Advent is a word in Christian circles, but people on the block often have no idea what that means. When I started attending church seriously, everyone said it but never broke it down. It’s a huge missed opportunity for the city because people need to understand advent and what it means.
Advent refers to the arrival of an important thing, person, or event. During the Christmas season, advent refers to the arrival of Jesus, which is the most important thing, person, and event. It’s an important thing because it is the beginning of the end for sin and death. It’s an essential event because it marks the ushering in of the Kingdom of God. It points to the arrival of an important person because Jesus is the King of the Kingdom and the Messiah who the entire Old Testament points toward. The arrival of Jesus brings hope, love, joy and peace, and the urban context, like the rest of the world, is in desperate need of such things. Let’s dig into the things Jesus that brings!
Hope In the City
What is this Hope?
Genesis 3:15 is the original gospel message.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
The seed of hope continues in Genesis 12:1-3.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
That same seed of hope continues in Genesis 49, 2 Samuel 7, Isaiah 9, Proverbs 30:4, Hosea 11:1, and so many more places in the Bible. Hope comes from the fact that the world we live in is not the way it is supposed to be. The sin that entered the world in Genesis 3 through man’s rebellion against God has wreaked havoc on the world.
Why Does The Urban Context Need This Hope?
1 Timothy 3: 1-9 – But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
The passage above describes our fallen world today. Sin is everywhere here, yet the light has broken through in Jesus during the chaos and darkness. There is no hope outside of the Savior. In the Old Testament, people were saved by faith that the Messiah would come and deal with the sin problem. Before Jesus arrives, centuries of darkness occur where the people don’t hear from God. Then, suddenly, they hear from Him in one of the most remarkable ways: the Word becomes flesh. The King of Kings comes down to earth to deal with the sin problem for good.
The urban context often puts the realities of sin in your face. In the suburbs, sin is just as prevalent, but people can use their money to mask it. In the suburbs, people drink when their kids are at school or go to work and do lines of cocaine at their desks. In the hood, people do it on the streets for everyone to see. People wake up and live daily with no hope that life is worth living and that there is no real solution to their problems. If you’re reading this and you’ve called on Jesus as your Lord and Savior, let that reality sink in.
What Can You Do?
Romans 15:20 – And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”
Preach the gospel. Support churches that are planting in the urban context. The American church has failed the urban context. The church has had the medicine people needed for years and held to the more lucrative neighborhoods in the name of “sustainability.” Forget that! There is no making disciples of all nations unless we reach all neighborhoods.
Love In the City
What is this Love?
1 John 4: 7-12 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Man loves to come up with his ideas and call it wisdom. Love is not an idea man has made – God defines love. God tells us that the highest form of love is laying one’s life down for someone who can do nothing for you or themselves as Jesus did. The bad news is that you and I are sinners and left to ourselves. The good news is that Christ loved you so much he came down and lived the life you could never live, only to die on the cross to pay the penalty for sin.
Why Does The Urban Context Need This Love?
There is no progress for humanity without love. Think about it: if someone harms another person and seeks revenge, it begins a cycle of revenge that never ends until love breaks. Love comes into the picture and says you hurt me, and I want to hurt you, but instead I’m going to give you mercy, forgive, and be kind to you. That is what Jesus did. He should have responded by extending wrath to us, but instead, he extended his mercy and grace and died for those who believed in him. The urban context needs more people who want to lay their lives down. That means laying down your comforts to be with the least the last and the loss of your city. Why? Because that is what Jesus did for you.
What Can You Do?
Matthew 16:24-25 – Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Do life with people who make no sense. People in your life should question your choices because you could live in a better neighborhood or hang around a higher class of people, but yet you choose not to. Lay your life down for people who can do nothing for you.
Joy in the City
What is this Joy?
When you consider that Jesus has died for your sins and given you new life by his resurrection, and that you are now victorious in him no matter what happens on earth, what else can you experience other than joy? Your joy in Christ by the Spirit is not based on your circumstances. It’s not a fleeting feeling that requires good circumstances. Joy is the natural state of receiving the most unique gift you can do nothing to earn.
Philippians 4:11-13 – Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and ev ry circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
Why Does The Urban Context Need Joy?
In the urban context, many people seek happiness based on their circumstances. If you can make it out of the hood, get that quick come-up, or get that one lady, then all of a sudden, happiness will be grasped. As Solomon said, all is vanity and striving after the wind. All the pursuits of life are meaningless if Jesus is not at the center of your life.
The urban context has many tough circumstances, but those situations cannot steal the joy of Christ. When Christ is your Lord, every trial you go through is used to make you more like your Savior!
James 1:2-3 – Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
What Do You Do?
Exude joy everywhere you go as a response to the gospel. Serve the urban context, not begrudgingly wishing you were anywhere else but with an infectious joy that is attractive to the unbeliever. People should see how you respond to circumstances and want to know what you have that they don’t. Living like this creates terrific opportunities to share the gospel. It does not mean you have a fake happiness wherever you go. This joy means you have a contentment that says I am right where God wants me to be in this moment.
Peace in the City
What is This Peace?
Philippians 4:6-7 – The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The beatitudes in the book of Matthew say blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. When people think of peace, they think of a tranquil situation with no problems, basically the opposite of war. The most incredible peace any human can have is being right with God by His forgiveness of their sins. If someone has a billion dollars and spent their whole life relaxing on a yacht, they don’t have this peace because they are still on the hook for their sin. The peace that surpasses all understanding is God taking action on the sin problem so that we can have peace with the Father that extends to our brothers and sisters.
Why Does The Urban Context Need This Peace?
Jeremiah 29:7 – Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper.
The urban context needs the peace of God because there are too many eternal realities that are doomed for hell, and nothing is being done about it. Too many people feel a lack of peace in their hearts and find worldly means to fill a hole that only God can fill. The peace that comes from recognizing that you’re a sinner in need of God means that He makes you righteous and turns your body into a temple where the Holy Spirit can dwell and change you. That change turns cities upside down because that vertical peace with God turns into horizontal peace with family, friends, and neighbors. The urban context is in desperate need of this peace because this peace submits to the commandments of God.
What Do You Do?
Psalm 122:6-7 – Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels.”
Pray for peace in your urban context. Pray that God would call more people to Himself so that they can live as Kingdom soldiers, ready to spread the light of Christ to the hearts of all men. The work must begin with prayer because you can’t save yourself, you can’t save other people, and you can’t save a city. Only the action of God can save. If He does not move, nothing will happen.
