By Not Known
Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Advent means coming and is the time when we celebrate the heart of the gospel: God came to our world so that we can go to his world. God, in Christ, came to bear our sins on the Cross and to give us life abundant and life eternal. To bear our sins he had to take on our human nature and they is why God came to our world.
This is good news and deserves celebration. We don’t celebrate with the banal “Seasons Greetings” of many public places in Singapore, nor by over-eating or over-spending. Rather we celebrate Christ, for Christ-mas means Christ-celebration
Why is the coming of Christ such good news? Put simply, we need Jesus to come because we have made a mess of things. In our own way, we have all become rebels against God. We live in the world that he made and enjoy his daily blessings. Yet we habitually ignore and defy God. In effect, we have issued a ‘declaration of independence‘ against God.
God’s response is to do something we expect and something we don’t expect. The expected thing is that he announces judgement against us. The unexpected thing is that he announces an amnesty. He promises to forgive us and restore us to fellowship with him if we end our rebellion (repentance) and trust his Son rather than ourselves (faith).
For all these reasons we again say to Jesus: Welcome to our world. We need you.
The first coming of Jesus is not the whole Advent. The Bible also teaches that he will come again (the second advent or second coming). This second coming will complete what he began in his first coming as he brings the fullness of God’s kingdom and ushers in eternity.
This second advent is the theme of today’s Bible passage (Rev 22: 6- 21). Jesus promised to come a second time and complete what he began on the Cross through the fullness of the kingdom. The first readers of the Revelation were believers who suffered greatly for their faith. And so they prayed:Come Lord Jesus (vs 20).
This Christmas let us celebrate and say: Welcome to our World. But let us also long for Christ’s second coming and say:Well, come to our world.