Coming Glory

Advent means the soon coming, or introduction. Many Christian believers celebrate the four weeks before Christmas Day as the Advent Season, a time of preparation for the coming of the Savior.

This year, our Faith Class at home is preparing the coming of the Glory - the Glory of God. Join us each week...

The King of Glory

A traditional Advent hymn concerns our desire for God's Glory in our lives. The hymn starts out "The King of Glory comes, the nation rejoices." But then it asks two questions, 'Who is the King of Glory? How shall we call him?" Finally, we have the answer, He is Immanuel, the promised of ages!"

This hymn is based upon God's Word:

Psalm 24:7-10 (NKJV):
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up you everlasting doors!
And the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty.
The Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And lift them up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of Glory shall come in.
Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord of hosts.
He is the King of Glory.

God declared His Glory would invade the human condition. In fact, God Himself - the King of Glory - would come to man. We know it's God, because the King of Glory is said to be the Lord - the Lord mighty in battle, and the Lord of Hosts. These identify the King of Glory with the Hebrew YHWH, which in English is rendered Jehovah or Yahweh - The Lord God.

Further proof comes from the phrase "the Lord of Hosts." The Hebrew language actually carries this more complete meaning:

"He who is sovereign over all the 'hosts' (powers) in heaven and on earth, especially over the 'hosts' (armies) of Israel."

The prophet Isaiah tells us that his name would be "God with us." That's what Immanuel means.

So God himself would be with us. We would no longer suffer separation from God's peace, protection, deliverance, kindness, mercy, compassion, favor, goodness - God's Glory!

Open up your gate - your heart - that the King of Glory may come in!

Kept Safe by the Father

Jesus birth was a glorious event. The angels burst into joyous praise, singing "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." The shepherds received the word, and went to see Jesus. "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told." Luke 2:14, 20

However, not everyone thought the birth of the Savior was a cause for celebration. King Herod, especially, did not like the idea of another king. He tried to kill the baby. But God gave Joseph, Mary's husband, a dream to warn him of Herod's intention. Joseph took his family to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. Matthew 2:13-18.

Through another dream, God told Joseph when it was safe to return from Egypt. Then, God further instructed Joseph to live in Nazareth.

Until the time of Jesus death, he walked under the protection of the Lord. Once, after preaching in his hometown of Nazareth, the people became offended. They attempted to kill Jesus by throwing him down a cliff. But Jesus walked right through their midst! Luke 4:14-30

The Pharisees and leaders of the Jews looked for ways to kill him, but were unable to do so. They sent men to trap Jesus in his words, but he knew their plans, and no one was able to trap him.

But, at the appointed time, Jesus laid down his life. He said "The reason my father loves me is that I lay down my life-- only to take it up again. No on takes it from me, but I lay it down of my accord. I have authority to lay it down, and authority to take it up again." John 10:17-18 

The Glorified King on the Throne

Christmas cards, Church pageants, nativity scenes, all remind us of the "Christmas babe." Certainly, Jesus was a born a baby, just like you and me. But - just like you and me - hew grew up, he became an adult.

Jesus - the Son of God - gave up his glory in heaven, and humbled himself to become a man. But after becoming sin for all of us, and dieing on the cross for that sin, Jesus rose again, and now sits at the right hand of the Father God in heaven. The Father has given Jesus all glory and honor as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lord, the firstborn from among the dead.

Jesus gave three of his followers a preview of that glory. Here's the account:

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shown like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.

...a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" Matthew 17:1-2, 5

Years later, John again saw Jesus in all of his glory:

I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet...

I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white as wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One. I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades [hell]." Revelation 1:9-10, 12-18

That's the Jesus I love and serve. The one who conquered sin and death and the enemy. The one who holds all power and authority in heaven and earth.

The Glory Fills the Earth

So we've seen that Jesus, the Son of God, who created the world and everything in it, willingly gave up his position and glory so that he might become a man and die for our sins, so that we could receive new life. Once his work was finished, the Father restored to Jesus all of his glory and honor at his right hand. But that wasn't enough. God is love. And God wants the objects of his love, the people he created, to share in the same glory and honor as Jesus. 

Hebrews 2:6-8: "What is man that you are mindful or him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the angels [elohim: God]; you crowned him with glory and honor and put everything under his feet."

Jesus states explicitly that we share in his glory:

John 17:20-23: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

That was God's plan all along:

Habakkuk 2:14 - For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.