Anthony Mullins—Year A Advent 1
Hello, friends. This is Anthony Mullins, host of the Gospel Reverb podcast. As we get started in this weekly episode, I want to take a moment to say thank you. Thank you for listening for showing up episode after episode, and for being a part of this community.
Whether you’ve been with us since the first day, five years ago, or you just discovered the podcast recently, your time and attention mean the world. Every download, every message, every share — it all reminds me of one of the reasons we do this. You make the conversation richer and the journey worthwhile.
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So, thank you one and all. We couldn’t do it without you. In this weekly episode, we’re going to turn our attention to Advent. Advent is a deeply significant season in the Christian calendar. It’s a time of waiting, preparation, and hope. It marks the beginning of the liturgical year and encompasses the four weeks leading up to Christmas.
The word “advent” comes from the Latin adventist, meaning coming or arrival. Let’s think about the layers and the meaning and significance of Advent. Advent recalls the expectant waiting of Israel for the coming of the Messiah. Christians enter into the same spirit of longing as they remember the centuries of prophetic hope fulfilled in the birth of Jesus.
It invites reflection on God’s faithfulness and the mystery of the Incarnation that God took on human flesh to dwell among us. Advent also looks forward to the return of Christ in glory to make all things new.
This eschatological end time dimension reminds believers that history is moving toward redemption, not chaos. It calls for spiritual readiness, repentance, and renewed commitment to living in light of God’s kingdom.
It’s interesting, it takes place in the darkest part of the year, at least in the Northern hemisphere. And Advent brings light into darkness. The progressive lighting of the Advent wreath, candles, symbolizing hope, peace, joy, and love, mirrors the growing light of Christ’s approach.
It’s a counter-cultural time of quiet expectation rather than hurried celebration. Advent invites believers to slow down, pray, and prepare. It’s a season of watchfulness and repentance echoing John the Baptist’s call to prepare the way of the Lord. And it reminds the church that salvation is both a gift already received and a promise still unfolding.
So, in summary, Advent is significant because it centers believers on Christ’s past, present, and future arrival. It cultivates hope and anticipation rather than anxiety or distraction, and it reorients the Church toward God’s story of redemption, not the world’s rush toward consumption. Thanks be to God for the season of Advent.
And now let’s turn our attention to the first Sunday of Advent. It’s Matthew 24:36–44. As mentioned, it’s for the First Sunday of Advent, November 30. And it reads:
36 “But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, 39 and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so, too, will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. 41 Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. 42 Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
We live in an age of constant alerts and notifications. Our phones buzz. Our watch is pinging. Our inboxes are full, but amid the noise, Jesus gives us a different kind of alert in Matthew 24.
“Keep awake for you do not know what day your Lord is coming.”
Now, this passage isn’t meant to frighten us but to awaken us. Jesus calls his followers to live attentively, expectantly, and missionally in light of his promised return. The question is not when he will come, but how we live while we wait and to live rightly as we wait.
We must do it in the life of the triune God, the Father who sends the Son, who comes, and the Spirit who keeps us awake and faithful.
Verse 36, to point our attention there, “But about the day and the hour, no one knows neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.” The mystery of the Father’s timing reminds us that history, it’s not random, it’s under divine providence.
The Father, in his perfect wisdom, holds the future in his hands. This means we don’t have to live in anxious speculation, but in trustful participation. The mission of God isn’t about decoding end-time charts. It’s about joining the Father’s ongoing redemptive purpose in the world.
When we accept that the Father knows, and we do not, we’re free to live each day faithfully rather than fearfully. The Father’s sovereignty invites us into peace and purpose. Because the Father holds the times and the seasons, the Church can focus on being present in this time and in this place, bearing witness to his love here and now.
Verses 37 through 41 point our attention to this. “For as the days of Noah were so will be the coming of the son of man.”
Now Jesus draws a sobering comparison. In Noah’s day, people are eating, drinking, marrying, living ordinary lives. When the flood came, life went on as usual, but they were unprepared. The Son of man’s coming will be sudden, but not chaotic. It will be the culmination of God’s redemptive plan when Christ restores all things.
The Son’s return is not meant to terrify us, but to center us, to call us into faithful living that reflects who Jesus is, to embody his character as we live in his Body. To live in readiness is to live in imitation of Christ. He came in humility, so by his Spirit, we live humbly. He came to serve so by his Spirit, we live as servants.
He came to seek and save the lost. And by his Spirit, he sends us to the last, the least, the lost, and frankly, the people that this society would prefer to kick to the curb. So, readiness for Christ’s coming, it’s not withdrawal from the world. No. It’s deeper engagement in it. We live alert by living like Jesus, embodying his reconciling mission.
Verses 42 through 44: “Keep awake. Therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” This call to keep awake is not about staying up all night or stockpiling resources. It’s about spiritual attentiveness. The posture of a disciple whose life is responsive to the Spirit’s leading.
The Spirit keeps us awake by cultivating holy awareness in the midst of everyday life. The Spirit prompts us to see where Christ is already at work in the neighbor next door, in the stranger we pass, in the moments we might otherwise overlook.
The same Spirit who empowered the early church empowers us today to live as witnesses of the coming kingdom. To be awake, friends, is to be Spirit-filled, alert to God’s movement and available for his mission.
So, friends, we live between the two Advents, or as Karl Barth would say, “All the church has is really the season of Advent.”
We’re always anticipating the first, when Christ came in humility, the second, when he will come in glory. Until then, the Father invites us to trust his timing. The Son calls us to live faithfully in his likeness. The Spirit empowers us to stay awake and on mission.
So, as we begin this Advent season, let’s not live in fear of the unknown, but in faithful readiness, active, hopeful, and watchful.
When Christ comes again, may he find us not staring at the sky but serving our neighbor. Not speculating about the end but participating in God’s mission of love as Matthew 24:46 says, “Blessed is that servant whom his master finds at work when he comes.”
So, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, keep you awake in hope, active in love, and steadfast in mission until Christ comes again. Amen.