Advent Week 1
Starting November 30th
Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.
- Charles Wesley, 1744
What is Advent? Derived from the Latin word meaning “coming” or “arrival,” Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. It’s the season when we look back to Christ’s first coming, as a baby born in Bethlehem, and look forward to his second coming when he will return to renew and redeem every part of fallen creation. Jesus Christ has come and will come again. The advent season is therefore a time to reflect upon the promises of God and to anticipate the fulfillment of those promises. It is a time for remembering and rejoicing.
ADVENT READINGS WEEK 1
First Sunday in Advent
GENESIS 3:1–15
The fall of man. Despite the bleakness of the circumstances, God injects a strong note of hope in verse 15—the first prediction of the coming of Jesus.
Monday
ISAIAH 9:2–7
Christ’s birth and kingdom are foretold by the prophet Isaiah. This coming King will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Meditate on the four terms used here—each one is amazing.
Tuesday
ISAIAH 11:1–9
Another prediction of the coming Messiah King. Matthew 1:1–17 makes a point of showing us who Jesus’ family is because of the words of God in the book of Isaiah that spoke of Jesus as a “shoot from the stump of Jesse.”
Wednesday
MICAH 5:2–4
A prophecy which both pinpoints the exact location of the Messiah’s birth, as well as telling us about his character and power.
Thursday
ISAIAH 53:1–12
The great theme of this section of Isaiah’s prophecies is Jesus Christ in his sufferings. The kingly qualifications described in Isaiah are so matchless that only the coming of the Lord himself can fulfill them. The question is: How can any king be powerful enough to liberate us from slavery and bondage? The answer: Only one who is God himself.
Friday
MALACHI 4:1–6
This is a reference to the first and to the second coming of Christ. In both, Christ, the “sun of righteousness,” is a light to those who “revere his name.”
Saturday
ISAIAH 60:1–22
A prophecy and description of the New Jerusalem—the future glorious state that Christ will usher in when he comes again.
FOR GROUP OR PERSONAL STUDY
There are numerous Old Testament prophecies and promises about the coming of a Messiah.
The first comes in Genesis 3. In verse 15, God predicts that a descendant of Eve will someday come and battle the serpent who, of course, is Satan. What will the outcome be? Eve’s son will be wounded (“you will strike his heel”) but Satan will be defeated (“he will crush your head.”) Here is the first prediction of the coming of Jesus. God’s words indicate that Jesus’ coming will undo the work of the serpent—of sin and all the wreckage it causes—but not without cost to Jesus.
Isaiah is full of prophecies of a coming Messiah King. Chapter 9, verse 6 reads: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor. He is the true source of wisdom.
He is Mighty God. The word “mighty” is the Hebrew word gibor, and it means hero, champion;
the one who faces overwhelming odds, is willing to give his life, and saves the people.
Everlasting Father means that Jesus brings you into an intimate family relationship with him—this champion is your “dad.”
Lastly, he is Prince of Peace, Prince of Shalom. Shalom is the Hebrew word which means absolute spiritual and physical flourishing. Jesus not only gives you a wonderful relationship with him and gives you peace. He is here to eventually create a new heaven and a new earth. He is here to bring peace and justice, and to ultimately rid the world of poverty, injustice, violence, war, disease, and death.
However, when we get to Isaiah chapter 53, this Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, who is supposed to end violence, is instead the victim of violence: “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” (53:10); “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed” (53:5).
Then come the prophecies in Isaiah 60 which seem to be predicting a future era in which Jerusalem and Judah have a great deal of economic and political power and prosperity (“the riches of the nations.”) If you look carefully, you will notice it is talking about something that not only has never happened but could never happen in human history as we know it. Verse 18— and following—talk about a society where there is no violence, no war, no sorrow or sadness. There will no longer be a need for the sun or the moon (Isaiah 60:19). We are looking at the new heaven and new earth.
We are told in Isaiah 55:12 that when God comes back to renew the world, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.” This is the destiny of God’s people when Christ returns.
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION
1. Isaiah calls Jesus: “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” How does knowing this about Jesus change the way we live on a daily basis?
2. Rooted in his desire for all of creation to experience his kingdom and shalom, God shows a special compassion and protection for the poor and marginalized throughout the Bible. In what practical ways can you and your community group show compassion? How can you (and your group) serve your neighborhood in ways that are uniquely helpful?
3. In what ways can we celebrate the joy and hope of Christmas and anticipate the joy and hope of Christ’s return?
PRAYER
Read aloud the hymn (or, if you can, sing it).
Thank God that Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Ask God to help you to reflect on it, treasure it, and remember it.
Thank God that he is generous and the giver of all good things. Thank him that he has always had a plan for us and for the world that he revealed to the prophets and that finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
Pray that God would use you and that you would willingly do all you can to help accomplish his great plan. Pray for help to live justly and generously and to walk humbly with God.
Pray for “His Toy Store” (Hope for New York's outreach to provide toys this Christmas to families in financial need and who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy). Pray for the 750 families who are invited to pick out toys this year, that they would experience God's grace, love, and care. Pray also for the host churches and pastors, who are ministering in some of the toughest neighborhoods in NYC, that God will fill them with his strength and love as they serve and care for their communities.
FOR FAMILY STUDY
Read Operation “No More Tears!” The Rescuer will come: prophecies from Isaiah 9, 11, 40, 50, 53, 55, 60 in The Jesus Storybook Bible, pages 144–151 (or the equivalent story in your children’s Bible).
QUESTIONS
1. What was Isaiah’s job?
Isaiah was a prophet, so his job was to listen to God and tell the people what God said.
2. Some of the things God told Isaiah were about the future. Isaiah lived about 700 years before Jesus, but he knew a lot about Jesus. What are some of the things Isaiah knew about the future and Jesus? That Jesus will be the Rescuer King who will come to earth and do many great amazing things, but then he will suffer and die. But he won’t stay dead; God will make him alive again, and he will rescue his people and one day make the world perfect again.
3. Isaiah calls Jesus by many different names. Four of those names are below but some of the vowels— the A, E, I, O, and U’s—are missing. Fill in the missing vowels to get the names of Jesus.
W__ND__RF__L COUNSELOR M__GHTY G__D EVERLASTING F__TH__R PRINC__ OF PEAC__
Advent Week 2
Starting December 9th
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times did’st give the Law,
In cloud, and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Latin hymn from the 12th Century,
translated into English by John Mason Neale, 1851
(Note: Emmanuel is derived from the Greek and Immanuel is derived from the Hebrew. Both spellings mean "God with us".)
ADVENT READINGS WEEK 2
Second Sunday in Advent
GENESIS 22:1-18
God promises that through faithful Abraham “all nations on earth will be blessed.” This is astonishing; God is going to save his people through Abraham’s family.
Monday
EXODUS 20:1-17
The Ten Commandments. Note that God first rescues the people from Egypt, and then he gives them the Ten Commandments. Keeping the Ten Commandments is not what saved them; God had already done that. God did not first give the Law and then deliver the people—first he delivered his people, and then he gave them the Law. Thus we are not saved by the Law, but saved for the Law. The Law is how we conduct our love relationship with God, not the way we merit the relationship. We are saved by faith in Christ alone.
Tuesday
ISAIAH 40:1-11
The prophecy cited in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John announcing that John the Baptist would be sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus.
Wednesday LUKE 1:5–25
The birth of John the Baptist is foretold to Zechariah.
Thursday
LUKE 1:26–56
The angel Gabriel tells Mary of the incarnation. Mary is the first person who hears the name Jesus. She is the first one who gets the message that salvation is coming into the world through a baby who is going to be born in Bethlehem, who is the Lord, and who is descending into time and space to save us.
Friday
MATTHEW 1:1–25
Matthew starts with the genealogy—who is Jesus, what are his roots, who is his family—and then tells the story of the angel of the Lord coming to Joseph in a dream. “Immanuel” is the name given to Jesus in this annunciation text. It means: “God with us.” Consider what it means that Jesus Christ is God and is with us.
Saturday
LUKE 1:57–80
The birth of John the Baptist. Zechariah, John’s father, sang about the Christ, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them” (Luke 1:68).
FOR GROUP OR PERSONAL STUDY
God makes promises to his people throughout the Old Testament. A rainbow appears as a promise that God will never again send a flood to destroy the world. God promises to make Abraham a great nation. God promises deliverance to the people of Israel during Passover. God makes and keeps his promises again and again. And among these promises there is an even greater promise— God promises a Messiah, a deliverer, an anointed King.
When God calls Abraham in Genesis 12, God promises in verse 2–3: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing...and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
This incredible promise—that ultimately God is going to save his people through Abraham’s family —rests on another linchpin promise. In verse 7 God says that Abraham will have “offspring.” But Abraham’s wife Sarah is barren. Genesis 11:30 says that Sarah was “childless because she was not able to conceive.” So, the redemption of the world hinges on the miraculous birth of a child to a barren woman. And yet we read in Genesis 21:1–3, “Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him.”