Good News of Great Joy
John PiperSözler ve Alıntılar
his is God’s will for everybody in your office at work and in your classroom and in your neighborhood and in your home. As John 4:23 says, “The Father is seeking such people to worship him.” At the beginning of Matthew we still have a “come see” pattern. But at the end the pattern is “go tell.” The magi came and saw. We are to go and tell.
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:11–12). It was only to his disciples that Jesus said, “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” (John 14:27).
Oh, that God would make this sink in to our souls! Jesus made us (John 1:3) to see his glory.
Just before he goes to the cross, Jesus pleads his deepest desires with the Father: “Father, I desire [I desire!] that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory.”
…
I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them
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
…
. . . he himself likewise partook of the same things [flesh and blood] . . . T his means that Christ existed before the incarnation. He was spirit. He was the eternal Word. He was with God and was God (John 1:1; Colossians 2:9). But he took on flesh and blood, and clothed his deity with humanity. He became fully man and remained fully God. It is a great mystery in many ways. But it is at the heart of our faith—and what the Bible teaches.
God’s will was that though Christ was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. The “No Vacancy” signs over all the motels in Bethlehem were for your sake. “For your sake he became poor” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
And we must not forget that Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross” (Luke 9:23). We join him on the Calvary road and hear him say, “Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:20). To the one who calls out enthusiastically, “I will follow you wherever you go,” Jesus responds, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:57–58). Yes, God could have seen to it that Jesus have a room at his birth. But that would have been a detour off the Calvary road.