25th December 2024
Pray (ACts) Read (Titus 2:11-14) Message (Alan Burke) The big day is finally here and we celebrate the coming of the Lord Jesus, I reckon this will be the least read devotion of all year because you’re all busy with the excitement but think of those words of the hymn Joy to the world that many of us no doubt have sang over the last couple of weeks and answer me this did earth receive their king? No when Christ Jesus came as Isaiah 53 reminds us about the coming king that was foretold; He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (53:3). The king was not received, but there is a day that is coming the second advent that Jesus will come again when earth will receive her king. Look first to verse 11 and then to verse 13 of this passage. For in verse 12, we are told of “the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men”. The appeared is speaking of the first advent, the first coming of the Lord Jesus, as he took on flesh, by his conception in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit within her, called Jesus for he would save his people from their sin and called Immanuel, God with us as Isaiah foretold. But then in v13, “we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ”. Paul is directing Titus as well as us that we live as people who behold two advents, how Christ has come and how he will come again. In the first coming, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. The grace of God there speaks of the unmerited favour of our God, the God who has been infinitely wronged by our sin shows us grace to us, it is not something that we merit, we cannot earn it, we do not deserve it, it is unmerited. It comes as a result of God’s action on our behalf, bringing salvation which has appeared to all men. The word for men does not mean only males who have reached a certain again but rather it speaking of all people, men women and children. It is not that all people responded to the grace that has appeared rather that he has appeared, it is through his appearance that salvation, God’s grace in Christ Jesus is offered to all. Christ was born in the manger an animal feeding trough, grew up under poor parents, worked as a carpenter, lowered Himself to be baptised by a man, faced the temptations of the devil after a death-defying fast and prayer, made friends and disciples of fishermen and tax collectors, who constantly vied for position, lacked a place where He could lay His head at night, touched the poor and the sick, was chased from place to place because of the people, was betrayed and denied by His own disciples, was wrongfully accused by the authorities of Israel, was sentence to death by Pontius Pilate, a Roman, was forced to walk the road to Calvary with the cross on His crushed shoulders, was stripped, shed His blood and bodily fluid and suffered death all that we might know the grace of God and as a response we live not the way of the world but we live a better way the way of godliness that brings together faith in or knowledge of God and its visible outworking in the life of the believer. We are to as verse 13 directs us to live in this way “while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ…”. We have experienced the grace of God, we look forward to what is to come, the second advent, the glorious appearing of our great God and saviour. We wait and while waiting. when we get old normally means waiting in line, waiting in the waiting room at the GP and it is anything but exciting or something we do eagerly, the word wait here carries with it the connotation of eagerness, like the wains who eagerly awaited what would greet them this morning, with excitement, expectation, joy, hope, many emotions all held together as there is very little sleep had. We are to be like this when it comes to the glorious appearance of our Great God and savour Jesus Christ, as we try to turn from our sin as we live godly lives. Look to the hope that there is if the nostalgia is running high or you wish it would all go away for something better is to come. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q70 What is the seventh commandment? A. The seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.
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