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 

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 

Christmas Solidarity

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 laughingstock 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 trustworthy and deserving 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 is also 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 walkout.

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. We won’t be a part of making it anymore.

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 anymore.

If you want to give a gift to God this Christmas, walk off the assembly line of sin and don’t 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.

John Piper 

Jesus is Savior and Lord

For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

LUKE 2:11

The Lordship of Jesus Christ is of paramount importance to you and your loved ones. No matter where you turn in the New Testament, you are confronted with the indisputable fact that Jesus is Lord. If I had only one statement I could make to the world at this Christmas season, only one sentence I could utter, it would be the confession: “Jesus is Lord.” Look how we are confronted with Jesus’ Lordship at the first Christmas. The angel announced to the shepherds that the One born in Bethlehem was the Savior, “who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). 

We see two things in this glorious verse. First, we see the Christmas provision. This provision is a Savior. It has been well said that if our greatest need had been information, our Creator would have sent an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, we would have been given an economist. But as our greatest needs were salvation and forgiveness, God sent a Savior! That’s the Christmas provision. 

Notice also the Christmas profession, which is the profession that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Now I dare say that many people say they believe in Christ’s Lordship. But not everyone who says they believe Jesus is Lord is living in the light of that truth. 

The question is whether or not we have crowned Him Lord. Is Jesus Lord of all you are, all you have, and all you do? Is He the Lord of your tongue? Is He the Lord of your thoughts? Is He the Lord of your time? Is He the Lord of your temper? Is He the Lord of your treasure? 

The angel’s declaration on that Christmas night is one we all have to recognize and deal with. The Christ of Christmas is Lord of all creation and Lord of His people!

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Lamb in Victory and Majesty

. . . in the midst of the throne . . . stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, . . . Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

REVELATION 5:6 11–12

There are two more glimpses of Mary’s little Lamb I want to show you. The first one is the Lamb in victory. In Revelation chapter 5, the apostle John had a glimpse into glory. He saw the throne of God, and then he noticed, in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne, a book sealed with seven seals. This seven-sealed book is the title deed to the earth, the heavens, and the netherworld. It represents the right to rule. 

John saw that there was no one who could break the seals and open the book, and because of this he began to weep. One of the elders, however, said to him, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals” (v. 5). Now when John looked, he saw not a lion but a lamb (v. 6). The word used here for lamb is a special word, for it literally means “little lamb,” that is, a pet lamb. This is Mary’s little Lamb. What an amazing picture of the glorified Jesus! 

John also saw a slain Lamb (v. 6), bearing the marks of the nails with which He was crucified. He will bear these marks forever. When we go to heaven, we will see those nail prints in His hands. Jesus is not only a small Lamb and a slain Lamb, He is also a standing Lamb (v. 6). He laid down in death in a grave, but the grave could not hold Him. He stood up in resurrection, and He is standing in heaven today, making intercession for us. 

This Lamb is also strong. He has “seven horns.” In the Bible, horns are emblematic of power. This Lamb is omnipotent. He is also a searching Lamb, having “seven eyes” that speak of omniscience. And then Jesus is the sovereign Lamb. Verse 7 says that He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. He alone is worthy to open it. This is the Lamb in victory. The second glimpse I want to show you is of the Lamb in majesty (Revelation 5:8-14). 

The song of the glorious heavenly beings is offered to Mary’s little Lamb. Join me this Christmas season in saying with the heavenly hosts, “Worthy is the Lamb—exclusively, exceedingly, eternally worthy!”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Christmas Is for Freedom

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

No wonder Satan tried to turn Jesus from the cross — in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11) and in the mouth of Peter (Matthew 16:21–23)! The cross was Satan’s destruction. How did Jesus destroy him?

Hebrews 2:14 says that Satan has “the power of death.” That means Satan has 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 dreadful 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. How did he do this?

By his death, Jesus wiped away all our sins. And a person without sin cannot be condemned by Satan. Forgiven, we are finally indestructible. Satan’s plan was to destroy God’s rule by condemning God’s followers in God’s own courtroom. But now, in Christ, there is no condemnation. Satan’s 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 — all that we might be fearless in our city today. 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 (really!), “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 enslavement to anxiety.

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

John Piper 

The Christmas Model for Missions

“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 also. 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 the missionary Francis Xavier (1506–1552), wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Malaysia) 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 not death but to distrust the mercy of God. If that danger is avoided, then all other dangers lose their sting.

In the end 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 this danger — the danger of distrusting God. Therefore God has highly exalted him! As he, so you.

Remember this Advent that Christmas is a model for missions. As I, so you. And that mission means danger. And 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.

John Piper