Description
Anticipating the Advent: Looking for Messiah in All the Right Places
Most Christmas books focus on the light and joy of the season. Anticipating the Advent, however, portrays the dark side of Christmas because only then will the Light shine the brightest. On the night when the host of heaven sang “Glory to God in the highest,” they were arrayed to do battle with the evil forces who wanted to kill the promised child. This seed of Eve was coming to crush the enemy’s head (Gen 3:15) and destroy the Devil’s power (Heb 2:14). Old Simeon would tell the young mother Mary that, because her son would be the Messiah, a sword would pierce through her soul (Luke 2:35). In so many ways it was a “Not So Silent Night.”
Messiah’s Ministry: Crises of the Christ
The Jews in the first century wondered: who would He resemble? Would He be a prophet like Moses? A priest like Melchizedek? A king like David? He would surprise them all, from the day He entered the Jordan until He went through a metamorphosis on a mountain. He would be tested in a harsh wilderness, deliver those tormented by demons, and miraculously feed both a Jewish and a Gentile multitude, and yet be rejected by his own neighbors. So here is His ministry, in the midst of an intensely Jewish world of Pharisees and Sadducees and Essenes, confounding them all because no one spoke quite like Him. When you hear him teaching beside the lovely waters of the Sea of Galilee, beholding His ministry in light of the Scriptures that He so loved, lived, and fulfilled, you will never be the same.
Passionate about the Passion Week: A Fresh Look at Jesus’ Last Days
The Gospels record Jesus’ last days leading up to his crucifixion, but how attentive are we to the details of the account? Should we speak of Palm Sunday, or Monday? Have we misunderstood the Pharisees? Why do the four Gospels present the resurrection in different ways? Were the Jews really “fickle?” Varner focuses carefully on the details of the Gospels that we often overlook. This lively and carefully nuanced account of the Passion Week will bring you to a renewed sense of devotion for the Savior.
