Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : November 30, 2003
Get an Advent Attitude -- from God
1st Sunday of Advent
It has officially begun: the Christmas rush. Are you ready for it? On the news this past week it said that people began waiting Thanksgiving evening already outside of Best Buy to get the best deals when Best Buy opened the next morning, the busiest shopping day of the year. Shoppers were certainly ready for the Christmas rush. Are you ready for it? Well, ready or not, it's here. For merchants, it's a "make-or-break" time of year. The more exhausted and over-worked they are over the Christmas season, the better their business is doing. For teachers, it's the challenge of keeping fidgety children in their desks and focused on schoolwork. For most of us, it's a time of looking for that perfect gift for family members and friends, hoping that it will bring a smile to their faces, not a look that says, "Thanks, but I really don't want it."
Are you ready for all of this? Is your list of things to do this month already jam-packed with so many things that you have no idea how you will be able to do them all? Are you already looking at this hectic season with a little trepidation and even a little fear or despair? Maybe it's because all the things I've mentioned have to do with what the world sees when it looks at the Christmas season. If you think that you're burned out already by what the world sees in this season, it looks like you need something instead of a worldly attitude toward Advent and Christmas. You need the kind of attitude that the Apostle Paul the encouraged the Thessalonians to have. You need to Get an Advent Attitude -- from God.
It is said that a friend of Socrates found the famous philosopher eyeing merchandise in the marketplace one day. The friend asked why he was looking, since he never bought anything. Socrates said, "Because I am always amazed to see how many things there are that I don't need." During the Advent and Christmas seasons, Christians need to develop an attitude. We don't need the attitude that reflects our consumerist culture. What we don't need is anything that takes our focus off the Christ child. Paul gives us the three-fold attitude that we do need to have on our "Get ready for Christmas list" -- Joy over Christ's first coming; Love because of his first coming; and Anticipation of his second coming.
In order for us to get the proper Advent attitude from God, let's look at the kind of attitude Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to have. Paul preached at Thessalonica for three straight weeks and many were hearing the message and being brought to faith. But all of Paul's success also brought the attention of Paul's enemies, especially the Jews who didn't see Jesus as their Savior. So Paul, along with his companions Silas and Timothy, were forced to flee Thessalonica to escape with their lives, while the fledgling believers in Thessalonica were fiercely persecuted. Paul and his companions went to the city of Berea, but the Jews from Thessalonica went there as well and stirred up the people against Paul again. So they fled all the way to Athens, which was over 250 miles away from Thessalonica.
Now put yourself in Paul's place. How would you feel if you could only teach some visitors to our church about Jesus on three Sundays and then they didn't come back again, even though they told you that they believed what you told them? You would want to know if they continued to believe the message that Jesus is their Savior. You might give them a phone call. You might send them an email. But in Paul's time, there were no phones and no email. He had to go back to Thessalonica or send someone else for him. So that's what Paul did. He sent Timothy back to Thessalonica to see how they were doing. By the time Timothy got back to Paul, Paul must have been thinking the worst -- were there any believers left? Did they stop believing? Had they all been killed for their faith? Imagine Paul's joy when he learned that not only were the people in Thessalonica continuing as believers, but they were reaching out to places that Paul himself did not have a chance to go to! As a result of Timothy's good report, Paul wrote this first letter to the Thessalonians. The first three chapters talk about how overjoyed Paul is to hear that the Thessalonians are contending for the faith. The portion we are looking at this morning comes at the end of that section. Listen to Paul's enthusiasm: "How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?"
Paul was expressing his joy in the fact that the Thessalonians had remained faithful. You can almost hear the notes of relief in Paul's attitude. Paul's attitude of joy was based on the joy that the Thessalonians themselves shared because of Christ's first coming.
In this season of Advent, what is our attitude? Do we have an attitude of joy over Christ's first coming, or do we lose all of our joy in everything else in this world that wants to crowd out our Christian joy at this time of the year? If we can't feel that joy, maybe we're looking in the wrong place. We won't find it in the crowded stores filled with holiday shoppers. We won't find joy in the feelings of good will that everyone is supposed to have this time of year. We certainly won't find an attitude of joy in a fat old man who climbs down a chimney and gives gifts away to good girls and boys.
Do you find yourself always joyful this time of year? Probably not. When you go shopping you almost get trampled by someone going for the latest and hottest gift. Do you feel joy? Do you feel joy when your teacher gives you a huge assignment to be finished before Christmas? No. In fact, you probably feel resentment, bitterness, anger -- all those emotions that show what our true attitude really is by nature -- an attitude of a sinner. The attitude that says, "No one has done anything good to me. Why should I do anything for anyone else?"
But that's where the real attitude of joy comes in. Because during the Advent season we remember that someone did do something for us before we could do anything good for him. It was God. He was the one who sent his own Son to save us from our attitude of sin. He saved us from our attitude of looking at our fellow Christians and finding some fault in them. He saved us from our attitude of seeing the worst in others as well. He saved us from that sinful attitude and gave us the joy we have that our sins are completely washed away. It is the joy we have because Jesus came to live for us and die for us in his first coming so that our God would look at us as completely blameless when Jesus would come again at the end of the world. It is an attitude of joy that we have based on the love that God had for us -- sinners though we are.
Love because of his first coming. That's the second Advent attitude Paul wants us to have from God: love. Paul had that attitude of love for the Thessalonians. He showed it by being concerned about their faith. It is the attitude the Thessalonians had for each other as they remained faithful to the Lord and reached out to others with the gospel. It is also our attitude of love for others because of Christ's coming. That attitude of love could not have been possible if God hadn't loved us first and loved us so much that he sent his Son to become our substitute under God's wrath. But do we always show that love even in this Advent season?
Many years ago, Charles Schultz, the writer of the comic strip "Peanuts," showed that many times that love doesn't show in our lives. He penned a cartoon in which Snoopy is shivering out in a snowstorm beside an empty food dish. He was looking longingly, expectantly toward the house. Lucy came out and said, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled!" And then she turned right around and went back into the house and slammed the door without doing anything about the food dish. In the last frame you see a confused Snoopy looking toward the house, shivering and hungry and utterly baffled.
To make the love of Christ known takes more than words, it takes action. Paul didn't just hope that the Thessalonians were alright -- he sent Timothy to make sure they were alright. When you see someone this Advent and Christmas season, do you just say the words, "I should really get out there and tell them about Jesus," or do you actually do it? Think if God had just said, "I really should do something about the world filled with sin and ruled by Satan," but had done nothing about it. You'd still be in your sins and bound in Satan's chains for eternity. The reason we can show our love to others is for the very reason that God did show us his love by having his own Son come into the world. Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians and us is the same: "May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else." The picture is us as a glass being filled up to the very top by God's love. Then God keeps pouring his love into us so that our love overflows to others.
Paul had another prayer for the Thessalonians and us as well. "May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones." That prayer tells us the final Advent attitude we need to have as Christians. The word Advent means "coming." The Old Testament believers waited a long time for the Messiah to come into the world. He finally did come and he proclaimed the Day of the Lord, when Jesus conquered sin, death and the devil. God kept his promise. We as New Testament believers have the privilege of being able to celebrate Christ's first coming and waiting for his second coming when he will come with all his holy ones.
There are two things that we can be assured of on that second Day of the Lord. First, we will be among those who are called blameless and holy. God right now calls us saints -- that means, "holy ones." We are holy, perfect, through Jesus' life and death. You can call me St. John; I can call you St. Bill or St. Karen because that is what we are. We have that assurance throughout Scripture when we see through the eyes of faith that Jesus saved us from our sins. We are the holy ones of God because of Christ's sacrifice for you and me. The second thing that we can be assured of on the day of the Lord's second coming is that it will come -- and soon. God will keep his promise to come again just as he kept his promise to come the first time. The first time was to defeat our enemies. The second time will be to declare his glory to all and take believers, body and soul, to heaven. Our Advent attitude, therefore, is one of anticipation.
Do you have an attitude problem this Advent season? If so, you need to get an Advent attitude from God. It is one of joyful and loving anticipation as we look back at Christ's first coming and look forward to his coming again. Amen.
