Advent | Rejoice In Messiah | Matthew 11:2-11 | Week 3

We're in the third Sunday of Advent.  I've got to tell you, I'm a big Christmas guy.   As you can tell, I've been a pastor for a long time and it seems like whenever we come to the Advent season, I thought I was preaching Advent sermons, but I was really preaching Christmas sermons four times.  Advent is a series of four weeks preparing ourselves for Christmas, yes, but it had a much broader perspective.  It was looking forward to the Coming.  Back in the day when they depended on agriculture, the harvest would have been taken in, but they would wonder if they'd taken in enough harvest to last them until Spring.  So there was a sense of uncertainty, a little bit of tension.  The early church instituted this season of Advent as a time for people to reflect as the days got shorter, and shorter, and shorter.  To reflect that there is a Coming of One who has light that would bring more and more and more.  There is hope that we have.  So, we come to this third week of Advent.  The days are going to get shorter.  It's cold out.  This is Advent.  Welcome to Advent.

As we look at this passage in Matthew, I'm asking God to make it come alive for you.  He's made it come alive for me and I don't want to get in the way of making it alive for you.  Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer and ask God to enlighten us.  Let's pray.  Father, I thank you.  I thank you that you're here.  I thank you that you're here and this is your Word---you've revealed yourself to us in this Word.  You want us to understand it.  You want us to wrestle with it.  Lord, make it come alive to us.  Jesus, thank you so much.  Thank you so much that you entered our world, that you made all of this possible.  Thank you, Spirit, that you are here right now to empower this Word to become real to us.  Lord, may the words that I say not get in the way of your work.  Thank you, God.  I pray this in Jesus's name.  Amen...