Throughout Advent, we would like to inspire you with Bible passages that prepare you for Christmas. TIP: Click on the Bible portion to read along in the Study Bible app ⤵️
Angels announce the arrival | Acts 1:4-11
The first Christians looked ahead to the future and placed the coming of Christ at the center of their lives. Christians were people who looked forward to the coming of Christ. An early Christian prayer in the early church was, "Lord, come!" (Maranatha). Because of that emphasis on the coming of God, the church year began with Advent. That feast included a significant period of at least four weeks leading up to Christmas.
The story is not yet finished
With Advent, Christians remember that the story of Jesus Christ is not yet complete. Jesus was born as a human being in Bethlehem. Then He served publicly in Israel for three years. He proclaimed the gospel of God's kingdom and demonstrated its blessing in words and deeds. Healings took place in the lives of all kinds of people, especially the needy, the beggars, the marginalized. Finally, Jesus was put to death. Three days later He rose from the dead and, as the risen Lord, met His disciples. Then He ascended to heaven and the disciples learned that He would return from there as well. Angels announced it to them on the Mount of Olives: God will come!
Past, present and future
That does not make Jesus a figure of the past. Jesus is not comparable to other great figures of the past who are dead and gone. Jesus lives in the presence of God and among his people on earth. Jesus is our contemporary and Jesus is also our future.
That future, that Advent hope, looks forward to God's renewal of all creation. It looks forward to God's coming, when God redeems all that is precious. The hope of Advent is thus as great as God's creation. Jesus Christ is at the center of that hope for the new heaven and earth, the transformation of all things.
Hope for the future
Therefore, in this last blog on Advent, I want to make you aware that the story of Jesus is not yet finished. The future of the cosmos is connected to his future. Jesus is the person through whom God's purposes for this world come to completion. Therefore, the completion of his story will also be the completion of world history. It is Christ who has already preceded us into the new creation to open the way for all. He came to His creation to redeem it from evil and death. He did so by himself stepping into the plight of brokenness in this world, suffering, but then rising into a new future. He opened that path to the new creation for all of us. Jesus shows the way! Indeed, as He said, He is the way.
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