Good News of Great Joy E-Book

John Piper

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

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

25 Advent Readings by Pastor and Author John Piper Come, let us adore him. This beloved Advent refrain captures the heart of the season. Advent is for adoring Jesus. It is a season of preparation to ready our hearts for the glory of Christmas Day as we celebrate the coming of the eternal God in our frail humanity. These twenty-five short devotional readings from John Piper aim to help you keep Christ at the center of the Advent season.

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“Good News of Great Joy brings within our reach a fresh discovery of the glory of Christmas. What a relief for busy people like every one of us to sit down for 10 minutes each day in Advent and think about Jesus our Savior—and rest, rejoice, revive!”

Ray Ortlund, Pastor to Pastors, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee

“How can we experience Advent in a way that is advantageous to our souls after December 25? By beholding and enjoying the glory of God in the incarnate Christ, your Savior, your Lord, your brother, your friend. John Piper’s Good News of Great Joy takes you on an exploration of the good news of Christmas, inviting you to join him in wonder, awe, and a joy that surpasses holiday cheer. This book is about everlasting joy, and Piper will point you to it, to him, Jesus Christ.”

J. A. Medders, author, Humble Calvinism; Director of Assessment, Acts 29

“These Advent devotions from the pen of John Piper may be brief, but you will find in them the depth and richness of thought that Piper is well-known for. With a sense of joyful reverence, he holds us by the hand and takes us into the inner sanctuary of the incarnation. As we pause at the fountainhead of the Son born to us in Bethlehem, we are primed to appreciate even more the gushing floods of love in his mangled form on Calvary. If you want your Christmas season to be spiritually enriched, marinate it with thoughts from this book!”

Conrad Mbewe, Pastor, Kabwata Baptist Church, Lusaka, Zambia

“What a treasure chest of truth about Jesus! In these short, poignant devotions, John Piper lifts our gaze again and again to see Christmas as it really should be seen—as good news of great joy for you and for me. This book is an invitation to know the incarnate Son sent by the Father in the power of the Spirit.”

Abigail Dodds, author, (A)Typical Woman: Free, Whole, and Called in Christ

Good News of Great Joy

Other Books by John Piper

BattlingUnbelief

Bloodlines

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

Coronavirus and Christ

The Dangerous Duty of Delight

Desiring God

Does God Desire All to Be Saved?

Don’t Waste Your Life

Expository Exultation

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die

Finally Alive

Five Points

Future Grace

God Is the Gospel

God’s Passion for His Glory

A Godward Heart

A Godward Life

A Hunger for God

Lessons from a Hospital Bed

Let the Nations Be Glad!

A Peculiar Glory

The Pleasures of God

Providence

Reading the Bible Supernaturally

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

Spectacular Sins

A Sweet and Bitter Providence

Taste and See

Think

This Momentary Marriage

What Jesus Demands from the World

When I Don’t Desire God

Why I Love the Apostle Paul

Good News of Great Joy

25 Devotional Readings for Advent

John Piper

Good News of Great Joy: 25 Devotional Readings for Advent

Copyright © 2021 by Desiring God Foundation

Published by Crossway1300 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. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2021

Printed in China

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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

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

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-7323-1ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7326-2PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7324-8Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7325-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Piper, John, 1946- author.

Title: Good news of great joy : 25 devotional readings for Advent / John Piper.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020032499 (print) | LCCN 2020032500 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433573231 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433573248 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433573255 (mobipcket) | ISBN 9781433573262 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Advent—Meditations. | Bible. New Testament—Meditations.

Classification: LCC BV40 .P55 2021 (print) | LCC BV40 (ebook) | DDC

242/.332—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020032499

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-04-22 09:59:11 AM

Contents

Preface

Introduction: What Does Jesus Want This Christmas?

Day 1  Prepare the Way (Luke 1:16–17)

Day 2  Mary’s Magnificent God (Luke 1:46–55)

Day 3  The Long-Awaited Visitation (Luke 1:68–71)

Day 4  For God’s Little People (Luke 2:1–5)

Day 5  No Detour from Calvary (Luke 2:6–7)

Day 6  Peace to Those with Whom God Is Pleased (Luke 2:12–14)

Day 7  Messiah for the Magi (Matthew 2:1–2)

Day 8  Bethlehem’s Supernatural Star (Matthew 2:2)

Day 9  Two Kinds of Opposition to Jesus (Matthew 2:3)

Day 10  Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh (Matthew 2:10–11)

Day 11  Why Jesus Came (Hebrews 2:14–15)

Day 12  Replacing the Shadows (Hebrews 8:1–2)

Day 13  The Final Reality Is Here (Hebrews 8:1–2, 5)

Day 14  Making It Real for His People (Hebrews 8:6)

Day 15  Life and Death at Christmas (John 10:10)

Day 16  God’s Most Successful Setback (Philippians 2:9–11)

Day 17  The Greatest Salvation Imaginable (Jeremiah 31:31)

Day 18  The Christmas Model for Missions (John 17:18)

Day 19  Christmas Is for Freedom (Hebrews 2:14–15)

Day 20  Christmas Solidarity (1 John 3:8)

Day 21  The Birth of the Ancient of Days (John 18:37)

Day 22  That You May Believe (John 20:30–31)

Day 23  God’s Indescribable Gift (Romans 5:10–11)

Day 24  Two Purposes for Christmas (1 John 3:7–8)

Day 25  Three Christmas Presents (1 John 2:1–2; 3:7–8)

Conclusion: My Favorite Christmas Text

Appendix: Old Testament Shadows and the Coming of Christ

Scripture Index

Preface

Advent is for adoring Jesus. At least that’s our angle on it at Desiring God.

Advent is an annual season of patient waiting, hopeful expectation, soul searching, and calendar watching marked by many churches, Christian families, and individual followers of Jesus. There’s no biblical mandate to observe Advent. It is optional—a tradition that developed over the course of the church’s history as a time of preparation for Christmas Day. Many of us find observing Advent to be spiritually challenging, enjoyable, and beneficial.

The English word advent is from the Latin adventus, which means “coming.” The advent primarily in view each December is the first coming of Jesus two millennia ago. But Jesus’s second coming gets drawn in as well, as the popular Christmas carol “Joy to the World” makes plain:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

Far as the curse is found.1

Advent begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends Christmas Eve. This means the earliest it begins, depending on where that Sunday falls, is November 27, and the latest it starts is December 3. Whereas Lent (the season of preparation for Easter) is forty days (plus its six Sundays), Advent ranges in length from twenty-two to twenty-nine days.

Christians throughout the world have their different ways of celebrating Advent and various practical manifestations. Some light candles. Some sing songs. Some eat candies. Some give gifts. Some hang wreaths. Many of us do all of the above. Over the centuries, we have developed many good ways of extending the celebration of Jesus’s coming beyond merely the short twenty-four hours of December 25. The incarnation of the Son of God, “for us and for our salvation,” as the old creed says, is too significant to appreciate in just one day. Indeed, it’s something we will celebrate for all eternity.

Our prayer is that this little devotional book might help you keep Jesus as the center and greatest treasure of your Advent season. The candles and candies have their place, but we want to make sure that in all the December rush and hubbub we adore Jesus above all.

So “O Come, Let Us Adore Him” is perhaps the theme of these Advent readings.2 These meditations are all about adoring Christ, the Lord. In spots, you’ll hear strands of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” and in others, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”3 And, of course, we’ll have a cameo from the magi. But the figure at the center is Jesus