First Sunday in Advent - What Good Is Christmas If Christ Isn't Coming Back?
- First Sunday in Advent
November 28, 2021
Hymns 2, 376, 219
First Lesson Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25 (page 74)
Second Lesson 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Gospel Lesson Luke 21:25-36
Luke 21:25-36
What Good Is Christmas If Christ Isn’t Coming Back?
I. But He is – so be ready!
II. But He is – so be joyful!
In the name of Jesus, our gracious Savior, fellow redeemed,
It’s happened more than a few times. People have died when flames engulfed their house which had no working batteries in the smoke detector. People have drowned when their boat took on water because they weren’t wearing life jackets. What good is a smoke detector if you don’t have working batteries in it? What good is a life jacket if you don’t wear it in the boat?
As we put up decorations, prepare for parties, and shop for gifts, we remind ourselves, “Christmas isn’t all there is! Even the birth of Jesus isn’t an end in itself. There’s more to this season than busyness. There’s more to religion than Christmas. In fact, what good is Christmas if Christ isn’t coming back?”
Satan knows he can’t keep us from celebrating Christ’s birth. So his plan is to get us to look back but not ahead; to celebrate an event two thousand years ago, but not be ready for what is coming. Don’t listen to him! Listen to the Lord who tells us here how certain His return is and what will happen then. That way, we both celebrate and anticipate. What good is Christmas if Christ isn’t coming back? Christ Himself tells us here, “I am coming back – so be ready! I am coming back – so be joyful!”
I. But He is – so be ready!
Christmas means much to us. It celebrates the arrival on earth of Him who came to die for us sinners – and is coming back to get us. Jesus doesn’t tell us when He will return. But He does give us signs. “There will be earthquakes and famines” (Luke 21:11). Check. Those have been happening since – even before – Jesus spoke about them that Tuesday before He died. “Nation will rise against nation” (Luke 21:10). Check. That has been happening ever since – even before – Jesus said that. “The love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12) toward others, and especially toward the Lord. “Many will fall away from faith…Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people” (Matthew 24:10-11). Check and check. Those have been happening ever since – even before – Jesus said that, and they certainly seem to be increasing now. But since they are already happening, what help are they for us about Christ coming back? They are repeated reminders. Every time those things are reported in the news and arise in our lives, we recall Christ’s words about the end of the world. At least, we should.
These verses give other signs. “There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars…On the earth nations will be in anguish, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the surging waves …the heavens will be shaken” (vv. 25-26). Such signs are not constantly occurring. There are eclipses of the sun and moon; but eclipses are predictable because God made the planets and moon to revolve predictably around the sun. At the end of time, however, planets will fall out of their orbits, stars will collide, and waves will crash violently. Christ says all that is coming.
How long will those signs last? For years before the Last Day? No. God promises, as some of us heard Thanksgiving Eve, the steady progression of seasons and days right up to the end. The Word makes it sound like for a brief time on the Last Day before Christ comes back it will seem the universe is coming apart at its seams! He is coming back – so all need to be ready.
When all that starts happening, what will the reaction be? Some “will be in anguish, in perplexity...fainting from fear…of the things coming on the world” (vv. 25-26). Hearts will be squeezed at the “anguish” – a Last Day panic attack. Minds will be “in perplexity” – confused about where to turn for answers. People will be “fainting” – weak in the knees from the destruction unfolding before them as their misplaced courage melts and self-centered pride is smashed.
But on that day not all will react, “Run for your lives!”, or, “What in all the world is going on?!” To those who are expecting His return, the Savior says, “You will stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near” (v. 28)! To avoid heart-squeezing, mind-confusing, courage-melting terror, Christ says, “Stay alert all the time (v. 36)! Be ready!”
Jesus added, “This generation will not pass away until all these things happen” (v. 32). But the people who heard Jesus say that have long since died. Did Jesus lie? Never! The words “This generation” can also mean this kind of people. It wasn’t just in Jesus’ day that people hated Him for claiming He is the promised Messiah. There will be people alive at the last ticks of time who reject Jesus as the Savior.
Christ is coming back – so let’s be ready! “Watch yourselves or else your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and the worries of this life, and that day may come on you suddenly” (v. 34). Tomorrow will you walk into school or work with a ten-pound weight on each leg? Let’s not walk tomorrow – or any day! – with wicked weights hindering our walk with God. Not even the unnecessary weight of the secular holidays should distract us from knowing that just as surely as Christ came to earth once, so He is coming back. Be ready! God won’t accept excuses for not being ready by those too caught up in the holidays or college classes or weekend fun or career pursuits or family ties or anything else. Be ready!
II. But He is – so be joyful!
This isn’t a happy holiday scene. But we and all sinners need the emphasis of the first three Sundays in Advent, the same emphasis we heard the last three Sundays of End Time. Christ is coming back! We need that to be ready, even as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. But it’s not gloom -and-doom preparation. Christ has more to say about His return than, “It’s going to be bad for some!” Christ is coming back – so we are joyful!
Those who ignore Jesus, His cross, and His Word will say as He returns, “I’m doomed!” But we who consider Christ the center of our lives and Savior of our souls will say when He returns, “Yes! Our redemption is near” (v. 28)!
It’s true we are already redeemed, bought back. We trust the holy life of Christ, the precious blood of Christ, the innocent sufferings and death of Christ to be the “redemption” price Christ paid in full to rescue us from the damnation we deserve.
Then how is it that on the Last Day our “redemption is near”? On that day everything connected to our “redemption” will be ours completely. Heaven, perfection, unending and uninterrupted joy. Life in God’s glorious presence, with the angels, among our loved ones who also left this life trusting Christ – all of that ours! Christ is coming back – so we are joyful!
What good is Christmas if Christ isn’t coming back? Thanks to Him we don’t have to answer the question. He who is our hope and joy is coming back. Is the Christmas we are preparing to celebrate about a baby born humbly? Yes. But it’s much more than that! The One laid in a manger will come back “in a cloud with power and great glory” (v. 27). We are joyful!
Is the Christmas we are preparing to celebrate about a miracle child? Yes. But it’s much more than that! The miracle Child is God and man in one person, the Savior for every sinner who was thinking about you individually when He lay in the manger and hung on the cross to cover every sin ever. We are joyful!
Is the Christmas we are preparing to celebrate about a virgin giving birth? Yes. But it’s so much more than that! The woman who bore the baby was herself a sinner and was forgiven by the life, death, and rising of the baby, and will herself – with us – be brought into glory by her son and God’s Son. We are joyful!
If Christmas were the high point in Christian history, then celebrating Christ’s birth each December would be worth no more than celebrating the birthdays of Presidents Washington and Lincoln each February. But Christmas and Epiphany lead to Lent and Good Friday which lead to Resurrection Sunday which leads to Ascension which leads to Pentecost which leads to the Last Day. We will enjoy hearing and singing Christmas hymns four weekends from now. But on the Last Day our hearing and singing Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Will take on a whole new joyful meaning, won’t it?
The signs and events Christ described here grab our attention. But for us who trust Him alone for life and forgiveness and heaven, these signs and events are welcome news. “As soon as the trees are sprouting leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is actually near. So also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near” (v. 31). Who sees signs of spring and warm weather and says, “Oh no! Not summer!”? No one! We’re happy to welcome summer after winter cold and snow. In a much more wonderful way, we won’t be anything but joyful at these signs.
Martin Luther wrote about these signs in these verses, “We are able to picture these signs before us in such a comforting way, and look upon them and judge them according to the Word. If we follow our reason and wisdom, we can do nothing but become terrified and flee before them. Our reason does not like to see things appear dark and unpleasant, that it lightnings and thunders, that it roars and is noisy, as though everything would be turned upside down. But a Christian should take hold of the Word, with which God wants to open our eyes and explain how He means it, as though we were approaching the beautiful summertime, and as though there were nothing but beautiful roses and lilies that bloom to delight the eye, and that nothing but joy and delight will come after this abominable evil and misfortune in which we now are.”
What good is Christmas if Christ isn’t coming back? No good at all, right? But He is coming back! This Advent season prepares us to celebrate His first coming – in Bethlehem, as well as to anticipate His second coming – in glory on the Last Day. Christ is coming back! We are ready for it. We are joyful about it. And it makes the real Christmas that much sweeter! Amen.
Pastor David A. Voss
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