The Returning King (Advent)

The Sunday before Christmas often finds us caught up in the whirlwind of final preparations—wrapping presents, managing canceled orders, and navigating the delicate balance between holiday expectations and reality. Yet this season invites us into a different kind of tension altogether, one that defines the very essence of Christian faith: the tension between what already is and what is not yet.

The Tension We're Called to Embrace
We live our lives pulled between competing desires. We want to eat healthier, but those free samples at the warehouse store beckon. We're grateful for our jobs while wondering about different opportunities. We're content in our current season while hoping for something more. These everyday tensions mirror a deeper spiritual reality that Christians are called to navigate: living with profound thankfulness for what God has already given us while simultaneously longing for the fullness of what He has promised.

This isn't a tension we're meant to resolve by choosing one side over the other. Rather, we're invited to lean into both realities simultaneously. The alternative is spiritually dangerous. Without thankfulness, we become bitter and frustrated, seeing only what's wrong with our circumstances. Without longing, we become hopeless and despairing, resigned to believe that nothing will ever get better.

The book of Revelation offers us a stunning vision of why both thankfulness and longing matter. In chapter 21, we encounter a promise that should simultaneously satisfy our hearts and make them ache: "Behold, I am making all things new."

The People Being Made New
When Scripture declares that anyone in Christ is a new creation, it speaks to a transformation that has already begun. For everyone who has trusted in Jesus, salvation is not a future possibility but a present reality. The eternal judgment we deserved has been removed. We've been brought from spiritual death into spiritual life. We've entered into a relationship with the God of the universe.

This is cause for daily gratitude. Every morning we wake, we should remember that we are saved people, redeemed people, new people.

Yet Revelation 21:4 paints a picture that clearly isn't our present experience: "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

This description doesn't match our daily reality. We still cry. We still hurt. Death still looms. And perhaps nowhere are these realities more acute than during the Christmas season, when the contrast between our expectations and our experiences can feel especially sharp.
It's good and right that these realities make us sad. It's appropriate that we wish things were different. We should be thankful for the salvation we have while longing for the glorification that is to come—when every promise of verse four becomes our eternal reality.

The Place Being Made New
Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." This prayer acknowledges that God's kingdom is already breaking into our world through His people. When Christians submit to King Jesus and live out His commands, the places we inhabit become better. Our neighborhoods, our cities, our communities experience glimpses of what God's kingdom looks like.

This should make us grateful. Our lives matter. Our faithfulness makes a difference.
But Revelation 21 describes something far more comprehensive: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away... And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

The dimensions given for this new city encompass the entire known world of the biblical era. In other words, the new kingdom place will be everywhere. There will be no corner untouched by God's perfect reign.

The passage compares this place to a bride adorned for her husband—that moment at a wedding when the groom sees his bride coming down the aisle and his face reveals complete adoration. She is perfect to him, his delight, beautiful inside and out. That's how beautiful the new creation will be.

But we don't live there yet. So we hold the tension: grateful for the kingdom in our hearts and the glimpses we see now, while longing for the kingdom to be everywhere—holy, perfect, and beautiful in every dimension.

The Presence Being Made New
After Jesus rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven and sat down on His throne as reigning King. Does this mean God is distant from us now? Absolutely not. Jesus promised to send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to dwell within His people.

This is extraordinary news that we too often normalize. The Spirit of the living God dwells in every Christian. God's power, peace, and wisdom are with us through the Spirit. God is not far off or absent—He is intimately near.

Yet Revelation 21:3 promises something more: "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God."

The fullness of the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—will one day dwell among His people. In the beginning, before sin entered the world, God would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden, but even then He didn't permanently dwell with them. After sin created separation, people throughout Scripture would ask to see God, and He would graciously give brief glimpses—almost more than they could bear.

But when the King returns, God in His fullness will live with His people forever. Why does this matter? Because we will finally be able to fully do what we were created for: glorify God and enjoy Him forever. If you love and delight in God now, imagine that joy and delight infinitely multiplied when God dwells with us in His fullness.

The Promise We Can Trust
How can we be certain any of this will happen? The answer lies in a promise already fulfilled: Jesus reigns. Right now, in this present age, Christ sits as King above every rule, authority, and power. His reign will never end.

Our confidence in what is not yet comes from our trust in the King who already reigns. Revelation 21:5-6 records His words: "Behold, I am making all things new... Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true... It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."

Here's the stunning truth: we don't deserve any of this. Sinful, imperfect people don't deserve to be made perfect, to live in a perfect place, or to enjoy a perfect God. Yet God promises that through Christ, we can experience all these undeserved gifts. To the thirsty, He gives the water of life without payment. The blessings that rightfully belong to Christ alone become ours because we are united with Him.

This Christmas and Beyond
This Christmas season, we're invited to live in the beautiful tension of already and not yet. Be thankful for salvation, for the kingdom breaking in, for the Spirit's presence, for Christ's reign. These are real, present gifts that should fill our hearts with gratitude.

But also lean into your longing. Long for glorification. Long for the kingdom to be everywhere. Long for God to dwell with us in fullness. Long for Christ's return.

Because King Jesus will return, His people should live with both thankfulness and longing as God makes all things new.