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| ISBN-13: | 9781433542367 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Crossway |
| Publication date: | 08/31/2014 |
| Pages: | 96 |
| Sales rank: | 461,219 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.80(w) x 4.90(h) x 0.30(d) |
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CHAPTER 1
DECEMBER 1
The Search-and-Save Mission
The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
LUKE 19:10
The word advent means "coming." In this season of the year, we focus on the meaning of the coming of the Son of God into the world. And the spirit of our celebration should be the spirit in which he came. And the spirit of that coming is summed up in Luke 19:10: "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
The coming of Jesus was a search-and-save mission. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."
So Advent is a season for thinking about the mission of God to seek and to save lost people from the wrath to come. God raised him from the dead, "Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come" (1 Thess. 1:10). It's a season for cherishing and worshiping this characteristic of God — that he is a searching and saving God, that he is a God on a mission, that he is not aloof or passive or indecisive. He is never in the maintenance mode, coasting or drifting. He is sending, pursuing, searching, saving. That's the meaning of Advent.
The book of Acts is a celebration of this advent heart of God's — on the move to seek and to save the lost. It's a narration of Jesus's ongoing advent into more and more peoples of the world. Acts is the story of how the early church understood the words, "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21). It's the story of how the vertical advent of God in the mission of Jesus bends out and becomes the horizontal advent of Jesus in the mission of the church. In us.
Jesus came into the world at the first Advent, and every Advent since is a reminder of his continual advent into more and more lives. And that advent is, in fact, our advent — our coming, our moving into the lives of those around us and into the peoples of the world.
CHAPTER 2DECEMBER 2
Prepare Your Heart for Christ
How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?
JOHN 5:44
God owns and controls all things. And there is nothing that he could give you for Christmas this year that would suit your needs and your longings better than the consolation of Israel and the redemption of Jerusalem, restoration for past losses and liberation from future enemies, forgiveness and freedom, pardon and power, healing the past and sealing the future.
If there is a longing in your heart this Advent for something that the world has not been able to satisfy, might not this longing be God's Christmas gift preparing you to see Christ as consolation and redemption and to receive him for who he really is?
How is the heart prepared to receive Christ for who he really is? It is very simple.
First, the heart must become disenchanted with the praise of men. "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from God?" (John 5:44; 7:17–18).
Second, the heart must become disenchanted with the sufficiency of money and things to satisfy the soul. "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him" (Luke 16:14).
Then, third, alongside this disenchantment with the praise of men and the power of money, there must come into the heart a longing for consolation and a redemption beyond what the world can give.
Fourth and finally, there must be a revelation from God the Father, opening the eyes of the heart so that it cries out, like a man who stumbles onto an incredible treasure, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, the consolation of my past, the redemption of my future. Now I see you. Now I receive you — for who you really are."
May God do this for you this Advent. May this be your gift, and your witness, and the testimony of many this Advent.
CHAPTER 3DECEMBER 3
Draw Near to the Savior
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
HEBREWS 13:20–21
One of the things pleasing in God's sight is that his people keep on drawing near to him forever and ever. And so he is working in us this very thing.
Hebrews 13:21 says he is doing this "through Jesus Christ," which means, at least, that Jesus has purchased this grace for us by his death and that Jesus prays and asks the Father for it on the basis of that death.
In other words, when the writer of Hebrews tells us that drawing near to God is what qualifies us for the eternal saving work of our High Priest, he doesn't mean to say that our High Priest leaves us alone in our sinful bent and natural resistance, as if we could draw near to God on our own. Rather, our High Priest intercedes for us and asks the Father to do just what Hebrews 13:21 says he will do — work in us what is pleasing in his sight — "through Jesus Christ."
Let me illustrate this by the way it looked when our High Priest was on the earth. In Luke 22:31–32 Jesus says to Peter, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." So already Jesus was interceding for his own when he was on the earth. And he was praying that Peter's faith — that his faith — our faith — not fail.
Moreover, he was so confident in his prayer for Peter that he said, "When you have turned again," not, "If you turn again." So even though Peter stumbled in denial, his faith did not fail utterly. That is what the Lord prays for us. This is one more piece of our great security and hope in this great epistle of assurance.
Is it not a wonderful thing this Advent season to know that God bids us come? That this great, holy God of righteousness and wrath says, "Draw near to me through my Son, your High Priest. Draw near to me. Draw near to me"?
This is his invitation in these Advent readings: "Draw near to me through your High Priest. Draw near to me in confession and prayer and meditation and trust and praise. Come. I will not cast you out." For Christ "is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).
CHAPTER 4DECEMBER 4
What Advent Is All About
Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45
Christmas is about the coming of Christ into the world. It's about the Son of God, who existed eternally with the Father as "the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature," taking on human nature and becoming man (Heb. 1:3).
It's about the virgin birth of a child conceived miraculously by the Holy Spirit so that he is the Son of God, not the way you and I are sons of God, but in an utterly unique way (Luke 1:35).
It's about the coming of a man named Jesus in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" (Col. 2:9).
It's about the coming of the "fullness of time" that had been prophesied by the prophets of old that a ruler would be born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2); and a child would be born called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6); and a Messiah, an anointed one, a shoot from the stem of Jesse, a Son of David, a King, would come (Isa. 11:1–4; Zech. 9:9).
And, according to Mark 10:45, Christmas is about the coming of the Son of Man who "came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." These words in Mark 10:45, as a brief expression of Christmas, are what I hope God will fix in your mind and heart this Advent.
Open your heart to receive the best present imaginable: Jesus giving himself to die for you and to serve you all the rest of eternity. Receive this. Turn away from self-help and sin. Become like little children. Trust him. Trust him. Trust him with your life.
CHAPTER 5DECEMBER 5
Why Christmas Happened
You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ... The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
1 JOHN 3:5, 8
Two times in 1 John 3:1–10 we are told why Christmas happened — that is, why the eternal, divine Son of God came into the world as human.
In verse 5, John says, "You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin." So the sinlessness of Christ is affirmed — "in him there is no sin." And the reason for his coming is affirmed — "he appeared in order to take away sins."
Then in the second part of verse 8, John says, "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." And the specific focus John has in mind when he says "works of the devil" is the sin that the Devil promotes. We see that in the first part of verse 8: "Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning." So the works of the Devil that Jesus came to destroy are the works of sin.
So two times John tells us that Christmas happened — the Son of God became human — to take away sin, or to destroy the works of the Devil, namely, sin. Jesus was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:18–20) and "increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52) and was perfectly obedient and sinless in all his life and ministry, all the way to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:5–8; Heb. 4:15) — in order to destroy the works of the Devil — to take away sin.
Our sin. Make this personal and love him for it. Take the very personal words of the apostle Paul and make them your own. "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). This is how he destroyed the works of the Devil and rescued us from our sin. Don't leave Christmas in the abstract. Your sin. Your conflict with the Devil. Your victory. He came for this.
CHAPTER 6DECEMBER 6
God's Passion for God at Christmas
For this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.
JOHN 12:27–28
One of the most famous Christmas scenes in the Bible is the announcement to the shepherds by an angel that the Savior is born. And then it says, "Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!'" (Luke 2:11–14).
Glory to God, peace to man. The angels are sent to make something crystal clear: the Son of God has come into his creation to display the glory of God and to reconcile people from alienation to peace with God. To make God look great in salvation and to make man glad in God.
So when we come to John 12, there is no surprise when we hear Jesus praying that this would actually happen at the most important point of his earthly life, namely, his death and resurrection. That God would in fact be glorified in the rescue of sinners. Look at John 12:27–30:
"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? [We know he means the hour of his death, because in verse 24 he had said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."] But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not mine."
In verse 27, Jesus says, "For this purpose I have come to this hour." What purpose? Answer: verse 28, "Father, glorify your name." That is why my death approaches.
The Father hears Jesus's prayer and answers, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The Father had just glorified his name through Jesus in the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:4, 40), and now he will glorify it in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And don't miss the emphasis on God's commitment to glorify God. Not only does Jesus pray for God to glorify God: "Father, glorify your name" (v. 28), but God himself says, "I have glorified my name and I will again." God sent angels to say it in Luke 2. And God himself says it in John 12:28, "I have glorified [my name], and I will glorify it again."
The deepest reason why we live for the glory of God is that God acts for the glory of God. We are passionate about God's glory because God is passionate about God's glory.
And what makes this such good news, especially in the Gospel of John, is that the glory of God is full of grace and truth. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
The most glorious thing about God is that he is so completely, fully self-sufficient that the glory of the fullness of his being overflows in truth and grace for his creatures. He doesn't need us. And therefore in his fullness he overflows for us. Such is the grace we receive at Christmas.
CHAPTER 7DECEMBER 7
He Comes to Bless Us
Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people." And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, "And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed." God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.
ACTS 3:22–26
What this passage teaches us is that God brought Jesus onto the scene of history to bless people. "In your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed."
God said to his Son in heaven, "The time is fulfilled; I have promised blessing; now is the time to make good on my promise; you will be my emissary of blessing; I want blessing to come to the world; I have so much to give; go now and bless my people, bless them; indeed bless all the families of the earth through them, bless them, bless them."
You can see this in verses 25 and 26 as God's blessing is mentioned twice. In verse 26, it says explicitly that God sent Jesus to the people of Israel to bless them. And when it says that God sent him to Israel first, it means that he will send the blessing on to others after that. Verse 25 makes plain that this was God's aim in the covenant he made with Abraham: "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Blessing for the Jews and then, through them — through the Jewish Messiah — blessing for all the peoples, and that includes you.
So I say to you that God is moving toward you with blessing in this Advent season. You are in verse 25. It doesn't matter that two millennia have passed. With God, a thousand years is as a day (2 Pet. 3:8). With him, it is as though he made this promise two days ago. That's how fresh the blessing for you is today. If you will move toward him in faith, you will receive the blessing. That is what Christmas is all about — the greatest blessing.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Dawning of Indestructible Joy"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Desiring God Foundation.
Excerpted by permission of Good News Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface,
Introduction Praying for Fullness This Christmas (John 1:14–16),
December 1 The Search-and-Save Mission (Luke 19:10),
December 2 Prepare Your Heart for Christ (John 5:44),
December 3 Draw Near to the Savior (Heb. 13:20–21),
December 4 What Advent Is All About (Mark 10:45),
December 5 Why Christmas Happened (1 John 3:5, 8),
December 6 God's Passion for God at Christmas (John 12:27–28),
December 7 He Comes to Bless Us (Acts 3:22–26),
December 8 God Can Be Trusted (Acts 3:22–26),
December 9 Why the Son of Man? (John 1:51),
December 10 What Christmas Came to Destroy (1 John 3:8),
December 11 The Celebration of God's Love (John 3:16),
December 12 The Glory of the Word Made Flesh (John 1:1),
December 13 Christmas Cut History in Half (Acts 3:24),
December 14 The Mercy He Promises (Rom. 15:8–9),
December 15 Our Truest Treasure (Matt. 2:10),
December 16 Freed to Be Part of God's Family (Mark 10:45),
December 17 He Came to Serve (Mark 10:44),
December 18 Graciously and Tenderly Frustrating (Rom. 3:25–26),
December 19 The Gift You Cannot Buy (Acts 17:24–25),
December 20 Receive His Reconciliation (Rom. 5:11),
December 21 Get Your Eyes Ready for Christmas (Matt. 16:15–17),
December 22 Something Worth Singing About (Heb. 8:4–10),
December 23 Our Deepest Need at Christmas (Mic. 5:4–5),
December 24 Enjoy All the Promises of God (Mic. 5:2–4),
December 25 Grace: The Dominant Note of Christmas (John 6:51),
Conclusion A Savior Is Born! God Gets the Glory, You Get the Peace (Luke 2:11–14),
A Word of Thanks,
Desiring God: A Note on Resources,
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