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As we enter into Advent, there are so many things that are likely swirling around in all our minds.
For a lot of us, December is a month filled with parties, family dinners, classic Christmas movies like Die Hard.
It’s filled with, for some, four + weeks of Christmas music and, for others, maybe a week or a few days of Christmas music.
It’s filled with shopping—unless you’re a rock star and have that done already.
And for kids, it’s a month—hopefully—filled with a certain type of day—days of great joy
For parents, it’s a month—hopefully not—filled with a certain type of day—days of fear
What days? Snow days.
I don’t know about you, but for me, December has always been a month of hopes and dreams for my Dallas Cowboys.
Oftentimes with those hopes and dreams turning out to be letdowns.
For the last seven years, it’s been a month filled with travel. And even before we left Indiana, it was a month filled with running from one side of the family to another side of the family and then the other side and the other side, and then we usually threw in another side too.
Yeah, there’s like 17 “sides” of my family so it makes December tricky.
The Emotions of Advent and Christmas (December)
The Advent season, the month of December, maybe better known as the Christmas season, is a time filled with lots of events, lots of things to do, lots of running around.
For many of us, this isn’t only a busy time of year, it’s a stressful time of year.
For those of us who have grieved the loss of a loved one, this is a time when that grief is felt even deeper. The memories of that person are etched in our minds as we engage in many of the traditions we’ve done for decades.
For those of us who are lonely, that loneliness is only increased as they see the countless number of people on social media or in stores or in restaurants spending time together as we ourselves are alone.
For those of us who have gone through eleven months of financial stress, this season can feel like a ton of bricks falling on an already frail financial situation with the pressure to buy the best of the best for family and friends.
For those of us with families that don’t get along too well, this season is often filled with an increase in conflict and frustration.
For those of us who have experienced a failed relationship, this season is a reminder of the pain and the void.
For many of us, this season brings about an enormously strong feeling of nostalgia as we long for the days in our past when things seemed simpler and less stressful.
Intuitive Sense
And through it all, through all the pain of this season, we all seem to have this intuitive sense that things as they are are not as they ought to be.
Because as much as this season can magnify hope, it can also magnify pain, stress, loneliness, and sadness.
But what if there’s hope even in the midst of all this? What if there’s reason to lift up our heads and look forward to the future, not with anxiety, but with a confident hope?
I believe there is.
Context: Revelation 21
If you have a Bible, turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 21.
Oftentimes when we come to the book of Revelation, we take all our rules for reading Scripture and we throw them out the door.
But as we read from Revelation 21, we need to keep a few things in mind: John is writing what he saw in a vision from God and he is writing about that vision to REAL people dealing with real life in a time when the persecution of Christians was increasing.
So they were dealing with fear, with suffering. The churches that received the book of Revelation from the Apostle John were living under the Roman empire, an entity that was growing increasingly weary of Christians. They had friends put in prison, some of them had died, and they were trying to follow Christ in the midst of all of that.
And for them, the book of Revelation was a source of great encouragement.
So let’s dive in.
Revelation 21:1 (CSB)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
So again, John is telling us what he is seeing in this vision. And up to this point, he had just gotten finished talking about the victory of our Mighty King, Jesus over Satan. And with this victory comes something new.
He’s saying that with the defeat of Satan and the ultimate victory of God, what was hindered and plagued and smeared and infested with sin and all its horrible effects is going to pass away.
What began as good, has now been made bad.
Allusion to Genesis 1-3
When God created the heavens and the earth by the power of his spoken word, it was good. In fact, it was so good for humanity that God WALKED with Adam and Eve. They got to enjoy an immaculate garden of paradise. They got to enjoy it, not just because of its beauty and its solace, but because God was with them in an unhindered way.
There were no barriers between Adam, Eve, and God. It was a relationship that was full. They could be themselves with God. They didn’t deal with shame or guilt or anything like that at all.
Take your best friendship here on earth and multiply the peace and the comfort of that relationship by a thousand. The relational bliss that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God would have been far greater and far better than even that.
But Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command—don’t eat the fruit of one tree. Satan, disguised as a Serpent deceived Eve while Adam sat back and passively went along with it. And with that, our long-in-the-past descendants blemished all of existence.
So what do we have to look forward to?
What we have to look forward to…
God is remaking what He made in Genesis.
He is taking this enemy-occupied territory and is liberating His people from bondage to sin and death.
The whole order of things is being wiped away and a new order of things is coming.
Let’s continue and see what that will look like.
Revelation 21:2
I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
At first glance, the significance of this could be missed.
But as I continued to read this verse, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Ephesians 5 and what Paul says about Christ and the Church. He uses Christ and His relationship to the Church as the basis for a call to husbands and wives to love each other.
He talks about the sacrificial love that is involved in a marriage. He tells us husbands to love our wives as Christ loves the Church—He gave Himself for her, presenting her without spot or blemish by His expression of love on the cross.
And he says this mystery is profound—not talking about marriage directly, but indirectly. Instead, he is talking about how profound the mystery is of the relationship between Christ and the Church.
And here, I believe we see this mystery coming to life.
Old Jerusalem -> New Jerusalem
Jerusalem was designed to be God’s holy city where His peopled dwelt and lived under His Kingship.
But all throughout Israel’s existence, they have had moments of submission to God and moments of rebellion—much like us.
And now, through Jesus, God’s people include Jew AND Gentile. Thankfully, people like you and me have been given the opportunity to be called children of God.
And one day, Jerusalem will be made new. It will be a city from God for His people, for His bride, for the Church, of which you and I—through Christ—have an opportunity to dwell.
But let’s keep moving. John’s just getting started.
Revelation 21:3-4
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
Won’t that day be a great day? Can you imagine?
God Himself dwelling with us, walking with us like He did with Adam and Eve!
No more loneliness. No more shame. No more guilt. No more rebellion. Everything that is wrong with life, done away with in a moment.
No more death. No more tears. No more surgeries. No more aching. No more medicine. No more treatments. No more stress. No more conflict. No more pain. No more mourning, for death will no longer be on the table.
My friends, there is a day coming in our future where God will PUT DEATH IN THE GRAVE and we will no longer be plagued by its effects, its power. It will be destroyed, for we worship the King who entered death and came out ALIVE and VICTORIOUS!
No more saying goodbye. No more funerals. No more losses.
Can you imagine that day?
No more farewells. No more fading memories. We’ll have life and we’ll have it abundantly—no, we’ll have it infinitely.
Can you imagine that day?
The day our King rises up and declares that He is dwelling WITH YOU.
Can you imagine that day?
When God takes all His promises and finishes those stories, ending it, not with a semi-colon, or a comma, or even a period… He’ll finish the story of His faithfulness to us with an exclamation and begin a new one called ETERNITY.
Can you imagine that day?
Revelation 21:5-6
Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” 6Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.
God has been building to this moment in John’s vision. The moment when He declares to Him, to the Saints John wrote to, and to the Saints—you and I—here today that everything is being made new. Nothing is staying the same.
There will be no grain of sand the same. Everything is being made new by His hand.
The question for us
But the question we must ask ourselves is: are we thirsty for the water of life?
Do we desire a life with God? Or are we content on trying to build our own cisterns that will always run dry?
God is leading us to a defining moment where we must decide.
Revelation 21:7-8
The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
We must hear what God is saying.
There is a choice we must make. Him as our God or not. Christ as our King or not. The Spirit as our comfort or not.
God seems to be saying that belief in Him requires courage. Why? Because it’s the cowards who suffer the second death.
It can be a daily grind to remain full of faith. It can be difficult to let the Spirit of God lead us into the good things God wants us to do.
But nonetheless, there is a choice.
There are two cities prominent in the book of Revelation: the city of God or the city of Babylon.
The original recipients of this letter would have understood the city of Babylon as the great city of Rome and all the cultural influence coming from it.
The idolatry, the violence, the sexual sin, the sorcery—that is the path of the faithless.
But through Jesus, we can be the overcomers in verse 7 and not be counted among those in verse 8.
What We Must See
Throughout this passage in Revelation 21, there is a truth I want us to dial into. If we can plant our feet firm on the ground of this truth, we’ll be the future-focused people God wants us to be:
Our God has made an appointment with our pain. On that day, He’ll wipe it all away.
A time is coming when our pain will no longer be able to make appointments on our behalf.
A time is coming when our pain will no longer drive us to an emergency room.
A time is coming when our pain will no longer cause our family the heartache and the grief of loss.
My friends, our God is so good that He is going to take our pain to the surgery room, cut it out and throw it in the trash.
Now and Not Yet
But we would be remised if we left it there. Because for those of us who follow Jesus Christ, we have a taste of the vision in Revelation 21.
While we still have pain present, we do have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. He is there with us in the midst of this pain. In the midst of loss. In the midst of stress, conflict, and grief.
God HAS done this now and we can’t forget that.
The Holy Spirit is present here in this place and there in you through what Christ has done.
No, the new heavens and new earth have not come yet. But God’s presence is here. And that truth brings us to what we can do in the midst of the Advent season as we battle against all the dynamics of a sin-infested world.
Lean Into God’s Embrace
We must lean into God’s embrace. When we draw near to God, He draws near to us.
He wants us to lean in.
He wants us to slow down and engage with Him.
He wants us to spend more time in prayer—even when we don’t know what to say.
He wants us to spend more time reading His word. If you have a smart phone, you can download the YouVersion app and choose one of the many Advent reading plans. Make it a point to do that and to begin engaging in God’s word on a daily basis.
He wants us to open our hearts to Him and confess what is plaguing us, what we’re battling against, what our fears are, and how we’re feeling.
Because without confession, prayer is a closed conversation on our end. But when we open the gates of confession, we get closer to that unhindered harmony that awaits us when God dwells with us in a brand new way.
Take Time to Look Ahead
While the pain of today can be deafening, we must—as God’s children—look ahead to what is coming. We must be a future-focused people. We must live with eternity in mind, both for the promises we will receive and for the promises that are available to those around us who do not follow Christ.
When we look ahead, we can’t help but be aware of the people around us who desperately need to surrender to Jesus.
And when we look ahead, we can be reminded that:
Through Jesus, we have the sure hope of a future moment—when our pain will be wiped away.
Or said another way:
Our God has made an appointment with our pain. On that day, He’ll wipe it all away.
Let’s Imagine: Embracing the Tension of Now and Not Yet
Let’s imagine together what it would be like this Advent season for us to embrace the now and the not yet.
Let’s look to God now while we are still in this sin-stained world, realizing that He is with us in the midst of it.
And let’s look to God for what He is going to do in the future.
When we do that, this Advent season may just be characterized by a calm and hopeful anticipation of the arrival of our King rather than a season of magnified stress, busyness, conflict, and pain.
If You Do One Thing In Response, Make It This
Start an Advent reading plan. The YouVersion app has a number of great options. And bible.com has those very same plans for your computer.
And in this week’s You Should Know email, I’ll include some Scriptures you can work through if you don’t want to use the app or the website.
This Advent season, let’s slow down and anticipate the coming of our King, Jesus—both as a baby and as our coming King.
