Advent Hope for a Hero
Advent 2024 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Advent
Advent
Today begins a season the church has celebrated for thousands of years. The season of Advent.
The Latin word adventus was the translation of the Greek parousia—a word used for both the coming of Christ in human flesh and his Second Coming. Advent, then, has always tended to focus on both.
So these 4 weeks before Christmas, we will focus on 4 historic themes of Advent, the first being Hope.
Super Heroes
Super Heroes
In 1938, the United States had suffered through several years of the Great Depression and many were struggling to make ends meet during one of the worst seasons of our countries history.
It was in that time that Jerry Siegel, who had spent several years writing and marketing his made-up characters, finally published his very first comic book called “Action Comics” introducing the world to Superman.
In a world where people were suffering to survive, it makes sense that someone who was "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,” would become incredibly popular.
Writer Talia Smart, in a 2016 article traced the popularity of super heroes throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, finding that the creation of the superheroes that we know and love today all find their beginnings in times of struggle or seasons of turmoil.
Captain America in 1940 during the beginnings of WWII in Europe
Spider-man in the early 1960’s around the beginning of the Vietnam war and the assassination of JFK.
And the X-Men were created during the civil rights movement, a mutant race of people persecuted for being different than everyone else.
The history of superheroes shows how, in the midst of struggle, of unrest, and conflict, we are drawn to characters with superhuman strength, skill, and the power to possibly save us from pain and struggle of our current situation.
There is in all of us a hope for a hero.
But that hope doesn’t have to be in a made up character in a comic book or high budget movie.
The Prophet Isaiah told us about the hope we can have in the hero named Jesus.
Hope in a Shoot
Hope in a Shoot
The book of Isaiah was written 600-700 years before the birth of Jesus, during the reign of 4 kings in Jerusalem.
Isaiah spends much of the book warning the people of God’s judgement for their rebellion.
But scattered throughout the book are prophecies about king who would come and save the people and set them free, a Messiah.
These Messianic prophesies are what we are going to focus on throughout this Advent Season.
The scene at the end of Isaiah chapter 10 is of a clear cut forest.
Every tree cut down and every limb chopped off.
This was God’s judgement on Israel, a desolate and hopeless picture of utter destruction.
But from the destruction of Isaiah 10, we have Isaiah 11, follow along as I read...
Isaiah 11:1–10 (CSB)
1 Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
3 His delight will be in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, he will not execute justice by what he hears with his ears, 4 but he will judge the poor righteously and execute justice for the oppressed of the land. He will strike the land with a scepter from his mouth, and he will kill the wicked with a command from his lips.
5 Righteousness will be a belt around his hips; faithfulness will be a belt around his waist. 6 The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together, and a child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle. 8 An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.
9 They will not harm or destroy each other on my entire holy mountain, for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water. 10 On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will look to him for guidance, and his resting place will be glorious.
Isaiah 11 is a hope-filled chapter for all of us weary and frustrated by life in a broken world.
And it points to our hero, Jesus
Giving us reason that for the hope we have in Him as we celebrate this Christmas Season.
We have hope because...
We have hope because...
Our Hero has COME.
Our Hero has COME.
I have a tree stump in my back yard. I didn’t cut it down, so I know it has been there for more than 8 years, likely even longer.
The stump looks dead, yet at least 2 times every summer I have to take my pruning tool out and cut off the little trees that have begun to grow out of the stump.
That is the image Isaiah is describing in chapter 11. In this desolate, dead, and hopeless place.
This is what our world feels like when we hear of unjust wars, massive disease, the death of 36 year old . mothers, and so many other horrible realities.
Yet, a tiny, green sprout appears on one of those dead stumps.
The stump is from the house of Jesse, the father of David, the greatest King in the history of Israel.
Hope was sprouting…
The hope Isaiah is speaking of is a two-part hope. It is how all of the prophesies about Jesus should be understood.
If you have ever looked at a mountain from a distance, it seems like there is just 1 big mountain range.
But as you get closer, you begin to see that what looked like one line of mountains is actually a mountain range.
Some of the mountains are closer than others, some taller, some smaller, and between them are valleys.
This is the way Isaiah’s prophesy here in chapter 11 should be understood.
And it is the reason the Advent season focuses on 2 comings of Jesus.
What we read about in Matthew and Luke is the first set of mountains we get to in the range.
This little shoot doesn't look like much, but it is the very thing that will spark a new movement and the beginning of a restoration project.
The hope we celebrate on Christmas isn’t a hope of what MAY come, but a hope of what has ALREADY come.
We aren’t waiting for a Hero, our hero is Jesus, and He is even better than Superman.
Our Hero is WISE and JUST.
Our Hero is WISE and JUST.
What was born on Christmas day 2000 years ago was a hope that the world we live in, though full of pain, conflict, disease, and disaster, isn’t all there is to know.
There are shoots all around us, pointing toward the hope we have in the one who has come.
Isaiah describes the one coming as “Wise and understanding” and that He would he “just and righteous”.
Isaiah wants us to understand that the one coming is someone everyone is going to want to listen to.
The Words Jesus spoke, that we have written in this book, are the very words of life.
We hear the promise of forgiveness and the hope of eternal life.
We hear the way to freedom and joy through truth and embracing obedience.
Isaiah also wants us to recognize that the one coming is the very definition of goodness, righteousness, and justice.
What we see in the life of Jesus is a compassion for the lost and broken, and a power to fix those broken and lost things.
In His life we see sicknesses healed, the hungry fed, natural disasters calmed, and death defeated.
He is a Savior that can save us from all the pain and evil this world throws at us.
Isaiah is presenting someone we can trust without reservation.
Someone we can rest our hope in fully and completely.
Someone that even cryptonite can’t stop.
Our Hero is COMING AGAIN.
Our Hero is COMING AGAIN.
The last part of the passage paints a pretty idealistic picture.
Wolves hanging out with lambs, leopards lying down with goats, and calves and lions being lead together by little children.
Isaiah says in verse 9 “They will not harm or destroy each other…for the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water.”
He is describing a place of peace and security, where the things that we fear, that war against us will be no more.
I don’t think any of us believe Isaiah is describing the world we live in right now.
If you do, please someone keep them away from lions and cobras please!
This is where the second set of mountains, the ones on the other side of the valley begin to come into view.
In the life of Jesus we see glimpses of this paradise, but only glimpses.
The hope of Christmas goes beyond the manger scene with shepherds and wise men.
It goes beyond the miracles of Jesus’s life.
It even looks further than the resurrection.
Because each part of His life 2000 years ago points toward to promise that one day (hopefully really soon) He will return.
And what He started in His first advent will be finished in His second.
Phillip Brooks was an Episcopal Bishop in New England during the Civil war.
Many in the church he pastored either fought in the war or lost loved ones in the war. His own brother, George, died during the war.
After the war was over, Brooks traveled to the Holy Lands and went out one night on horse back outside the town of Bethlehem where the angels would have announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds.
He then wrote the Hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem”. The town of David, the beginning of the shoot of Jessie.
Brooks hymn sings of the dark streets of the city shining from the everlasting light of Jesus, and how the hopes and fears from all the years are met/resolved in Him the night of His birth.
Brooks found deep comfort in the Hope of Jesus' birth, the arrival of our hero, and the hope that one day He would come again and finally a fully restore this broken world.
