Expectant Life

And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus . . . he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation.”

LUKE 2:25–30

Birthdays are a time of celebration. Yet if it were not for the birthday of our King, what would every other birthday mean? It could only mean that we are one year nearer death and judgment. Because of Christmas, we can live the abundant life of anticipation and expectation. 

Today’s Scripture tells of Simeon, a name that means “listening one.” Simeon was anticipating the first coming of Jesus. The Christ of Christmas is coming again. As Simeon prepared for His first coming, we should prepare for His glorious Second Coming. Many devout men of God believe that Christ again is at the door. Joseph and Mary brought the baby Jesus to the temple. Simeon took that little baby in his arms, held Him close to his heart, and I imagine him declaring, “Now I am ready to die. I am completely satisfied. My heart is at rest.” Simeon proclaimed some things about Jesus that need to be proclaimed clearly today. 

He is the Christ of deliverance. “My eyes have seen Your salvation” (Luke 2:30). No one really is ready for Christmas, much less His Second Coming, unless they have received this glorious salvation. 

He is the Christ of delight. He is “a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32). There is now no need to stumble in darkness when we can walk in the glorious light of Christmas. 

He is the Christ of derision. Christ is “a sign which will be spoken against” (Luke 2:34). Not all will love Jesus. He is called mad, devil possessed, a winebibber and glutton, a blasphemer. If the gospel is not spoken against, it is not the Bible gospel that is being presented. 

He is the Christ of division. “A sword will pierce through your own soul also” (Luke 2:35). Jesus sends a sword that divides. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). He brings a new nature that conflicts with our old nature. 

He is the Christ of destiny. “This child is destined for the fall and rising of many” (Luke 2:34). Jesus is a stone of stumbling or a sure foundation upon which we build. In the Christ Who came, we are ready for the Christ Who is coming again. We have expectant life.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

A Horrible Destiny

. . . Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)

Do you remember the time you were lost as a child, or slipping over a precipice, or about to drown? Then suddenly you were rescued. You held on for “dear life.” You trembled for what you almost lost. You were happy. Oh, so happy, and thankful. And you trembled with joy.

That’s the way I feel at the end of the year about my rescue from God’s wrath. All day Christmas we had a fire in the fireplace. Sometimes the coals were so hot that when I stoked it my hand hurt. I pulled back and shuddered at the horrendous thought of the wrath of God against sin in hell. Oh, how unspeakably horrible that will be!

Christmas afternoon I visited a woman who had been burned over 87 percent of her body. She has been in the hospital since August. My heart broke for her. How wonderful it was to hold out hope to her from God’s word for a new body in the age to come! But I came away not only thinking about her pain in this life, but also about the everlasting pain I have been saved from through Jesus.

Test my experience with me. Is this trembling joy a fitting way to end the year? Paul was glad that “Jesus . . . delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). He warned that “for those who . . . do not obey the truth . . . there will be wrath and fury” (Romans 2:8). And “because of [sexual immorality, impurity, and covetousness] the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6).

Here at the end of the year, I am finishing my trek through the Bible and reading the last book, Revelation. It is a glorious prophecy of the triumph of God, and the everlasting joy of all who “take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:17). No more tears, no more pain, no more depression, no more sorrow, no more death, no more sin (Revelation 21:4).

But oh, the horror of not repenting and not holding fast to the testimony of Jesus! The description of the wrath of God by the “apostle of love” (John) is terrifying. Those who spurn God’s love will “drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night” (Revelation 14:10–11).

“And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Jesus will “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Revelation 19:15). And blood will flow “from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 184 miles” (Revelation 14:20). Whatever that vision signifies, it is meant to communicate something unspeakably terrible.

I tremble with joy that I am saved! But oh, the holy wrath of God is a horrible destiny. Flee this, brothers and sisters. Flee this with all your might. And let us save as many as we can! No wonder there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous (Luke 15:7)!

John Piper 

Empowered Life

I . . . 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, . . . that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, . . .

EPHESIANS 1:15–19

The power locked up in an atomic particle waiting to be released through nuclear fission is incredible. When the atom is split, it releases power in a ratio of one to six million. This power is insignificant, however, when compared to the power wrapped up in a seemingly helpless baby lying on the straw in a cattle barn. Jesus came to earth that first Christmas to cause a release of spiritual energy that would shake universes. 

Paul wanted the saints at Ephesus to open their spiritual eyes to this power that was inherently theirs through the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Savior. The abundant life that Jesus offers brings with it abundant power. God made the first Adam and gave to him incredible power and authority (Genesis 1:26). Adam was to have dominion over all the earth. He was to be king of the earth. 

The tragedy is that the first Adam “blew it.” He gave his power and authority over to Satan. No doubt about it—Satan was a con artist who deceived Adam. Nonetheless, faithless and disobedient Adam yielded his authority to Satan and became Satan’s slave. The authority that God had graciously given to the human race was now legally lost. Here is the reason God was born a man at Christmas. Dominion was graciously given, and then legally lost. Now it must be righteously regained. The authority was given at first to a man. It was lost by a man. It had to be regained by a Man. 

Jesus became a man and took flesh and blood so “that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). Satan is now a defeated foe. God did not defeat him as God but rather defeated him as Holy Man. That Man is the Christ of Christmas. Dominion was legally lost by a man; it has been righteously regained by the God Man. Now through the miracle of abundant life that same incredible power that Jesus displayed when He arose triumphant from the grave has been graciously given to a new race of creatures—the twice born.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Glory Is the Goal

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:2)

Seeing the glory of God is our ultimate hope. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). God will “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24).

He will “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). He “calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). “Our blessed hope [is] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Jesus, in all his person and work, is the incarnation and ultimate revelation of the glory of God. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “Father, I desire that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory” Jesus prays in John 17:24.

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

“We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7). “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

Seeing and sharing in God’s glory is our ultimate hope through the gospel of Christ.

Such a hope, that is really known and treasured, has a huge and decisive effect on our present values and choices and actions.

Get to know the glory of God. Study the glory of God and the glory of Christ. Study the glory of the world that reveals the glory of God, and the glory of the gospel that reveals the glory of Christ.

Treasure the glory of God in all things and above all things.

Study your soul. Know the glory you are seduced by, and know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory.

Study your own soul to know how to make the glories of the world collapse like the pagan idol Dagon in 1 Samuel 5:4. Let all glories that distract you from the glory of God shatter in pitiful pieces on the floor of the world’s temples. Treasure the glory of God above all this world.

John Piper 

Enriched Life

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

JOHN 10:10

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 CORINTHIANS 8:9

Jesus came that we might have abundant life. There is a vast difference between mere existence and abundant life. Every soul made in the image of God will exist forever. The human personality could no more cease to exist than God Himself could cease to exist. There was a time when you did not exist. There never will be a time, however, when you will cease to be. The human personality will go on—endless, timeless, dateless through all eternity.

While we have existence with our first (physical) birth, we have abundant life through our second (spiritual) birth.

 It is this abundant life that we all desperately need. There are some who think they want to live forever who do not even know what to do on a rainy afternoon. Jesus came not necessarily to add years to our lives, but to add life to our years. Some college students were asked to define life for the school paper. Here are some definitions that won honorable mention: 

“Life is a jail sentence that we get for the crime of being born.”

“Life is a disease for which the only cure is death.”

“Life is a joke that isn’t even funny.”

These young people were privileged enough to be in college, and supposedly they have fine minds. Nonetheless, they have gotten it backward. The Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ became poor that we might become rich. Our dear Savior left the splendors of heaven and was born into deep poverty. Heaven’s King was born in a barn—a Monarch in a manger. When He came into Jerusalem in what is known as His triumphant entry, He came riding on a borrowed donkey; and when He was buried, He was laid away in a borrowed tomb. Yet it is through His poverty that we have this abundant life. 

Christmas means a life abundantly rich. We are not talking about the gospel of cash and Cadillacs with the key to Fort Knox. We are talking about true riches. We are sons and daughters of God. We are kings and priests unto God. We possess all things that pertain to life and godliness. To understand how rich Christmas has made you, add up everything you have in Christ that money cannot buy and death cannot take away.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

What Is Your Aim?

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. . . . And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17)

When you get up in the morning and you face the day, what do you say to yourself about your hopes for the day? When you look from the beginning of the day to the end of the day, what do you want to happen because you have lived?

If you say, “I don’t even think like that. I just get up and do what I’ve got to do,” then you are cutting yourself off from a basic means of grace and a source of guidance and strength and fruitfulness and joy. It is crystal clear in the Bible, including these texts, that God means for us to aim consciously at something significant in our days.

God’s revealed will for you is that when you get up in the morning, you don’t drift aimlessly through the day letting mere circumstances alone dictate what you do, but that you aim at something — that you focus on a certain kind of purpose. I’m talking about children here, and teenagers, and adults — single, married, widowed, moms, and every trade and every profession.

Aimlessness is akin to lifelessness. Dead leaves in the back yard may move around more than anything else — more than the dog, more than the children. The wind blows this way, they go this way. The wind blows that way, they go that way. They tumble, they bounce, they skip, they press against a fence, but they have no aim whatsoever. They are full of motion and empty of life.

God did not create humans in his image to be aimless, like lifeless leaves blown around in the backyard of life. He created us to be purposeful — to have a focus and an aim for all our days. What is yours today? What is yours for the new year? A good place to start is 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

John Piper 

Eternal Life

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

ISAIAH 7:14

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. JOHN 3:16

Jesus did not come into this world at Christmastime to make us nice people. He came to make us new creatures. He was born of a virgin so that we might be born again. He became the Son of Man so that we might become the sons and daughters of God. Our Lord came to earth in order for us to go to heaven. The Savior laid down His life to give us eternal life. 

The birth of Jesus is a foundation stone of this world’s redemption. It is not incidental but fundamental to our faith. Without the virgin birth, our faith would collapse like the proverbial house built on the sand. We must remember that God cannot merely overlook our sin and call it mercy. If He did so, He would cease to be a holy God. God’s holiness demands that all sin must be punished. If a judge knowingly acquits a guilty man, the judge himself is condemned. God’s holiness demands that there must be a full payment for sin. 

This full payment was made by the substitutionary death of the virgin-born Son of God. He had to be a man in order to die for our sins, but He had to be sinless in order to pay the sin debt. By means of both the cradle and the cross, God is now just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus.

Remember:

He came as He did—virgin born—

To be what He was—the God man.

He was what He was, to do what He did—die as a substitute.

He did what He did, to change what we were—lost sinners.

He changed what we were, to make us what we are—new

creatures.

LWF Dr Adrian Rogers