December 4

John 15:1-8

[1] “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. [2] Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. [3] Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. [4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. [5] I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. [7] If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. [8] By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Revelation 2:18-29

[18] “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

[19] “‘I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. [20] But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. [21] I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. [22] Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, [23] and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. [24] But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. [25] Only hold fast what you have until I come. [26] The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, [27] and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father. [28] And I will give him the morning star. [29] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

Job 27

[1] And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

    [2] “As God lives, who has taken away my right,

        and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, 

    [3] as long as my breath is in me,

        and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, 

    [4] my lips will not speak falsehood,

        and my tongue will not utter deceit. 

    [5] Far be it from me to say that you are right;

        till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. 

    [6] I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;

        my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

    [7] “Let my enemy be as the wicked,

        and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. 

    [8] For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off,

        when God takes away his life? 

    [9] Will God hear his cry

        when distress comes upon him? 

    [10] Will he take delight in the Almighty?

        Will he call upon God at all times? 

    [11] I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

        what is with the Almighty I will not conceal. 

    [12] Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

        why then have you become altogether vain?

    [13] “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,

        and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty: 

    [14] If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,

        and his descendants have not enough bread. 

    [15] Those who survive him the pestilence buries,

        and his widows do not weep. 

    [16] Though he heap up silver like dust,

        and pile up clothing like clay, 

    [17] he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it,

        and the innocent will divide the silver. 

    [18] He builds his house like a moth’s,

        like a booth that a watchman makes. 

    [19] He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;

        he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone. 

    [20] Terrors overtake him like a flood;

        in the night a whirlwind carries him off. 

    [21] The east wind lifts him up and he is gone;

        it sweeps him out of his place. 

    [22] It hurls at him without pity;

        he flees from its power in headlong flight. 

    [23] It claps its hands at him

        and hisses at him from its place.

Hosea 9

    [1] Rejoice not, O Israel!

        Exult not like the peoples;

    for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.

        You have loved a prostitute’s wages

        on all threshing floors. 

    [2] Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,

        and the new wine shall fail them. 

    [3] They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,

        but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

        and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

    [4] They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,

        and their sacrifices shall not please him.

    It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;

        all who eat of it shall be defiled;

    for their bread shall be for their hunger only;

        it shall not come to the house of the LORD.

    [5] What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,

        and on the day of the feast of the LORD? 

    [6] For behold, they are going away from destruction;

        but Egypt shall gather them;

        Memphis shall bury them.

    Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;

        thorns shall be in their tents.

    [7] The days of punishment have come;

        the days of recompense have come;

        Israel shall know it.

    The prophet is a fool;

        the man of the spirit is mad,

    because of your great iniquity

        and great hatred. 

    [8] The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;

    yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

        and hatred in the house of his God. 

    [9] They have deeply corrupted themselves

        as in the days of Gibeah:

    he will remember their iniquity;

        he will punish their sins.

    [10] Like grapes in the wilderness,

        I found Israel.

    Like the first fruit on the fig tree

        in its first season,

        I saw your fathers.

    But they came to Baal-peor

        and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

        and became detestable like the thing they loved. 

    [11] Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—

        no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! 

    [12] Even if they bring up children,

        I will bereave them till none is left.

    Woe to them

        when I depart from them! 

    [13] Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;

        but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. 

    [14] Give them, O LORD—

        what will you give?

    Give them a miscarrying womb

        and dry breasts.

    [15] Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;

        there I began to hate them.

    Because of the wickedness of their deeds

        I will drive them out of my house.

    I will love them no more;

        all their princes are rebels.

    [16] Ephraim is stricken;

        their root is dried up;

        they shall bear no fruit.

    Even though they give birth,

        I will put their beloved children to death. 

    [17] My God will reject them

        because they have not listened to him;

        they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Hosea 10

    [1] Israel is a luxuriant vine

        that yields its fruit.

    The more his fruit increased,

        the more altars he built;

    as his country improved,

        he improved his pillars. 

    [2] 

    Their heart is false;

        now they must bear their guilt.

    The LORD will break down their altars

        and destroy their pillars.

    [3] 

    For now they will say:

        “We have no king,

    for we do not fear the LORD;

        and a king—what could he do for us?” 

    [4] 

    They utter mere words;

        with empty oaths they make covenants;

    so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds

        in the furrows of the field. 

    [5] 

    The inhabitants of Samaria tremble

        for the calf of Beth-aven.

    Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—

        those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—

        for it has departed from them. 

    [6] 

    The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria

        as tribute to the great king.

    Ephraim shall be put to shame,

        and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.

    [7] 

    Samaria’s king shall perish

        like a twig on the face of the waters. 

    [8] 

    The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,

        shall be destroyed.

    Thorn and thistle shall grow up

        on their altars,

    and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”

        and to the hills, “Fall on us.”

    [9] 

    From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;

        there they have continued.

        Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah? 

    [10] 

    When I please, I will discipline them,

        and nations shall be gathered against them

        when they are bound up for their double iniquity.

    [11] 

    Ephraim was a trained calf

        that loved to thresh,

        and I spared her fair neck;

    but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;

        Judah must plow;

        Jacob must harrow for himself. 

    [12] 

    Sow for yourselves righteousness;

        reap steadfast love;

        break up your fallow ground,

    for it is the time to seek the LORD,

        that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

    [13] 

    You have plowed iniquity;

        you have reaped injustice;

        you have eaten the fruit of lies.

    Because you have trusted in your own way

        and in the multitude of your warriors, 

    [14] 

    therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,

        and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

    as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;

        mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. 

    [15] 

    Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,

        because of your great evil.

    At dawn the king of Israel

        shall be utterly cut off.

Hosea 11

    [1] When Israel was a child, I loved him,

        and out of Egypt I called my son. 

    [2] The more they were called,

        the more they went away;

    they kept sacrificing to the Baals

        and burning offerings to idols.

    [3] Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;

        I took them up by their arms,

        but they did not know that I healed them. 

    [4] I led them with cords of kindness,

        with the bands of love,

    and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,

        and I bent down to them and fed them.

    [5] They shall not return to the land of Egypt,

        but Assyria shall be their king,

        because they have refused to return to me. 

    [6] The sword shall rage against their cities,

        consume the bars of their gates,

        and devour them because of their own counsels. 

    [7] My people are bent on turning away from me,

        and though they call out to the Most High,

        he shall not raise them up at all.

    [8] How can I give you up, O Ephraim?

        How can I hand you over, O Israel?

    How can I make you like Admah?

        How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

    My heart recoils within me;

        my compassion grows warm and tender. 

    [9] I will not execute my burning anger;

        I will not again destroy Ephraim;

    for I am God and not a man,

        the Holy One in your midst,

        and I will not come in wrath.

    [10] They shall go after the LORD;

        he will roar like a lion;

    when he roars,

        his children shall come trembling from the west; 

    [11] they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,

        and like doves from the land of Assyria,

        and I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD. 

    [12]  Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,

        and the house of Israel with deceit,

    but Judah still walks with God

        and is faithful to the Holy One.

Hosea 12

    [1] Ephraim feeds on the wind

        and pursues the east wind all day long;

    they multiply falsehood and violence;

        they make a covenant with Assyria,

        and oil is carried to Egypt.

    [2] The LORD has an indictment against Judah

        and will punish Jacob according to his ways;

        he will repay him according to his deeds. 

    [3] In the womb he took his brother by the heel,

        and in his manhood he strove with God. 

    [4] He strove with the angel and prevailed;

        he wept and sought his favor.

    He met God at Bethel,

        and there God spoke with us—

    [5] the LORD, the God of hosts,

        the LORD is his memorial name: 

    [6] “So you, by the help of your God, return,

        hold fast to love and justice,

        and wait continually for your God.”

    [7] A merchant, in whose hands are false balances,

        he loves to oppress. 

    [8] Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich;

        I have found wealth for myself;

    in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.” 

    [9] I am the LORD your God

        from the land of Egypt;

    I will again make you dwell in tents,

        as in the days of the appointed feast.

    [10] I spoke to the prophets;

        it was I who multiplied visions,

        and through the prophets gave parables. 

    [11] If there is iniquity in Gilead,

        they shall surely come to nothing:

    in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;

        their altars also are like stone heaps

        on the furrows of the field. 

    [12] Jacob fled to the land of Aram;

        there Israel served for a wife,

        and for a wife he guarded sheep. 

    [13] By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up from Egypt,

        and by a prophet he was guarded. 

    [14] Ephraim has given bitter provocation;

        so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him

        and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds.

For God’s Little People

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 5:2 shows); and that he so ordained things that when the time came, the Messiah’s mother and legal father were living not in Bethlehem but in Nazareth; and that in order to fulfill his word and bring two unheard-of, insignificant, 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? A decree for the entire world in order to move two people seventy miles!

Have you ever felt, like me, little and insignificant in a world of seven billion people, where all the news is about big political and economic and social movements and outstanding people with global significance and 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 fulfill his word and bless his children.

Do not think, because you experience adversity in your little world of experience, that the hand of the Lord is shortened. It is not our prosperity or our fame 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.” And he is always turning it for his saving and sanctifying and eternal purposes among his people.

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 and chiefs 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 — and then enter his eternal glory. 

John Piper 

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 

December 3

John 14:22-31

[22] Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” [23] Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. [24] Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

[25] “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. [26] But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. [27] Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [28] You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. [29] And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. [30] I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, [31] but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

Revelation 2:1-17

[1] “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

[2] “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. [3] I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. [4] But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. [5] Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. [6] Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. [7] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’

[8] “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.

[9] “‘I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. [10] Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. [11] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.’

[12] “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

[13] “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. [14] But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. [15] So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. [16] Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. [17] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

Job 25

[1] Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

    [2] “Dominion and fear are with God;

        he makes peace in his high heaven. 

    [3] Is there any number to his armies?

        Upon whom does his light not arise? 

    [4] How then can man be in the right before God?

        How can he who is born of woman be pure? 

    [5] Behold, even the moon is not bright,

        and the stars are not pure in his eyes; 

    [6] how much less man, who is a maggot,

        and the son of man, who is a worm!”

Job 26

[1] Then Job answered and said:

    [2] “How you have helped him who has no power!

        How you have saved the arm that has no strength! 

    [3] How you have counseled him who has no wisdom,

        and plentifully declared sound knowledge! 

    [4] With whose help have you uttered words,

        and whose breath has come out from you? 

    [5] The dead tremble

        under the waters and their inhabitants. 

    [6] Sheol is naked before God,

        and Abaddon has no covering. 

    [7] He stretches out the north over the void

        and hangs the earth on nothing. 

    [8] He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

        and the cloud is not split open under them. 

    [9] He covers the face of the full moon

        and spreads over it his cloud. 

    [10] He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters

        at the boundary between light and darkness. 

    [11] The pillars of heaven tremble

        and are astounded at his rebuke. 

    [12] By his power he stilled the sea;

        by his understanding he shattered Rahab. 

    [13] By his wind the heavens were made fair;

        his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. 

    [14] Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,

        and how small a whisper do we hear of him!

        But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

Hosea 7

    [1] when I would heal Israel,

        the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,

        and the evil deeds of Samaria,

    for they deal falsely;

        the thief breaks in,

        and the bandits raid outside. 

    [2] 

    But they do not consider

        that I remember all their evil.

    Now their deeds surround them;

        they are before my face. 

    [3] 

    By their evil they make the king glad,

        and the princes by their treachery. 

    [4] 

    They are all adulterers;

        they are like a heated oven

    whose baker ceases to stir the fire,

        from the kneading of the dough

        until it is leavened. 

    [5] 

    On the day of our king, the princes

        became sick with the heat of wine;

        he stretched out his hand with mockers. 

    [6] 

    For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;

        all night their anger smolders;

        in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. 

    [7] 

    All of them are hot as an oven,

        and they devour their rulers.

    All their kings have fallen,

        and none of them calls upon me.

    [8] 

    Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;

        Ephraim is a cake not turned. 

    [9] 

    Strangers devour his strength,

        and he knows it not;

    gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

        and he knows it not. 

    [10] 

    The pride of Israel testifies to his face;

        yet they do not return to the LORD their God,

        nor seek him, for all this.

    [11] 

    Ephraim is like a dove,

        silly and without sense,

        calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. 

    [12] 

    As they go, I will spread over them my net;

        I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;

        I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. 

    [13] 

    Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!

        Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

    I would redeem them,

        but they speak lies against me.

    [14] 

    They do not cry to me from the heart,

        but they wail upon their beds;

    for grain and wine they gash themselves;

        they rebel against me. 

    [15] 

    Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

        yet they devise evil against me. 

    [16] 

    They return, but not upward;

        they are like a treacherous bow;

    their princes shall fall by the sword

        because of the insolence of their tongue.

    This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 8

    [1] Set the trumpet to your lips!

        One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,

    because they have transgressed my covenant

        and rebelled against my law. 

    [2] To me they cry,

        “My God, we—Israel—know you.” 

    [3] Israel has spurned the good;

        the enemy shall pursue him.

    [4] They made kings, but not through me.

        They set up princes, but I knew it not.

    With their silver and gold they made idols

        for their own destruction. 

    [5] I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.

        My anger burns against them.

    How long will they be incapable of innocence? 

    [6] For it is from Israel;

    a craftsman made it;

        it is not God.

    The calf of Samaria

        shall be broken to pieces.

    [7] For they sow the wind,

        and they shall reap the whirlwind.

    The standing grain has no heads;

        it shall yield no flour;

    if it were to yield,

        strangers would devour it. 

    [8] Israel is swallowed up;

        already they are among the nations

        as a useless vessel. 

    [9] For they have gone up to Assyria,

        a wild donkey wandering alone;

        Ephraim has hired lovers. 

    [10] Though they hire allies among the nations,

        I will soon gather them up.

    And the king and princes shall soon writhe

        because of the tribute.

    [11] Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,

        they have become to him altars for sinning. 

    [12] Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

        they would be regarded as a strange thing. 

    [13] As for my sacrificial offerings,

        they sacrifice meat and eat it,

        but the LORD does not accept them.

    Now he will remember their iniquity

        and punish their sins;

        they shall return to Egypt. 

    [14] For Israel has forgotten his Maker

        and built palaces,

    and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

        so I will send a fire upon his cities,

        and it shall devour her strongholds.

The Long-Awaited Visitation

“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, Elizabeth’s husband, 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: “he has visited and redeemed his people.” 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!” (Luke 1:68).

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 that another old man, the devout Simeon, was “waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25). Likewise, the prayerful Anna was “waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38).

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

John Piper 

Authority is Linked to Obedience

“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” JOHN 17:4

 

PONDER THIS

We need to understand the relationship of Jesus Christ to the Church. Don’t think of the Church as a business with Jesus as the president. The Church is a body with Jesus as the Head. Do you see the difference? We are organically related to the Lord Jesus Christ. His life is in us. Our authority comes from Him. In the Great Commission, He said, “All authority is given unto Me! Go ye, therefore!” Essentially, He said, “Because I have this authority, I am now giving you the power of attorney to act for me.”

You cannot have authority over anything until you get under the authority that is over you. All authority is linked to obedience. Why would a person give you authority to act for Him when you’re disobedient to Him? That’s the reason Satan tried to get Adam to disobey.

Even Jesus was under authority. He not only showed us what God was to be like on Earth; He also showed us what Man was to be like on Earth. He was God, but He lived on Earth as a man subject to His Father.

How can you submit to God’s authority? What does it look like to live apart from God’s authority?

How does Jesus’ submission to God’s authority instruct you? How can you seek to live under the authority of God like Jesus did?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk with a friend about how Jesus lived under God’s authority and how that is challenging for you.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers