Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
Three weeks from today will be Christmas Day and I hope just those words bring a smile to your face and joy to your heart as you reflect on Christmases past in your life story. In our journey to Christmas 2024 we’re dealing with a Christmas Question each day. First was the question “WHY Christmas”? Yesterday was the question “WHAT is Christmas”? Today, here’s the question: “WHO is Christmas Jesus”?
If you and I were to spend today asking THAT question of every person we meet all through this day, what answers do you suppose you’d hear? Most babies are named very near after their moment of birth. In the Jewish world the naming of a baby boy is a very special occasion and occurs at the time of his circumcision on the 8th day after his birth.
While we have no Biblical record of that event with Jesus, we have that story for the naming of John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who later became known as John the Baptizer, and we find it in Luke 1:57-66. Normally the names of newborn Jewish boys were significant to their families or the history of their tribe in Israel, but for both Jesus and John, their names were selected by GOD Himself and given to the adults who would name them, even before they were conceived! (Matt. 1:21 & Luke 1:13)
As we saw in our consideration yesterday of the question “WHAT is Christmas?” Jesus is the miraculous center of the entire original Christmas story, and Jesus is unlike any other person who has ever lived. While Jesus’ human mother was Mary, the young virgin of Nazareth, His conception did not involve a human man, but rather the Holy Spirit of God! (Luke 1:35 & Matt. 1:20)
Yesterday we looked closely at the miracle of the INCARNATION of Jesus, and so the first unique thing about Jesus is that He is God in human flesh. (John 1:14) He is the Son of God (Luke 1:35) and He is God the Son, the second person of the Godhead, celebrating the Hebrew name for God ELOHIM. (Gen. 1:26) This truth cannot be said of any other person who has ever lived.
The fact that Jesus is fully God and fully man is why His name ‘Immanuel’ is so significant. Matthew records it this way in explaining to us that Jesus, ‘Immanuel’, is the fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies: “All this took place to fulfill what the LORD had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel.’ (which means God with us).” (Matt. 1:23) Matthew was quoting the prophet Isaiah who brought a strong message from God to the Ahaz the King of Israel in about 720bc. In fact, there are several hundred Old Testament prophecies about the Jewish Messiah which are fulfilled in Jesus! That cannot be said of any other person who has ever lived! (Matt. 2:5,6,17,23)
As Jesus experienced His incarnation and came to live for 30 years among humanity, He was a bodily, tangible, visible accomplishment of what God had said as He came to be among His people at Mount Sinai and the Tabernacle, 1400 years before! Do you remember? “For generations to come the offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you and the place will be consecrated by My glory…Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God…” (Ex. 29:42-46) God came in the cloud of His Presence and met with His people at the Tabernacle and later the Temple, but when Jesus came, “Immanuel”, God lived among the people in visible, bodily form!
Yesterday as we looked at the disciple John’s words about the unique identity of the Jesus of Christmas, we saw in both John 1 & 1 John 1 that Jesus did not BEGIN in His birth at Bethlehem, but Jesus was present with God the Father before any else existed! Furthermore, Jesus is actually the CREATOR by whom all things were created! When God said, “Let us create mankind in our image…” (Gen. 1:26) God the Father was speaking His vision for mankind; God the Son (Jesus) would actually do the creating work of bringing Adam and later Eve into existence; and God the Holy Spirit would draw Adam & Eve into relationship with God through their holy spiritual nature.
The disciple John wrote this about Jesus the Creator: “He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made that has been made.” (John 1:2,3) Paul makes it even clearer: “The Son [of God] is the image of the invisible God…For in Him all thing were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him…” (Col. 1:15,16) It is here that I have coined the phrase: ‘Everything which exists is either created by God or fabricated by mankind from something God created.”
And the apostle Paul declared, as led by the Holy Spirit, that: “He [Jesus] is before all things and in Him [Jesus] all things hold together.” (Col. 1:17) It means Jesus the Creator, is also Jesus the Sustainer as Jesus sustains everything, everywhere, through all time, which He has created, including every living thing! Now pause for a few seconds and contemplate the significance of this in terms of Christmas! These great truths mean that The Creator of all things, Jesus, came to live among that which He created! The Sustainer of all things, Jesus, came to live among the creation He is sustaining. So even the woman who gave Him birth was created by Him and even sustained by Him through the birth process!! Can you wrap your mind around that?
Finally, let’s consider one more very important and unique thing about the Jesus of Christmas. The angels who announced his birth to the shepherds said: “I bring you good news of great joy for all people. Today, in the city of David, a Savior has been born to you, he is Messiah the Lord… suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying: ‘glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to all those on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:9-14)
This Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, long awaited and predicted by many over the centuries. He alone is able to bring God’s peace to a person, a family and our world. Also, this Jesus is the God sent Savior of our world, who through His life and death and resurrection, has made it possible for ANY person to be delivered from the sin bondage and sin condemnation and gain eternal life with Jesus! (John 3:16; 5:24; Acts 16:31; Matt. 1:21)
We’ll look more closely at that tomorrow, for today let’s celebrate who the JESUS of CHRISTMAS is for you, and me, and our world, with this wonderful Christmas song.
Today’s Scripture: Col. 1:15-17.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.