It is the third week of Advent. This is the month leading up to Christmas and it is a time where we reflect on the coming of the Messiah Jesus. This is a momentous time in human history and it is one where it is right and proper that we take time out of our busy year to reflect on God’s amazing grace in sending His Son to become the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. It is also right and proper that we prepare ourselves for the magnificence of this moment in history where we witness God’s incarnation! The Son of God came in the form of a helpless babe. Crazy! If we can somehow get our minds around exactly who this babe is then we will be blown away by God’s majesty and awe.
Today, my desire is to focus our attention on who is the real ‘who’ of Christmas. We go to Paul’s amazing letter that he wrote to the Christians in the church at Colosse. The young Christians were being challenged as to the sufficiency of Jesus in being their Saviour. There was new thinking in the community. This challenged the Christians as they were encouraged to move on from their thinking and acceptance of Jesus. Paul pulled them back with a masterful treatise on exactly who Jesus is and to his sufficiency in meeting their every need whether physical, emotional or spiritual.
Often we are told that the gospel of Jesus is outdated. It is a religion of the first century. Jesus has no relevance to our fast paced and technologically advanced world. As for those who follow Jesus and put their trust in Him alone, well, they are considered ignorant and people who live in the past. Is that so? This push to rid the world of the need for Jesus is not new. It has been going on for millennia. Even as people try to take the ‘Christ’ out of ‘Christmas’ it is all to no avail! Paul is brilliant in how he reminds us just who is the real ‘who’ of Christmas. He brings us to Jesus and presents a powerful ‘curriculum vitae’ of Jesus. We learn that is the Lord of the universe! Not only this, we learn that He is the ‘means’ of all creation! And on top of this, we find out that He is the one and only ‘peacemaker’!
I hope that as we come closer to Christmas Day you will be fully aware of exactly who this baby in a manger is! And yes, He is relevant for us today because He knows all things; sees all things and has power over all things! He is the Lord of the universe! Be encouraged!