Messages

Christmas 2020 // We Need Jesus

Date:12/20/20

Series: Special Messages

Speaker: Jeff Thompson

In the midst of COVID-19 and a world increasingly spinning out of control, hope and peace are found in remembering what we still need most.


Transcription (automatically-generated):

The first Christmas was difficult, you know, the story, the circumstances of Jesus birth were not what Mary must have imagined back when the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and declared rejoice, highly favored one.

The Lord is with you, blessed are you, among woman and arduous and unexpected journey.

In the ninth month of her pregnancy, a cold night, an animal shelter, a husband in over his head, none of it.

Was what Mary would have described as what I needed most at that moment, 33 years later, after Jesus had been ministering for three years, Israel was disappointed.

She was disappointed in and with Jesus because Israel was under the rule, under the thumb of the Roman Empire.

God's chosen people were being governed by pagans and there was nothing she could do about it. Israel was like an ant ranting at a lion. What Israel needed was obvious to everybody. She needed deliverance from her Roman occupiers.

This was the defining problem of the age and the moment into which Jesus was born and in which he ministered. And Israel was open to the idea of a messiah because they had read the Old Testament scriptures that prophesied the one God would send to save his people.

They had read Isaiah nine six, which declares prophetically, for unto us a child is born unto us, a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace.

And as they read it, they projected their greatest need onto God and concluded that this messiah would obviously be a mighty and miraculous warrior who would give Israel military victory over Rome and military supremacy over the Earth, returning Israel to a rightful place of preeminence over the nations.

Can you imagine then? Their disappointment. When wonder working, miracle making, transformational teaching, Jesus of Nazareth began to speak, not of conquering the Romans, but of dying for the sins of the world.

So great was the disappointment that collectively Israel would reject Jesus and demand the Romans crucify him.

The tragedy of Israel missing Jesus when he was among them in the flesh, unfolded because Israel believed she was aware of her greatest need.

She was sure of it, it was obvious what was needed. Our world is missing Jesus, and even many saved believers are missing out on the blessings of Jesus because we think we know what our greatest need is.

Two thousand years ago, Israel swore that her greatest need was deliverance from the Roman Empire.

Today, we swear that our greatest need is a covid-19 vaccine life to go back to normal. Another stimulus check from the government schools to stay open or schools to close.

And even before 2020, we swore that our greatest need was a long term relationship, a spouse, a better job, more money. A nicer house. And we are disappointed when we hear that Jesus is promising none of those things. What Israel and our world and us fail to notice is that when we get any of those things, it's still not enough, we're still empty.

We still don't have real joy and real peace that lasts.

We can get the house, but the marriage falls apart. We get married, but we have no money. We get that new car, but a friend gets an even better one. And on and on and on I could go. There's always something else to reach for, something else to put our hope in.

And we think that if we could just get there and if we could just have that. Then it would all come together, we'd have what we truly need. But it always disappoints. It always disappoints. We just miss the pattern and go on repeating it over and over and over. I just need this. No, I just need that. No, I just need them. God is so good because God does not give us what we think we need.

He gives us what we truly need. And Jesus came to the earth to give us what we truly need. Which is to be reconnected to our maker, put back in relationship with our heavenly father to find our identity as a son or a daughter of God. That's where the pieces found. That's where the joy lies. That's where the hope dwells. And this is why it has been well said, that man's greatest need is God's greatest deed. We have no idea what we need.

We have no idea, but our heavenly father does, and he offers it freely to all who come to his son, Jesus. And what we need most in this strange and testing our. Is Jesus, it's Jesus. And the message of Christmas is that he came, that we might have him. For those who have placed their faith in Jesus, he is still Emmanual, he's still God with us, and his spirit is living within us at this very moment.

And we can know him. We can feel him, we can sense him. We can be comforted by and strengthened by him.

If we will tune out all the noise, if we will lower the volume on all the other fraudster's who shout, I'm what you need.

What we are all truly looking for can be found by any of us wherever we are. In a quiet moment and with the simple request of a humble heart, the praise father. I know that you are what I really need. So please give me more of you.

The comfort offered by the apostle Paul to Christians in Rome who were suffering persecution for their faith was not, don't worry, Christians are exempt from difficult times in their earthly lives.

So it's soon going to be over or don't worry, you just need to claim God's promise that everything always works out in life. You just need to stand on the Verse is and claim them and wish away and faith away every difficult that you have, every difficulty you have.

Paul doesn't say that. Paul says this is what you should be encouraged by in Romans eight, he says, be encouraged by this.

I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The promise of the Bible and the promise of God is not that we are exempt from difficulty or difficult times. The promise is so much better, the promises that Jesus is with us and he's available to us through those difficult times.

The words of the famous hymn ring true no matter the season of history. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Jesus is still what we need most, and he is with us and he is here for us. Merry Christmas Church.

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