Sermon for Advent: God Keeps A Promise

God Keeps A Promise

Jeremiah 33:14-16 NIV

" 'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

" 'In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it

will be called:
The LORD Our Righteousness.'

The Good News Defined

Well, here we are again -- the beginning of Advent, the season of anticipating the coming of the Christ.  Followed closely, of course, by Christmas.  As a matter of fact, most of us not of the liturgical tradition see Advent as the run-up to Christmas.  It is that, but even more.  For not only is Advent the preparation for Christmas, it is an event in and of itself.  In Advent we are looking for, anticipating, preparing for the coming of God's Messiah.

To us on this side of that event, this doesn't seem like such a big thing.  On our way back from Amy's yesterday, we stopped to eat at a Cracker Barrel restaurant.  We have probably eaten at more Cracker Barrels than any other human beings, and we are expecting an award any day now for being such loyal customers. That, however, is not my point.

My point is -- while waiting in the checkout line after our meal, I noticed one of those "count down to Christmas" cardboard gizmos.   You know, the ones where you open a little door in this brightly-colored cardboard display each day before Christmas, and behind each door is a little piece of candy.  Usually the doors have the date on them and you open one per day until Christmas comes.  That's one way to anticipate Christmas.

But suppose you lived before the coming of God's Messiah.  Your perspective would be totally different.  And that is what Advent should do for us -- remind us of what life would be like if the Messiah had not come.   A kind of spiritual "It's a Wonderful Life" if you will.

And that's where this word "gospel" comes in.  Of course, the word "gospel" doesn't appear in this passage, but bear with me because I do have a point here.

The word "gospel" means "good news."  It comes from two Greek words -- "eu" which means good, and "angelion" which means message or news.  Put them together and it comes out "euangelion," which is the one from which we get our English word "evangelism."

But back to the gospel or the good news.  I ran into an interesting discussion the other day about the definition of the Gospel.  So, let me ask you the question -- If you had to define the word "gospel" how would you define it?

Most people, including the account I was reading, said something like this --

"The gospel is the account of man's sin; God's sending Jesus to pay the penalty for that sin, and rise from the dead; and, the gift of eternal life which Jesus provides to all who will receive him."

Now, that is the story of what the Bible tells us, but is it the gospel -- the good news?

The Good News in the First Century

If our definition is correct, it will hold up in the New Testament uses of the word.  Let me give you an example:  In Mark 1:14-15, Mark says this about Jesus:

Jesus uses the word "gospel" or "good news" himself.  And Mark says Jesus proclaims the good news, and he gives us an example of how Jesus proclaims the gospel -- the good news of God."The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"Now it would make sense to us to use our definition of the good news here.  Jesus says "Repent and believe that man sinned, God sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise from the dead, so that all could have eternal life."  That would make sense to us, but it wouldn't make sense to anybody that Jesus is speaking to.Here's why:  Our definition of the good news makes sense to us because it's already happened.  We know God sent Jesus, who lived, died, and rose again for the forgiveness of our sin.But at this point in Mark's gospel, none of those things has happened. So, what was the "good news" that Jesus proclaimed?  What was the good news they were supposed to repent and believe?Well, we have a clue, actually we have a definition of the good news in Acts 13:34 --

Here's the definition of the good news:  "God keeps His promises.""What God promised our fathers, he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus."That's the good news -- God keeps his promises.Why Is God's Promise Important?So, why is this the good news, that God keeps his promises?  Why is it so important that God keep his promises?To answer that question, we need to know what the promise of God is.  God made a lot of promises, or covenants with people, but the gist of all of them is found in God's covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17:7 --

I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. God will be with them, and they will be with God.

Of course, that is exactly the way we started out in the Garden of Eden. ... Or at least Adam and Eve started out that way.  God would be with them, walking with them in the Garden in the cool of the evening.

And, as we read last week, that is how things will be in the New Heaven and the New Earth --³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  -- Rev 21:3

So, God with the people of God is God's plan from beginning to end.

What Went Wrong?

If you look at the stories of God with his people in the Bible, you get a wonderful picture that the dwelling place of God is indeed among God's people.  From the Garden of Eden to the call of Abraham to the Exodus.  The story of the Bible is the story of God with his people.

And when God's people abandon and betray God, God seeks them out, corrects their disobedience, and welcomes them back again.  The entire book of Hosea is the story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife, Gomer.  Hosea takes Gomer back in spite of her unfaithfulness to him, and that story becomes a symbol of God and his people.

The people of God are in this repeating cycle of relationship with God, exile from God, and return to God.  We see it in the Garden, we see it in the story of the Exodus, we see it in the kingdom of Saul, we see it in the lives of the prophets among God's people, we see it in King David himself.

But the bottom line is -- God is always with His people.

• If you want to find out what God is doing, get among his people.
• If you want to know God's will, find it among his people.
• If you want to understand God's ways, look at how God deals with his people.
• If you want to experience God's love, get to know his people.But what went wrong is that God's people have a very bad habit of rejecting God.  Beginning with Adam and Eve, and zooming right on through the Old Testament the idea of relationship, exile, and return plays itself out.

Until we get to New Testament.  We somehow see the New Testament as having nothing to do with the Old, and nothing could be further from the truth.  the New Testament is the continuation and culmination of everything the Old Testament was telling us.

The story of Jesus' birth is not just a good story to kick off the New Testament.  The story of Jesus' birth is the ultimate "God with us" story.  It is the climax of what God has been doing for 1500 years leading up to the birth of the Messiah.

God With Us

Remember what Isaiah said about the Messiah --¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you ^[a] a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and ^[b] will call him Immanuel. -- Is 7:14

Of course, Immanuel means "God with us."  There it is again, God with his people.

Jeremiah says --

¹⁴ " 'The days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.¹⁵ " 'In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.

¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it ^[a] will be called:
The LORD Our Righteousness.'

There it is -- a righteous Branch from the line of David.  And the result is Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem live in safety.

Now, that doesn't just mean the nation of Judah and not Israel.  Judah represents all of God's people, and the city of Jerusalem contains the Temple, God in the midst of his people.  So, God is saying, everything will be fine.  God will be in the midst of his people again, and the nation will be "saved" -- made whole and healthy -- and live in safety and peace.

That's God with us.  That's what the Messiah was to do.

Back To The Good News

So, you see why this idea of the good news is important?  Here's what we covered so far --

• The good news is God keeps his promises.
• The promise if that God will be with his people.
• The presence of God is with his people, but they continue to reject him.
• Finally, God comes in the form of a man, Jesus, and literally lives in the midst of his people.God kept his promise.  That's good news.  That's what we look forward to in this Advent Season.  God with us.  Really with us.  God keeping his promise to be our God, whether we keep our end of the deal or not.  God with us, with a face like ours, with a physical body like ours, with the limitations that are ours.  God with us to save us, not just for heaven, but to save us for this life.  To save us by making us healthy and whole spiritually.  To save us by fixing the brokenness of our relationships both with God and our fellowman.

That's what this Advent season is about.  Looking forward to the One who will come among us, who has come among us, to repair our relationships, restore the image of God in us, redeem us from the penalty of our own sin, and transform us into his body, where again he can continue to be among us through his Spirit.

Look for the coming of God among us this year.  Watch for the ways in which God repairs that which is broken, heals that which is hurt, opens eyes that are blind to his presence, and feeds us with the bread of life.  After all, the good news is -- God keeps his promises.