The Season Before Christmas

John 5:22, 24

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Are you excited? It’s hard not to get excited this time of year. It’s the holidays, right? We’ve made it through Halloween and now through Thanksgiving. And now it’s just a few short weeks until Christmas, the biggest holiday of all. How are you preparing for Christmas? Maybe you’ve already decorated your home. Maybe you’re thinking of buying gifts for your friends and family. Maybe you’re baking goods or preparing the house for visitors. All of those are good ways to prepare.

Did you know that the Christian church actually has a name for this time of year, the season or time before Christmas? It’s called Advent, and the word advent means coming. That makes a lot of sense, especially as we prepare for Jesus coming as a baby, born in the manger on Christmas, right? That we celebrate his birth. We celebrate his coming. But not only this, during this time of year, the Christian Church is also focused on the fact that Christ not only comes in the manger, but he’s going to come again one day in glory.

It’s interesting to think about, isn’t it, how the Old Testament believers looked forward to the birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem. For us today, we know he’s already been born and lived and he died. He rose again, ascended into heaven. But we also look forward to his coming again in glory on the last day. And the Bible tells us what’s going to happen on that day, that Jesus is not going to come as a humble little baby as he did the first time, but he’s going to come with glory and might and power to judge the living and the dead.

Well, how do you think that judgment is going to go? Maybe you’d say, well, I think it’ll go okay. I’ve tried to be a good person. I’ve tried to be kind. I’ve tried to help my neighbor, especially this time of year before Christmas. We think about being generous and so forth. But for all the supposed good that you’ve done, what about the bad? Doesn’t God have every right, and in fact, doesn’t he have every responsibility to punish everything that you’ve ever done wrong, especially against other people, to bring that wrong to justice?

That’s a very scary thought, isn’t it? Especially when we think about Christ’s return. We find comfort in John chapter five and verses 22 and 24, which tells us the only way that we can survive this judgment.

“In fact, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son… Amen, Amen, I tell you: Anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He is not going to come into judgment but has crossed over from death to life.” (John 5:22, 24)

You see, the only escape from the final judgment is Christ. Only by faith in him, by clinging to him who has paid for your sin and guaranteed eternal salvation. Is there escape. Is there freedom. Is there salvation. And so the Christian Church during this time of year of Advent, to prepare not just for Christ coming as a baby in the manger, but his coming again in glory is considered Advent, a season of repentance. A time to reflect on the bad things that we have done, to confess them to God, but also trust that he forgives them for Christ’s sake. Clinging to Christ, we have nothing to fear when he returns again in glory.

A great way for you to prepare for Christ’s coming, whether in the manger or whether he comes again in glory on the last day, is by repentance. I encourage you to check out one of our local churches. You can click on the link (https://els.org/locations/) and I encourage you to look up their advent services that they offer. Those services provide a great way to focus and reflect on your own sin, but of course, be pointed ever to your Savior and assured that he comes to bring you to be with him forever in heaven.

God’s blessings on your preparation as you look forward to Christmas and throughout the entire advent season. Amen.