Advent: Hope

 John 1:1-14

Advent: the expectant arrival of a notable person or thing. It is not an invention of a thing. 

Three directions of this arrival

1) Incarnation: word becoming flesh 

2) Received in our hearts: to those who have received him, to those he gave the right.

3) Second coming: Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail[fn] on account of him. Even so. Amen. Revelation 1:7

The four greatest gifts of Advent:

HOPE  - PEACE - LOVE  - JOY        

Hope fulfilled in the Incarnation

1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son] from the Father, full of grace and truth. 

- every other religion the prophet points  to a system of beliefs

Biblical Hope is not wishful thinking but certainty

Hope seen as Light

* Advent is a celebration of light over darkness - Darkness is an absence of hope

* vs 5 The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it

Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Vs 6 unto us a child is born to us, a child is given...

What if I lost everything? The foundational anchor for our souls is the hope of eternity.

Ico 13 faith, hope, love - greatest is love but what is second 

- hope enables us to take another step 

Psalm 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,

The backbone of the Christian church is hope

What do we put our hope in determines our joy? 

Do we put our home in: 

* Comfort

* Approval

* Control

* Success

All of these will let us down. Only the hope we put in God will endure for eternity.