It's not Jesus...it's Jesus

Hey there, Beloved… Caution. Don’t glance too quickly at the manger. There’s a good chance you’ll see the wrong Jesus. Oh, he’s in there for sure…the little baby in swaddling clothes, just like you expected. But please don’t see him. You’ll likely mistake him for who he really is. Confused? Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below.
 
But first… four great things going on:


·      Teens: We’re going to try this again as the weather bumped us last Sunday…Youth Group Christmas Celebration THIS Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. Pizza, connection, plus fun & games!
 
·      Christmas Eve is Wednesday! Join us for one of two identical candlelight services on December 24—5:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. Invite your friends and family to a beautiful celebration of Jesus and presentation of the Gospel. Our service will be a tight one hour in length to make it navigable for your unchurched family and friends.
 
o   Parents: Nursery childcare will be available at 5:00 p.m. only; for preschool and older, please bring them into service for a wonderful Christmas experience.
 
o   Interested in singing in the choir? Click here to contact Ryan Sauder! 
 
·      Please help me!! If you’re one of the 100 Mt. Hope’rs who have yet to do so (gulp!)… help!! Click here to take a super-quick but important anonymous survey to help us understand how God is working through Mt. Hope’s content and experiences, what we could do better, what we could stop doing, and what you perceive are your greatest needs. This survey will be invaluable to helping us (and me in particular) shape our plans for the winter season and beyond!
 
·      This week’s “Daily Six” continues our super-special six minutes each morning in the Word of God, Monday through Friday, on our Daily Six webpage as we focus on some “Best of The Daily Six,” looking back on content from years ago that still inspires where we are in our spiritual growth today. If you’d like to receive daily email reminders and you’re not already getting them, click here to sign up! 
 
OK…that’s it for you email skimmers and you who dislike manger scenes anyway. BUT…
 
 
Some Deeper Thoughts…
 
Honesty moment: I’m not super fond of teaching on Christmas. [Insert gasp here… “Oh, Pastor! The scandal!!”]
 
Here’s the deal: The Jesus of Christmas is very predictable. He is cute, I’ll give you that. A precious little baby, constantly smiling in every manger scene I’ve observed (moms, c’mon… is that realistic?). Everyone around him is glowing with adoration, arms raised in an exclamation of joy. The shepherds, wise men, angels, and even the donkeys are having their best day ever.
 
But when we look at the manger, when we talk about baby Jesus, when we sing the lovely Christmas carols, does anyone learn anything new? Are we gripped with conviction? Can we feel ourselves profoundly changing right before our very eyes? Is our faith reshaped and emboldened? Does everyone in attendance at church really want to be there? Or are we often just going through the motions--as pleasant and lovely as they genuinely are—regaling ourselves once more with the precious story of the birth of our Savior… who as a baby is, well, kind of adorable?
 
I wonder in all those familiar motions—the carols, the candles, the donkeys, angels, and baby—if we miss something that should be radically transformative to our lives. We miss the Jesus who is absolutely worth giving up everything we possess to gain, and who asks us for precisely that.
 
If what we see the Sunday before Christmas and on Christmas Eve is just the baby Jesus in the manger—and not the Jesus of the resurrection, the Jesus of fierceness and fire, the Jesus returning on his white horse to recapture his bride from the devil’s grip—we are missing Jesus.
 
This baby in a manger was cute and cuddly for a moment. He was profoundly a demonstration of the limitless love of God (Samuel Sierra rocked a teaching on this last Sunday!), that God would stoop down to the lowliest point in the universe and take on the form of an infant who needed to learn how to walk, talk, use the bathroom, tie his shoes (sandals), and eat on his own. Philippians 2:5-11 reveals this so magnificently.
 
But Jesus wasn’t the baby in the manger for long. He grew up. And then he became the Jesus of fire. Here’s how his cousin John revealed it: “One more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am unworthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Luke 3:16).
 
Oh, friends, when we only see the manger Jesus, we miss Jesus. The real and full and fire-filled Jesus—God boldly, powerfully, transformatively in the flesh, face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball with the whole of our life. This Jesus speaks a powerful word that burns away the dross, the brokenness, the sinfulness in our lives. This Jesus unmistakably reveals God’s love. This Jesus hands us a life of radical purpose. This Jesus calls us to repentance, to give up our lives for him and his mission, to love and serve the Lord with everything we have. 
 
Hebrews 12:1-2 tells us to lock eyes with him. Fiercely, passionately, intently gaze into who he is and take every step in our lives with precision along the race he has marked out for us.
 
“…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
 
Bam. Did you see it? He sits in the seat of eternal, supernatural power. His eyes flame with the fire of limitless love. His words pierce the innermost parts of our soul. His healing changes everything about us.
 
This isn’t the cuddly baby in the manger. This is the resurrected Lord of the Universe.
 
Friends, let’s meet to worship God and fix our eyes on this Savior! He is why the angels exploded with joy at his birth. They saw what was coming. It was way bigger than a baby.
 
C’mon out… no snow this Sunday. 10:00 a.m… bring your Bibles and a pen! God’s Word to us will be good. So good.
 
Much love to you all…
 
Chris Eads
Mt. Hope Pastor
Friend