Prophecy Candle - Hope

In this episode, we are looking at the first of the Advent candles, the Prophecy Candle, which represents hope.

Jesus fulfilled a large number of Old Testament prophecies and brought hope to the nation of Israel and to the whole world.

Do you need hope for this Christmas season? Look no further than Jesus.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Freedom Fellowship Church Advent podcasts. Whether you're familiar with the tradition of Advent or it's completely foreign to you, this podcast will encourage you in your relationship with Jesus and help you focus on him this Christmas season.

Speaker 2: 0:16

Hi, my name is Dennis Gallaher. I'm a pastor at freedom fellowship church. And these next couple of weeks we are going to be doing some advent devotionals through a podcast. I want to talk to you about how important this has been, not just to my life, but to the life of this congregation and actually how important this whole season of advent, this waiting for the birth and waiting for the soon coming King has been to the church of Jesus Christ. You know, a lot of people associate advent with a liturgical calendar and wonder if it's what we should even do or what we should even suggest to do at freedom fellowship. Well, the reason for advent and the reason we celebrated as simple, you know, I don't know if you've ever noticed, uh, how important it's been for parents particularly to try to give kids or reason for the season. But advent is not just about being bound to a denomination or a liturgy, it's, it's actually a great way to point to the reason for the season. The word is taken from a Latin word at adventas and it means coming. Most people understand it to mean the coming of the Christ child, the celebration at Bethlehem in a manger, but that's only half the story you see, advent is also a time historically it's been a time to anticipate the second coming of Christ when he comes in the clouds to judge all of mankind. I've again often heard parents who struggle to keep the focus on Jesus instead of all of the the getting and the giving that Christmas is known for. You know, and I don't know of a more effective way to be honest with you than to do it through advent. It's a great practical and demonstrative way to teach kids about the birth of Christ as well as the second coming of Jesus. In fact, advent is arranged in such a way to do both. The first two weeks look toward Christ's second coming. The second two weeks look backwards did Jesus is first coming. We celebrate, uh, with what we call an advent wreath, which is a, which is a very old, uh, method to demonstrate advent to families in there. Again, there's no right or wrong way to celebrate the season, but one of the most well known is with an Advent wreath. It was actually an 1839 that a Lutheran minister in Germany who was serving a children's home that made an advent wreath first out of the wheel of a cart. Uh, eventually the wreath was made from evergreens and four candles representing different aspects of advent were used. There was a, there was a, a new candle that was lit each of the four Sundays before Christmas. There was a, the first purple candle and that's the prophecy candle, which is also called the hope candle. The second week, another purple candle was lit. It's called the Bethlehem candle, which signifies peace. The third was a Rose colored candle, the Shepherd's candle representing joy. And the fourth candle was the angels candle symbolizing peace. And if you choose another candle can be added a white candle. On Christmas Eve, the Christ candle representing the Christ child coming into the world as our savior. Trust me, when you gather the kids around the wreath and allow them to light the candles, when you talk about the meaning behind each one, and then you sing a Christmas Carol together, I will guarantee you that Christmas will take on a whole new meaning. So let me tell you about the first candle. The prophecy candle is the hope candle because the prophecies of the old Testament were full of hope that the Messiah would come over 300 prophecies about the life of Jesus. 50 of them, about the birth of Jesus are in the Bible in the old Testament. And now listen to this little fun fact that I found one person fulfilling eight prophecies is means, well, let's just put it this way. One person fulfilling eight prophecies. That's 1 billion billion chances that that would happen. One person for filling 48 prophecies. Well that's one chance in 10 to the 57th power of that person for filling those prophecies, one person fulfilling 300 plus prophecies. Only Jesus could do that. So let me just read to you one of my favorite prophecies about Jesus. It's found in the, in the book of Micah chapter five verse two. You've heard this before, but I want you to realize, written hundreds of years before Jesus, hundreds of years before Jesus came and listened to how accurately Jesus fulfills his prophecy. Micah chapter five verse two. But as for you, Bethlehem, too little to be among the clans of Judah from you, one will go forth for me to be the ruler of Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. What a beautiful, beautiful description of exactly what happened. In fact, when, if you remember the story of when the, the three wise men came from the East and they came to Herod's palace and they came in and they, they said, we're here to see the new King. And Herod was aghast. He thought, what? There's another King that's arisen. So he went to the Jewish Pharisees at the time, the historians, the keepers of the flame of Judaism, and he said, who is this King and where is he supposed to come? Well, those very, those very learned men went right back to the scripture. And where did they go to? They went to Micah chapter five verse two and they said, King Herod, this King, our Messiah is going to be born in Bethlehem. Of course, you know the story of how Mary and Joseph were not from Bethlehem, but they traveled there an 80 mile trek while Mary was pregnant all the way to Bethlehem. And that is where the baby Jesus was born. Once again, no one could have done this except God alone. You know, one of the things that we've also done, uh, is to write a advent devotional. And I hope that you have a copy of that. And in this advent devotional, this is something that can be read every day around the dinner table. It can be read personally as part of your devotions in the morning. But once again, if you're looking for ways in order to take your kids and turn their attention towards the real reason of the season, these are the ways that are best to do it. Celebrate advent every Sunday night. Go to that a wreath and talk about those candles and what they mean. Uh, moms, dads, you can find all kinds of, of scriptures to talk about hope. Explain that that first candle is the prophecy. And prophecy means that the children of Israel were hoping for a Messiah. And in the same way the church today is hoping for a soon returning King. That's why this first prophecy candle is not just about what happened in the past, but it's a looking forward to Jesus is soon coming again. Well, let me just read to you in conclusion of this pod classed one of those, uh, advent devotionals. Uh, this is day three in your, uh, advent devotional. But let me just read it to you. John one 14. And the word became flesh. I Marvel at the apostle John. He was not a learned man, not a scholar or a wordsmith. It is ability to communicate the divine in such a way that time and language present. No barriers is nothing short of genius. Take this phrase, the word became flesh. Four simple words in any language that described the personification of God in the form of a human being, but he doesn't just say God became flesh, but the word, the word became flesh. What word it was the word capital w it was the word first spoken by God to create the universe. Genesis says that the spirit of God was hovering, brooding, moving over the formless and void space. Then God said, and the word created what God intended. Light became. The light became light. Darkness became darkness. Stars exploded into the sky. The universe unfolded from God's heart like a butterfly from a cocoon only. There was no cocoon, only the word that carried the heart of God to creation. Isaiah said this,"So will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it," Isaiah 55:11. The force and breath of creation was sent to us with the promise that the mission had no possibility of failure. The father's trust in the son's great love compelled him to break the bond that had bound them eternally and send him to rescue the very thing he created. Before the word was Jesus. He was the ever-present creator. The breath that's spoken to being and the source of all beings, breath and that word, that divine breath of creation reduced his divinity to flesh all for me, all for you. Why? Because when all was completed, the word would then breathe back life into mankind. Life not known since the fall in the garden, the word became flesh. Jesus became like us also, you and I could become again like him. Well, that's going to conclude our first week's podcast. I do hope that you've enjoyed this and we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email, drop us a note and let us know if this is something that you'd like to hear more of. Next week we'll be talking about that second advent candle, and until then, I do hope that the advent devotional as well as these podcasts will be a blessing to you, to your family. And by the way, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 1: 12:00

Thank you for listening to this episode of our advent podcast. If you'd like to learn more about freedom fellowship church, visit us@wwwdotfreedomnb.org you can also pick up a copy of our devotional,"God With Us," for a more personal journey with the tradition of Advent.