Ep12. Good News of Great Joy by John Piper
In this twelfth episode, we chat through an advent devotional by John Piper: Good News for Great Joy
In this devotional, Piper builds up to Christmas with 25 devotional reflections, each with one express purpose: to kindle affection for Christ this Christmas. Piper reflects on an array of themes from sin and freedom to God's sovereignty and humiliation. These 25 reflections certainly have had the ability to achieve their intended purpose for us this Christmas.
In this episode, we discuss the benefit of following the church calendar, the hopefulness of Jesus' birth, Jesus' humiliation displayed at his birth and the danger of being indifferent to the Christmas story.
Quotes
"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."
“Suppose you and your mom get separated in the grocery store, and you start to get scared and panic and don’t know which way to go, and you run to the end of an aisle, and just before you start to cry, you see a shadow on the floor at the end of the aisle that looks just like your mom. It makes you really hopeful. But which is better? The hopefulness of seeing the shadow, or having your mom actually step around the corner?
That’s the way it is when Jesus comes to be our high priest. That’s what Christmas is. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing: Mom stepping around the corner of the aisle and all the relief and joy that gives to a little child.”
“Christmas is for freedom—freedom from the fear of death. Jesus took our nature in Bethlehem to die our death in Jerusalem—all that we might be fearless in our city today.”