An ADVANCE TEAM is a group of staff sent ahead of a politician’s appearance to prepare the location. Advance Teams “specialize in the art of stagecraft that governs every public appearance, photo op, and televised moment in politics—often referred to as the ‘optics’ … They ensure that politicians … never arrive anywhere that isn’t perfectly prepped.”[1]
Advance Teams set to work a year before Britain’s royal family travels. There are meetings, memos, and phone calls to ensure every detail is addressed, every problem anticipated. Someone will scout every location to be certain it is large and luxurious. Members of the Royal Protection Service will also take an advance tour to address security. Even clothing will garner a great deal of consideration: is the nation hot or cold? How much walking will there be? What about local etiquette for sleeve length, hemlines, and necklines? Can the royal family show respect by wearing symbolic colors from the local flag? What is the national flower and how can it be incorporated into the women’s dresses? Once the ADVANCE TEAM has answered these questions, they will be “distilled down into a ‘Tour Bible’ as thick and glossy as a magazine.”[2]
Jesus was not a politician. But He was a KING—and the greatest ADVANCE TEAM ever assembled handled His entry into our world.
Aspects of His birth, ministry, and death were announced in advance to or by at least a dozen prophets across the centuries, including Job, Abraham, Jacob, Judah, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Micah, Daniel, and Zechariah. Then angels spoke of His arrival to Mary, Joseph, and Mary’s uncle Zechariah. Soon the sky filled with “a multitude of the heavenly host” who announced His birth to the shepherds, and a supernatural star announced His coming to the nations of the East. Even Herod’s “Slaughter of the Innocents” fulfilled prophecy, showing not only the hatred our enemy has for the Baby born without sin, but arguably foreshadowing His death—another sign this Child was indeed the ‘CHILD OF PROMISE.’ Then John the Baptist became “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make His path straight’” Luke 3:4. God’s people flocked to John, being baptized and preparing their hearts for the One whose sandals John was not worthy to untie. Finally, John baptized Jesus and saw “the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending to Him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: You are My beloved Son, in whom My Soul delights!” Mark 1:10-11.
Sure, Jesus was reputed to be illegitimate. Yes, he was born in a barn and rushed across the border into Egypt a fugitive or “illegal alien.”
But consider His Advance Team and you cannot deny He is the King of Kings: His arrival was predicted by the world’s greatest prophets, by multitudes of angels, by a star no one can explain, and by John, “the greatest among those born to women” (Matthew 11:11). Praise God for the humble child who was born the KING OF KINGS.
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[1] https://www.popsugar.com/news/what-advance-team-politics-42193567
[2] https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a10309303/royal-tour-planning-process/
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