How Do I Welcome Christ at Christmas?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Well, Merry Christmas to all of the

00:00:06.300 | Ask Pastor John podcast listeners out there.

00:00:08.840 | On behalf of John Piper and the whole team

00:00:11.700 | at Desiring God, we pray that your Christmas is filled

00:00:15.860 | with the glorious beauty of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

00:00:20.260 | And thank you for joining us for another year

00:00:22.540 | on the podcast.

00:00:23.460 | Thanks for all the great questions and your engagement.

00:00:26.820 | We can't do this podcast without you.

00:00:29.620 | Well, the great Christmas hymn, Joy to the World,

00:00:32.360 | is a celebration of the glory of our sovereign Savior

00:00:36.220 | and the global joy that he brought in his birth

00:00:39.060 | in the little town of Bethlehem.

00:00:41.520 | That same hymn calls for every heart to prepare him room.

00:00:46.520 | What's that mean exactly, to receive Christ?

00:00:51.260 | That's the question Pastor John took up in his 1986 sermon,

00:00:54.940 | Preparing to Receive Christ.

00:00:57.300 | Here's what he said.

00:00:59.300 | - We regard divine things as stupid, folly.

00:01:04.300 | Let me bring it into the Christmas setting.

00:01:13.200 | By nature, as flesh and blood, we recoil

00:01:18.200 | at the humiliating implications of Christmas.

00:01:26.380 | And therefore, we redesign Christmas.

00:01:28.420 | Christmas is humiliating because it means I'm cursed

00:01:34.840 | and need a Savior.

00:01:37.740 | Christmas means that I am lost and I need a shepherd.

00:01:42.740 | It means I'm sick and I need a physician.

00:01:48.460 | It means I'm a rebel and I need a reconciler.

00:01:52.960 | And it means I'm dirty and I need a purifier.

00:01:57.340 | Now, when that message about Christmas is heralded,

00:02:01.900 | the natural man or flesh and blood hates it so much

00:02:06.900 | that it becomes blind to it, to protect itself from it.

00:02:13.220 | And then redesigns Christmas in a secular way

00:02:15.940 | to cope with it.

00:02:18.740 | Why does the human heart not run to the light

00:02:23.740 | when the light comes into the world?

00:02:26.960 | Jesus told us why in John 3:19.

00:02:31.080 | He said, "Light has come into the world,

00:02:34.880 | "but men loved darkness rather than light."

00:02:39.880 | They loved darkness.

00:02:44.600 | No person in the world is spiritually blind

00:02:48.780 | against His will.

00:02:50.700 | You got that now?

00:02:52.460 | Put that in your computer

00:02:53.720 | and processing what you hear from this pulpit.

00:02:56.660 | No person in the world is spiritually blind

00:03:01.660 | against His will.

00:03:03.600 | Spiritual blindness is hate of the light.

00:03:10.940 | Spiritual blindness is the recoiling from the light

00:03:15.940 | and the loving and the embracing of the dark.

00:03:20.680 | And loving and embracing is an act of the will.

00:03:24.800 | No one is blind against His will.

00:03:29.720 | The will is corrupt in blindness.

00:03:34.720 | If any of you or I have seen the sun

00:03:41.020 | for who He is, something more than flesh and blood

00:03:46.020 | has been at work in our lives.

00:03:49.820 | Amen?

00:03:51.220 | What is it?

00:03:52.060 | Matthew 16, 17, "My Father in heaven

00:03:57.060 | "has revealed this to you."

00:04:00.620 | Now the question is, how?

00:04:03.240 | Because all of us want to affirm what the Bible says.

00:04:05.740 | We want to say, "Yes, yes."

00:04:07.200 | But how?

00:04:08.160 | What was it like?

00:04:09.140 | I'm not sure what to point to in my experience.

00:04:12.140 | I know I'm saved.

00:04:13.780 | I believe Jesus.

00:04:15.380 | I trust Him.

00:04:16.220 | I love Him.

00:04:17.040 | I make every effort to obey.

00:04:18.360 | I confess when I sin.

00:04:20.580 | But I can't remember that ever happening to me.

00:04:23.980 | So I want to ask with you, what's it?

00:04:27.420 | What is it?

00:04:28.540 | What was it like for Peter and for us?

00:04:31.720 | Was it in a dream where God Almighty,

00:04:38.940 | the Father comes to you and says,

00:04:41.860 | "When you wake up, read the Word

00:04:45.480 | "and what you see there of Christ, believe it, it's true."

00:04:49.820 | Or was it perhaps that you were reading a verse

00:04:54.460 | about the divinity of Christ and it thundered outside.

00:04:59.180 | "Whoa, that's a sign that this is true.

00:05:03.000 | "He is God."

00:05:05.060 | Or many other such external constraints on your will.

00:05:10.060 | If so, if that's what you think it means

00:05:15.740 | or has happened to you, be very suspicious of this.

00:05:20.740 | Why?

00:05:22.940 | Because it doesn't honor Christ.

00:05:25.740 | If Christ comes and knocks on your door

00:05:28.300 | and you open the door and you look at Him,

00:05:30.800 | just an ordinary man, nobody attractive,

00:05:33.640 | nobody marvelous, nobody beautiful, nobody divine,

00:05:36.980 | nobody good enough to rip you away from your sins,

00:05:40.140 | nobody great to fall on your face and kiss His feet,

00:05:43.300 | but then the phone rings and you pick up the phone

00:05:45.940 | and it says, "Hello, this is God Almighty, the Father.

00:05:50.100 | "That's my son at your door, let him in."

00:05:52.740 | And you, "Whew, okay, okay."

00:05:54.140 | And you go, "Come on in, Jesus.

00:05:57.280 | "You may come into my life."

00:05:59.140 | Sure, I don't want to go to hell.

00:06:02.060 | You can't be saved if that's the way

00:06:04.480 | you welcome Jesus into your life.

00:06:06.880 | If you open the door and you saw nothing beautiful,

00:06:10.600 | nothing glorious, nothing attractive,

00:06:14.240 | nothing matchless, nothing to free you from your sins,

00:06:19.080 | but under someone's constraint, you said,

00:06:22.680 | "Well, this is what you're supposed to do.

00:06:24.620 | "You go to church and you call Him God

00:06:27.420 | "and you pray to receive Him."

00:06:29.520 | You're not saved.

00:06:31.160 | Christ is not honored like that.

00:06:34.320 | There's no glory for Christ in that.

00:06:38.400 | Where is another illustration where Jesus expects somebody

00:06:45.080 | to recognize Him for who He is?

00:06:47.600 | And how does He expect that person to recognize Him?

00:06:50.600 | And then we'll get insight into how God reveals the Son.

00:06:55.120 | All right?

00:06:55.960 | The person is John the Baptist.

00:06:57.800 | Where is he?

00:06:58.640 | He's in jail.

00:07:00.800 | And he's starting to doubt.

00:07:03.560 | Don't condemn yourself for doubting.

00:07:06.160 | Jesus called John the Baptist the greatest of men.

00:07:09.280 | The greatest man born of woman was doubting in His last hours.

00:07:16.280 | However, he didn't sink into despair.

00:07:17.960 | He sent disciples to Jesus and He asks Him,

00:07:22.080 | "Are You He who is to come or shall we look for another?"

00:07:26.880 | Now, what's that question mean?

00:07:28.240 | That question means, "Are You the Messiah?"

00:07:30.920 | Now, what has Jesus just told Peter about how to find out if He's the Messiah?

00:07:34.760 | Get a revelation from God, right?

00:07:37.680 | So what Jesus says to these disciples is,

00:07:40.120 | "You go back, tell John to get down on his knees

00:07:41.840 | "and ask for a revelation from God, right?"

00:07:44.400 | Wrong.

00:07:45.920 | This is very important.

00:07:48.320 | How does Jesus help this man in desperate torment

00:07:53.680 | about whether He is the Christ?

00:07:57.360 | "Go tell John what you hear and see."

00:08:02.560 | "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk,

00:08:05.040 | "lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear,

00:08:07.280 | "the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them,

00:08:10.600 | "and blessed is He who takes no offense at me."

00:08:14.920 | Now, if you can only recognize the Son for who He really is

00:08:21.000 | by a revelation from the Father,

00:08:23.240 | why does Jesus answer this man's desperate, doubting question

00:08:29.520 | by sending a human report of the deeds and words of Jesus?

00:08:36.080 | Here's the answer, as far as I can see.

00:08:39.520 | The indispensable work of God the Father

00:08:43.480 | in the life of John, Peter, you and me,

00:08:47.320 | the indispensable, revealing work of God the Father

00:08:51.720 | is not, I repeat, is not an adding to us

00:08:58.800 | of information that we can't see in Jesus.

00:09:04.720 | Rather, the indispensable work of God the Father

00:09:10.720 | revealing the Son is the opening of the eyes of our heart

00:09:16.720 | to see Him for who He really is.

00:09:21.520 | At the door.

00:09:23.200 | So that when we welcome Him,

00:09:25.520 | He's honored because we have fallen on our face.

00:09:29.680 | We have kissed His feet, we've seen His glory,

00:09:32.720 | and when He sits on our couch,

00:09:34.640 | it's not because of any authoritative constraint over the phone,

00:09:38.520 | it's because He's real.

00:09:40.560 | He's God. He's glorious.

00:09:43.200 | He's my treasure. He satisfies.

00:09:46.760 | Has God the Father Almighty revealed the Son to you?

00:09:51.280 | How does it happen?

00:09:52.960 | It happens along the lines of the written, inspired Word of God.

00:09:58.400 | So what should you do this Advent season

00:10:02.160 | to prepare to receive Christ for who He really is?

00:10:06.680 | Two simple things, and they are simple.

00:10:09.160 | The Gospel is wonderfully simple.

00:10:11.200 | Number one, look. Look. Look at Jesus.

00:10:16.080 | Consider Jesus.

00:10:18.280 | Meditate on Jesus.

00:10:20.040 | Fix your sights on Jesus.

00:10:21.800 | Open the Bible to Luke and read it again and again and again and again this Advent season.

00:10:26.680 | Read a Gospel a day if you have to, if you think you're outside Christ.

00:10:30.600 | Expose yourself to Jesus.

00:10:32.520 | And then secondly, pray.

00:10:35.040 | "Open my eyes, Father, that I might behold the beauty of Christ."

00:10:39.440 | Because God loves to open the eyes of people who are looking at Jesus.

00:10:45.240 | Because then, when their eyes are opened,

00:10:48.120 | they see Him and He gets the glory.

00:10:50.720 | They get the salvation.

00:10:53.120 | And this could be the greatest Advent season of your life.

00:10:56.520 | Amen. Those words are still true.

00:10:58.600 | And if you haven't, embrace this Christ.

00:11:02.200 | He is extraordinary. He is marvelous. He is divine.

00:11:06.120 | He is beautiful enough to rip you away from your sins.

00:11:10.320 | He's glorious enough for all of us to fall on our faces before Him,

00:11:14.440 | to kiss His feet, and to anoint Him with oil.

00:11:18.120 | He is, in Himself, that precious.

00:11:22.640 | Such a good word for all of us this Christmas.

00:11:24.640 | This clip was pulled from John Piper's 1986 sermon, "Preparing to Receive Christ."

00:11:31.280 | Well, I hope you enjoy what remains of your Christmas break.

00:11:34.040 | We're back on Friday, and many of you will be back to work.

00:11:38.040 | We'll look at the pressures of Silicon Valley on tech professionals

00:11:41.480 | and ask whether or not Christlikeness can survive in an environment

00:11:45.040 | that sees the virtues of Christ to be weaknesses.

00:11:48.440 | Interesting.

00:11:50.040 | That's on Friday. Again, Merry Christmas.

00:11:52.440 | Thank you for joining us for another year on the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:11:56.640 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke, and we'll see you on Friday.

00:11:59.240 | [Silence]

How Do I Welcome Christ at Christmas?

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