Advent 2017
Hope, Love, Joy, Peace
Advent 2017: Peace
December 24, 2017 • Shane Sikkema
As we’ve been walking through Luke’s record of the Christmas story, he wants us to ask, “What Child is This?” We know that Jesus is our Prince of Peace, but what does that mean in a world filled with sin, pain, injustice, and death? What kind of peace did Jesus come to bring? What kind of peace do we really need? And most of all, what will we do if the peace He offers isn’t what we expected?
Advent 2017: Joy
December 17, 2017 • Luke 2:1–21
Our culture's manufactured Christmas "joy" is a far cry from the very first Christmas. In the very first Christmas, Christ does bring true joy into the world, but it comes amidst suffering, shame, and scandal. Unwed teenager Mary gives birth in a barn, with only a scared Joseph to help deliver the baby. Once Jesus is swaddled, he is placed in a feed trough for animals, like an animal. God brings joy into the world, and it's swaddled in suffering.
Advent 2017: Love
December 10, 2017 • Luke 1
In the second week of Advent, we look at God's love. Perhaps because it comes around every year, or perhaps we've just heard the message so often, we often take the Christmas reality of God's love for granted. This is unfortunate, because God's love is the most shocking fact in the universe. We should value the spiritual practice of growing in God's love, because if you live like you're loved (because you are), you become unstoppable.
Advent 2017: Hope
December 3, 2017 • Luke 1
Advent is a celebration of the first coming of Jesus and the anticipation of his second coming. For the next four Sundays, we will meditate on the liturgical Advent themes: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace. In our first sermon, we'll look at the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth–two faithful, God-fearing and God-loving saints, who had devoted their whole lives to serving the Lord selflessly. However, despite all of their faithfulness and all of their prayers, they didn't have any children, though they desperately longed to. They begged God and begged God, but all they got in response was silence. The situation seemed utterly hopeless–until God showed up.