December 1, 2019 • 12 mins
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.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Freedom Fellowship Church Advent
podcasts.
Whether you're familiar with thetradition of Advent or it's
completely foreign to you, thispodcast will encourage you in
your relationship with Jesus andhelp you focus on him this
Christmas season.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi, my name is Dennis Gallaher.
I'm a pastor at freedomfellowship church.
And these next couple of weekswe are going to be doing some
advent devotionals through apodcast.
I want to talk to you about howimportant this has been, not
just to my life, but to the lifeof this congregation and
actually how important thiswhole season of advent, this
(00:39):
waiting for the birth andwaiting for the soon coming King
has been to the church of JesusChrist.
You know, a lot of peopleassociate advent with a
liturgical calendar and wonderif it's what we should even do
or what we should even suggestto do at freedom fellowship.
Well, the reason for advent andthe reason we celebrated as
(01:00):
simple, you know, I don't knowif you've ever noticed, uh, how
important it's been for parentsparticularly to try to give kids
or reason for the season.
But advent is not just aboutbeing bound to a denomination or
a liturgy, it's, it's actually agreat way to point to the reason
(01:22):
for the season.
The word is taken from a Latinword at adventas and it means
coming.
Most people understand it tomean the coming of the Christ
child, the celebration atBethlehem in a manger, but
that's only half the story yousee, advent is also a time
historically it's been a time toanticipate the second coming of
(01:45):
Christ when he comes in theclouds to judge all of mankind.
I've again often heard parentswho struggle to keep the focus
on Jesus instead of all of thethe getting and the giving that
Christmas is known for.
You know, and I don't know of amore effective way to be honest
with you than to do it throughadvent.
(02:07):
It's a great practical anddemonstrative way to teach kids
about the birth of Christ aswell as the second coming of
Jesus.
In fact, advent is arranged insuch a way to do both.
The first two weeks look towardChrist's second coming.
The second two weeks lookbackwards did Jesus is first
(02:30):
coming.
We celebrate, uh, with what wecall 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 wrongway to celebrate the season, but
one of the most well known iswith an Advent wreath.
(02:50):
It was actually an 1839 that aLutheran minister in Germany who
was serving a children's homethat made an advent wreath first
out of the wheel of a cart.
Uh, eventually the wreath wasmade from evergreens and four
candles representing differentaspects of advent were used.
(03:11):
There was a, there was a, a newcandle that was lit each of the
four Sundays before Christmas.
There was a, the first purplecandle and that's the prophecy
candle, which is also called thehope candle.
The second week, another purplecandle was lit.
It's called the Bethlehemcandle, which signifies peace.
(03:32):
The third was a Rose coloredcandle, the Shepherd's candle
representing joy.
And the fourth candle was theangels candle symbolizing peace.
And if you choose another candlecan be added a white candle.
On Christmas Eve, the Christcandle representing the Christ
(03:52):
child coming into the world asour savior.
Trust me, when you gather thekids around the wreath and allow
them to light the candles, whenyou talk about the meaning
behind each one, and then yousing a Christmas Carol together,
I will guarantee you thatChristmas will take on a whole
new meaning.
So let me tell you about thefirst candle.
(04:14):
The prophecy candle is the hopecandle because the prophecies of
the old Testament were full ofhope that the Messiah would come
over 300 prophecies about thelife of Jesus.
50 of them, about the birth ofJesus are in the Bible in the
old Testament.
And now listen to this littlefun fact that I found one person
(04:38):
fulfilling eight prophecies ismeans, well, let's just put it
this way.
One person fulfilling eightprophecies.
That's 1 billion billion chancesthat that would happen.
One person for filling 48prophecies.
(04:59):
Well that's one chance in 10 tothe 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 oneof my favorite prophecies about
(05:21):
Jesus.
It's found in the, in the bookof Micah chapter five verse two.
You've heard this before, but Iwant you to realize, written
hundreds of years before Jesus,hundreds of years before Jesus
came and listened to howaccurately Jesus fulfills his
prophecy.
(05:42):
Micah chapter five verse two.
But as for you, Bethlehem, toolittle to be among the clans of
Judah from you, one will goforth for me to be the ruler of
Israel.
His goings forth are from longago, from the days of eternity.
(06:03):
What a beautiful, beautifuldescription of exactly what
happened.
In fact, when, if you rememberthe story of when the, the three
wise men came from the East andthey came to Herod's palace and
they came in and they, theysaid, we're here to see the new
King.
And Herod was aghast.
He thought, what?
(06:24):
There's another King that'sarisen.
So he went to the JewishPharisees at the time, the
historians, the keepers of theflame of Judaism, and he said,
who is this King and where is hesupposed to come?
Well, those very, those verylearned men went right back to
the scripture.
And where did they go to?
They went to Micah chapter fiveverse two and they said, King
(06:48):
Herod, this King, our Messiah isgoing to be born in Bethlehem.
Of course, you know the story ofhow Mary and Joseph were not
from Bethlehem, but theytraveled there an 80 mile trek
while Mary was pregnant all theway to Bethlehem.
And that is where the baby Jesuswas born.
(07:10):
Once again, no one could havedone this except God alone.
You know, one of the things thatwe've also done, uh, is to write
a advent devotional.
And I hope that you have a copyof that.
And in this advent devotional,this is something that can be
read every day around the dinnertable.
(07:31):
It can be read personally aspart of your devotions in the
morning.
But once again, if you'relooking for ways in order to
take your kids and turn theirattention towards the real
reason of the season, these arethe ways that are best to do it.
Celebrate advent every Sundaynight.
Go to that a wreath and talkabout those candles and what
(07:52):
they mean.
Uh, moms, dads, you can find allkinds of, of scriptures to talk
about hope.
Explain that that first candleis the prophecy.
And prophecy means that thechildren of Israel were hoping
for a Messiah.
And in the same way the churchtoday is hoping for a soon
(08:14):
returning King.
That's why this first prophecycandle is not just about what
happened in the past, but it's alooking forward to Jesus is soon
coming again.
Well, let me just read to you inconclusion of this pod classed
one of those, uh, adventdevotionals.
(08:34):
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 ascholar or a wordsmith.
(08:54):
It is ability to communicate thedivine in such a way that time
and language present.
No barriers is nothing short ofgenius.
Take this phrase, the wordbecame flesh.
Four simple words in anylanguage that described the
personification of God in theform of a human being, but he
(09:16):
doesn't just say God becameflesh, but the word, the word
became flesh.
What word it was the wordcapital w it was the word first
spoken by God to create theuniverse.
Genesis says that the spirit ofGod was hovering, brooding,
(09:37):
moving over the formless andvoid space.
Then God said, and the wordcreated what God intended.
Light became.
The light became light.
Darkness became darkness.
Stars exploded into the sky.
The universe unfolded from God'sheart like a butterfly from a
(09:57):
cocoon only.
There was no cocoon, only theword that carried the heart of
God to creation.
Isaiah said this,"So will myword be which goes forth from my
mouth.
It will not return to me emptywithout accomplishing what I
desire and without succeeding inthe matter for which I sent it,"
(10:18):
Isaiah 55:11.
The force and breath of creationwas sent to us with the promise
that the mission had nopossibility of failure.
The father's trust in the son'sgreat love compelled him to
break the bond that had boundthem eternally and send him to
(10:39):
rescue the very thing hecreated.
Before the word was Jesus.
He was the ever-present creator.
The breath that's spoken tobeing and the source of all
beings, breath and that word,that divine breath of creation
reduced his divinity to fleshall for me, all for you.
(11:04):
Why?
Because when all was completed,the word would then breathe back
life into mankind.
Life not known since the fall inthe garden, the word became
flesh.
Jesus became like us also, youand I could become again like
him.
(11:25):
Well, that's going to concludeour first week's podcast.
I do hope that you've enjoyedthis and we'd love to hear from
you.
Send us an email, drop us a noteand let us know if this is
something that you'd like tohear more of.
Next week we'll be talking aboutthat second advent candle, and
(11:46):
until then, I do hope that theadvent devotional as well as
these podcasts will be ablessing 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 moreabout freedom fellowship church,
visit us@wwwdotfreedomnb.org youcan also pick up a copy of our
devotional,"God With Us," for amore personal journey with the
tradition of Advent.
Welcome to the Freedom Fellowship Church Advent
podcasts.
Whether you're familiar with thetradition of Advent or it's
completely foreign to you, thispodcast will encourage you in
your relationship with Jesus andhelp you focus on him this
Christmas season.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi, my name is Dennis Gallaher.
I'm a pastor at freedomfellowship church.
And these next couple of weekswe are going to be doing some
advent devotionals through apodcast.
I want to talk to you about howimportant this has been, not
just to my life, but to the lifeof this congregation and
actually how important thiswhole season of advent, this
(00:39):
waiting for the birth andwaiting for the soon coming King
has been to the church of JesusChrist.
You know, a lot of peopleassociate advent with a
liturgical calendar and wonderif it's what we should even do
or what we should even suggestto do at freedom fellowship.
Well, the reason for advent andthe reason we celebrated as
(01:00):
simple, you know, I don't knowif you've ever noticed, uh, how
important it's been for parentsparticularly to try to give kids
or reason for the season.
But advent is not just aboutbeing bound to a denomination or
a liturgy, it's, it's actually agreat way to point to the reason
(01:22):
for the season.
The word is taken from a Latinword at adventas and it means
coming.
Most people understand it tomean the coming of the Christ
child, the celebration atBethlehem in a manger, but
that's only half the story yousee, advent is also a time
historically it's been a time toanticipate the second coming of
(01:45):
Christ when he comes in theclouds to judge all of mankind.
I've again often heard parentswho struggle to keep the focus
on Jesus instead of all of thethe getting and the giving that
Christmas is known for.
You know, and I don't know of amore effective way to be honest
with you than to do it throughadvent.
(02:07):
It's a great practical anddemonstrative way to teach kids
about the birth of Christ aswell as the second coming of
Jesus.
In fact, advent is arranged insuch a way to do both.
The first two weeks look towardChrist's second coming.
The second two weeks lookbackwards did Jesus is first
(02:30):
coming.
We celebrate, uh, with what wecall 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 wrongway to celebrate the season, but
one of the most well known iswith an Advent wreath.
(02:50):
It was actually an 1839 that aLutheran minister in Germany who
was serving a children's homethat made an advent wreath first
out of the wheel of a cart.
Uh, eventually the wreath wasmade from evergreens and four
candles representing differentaspects of advent were used.
(03:11):
There was a, there was a, a newcandle that was lit each of the
four Sundays before Christmas.
There was a, the first purplecandle and that's the prophecy
candle, which is also called thehope candle.
The second week, another purplecandle was lit.
It's called the Bethlehemcandle, which signifies peace.
(03:32):
The third was a Rose coloredcandle, the Shepherd's candle
representing joy.
And the fourth candle was theangels candle symbolizing peace.
And if you choose another candlecan be added a white candle.
On Christmas Eve, the Christcandle representing the Christ
(03:52):
child coming into the world asour savior.
Trust me, when you gather thekids around the wreath and allow
them to light the candles, whenyou talk about the meaning
behind each one, and then yousing a Christmas Carol together,
I will guarantee you thatChristmas will take on a whole
new meaning.
So let me tell you about thefirst candle.
(04:14):
The prophecy candle is the hopecandle because the prophecies of
the old Testament were full ofhope that the Messiah would come
over 300 prophecies about thelife of Jesus.
50 of them, about the birth ofJesus are in the Bible in the
old Testament.
And now listen to this littlefun fact that I found one person
(04:38):
fulfilling eight prophecies ismeans, well, let's just put it
this way.
One person fulfilling eightprophecies.
That's 1 billion billion chancesthat that would happen.
One person for filling 48prophecies.
(04:59):
Well that's one chance in 10 tothe 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 oneof my favorite prophecies about
(05:21):
Jesus.
It's found in the, in the bookof Micah chapter five verse two.
You've heard this before, but Iwant you to realize, written
hundreds of years before Jesus,hundreds of years before Jesus
came and listened to howaccurately Jesus fulfills his
prophecy.
(05:42):
Micah chapter five verse two.
But as for you, Bethlehem, toolittle to be among the clans of
Judah from you, one will goforth for me to be the ruler of
Israel.
His goings forth are from longago, from the days of eternity.
(06:03):
What a beautiful, beautifuldescription of exactly what
happened.
In fact, when, if you rememberthe story of when the, the three
wise men came from the East andthey came to Herod's palace and
they came in and they, theysaid, we're here to see the new
King.
And Herod was aghast.
He thought, what?
(06:24):
There's another King that'sarisen.
So he went to the JewishPharisees at the time, the
historians, the keepers of theflame of Judaism, and he said,
who is this King and where is hesupposed to come?
Well, those very, those verylearned men went right back to
the scripture.
And where did they go to?
They went to Micah chapter fiveverse two and they said, King
(06:48):
Herod, this King, our Messiah isgoing to be born in Bethlehem.
Of course, you know the story ofhow Mary and Joseph were not
from Bethlehem, but theytraveled there an 80 mile trek
while Mary was pregnant all theway to Bethlehem.
And that is where the baby Jesuswas born.
(07:10):
Once again, no one could havedone this except God alone.
You know, one of the things thatwe've also done, uh, is to write
a advent devotional.
And I hope that you have a copyof that.
And in this advent devotional,this is something that can be
read every day around the dinnertable.
(07:31):
It can be read personally aspart of your devotions in the
morning.
But once again, if you'relooking for ways in order to
take your kids and turn theirattention towards the real
reason of the season, these arethe ways that are best to do it.
Celebrate advent every Sundaynight.
Go to that a wreath and talkabout those candles and what
(07:52):
they mean.
Uh, moms, dads, you can find allkinds of, of scriptures to talk
about hope.
Explain that that first candleis the prophecy.
And prophecy means that thechildren of Israel were hoping
for a Messiah.
And in the same way the churchtoday is hoping for a soon
(08:14):
returning King.
That's why this first prophecycandle is not just about what
happened in the past, but it's alooking forward to Jesus is soon
coming again.
Well, let me just read to you inconclusion of this pod classed
one of those, uh, adventdevotionals.
(08:34):
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 ascholar or a wordsmith.
(08:54):
It is ability to communicate thedivine in such a way that time
and language present.
No barriers is nothing short ofgenius.
Take this phrase, the wordbecame flesh.
Four simple words in anylanguage that described the
personification of God in theform of a human being, but he
(09:16):
doesn't just say God becameflesh, but the word, the word
became flesh.
What word it was the wordcapital w it was the word first
spoken by God to create theuniverse.
Genesis says that the spirit ofGod was hovering, brooding,
(09:37):
moving over the formless andvoid space.
Then God said, and the wordcreated what God intended.
Light became.
The light became light.
Darkness became darkness.
Stars exploded into the sky.
The universe unfolded from God'sheart like a butterfly from a
(09:57):
cocoon only.
There was no cocoon, only theword that carried the heart of
God to creation.
Isaiah said this,"So will myword be which goes forth from my
mouth.
It will not return to me emptywithout accomplishing what I
desire and without succeeding inthe matter for which I sent it,"
(10:18):
Isaiah 55:11.
The force and breath of creationwas sent to us with the promise
that the mission had nopossibility of failure.
The father's trust in the son'sgreat love compelled him to
break the bond that had boundthem eternally and send him to
(10:39):
rescue the very thing hecreated.
Before the word was Jesus.
He was the ever-present creator.
The breath that's spoken tobeing and the source of all
beings, breath and that word,that divine breath of creation
reduced his divinity to fleshall for me, all for you.
(11:04):
Why?
Because when all was completed,the word would then breathe back
life into mankind.
Life not known since the fall inthe garden, the word became
flesh.
Jesus became like us also, youand I could become again like
him.
(11:25):
Well, that's going to concludeour first week's podcast.
I do hope that you've enjoyedthis and we'd love to hear from
you.
Send us an email, drop us a noteand let us know if this is
something that you'd like tohear more of.
Next week we'll be talking aboutthat second advent candle, and
(11:46):
until then, I do hope that theadvent devotional as well as
these podcasts will be ablessing 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 moreabout freedom fellowship church,
visit us@wwwdotfreedomnb.org youcan also pick up a copy of our
devotional,"God With Us," for amore personal journey with the
tradition of Advent.
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