For many of us, Christmas Day was one of the most important days of the year, which is obvious given the amount of preparation that often goes into it. Schedules, plans and budgets are adjusted months in advance. Family members travel in from far away.  As a matter of fact we added 2 new members to our family from Uganda this Christmas, but I digress.  Decorations are perfectly placed, menus are planned, gifts are purchased, wrapped and hidden and then re-hidden. There is intentionality, joy and anticipation all because this day is significant, valuable and also because we believe it is a reality.

Christmas isn’t a pretend day; it’s real. We wouldn’t go through all the trouble of trimming trees and fighting crowds if we didn’t believe Christmas was, in fact, an actual day. We trust it to come on the same date every year, and out of love and expectation, we make every necessary preparation so that when December 25 becomes our reality, we’ll be ready.

We spend months preparing to celebrate and remember Christ’s first coming. How much more should we seek to be ready for the day of His second coming? That day, too, is a reality, an absolute certainty. Unlike Christmas Day, which we know to expect every 25th of December, only the Father knows the day and hour His Son will return, but He is coming. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Beloved One, will return to the earth. It has been promised.

In the fullness of time, He will split the sky and descend to destroy all wickedness, receive the worship that is rightfully His, and usher in a new age – one free of sin, suffering, disappointment and fear. On that day, the children of God will walk in full-hearted belief and unrestrained delight as we see our Beloved face to face. We will be free from the sin and the brokenness of this world. And that will be wonderful, but the real treasure is Jesus. His return marks the beginning of unbroken, unending fellowship with Him. It is a day we should believe in, think about, look to and prepare for with joy, anticipation, hope and holy fear.

The day of Jesus’ return is certain and coming, but (so far) it is not today. At this time, we find ourselves much like the Israelites long ago – a people in waiting – which begs the question: how then shall we wait, and what does it mean to be ready for that day? How should we, as the people of God, live as we look toward and long for the coming of Jesus?

• We should live as if we believe Jesus is, in fact, returning. In the same way that we have made thoughtful, intentional preparations for Christmas because we knew and believed it was an actual day that was actually coming, we are to live lives of thoughtful, intentional preparation for the actual day that Jesus will actually return. (Matthew 24:42-44)
• We should be faithful and wise stewards of everything that has been entrusted to us by God, understanding that all of it—whether possession, ability, talent or gifting – actually belongs to Him and exists for His glory. (Matthew 24:45-51; 25:14-30)
• We should have hearts that have been tended and prepared for His coming by being full of faith, love, worship and overwhelming delight in Jesus. We will fight and flee from sin and do all that is needed to be found faithful to our first love. (Matthew 25:1-13)
• We should love and care for those who are poor, weak, cast out and in need. True disciples of Jesus cannot and will not ignore the plight of the least of these. We will serve, love, give, go and pray for those in need of food, drink, clothing, friendship and comfort. (Matthew 25:31-46)
• We should love the nations and proclaim the gospel both far and near. As the church family, we are the vessel appointed by God to herald the gospel in all the world through both word and action. (Matthew 24:14)

The Bibles exhortations are just as much for us today as they were for the believers long ago. We, too, are living in the days of God’s patient mercy. Christ will not return until the gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world and the full number of those appointed for salvation has been brought into the family of believers. We need to be reminded, as those who are dearly loved by God, that really believing in and looking toward Jesus’ return changes the way we live. It reorients our hope and perspective. It creates a sense of urgency, sobriety and giddy anticipation – just like a child who cannot wait for Christmas morning. Let us, as the people of God, be found ready in the waiting.

As this Christmas season comes to a close, take some time to reflect upon how the reality of Jesus’ return affects the way you live. May your heart be full and your eyes bright as you hope in all things in Christ and look to His coming. Take heart, beloved. It won’t be long.

This is anticipation…

In [arguably] the worst moment in [major] movie history happened in 1996  as I sat in a movie theatre with my girlfriend and while watching “Jerry McGuire” with her.  The movie climaxed when Tom Cruise burst into his wife’s home, looked into her eyes and said the famous words, “You complete me.” (watch here) If you remember Cruise had just experienced the height of his professional career only to find out it was not what he had expected. He expected joy and found loneliness. He expected fulfillment and found emptiness. He was a man in the throes of finding out that what he had always pursued was not what he truly needed or desired.

Maguire was right about one thing: Incompleteness marks our current life. No matter how hard we try, fulfillment is always just out of reach. For unbelievers, the pursuit of fulfillment will feel like eternally chasing a moving target until Jesus becomes the object of their longing. However, even for the believer, there is a real sense that we have not found what we are looking for.

Completion is only found in Christ, through His death for our sin and resurrection from the grave, but it’s not a complete reality until we stand in our resurrected bodies in the presence of our Savior. This won’t happen until Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 come to pass: “They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” The return of Jesus and final restoration are the human hope, nothing less.

Suffering is not eternal, but the glory upon which we wait is. Jesus is going to return, and when He does, we will share in the fullness of His glory. When we do, the text says we will experience two things: adoption as sons, which is the redemption of our bodies, and a new earth free from the weight of sin. Since the text says creation is waiting to “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God,” these are not separate statements but one united reality that will take place when the glorious trumpets sound and the Servant returns as King.

As we wait for this day, incompleteness defines our lives because we live as adopted children who have not yet been picked up by our parents. We know our parents’ names, know they have paid for our adoption, know the adoption has been approved but stand on the curb with bags packed waiting on them to come and tell us, “You’re home.” This is true for all believers from all centuries. Those living today and those who have entered the presence of the Lord await the completion of our adoption in the redemption of our bodies.

This is the Christian hope into which we were saved. We know that Jesus has already paid for our adoption, but we wait for the Father to send Him for us to renew our home and dwell among us eternally as we experience our resurrected bodies and the fullness of His glory. This is a salvation about so much more than just “going to heaven when we die.” This is restoration, redemption and renewal. This is going from enemies of God to sons and daughters of God, co-heirs with Christ. This is living fully in the image of God the way He intended. Oh what a day that will be. Come Lord Jesus, come.

Until Christ’s return, Paul gives us an example of how to groan in view of eternity. He exemplifies how to view the hardships of a fallen world through the lens of the eternal glory we await. To live in light of eternity does not mean demotions and cancer are not painful. It means they are not crushing. Cancer is painful because death is the last enemy to be conquered, but it’s not crushing because it’s only a matter of time before our resurrection conquers all disease. It means that loneliness is not something only our single brothers and sisters experience. We all experience loneliness because marriage is not the solution to the human condition. It’s a gift and an image that represents the substance for which we all long.

The substance that brings fulfillment and ends loneliness is standing face to face with our beloved, Jesus Christ. To stand face to face, two things must take place: He must return, and our flesh must be the redeemed, resurrected body to come. When fully grasping our hope, we can endure any suffering because we know it is temporary, and the glory to come is eternal. Until that day, we strive for a steadfast hope, we wait with patience, and we stand confident that our Savior will appear to bring completion to the adoption we long for.

This is Resurrection…

At one point in history, God made a promise that became a reality in the coming of Christ. His coming is known as the Incarnation in which He took on human flesh to rescue humanity through His life, death and resurrection (aka the Gospel). The Incarnation and its impact on us are the focus of our time this week, and I want to look at it through the lens of John 1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

JOHN 1:1-5; 14

John opens his Gospel with the same three words Moses opened with in Genesis: “In the beginning.” This isn’t accidental or insignificant; rather, it is intentional and profound. What makes this breathtaking is that John’s “In the beginning” refers to a time before Genesis 1:1. As you read the rest of John 1:1, it becomes clear that he is referring to the origin of history before creation, when God and “the Word” existed eternally face to face. Then, when the Father decided it was time to create, it was the Word Who spoke creation into being. Through the Word, God brought into existence what had not previously existed.

The eternal Word “became” a man named Jesus. He Who eternally existed as God became human for humanity’s redemption. In this, He did not cease to be God. He came as fully God and fully man – on a mission of grace and truth, reflecting the glory He shared with the Father to the blind and broken world.

It’s about God Who became man in pursuit of you. He came to reveal the glory of the Father through your redemption, but this redemption did not come without a price.

The price paid is known and cherished as the gospel, and 1 Corinthians 15 puts it as straight forward as any passage: the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus according to the Scriptures for the forgiveness of sin. Christ’s death on the cross absorbed the weight of God’s wrath against sin, thus displaying eternal glory, and Christ’s resurrection proclaimed victory over death. This gospel is the fulfillment of the promise God spoke through the prophets of old. God is reliable because the plan of salvation revealed in the Old Testament did not begin in the Old Testament. Salvation through Jesus Christ was not a reaction to sin entering the world. God’s redemptive purposes are rooted in eternity. Salvation through Jesus Christ is an eternal plan that began even before “In the beginning,” which brings us back to John 1.

As Jesus was sent to humanity with a mission, we are sent to humanity to carry out His mission. We have been sent to “incarnate” into our cities and through our jobs, homes, coffee shops, homeless shelters, etc. We are to integrate counter-cultural living into our city. Jesus shows us that neither of these implications can be taken in isolation. Rather, our holiness is stirred up by our mission, and our mission is accomplished in our holiness. This is the mission of the bride of Christ in the joy of Christ until the day we walk by sight and not by faith.

This is incarnation…

Expectations are powerful. We long to trust possessions, people and ideas with our hope – hope of something greater than what we currently have. Relationships, careers and entertainment willingly receive our expectations. To the degree that we think each will deliver, anticipation grows inside of us. The voice of childhood may change tone through the years, but the same gut response comes with every disappointment:

“But you promised…”

It might not be said so plainly, but our confidence shifts as the desired object escapes our fingertips. Impatience replaces anticipation. Unrest and discontentment rise up to our defenses, while our greatest need seems too simple – perspective.

God makes promises to His people throughout the Old Testament.

• A rainbow appears as a promise that the flood was a one-time deal.
• God promises deliverance and spares an entire generation of Israel during Passover and with it preserves the joy of each father in holding his firstborn son.
• David sleeps on cave floors, hunted by Saul, and God delivers him.

Our Father is a promise-making and promise-keeping God.

There are also those who longed for the fulfillment of promises yet could only cling to the promises themselves. For days, weeks, months and years, these people waited. Genesis speaks of Abraham and Sarah who, with Abraham in his 80s, had no child. Their hopes and expectations belong to any would-be parent: a sign of the future, the joy of parenting, but the next generation absent. Along with Abraham and Sarah, the people of Israel knew a collective experience of waiting. God promised a Messiah, a Deliverer, an anointed King. Days turned into months and seasons into years. God’s people often waited and trusted with patience and hope.

We often create our own expectations. What we want or think we deserve leaves us discontent, disillusioned, even resentful when it does not come. These feelings live in deep and powerful places within our souls and can begin to define us.

None of us escape this pain, this fear that if we love something enough God will take it away from us, as if He is vengeful and plays games with His children. We trust the object of our expectations and set our expectations too low when they were meant to be occupied by Him, after all. What good thing would the Father withhold from us if He has given us His only Son? What more could capture our hearts than the Savior Himself and the knowledge that He died bound that we might live free?

Decades of wanting, years of promise, fitless starts and stops of patience – Abraham’s faith finds no greater description than where we read of father and son walking down the mountain together, leaving behind an altar that bears the name,“The Lord will provide.”

There is no more powerful expectation than patience in the promises of God, for He has provided the Lamb, and the Lamb is the coming King.

This is hope…