The First Sunday in Advent

Check out this great Advent resource from the Village Church. We pray this guide will help you walk through this season intentionally with your family and friends.

REFLECTION

This coming Lord’s Day will be the first Sunday in Advent. As the expectation and anticipation of Advent builds, each Sunday we will light candles and read scripture that lead us to the commemoration of that glorious, and even scandalous, event wherein our Redeemer left His heavenly throne and all that was His.

“The French author Simone Weil writes in her notebook: ‘Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.’ Without patience our expectation degenerates into wishful thinking. Patience comes form the word ‘patior’ which means ‘to suffer.’ … What seems a hindrance becomes a way; what seems an obstacle becomes a door; what seems a misfit becomes a cornerstone.” Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude

FIRST CANDLE OF ADVENT: Prophecy

The first candle we light is called the “Prophecy Candle”. It symbolizes faith in God keeping his promises to humanity to send a Redeemer and rescue His people. God is faithful an our hope comes from God!

Matthew 1:22–23 says it this way: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (ESV)

WORSHIP THROUGH SONG: O COME, O COME EMMANUEL

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight

O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery

GOD CALLING US TO WORSHIP AND GIVING US HOPE: 1 Peter 3:8-9

8 With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (ESV)

GOD’S WORD PREACHED: Luke 1:26-38 (ESV)

26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. 37 For nothing is impossible with God.”

38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.