“WEDNESDAY IN THE WORD”

DECEMBER 11, 2024

“ADVENT LOVE”

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

John 3:16 NKJV

True Advent Love has specific aspects about God as we wait for his second coming, while celebrating the first. We need to recognize God’s love from the beginning, his loving promise, his love with us and our call to respond to his Love of Advent. I know it might seem a little odd to reflect on the Love of Advent all the way back in Genesis 1, but we need to remember that God’s loving plan for us started with his very first act of creation.

From The Beginning: Out of nothing, God called forth light. He separated land from the sea, created the sun, moon, and stars and all the creatures of the earth, but the pinnacle of his creation was humanity. He created us in his own image and made us to love and be loved (Genesis 1:26-30). Even when the first humans doubted the truth of God’s love for them and rebelled, even their fall into sin, we find God’s loving mercy. His first promise of redemption was to Eve, that her offspring would one day crush the head of the serpent once and for all time(Genesis 3:15).

God’s Loving Promise: Trace back in the stories of his people in the Old Testament where we can see God’s loving plan unfold. He promised Abraham that he would make his descendants a people who would bless all people. God foretold of One, born of a virgin who would free the captives, bear our sins, suffer in our place, redeem his people and usher in a peace unlike anything ever known, through the prophet Isaiah, Chapter 43:1-3.Generation after generation, God remained faithful to his people, even when they doubted, questioned and even turned away from him. Nehemiah in Chapter 9:17 testifies to God’s loving faithfulness when he said, “You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast Love.”

Love With Us: As we revisit the big picture of God’s love for his people, during Advent helps us understand the significance of the very first Advent, the coming of a Savior. It is for that very reason that Matthew did this so we could understand that this major event is connected to God’s bigger story of love and redemption. Love, incarnate in the form of a tiny baby, came to fulfill a promise God made centuries before. In Philippians 2:7, the Apostle Paul explains, “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” And He did it because, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This is Advent Love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).

Our Call To Advent Love: Today as we look back and remember that first Advent, we see God’s promise of redemption fulfilled, and we know that a new era of God’s restoration has been ushered in. What we are called to do now as we wait upon the second Advent of Jesus Christ? We are to do what Christ does, LOVE. Matthew 22:37-39 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” So, during this Advent let us fulfill the call of Jesus Christ, by showing what Advent Love should look like this Christmas. To God be the Glory. Amen.

Pastor Andrea (Rev. Andie)