Sermon Tone Analysis

We are now one week in to the Advent season.

This is a time of preparing our hearts for the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

The way we are preparing our hearts is by taking this symbol here of the advent candles and each Sunday we light the candles corresponding to the weeks we are observing.

Last week we began by lighting the first candle which is called the prophecy candle.

As I said last week and I would like to continue to stress for the next few weeks the candles themselves are not in the Scripture, nowhere does it say we are to do this.

It is only a symbolic gesture a way of perpetuation for our hearts so that we can place our focus on the true reason for celebrating Christmas.

The prophecy candle is also called the Hope candle.

We looked at what the Scripture has to say about the Hope God has provided for us in His Son.

The entirety of the Old Testament points to Jesus and through out the Old Testament we see how God has provided hope for all of humanity begin with the Garden of Eden all the way through to pointing to a King, who is also a prophet and priest and who is also our Redeemer.

He is Jesus Christ and He is the reason why on December 25 we commemorate His birth.

Notice I have said commemorate.

It is only a celebration of the glorious gift we were given in Jesus Christ not only this Hope but also we know that in His birth He is God who took on the form of His own creation for the sole purpose of going to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins Redeeming us or freeing us from an eternal damnation in hell.

If only everyday were Christmas and we should celebrate this everyday.

Seeing as how it is a world Holiday we as true followers of Jesus Christ should lead the example and be the ones to point people to Jesus Christ this and every year.

We need to be the ones who can demonstrate the Hope we have in our Savior in a time were people are more concerned with giving and receiving material possessions.

I am not saying we shouldn't exchange gifts, not at all.

I am just saying for of majority of the world for those who celebrate Christmas they do so without even batting an eye as to what the true Spirit of Christmas is and it is a time for us to commemorate the birth of the God-Man Jesus Christ.

The way we live can have an impact on those around us so why not take this time of the year to focus on the Son of God

That is what we are doing here, we are focusing on God the Father and God the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Last week we looked at the Hope God provides through out the Old Testament this week we want to look at the Love God Displays.

We will see the symbol of Love in the second candle.

The first candle is the prophecy candle which symbolizes Hope.

Prophecy Candle

Prophecy Candle-Hope

The second candle is called the Bethlehem Candle and it symbolizes Love

Prophecy Candle-Hope

Bethlehem Candle

Prophecy Candle -Hope

Bethlehem Candle-Love

As we look through the Scripture what we will learn is how God has displayed His love to all mankind and how the display of this love centers on a little town called Bethlehem.

Let's go ahead and look at Advent: God's Love Displayed.

Advent-God's Love Displayed

As a child, not knowing the Lord as my Savior, Christmas music did not mean anything to me except that it was pretty and nice to listen to.

Of course many of those songs play on the radio even today.

The generic holiday songs were always just fun.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland, Chestnuts roasting on an Open fire.

Silver bells.

But then there were the Hymns, there was always something about those Hymns that were just captivating yet I had no idea what any of those songs meant.

There was no background or any education as to who those songs were about and why they were so meaningful.

And I can recall singing them as just beautiful songs with a nice message and I had no idea what I was singing.

And do you know in many of the Christmas Hymns we sing today and just like the ones I enjoyed growing up there is one town that is prevalent in at least a half a dozen if not more of the song we sing.

It is that little town of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is an important city, not just because it is the city Jesus was born in but because it is a town that has its presence in the Old Testament.

We find this town of Bethlehem back in the book of Genesis.

It is mention for the first time in Genesis 35:19-21.

It is a short mention that if you are not paying attention you might miss it.

See this town even though it is only a place marking here in this text has been mentioned and I don't believe in coincidence, God didn't just have this town mentioned here for nothing.

It is pointing to a future prominence in the lives of the Israelite people.

This event is sad but look at what happens in the book of Ruth.

Ruth opens in chapter 1 with this;

Did you catch where this Elimelech was from.

He is from Bethlehem in Judah and he is called an Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah.

Look God didn't go through all the trouble of explaining Elimelech's hometown for nothing.

In this mention of his hometown we find not only is the town called Bethlehem but it is situated in the land that has been given to the son of Israel who is named Judah and they are actually called Ephrathites.

While in Moab Elimelech and his two sons died.

Naomi his wife hears the famine has ended and chooses to go back to Bethlehem.

Here daughter in laws go back with her.

Naomi wants these young women to go back to their own home and releases them from going with her.

Ruth chooses to stay and care for her mother in law who has now changed her name from Naomi which means pleasantness to Mara which means bitter.

This woman who has lost everything has now become bitter.

As the story of Ruth develops we find that Ruth meets a man who is a relative of Naomi's who is a wealthy land owner and he notices her.

Upon her mother in laws instruction Ruth seizes an opportunity to be redeemed by this man.

The man's names is Boaz and he marries Ruth and they have a child named Obed, which Naomi nurses and bring pleasure back into her life.

This child will one day have a son as well his name will be Jesse and Jesse will have many sons but one of his sons is chosen by God for a very important position, he will be King.

He is an ancestor of Judah and if you recall from last week as we looked at God's provision of Hope we looked at Genesis 49:8-10 let's look at this once again.

Here is Jacob, also called Israel, giving the blessing to his twelve sons and this is the blessing he gives Judah.

This is a prophetic blessing.

Israel is saying that Judah's lineage will be a royal lineage.

Boaz is his direct descended and that makes Obed Judah's direct descendant and Jesse and his son David who is to be the one God has chosen to be the King of the entire nation of Israel.

From here we find that a few hundred years later the prophet Micah writes about a ruler.

Look with me at this prophecy in Micah 5:1-2.

Micah of course is pointing to Jesus.

He is pointing to the ruler of Israel who has been designated by God from long ago from the days of eternity.

This has always been the plan that God's redeemer and King would come from a little town just a few miles north of Jerusalem.

The city of Bethlehem the city where the King of God's choosing comes from.

God chose David and now God chooses Jesus.

This city and as we observe this candle which has the same name, the Bethlehem candle we one thing I want to keep in mind is the symbol of love that come out of the prominence of this little town.

The climax of God's love for all of mankind has been demonstrated for us immensely on the cross at Calvary still His love was expressed throughout the entirety of the Old Testament.

God's love is expressed through the Old Testament first and foremost in His promise of providing a Redeemer and a King.

God's Promise

We saw last week how God provided a promise to Abraham.

God told Abraham He would be the father of many nations and His people would have a land and they would be His people forever.

God's promise was made with Abraham but this promise He made was not ratified with Abraham.

Look at this with me in Genesis 15:5-12

Here we have God making a promise with Abraham that Abraham would have many descendants and God will give Him this land.

Abraham believes yet seeks assurance and God provides it.

God gives Abraham instruction on what to bring and what to do with all the animals.

Then in Genesis 15:17 we find the ratification of this promise.

Did you notice who went between the pieces, it was God, do you know where Abraham was, in a deep sleep.

God made a promise with Abraham which He ratified or sealed it with Himself.

This is an act of Love because when you make a covenant such as this and both people go through both are obligated to act, both need to do something.

The only One who needs to do something here is God.

God made the promise with Abraham and God ratified it with Himself because this promise is not contingent on Abraham doing anything except believing God will keep it.

That is it.

It doesn't matter what Abraham does God will keep His promise.

It doesn't matter what Abraham's descendants do, God will keep this promise.

This promise is completely based on the Love God has for mankind and the Love He has for His nation Israel.

God makes the promise with Abraham out of a Love for humanity, a Love for His people.

He also make another promise with David, an important promise.

We find this promise in 2 Samuel 7:12:16