The Hope of Jesus (Advent 2007)
An exegetical treatment of Galatians 4:4-5 during the first week of Advent addressing the theme of the prophecy candle. This sermon was originally preached December 2nd of 2007 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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December 2nd, 2007
Pastor Duane M. Smets
Advent: The Prophecy Candle – Galatians 4:4-5
“The Hope of Jesus”
Galatians 4:4-5 “4 When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Introduction
Greetings everyone. Who said it was always sunny in San Diego! So differenent than Oregon where I spent my high school years. There it would rain not just for one day but for twenty. Sun becomes this rare commodity like
Read text and pray.
Advent
Well Happy New Year! I was impressed when I turned on my phone yesterday morning and noticed that I had received a text message at midnight. Let me explain.
Advent. Advent is a weird word meaning: “appearing.” The Son of God appeared. He came into our world. As Christians we believe Jesus isn’t just a figment of our imagination but is a real person who is alive and currently is sitting on a throne awaiting an appointed day when he will come back. So each year that we await for the day when he will appear again is a new year and that begins at Advent, the season of Christmas.
Maybe all that just seems a little too fantastic to and where you are at right now if you are not a Christian or if you are a Christian but are not really sure about a lot of “Christian things.” That’s okay. That’s one of the reason I believe God designed us to be people who are part of church where we can learn and grow in our understandings and talk about the real questions of life that everybody thinks about.
So advent is the appearing of Jesus Christ. The creator God looks in on humanity and sees that things are not right. We all know there is something wrong with us but we just always figure the problem is something outside of us rather than something inside, something that is part of our nature something that spreads across our whole race. So God does something about it and enters the world, taking humanity upon himself. Not as a detraction of deity, but a full entering into our human experience, and lives as a perfect example and more than example but he lives to die for us and provide an answer to our deepest problem, our sin that seperates us from God, which reeks havoc and disappointment and frustration and confusion and guilt upon us. That is sort of an introduction to our text today, now let’s look at it a little deeper.
Chronos
Notice the first phrase in our text “fullness of time had come.” This word for time is interesting, our english word is so vague, not so in Greek, which the Bible is written in. The word here is “chronos” but chronos is not the only word from “time” in Greek. Tthere is another word in Greek for time which means season. This word, our word here in Galatians is different, chronos is a fixed period of alloted days, hours or minutes that follow one after another. It is where our english word, “chronology” comes from…that there is an order to things.
This is huge. Look at the phrase, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son.” God in the Bible here stand overs and above and outside of space and time but has intimate direct knowledge of it because he made it and orders it. God plans time…the fullness of time. and God can intersect time…he sends his Son into it.
God is a big God. Too often we think of him detached from life but his eye roams too and fro throughout the earth watching the goings in and goings out of our life (2 Chr 16:9). God plans and orders the days in which we live. Acts 17:26 “he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” He determined for each of you the day you were born. My daughter Adina was born 3 weeks and two days ago and God determined the day and the hour she would be born. And the most important person to be born in all of history is Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
So Advent is the season which celebrates the appearing of God’s Son Jesus Christ. We call it Christmas, the appearing of Christ into human history. The Christian worldview, what we believe about time and life is that it isn’t all pointless, that the world isn’t just spinning out of control and there is no way of knowing what is may happen at all and there is no meaning or purpose. We believe that history is ordered by God and that the peak of all of history is the coming of Jesus Christ, God himself entered into the world. I had a conversation with a friend this week who was very upset about life and the way it has gone for him and we got into a conversation about God and he said, “I just wish that God would come down and tell us how it is and then everything wouldn’t be so confusing.” My response to him was, “Maybe he did. I think that is what happened in Jesus.”
Prophecy
This first week in Advent is called the prophecy week. The reason for that has to do with phrases like this one in Galatians that are in the Bible which say things to the effect that events which occur are planned. So let me just say a couple things about prophecy.
Now first of when you say the word prophecy these days in southern California, for most people in our culture I think you almost automatically stir up all these crazy associations. Things like psychics and ghost hunters and UFO conspiracies and psychics. You know prophecy in our town sort of falls within that category of hocus pocus. Which a lot of people are apparently into.
I live a few blocks away from Adams Ave and there is a section on Adams that has like three different bookstores devoted to this kind of stuff, the metaphysical astrological psychic type of stuff. In San Diego there are over 150 thriving psychic, palm reading, tarot card centers. I’m sure even within this room there are a few of you you have tried it, even if just out of curiosity. San Diego in many ways is a very “spiritual” city. This sort of interest tells me something. One it tells me that people have a sense that there is something more to life than just what we can see, feel, taste, touch, or hear…there is a spiritual element to life. The other thing it tells me is people are looking for answers.
My problem is I think most of that stuff is bogus. Maybe not all of it. The Bible is clear that there is a spiritual realm and that there are spiritual forces at work. And there are some of you who have experienced that in very real and vivid ways. But for most of us we haven’t experienced things we can’t quite fully explain or understand and when supposed “psychics” use the skill known as the power of suggestion and convince people to think they are actually talking to their dead dog, I’m like, “Are you kidding me, fluffy is not looking down on you and watching over you and telling you he loves you…he’s a dog…and he’s dead!”
So my problem with the word “prophecy” is I’m not into dead dogs talking to me and I don’t want to get thrown into that camp. In the Bible prophecy is not something that has to do with a vague unknowable mystery, it’s actually the opposite. Prophecy means two main things: forthtelling and foretelling and both are concerning with issues of truth and meaning. Forthtelling is telling like it is. It’s being straight and open and honest about things and having a correct understanding about them. Many have recognized that the Bible has a way of reading you rather than you reading it. It knows and explains and understands the depth of our souls in a way that far exceeds our ability to figure out ourselves on our own.
Here’s an example of forthtelling. You might have heard the story of David and Bathsheba in the Bible. Bathsheba is this super hot model and she is married to this dude named Uriah. David is the King at the time and he is out on the roof of his palace looking around over the edge of the wall and he’s looking down across the city and sees a light on in one window not too far away and there is Bathsheba getting naked and taking a bath. David watches her for who knows how long and decides he’s got to have her. So he’s sends his servants to bring her to him and the Bible says, “She came to him, and he lay with her (2 Sam 11:4).” You know what that means. And you thought the Bible was boring.
But then there is a problem. Because her husband has been off to war and it turns out that Bathsheba got pregant. David is like “crap!” But he’s the king, so he has the commander of his army send her husband off to battle and put him on the front lines to fight and then at a certain point withdraw from him so he’s killed. David essentially has him executed but figures if he somehow doesn’t pull the trigger himself, he’s okay. Then David goes and hooks up with Bathsheba and takes her as his wife. Super shady right?
Here’s the forthtelling. A dude named Nathan comes to King David. Nathan is a prophet. Nathan comes to David and tells him a story. He says David there is this guy who is super rich, he owns like 4,000 sheep and then there is this other dude who only has one sheep and on top of that he super loves that one sheep. A traveler dude came through town and stayed with the rich man but the rich man didn’t want to kill one of his own sheep to serve his guest dinner and so instead he went out and had the poor man’s sheep taken and killed. When David hears the story he is pissed and yells at Nathan, who is this guy I want to talk to him! Then Nathan forthtells. He says King David, you are that man. God has blessed you richly and you have had man killed and you need to repent.
That’s forthtelling, telling it like it is. Jesus is the chief forthteller. Consistently all throughout his ministry he’s doing that. He meets a woman at a well and she tries to make herself look good and Jesus tells her about the state of her heart that is covering it up and seeking her own salvation in the satisfaction of a different man every year, when the satisfaction she longs for is only found in his forgiveness and grace.
So that is one aspect of prophecy, forthtelling. That’s the second part of our verse in Galatians, the part that says, Jesus came to redeem us, that’s telling us some factual truths but we’ll talk about that in second. The other aspect of prophecy is foretelling, which is what the first part of verse is about, the fullness of time when God planned to send his son into the world.
This kind of prophecy in the Bible too has to do with exactness and truth and is when God informed certain men in history, either through dreams, visions, audible commuication, or written words or angelic messengers, he informed them certain details about things that were yet to happen…foretelling. Now to be sure, this is not God’s normal way, but the sending of his son Jesus into the world was the most signficant thing he ever planned to do so it makes sense that he would highlight it with this kind of phenomenon. And it is no joke.
There are over 300 foretelling prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Bible. And no other literature compares. Sometimes people talk about prophecies from guys like Nostradomous but if you ever actually read Nostradomous it is some of the most vague stuff you have ever read. The stuff about Jesus is alarmingly specifc. Let me just give you an example.
This is the prophet Micah, written around 700 years before Jesus came on the scene. This is Micah 5:2-4 “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. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.”
Jesus was born in Bethelehem and there has not ever risen out of Bethelehem who has been considered a ruler and a shepherd of Israel who brought brothers together and has been considered great to the ends of the earth. Only Jesus. This kind of prophecy is amazing. We are talking about the naming of a specific town and Bethelehem was a small insignificant town. People who are into statstics and stuff say the chances of this kind of specific prophecy is like the chances of a tornado hitting a junkyard and out coming a 747 or of a hurricane ripping through a lumber yard and out coming an apartment complex. You can ‘t just write it off as chance!
So this week of advent is called the prophecy week because Jesus was the long awaited fulfillment of prophets like Micah who said a savior like Jesus would come. I think our reaction to this should be one of awe and security. Awe because we recognize that there is something very unique and special and supernatural to Jesus…but this supernatural spirirtual thing having to do with him is the real deal, there is security in believing in this. This thing isn’t hocus pocus. It is verifiable and testable. If there is a God and if he really did send His son into the world, then this is the kind of way you would expect him to set it up if it was really to be for all people across all time.
Those words in Micah are so telling, that his dwelling or you could say his appearing, his advent, would be secure because he shall be called great to the ends of the earth. There is none greater than Jesus Christ. There are more books written about him than any other person in all of history. Jesus has had more covers of Time and Newsweek magazine than any other person. More people have pointed to Jesus as being the most significant factor for change in their life than any other thing. There is no question to the truth and the reality of Jesus when it comes down to it. He really lived and died and rose, the real question is what that means for you and for me.
Redemption
So the last thing I want to talk about today is the second part of this verse we are looking at in Galatians, the forthtelling part, the part that tells us what it means for us that Jesus came into the world. Look at it again, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” The purpose and the meaning is found in that word “redeem.”
We can’t spend time today talking a ton about law and about adoption. But those are very important words and concepts in the thought of Paul, the author of Galatians. They are so important that I have devoted whole series to both of them, you can listen to them on iTunes: one is called “Law and the Gospel” and the other is called “The Jesus Family Series.” So for our last point today I want to talk about what redemption means.
Redemption is a popular word and a popluar theme. Easily more than half of the movies that are made are about redemption. It’s part of what makes a good movie, when a character gets a second chance and really changes the second time around. There is a heavy metal band called “Redemption.” Several novels titled “Redemption” including one by Leo Tolstoy. There is a Terminator 3 video game called “Redemption.” “Redemption” is the opening theme song of Rocky 2 and you might have seen “The Shawshank Redemption.”
Redemption. It has to do with a buying back something that is already yours. Like the word “ransom” we talked about last week it has to do with a price that is paid, a money analogy. But with this word there is a buying back of something that used to be yours.
There is a good story about a boy who loved sailboats which illustrates redemption well. This boy used to sit and watch sailboats for hours. And then he got into making model sailboats. So he saved up his money and bought materials and began developing the skill needed to make real, to scale, sailboats. He spent months on his first sailboat and finally when every last detail had been covered, he went to go test it out and set it down in the bay. When he set it on the water, sure enough it floated and the sun shone on the boat and he could see the all the details and time he had put into it…the paint, the carving of the wood, the strings holding the mass…and the young boy was overjoyed. But then something happened. A gust of wind came along and carried the boat too far out beyond his reach. He sat waiting and waiting and following it hoping it would come back to shore…but it never did and it got too dark and he could no longer see it. The young boy was devasted. A number of years went by and one day the boy now a man who owned a company that made big boats happened to find himself in an antique store and he saw sitting on the shelf a model sailboat. As he walked closer he began to notice certain details and realized that it was his sailboat, the first boat he ever made. He took it to the counter and paid the money as he walked out the door thought to himself, this boat is now twice mine. Once because I made it and once because I bought it back.
And that is a picture of the redemption found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are God’s. He made us all. My favorite thing to do these days it to sit and hold my daughter and to just look at her. Amy says I am like an inspector because I look at everything. Her hands and fingers and toes and the two dimples on her cheeks and her gums inside her mouth that I can see when she cries and I notice they don’t have any teeth yet. And it is amazing to me. The intricacy and the design. The fingerprint of God, the Creator who designed and formed her in the womb.
We are God’s but we are estranged from him. He is what we long for and what we need more than anything in our lives. We don’t know him as Father, which why we need redemption which adopts up back into the family. And redemption is in Jesus, in his blood on the cross. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of (God’s) grace.”
We are all estranged from God. Each of has turned aside and gone our own way and we find ourselves falling into that trap many many times. But Jesus paid the price for us in his blood, so that we might find forgiveness from God and might know the depth of his love. This is what makes his coming into the world so great. That he came and he came to die and because of that we can have real hope. Not wishful hope, but a secure hope that Jesus really can change us.
Conclusion
Let’s conclude. Some of you know I’m a big Bob Dylan fan. He wrote a poem once, which is one of my favorite poems, it’s called “Last Thoughts on Woodie Guthrie.” It’s found on one of those bootleg albums. I won’t read the whole thing but just a part. He says,
”You need something special all right. You need something special to give you hope. But hope’s just a word that maybe you said or maybe you heard on some windy corner ’round a wide-angled curve. But that’s what you need man, and you need it bad. And yer trouble is you know it too good cause you look an’ you start getting the chills cause you can’t find it on a dollar bill… (So) where do you look for this hope that yer seekin’? Where do you look for this lamp that’s a-burnin’? Where do you look for this oil well gushin’? Where do you look for this candle that’s glowin’? Where do you look for this hope that you know is there and out there somewhere?”
Bob Dylan has this amazing way of saying things that illustrate the longings of our heart and the failure of our longing to find what they are looking for in money or anything else. I believe that is because it is only found in Jesus Christ.
The prophecy candle is sometimes called the hope candle because the assurance of the prophecy of Jesus coming into the world is intended to give us a great sure hope for the stuff of our lives. All of us come here on Sundays and I’m not sure how many of us really know each other…know the people you see here…what they do for work and what fills their days. And more than that, the things they struggle and wrestle with. Maybe there are things that beat you up and nobody here knows about it and you feel alone and you feel stuck. Beneath each of us is this layer of our hearts, and that it is the thing which drives us and messes us up at the same time and Jesus came to redeem our hearts.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is one that can truly minister to you. It has ministered to me time and time and time again. The gospel says, yes your problems are real and they are big. But Jesus paid a price big enough to take care of them all. He spilled eternal, divine blood on the cross that can minister to your soul and can change your heart and your life.
So I urge you today. Put your faith in Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. Jesus is God’s advent gift to you and He is enough. Jesus is enough for all of your needs. He is a sure and living hope. You can trust him with your life. God has acted in history in sending Jesus for you. Be redeemed.
Let’s pray.
