Anticipating Advent

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"

"Stay Hopeful"

"How to Quiet Your Heart at Christmas"

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Dannah Gresh: Hey, when do you start listening to Christmas music? I hear a little controversary through the airwaves. I’m a die-hard no-Christmas music until after Thanksgiving girl. I cannot understand why you would listen to it before. But if you do, we can still be friends if you do.

Maybe you’re one of those Christmas fanatics who strung their lights and hung their wreaths way back in October. Yeah, I know some of you are shaking your heads with me in disappointment, and some of you are all in on that idea. But I think we can universally agree that now is certainly the time to start to celebrate!

And with the start of Christmastime comes the start of something the church has been observing since around the fourth century—Advent! 

The word “advent” means coming or arrival. On the liturgical calendar, it’s set aside as a time of reflection and anticipation, inviting us to look forward to Christmas day and the celebration of the birth of Jesus. This year, Advent spans from November 30 (that’s this weekend!) all the way to Christmas Eve. Today, we’re gonna kick off this celebration together!

I’m your host Dannah Gresh, and you’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. 

Have you ever sung the Christmas hymn “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus?” It’s an oldie but a goodie! And it's one of Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth’s favorites to play on the piano this time of year. 

Piano: “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” 

In fact, this music you’re hearing is from Nancy’s piano album called Come Adore. That’s right—Nancy’s a woman of many talents, including being a gifted pianist. She’s going to give us a little history of this Advent hymn and then help us reflect on its meaning. Let’s listen.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Now, today, we look at another carol, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” It’s often sung at the beginning of Advent as part of our preparation to celebrate the incarnation.

The lyrics to this hymn were written by Charles Wesley who wrote more than 6500 hymns. Can you imagine? I don’t know if I’ve sung that many hymns, and he wrote that many.

Well, in 1744, Charles Wesley published a collection of eighteen poems and Christmas carols that he called Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord. And of those nativity hymns, this one, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” is the best known one, the one that has lasted over all these years.

The music to which we normally sing this Christmas carol is called Hyfrydol. That was the tune that was composed in approximately 1830 by nineteen-year-old Welshman named Rowland Pritchard. And the name of this tune means “good cheer.” Good cheer. I like that. It’s a tune that has been used with other well-known hymn lyrics as well.

Now, this hymn only has two stanzas but the lyrics are so rich. Virtually every phrase in this carol alludes to one or more Scripture verses, including many Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, the Advent.

So, let me read the two stanzas, and then we’ll talk about some of the highlights.

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

Israel’s Strength and Consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Well, let’s just unpack that. “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” This is a prayer that expresses the longing that those Old Testament believers had for the arrival of the Savior. It taps into the sense of longing we have that Christ would come and visit us with His presence, with His beauty, with His wonder in this Advent season and throughout the year.

Long expected. Just how long had this Jesus been expected? Well, you have to go back to Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve sinned. They were separated from God. Here they were hiding, cowering from God, behind a bush, in the garden, in shame. Ashamed of themselves before God and before each other. God comes and He seeks them out, and He finds them, and He promises that He will send a Savior—someone who will fix their sin problem.

And this promise is repeated to Abraham and to Jacob and to Isaac and to the prophets. Little by little the portrait gets filled in—more and more and more details over the course of hundreds of years. What will this Savior be like? What will He do? What will He look like?

The Old Testament Jews longed for God to fulfill His promise and send the Messiah. They waited, and they waited, and they waited, and they waited. Sometimes they got tired of waiting, and they forgot to wait. Then God would send a prophet and remind them again of His promise, and they would go back to waiting. They waited for thousands of years without seeing the fulfillment of that longing.

It’s so easy when we’re waiting for God to move, waiting for God to act, waiting for Him to fulfill His promises, it’s easy to get tired of waiting and to give up hope. But they kept on longing. They kept on expecting, because they believed that God was faithful, and He would fulfill His promises in His way and in His time.

Now this hymn, this carol answers two questions that are addressed in many of our loved Christmas carols. The first is: Who is this Jesus, this “long expected Jesus”? And the second question is: Why was He born? That’s a question you find addressed in many of our Christmas carols.

So first, who is this long-expected Jesus? Well, we’re told in this carol that He is “Israel’s strength and consolation.” This is again a concept you find referenced in the Old Testament prophets.

Joel 3 says, “The LORD will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel” (v. 16 NKJV). He’s the strength and the consolation of His people.

Then, you remember Simeon in the temple when the baby Jesus was brought there by His parents? Luke 2 it says that Simeon, he was now an old man, he was “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (v. 25). That word, “consolation” comes from a Greek word, paraklesis, "to come alongside and help." Someone who comes and comforts and helps. He consoles.

Here is a man who had waited and longed all his life to see the Messiah come. Now he rejoiced to see this infant who he knew was the strength and consolation of God’s people. The one who would console the hearts of God’s weary people.

But, this Jesus is not just Israel’s strength and consolation. This carol tells us that He is also the "hope of all the earth." Then it tells us that He is the “dear desire of every nation.”

He’s not just for the Jews—the strength and consolation of Israel—but He’s for all the people of the world: for Jews, Gentiles, Muslims, Buddhists, people who call themselves Christians and are religious but don’t know Jesus. He is the hope and the desire of all the world—all the world needs Jesus.

And He’s a gift from God not just for the Jews, not just for some religious people, not just for people who go to church, not just for people who think they need Jesus. He is God’s hope and fulfills the desire of all the nations and the peoples of the world.

We read this concept in Haggai 2 where God says, “I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations" (v. 7 NKJV). God shakes the nations so He can shake loose the things that are not eternal and are not holy and then He draws these people to come from every nation and tribe and kindred and tongue and language to come to the Desire—capital D—of all nations, says the Lord of hosts. These are concepts that are referred to in this great carol, “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.”

And this Messiah is not just for the Jews, and He’s not just for the nations. But this hymn tells us He is also the “joy of every longing heart.” Not just the Jews. Not just the nations. But us. Those of us who long for Him—individuals.

He is our strength and our consolation. He is power for our weakness. He is comfort for our sorrow. Jesus is the fulfillment of the deepest longings, desires, hopes, and needs of every soul in the world, throughout all the ages.

This is a great description of the sufficiency, the all-sufficiency of Christ. Jesus is what the world needs, what the world longs for even if they don’t know it. He alone can save. He alone can fulfill the world’s longings, my longings, your longings for love, for security, for meaning, for relationships, for fellowship with God. He is the joy of every longing heart. He puts the longing there, and then He comes and fulfills it with Himself.

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth on the beloved Christmas carol “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus.” If you want to hear more of Nancy’s beautiful piano playing, you can find her Christmas album on your favorite music platform or order the CD at ReviveOurHearts.com/comeadore.

Nancy also wrote an Advent devotional I’d love to point you to. Guess where the title inspo came from? This very Christmas hymn! It’s called Born a Child and Yet a King. Nancy walks you through thirty-one days of Advent hymns, helping you prepare your heart to celebrate Christ’s birth. This would be a wonderful resource to read on your own or with your family around the dinner table. To grab a copy, visit ReviveOurHearts.com/store. There’s still time to make Born a Child and Yet a King part of your Advent rhythms this season.

Well, we’ve talked a lot about the first Advent of Christ, but what about the second Advent? Remember, this word means coming or arrival—and Jesus promised us He’s coming back! 

We’re not meant to feel at home here—even at Christmastime. The world is too broken. There’s too much sin, suffering, death, and decay. Do you feel it? That longing for Jesus to come make all things new? I do too, friend. Scripture tells us we’re supposed to. And as we celebrate the first coming of Christ this month, we also have the joy of looking forward to the next.

Erin Davis is wife to Jason, mom to four boys, acquisitions editor at Moody publishers. And she loves to speak about Christ’s return as she longs for that day herself. She’s going to help us anticipate the second Advent today, so get ready for a dose of unshakeable, eternal hope. Let’s listen.

Erin Davis: I want to take us to 2 Peter 3. These are words written by the apostle Peter. 

Hear Peter’s words from 2 Peter 3:4–10:

They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 

For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 

One of my favorite things about the Bible is how it all works together. We’ve been in the gospels, we’ve been in Paul’s epistles, here we’re in a letter from Peter, and the consistency with which they’re saying the same thing is remarkable. They’re reminding us that a day is coming. It will come like a thief. It will sneak in when we least expect it, and it will be a day like no other! For God will finally and forever set all things right!

Right now, this very moment, Jesus is at the Father’s side. He longs—as all grooms do—to come for His Bride! He also longs for the lost to return to Him. Peter’s warning is, “Do not mistake Jesus’ patience for passivity, and do not mistake His patience for powerlessness.”

The Day of the Lord is at hand. Listen to verse 10 from 2 Peter 3: 

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

I like to say, “This will all make a good bonfire someday.” 

The world that the Lord has made, it’s going to burn up, and there is going to be a new heaven and a new earth. Paul and Peter and Jesus have all told us that we’re supposed to encourage each other in this.

As I mentioned, I teach a group of women in my home every Thursday; there are about twenty of us. And we’ve got an unusual amount of trials and tears right now. Not long ago we attended a funeral together; one of our sisters lost her second adult son in less than two years.

We became just this tangled mass of crying women as we stood in front of that young men’s casket together. Another woman in our group has just had wave after wave of crisis. Each week we pray and we believe. And each week that family gets more bad news.

As I said before, my own mom is on hospice care. We’re about to come up on the one-year anniversary of hospice care. It is a long, slow, painful road, and it is consuming at times. And you know what I can’t, with integrity, do with that group of women? 

I can’t, with integrity, look them in the eyes and say, “It’s going to be okay.” Because from a human perspective, it’s not. My friend’s son is gone. He’s not coming back. My other friend has lost things that will not be returned to her. My mom’s terminal illness doesn’t end with a happy ending.

We can’t look each other in the eye and honestly say, “It’s going to be okay.” Here’s what we can look each other in the eye and say, and we do: “Jesus is coming back! And when He does, He’s going to establish His kingdom!”

I love how C. S. Lewis wrote that everything sad is going to come untrue. That’s what Scripture is encouraging us to say to each other. How often? As often as we need to. How long? Until He comes back! That’s how we help each other stay awake.

I want to finish 2 Peter chapter 3. Verse 11 asks a good question: 

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be?

He’s saying, “In light of Jesus’ return, in light of the fact that the earth is going to burn, that Jesus is coming to establish a new kingdom and to finally reunite us with Him; what sort of people ought you to be?”

Not people of fear. That doesn’t line up with what we read in the Bible. Not people of anger. We are to be people of hope, people who live holy and godly lives because we believe He’s really coming back. I’m still in 2 Peter 3. Listen to verses 12 and 13: 

Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Don’t you long for it?! As we have been parked in these verses, doesn’t your heart begin to ache, “Maranatha!” We were made to live in this new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells.

What are we waiting for? We’re not just waiting for Jesus to answer a single prayer, although He listens and He loves it when we pray. We’re not just asking Jesus to change our circumstance, although sometimes He does.

Ultimately, we are waiting for the day when Jesus returns and moves us into our new home, the place where righteousness dwells. Do you long for it? Do you wait for it? Has God stirred your heart? If so, you’ve got an assignment. We’re supposed to encourage each other with it! I’m going to pray for us. 

Lord, thank You for this promise! It’s so much bigger than our temporary hope! Lord, help us to encourage each other with what is true. Help us to live in light of the fact that this will all burn up, but You are coming back. What sort of people ought we be? Show us what that means. And Lord, Maranatha! Come quickly! It’s in Your Name I pray, amen.

Dannah: Erin Davis on the second coming of Christ. That was a good, good word from a good, good friend of mine. We should encourage one another with this truth: Jesus is coming soon!

But what about in the meantime? How do we live well today—in-between the first and second Advents of Jesus? Well, one way we can do that is through traditions. For millenia, the church has been keeping Advent rhythms as a way to tell one another and the watching world, “Christ has come, and Christ will come again!” 

If you’re thinking, “I’d love to establish some purposeful Advent traditions for my family, but I don’t know where to start,” then today is your day!

Nancy’s friend Paulette has done a lot of thinking about this. She loves mentoring the women in her church, helping them find practical ways to make Christmas meaningful. 

Several years ago, she and Nancy sat down to have a conversation on this topic. They got super practical, and I think some of Paulette’s family traditions will spark creative ideas as you develop your own. Let’s listen. 

Nancy: Do you have children?

Paulette: I have three children.

Nancy: So as they were growing up, what did Christmases look like in your household?

Paulette: Pretty similar to everybody else. I just didn’t have my hands on some of the things I’ve come to learn.

Nancy: So before you learned those things, what did it look like? I just want to know if we can relate to you.

Paulette: Oh, absolutely. We just did the normal things.

Nancy: Which were?

Paulette: The gift-giving thing, the big family dinner, always church was a part of that, and then my kids went to Christian school and so they were involved in the plays and the programs and all those kinds of things.

Nancy: So the month of December was . . . how would you describe it?

Paulette: Pretty hectic. Just like you were sharing. There’s so much to do, and how do we get it all done, and trying to make sure we read the right stories and those kinds of things, but I just didn’t have a handle on it.

Probably the biggest help for me was having grandchildren. After we’d raised our kids—we have three grandchildren, and they all—don’t ask me why—live in Arizona, and we’re here.

Nancy: Well, this time of year I kind of understand why they would want to live in Arizona!

Paulette: What that did for me was it made me think, I’m not there, but I want to have an influence on my grandchildren. So I started trying to think of things I could do and send to them or talk to them about, and that started the ball rolling for me.

Nancy: So tell us how you got started. What are some of the early things that you did? And how old were these grandkids when you started doing this?

Paulette: I started when my first one was three. We now have three, but it’s continuing. I started this thing, which it’s working out great. I don’t know how long it will work, but I started picking a theme for every Christmas. On December 1, I make sure that they receive a box that has a number of different things in it all involved in this theme.

For example, this year I chose the candle. The reason for that is we memorized the verse, “Jesus is the light of the world.” So everything that I do, everything that I send to them has to do with that theme and what the meaning is. So it’s very repetitive.

Another thing that we do every year is bake cookies together. Do you all like to bake cookies? With kids it’s so much fun.

Nancy: You do this in Arizona, or do they come here?

Paulette: Well, we’re going there, and the day after we arrive, we’re baking the cookies. We do specific shapes. We have the Christmas tree—just eight different shapes, and they all mean something related to Christmas.

Then I’ve made out little tags. For cookie number one I have, "The tree means: under the tree are gifts, and Jesus was the best gift ever." And I do that with each one. So we bake them, and we frost them, and eat them. But then we package them up, and we give them out to everybody you can imagine—the people at the pharmacy, and the bank and everywhere. The kids get involved, too, and they take them. So the people get the cookies, but they get the meaning of what each one of them is.

So the children are involved in doing it and handing it out, but the people then (we don’t know who they’re going to—they may not be believers at all) get to read those meanings and put the attention back on Christ.

Nancy: So your children are learning themselves what this is all about, but they’re also being involved in sharing that story with others.

Paulette: Right. And one of the other things (I sent them a number of just little candles), but on the candle is tied a tag that says, “Jesus is the light of the world.” And they have that right by their front door. Whoever comes to visit them during the month of December, that’s a little take-home gift that they give to them or to take over to the neighbors’ homes, and they’re non-believers. But they get some kind of a gift, and, of course, if a child gives it, it’s even more acceptable. So they can do that.

Nancy: It sounds like you put a lot of time, effort, and thought into this box of goodies that goes to Arizona. So you spend the month of November being a crazy woman?

Paulette: Probably more than the month of November. It takes a fair amount of time. But because of the meaning behind it, that's why I want to do it.

They have an advent calendar that they can use so they can keep up every day the repetition of what we are looking forward to—Christ's birth. That's what the focus is. We do a Happy Birthday Jesus party so they understand that this is His birthday that we are celebrating.

Nancy: Are there any particular traditions or meaningful things that you do yourself in terms of the Christmas season that you look forward to?

Paulette: Just in our home?

Nancy: Yes, or in your own walk with the Lord. How do you keep that season from being . . . It sounds like you got a lot more things on your list than some of us do. How do you keep that season from being crazy?

Paulette: Doing this keeps my focus there—which is probably one of the greatest helps. I've had the opportunity to do some of this as a presentation at other churches, so I'm preparing all the time for that, to have the opportunity to pass that on.

We have certain things in our family that we always do—one of which I’m sure everybody does—and that’s reading the Christmas story. But what’s been so interesting, my husband and I have been married thirty-seven years, and we have always done that. As our kids grew up, that was always a part of our celebration. The interesting thing to me is that all through the years, after that story is read, we’ll start having a discussion. It’s always different, and somebody, one of the kids or somebody will say, “You know, I never quite heard that before. I never realized that.” It’s just amazing to me after all those years, but it makes the difference, and we wouldn’t miss it. That is something we wouldn't ever miss.

Dannah: Nancy and her friend Paulette on establishing Advent traditions that point to Jesus. I love it. Now, here’s your permission slip to dream big about your Christmas rhythms. Get creative! Think purposefully! Invite your family, friends, and community to partake. It might just shape your people for generations to come.

Speaking of traditions, this weekend is your last chance to give and request your 2026 ministry calendar. Every year, our design team puts together a stunning Revive Our Hearts calendar for you, and so many of our listeners have expressed how much they look forward to receiving that each year! For a donation of any amount, we’ll get that in the mail to you. To give, visit ReviveOurHearts.com. Don’t forget to ask for your calendar when you do. 

Here’s something I’d like you to pray about. This coming Tuesday is referred to as Giving Tuesday. Any donations we receive on Monday and Tuesday will go to help fund “Wonder,” which is the new Bible-reading app for young women. We’re working hard to have the app ready to go in January. 

So would you pray about what the Lord might want you to give? If you’re married, maybe you can talk to your spouse about it over the weekend. We don’t want to take anything away from your regular giving to your church. But if God prompts you to give above and beyond that, consider donating to help teen girls get into God’s Word on a regular basis. Again, that’s our Giving Tuesday project for this year, and you’re invited to be a part of it. 

Today we talked about Christ’s first advent and we looked ahead to His return. But do you ever feel so stuck in the dailyness of life that it’s hard to really feel that sense of anticipation, that excitement, that joy? Next week, Bob Lepine will join me to help us process the negative emotions we often feel at this time of year. I hope you’ll join us as we look at four emotions of Christmas.

I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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