By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
The essay explores whether Nativity depictions violate the Second Commandment, emphasizing idolatry as the true prohibition. Drawing on Scripture and RC Sproul, ultimately deciding that conscience and worship—not nativity images themselves—determine faithfulness, urging grace toward differing convictions among believers.
By Elizabeth Prata
This section of verses that show Jesus’ life are focused on His earthly ministry. We’ve seen Him as servant, teacher, shepherd, and now intercessor.
Grace To You sermon: Jesus Christ: The Perfect Priest
And so the sympathetic high priest is Jesus Christ, who in the days of His flesh felt what we feel. And of course, the climax comes when He offered prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears. What incident in His life does that speak to you about? Does that remind you of the Garden of Gethsemane? Sure. That was the greatest climax of His suffering for there He began to bear the sins of the world didn’t He? There He began to feel the crush of sin upon Him. He began to feel Satan bruising Him, and it hurt. Do you remember the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before He went to the cross? He went into the Garden to pray and He agonized there and He sweat as it were great drops of blood and He cried to the Father. And His heart was grieving and broken at the prospect and the pain of bearing sin. And He felt the power of sin and He felt temptation. He felt everything Satan could throw at Him, and He got it all even on the cross. He felt everything you’ll ever feel.
THIS is what makes Jesus the perfect High Priest. Fully God and fully man, He knows the pain, sorrow, temptation, and devastation of sin, closely and intimately.
Ligonier: The Intercession of Christ
A time would come when Satan would sift Peter, and he would fall under the weight of temptation and deny his Lord. But what did Jesus say about that time? He comforted Peter by assuring him that he would not lose his faith. And the reason his faith wouldn’t fail was that Jesus had prayed for him. Peter would not fall away from the faith because Jesus had interceded for him.
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Introduction/Background
Prophecies:
Day 1: The Virgin shall conceive
Day 2: A shoot from Jesse
Day 3: God sent His Son in the fullness of time
Day 4: Marry her, she will bear a Son
Birth & Early Life-
Day 5: The Babe has arrived!
Day 6: The Glory of Jesus
Day 7: Magi seek the Child
Day 8: The Magi Offer gifts & worship
Day 9: The Child Grew
Day 10- the Boy Jesus at the Temple
Day 11: He was Obedient
Day 12: The Son!
Day 13: God is pleased with His Son
The Second Person of the Trinity-
Day 14: Propitiation
Day 15: The Gift of Eternal Life
Day 16: Kingdom of Darkness to Light
Day 17: Jesus’ Preeminence
Day 18: The Highest King
Day 19: He emptied Himself
Day 20: Jesus as The Teacher
Day 21: The Good Shepherd
By Elizabeth Prata
This section of verses that show Jesus’ life are focused on His earthly ministry. We’ve seen Him as servant, teacher, and now shepherd.
By Elizabeth Prata
How can we know God unless He reveals Himself to us? The creation confirms His existence, but what does the creature know of His attributes, Person, or Power? Unless He teaches us about Himself, we will not know. God sent His Son Jesus to earth as a born-babe, to live the full life of sinlessness under the Law, and to teach us about Himself. He was prophesied to die as the atoning sacrifice, and then rise again to receive His people through His work on the cross. Grace abounds.
Continue reading “Advent- Thirty Days of Jesus: Day 20, Jesus as the Teacher”By Elizabeth Prata
Propitiation. A hard word to pronounce…and a hard word to understand, but we have to try, since today’s verse of 1 John 4:10 says this is the reason God sent His son.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10).
PROPITIATION: An offering that turns away the wrath of God directed against sin. According to the NT, God has provided the offering that removes the divine wrath, for in love the Father sent the Son to be the propitiation (or atoning sacrifice) for human sin (1 John 4:10). Source: Pocket dictionary of theological terms (1996).
by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to exercise his love towards sinners. In Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary. (1893)
The Easton’s definition uses the word ‘consistent’. God is able to do anything but it would not be consistent with His holy character to abandon his promise to punish wrongdoers for their sin. He could turn away His wrath by deciding to do so, but it would destroy His perfectly just nature to be inconsistent. No, God is consistent, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8). “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed“. (Malachi 3:6).
So He sent His Son to be that sacrifice and absorb God’s wrath for our sins, though Christ was sinless.
Further Reading
GotQuestions: What is Propitiation?
The word propitiation carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. Propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being reconciled to him.
Ligonier Ministries: What Do Expiation and Propitiation Mean?
Let’s think about what these words mean, then, beginning with the word expiation. The prefix ex means “out of” or “from,” so expiation has to do with removing something or taking something away. In biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt through the payment of a penalty or the offering of an atonement. By contrast, propitiation has to do with the object of the expiation.
Bible Hub Topical Bible- Propitiation
That by which God is rendered propitious, i.e., by which it becomes consistent with his character and government to pardon and bless the sinner. The propitiation does not procure his love or make him loving; it only renders it consistent for him to execise his love towards sinners.
By Elizabeth Prata
From Day 12-16 we are looking at verses that focus on Jesus as The Son. Yesterday we read the scripture from John 3:16, how God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son. Today we read how God was pleased with His Son whom He sent.
Jesus has been incarnated and ill-treated. (Herod’s aim to wipe Him out caused the cataclysmic genocide of all children in the region under the age of two).
While growing up, Jesus was obedient in all things to his earthly parents. God was pleased with this. Now is the time where Jesus emerges on mission to seek and save the lost. He is baptized by John.
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon Him; and a voice came from the heavens: “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:9-11).
Just think, a nexus point on earth where all three Persons of the Trinity were congregated, initiating the extraordinary plan of God to save His people.
And so begins the most incredible period of time on earth there ever was.
Further Reading
Gill’s Exposition: God is pleased
in whom I am well pleased. Jehovah the Father took infinite delight and pleasure in him as his own Son, who lay in his bosom before all worlds; and was well pleased with him in his office relation, and capacity: he was both well pleased in him as his Son, and delighted in him as his servant, Isaiah 42:1 he was pleased with his assumption of human nature; with his whole obedience to the law; and with his bearing the penalty and curse of it, in the room and stead of his people: he was well pleased with and for his righteousness, sacrifice and atonement; whereby his law was fulfilled, and his justice satisfied. God is not only well pleased in, and with his Son, but with all his people, as considered in him; in him he loves them, takes delight in them, is pacified towards them, and graciously accepts of them.
Ligonier devotional (2-min read) The Baptism of Christ
Matthew 3:13–17 records our Lord’s baptism by John in the Jordan River, and as we read the account we can relate to John’s confusion. In verse 14, John essentially asks Jesus why He needs to be baptized. Actually, John wanted to deny baptism to Him, and we have to admit that John was not entirely off-base.
John MacArthur sermon: The Commissioning of the King
as we come to Matthew 3:13, we read the words, “Then cometh Jesus.” And really, for the first time, the Lord Jesus appears upon the stage. Up until this time it has been preparatory. Matthew has been commenting on various elements in the beginnings of Jesus: His birth, the things surrounding His birth, His forerunner, etc. But now, finally, Jesus steps onto the stage. Jesus takes the place of prominence.
By Elizabeth Prata
Christmas is a time of blessing, love, warmth, and peace. Even non-Christians enjoy this season in their way, expressing generosity and care to those around them. We all seek to put hard feelings, pettiness, and trouble behind us.
Christians exult in the celebratory season because the Son of God, very God, Perfect God, poured His infinite self into human flesh to live and die for our sins, and also to impute His righteousness to us. We remember the babe in the manger but also the Man-God on the cross taking all the Father’s wrath for sin.
If a person gets that far in their thinking, it’s usually as far as it goes. We do not like to think of the wrath of God. But we must think of it, because this is the eternal destination for unbelievers.
The next step after the Babe, after the cross, even after the ascension, is to ponder His judgment. He came to save, but He will also punish. He is King, Priest, Prophet, Friend to repentant sinners, and Judge for those who won’t.
Christmas is a good time when unbelievers are thinking of Christ, whether they want to or not. It can be called Gospel season…
Think of those who bask in their sin, refusing God’s Gospel, and die in unrighteousness. They are consigned to hell. Jesus took the wrath for sinners, yes, but we must repent of those sins and fall at the feet of Jesus, else when a person meets Him they will hear those fearsome words, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire.” (Matthew 25:41). The wrath is real.
I have been thinking lot about hell lately. I have unsaved family members. Some of those have heard the gospel from me, some from others. I’ve received negative reactions, dismissals, and rejections. I’ve heard “Away with your dogma!”, “Religion is a crutch for stupid people,” and “I’m fine, I served on the church board and I’ve done good deeds.” Sinners really hate the gospel.
But the reality of hell hangs over them. Some have gone on to their place, including my father. He died at the scene of a car accident he caused. The newspaper took a photo of his tarp-covered body, one elbow sticking out, crumbled car behind him. He was tootling along the highway one second and the next, he was in hell (probably). Of course I can’t know for sure, but after 84 years of rejecting Jesus in his confirmed atheism, one surmises the outcome is not good.
Jonathan Edwards preached about heaven, and in his follow-up sermon, Edwards preached the famous sermon about hell titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” It is a startling sermon even today. Edwards was no showman and reportedly read his sermons in practically a monotone, but the weight of the words and the reality of hell caused people to fling themselves out of their pews toward the altar crying “What must I do to be saved?!”
I think of a portion of that sermon that hits my soul like a bowling ball on a mosquito,
“It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: for ‘who knows the power of God’s anger?'” ~Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
In whose hands are you today? Have you looked to Jesus? Charles Spurgeon was suddenly gripped by a faltering shoemaker, a layman who took over the pulpit that snowy morning, who kept saying from Isaiah 45:22 over and over again—”Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.” Spurgeon looked. He saw, his eyes were opened.
You do not have to be a skilled preacher, an astute theologian, or an experienced evangelist to share the gospel with someone. Spurgeon said the layman who took over the preacher-less pulpit that morning didn’t even pronounce all the words right, “but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text.” It’s the TEXT that saves, not your delivery of it. God’s word is powerful with the Holy Spirit behind it, whispering it along, or in some cases like mine, hammering it into my stony heart to shatter all my self-sufficiency.
“Is My word not like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” (Jeremiah 23:29).
Here is a Founders article on The Horror of Hell. It does not carry the same sweetness as thinking of the Babe in swaddling cloths, but it is the default destination of everyone who, in this Christmas season, looks upon a Nativity set and goes their unrepentant fleshly way.
The Horror of Hell by Tom Ascol.
“So, what should we think of hell? Is the idea of it really responsible for all the cruelty and torture in the world? Is the doctrine of hell incompatible with the way of Jesus Christ? Hardly. In fact, the most prolific teacher of hell in the Bible is Jesus, and He spoke more about it than He did about heaven. In Matthew 25:41–46 He teaches us four truths about hell that should cause us to grieve over the prospect of anyone experiencing its horrors...”
By Elizabeth Prata
We’ve flowed through the first section of this series, in looking at verses that prophesy Jesus’ coming, His arrival, and His early life.
Starting today, from Day 12-16 we will look at verses that focus on Jesus as The Son. We begin by examining a pivotal verse in the Bible:
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Further Reading
Ligonier: What does ‘the world’ mean in John 3:16?
Understanding how undeserving the world is of God’s love is the key to John 3:16. Only then will we appreciate the unexpected gift that God gives. This point was well made many years ago by the esteemed theologian Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield. In his sermon “God’s Immeasurable Love,” Warfield probes the meaning of the term “world” (Greek kosmos) in John 3:16 in order to plumb the depths of God’s love. What is the meaning of “world” in this passage?
Ligonier: John 3:16 and man’s ability to choose God
It is ironic that in the same chapter, indeed in the same context, in which our Lord teaches the utter necessity of rebirth to even see the kingdom, let alone choose it, non-Reformed views find one of their main proof texts to argue that fallen man retains a small island of ability to choose Christ. It is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” What does this famous verse teach about fallen man’s ability to choose Christ? The answer…
Crosswalk: Why John 3:16 should be more than a slogan
For many people John 3:16 reads like a Hallmark card sent from God. In fact, when some Christians speak of the Gospel they use a play on the words of the Hallmark corporate slogan: “God cared enough to send His very best.” But John 3:16 is not a message of sentiment. When God sent His Son into the world, He was not having an emotional response to the tragedy of sin.
Spurgeon: Devotional on John 3:16, His Love, His Gift, His Son
This text is a polestar, for it has guided more souls to salvation than any other Scripture. It is among promises what the Great Bear is among constellations. Several words in it shine with peculiar brilliance…
By Elizabeth Prata
Isaiah 7:10-16
“The Life of Christ: The Virgin Birth”
S. Lewis Johnson
I liked how Pastor S. Lewis Johnson emphasized the virgin conception rather than the virgin birth. He preached, as you will read below in part, that the birth was typical, human, bloody, and messy. It was the conception that was immaculate. The art by American painter Gari Melchers depicts a scene more reflective of a birth than most nativity scenes usually do. Here, we see a deeply concentrating Joseph gazing at his newborn son, perhaps pondering the spiritual implications of this new life that promised to bring new life. Mary, exhausted, drooping, leans against her husband sleepily, recently used washbowl and cloth by her side. Is the glow from the Babe’s head, or the lantern that has been set by Him? The scene depicts exhaustion, wonder, light, and hope.
Here is Pastor S. Lewis Johnson on The Virgin Birth, from his series on the Life of Christ-
Now out of this marriage there was to come the man who was really God, the God-man, our Lord Jesus. But I think you can see the kind of arrangements that would be made between Jacob and Eli concerning the young carpenter and the pious maiden whose name was Mary. Now, of course, the moment that this marriage was arranged by the parents, it was legal. That is, they were married. So Matthew says,
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, (That is, when the arrangements had been made) before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband…”
Now apparently from the account, this is not stated directly, but apparently from the account, Joseph had learned of the pregnancy of Mary, whether he had been told this by Mary herself, whether he had discovered it and she had kept quiet about it the text does not say. I am inclined to think because of the statement that is made in just a moment, that Joseph was very much in love with Mary and that as a result of his love for her, the fact that she was pregnant caused a great deal of consternation to him. And I think, if I judge these characters correctly, that Mary had told him of the experience.
But Joseph, like so many of us, when confronted with such a miracle and after all, there never had been anything like this before; the closest thing to it was the supernatural birth of Isaac in the Old Testament, but that was by natural means, and yet supernatural, I’m quite sure I can understand something of the wrestling that took place in the heart of Joseph. I can imagine that after he was told this that he spent many a sleepless night. He wondered perhaps, “Should I really marry this young girl?” That is, “Should our marriage be consummated and should be begin to live together?” If it’s not true, perhaps I should put her away according to the Old Testament law. If it is true, I hesitate to take her to be my wife for the simple reason that if this is of God and the Messiah is to be born of her, it seems almost unholy to begin to live with her.
Now Joseph apparently was about to reach a decision, which meant that he was going to put her away. I gather that is the force of the text when he says, “And not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privily.” That is, he wasn’t going to do it publicly, but he was just going to take the minimum of two witnesses and carry out the divorce according to the Old Testament. So Joseph apparently had made up his mind.
Now I would say that this is true because in the 20th verse, the tense of the word “while he thought on these things” is a tense that suggests that the action had been reached. That is, that the conclusion had been reached. And so having made up his mind and about ready to carry out something that was contrary to the will of God, the angel spoke to Joseph and said to him in a dream, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.”
Now this, of course, is something that we can never really fathom. We can only adore. Who could ever understand what it means to be born of the Holy Ghost? G. Campbell Morgan used to say, “This is the holy mystery, the touch of God upon the simple life that made it forever sublime.” She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. So in a restless night amid fitful sleep, Joseph had a visitor and the visitor told him in supernatural terms and direct language that this in Mary was of the Holy Ghost. Now what he meant by this was that the Spirit was the source of the vitalizing energy which gave to the embryo in her womb.
Now I want to say something about the doctrine of the virgin birth at this point that I hope will help to clarify your mind some of the theology of it. Who would ever expect a simple New Testament professor and preacher of the word to transform the doctrine of the virgin birth so that everybody now understands it in a new light? So I’m not having any kind of sense of transforming all of theological thought concerning the virgin birth.
But I do want to say this that the New Testament does not teach the doctrine of a virgin birth, the New Testament teaches the doctrine of a virgin conception, a virgin conception. In other words, our Lord Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost, but he was born naturally, born naturally.
Now I want you to notice that I’m not denying the so called doctrine of the virgin birth. That would make nonsense of everything that I’ve said up to this point. I just want you to think clearly that it was the operation of the Holy Spirit in the conception that is referred to here, not in the birth. Jesus was born as an ordinary person was born.
Praise the Lord Jesus was conceived directly of the Holy Spirit, absent the sin-nature that taints all of us. What mysteries the LORD had prepared in His mind since eternity began! What tremendous love He has for His people! Mary, what favor you had and what strength you showed in submitting to the will of God so graciously-
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.”
(Luke 1:46-48).
Praise the LORD for all His ways.
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Further Reading
By Elizabeth Prata
The Bible is intentionally blank where Jesus’ boyhood is concerned. After His birth, the Bible is silent on what Jesus was doing. All we know is He lived in Galilee. We know as a child, not a baby, He was taken by his parents to Egypt, to flee Herod’s rage. And now suddenly He is 12 years old and in the Temple.
With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding (Job 12:13).
Other than the Magi’s visit to the child, this alone stands out as the sole incident recorded in the Bible about Jesus childhood, or even adulthood before the first Miracle at Cana. Since the Holy Spirit chose to include this single event in the boy Jesus’ life, it bears study.
Further Reading:
The Day Jesus Went AWOL
Second, in this account are recorded the very first words of our Lord Jesus. Naturally, no words were recorded from the birth and infancy of Christ. Many of our Lord’s words were recorded from His later ministry. But the words of our Lord in this text are His first recorded words, and very important words they are indeed.
Twelve-year-old Jesus goes to the Temple
After the host of witnesses to Jesus in Luke 1:5–2:40, Jesus now speaks for himself for the first time. This is the literary climax of Luke’s initial section and shows the sense of mission and self-awareness Jesus possesses. Jesus has a unique relationship to God and a clear sense of his calling, one that transcends his relationship to his earthly parents.
The Son of God at twelve years old
This is the only story in the gospels about Jesus between his infancy and his public ministry as a man. Some have argued that the story is a legend created by the early church to fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge of Jesus’ life. What shall we say to this claim?
the-end-time.org 