The New Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG13

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T H E N E W T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

This devotion focuses on the importance of joy in understanding the revelation of Jesus as Messiah to the world. Often times the purpose of theology is largely intellectual and conceptual, and students, eager to wrestle with the theological implications of the coming of Christ, miss its most obvious and important emphasis. Jesus’ coming into the world ought to produce unashamed and unabashed joy in our lives. His coming represents the fulfillment of God’s ancient promise to save us, and many of the texts associated with his coming have to do with the comfort and joy of the Lord associated with the coming of Messiah for his own. See an example below: Isa. 40.1-5 - Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. [2] Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. [3] A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [4] Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. [5] And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Isa. 49.13-16 - Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. [14] But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” [15] “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. [16] Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” Isa. 51.3 - For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

3 Page 13 Devotion

Isa. 51.12 - I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass.