Advent | December 10 GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH (Matthew 2:3)

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly
with great joy. After coming into the house they saw
the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to
the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening
their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. —Matthew 2:10–11

God is not served by human hands as though he needed
anything (Acts 17:25). The gifts of the magi are not given
by way of assistance or need-meeting. It would dishonor a
monarch if foreign visitors came with royal care-packages.

Nor are these gifts meant to be bribes. Deuteronomy
10:17 says that God takes no bribe. Well, what then do
they mean? How are they worship?

The gifts are intensifiers of desire for Christ himself in
much the same way that fasting is. When you give a gift to
Christ like this, it’s a way of saying, “The joy that I pursue
(verse 10) is not the hope of getting rich with things from
you. I have not come to you for your things, but for yourself.
And this desire I now intensify and demonstrate by
giving up things, in the hope of enjoying you more, not
things. By giving to you what you do not need, and what I
might enjoy, I am saying more earnestly and more authentically,
‘You are my treasure, not these things.’”

I think that’s what it means to worship God with gifts
of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

May God take the truth of this text and waken in us
a desire for Christ himself. May we say from the heart,
“Lord Jesus, you are the Messiah, the King of Israel. All
nations will come and bow down before you. God wields
the world to see that you are worshiped. Therefore, whatever
opposition I may find, I joyfully ascribe authority and
dignity to you, and bring my gifts to say that you alone can
satisfy my heart, not these.”

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy

Advent | December 9 TWO KINDS OF OPPOSITION TO JESUS (Matthew 2:3)

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him. —Matthew 2:3

Jesus is troubling to people who do not want to worship
him, and he brings out opposition for those who do. This
is probably not a main point in the mind of Matthew, but
it is inescapable as the story goes on.

In this story, there are two kinds of people who do not
want to worship Jesus, the Messiah.

The first kind is the people who simply do nothing
about Jesus. He is a nonentity in their lives. This group
is represented by the chief priests and scribes. Verse 4:
“Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the
people, [Herod] inquired of them where the Messiah was
to be born.” Well, they told him, and that was that: back
to business as usual. The sheer silence and inactivity of the
leaders is overwhelming in view of the magnitude of what
was happening.

And notice, verse 3 says, “When Herod the king heard
this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” In other
words, the rumor was going around that someone thought
the Messiah was born. The inactivity on the part of chief
priests is staggering—why not go with the magi? They are
not interested. They do not want to worship the true God.

The second kind of people who do not want to worship
Jesus is the kind who is deeply threatened by him. That is
Herod in this story. He is really afraid. So much so that he
schemes and lies and then commits mass murder just to
get rid of Jesus.

So today these two kinds of opposition will come
against Christ and his worshipers: indifference and hostility.
Are you in one of those groups?

Let this Christmas be the time when you reconsider
the Messiah and ponder what it is to worship him.

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy

Advent | December 8 BETHLEHEM’S SUPERNATURAL STAR (Matthew 2:2)

“Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?
For we saw His star in the east and have come to
worship Him.” —Matthew 2:2

Over and over the Bible baffles our curiosity about just
how certain things happened. How did this “star” get the
magi from the east to Jerusalem?

It does not say that it led them or went before them. It
only says they saw a star in the east (verse 2), and came to
Jerusalem. And how did that star go before them in the little
five-mile walk from Jerusalem to Bethlehem as verse 9
says it did? And how did a star stand “over the place where
the Child was”?

The answer is: We do not know. There are numerous
efforts to explain it in terms of conjunctions of planets
or comets or supernovas or miraculous lights. We just
don’t know. And I want to exhort you not to become
preoccupied with developing theories that are only tentative
in the end and have very little spiritual significance.

I risk a generalization to warn you: People who are exercised
and preoccupied with such things as how the star
worked and how the Red Sea split and how the manna fell
and how Jonah survived the fish and how the moon turns
to blood are generally people who have what I call a mentality
for the marginal. You do not see in them a deep cherishing
of the great central things of the gospel—the holiness of
God, the ugliness of sin, the helplessness of man, the death
of Christ, justification by faith alone, the sanctifying work
of the Spirit, the glory of Christ’s return and the final judgment.
They always seem to be taking you down a sidetrack
with a new article or book. There is little centered rejoicing.

But what is plain concerning this matter of the star is
that it is doing something that it cannot do on its own: it
is guiding magi to the Son of God to worship him.

There is only one Person in biblical thinking that can
be behind that intentionality in the stars—God himself.

So the lesson is plain: God is guiding foreigners to
Christ to worship him. And he is doing it by exerting
global—probably even universal—influence and power
to get it done.

Luke shows God influencing the entire Roman Empire
so that the census comes at the exact time to get a virgin to
Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy with her delivery. Matthew
shows God influencing the stars in the sky to get foreign
magi to Bethlehem so that they can worship him.

This is God’s design. He did it then. He is still doing it
now. His aim is that the nations—all the nations
(Matthew 24:14)—worship his Son.

This is God’s will for everybody in your office at work,
and in your neighborhood and in your home. As John 4:23
says, “Such the Father seeks to worship him.”

At the beginning of Matthew we still have a “come-see”
pattern. But at the end the pattern is “go-tell.” The magi
came and saw. We are to go and tell.

What is not different is that the purpose of God is the
ingathering of the nations to worship his Son. The magnifying
of Christ in the white-hot worship of all nations is
the reason the world exists.

The Christmas Story Week 2

The Intro – In the Beginning

Message by:
Pastor Terry Crawford
Covenant Church
Shepherdstown, WV

• “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
• 'Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life,
• “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1813)
• A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

The Christmas story is eternal not “once upon a time. ”

John 1:1-3 ESV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

With God, distinct from God the Father, but one in unity of essence.

Jesus had universal not just local significance.

This is important because people can focus on Jesus’ humanity and the location he lived or the country he called home and make comparisons and excuses that ours isn’t like that. Every location, every town, every created thing was made through Christ. He matters in every situation, at any time because he is familiar with it all. He is not confined to Jerusalem or Bethlehem or Nazareth. He is universally significant.

John 1:4-5 ESV
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Christmas story is a story of life and light.

The beginning of all life. Physical, spiritual, moral, all life. If you are alive today, and I hope you are, then this story relates to you. And the life was the light of men — He who is essential life, and the giver of life to all that live, was also the light of men; the fountain of wisdom, holiness, and happiness, to man in his original state. People are looking for significance and the meaning of life. They want a full life. A happy life but many find loneliness and darkness.

John 1:6-8 ESV
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

Two important things to remember about John the Baptist:

1.
1. He was sent from God.
2.
2. He was not the light.

It is easy for us at times to replace the true light with not the light.

John 1:9-11 ESV
9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

He came — In the fullness of time, to his own - Country, city, temple: And his own - People, received him not.

It is possible to miss the light.

John 1:12-14 ESV
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 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.

In our darkest times we need the grace and truth of Christ.

This shows how well qualified he was for the work of our redemption and salvation.

Next Steps

• Today I commit to read and meditate on John 1 this week.
• Today I commit to give grace and truth to others in any situation.
• Today I commit to receive and believe in Jesus as Lord of my life.

Advent | December 5 NO DETOUR FROM CALVARY (Luke 2:6–7)

And while they were there, the time came for her to
give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son
and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him
in a manger, because there was no place for them in
the inn. —Luke 2:6–7

Now you would think that if God so rules the world as to
use an empire-wide census to bring Mary and Joseph to
Bethlehem, he surely could have seen to it that a room was
available in the inn.

Yes, he could have. And Jesus could have been born into
a wealthy family. He could have turned stone into bread
in the wilderness. He could have called 10,000 angels to
his aid in Gethsemane. He could have come down from
the cross and saved himself. The question is not what
God could do, but what he willed to do.

  God’s will was that though Christ was rich, yet for your
sake he became poor. The “No Vacancy” signs over all the
motels in Bethlehem were for your sake. “For your sake he
became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

God rules all things—even motel capacities—for the
sake of his children. The Calvary road begins with a “No
Vacancy” sign in Bethlehem and ends with the spitting
and scoffing of the cross in Jerusalem.
And we must not forget that he said, “He who would
come after me must deny himself and take up his cross”
(Matthew 16:24).

We join him on the Calvary road and hear him say,
“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not
greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you” (John 15:20).

To the one who calls out enthusiastically, “I will follow
you wherever you go!” (Matthew 8:19). Jesus responds,
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the
Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).
Yes, God could have seen to it that Jesus have a room
at his birth. But that would have been a detour off the
Calvary road.

Advent | December 4 FOR GOD’S LITTLE PEOPLE (Luke 2:1-5)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be registered. This was the
first registration when Quirinius was governor of
Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own
town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from
the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the
house and lineage of David, to be registered with
Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. —Luke 2:1–5

Have you ever thought what an amazing thing it is that
God ordained beforehand that the Messiah be born in
Bethlehem (as the prophecy in Micah 5 shows); and that
he so ordained things that when the time came, the Messiah’s
mother and legal father were living in Nazareth; and
that in order to fulfill his word and bring two little people
to Bethlehem that first Christmas, God put it in the heart
of Caesar Augustus that all the Roman world should be
enrolled each in his own town?

Have you ever felt, like me, little and insignificant in a
world of seven billion people, where all the news is of big
political and economic and social movements and of outstanding
people with lots of power and prestige?

If you have, don’t let that make you disheartened or
unhappy. For it is implicit in Scripture that all the mammoth
political forces and all the giant industrial complexes,
without their even knowing it, are being guided
by God, not for their own sake but for the sake of God’s
little people—the little Mary and the little Joseph who
have to be got from Nazareth to Bethlehem. God wields
an empire to bless his children.

Do not think, because you experience adversity, that
the hand of the Lord is shortened. It is not our prosperity
but our holiness that he seeks with all his heart. And to
that end, he rules the whole world. As Proverbs 21:1 says,
“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the
Lord; he turns it wherever he will.”

He is a big God for little people, and we have great
cause to rejoice that, unbeknownst to them, all the kings
and presidents and premiers and chancellors of the world
follow the sovereign decrees of our Father in heaven, that
we, the children, might be conformed to the image of his
Son, Jesus Christ.

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy

The Christmas Story Week 1

About the Author

Message by:
Pastor Terry Crawford
Covenant Church
Shepherdstown, WV

The Christmas Story, how it changes my story.

IDEA:

If you can trust the Author you can trust his words.

God gave it to us for a reason. He told it to us to guide our hearts and path.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Scripture has inspired, transformed, empowered, and enabled, us to do the good that needs to be done.

God is the author of the Christmas Story.

What it the Author (God) like?

An attribute is not a part of God but what is true about God in his very nature.

Although the purpose of the next few minutes is to give a peek at some of the Attributes of God, I must apologize because all I can share in the words of Job are "the fringes of His ways and how faint a word we hear of Him!" God’s attributes are to be learned over a lifetime and digested slowly, purposefully and personally and at times we will find ourselves still and knowing that He is God. But to not touch on who God is today would be a shame and a loss since he is the author.

God is faithful.

Psalm 100:5
For the LORDis good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

We don’t care how much you know until we know how much you care.

God has, from the beginning, faithfully invested himself in humanity. He has relentlessly chased us and called us to himself. He even says we can call him Father which helps convey a picture of a faithful parental figure.

God is Omnipotent - He can do it.

Jeremiah 32:17
‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

God is Omnipresent - He is here.

Psalms 139:7-12
⁷Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? ⁸If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. ⁹If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, ¹⁰even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. ¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” ¹²even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

God is Omniscient - He knows it.

Daniel 2:21
He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.

1 John 3:20
If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

God is immutable - He never changes

Malachi 3:6
“I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

God is truth.

John 17:17
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Truth - That which coincides with reality. God cannot lie, that is reality and so he is truth.

God is love.

Jeremiah 31:3
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

“The Bible is a whole series of highways, all leading toward God. And when the text has been illuminated and the believer of the text knows that God is the end toward which he is moving, then that man has real faith.” ― A.W. Tozer

30 Days of Praying the Names and Attributes of God

So when we trust the Author, and we trust the facts, then we can trust the story.

Infinite/eternal/limitless - Psalm 90/147

God is just. Balance the scales morally. His nature and character is the standard by which he judges. Why is lying wrong? Because, God is truth.

God is good. Psalm 119 shows God exercising his goodness and provokes praise. Do not grow weary in doing good. No matter how we respond God keeps exercising his goodness.

God is love. Not does he loves, but God is love. The more I learn of him the more I love him. Jeremiah - I have loved you with an everlasting love. Christ’s love is uninfluenced. Nothing made it happen. Nothing triggered it.

God is faithful - Psalm 119 and Deuteronomy 7:9, knowing that God is faithful increases my confidence in him.

The greater we know God, true God, the greater he will be glorified in our lives.

“When Jesus died on the cross the mercy of God did not become any greater. It could not become any greater, for it was already infinite. We get the odd notion that God is showing mercy because Jesus died. No--Jesus died because God is showing mercy. It was the mercy of God that gave us Calvary, not Calvary that gave us mercy. If God had not been merciful there would have been no incarnation, no babe in the manger, no man on a cross and no open tomb.” ― A.W. Tozer

Trusting God’s word benefits us and glorifies Him.

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Hebrews 12:2
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

NEXT STEPS

• Today I commit my life to Christ, the author and perfecter of faith.
• Today I commit to read the Christmas Story with an open heart and mind.
• Today I commit to let God’s word equip me and complete me.

Advent | December 3 THE LONG-AWAITED VISITATION (Luke 1:68-71)

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited
and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as
he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we should be saved from our enemies and from
the hand of all who hate us…” —Luke 1:68–71

Notice two remarkable things from these words of Zechariah
in Luke 1.

First, nine months earlier, Zechariah could not believe
his wife would have a child. Now, filled with the Holy
Spirit, he is so confident of God’s redeeming work in the
coming Messiah that he puts it in the past tense. For the
mind of faith, a promised act of God is as good as done.
Zechariah has learned to take God at his word and so has
a remarkable assurance: “God has visited and redeemed!”

Second, the coming of Jesus the Messiah is a visitation
of God to our world: “The God of Israel has visited and
redeemed.” For centuries, the Jewish people had languished
under the conviction that God had withdrawn:
the spirit of prophecy had ceased, Israel had fallen into the
hands of Rome. And all the godly in Israel were awaiting
the visitation of God. Luke tells us in 2:25 that the devout
Simeon was “looking for the consolation of Israel.” And
in Luke 2:38 the prayerful Anna was “looking for the
redemption of Jerusalem.”

These were days of great expectation. Now the longawaited
visitation of God was about to happen—indeed,
he was about to come in a way no one expected.

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy

Advent | December 2 MARY’S MAGNIFICENT GOD (Luke 1:46-55)

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me
blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” —Luke 1:46–55

Mary sees clearly a most remarkable thing about God: He is
about to change the course of all human history. The most
important three decades in all of time are about to begin.

And where is God? Occupying himself with two
obscure, humble women—one old and barren (Elizabeth),
one young and virginal (Mary). And Mary is so moved by
this vision of God, the lover of the lowly, that she breaks
out in song — a song that has come to be known as “the
Magnificat” (Luke 1:46–55).

Mary and Elizabeth are wonderful heroines in Luke’s
account. He loves the faith of these women. The thing that
impresses him most, it appears, and the thing he wants to
impress on Theophilus, his noble reader, is the lowliness
and cheerful humility of Elizabeth and Mary.

Elizabeth says,“Why is this granted to me that the
mother of my Lord would come to me?” (Luke 1:43). And
Mary says, “He has looked on the humble estate of his servant”
(Luke 1:48).

The only people whose soul can truly magnify the
Lord are people like Elizabeth and Mary—people who
acknowledge their lowly estate and are overwhelmed by
the condescension of the magnificent God.

© Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Good News of Great Joy

December 25: THREE CHRISTMAS PRESENTS (1 John 3:7–8)

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:7–8)

Ponder this remarkable situation with me. If the Son of God came to help you stop sinning—to destroy the works of the devil—and if he also came to die so that, when you do sin, there is a propitiation, a removal of God’s wrath, then what does this imply for living your life?

Three things. And they are wonderful to have. I give them to you briefly as Christmas presents.

1. A Clear Purpose for Living

It implies that you have a clear purpose for living. Negatively, it is simply this: don’t sin. “I write these things to you so that you may not sin” (1 John 2:1). “The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

If you ask, “Can you give us that positively, instead of negatively?” the answer is: Yes, it’s all summed up in 1 John 3:23. It’s a great summary of what John’s whole letter requires. Notice the singular “commandment”—“This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.” These two things are so closely connected for John he calls them one commandment: believe Jesus and love others. That is your purpose. That is the sum of the Christian life. Trusting Jesus, loving people. Trust Jesus, love people. There’s the first gift: a purpose to live.


2. Hope That Our Failures Will Be Forgiven

Now consider the second implication of the twofold truth that Christ came to destroy our sinning and to forgive our sins. It’s this: We make progress in overcoming our sin when we have hope that our failures will be forgiven. If you don’t have hope that God will forgive your failures, when you start fighting sin, you give up.

Many of you are pondering some changes in the new year, because you have fallen into sinful patterns and want out. You want some new patterns of eating. New patterns for entertainment. New patterns of giving. New patterns of relating to your spouse. New patterns of family devotions. New patterns of sleep and exercise. New patterns of courage in witness. But you are struggling, wondering whether it’s any use. Well here’s your second Christmas present: Christ not only came to destroy the works of the devil—our sinning— he also came to be an advocate for us when we fail in our fight.

So I plead with you, let the freedom to fail give you the hope to fight. But beware! If you turn the grace of God into license, and say, “Well, if I can fail, and it doesn’t matter, then why bother fighting?”—if you say that, and mean it, and go on acting on it, you are probably not born again and should tremble.

But that is not where most of you are. Most of you want to fight sinful patterns in your life. And what God is saying to you is this: Let the freedom to fail give you hope to fight. I write this to you that you might not sin, but if you sin you have an advocate, Jesus Christ.


3. Christ Will Help Us

Finally, the third implication of the double truth that Christ came to destroy our sinning and to forgive our sins, is this: Christ will really help us in our fight. He really will help you. He is on your side. He didn’t come to destroy sin because sin is fun. He came to destroy sin because it is fatal. It is a deceptive work of the devil and will destroy us if we don’t fight it. He came to help us, not hurt us.

So here’s your third Christmas gift: Christ will help overcome sin in you. 1 John 4:4 says, “He who is in you is greater than he that is in the world.” Jesus is alive, Jesus is almighty, Jesus lives in us by faith. And Jesus is for us, not against us. He will help you. Trust him.

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

December 24: THE SON OF GOD APPEARED (1 John 3:7–8)

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:7–8)

When verse 8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil,” what are the “works of the devil” that he has in mind? The answer is clear from the context.

First, verse 5 is a clear parallel: “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins.” The phrase “he appeared to…” occurs in verse 5 and verse 8. So probably the “works of the devil” that Jesus came to destroy are sins. The first part of verse 8 makes this virtually certain:

“The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.”

The issue in this context is sinning, not sickness or broken cars or messed up schedules. Jesus came into the world to help us stop sinning.

Let me put it alongside the truth of 1 John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” In other words, I am promoting the purpose of Christmas (3:8), the purpose of the incarnation. Then he adds (2:2), “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

But now look what this means: It means that Jesus appeared in the world for two reasons. He came that we might not go on sinning; and he came to die so that there would be a propitiation—a substitutionary sacrifice that takes away the wrath of God—for our sins, if we do sin.

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

Christmas Eve: Do You See What I See?

Message by:
Pastor Terry Crawford
Covenant Church
Shepherdstown, WV

Recognizing the True Light of the World: Jesus

John 1:9-10
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

Christmas helps us recognize who Jesus truly is.

Blind eyes and hard hearts keep people from seeing Jesus.

John 12:37, 40-4 (Message)
All these God-signs he had given them and they still didn’t get it, still wouldn’t trust him. This proved that the prophet Isaiah was right: Their eyes are blinded, their hearts are hardened, So that they wouldn’t see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts, And turn to me, God, so I could heal them.

John 12:42-46 (Message)
On the other hand, a considerable number from the ranks of the leaders did believe. But because of the Pharisees, they didn’t come out in the open with it. They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God’s glory. Jesus summed it all up when he cried out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not just in me but in the One who sent me. Whoever looks at me is looking, in fact, at the One who sent me. I am Light that has come into the world so that all who believe in me won’t have to stay any longer in the dark.

Life in the dark is not God’s plan for us.

John 1:11-12
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

The “True Light” has come into our world, what will you do with Him?

December 23: GOD’S INDESCRIBABLE GIFT (Romans 5:10–11)

If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:10–11)

How do we practically receive reconciliation and exult in God? One answer is: do it through Jesus Christ. Which means, at least in part, make the portrait of Jesus in the Bible—the work and the words of Jesus portrayed in the New Testament—the essential content of your exultation over God. Exultation without the content of Christ does not honor Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 4:4–6, Paul describes conversion two ways. In verse 4, he says it is seeing “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And in verse 6, he says it is seeing“ the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In either case you see the point. We have Christ, the image of God, and we have God in the face of Christ.

Practically, to exult in God, you exult in what you see and know of God in the portrait of Jesus Christ. And this comes to its fullest experience when the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as Romans 5:5 says.

So here’s the Christmas point. Not only did God purchase our reconciliation through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ (verse 10), and not only did God enable us to receive that reconciliation through the Lord Jesus Christ (verse 11), but even now, verse 11 says, we exult in God himself through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus purchased our reconciliation. Jesus enabled us to receive the reconciliation and open the gift. And Jesus himself shines forth from the wrapping—the indescribable gift—as God in the flesh, and stirs up all our exultation in God.

Look to Jesus this Christmas. Receive the reconciliation that he bought. Don’t put it on the shelf unopened. And don’t open it and then make it a means to all your other pleasures.

Open it and enjoy the gift. Exult in him. Make him your pleasure. Make him your treasure.

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

Christmas Re-Gifted Week 4: Batteries Included

Message by:
Pastor Terry Crawford
Covenant Church
Shepherdstown, WV

We have all we need to love like Jesus:

GRACE AND TRUTH

You might say that the whole book is summarized in the first 18 verses. Then you might say that the first 18 verses are summarized in verses 14 to 18. Then you might say that verse 14 summarizes verses 14 to 18.

John 1:14-15
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”)

Jesus’ glory is divine and detectable.

Christ is full of grace and truth

He was expressing the reality of glory. And so when John says I beheld His glory, he's not only saying physically but he's saying I sensed it because I walked with Him for three years and I talked with Him and I sat with Him and I followed Him and I listened to Him and I prayed with Him and I loved Him and His glory splattered all over me because it was there and you couldn't stop it. And so John says though it was veiled it was visible, I beheld His glory.

John 11:40
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

Jesus did not come to simply show us grace and truth
but to give them to us.

John 1:16-17
Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

God doesn't just want to stock your head with knowledge about his truth and grace, he wants you to receive it and experience it. This Christmas he wants to give you personally a foundation of truth and reality to stand on so you won't cave in under stress. This Christmas he wants to treat you with grace—to forgive all your sins—all of them!—to take away all your guilt, to make your conscience clean, to help you with your problems, to give you strength for each day, and to fill you with hope and joy and peace.

The Son is not simply full of grace; he has a fullness from which he shares with others (v. 16). The verse reads literally, "For from his fullness we all (have) received even grace upon grace."

If you're a believer you have the fullness of Christ.

Colossians 2:9-10
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

"All that is in Christ is in us."

When Christ came into your life He planted in you all that is God's. We don't lack anything...nothing. Except as James says the wisdom to know what we've got. It's all there, all the fullness of Christ is mine. Do you know what that says? That says because Christ is in me my resources are inexhaustible. There's no reason for a Christian to feel inadequate. It's all yours.

Jesus gives us AA power to energize our life…

1. Amazing Grace
2. Absolute Truth

grace answers to the hesed of the Old Testament: God's covenant-keeping, gracious love.
Truth answers to 'emet, God's covenant-keeping, faithful reliability in which there is nothing false or deceitful.

So there is a contrast here, but it is one of degree. The grace received in Jesus is added upon the grace that came through Moses and the law. There is a greater fulfillment of this picture, for the law itself points to Jesus (5:39). The law points to the revelation. We have received grace and truth, John 1:17. He had said (John 1:14) that Christ was full of grace and truth; now here he says that by him grace and truth came to us. grace:—Its preference above the law of Moses: The law was given by Moses, and it was a glorious discovery, both of God’s will concerning man and his good will to man; but the gospel of Christ is a much clearer discovery both of duty and happiness.

He is the true paschal lamb, the true scape-goat, the true manna. They had grace in the picture; we have grace in the person, that is, grace and truth. The law was only made known by Moses, but the being of this grace and truth, as well as the discovery of them, is Jesus Christ.

The law was a witness to grace and truth. Jesus was the fulfillment not the contradiction of the law of Moses.

And then he adds, and I love this at the end of verse 16, he says, "And grace for grace." You know what that is? Grace in the place of grace. When grace goes grace comes, it's just like this...it's like the waves on the ocean, one wave rolls in and right away comes another one, more grace and more grace. And if you don't recognize it, that's not God's fault, it's not that the grace isn't there, it's that you would rather court your misery than express it in grace.

And so, the whole testimony of believers come together and say, "I know Christ is God, I have His fullness." And then he draws a closing contrast in verses 17 and it's very simple. He says, "For the law was given by Moses," and he just reiterates the truth of verse 14, "But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Moses gave the law, went up in Sinai and God carved it out on the mountain with His finger of fire. Moses put the two tables of stone under his arm, called the tables a testimony, marched down off the mountain, brought the law. Everybody was put under law, obey the law or else

So the law was given by Moses and all the law could do was show you how rotten you were, it couldn't save you. The law just showed us how bad we were, but grace and truth which provided salvation came in Jesus Christ.

“Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God's saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us. The merciful commitment strengthens us to see the truth about ourselves and repent. The conviction and repentance moves us to cling to and rest in God's mercy and grace.” Tim Keller

Truth is far more than facts. It’s not just something we act upon. It acts upon us. We can’t change the truth, but the truth can change us. It sanctifies (sets us apart) from the falsehoods woven into our sin natures.

To know the truth is to see accurately. To believe what isn’t true is to be blind.

As followers of Christ, we are to walk in the truth (3 John 3), love the truth and believe the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:10,12). We are to speak the truth, in contrast to “the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming” (Ephesians 4:14). We’re to speak the truth “in love” (Ephesians 4:32). Christ’s disciples know the truth (John 8:32), do the truth (John 3:21), and abide in the truth (John 8:44). We are commanded to know the truth (1 Timothy 4:3), handle the truth accurately (2 Timothy 2:25) and avoid doctrinal untruths (2 Tim. 2:18). The “belt of truth” holds together our spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:14).

The universe is not a democracy. Truth is not a ballot measure.

Truth will set you free, but grace is the key to receiving the truth. Only by grace were we given the truth, the fullness of truth, Jesus.

“I can’t get past the idea that someone could live a selfish no-good life, and then repent on his death bed and go to heaven. It just sounds too easy, too cheap.”

I pointed out his underlying assumption, that we think we can earn God’s grace, and that going to heaven takes work on our part. We discussed that the hardest part about grace may be swallowing our pride and saying, “I don’t deserve this any more than that criminal on his deathbed deserves it.”

Any concept of grace that makes us feel more comfortable about sinning is not biblical grace. Anyone who misuses grace as a license for violating God’s truth does not grasp the infinite price God paid for our redemption.

Only because God knows all my sins he could die for them all.

Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

For more information, please visit: Covenant Church

December 22: THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE (John 20:30–31)

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30–31)

I feel so strongly that among those of us who have grown up in church and who can recite the great doctrines of our faith in our sleep and who yawn through the Apostles Creed—that among us something must be done to help us once more feel the awe, the fear, the astonishment, the wonder of the Son of God, begotten by the Father from all eternity, reflecting all the glory of God, being the very image of his person, through whom all things were created, upholding the universe by the word of his power.

You can read every fairy tale that was ever written, every mystery thriller, every ghost story, and you will never find anything so shocking, so strange, so weird and so spellbinding as the story of the incarnation of the Son of God.

How dead we are! How callous and unfeeling to his glory and his story! How often have I had to repent and say, “God, I am sorry that the stories men have made up stir my emotions, my awe and wonder and admiration and joy, more than your own true story.”

The space thrillers of our day, like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, can do this great good for us: they can humble us and bring us to repentance, by showing us that we really are capable of some of the wonder and awe and amazement that we so seldom feel when we contemplate the eternal God and the cosmic Christ and a real living contact between them and us in Jesus of Nazareth.

When Jesus said, “For this I have come into the world,” he said something as crazy and weird and strange and eerie as any statement in science fiction that you have ever read (John 18:37).

O, how I pray for a breaking forth of the Spirit of God upon me and upon you. I pray for the Holy Spirit to break into my experience in a frightening way, to wake me up to the unimaginable reality of God.

One of these days lightning is going to fill the sky from the rising of the sun to its setting, and there is going to appear in the clouds one like a son of man with his mighty angels in flaming fire. And we will see him clearly. And whether from terror or sheer excitement, we will tremble and we will wonder how, how we ever lived so long with such a domesticated, harmless Christ.

These things are written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world. Really believe.

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

December 21: THE BIRTH OF THE ANCIENT OF DAYS (John 18:37)

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37)

This is a great Christmas text even though it comes from the end of Jesus’s life on earth, not the beginning.

The uniqueness of his birth is that he did not originate at his birth. He existed before he was born in a manger. The personhood, the character, the personality of Jesus of Nazareth existed before the man Jesus of Nazareth was born.

The theological word to describe this mystery is not creation, but incarnation. The person—not the body, but the essential personhood of Jesus—existed before he was born as man. His birth was not a coming into being of a new person, but a coming into the world of an infinitely old person.

Micah 5:2 puts it like this, 700 years before Jesus was born:
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

The mystery of the birth of Jesus is not merely that he was born of a virgin. That miracle was intended by God to witness to an even greater one—namely, that the child born at Christmas was a person who existed “from of old, from ancient days.”

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

December 20: CHRISTMAS SOLIDARITY (I John 3:8)

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

The assembly line of Satan turns out millions of sins every day. He packs them into huge cargo planes and flies them to heaven and spreads them out before God and laughs and laughs and laughs.

Some people work full-time on the assembly line. Others have quit their jobs there and only now and then return.

Every minute of work on the assembly line makes God the laughing stock of Satan. Sin is Satan’s business because he hates the light and beauty and purity and glory of God. Nothing pleases him more than when creatures distrust and disobey their Maker.

Therefore, Christmas is good news for man and good news for God.

“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). That’s good news for us.

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). That’s good news for God.

Christmas is good news for God because Jesus has come to lead a strike at Satan’s assembly plant. He has walked right into the plant, called for the Solidarity of the faithful, and begun a massive walk-out.

Christmas is a call to go on strike at the assembly plant of sin. No negotiations with the management. No bargaining. Just single-minded, unswerving opposition to the product.

Christmas Solidarity aims to ground the cargo planes. It will not use force or violence, but with relentless devotion to Truth it will expose the life-destroying conditions of the devil’s industry.

Christmas Solidarity will not give up until a complete shutdown has been achieved.

When sin has been destroyed, God’s name will be wholly exonerated. No one will be laughing at him anymore.

If you want to give a gift to God this Christmas, walk off the assembly line and never go back. Take up your place in the picket line of love. Join Christmas Solidarity until the majestic name of God is cleared and he stands glorious amid the accolades of the righteous.

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

December 19: CHRISTMAS IS FOR FREEDOM (Hebrews 2:14–15)

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ( Hebrews 2:14–15) Jesus became man because what was needed was the death of a man who was more than man. The incarnation was God’s locking himself into death row.

Christ did not risk death. He embraced it. That is precisely why he came: not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

No wonder Satan tried to turn Jesus from the cross! The cross was Satan’s destruction. How did Jesus destroy him? The “power of death” is the ability to make death fearful.

The “power of death” is the power that holds men in bondage through fear of death. It is the power to keep men in sin, so that death comes as a horrid thing.

But Jesus stripped Satan of this power. He disarmed him. He molded a breastplate of righteousness for us that makes us immune to the devil’s condemnation.

By his death, Jesus wiped away all our sins. And a person without sin puts Satan out of business. His treason is aborted. His cosmic treachery is foiled. “His rage we can endure, for, lo, his doom is sure.” The cross has run him through. And he will gasp his last before long.

Christmas is for freedom. Freedom from the fear of death.

Jesus took our nature in Bethlehem, to die our death in Jerusalem, that we might be fearless in our city. Yes, fearless. Because if the biggest threat to my joy is gone, then why should I fret over the little ones? How can you say, “Well, I’m not afraid to die but I’m afraid to lose my job”? No. No. Think!

If death (I said, death—no pulse, cold, gone!)—if death is no longer a fear, we’re free, really free. Free to take any risk under the sun for Christ and for love. No more bondage to anxiety.

If the Son has set you free, you shall be free, indeed!

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

December 18: THE CHRISTMAS MODEL FOR MISSIONS (John17:18)

“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18)

Christmas is a model for missions. Missions is a mirror of Christmas. As I, so you.

For example, danger. Christ came to his own and his own received him not. So you. They plotted against him. So you. He had no permanent home. So you. They trumped up false charges against him. So you. They whipped and mocked him. So you. He died after three years of ministry. So you.

But there is a worse danger than any of these which Jesus escaped. So you!

In the mid-16th century Francis Xavier (1506–1552), a Catholic missionary, wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Indonesia) about the perils of his mission to China. He said,

The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God… To distrust him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree.

The greatest danger a missionary faces is to distrust the mercy of God. If that danger is avoided, then all other dangers lose their sting.

God makes every dagger a scepter in our hand. As J.W. Alexander says, “Each instant of present labor is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory.”

Christ escaped the danger of distrust. Therefore God has highly exalted him!

Remember this Advent that Christmas is a model for missions. As I, so you. And that mission means danger. And that the greatest danger is distrusting God’s mercy. Succumb to this, and all is lost. Conquer here, and nothing can harm you for a million ages.

For more information, please visit: Desiring God

December 17: The Greatest Salvation Imaginable (Jeremiah 31:31)

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah . . . ” (Jeremiah 31:31)

God is just and holy and separated from sinners like us. This is our main problem at Christmas and every other season. How shall we get right with a just and holy God?

Nevertheless, God is merciful and has promised in Jeremiah 31 (five hundred years before Christ) that someday he would do something new. He would replace shadows with the Reality of the Messiah. And he would powerfully move into our lives and write his will on our hearts so that we are not constrained from outside but are willing from inside to love him and trust him and follow him.

That would be the greatest salvation imaginable — if God should offer us the greatest Reality in the universe to enjoy and then move in us to see to it that we could enjoy it with the greatest freedom and joy possible. That would be a Christmas gift worth singing about.

That is, in fact, what he promised. But there was a huge obstacle. Our sin. Our separation from God because of our unrighteousness.

How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so much kindness as to give us the greatest Reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest joy possible?

The answer is that God put our sins on his Son, and judged them there, so that he could put them out of his mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Christ bore our sins in his own body when he died. He took our judgment. He canceled our guilt. And that means the sins are gone. They do not remain in God’s mind as a basis for condemnation. In that sense, he “forgets” them. They are consumed in the death of Christ.

Which means that God is now free, in his justice, to lavish us with the new covenant. He gives us Christ, the greatest Reality in the universe, for our enjoyment. And he writes his own will — his own heart — on our hearts so that we can love Christ and trust Christ and follow Christ from the inside out, with freedom and joy.

For more information, please visit: Desiring God