So how is it coming along? All that present buying, card writing and recipe planning? Did you buy your wrapping paper in the sales last Christmas (we did!), or will you still be rushing around on Christmas Eve? Christmas, like many things in life, needs forward planning. We know it’s coming, so we make preparations to get ourselves ready for the big day.
Well today is Advent Sunday, and Advent is all about looking ahead. But Advent doesn’t point us to the celebrations of Jesus’ first coming: it points us towards his second coming. The first time he came silently, slipping almost unnoticed into Bethlehem. When Jesus returns, every eye will see him as he comes in glory, trumpets sounding, surrounded by hosts of angels, to usher in the great and glorious Day of the Lord.
How do we know it’s going to happen? Because God keeps his promises. And to encourage us in that truth, this Sunday we’re starting a 4-week mini-series looking through the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1 to see the promises God gave to Abraham, David, Zerubbabel and Joseph. Those promises all came true in Jesus. And that means we can be absolutely confident that because Jesus said he would return in glory, that’s exactly what he will do.
Jesus IS coming back. The question is: will we be ready to meet him?