The Strength of Spiritual Authority

“Then Jesus went with them. And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, ‘Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ LUKE 7:6-8

 

PONDER THIS

Have you become a humble person who can say, “I am God’s to command”? Have you said that to Jesus? Do you mean it? If you do, you understand there’s a difference in authority and power. Authority comes from the office; power is residual in the person.

When I played football in college and high school, I weighed about 185 pounds, and I was one of the bigger men on the field. If you look at a football field today, you would see that these guys are 6 feet 7, weighing 285 pounds, and on top of that, they’ve got a helmet, a face guard, and armor all around them. You could get hurt playing that game! And yet there’s another little guy out there. This guy may be 155 pounds. He has no helmet, he has no shoulder pads, he’s wearing a shirt with stripes on it, and all he’s got is a whistle, but he directs these giants on the field. See the difference? The guy with the whistle, the guy with the striped shirt, he’s the one with the authority, and Jesus says to us, we’re the little guy: “I give you authority over all the power of the enemy.” The enemy is the big guy, and it’s time you and I told him to take a hike. It’s time you and I understood the strength of spiritual authority! But just knowing it is not enough. We need to learn to pray with authority.

When did you submit to Christ’s command? What changed in your life?

What are some areas Satan is still acting in authority over your life? How can you submit these areas to God?

PRACTICE THIS

Share with a friend about when you submitted your life to Christ’s command.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Birth of the Ancient of Days

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 very end of Jesus’s life on earth, not the beginning.

Notice: Jesus says not only that he was born, but that he “came into the world.” 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.”

And, therefore, his birth was purposeful. Before he was born he thought about being born. Together with his Father there was a plan. And part of that great plan he spoke in the last hours of his life on earth: “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).

He was the eternal Truth. He spoke only the truth. He acted out the greatest truth of love. And he is gathering into his eternal family all those who are born of the truth. This was the plan from ancient days.

John Piper 

All Authority in Jesus

PRAY OVER THIS

“Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

Ephesians 1:15-18

 

PONDER THIS

We have something Adam never had. Adam was innocent, but we are righteous. Adam was there in the Garden of Eden, where He had fellowship with God, and he sinned. 

But you and I have the Lord Jesus Christ as a part of us. 

Don’t think of the Church now as an organization with Christ as the president: the Church is an organism. It is a body with Christ as the head, and what is true about the Lord Jesus Christ is true about you. Jesus did not defeat Satan on his own behalf. He defeated Satan on our behalf. So, we have been co-executed, co-risen, co-exalted, and co-enthroned with the Lord Jesus Christ. He became a son of man so that we might become sons of God. He took our sins so that we might be innocent. He became guilty so that we might be acquitted. He was filled with despair so that we might be filled with joy. He took our shame so that we might take His glory. He endured the pains of Hell so that we might have the blessings of Heaven. The Lamb has triumphed. He has prevailed, and therefore He says to His church, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore” (Matthew 28:18-19).

Does Jesus have authority over Satan? So do you. Are demons subject to Jesus? They’re subject to you too. Satan hopes you never learn this. And God help you to know that your dominion which was legally lost was rightfully regained by Jesus and has now been gloriously given.

How does your inheritance in Christ equip you to share the Gospel?

What would change if you regularly remembered your inheritance?

PRACTICE THIS

Write down the different things you have as an inheritance in Christ. Consider how those things can equip you to share the gospel with others.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Where Our Comfort Comes From

He [Pilate] entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.” (John 19:9–11)

Pilate’s authority to crucify Jesus did not intimidate Jesus. Why not?

Not because Pilate was lying. Not because he didn’t have authority to crucify Jesus. He did.

Rather, this authority did not intimidate Jesus because it was derivative. Jesus said, “It was given to you from above.” Which means it is really authoritative. Not less. But more.

So, how is this not intimidating? Pilate not only has authority to kill Jesus. But he has God-given authority to kill him.

This does not intimidate Jesus because Pilate’s authority over Jesus is subordinate to God’s authority over Pilate. Jesus gets his comfort at this moment not because Pilate’s will is powerless, but because Pilate’s will is guided. Not because Jesus isn’t in the hands of Pilate’s fear, but because Pilate is in the hands of Jesus’s Father.

Which means that our comfort comes not from the powerlessness of our enemies, but from our Father’s sovereign rule over their power.

This is the point of Romans 8:35–37. Tribulation and distress and persecution and famine and nakedness and danger and sword cannot separate us from Christ because “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Pilate (and all Jesus’s adversaries — and ours) meant it for evil. But God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20). All Jesus’s enemies gathered together with their God-given authority “to do whatever [God’s] hand and [God’s] plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:28). They sinned. But through their sinning God saved.

Therefore, do not be intimidated by your adversaries who can only kill the body (Matthew 10:28). Not only because this is all they can do (Luke 12:4), but also because it is done under the watchful hand of your Father.

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6–7)

Pilate has authority. Herod has authority. Soldiers have authority. Satan has authority. But none is independent. All their authority is derivative. All of it is subordinate to God’s will. Fear not. You are precious to your sovereign Father. Far more precious than the unforgotten birds.

John Piper 

I Pray The Name of Jesus Over You

We can love you.

We can try to comfort you.

But the most powerful thing we can do is lift you up before our Jesus Who is able.

He has the authority.

He is here now calling you. 

Believe on Him for things that seem impossible.

He will come again.

He will come in the full glory of God the Father.

I will pray the name of Jesus over you.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus satisfies, the Lamb Who was slain paid Your debt.

Are you ready?

Matthew 11:27-30

[27] All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. [28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

John 6:35-40

[35] Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. [36] But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. [37] All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. [38] For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. [39] And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. [40] For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Romans 14:11-12

[11] for it is written, 

    “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,

        and every tongue shall confess to God.”

    [12] So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Philippians 2:5-11

[5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus Prays for Us

He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

It says that Christ is able to save to the uttermost — forever — since he always lives to make intercession for us. In other words, he would not be able to save us forever if he did not go on interceding for us forever.

This means our salvation is as secure as Christ’s priesthood is indestructible. This is why we needed a priest so much greater than any human priest. Christ’s deity and his resurrection from the dead secure his indestructible priesthood for us.

This means we should not talk about our salvation in static terms the way we often do — as if I did something once in an act of decision, and Christ did something once when he died and rose again, and that’s all there is to it. That’s not all there is to it.

This very day I am being saved by the eternal intercession of Jesus in heaven. Jesus is praying for us and that is essential to our salvation.

We are saved eternally by the eternal prayers (Romans 8:34) and advocacy (1 John 2:1) of Jesus in heaven as our High Priest. He prays for us and his prayers are answered because he prays perfectly on the basis of his perfect sacrifice.

John Piper 

Jesus Prays for Us

He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

It says that Christ is able to save to the uttermost — forever — since he always lives to make intercession for us. In other words, he would not be able to save us forever if he did not go on interceding for us forever.

This means our salvation is as secure as Christ’s priesthood is indestructible. This is why we needed a priest so much greater than any human priest. Christ’s deity and his resurrection from the dead secure his indestructible priesthood for us.

This means we should not talk about our salvation in static terms the way we often do — as if I did something once in an act of decision, and Christ did something once when he died and rose again, and that’s all there is to it. That’s not all there is to it.

This very day I am being saved by the eternal intercession of Jesus in heaven. Jesus is praying for us and that is essential to our salvation.

We are saved eternally by the eternal prayers (Romans 8:34) and advocacy (1 John 2:1) of Jesus in heaven as our High Priest. He prays for us and his prayers are answered because he prays perfectly on the basis of his perfect sacrifice.

John Piper 

Jesus Is Who You’re Looking For

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20)

The last chapter of Matthew is a window that opens onto the sunrise glory of the risen Christ. Through it you can see at least three massive peaks in the mountain range of Christ’s character: the peak of his power; the peak of his kindness; and the peak of his purposefulness.

All authority is his — the right and the power to do his will. And he uses this power to pursue his unwavering purpose to make disciples from all the nations. And in the process he is personally kind to us, promising to be with us to the end.

We all know in our hearts that if the risen Christ is going to satisfy our desire to admire greatness, that is the way he has to be. Great in power. Great in kindness. Great in purposefulness.

People who are too weak to accomplish their purposes can’t satisfy our desire to admire greatness. We admire people even less who have no purpose in life. And still less those whose purposes are merely selfish and unkind.

What we long to see and know is a Person whose power is unlimited, whose kindness is tender, and whose purpose is single and unflinching.

Novelists and poets and movie-makers and TV writers now and then create a shadow of this Person. But they can no more fill our longing to worship than this month’s National Geographic can satisfy my longing for the Grand Canyon.

We must have the real thing. We must see the Original of all power and kindness and purposefulness. We must see and worship the risen Christ.

John Piper 

Do You Understand Jesus’ Authority?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Luke 10:19

 

PONDER THIS

Jesus said, “Behold, I give you the authority … over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). 2 Peter 1:3 says that He has given to us, “all things that pertain to life and godliness” according to His divine power. That is where our authority is found; not in ourselves, but in the divine power of Jesus.

And He has promised that one day the lion and the lamb will lie down together. One day, the desert will blossom as a rose. One day, the Earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as waters that cover the sea! But Hebrews tells us not yet. Still, in the meantime, we are not Satan’s lackeys. We are not slaves of sin. Satan has no authority, sin has no allurement, and temptation has no power that the child of God cannot overcome with kingdom authority. That’s the scope of the authority we have been given. If we do not understand this authority, we will never live according to it.

How often do you recognize the authority you have been given through Christ?

How does this authority inform the way you live on a daily basis?

PRACTICE THIS

Where is a situation that you feel hopeless or ruled over by the power of Satan? How might you proclaim the authority of Jesus over that situation today or this week?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus Has Ultimate Authority

PRAY OVER THIS

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.”

Ephesians 2:1-2

 

PONDER THIS

When Satan tempted Jesus, he tempted Jesus to worship him. Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of this world—the glory, the power, the splendor of those kingdoms—and then this is what Satan had the audacity to say to the Son of God: “And the devil said unto him, all this power will I give thee and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it” (Luke 4:6, KJV).

Now, Jesus didn’t contradict him. Jesus did not deny what he had said. Satan said, “Jesus, if you worship me, I will give you the power, the glory, the authority of this world.” Because it had been delivered to him. God gave it to Adam. Adam delivered it to Satan and Satan said, “I’ll give it to you Jesus, if you’ll just worship me.” It was graciously given by God to man. It was legally lost by man through sin. As a result, man is spiritually dead and spiritually dethroned. Legally man has lost the kingdom authority that was given to him.

How has your life changed since coming to know Christ? How were you dead in trespasses and sins?

What did Jesus do to defeat Satan and gain back what man had lost?

PRACTICE THIS

Today, read Luke 4:1-13 to be reminded of how Jesus succeeded where Adam had failed when tempted by Satan.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Do You Believe Jesus Was Born a King?

BIBLE MEDITATION

“...and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Isaiah 9:6b

 

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

Jesus was born a king. Verse 6 says “…the government will be upon His shoulder.” In verse 7, this is fleshed out.

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever…

How is this going to happen? The rest of verse 7: “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” This little baby was born a king and He is a King.

We didn’t elect Him, and friend, we’ll not impeach Him. He is King. He is Lord.

ACTION POINT

God has already declared Jesus Lord. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. If you miss that, you miss the meaning of Christmas. Take the cradle, the cross, and the crown together. Make Him Lord of your life. Without that, you don’t have the true story of Christmas.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Best Passage Ever

God put [Jesus] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25–26)

Romans 3:25–26 may be the most important verses in the Bible.

God is wholly just! And he justifies the ungodly! Really? A just judge acquitting the guilty!

Not either/or! Both! He acquits the guilty, but is not guilty in doing so. This is the greatest news in the world!

“[God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He takes our sin. We take his righteousness.

“By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Whose flesh? Christ’s. Whose sin condemned in that flesh? Ours. For us then? No condemnation!

“[Christ] bore our sins in his body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24)

“Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)

“If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5)

If the most terrifying news in the world is that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out his wrath on our sin . . .

. . . Then the best news in all the world (the gospel!) is that God has decreed and enacted a way of salvation that also upholds the worth of his glory, the honor of his Son, and the eternal salvation of his elect. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

John Piper 

Satan Cannot Snatch You

BIBLE MEDITATION

“My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are One.” John 10:29-30

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

When discussing the issue of whether or not you can lose your salvation, I hear people use an interesting argument. They will say,

“Well, you know, I don’t think I believe in the security of the believer. I just believe that the devil could take you out of God’s hands,” and they use this verse as a “proof-text.” They say, “Jesus said no person could snatch them out of God’s hand, but it doesn’t say that the devil couldn’t. He hasn’t taken me out, but I believe he could. He could snatch you out of God’s hand, and you’d be lost.

Now that is a strange doctrine, isn’t it? They give Satan so much credit.

Think about it. If Satan could snatch you away, then why hasn’t he? And if he could snatch one of us, why hasn’t he snatched all of us? If he hasn’t, then hasn’t he been good to you? You are going to Heaven by the goodness of the devil!

Don’t you think that if he could, he would? The only reason he hasn’t is that he can’t. “No one” in this verse is pretty clear. No one can pluck you out of the Father’s hand.

ACTION POINT

Read Romans 8:38-39 and underline in your Bible the words “angels” and “any other created thing.” Meditate on what this means for you: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Now Is Not the Time to Sleep

BIBLE MEDITATION

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

We are in a great spiritual struggle. Right now we see colossal forces colliding, and this is no time to be asleep.

Dr. James Dobson shared this true story about a missionary in the jungle. One day the missionary entered his hut, and a gigantic snake, one of those that can swallow a whole pig, was inside. He went out to his truck and got his revolver. He only had one shell. He went in and carefully aimed at the head of that monstrous snake and pulled the trigger. The snake was mortally wounded, but he didn’t die right away. He began to writhe and thrash around, his tail going this way and that. He literally tore up everything in that hut as he was dying.

I want to tell you something: Jesus at Calvary put a bullet right in Satan’s head. And what we’re seeing now are the death throes of one who has been mortally wounded by the cross of Jesus Christ.

Friend, we’re in a battle. But it’s not that we’re going to win; we already have won. That old serpent can twist and writhe but thank God, we’re on the winning team. Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). “In heaven” means “in the heavenlies” where the battle is. He has unlimited authority in every realm and over principalities and powers and demons.

ACTION POINT

Understand this: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). We’re up against demonized, mobilized, powers of hell. Understand your enemy. Exercise your spiritual authority.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Energy for Today’s To-Dos

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

God is the decisive worker here. Work out your own salvation . . . for it is God who works in you, the willing and the working. God wills and he works for his good pleasure. But believing this does not make Christians passive. It makes them hopeful and energetic and courageous.

Each day there is a work to be done in our special ministry. Paul commands us to work at doing it. But he tells us how to do it in the power that God supplies: believe him! Believe the promise that in this day God will be at work in you to will and work for his good pleasure.

It is God himself, graciously at work each moment, that brings the promise of future grace into our present experience. It is not the gratitude for past grace that Paul focuses on when explaining how we work out our salvation. I mention this simply because so many Christians, when asked what the motive is for obedience, will say gratitude. But that is not what Paul emphasizes when he talks about motive and power for our working. He focuses on faith in what God is yet to do, not just what he has done. Work out your salvation! Why? How? For there is fresh grace for every moment from God. He is at work in your willing and doing every time you will and do. Believe that for the challenges of the next hour and the next thousand years.

The power of future grace is the power of the living Christ — always there to work for us at every future moment that we enter. So when Paul describes the effect of the grace of God that was with him, he says, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience — by word and deed” (Romans 15:18).

Therefore, since he would not dare to speak of anything but what Christ accomplished through his ministry, and yet he did, in fact, speak of what grace accomplished through his ministry (1 Corinthians 15:10), this must mean that the power of grace is the power of Christ.

Which means that the power we need for the next five minutes and the next five decades of ministry is the future grace of the omnipotent Christ, who will always be there for us — ready to will and ready to work for his good pleasure.

John Piper 

What God Can Do

BIBLE MEDITATION

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” Proverbs 3:5-6

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT

A. C. Dickson, a fine expositor of the Word of God, once said:

When we depend upon organization, we get what organization can do.

When we depend upon education, we get what education can do.

When we depend on money, we get what money can do.

When we depend on singing and preaching, we get what singing and preaching can do.

But when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.

Oh, what this world needs is what God can do! What our cities need is what God can do! What your home needs is what God can do! What our churches need is what God can do!

ACTION POINT

Are you depending on what God can do? Are you depending on prayer?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Every Calvary Step Was Love

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16)

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love.

“When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was.

Look at what Jesus said just after that violent moment when Peter tried to cleave the skull of the servant, but only cut off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:52–54)

It is one thing to say that the details of Jesus’s death were predicted in the Old Testament. But it is much more to say that Jesus himself was making his choices precisely to see to it that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

That is what Jesus said he was doing in Matthew 26:54. “I could escape this misery, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

In other words, I am not choosing to take the way out that I could take, because I know the Scriptures. I know what must take place for my people to be saved. It is my choice to fulfill all that is predicted of me in the word of God. It is my choice — every step of the way — to love my people to the uttermost. And I want them to feel this. And be utterly secure and free and radically different from the world.

John Piper 

Confessing Jesus as Lord

Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

ACTS 2:36

Have you crowned Jesus as Lord in your personal and family life? Are you gladly, freely, and openly confessing Him as Lord? In Luke 2:10 the angel said that the announcement of Jesus’ birth was “good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.” God wants this message known around the world.

You see, the Lordship of Jesus is what separates the crowds at Christmas. Anybody can get sentimental about a little baby lying in a manger. Now make no mistake—I thank God for the “sweet little Jesus boy.” The Bible’s emphasis, however, is not on Jesus the infant, but on Jesus the Lord. Many of the same worldly people who stand around the manger this week singing Christmas carols will be drunkenly singing “Auld Lang Syne” in a few days at New Year’s Eve parties. They do not confess Jesus as Lord. 

In Bible times, to openly and boldly confess “Jesus is Lord” really meant something. For a Jew to say that Jesus was Lord meant that He was Jehovah God, the eternal, self-existing God of the Old Testament. The Jews held God’s name in such reverence that they would not even pronounce it. The scribes copying the Scriptures would pick up a new pen to write the word Lord. 

For a Jew to confess Jesus as Lord meant paying a price—being excluded from the nation of Israel. But this was the truth that Peter declared to Israel in his great message at Pentecost in Acts 2. He said, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus . . . both Lord and Christ” (v. 36).  Gentiles also had to pay a price for that confession, because it was deemed treason against Caesar to confess anyone else as Lord. It cost many early Christians persecution, and oftentimes death, to confess Jesus as Lord and Christ. 

I wonder at this Christmas season, is Jesus your Lord in this way? Do you see Him as God? Do you confess Him as Lord no matter what the cost may be? Jesus does not want prominence in your life; He deserves and demands preeminence. He is Lord!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Making It Real for His People

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood — the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20) — finally and decisively purchased and secured the fulfillment of God’s promises for us.

It means that God, according to the new covenant promises, brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.

And it means that God works this transformation in us through faith — faith in all that God is for us in Christ.

The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ.

The best place to see Christ working as the Mediator of the new covenant is in Hebrews 13:20–21:

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.

The words “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight” describe what happens when God writes the law on our hearts in accord with the new covenant. And the words “through Jesus Christ” describe Jesus as the Mediator of this glorious work of sovereign grace.

So, the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the Reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation and transformation under the tree, so to speak, for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts it in your heart and in your mind and gives you the seal of assurance that you are a child of God.

John Piper 

The Victory of Light

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

MATTHEW 2:13

 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. JOHN 1:5

Here is another truth about the light of Christmas that will bless you this Christmas season. It’s found in John 1:5, where the apostle writes, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” I want to talk with you today about the victory of the light. What does John mean when he says that the darkness could not understand or “comprehend” the light? This word has also been rendered “overcome,” “put out,” or “extinguish.” What John is talking about is the victory of light over darkness. 

All of history is really a battle between light and darkness. We see it even at the birth of Jesus in the account of King Herod’s murderous rampage against the baby boys in Bethlehem. The darkness attempted to extinguish God’s light. But who must win this battle? As surely as day follows night, it is clear that darkness has no power against light! As the hymn says, “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun / Does his successive journeys run.” 

If you’re in a dark room and you want to dispel the darkness, would you take the vacuum cleaner and vacuum the darkness out? Would you take a shovel and shovel it out? Of course not. All you have to do to conquer the darkness is turn on the light. When you do that, the darkness flees. It cannot stay. It is totally powerless against the light. 

The energy produced by our sun is beyond what we can imagine. On the brightest moonlit night, the light of the moon is only one-eight hundred thousandth as bright as the sunshine on an ordinary day. If you look directly into the sun, you will burn your eyes. Yet, for all of its incredible power, the sun is at best only a faint illustration of the Son of God in His brightness. No one can overcome or extinguish the Lord’s light! In Him there is victory, at Christmas and every other season of the year. Let’s release the light of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world this Christmas. Let’s bear witness to the Light!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers