What does First B Jackson teach about advent hope?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on Advent hope starts not with sentiment but with prophecy. In back-to-back Advent Sundays, Pastor Ray worked through the book of Micah, written roughly 750 years before Christ, and showed that the hope Advent points to is specific and ancient. Micah names Bethlehem as the birthplace of the coming ruler, whose origins are from eternity, and says that ruler will shepherd his flock and be their peace. Pastor Ray pointed out that when the wise men later asked where Messiah was to be born, nobody had to search for the answer. Micah had already settled it seven centuries earlier, and the New Testament applies that exact language of shepherd and peace directly to Jesus.
The hope in Micah is not cheap. It sits inside chapters of hard judgment against leaders, priests, and prophets who claimed God's protection while exploiting the poor, adjusting their message to whoever paid them, and following the corrupt path of kings like Omri and Ahab. Pastor Ray walked through that judgment honestly, flagging it in red on the slides and not softening it, because he kept returning to a conviction the text itself carries: even in the worst of times, there has always been a faithful remnant. God says he will gather that remnant like sheep in a fold. Individually, at any moment, a person can humble themselves before the Lord. That thread of remnant hope runs underneath every wave of judgment Micah brings.
The book closes with Micah himself speaking in the first person, watching and waiting for God to act. Micah 6:8 sits at the center of it all, and Pastor Ray mentioned that a hand-lettered sign on a brick house along his seminary commute displayed it every single day. God is not asking for more elaborate sacrifices or bigger gifts. He has already told his people what is good. The Advent season at First Baptist Jackson is an invitation to do the same thing Micah did: watch for the Lord, trust what He has already declared, and hold onto the hope that what God has determined to do is what will be done.
Taught from Micah 5:2 · Micah 7 · Micah 6:8 · Micah 2:12 · Luke 2
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 11
1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and hold firm the traditions, even as I delivered them to you.
3 But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
4 Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- December 7, 2025 But As For Me, I Will Watch for the Lord Micah's ancient prophecies of judgment and hope point forward to Christ's birth in Bethlehem, showing that God delights in mercy and calls us to walk humbly with Him.
- November 30, 2025 From Long Ago, From the Days of Eternity Ray McDaniel walks through the book of Micah, tracing God's judgment on corrupt leaders and the hope of a coming Messiah born in Bethlehem, on the first Sunday of Advent.
Mentioned along the way
- December 1, 2019 By Faith: The Bread That Holds It Together Hebrews 11 shows that every believer across all time is united by faith in God's faithfulness. That same faith is what God calls us to live by today.
- December 2, 2018 Behold My Servant Isaiah 42 opens Advent with a servant who heals bruised reeds, brings justice to all nations, and stands as the one covenant between God and humanity.
- December 2, 2018 Behold My Servant, My Chosen One Isaiah 42 introduces the Servant who quietly brings God's justice to the nations, a bruised reed He will not break, a dimly burning wick He will not snuff out.
- December 3, 2017 Let This Mind Be in You Philippians 2 shows how Christians get along: by following Jesus, who left heaven's glory, emptied Himself of His rights, and died on a cross for us.