The Advent - week 2
“Mary Consoles Eve”
by a sister at Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey, 2003
Preparation for Re-Creation in the Image of God
Last week began the Season of Advent. At this time of year, we remember both that the Lord has come to us, and that He is returning again. Christmas exists because 2000 years ago, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords took on flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a sinless life and laid down that life on the cross, so that we can be reconciled to God and have eternal life. He rose from the grave proving His power over sin and death. Then, He ascended to heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father. However, before He ascended He promised that He would return one day. Christmas remembers He came. Easter remembers He died and rose again. Advent is about remembering that He is coming back.
“Mary consoles Eve” is a print from Our Lady of the Mississippi monastery in Iowa. It is a deceptively simple crayon drawing. At first glance, you will only see Eve and Mary, but look more closely and find the Serpent has wrapped himself around Eve’s leg. It symbolizes the hold Satan has on humanity through the sin of our first parents. But follow it, and you will also see the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. Eve’s offspring is crushing the serpent’s head. Now, being a catholic rendering, Mary is shown to be the one to crush the head, but of course, we know this was truly fulfilled when Christ went to the cross. By taking our sin to the cross, Christ defeated the devil by breaking the curse of sin. Regardless, the picture is powerful for all sinners. We have all gone astray as Eve did. But, we all can find hope and salvation in the first born of Mary, Christ Jesus our Lord.
This week, the theme for Advent is “preparation”. We are to prepare for His Return. How we do that is what today is about. To best understand how to prepare, we must first understand what Jesus is doing. And, as with everything in life, the only way to understand the present is to study the past. So let us begin where all good stories start—the very beginning.
The Image of God
1:27 - So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.2:17 - but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
3:14-15 - The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”Genesis 1:27, 2:17, 3:14-15
Oddly enough, the story of Christmas begins in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. We read in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. As the days pass, the Lord creates the earth and sky, stars and planets, and then fills the land with beasts, the seas with fish, and the skies with birds. Then, on the sixth day, He does something very special. He creates humans, but look at Genesis 1:27–He creates Man “in His own image.” Much has been written over the centuries on this little phrase. The short version is this:
Man was created to imitate the Father. Humans were created be creative, making new things out of what God provided. Humans were to administer Creation. Looking at the previous verse, we read God gave humans dominion over the animals. Humans are to bring order in nature that would run wild otherwise. Humans also share in many of the attributes of God, in that they are to love, share in joy, and have wisdom. Now, we are, of course, not equal to God in any of these attributes, we are simply an image of these attributes.
Humans were created to bear the image of God.
After the Lord creates Adam, He gives Adam one simple command. Look at 2:17. The Lord says Adam can eat what he likes from the plants, but he must not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We do not know what makes this particular tree special outside of the fact that this tree is forbidden. Once Adam eats from it, he knows both good and evil. Before he eats the tree’s fruit, all he knows is good. Consider what God says about His Creation, “It is very good.” Six times God says, “It is good”, and then when He completes His work and surveys all He accomplished, He says, “It is very good”—tov mioth, my favorite Hebrew phrase.
But, we know that Adam did eat the fruit, and with that humans have been destined to die ever since. One last attribute of being made in the Image of God is that humans were designed to live forever. We can only speculate what eternal life for humanity would like today, had Adam and Eve not sinned, but the fact is, had they obeyed God’s command, they would have had access to the other tree mentioned, the Tree of Life.
Humans were meant for eternity.
But, we know they did eat, and humans do die. And, because of the Fall, we have Christmas. The very first prophecy of what God would accomplish to end the sin problem comes right after their sin. Look with me at Genesis 3:14-15.
God places a curse on the serpent for tempting the first couple, and in that curse He says there will be enmity between Eve’s offspring and the serpent’s. For many centuries, Jewish rabbis simply interpreted this as the reason women hate snakes. However, very early in Christianity, Christians realized there is more happening here. The offspring of Eve would bruise the head of the serpent, while the serpents’ would only bruise his heel. If the serpent is Satan, as he undoubtedly is, then God is saying that Satan’s descendants would hurt an offspring of Eve, but Eve’s offspring would strike the snake’s head. This prophecy was fulfilled fully at the cross. Though Jesus, a descendant of Eve by virtue of being a human born, went to the cross because of false accusations, He also went willingly as the means to defeat the work of Satan.
The Voice Calling from the Wilderness
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Luke 3:1-9
Isaiah prophesied there would come one calling out from the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord”. The first two verses poetically speak of preparing, but what is the Lord going to do? What are we preparing for? “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed.” The glory of the Lord is coming, Israel must make the way ready.
Here, we see the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words. John the Baptizer, son of Zechariah, comes out of the wilderness to point the people to repentance. Isaiah used the metaphor of geography to tell Israel to get ready for the coming of the Lord. Notice that John tells the people to get ready by repenting of their sins. Jesus is coming to usher in a spiritual kingdom, and those who wish to enter this kingdom must be spiritually ready.
Look at what John says in verse 8: “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance.” The mark of true repentance bears fruit.
True repentance is demonstrated in action.
Notice also, he is not preparing the way of the Lord in that the Lord needs John’s help. He is preparing the people for the Lord’s coming. Jesus was coming and would separate the true people of God from those who merely pretended to follow the Lord. The Jews believed themselves to be safe from the wrath of God, because they were Abraham’s children. God could raise children of Abraham from stones, which means being a child of Abraham was more than just ancestry. Jesus would explain in John 8 that if the Pharisees were actually children of Abraham, they would do as he did. But, instead they acted like children of the devil in trying to kill Jesus. John the Baptist is saying here what Jesus would say later, “If you call yourself a child of God, act like it.”
The children of God act like the children of God.
At Christ’s coming, Israel was split between those who repented of their sins following Christ, and those who rejected Christ continuing in their sin. As we saw last week, the same will happen again for all nations when Christ returns in His glory. Though we do not know when Jesus will return, we know that when He does, we must be ready.
Ready yourself for the Kingdom
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
2 Peter 3:1-5
And so, as we wait for the coming of our Lord, what shall we do? How shall we live? 2 Peter 3 addresses this very question. Peter tells us first to remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior. I find it interesting that Peter places the predictions of the prophets and the commandment of Christ together. Peter is going to share how to be ready for Christ’s return, but at the outset, it is worth noting Christ did not suggest we should take some time to be ready, but He commanded it. If you through the Gospels, noting the specific teachings of Christ, you would find, especially in the book of Matthew, that Christ taught many times about the necessity of being ready for the coming Kingdom. When we ask the question, “How should I live?”, or “What did Jesus teach about living well?”, we are asking about ‘ethics’. Tied directly to Christian ethics is the assured hope in the return of Jesus Christ. We are commanded to live a certain way, because Jesus is returning.
Christian living is directly tied to the fact Jesus is returning.
Notice secondly, the scoffers. Jesus told us the world would hate us, and one of the ways this plays out is that many not only disbelieve the Truth of Christ, but they also mock those of us who do. Why do they mock?—because they are “following their own sinful desires”. They ask ‘where is the promise of His coming’, and claim that everything is as it was from the beginning, because they do not want to repent. Notice what Peter says, they “deliberately overlook this fact”. History is filled with instances of God fulfilling His promises, but the unrepentant sinner refuses to see the facts. And, they refuse, because if they acknowledged the presence of God in History, they would have to acknowledge the presence of God in the present, and that would compel them to repent. I would argue that every Christian should become a student of history, especially biblical and church history, because God has proven Himself faithful time and time again. And, if we can see the evidence of God’s faithfulness in history, and in our own lives, then we can rest comfortably in the fact the scoffers are absolutely wrong.
History is filled with the fulfilled promises of God.
As the verses continue, Peter reminds the Church of God’s judgement through the flood, but also reminds us that God is patient towards each of us, not wanting any to perish—look at verse 9 & 10.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
2 Peter 3:9-10
The day of the Lord will come quickly and unexpectedly.
Now, look at verses 13-18, and we will see specifically what the Lord, through Peter, calls us to do.
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
2 Peter 3:13-18
“Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace”.
‘Without spot or blemish’ is a contrast with those in 2 Peter 2:13 which are those who persist in pleasure-seeking despite professing faith in Christ. One of the themes in 2 Peter is the contrast between those who inherit eternal life and those who will face destruction. In the church, there are those who believe to be safe, but their walk does not match their talk. They may say Jesus is Lord, but they do not surrender to Him as Lord. They continue in their sinful desires. Notice just a minute ago, we said the same for scoffers of Christianity. Verse 13 states the new heavens and new earth will be a place where “righteousness dwells”. There is no place for sinful desires in the New Creation, and therefore those who surrender to those desires rather than surrendering to righteousness, which is only found in Christ, will have no place either.
The New Creation is for the righteous.
If we are waiting for a place of righteousness, then we should prepare by being righteous ourselves. Secondly, Peter says to be found ‘at peace’. When we surrender to Christ, and accept His righteousness, it brings peace in our lives. We have talked several times now about the peace that comes when we are abiding in Christ and having thankfulness for what Christ has done and is doing in our lives.
Christians should not be afraid of the coming of the Lord, because we are at peace with the Lord.
Next, look at verse 15. Some Christians lament that Jesus is taking too long. I had a professor once who opened and closed every class with “Jesus come quickly, because I am tired of this world.” Now, I understand the sentiment, but look at what Peter says. We should not lament the Lord’s delay, (1) because He is not delayed, He will come when it is time, but also (2) the patience of our Lord is salvation to those who do not yet believe. Today, while there is still time, the lost can be found. That co-worker, neighbor, or family member who has not yet surrendered to Christ still has time to do so. The Lord is patiently waiting for them to do just that. But, there will come a day when their time is up. Whether in their death, or when Christ returns. The day of the Lord is fast approaching. While it approaches there is time to share the Good News of Salvation. Once it comes, the day will be a glorious reunion for those of us in Christ, but it will be an eternally tragic day of reckoning for those outside of Christ.
The day of the Lord will be glorious for the believers, but eternally tragic for unbelievers.
Last, Peter sums up to imperatives. First, be wary that you are not carried away by the error of lawless people. James said true religion is to care for orphans and widows, and “keep oneself from the stains of the world.” The first thing we must do to be ready for the Return of the Lord is to remember we are not like the rest of the world. Christians are different. They are weird. Christians live by a completely different set of standards. I read recently the church should be a lighthouse, not a buoy. Buoys float on the water and are tossed about with every storm and wave. Lighthouses are fixed on the shore pointing ships to safety. Jude warned that many who claim to be Christian will invade the church and be like wild waves as they cast up the foam of their own shame. Christians must stay on the fixed Word of God and not let themselves be swept out to the ocean of unbelievers.
First, prepare for the Day of the Lord by removing yourself from that which will be destroyed.
Second, Peter says to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Christians are not called to just sit and wait. Many centuries ago, Christians began the monastic movement in which they removed themselves from society in order to abstain from the sinful world and grow in Christ. Today, there are many traditions and denominations who still observe a similar, if not the same practice. As alluring as that sounds sometimes, God has not called us all to be monks. Part of ‘growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord’ is growing in the understanding of what God has called us, individually and as a local body of believers, to do. The details may look a little different for each believer, but the general principle is true for all—repent of the weight and sin that binds us to this dying world, and take hold of the promises of God, or “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Second, prepare for the Day of the Lord by growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord, which begins with His promises.
What has God promised us?
That whosoever will call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
The one who is saved is a new creation—the old self is gone. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We do not live this life alone—God is with us and in us. (John 14:26)
There is a place for us in the New Heaven and New Earth (John 10:14)
Jesus never said this life would be easy, but He also said it does not have to be complicated. Preparing for the Coming of our Lord is quite simple—turn away from sin, it is only going to be destroyed, and turn toward righteousness, it is the only thing that will last.
At the beginning of this sermon, we looked at the first Creation, because in those first chapters of Genesis, we see what we were meant to be. But, we also see a glimpse of what we are going to be. Those in Christ will once again walk alongside their Creator. We will see Him face to face. We will once again live in a Paradise that is without sin, without war, and without death.
The New Creation is a glorious hope and promise from God. But, for the unbeliever it is a dire warning. In the New Creation, there is no place for sin or the unrepentant. If you hold on to your sin, you will be consumed with it. But, if you will let it go, and take hold of Christ, you will flee the coming destruction and find yourself safely in the arms of your God who loves you.