Luke 2:8-18
Advent Week 4: Love
- The word “advent” means “coming;”
- The season of Advent, which leads up to Christmas Day and includes four Sundays, is a time to reflect on the coming of Jesus on one holy night in Bethlehem — a coming that caused a great turning for the world toward hope, peace, joy, and love.
- The four themes just listed are the four themes the Church traditionally explores during the Advent season.
We’re going to explore the final theme of Advent: love. Because the coming of Jesus brings a turning toward love.
There are 2 ways we can talk about love in today’s message.
- God’s love for us
- Horizontal love, love towards each other.
Luke 2:8-18
Our main theme for today is. He came. They went.
Later in this story we see in Matthew 2 the Magi visit Jesus and his parents at their house.
He (Jesus) came. The Magi go.
Jesus’ “coming” inspired “going “ in the Gospels.
As seen in the
- Sending of the Twelve
- Sending of the 72, for example.
- And all four gospel accounts, in each their own unique way, show a Resurrected Jesus urging the disciples to ‘go.’
At the start of the story of Jesus, a pattern is set for God’s people and embraced by God’s people. This pattern and response is repeated in the middle and end of the gospels and all throughout the story of the Early Church.
Shouldn’t we also embrace this same pattern?
He came. We go.
Is the U.S. Church going?
Barna (2019)
- Almost all Christians say that the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to know Jesus.
- Almost all practicing Christians believe that part of their faith means being a witness about Jesus
- Pew Research did a huge study over 17 years, 4 separate surveys with more than 35,000 surveyed EACH TIME, shows that after many years of steady decline, the share of Americans who identify as Christians show signs of leveling off.
- Millennials in particular feel equipped to share their faith with others. For instance, 73% say they know how to respond when someone raises questions about faith , and that they are gifted at sharing their faith with other people . This is higher than any other generational group: Gen X (66%), Boomers (59%) and Elders (56%).
- Despite this, many Millennials are unsure about the actual practice of evangelism. Almost half of Millennials (47%) agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith.
- Only 44% of Christian adults say they pray at least once a day.
- 33% of Christians say they go to a service once a month
- Approximately half (54%) of evangelical church attenders believe people are basically good and(50%) believe that people can earn salvation through their good works.
- Unexpectedly large minorities (24%) of evangelical church attenders reject the biblical nature and character of God and (26%) worship spirits other than the God of the Bible.
- An astonishing number—15%—revealed that they occasionally cast spells on other people.
Is our church going?
Jesus says Acts 1:8 – ‘You (all y’all) will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ‘
He came. We go to the ones nearest us.
