The Dawning of Indestructible Joy E-Book

John Piper

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Seitenzahl: 82

Beschreibung

Advent is for adoring Jesus. The Christmas season is one of the busiest times of year. But it's also a season of reflection and preparation for that special day when we mark Immanuel's coming—the arrival of our eternal God in our own frail humanity. This is the greatest of history's many wonders, something too stupendous to celebrate just on one day. Advent is a way of lengthening and intensifying the joy of Christmas. These 25 brief devotional readings from John Piper begin on December 1 and carry us to Christmas Day. Our hope is that God would use these meditations to deepen and sweeten your adoration of Jesus and help you keep him at the center of your Christmas season.

Leseprobe

The Dawning ofIndestructible Joy

DAILY READINGS FOR ADVENT

JOHN PIPER

The Dawning of Indestructible Joy: Daily Readings for Advent

Copyright © 2014 by Desiring God Foundation

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Erik Maldre

Cover image: The Bridgeman Art Library

First printing 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4236-7ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4239-8PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4237-4Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4238-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Piper, John, 1946-

    [Meditations. Selections]

    The Dawning of indestructible joy : daily readings for Advent / John Piper.

      1 online resource.

      Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

    ISBN 978-1-4335-4237-4 (pdf) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4238-1 (mobi) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4239-8 (epub) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4236-7 (tp)

    1. Advent—Meditations. 2. Bible. New Testament—Devotional use. I. Title.

BV40       2014

242'.332—dc23                                                  2014019365

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To Sam Storms, comrade in Christian Hedonism, precious friend for indestructible joy.

Contents

PrefaceIntroduction    Praying for Fullness This Christmas (John 1:14–16)December 1    The Search-and-Save Mission (Luke 19:10)December 2    Prepare Your Heart for Christ (John 5:44)December 3    Draw Near to the Savior (Heb. 13:20–21)December 4    What Advent Is All About (Mark 10:45)December 5    Why Christmas Happened (1 John 3:5, 8)December 6    God’s Passion for God at Christmas (John 12:27–28)December 7    He Comes to Bless Us (Acts 3:22–26)December 8    God Can Be Trusted (Acts 3:22–26)December 9    Why the Son of Man? (John 1:51)December 10   What Christmas Came to Destroy (1 John 3:8)December 11   The Celebration of God’s Love (John 3:16)December 12   The Glory of the Word Made Flesh (John 1:1)December 13   Christmas Cut History in Half (Acts 3:24)December 14   The Mercy He Promises (Rom. 15:8–9)December 15    Our Truest Treasure (Matt. 2:10)December 16   Freed to Be Part of God’s Family (Mark 10:45)December 17   He Came to Serve (Mark 10:44)December 18   Graciously and Tenderly Frustrating (Rom. 3:25–26)December 19   The Gift You Cannot Buy (Acts 17:24–25)December 20    Receive His Reconciliation (Rom. 5:11)December 21   Get Your Eyes Ready for Christmas (Matt. 16:15–17)December 22   Something Worth Singing About (Heb. 8:4–10)December 23   Our Deepest Need at Christmas (Mic. 5:4–5)December 24   Enjoy All the Promises of God (Mic. 5:2–4)December 25   Grace: The Dominant Note of Christmas (John 6:51)Conclusion      A Savior Is Born! God Gets the Glory, You Get the Peace (Luke 2:11–14)A Word of ThanksDesiring God: A Note on Resources

Preface

I feel like the apostle Peter at the end of his life, as he wrote his second letter. Twice he told his readers why he was writing to them. In the first chapter he said, “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder” (2 Pet. 1:13). Then, in the last chapter, he said it again: “I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder” (2 Pet. 3:1).

His aim was first to remind them. And then, by reminding them, to stir them up. That’s what this little book of Advent devotional readings is for—reminders and stirrings.

The Greek word for “stir up” is used most often for waking someone from sleep. That’s the way it’s used, for example, in Mark 4:39: “[Jesus] awoke and rebuked the wind.” Peter assumes that his Christian readers need to be wakened. I know I continually need awakening. Especially when Christmas approaches.

I am prone to be dull, spiritually drowsy, halfhearted, lukewarm. That is the way human beings are, including Christians, even about great things. Peter knows it and is writing to “awaken” or to “stir up” his readers so that they don’t just know but also feel the wonder of the truth.

That’s why I have written these devotions. What you and I need is usually not a brand-new teaching. Brand-new truths are probably not truths. What we need are reminders about the greatness of the old truths. We need someone to say an old truth in a fresh way. Or sometimes, just to say it.

What Peter really means, and what I mean, by being “awakened” or “stirred up” is to feel some measure of the joy God intends for Christmas to bring. “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). Not small joy. Not modest joy. But “great joy.” If we don’t feel this when we ponder the incarnation of the Son of God, we need “awakening.” We need to be “stirred up.”

I have called Christmas—and this little book—“the dawning of indestructible joy” because the joy Jesus was bringing into the world was like no other kind in history. Once we have it, it cannot be destroyed. Jesus said, “No one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22).

The joy that Jesus came to bring is from outside this world. It is the very joy that Jesus himself has in God the Father—which he has had from all eternity and will have forever. There is no greater joy than the joy that God has in God, because God is the greatest object of joy, and God has the greatest powers to enjoy.

Jesus said, “I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). His joy was the very joy of God. He promises to put that in us. That is what the Holy Spirit does. He pours out the love of God in our hearts (Rom. 5:5), and with it the joy of God in God. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy . . .” (Gal. 5:22). This is “great joy.” And it cannot be taken away. It is indestructible.

Ah, but it can go to sleep. That’s why Peter says, “I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder” (2 Pet. 1:13). Yes. It is very right. Because, oh, how wrong, how sad, when we stand before great wonders and feel nothing. It is right, therefore, that he write and I write to awaken and stir up our affections for the greatest wonder of all: the arrival and the work and the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in this world.

May the Spirit of God use these words to open your eyes afresh to the glories of Christ and give you a new taste of your indestructible joy.

INTRODUCTION

Praying for Fullness This Christmas

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

JOHN 1:14–16

It was a drenching moment for me that Advent. A man in our church had just prayed the words of John 1:14–16 in a pre-service prayer meeting. God granted me in that moment that the word “fullness” fill me. It was an extraordinary experience. There was a kind of Holy Spirit-soaking.

I felt some measure of what the word really carries—the fullness of Christ. I felt some of the wonder that I had indeed received grace upon grace from this fullness. And I was at that moment receiving grace upon grace. I felt right then that nothing would have been sweeter than to simply sit at his feet—or read my Bible—all afternoon and feel his fullness overflow.

Why did this fullness have such an impact on me—and why is it still to this moment affecting me unusually? In part because:

the One from whose fullness I am being drenched with grace is the Word that was with God and was God (John 1:1–2), so that his fullness is the fullness of God—a divine fullness, an infinite fullness;this Word became flesh and so was one of us and was pursuing us with his fullness—so it is an accessible fullness;when this Word appeared in human form, his glory was seen—his is a glorious fullness;this Word was “the only Son from the Father” so that the divine fullness was being mediated to me not just from God but through God—God did not send an angel but his only Son to deliver his fullness;the fullness of the Son is a fullness of grace—I will not drown in this fullness but be blessed in every way by this fullness;this fullness is not only a fullness of grace but also of truth—I am not being graced with truth-ignoring flattery; this grace is rooted in rock-solid reality.

As I savor this illumination of Christ’s fullness, I hear Paul say, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9). I hear him say, “In him all the fullness of God