1) Introduction

Good morning. Over the next three weeks, we are going to continue our Advent journey by taking a closer look at the Incarnation. The word incarnation simply means “in the flesh” or in bodily form.

I love the hymn that we opened with today. “Come, Thou long expected Jesus” was penned by Charles Wesley as part of a number of Christmas carols written to emphasize the personal application of the Christmas story. He wanted to impress upon God’s people that Jesus was the “long expected” “hope of all the earth,” the “desire of every nation” and the “joy of every longing heart.” This morning I would like to look at the role that expectation, longing and desire for the coming of Jesus play in our lives.

Let’s pray:

Come Lord Jesus. We have deep within us a longing that only can be fulfilled by You. Lord we confess that we pursue other sources of hope and joy and rest. Forgive us. And unfold to us this morning a peek behind the curtain of the Incarnation. Open us up anew to the wonder and mystery of Your first coming.

Open your Bibles with me this morning to Matthew 13:17 and 1 Peter 1:8-12. We are going to look at a number of passages this morning. I again want to encourage you to take out your Bibles or the pew Bibles and follow along this morning.

2) The longed for Incarnation

Matthew 13:17

¹⁷For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

1 Peter 1:8-12

⁸Though you have not seen him [Jesus], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. ¹²It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. ¹³Therefore prepare your minds for action.

There is always chance that over exposure to anything can cause us to become dull to its wonder and grandeur. Imagine if the stars came out only once every ten years. The evening sky is a breath-taking spectacle but most of us take it for granted. The Psalmist says that every night, the heavens are telling the glory of God. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display their speech.[1] But for us, the evening sky becomes ho-hum.

As incredible as it may seem, the Incarnation can become that for us. There is so much “Ho, Ho” around us that it becomes “Ho Hum.” Jesus and Peter have quite a different view. Jesus says that prophets and righteous men and women longed to see and hear the news about the Incarnation.

In spite of the wonder and breath taking aspects of the Incarnation, we can become like a bad photograph relative to it. We are over-exposed and underdeveloped. We have heard about it so much – that’s the over-exposure, yet we have not taken the time to dig deeply into it’s meaning and it’s implications. Or even just to take time like Mary did, and ponder these things in our heart. And so it is underdeveloped.

Peter gives us a little more detail about how the prophets knew something great was coming. They “searched intently and with the greatest care” trying to find out more about this coming Incarnation. They knew that it was going to be a mixture of suffering and glory. But how was it to be? What would it look like?

One thing we know from our passage today is that It took hard work. That’s why Peter concludes this by encouraging us to “prepare our minds for action.”[2]

But Peter gives us yet another incredible picture. It was not just the prophets and righteous men and women who longed for the Incarnation – “even angels long to look into these things.” The actual words that Peter uses has the angels bending down low – lowering themselves so that they could catch a glimpse of the mystery of the Incarnation. How is God going to accomplish salvation for this fallen race? How is He going to deliver these who are held captive by Satan? What kind of ransom is He going to pay to get them back?

The thought of God becoming a man to set us free from our fears and sins should take our breath away. All of creation has longed for this. Going back to the words of our hymn this morning, the Incarnation is the dear desire of every nation and the joy of every longing heart.

3) Good and Holy Longing

That fact that unfallen angels who stand in the presence of God had an unfilled desire / a deep longing, tells us that unfulfilled desire is not just something that is part of the fall. Longing is built into the fabric of creation.

God has placed in each of us the same longing that was in the prophets and the righteous men and women of old. He has placed in us the same kind of longing that existed in the angels who so wanted to catch even a glimpse of this salvation that was coming. This longing is because as Pascal said over 350 years ago:

“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing but only by God, the creator, made known through Jesus.”

Over 1600 years ago, St. Augustine said (and was quoted in our hymn today):

“Our hearts were made for Thee, and they are restless until they find their rest in Thee”

C.S. Lewis says that:

"...our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache"

And this longing is universal – it takes place in all of us.

The Word of God tells us that God created this world in such a way that longing and unfulfilled desires are an integral part of the way things are. And God looked down and saw that it was good. In our age of instant gratification, we don’t understand why in the world God would delay anything. Why does he delay answering my prayers? And we don’t understand why in the world, God would have delayed thousands of years to send His Son.

The past couple years, our business was going through a hard time economically. We were praying. We were trying to be faithful. We had heard God’s call to continue – but things just weren’t happening. Why wasn’t God hearing our prayer? Why doesn’t he come quickly?

We don’t understand these things because we don’t understand the important role that longing and unfulfilled desire plays in our lives.

At one level we do understand delayed gratification. How many of you have ever found (either deliberately or unintentionally) one of your Christmas presents hidden away in a back closet or trunk? It is just like taking a pin and popping a balloon.

That’s because expectation and longing is a good thing. My wife has never wanted me to surprise her by whisking her away on a trip because for her, the contemplating and expectation brings almost as much joy as the trip itself.

And that is what good longing and good expectation is all about. If we believe that what we are longing for is really going to happen, it is a good longing and a good expectation.

I cannot explain why God waited so long to send Jesus. Paul says in Galatians 4;4

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

“When the time had fully come.” We all know that God’s timing is hardly ever ours. I cannot explain why He took so long to answer some of my prayers – but I believe part of it is to create a deeper hunger and longing for Him. I have seen that happen in those cases where God delays. Delayed gratification has a way of doing that.

Believing that God is going to fulfill our longings is a major part of God’s call on our lives. I want to take a minute or so of silence. What are the unfulfilled longings that are on your hearts this morning? Maybe, you have never asked God to fill that God shaped whole in your heart. Invite Him in during this time. Let the wonder and breathtaking aspects of Emmanuel – God with us – God come in the flesh – to fill that hole.

Or maybe you started on this journey of “receiving the goal of your faith” but there is a longing for more of Him. This is where most of us are – don’t brush it aside – pursue it. God has come to fill that hole completely. I want to ask God to minister to you right now.

Come, thou long expected Jesus. Set us free from our fears that You will never come. Set us free from unholy longings and sin. Speak to us now in this time of quiet. Raise us to thy glorious throne that we might have Your view of things.

4) The Now but Not Yet

One of the truths that is scattered across the pages of scriptures is that God’s Kingdom is both now and not yet. God has sent His son. Jesus has come. God has become man and given his life as a ransom so that we might have life. That’s the now.

But there is more to come. He has saved us and is saving us – He has filled that God shaped vacuum and He is filling it. We are filled with the Spirit and we are to keep being filled with the Spirit. Our longing is fulfilled – but we are still longing.

That’s part of the “not yet.” The best is yet to come and we are to continue to be in a state of confident longing and expectation of what is to come. Like the angels and the prophets and the righteous men and women of old who did not know exactly what the Incarnation was going to look like, we too don’t know exactly what is to come. But we know that it is glorious.

Most of you have heard the story of the woman who wanted to be buried holding a fork in her hand. When asked by her family about this strange request, she told them that following family meals when she was little, she was always told to keep her fork – because the best was yet to come. She want her final testimony to be that she was longing for and expecting that the best was yet to come.

Lewis helps us again:

Creatures are not born with desires [and longings] unless satisfaction for those desires [and longings] exists.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

There are longings that God has placed in you that no experience in the world is going to satisfy. God didn’t do that to frustrate us. Remember, even the angels have unfulfilled longings. God has created us with a God shaped hole in our heart that only He can fill. God has come to earth in Jesus to fill that hole. But the good longings are still there – and that shows us that there is more to come. We are made for another world.

We are called this Advent season to prepare our minds for action. To take time pursuing this longing – to search intently and carefully for the meaning of the Incarnation in your life. With God’s help, so be it.

Let’s pray.