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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The king rejoices in Your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories You give!
You have granted him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.
You came to greet him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked you for life, and You gave it to him—length of days, forever and ever.
Through the victories You gave, his glory is great; You have bestowed on him splendor and majesty. Surely You have granted him unending blessings and made him glad with the joy of your presence.
For the king trusts in the Lord; through the unfailing love of the Most High, he will not be shaken.
Psalm 21:1-7
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:53-57
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in Heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:3-9
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Today marks the final day of this third week in Advent, a week that carries the theme of joy. Tomorrow, with Christmas day coming on Thursday, we will begin a short four message series focused on love, the emphasis of week four.
Yesterday, we joined the shepherds who were tending to their sheep on a chilly night outside of Bethlehem when an angel appeared, proclaiming good news of great joy for all people because the Messiah had been born in the city of David, another name used for Bethlehem. This was followed by an appearance of the heavenly host who proclaimed glory to God and peace on earth unto all who would gain His favor. After this holy, heaven-sent assembly departed, we saw where the shepherds rushed into the city to find the baby Jesus lying in a manger, just as the angel had said, and after finding Him, they went about the town telling others about what had just happened.
Indeed, this baby, the very Son of God, had come to change everything. He would grow up understanding at an early age that He needed to be about His Father’s business and fulfill the reason He was sent to earth, to save all mankind by bearing their sins while being sacrificed. Through His crucifixion and death on Calvary’s cross, Jesus would bring life and victory, first experienced by Himself at the empty tomb on the third day and then by everyone who would place their belief and trust in Him from that point forward.
Now, I haven’t met too many people who don’t like victory in their life. There’s something about triumph and winning that causes a wellspring of joy to rise up within.
This can happen when we accomplish something that we have worked on for a long time, something that caused us to have to work hard and persevere like finishing a college degree or gaining a promotion at work or even overcoming an addiction or affliction like cancer. These achievements become all the more significant to us when we overcome obstacles that challenged us and served as a threat to our success.
As we look at our scripture passage from the 21st Psalm, we find David, the renowned king of Israel, rejoicing over victories in battle as his nation’s enemies were repelled, and those enemies were many.
We should note that David didn’t see his wins as coming from his own doing. Rather, the king rejoiced in the strength of the Lord who brought the victories, victories that brought David great joy. They were rich blessings to him which included glory, honor, splendor, and majesty in Israel while serving in the joy of his Lord’s presence. Ultimately, David trusted in God’s power and unfailing love which gave him the confidence to not be shaken, no matter what.
These feelings expressed by David are exactly what Christians today get to experience, Christians who have their own God-given victory through their belief in His Son Jesus, the Savior of the world, the One whose birth we celebrate in just five days. The Apostles Paul and Peter sum things up perfectly in our other two texts in today’s message.
Paul underscores the spiritual transformation that comes for any Jesus believer for the person who was once perishable and mortal, destined for the eternal destruction and damnation of Hell, was now clothed with Jesus and as a result, imperishable and immortal. Because of the saving power found in the Savior, death had lost its chance to be victorious and no longer held any sting because God had granted the victory through His Son, a victory that brings the saved a joy that can never be taken away.
It’s this assurance that led Peter to give God praise for His mercy found in a “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection” of His Son Jesus “from the dead”, a living hope that is grounded in “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade”. It’s an inheritance that is “kept in Heaven” for every Christian believer who is “shielded by God’s power” through faith “until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time”.
Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, this good news is given so that we can “greatly rejoice” in our Savior even when we might have to “suffer grief in all kinds of trials”, trials that serve to prove the “genuineness of (our) faith”, trials that are “of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire”. Overcoming these hardships in life and finding victory results in believers bringing “praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”.
And although we can’t see Jesus now, we know that one day we will. He has promised it and there hasn’t been one promise He has made that He didn’t keep. Until that time when we abide with Him and God forever, we will “love Him” and allow our faith in Him and the sure salvation He brings to fill our hearts and souls “with an inexpressible and glorious joy”.
As we finish this third week in Advent, let us embrace the words of this famous, beloved Christmas hymn:
Joy to the world! The Lord is come. Let earth receive her King.
Let every heart prepare Him room.
And Heaven and nature sing.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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