Advent: Our Great Hope

Perhaps your church or family is observing Advent this year, which began this past Sunday for the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day. I’ve grown up with that rhythm each December, but this year it hit me in new ways as I looked closer at its origins.

Did you know that the Advent celebration goes way back to the Middle Ages? Did you know that the word “Advent” comes from a Latin word “adventus” meaning “coming” or “arrival”? 

And did you know, since Advent began to be celebrated, that the “arrival” and “coming” we celebrate is NOT just the arrival of a little baby in a manger? (You probably know all this, but humour me… I grew up hearing Advent messages year after year and it has only recently come alive to me!!)

Our Great Hope

The first Advent Sunday lights the Candle of Hope (also called the “Prophecy Candle”). Hundreds and hundreds of years of prophecy had been foretelling that a Saviour would come—a “Messiah” who would deliver Israel from their bondage.

On that night in Bethlehem (the city of David), the unimaginable happened—a virgin gave birth to a baby from the family line of David himself, who was also God Incarnate… God had come through at last! He was fulfilling His promise! He hadn’t just raised up a mighty man to do the job—He had sent His very own Son from heaven, to show the world what He is like, and to restore us back to Himself.

Israel’s hope had finally been realized!

But not in the way they expected… Indeed, this arrival of Jesus Christ as a man—yet fully God—did more than fulfill the prophecies of His birth. It also declared that God is trustworthy to fulfill ALL His promises.

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Hebrews 10:23 NLT

Did you know: there are more than 300 prophecies about Jesus in the Bible, and more than 200 of them point to His SECOND coming?

So if Christmas celebrates the fulfillment of a prophesied First Coming… we can have equally confident HOPE that the Second Coming will also happen just as God promised!

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. … Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Romans 5:5, 9-10 NIV

This is the fuller picture of “arrival” or “coming” that Advent celebrates. His first coming declares the certainty of His second coming! 

“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:11 NIV

Jesus came!

And He will come again!

A (Lesser) Hope as Vocalists

Way to go for reading this far! I want to add a thought for all of us vocalists. But before I share that, I need to add a caveat:

👉 The most important hope we have is in Jesus Himself—Him taking away the sin of the world to redeem all God’s creation to Himself. We can lose sight of the big picture and diminish His glory if we just read Scripture to find “personal life application” (ie, how it benefits me). Does Christ’s redemption benefit us? Absolutely! But we must not elevate our personal benefits higher than the only true benefit—Jesus Himself!

Back to my point: if God can be trusted to redeem humanity back to Himself—if His Word can be trusted to accomplish what He’s said—then, I believe as vocalists we can also place our hope on these promises:

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. 

Philippians 1:6 NLT

“for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 7:17 NKJV

We will be formed one day in His perfect image… perfectly representing His nature and ways. That means, we will be perfectly patient, loving, humble, kind and pure. Every sad thing will be no more—our tears will be gone.

Not only that, but also:

[Jesus Christ] who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Philippians 3:21 NIV

Our bodies will be transformed to be like His glorious body… And I expect that includes our voices! Yes, I’m sure on the day when we get to SEE the Lamb in all His glory, we won’t be consumed with thoughts of proper resonance, vocal cord closure, breath support, etc.! 😂 But will our singing voices then be irrelevant? I don’t think so! Our singing voice was God’s idea! And when we are restored to His perfect design, I think we’ll still sing a lot… and it won’t be a sorrow anymore! We won’t lament about the vocal struggles anymore. We will get to use our voices perfectly, with total joy and delight.

So take hope in Jesus’ second coming, and take hope in the coming fulfilment of a perfect voice by which we will endlessly get to praise Jesus without vocal sorrow or inhibition!

Rich blessings on your Advent week!

Come Lord Jesus Come!