December 13, 2023

Advent Candlelight Service

You are the Reason for Advent

Genesis 3:8-15

George Santayana was a Spanish-American philosopher who spent some of his career teaching at Harvard University. Santayana is remembered mostly for his aphorisms (concise, memorable statement of general truth). You may have heard of some of them: “Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness” “Only the dead have seen the end of war,” “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” One that really stood out to me was, “To know your future you must know your past.” The point of this statement is: In order to know where you are going, you must know where you came from. It plays off the idea that everything that will happen is nothing new from what has happened already, and therefore by understanding what has happened in the past, you might know what will come in the future. King Solomon wrote something similar in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” 

This idea of knowing your future by knowing your past is quite applicable to this time in the church year, Advent. In fact,it helps us understand the “why” behind advent. Why did Jesus come? Why is Jesus Coming again? The Bible answers this question quite extensively. In following Satayana’s principle, let us see how the Bible tells us “You are the Reason for Advent.”

 To know the past, we must go back to the beginning. Genesis 3:8-15, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

One of the very first things we have recorded for us about human history is the fall into sin. This is the single worst catastrophic event of all time. You and I are still suffering the effects of it to this day. What does this tell you why you are the reason for Advent? Simply put it is because people sin. Jesus came into the world because sinners can’t save themselves from sin. To be more specific, Jesus came because of your sins and mine. Have you ever thought this way before? “Really, my sins caused Jesus to enter this world? My sins aren’t even that bad.” Makes sense doesn’t it? “I live 2000 years after Jesus even came into the world, and I haven’t done terrible things. Jesus came for sin in general sure, but my sins specifically?” 

This is why it pays, in looking at the past, to go back to the beginning. What was the sin that Adam and Eve fell into? Disobedience. It wasn’t murder, it wasn’t fornication, it wasn’t theft. It was disobedience and jealousy. That is it. That little sin destroyed the entire fabric of God’s perfect world. Everything became corrupt from that one little sin. And where do you stand with your sin? I know for myself I have done worse than disobedience and jealousy. Your sin and mine likewise would totally destroy perfection just like Adam and Eve’s did. We are no better. You are the reason for Advent. Jesus came into this world because of your sins and mine, sins that thrust us so far away from the perfection that God desires.

In the same breath that announces how your sin and mine is the reason for Advent, God tells us the other “why” for Advent. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Jesus came because God made a promise for salvation. Even in the midst of Adam and Eve’s sin that destroyed the perfect world, God’s longsuffering love and endless grace abounds. He gave them the promise of a Savior to redeem them from that sin that separated them from God. 

Here too we see the reason why You are the Reason for Advent. Because God has promised you Salvation. You are the recipient of this Gospel promise just as much as Adam and Eve were all those years ago. As they put their faith in the offspring of Eve, so also do you and I put our faith in that same Offspring who crushed the head of Satan. Jesus’ main purpose on this earth, “To seek and save the lost.” 

The Savior came to do more than destroy Satan’s power. He also put enmity between you and Satan. Jesus’ righteous life and sacrificial death did something miraculous. It became your own righteousness. In your baptism, you were washed clean from all your sins, and your family heritage changed from belonging to Satan, to being God’s own child. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus your Savior, and as a new creation you have received the Holy Spirit  to work in you to subdue your sinful flesh and live according to God’s will. Through the hearing of God’s Word He is keeping you as a child of God, and if a child, an heir of the heavenly kingdom.

To know your future you must know your past. This is especially fruitful in the time of Advent. For, in knowing your past you learn that You are the Reason for Advent. Yes, because of your sin, but also because of your salvation. May God keep us steadfast in this salvation as we await His second coming to bring us to that blessed eternal inheritance. Amen.