In recent years, I’ve preached Advent sermons on the birth narratives (Matthew 1-2, Luke 1-2), on Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah (Isaiah 9, Micah 5, etc.), and on biblical themes from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia. I needed to prepare something fresh this year, so I’m doing an Advent series from the book of Revelation.
The focus will be on the second Advent of Christ. Here are the texts and titles in case you want to do something like this during a future Christmas season:
? Dec. 2 – “Discover the Wonder” (Revelation 1)
? Dec. 9 – “The Defeat of the Grinch That Stole Christmas (Revelation 17-18)
? Dec. 16 – “A Tale of Two Suppers” (Revelation 19)
? Dec. 23 – “A River Runs Through It” (Revelation 22)
Here are some explanations. First, even though I’m focusing on the later chapters in Revelation, I wanted to set the stage by starting with chapter 1. Also, a classic sermon on Revelation 17-18 can be found in Haddon Robinson’s Biblical Sermons (Baker, 1989). The sermon is “Lament for the City of Man” by Joel Eidsness. His exegesis is right on target. Of course, I’m not going to preach his sermon. But his ideas will show up in mine. Next, my sermon on two suppers in Revelation 19 will focus on the marriage supper of the Lamb and the great supper of God – the latter being supper of judgment. I thought about including chapter 20 with this sermon, but I’m afraid it would be too much to cover. Finally, I plan to focus on the river in chapter 22 in alignment with the river in the garden of Eden in Genesis 2. Ordinarily, I would preach Revelation 21:1-22:5 as a unit. But this section has recently been preached to my congregation. So, this will give me an opportunity to explore chapter 22 more fully.
What are you preaching on during the Advent/Christmas season?
Posted by Steve Mathewson at 10:50 AM on December 4, 2007
