for our goodness, but he also extends incredible grace: Giving us what we don’t deserve by making us children of God and giving the full inheritance of God: The indwelling Holy Spirit.

• “…and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” Hosea 2:23
• “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28
• “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.” Joel 2:32

Pentecost reminds us there was more to Jesus’ work than salvation

Yes, salvation is the inheritance of children of God. Yes, access to the throne room through Jesus’ gifted righteousness is the inheritance. But there is more. Jesus makes it clear. He says: 

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you…When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare  to you the things that are to come” (John 16:7, 13).

So when Jesus stands up on the last day of the Feast of Booths (John 7:37), he’s recalling these promises! Jesus stands and cries out:

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Jesus restated, for anyone who might miss is, that he lived, and died, and rose again as the Messiah so that God could dwell within us–no longer simply among us.

The Christmas season is not only a celebration of Jesus’ birth, or of the salvation that birth brings. It’s a celebration of our adoption as children. Advent is just as much a celebration of the birth of Jesus as it is the arrival of the Holy Spirit because the former occurred so that the latter might be possible.  Pentecost, the arrival of God’s Holy Spirit in his children as promised by the exact same prophets who said this gift would be won by the Messiah—the same messiah who would defeat Sin, Satan, and Death.

Advent #3: Restoration 

We’re currently living in an amazing time in history. We’re in the already but not yet. Jesus HAS come. Victory HAS been won. But it’s not yet been realized in space and time. God, in his great grace, is waiting for the harvest so that all who will come have time (Matthew 13:24-30). There will be a judgement, but not before every last soul who will repent has repented. God will hold his hand until every child has come home. 

Yet there will be a day when everything is Restored to the way God intended it. As Tolkien reminds us by way of Sam Gamgee, there will come a day when everything sad will come untrue, and that’s our third advent. 

A few weeks ago our pastor shared this reminder at church. He began in Revelation chapters 16-18, we see God finally overthrowing his enemies. There is a Beast, Satan, a city referred to as The Great Prostitute. Talk about a feel-good Bible passage to really get you pumped for the holidays.

Judgement is not the point: the point is Restoration

Yet, Pastor Trevor pointed out, we often get caught up in the Judgement imagery. There’s something in us that just loves hearing about how all “those” people will get theirs in the end. Nowhere is this more evident than Revelation 19:1-5, where the Prostitute is defeated and “the smoke rises up from her for eternity.” But we must be very careful, because judgement isn’t the point. Judgement is the process that takes us to the point, which is marriage to Christ and total Restoration. Just look at the very next verse, 19:6:

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:6-8).

This is the final Advent: The Marriage of Christ to his Bride, the church. This is the end of History and the beginning of Eternity. 

The Bible closes with the image of everything being made right, with rivers of living water flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb, bringing life to all the nations (Revelation 22:1-3).

Let’s Live In Light Of All Three Advents

There will be a final advent, a final judgement, a final victory. We anticipate that day the same way the Hebrew people anticipated the promises of God. It took thousands of years, but God was always faithful. Even when they ran, he was faithful. Even when they disobeyed. Even when they broke every rule on purpose, God didn’t change his plans. He brought His Messiah, the Word of God born as a helpless babe, unto a virgin named Mary and a step-dad named Joseph, both of whom can trace their lineage to David and by Joseph to the town of Bethlehem.

We’re not just celebrating what God has done in Christ, but what he will do. We tell others about Christ because the time isn’t over yet. He hasn’t yet sifted the wheat from the chaff. The final judgement hasn’t happened. He’s still holding his hand, he’s still lovingly waiting. There will be a judgement, but more importantly there will be a beautiful wedding, a fantastic feast celebrating the goodness of God and the marriage of the Church to Christ the King. 

We have a chance to live in light of that. This Christmas let’s remember why we celebrate. We don’t anticipate the Messiah, we remember what God has done in his promises, and we celebrate that we get to live to see this day. Let us, like children anticipating gifts at Christmas, live in the already but not yet of Advent, and let the gifts God has given us drive our daily joy as we live toward the Restoration we have yet to receive on that great and glorious final day.