The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. MALACHI 4:2 Starlight is the witness of God’s people in a Christ- rejecting world. But, one day, we will see the full light of the sun. A glorious day is coming. The Lord Jesus Christ will return in power and glory, and when He comes again, the whole world will be flooded with light. The dead will be raised. All that has been hidden in darkness will be exposed (1 Cor. 4:5). There will be a new heaven and a new earth, and God’s people...
Dec 30, 2023•2 min
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as [stars] in the world, holding fast to the word of life. PHILIPPIANS 2:14-16 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). He also said to His disciples, “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). And here in Philippians 2, we are told that Christian believers who hold fast to the word of life s...
Dec 29, 2023•2 min
Jesus spoke to them, saying,“I am the light of the world.” JOHN 8:12 The Old Testament era can be described as moonlight. But then Jesus came into the world, and the three years of our Lord’s public ministry can be described differently. Jesus was in the temple when He said, “I am the light of the world” (8:20). This took place either during or immediately after the Feast of Tabernacles. During the feast, four large lamps were lit in the temple courts. The whole area was bathed in light. D. A. C...
Dec 28, 2023•3 min
“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” JOHN 12:46 This is our sixth statement from Jesus about why He came into the world. The entire human story can be described in four stages, and in each of them, the light of Jesus shines in a different way. The Old Testament era, from creation to the birth of Jesus, could be described as moonlight. The moon does not have its own light, but during the night, the moon reflects the light of the sun. Je...
Dec 27, 2023•2 min
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you.” MATTTHEW 7:7 How are you going to live with the losses, difficulties, and disappointments of your life? Jesus came that you may have life—and have it abundantly. He came so that you would have all you need for all that you face in every season and circumstance of your life. Do not be satisfied with a small measure of life—a little faith, a little peace, a little joy. Jesus Christ has more to give than...
Dec 26, 2023•3 min
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” JOHN 10:10 Some people have twisted these words to mean: “Jesus came so that you can have everything your heart desires— health, wealth, and happiness.” But that is a complete misunderstanding of this verse. All believers experience trouble and loss. Jesus said that if we follow Him, we must be ready to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. So, what does an abundant Christian life look like? Here are seven things Jesus possesses and ...
Dec 25, 2023•4 min
“I came that they may have life.” JOHN 10:10 You may read these words of Jesus and think, “I already have a good life. I’m content and happy. I don’t need Jesus.” Yes, but your life is on loan from God, and what has been given to you can be taken away from you. For Jesus it is different. The apostle John made this remarkable statement about Him: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Life is in Jesus. He holds it as His own possession: “For as the Father has life in him...
Dec 24, 2023•3 min
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” JOHN 10:10 A thief will do whatever is necessary in order to get what he wants. A thief will take away what is yours and leave you with less than you had before. Perhaps your faith, hope, and love, which once seemed to burn brightly, are now like a flickering candle. Water has been poured on the flame of your joy, and you find yourself saying, “Something within me has died.” Here is a que...
Dec 23, 2023•3 min
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” JOHN 10:10 This is our fifth statement from Jesus about why He came into the world. Jesus Christ is not a thief. He did not come into the world to steal from you. He came into the world to give something to you. He did not come into the world so that you would have less. He came into the world so that you would have more. Picture your life as a house. Jesus is outside, knocking on the doo...
Dec 22, 2023•3 min
“Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” JOHN 6:40 Suppose this world was ruled by a dark power, and the planet was under the control of an enemy who sought your destruction. Further, suppose this enemy sent his evil son into the world to get his will done. There would be no Christmas. How could we celebrate the birth of the one who came to destroy us? Instead of four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John— sounding out the good news, you would have four alarm...
Dec 21, 2023•2 min
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” JOHN 6:40 Some people are strong-willed. Perhaps you are driven, determined, and persistent. Once you get hold of something, you won’t let go. But how strong is the will of Almighty God? When God determines to do something, nothing in heaven or on earth—or hell—can stop Him. Jesus is telling us what God has determined to do. God has the gift of eternal life, and He wants you to r...
Dec 20, 2023•3 min
“This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.” JOHN 6:39 In John 17:12, Jesus said that none of His people will be lost. But here in John 6, Jesus says that no part of you will be lost. What does that mean? Jesus is referring to the resurrection body. This is made clear when Jesus says that He will “raise it up on the last day.” When the moment of death comes, the soul is separated from the body. The body will be la...
Dec 19, 2023•3 min
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” JOHN 6:38 Jesus tells us that He came down from heaven. In other words, His life did not begin in the manger. Before He lay in the arms of Mary, He was at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. No prophet or religious leader could make the same claim. Heaven was and is His home. Why did Jesus come down from heaven? His mission was to get God’s will done, just as He taught His disciples to pray, “Your ...
Dec 18, 2023•3 min
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” JOHN 6:38 This is our fourth statement from Jesus about why He came into the world. What is God’s will for your life? What does God want you to do? What does God have in store for you? These are questions that every believer has asked. Much of God’s will is secret (Dt. 29:29). He leads us a step at a time, and we follow Him in discerning the path of wisdom. But here, Jesus gives us an inside look at God’s ...
Dec 17, 2023•3 min
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” LUKE 5:32 In those days, and today, there are three responses to Jesus. “I am too good to need repentance.” A Pharisee once prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11). Let’s assume that this man was living a good moral life. Are you sure that you have nothing to repent of? Nothing at all? Does your conscience never trouble you? Are you su...
Dec 16, 2023•3 min
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” LUKE 5:32 What is repentance? Is it beating up on yourself? If repentance is beating up on yourself for your failures, then why would Jesus say there is joy in heaven over a sinner who repents (Luke 15:7)? Why would heaven rejoice over people beating up on themselves? The repentance to which Jesus calls us is something to celebrate. That is why Levi’s first act of repentance is to hold a feast. “And Levi made him a great feast in...
Dec 15, 2023•3 min
And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. LUKE 5:28 How did Levi respond to Jesus’ call? He left everything. The other disciples were fishermen. When Jesus called them, they left their nets and followed Him. But they had a trade to return to if things didn’t work out. Levi was in a different position. The Romans would not have welcomed him back. This was an irreversible decision, and Levi made it. When you follow Jesus, you will have a new way of life. Jesus called Levi to a new and comp...
Dec 14, 2023•3 min
“Follow me.” LUKE 5:27 Why would Jesus choose a man like Levi to be His disciple? As a tax collector, Levi had baggage. Wasn’t it obvious that a man like this, who was known for his corruption and collaboration with Rome, would be a liability? The Pharisees grumbled, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” (Luke 5:30). The disciples were probably asking the same question. “Jesus, why don’t you stick with fishermen like us? We may not have a fancy education like Levi, but at l...
Dec 13, 2023•3 min
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” LUKE 5:32 This is our third statement from Jesus about why He came into the world. Luke records the story of Levi who became one of the twelve disciples: Jesus “went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth” (Luke 5:27). The fact that Levi was a tax collector tells us two things: First, Levi was brilliant—you had to be if you were a tax collector. He most likely spoke three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and ...
Dec 12, 2023•3 min
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” MATTHEW 10:32 God has fixed a day when Jesus will return as judge (Acts 17:31). He will say to some, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21). He will say to others, “I never knew you; depart from me” (Matt. 7:23). Whoever denies Him in this life, He also will deny before His Father in heaven. When ...
Dec 11, 2023•3 min
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” MATTHEW 10:37-38 Suppose your son or daughter puts pressure on you to stop following Jesus. Or your mother or father puts pressure on you to stop following Jesus. He or she is opposed to Jesus; you are for Him. You must decide. Will you listen to Jesus who says, “Follow Me,” or will you listen...
Dec 10, 2023•3 min
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. ISAIAH 2:4 God promised that one day there will be peace on earth— crime, violence, and wars will cease. A world of wars will give way to a world of love. That day will come. When? He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples. (Isa. 2:4) The Bible refers to this as the day of the Lord. So, when ...
Dec 09, 2023•3 min
“I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” MATTHEW 10:34 Jesus never endorsed or promoted violence. When Peter used his sword against the armed guard who came to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus healed the man and said, “No more of this!” (Luke 22:51). The gospel can never advance by violence or by conquest. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD” (Zech. 4:6). So, what did Jesus mean when He said that He came to bring a sword? Jesus had just warned His di...
Dec 08, 2023•3 min
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” MATTHEW 10:34 What an astonishing statement! This is our second direct, personal statement from Jesus about why He came into the world. What does it mean? Jesus, the master teacher, anticipates a common misunderstanding: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.” His point is that it would be entirely natural for those who believe in Jesus to think that He had come for the ...
Dec 07, 2023•3 min
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. ROMANS 8:3-4 If Jesus had not come into the world, all we would have is the law. And if all we had was the law, we could never be forgiven or changed. But God sent His Son into the world, “in...
Dec 06, 2023•3 min
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” MATTHEW 5:20 The scribes and Pharisees devoted their entire lives to the pursuit of righteousness. To follow the law was their vocation. So, how could our righteousness ever exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees? Jesus was scathing in His critique of the Pharisees because their “righteousness” was arrogant. The Pharisees liked to pray where they could be seen,...
Dec 05, 2023•3 min
“I have not come to abolish [the Law or the Prophets] but to fulfil them.” MATTHEW 5:17 Jesus came into the world to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and He did this in His death. The prophets had spoken of a suffering servant who would be “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5). And in the Psalms, David described the suffering of a man whose hands and feet would be pierced (22:16). He would be mocked (22:7). His bones would be pulled out of joint (22:14). H...
Dec 04, 2023•3 min
“I have not come to abolish [the Law or the Prophets] but to fulfil them.” MATTHEW 5:17 Jesus came into the world to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, and He did this in His birth and in His life. The prophets had spoken about the One who was to come, on whom the hope of the world depends. The prophet Isaiah said that a virgin would conceive and bear a son (Isa. 7:14), and when Mary bore Jesus, this prophecy was fulfilled. The prophet Micah said that the One who would rule and shepherd God’s peop...
Dec 03, 2023•3 min
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. MATTHEW 5:17 This is Jesus' first statement about why He came. A good teacher anticipates misunderstanding, and here, Jesus corrects a false assumption. Many people think the Bible says: 1) we are all sinners under the condemnation of God’s law; 2) Jesus came to pay the price of our sins; and 3) now we can get on with our lives much as we did before, but we must always remember ...
Dec 02, 2023•3 min
“I came that they may have life.” John 10:10 It will soon be Christmas when we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ. God came down from heaven and entered our world. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Why did Jesus come? The entire New Testament answers that question. Paul tells us that Jesus came to reconcile us to God: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Cor. 5:19). John tells us: “The Father has sent his Son ...
Dec 01, 2023•3 min
