The 1987–1988 Church Calendar: ‘The Very Same Person” From Advent To Pentecost

Q. 52. What comfort is it to thee that “Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead”?

That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with uplifted head I look for the very same Person, who before offered Himself for my sake, to the tribunal of God, and has removed all curse from me, to come as judge from heaven: who shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall translate me with all His chosen ones to Himself, into heavenly joys and glory.

— Heidelberg Catechism

November 29, 1987 marks the commencement of the new 1987–1988 Christian ecclesiastical year. From the beginning of Advent (late November) to the climax of Pentecost (late May), the Christian church commemorates for one-half of each calendar year the unfolding of God’s redemption for lost sinners.

As we stand on the threshold of a fresh commemoration of these historic events of salvation, we realize of course that we have heard this Advent-to-Pentecost sequence for as many years as we have attended the house of God. We know what to expect in December — the “coming” and born Christ; in January — the acts and/or words of Christ; in February and March — the sufferings of Christ; in April—the crucified, resurrected, and instructing Christ; in May — the ascension of Christ and the sending of His Spirit.

But did you ever pause to consider that the same keynote runs through all these feast days: Advent…Christmas… Passion… Good Friday… Easter… Ascension… Pentecost… ? That keynote is simply this: Jesus Christ both crucified and exalted on behalf of elect sinners.

Let us seek grace this festival season never to tire of “the very same Person” (cf. Q. 52 above) who shall be presented to us cyclically in His wonderful steps of humiliation and exaltation. Rather, may we need the Son of the Father’s provision this season as poor sinners. Let us seek grace to bring all our sin, guilt, hellishness, condemnableness, and unworthiness to this rich Savior with empty hands.

“The very same Person”: these words have come alive for me as never before when recently preaching on them. Oh, dear friends, Jesus Christ is “the very same Person” to His own not only throughout each festival season from Advent to Pentecost, but from the Advent of eternal redemption to the Pentecost of eternal glory!

Dear child of God, you cannot lean too hard on this Christ for all your needs this festival season:

From eternity. In all your present needs, He is “the very same Person” who gave Himself for you from all eternity (Ps. 40:7–8).

Advent. In all your pressing felt-absence of Him, He is “the very same Person” who remains the Advent (coming) One.

Christmas. In all your soul’s frames which cause you to “lie in the midst of death,” He is “the very same Person” who was born in Bethlehem’s manger for dead-in-self sinners.

Jesus Christ is “the very same Person” to His own not only throughout each festival season from Advent to Pentecost, but from the Advent of eternal redemption to the Pentecost of eternal glory!

Old Year’s. In all your sinful yesterdays, He is “the very same Person” who can wash your years clean through the staggering power of His atoning blood and committed faithfulness.

New Year’s. In all your apprehensive tomorrows fraught with “unknowns,” He is “the very same Person” who remains Holder of your future for your safekeeping.

Between New Year’s and Passion. In all your wintry listlessness, inconsistent actions, and empty words, He is “the very same Person” whose watchfulness over you, whose deeds within you, and whose words to you are more than sufficient to purge you from your backslidings.

Prayer Day. In all your prayerless prayers, He is “the very same Person” who takes your feeble efforts, salts them with the salt of His sufferings and presents your petitions before the countenance of His Father in the loins of His irresistible high priestly prayers.

Passion. In all your sufferings for His sake from worldlings and “Peters” without, as well as from warfares with sinful inclinations and unbelief within, He is “the very same Person” who suffered as you have never suffered in order to be able to stoop beneath you in His merits — yes, in order to carry you on His high priestly shoulders, embrace you with His high priestly arms, engrave you in His high priestly palms, preserve you with His high priestly eye, and love you with His high priestly heart.

Good Friday. In your signing of your own “death sentence” (with respect to justification) and all your ongoing daily “dyings” (with respect to sanctification, 1 Cor. 15:31), He is “the very same Person” who died on your behalf, bringing forth from His side the blood of justification to your “life sentence” and the water of sanctification to your ongoing “livings” in Him (Phil. 1:21a).

Easter. In all your inability to preserve your spiritual life, He is “the very same Person” who arose to calm your fears and speak to your heart: “I live, and ye shall live also.”

Between Easter and Ascension. In all your fleshly leanings even in your holiest duties, He is “the very same Person” who leads you in His post-resurrection comings and goings to wean you from walking by sight of Him to walking by faith in Him (Heb. 11:1).

Ascension. In all your earthiness, He is “the very same Person” who has ascended on high to remain with you with His Godhead, majesty, grace, and Spirit (Hei. Cat, Q. 47), in order to teach you, as Watson says, to regard the world like a loose tooth, “which being easily twitched away does not much bother you,” and to cause you to long for His heavenly fellowship and glory.

Between Ascension and Pentecost. In all your spiritual impatience, He is “the very same Person” who teaches you the holy art of waiting upon Him in your experiential pre-Pentecosts.

Pentecost. In all your missings of the seal of His work and the overflowings of the joy of His indwelling, He is “the very same Person” who pours out His Spirit to be your Seal and Sealer, your Joy and Indweller, your Comfort and Advocate.

Post-Pentecost. In all the ongoing poverty of your disappointments in sanctification’s apparent regress, He is “the very same Person” who causes you to progress through increasingly teaching you the heartbeat of all true religion all the days of your life: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jn. 3:30).

To eternity. In all your fears that you will forfeit the perseverance of His grace and the entrance into His glory, He is “the very same Person” who shall bring you across the Jordans of this world into the heavenly mansions being prepared for you from before the foundation of the world.

Dear friends, let us pray that our entrance into the feast days of this ecclesiastical year will be anticipated by us with God-centered expectation rather than with human drudgery. Again we will hear of what God has provided and done through Christ Jesus unto salvation for those who can do nothing from their side. Once more, the doctrines of free, sovereign, one-sided, unconditional, eternal grace will ring from our pulpits and be proclaimed in earnest to you. Pray that you and your families may reap eternal profit this ecclesiastical calendar season only in and through Him who remains “the very same Person” from Advent to Pentecost, yes, from eternity to eternity.

To whom else shall you go? Christ alone has the words of eternal life (Jn. 6:68). There is no other Name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12). “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Is. 55:6).

Rev. J.R. Beeke is pastor of the First Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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