Jesus Changes Everything

FORUM FILE PHOTO
Pastor Dale Baker First Baptist Church

The Christmas Story — a teenage girl named Mary becomes pregnant unexpectedly … since she’s a virgin. An angel appears and tells her that her baby is a gift from God and is going to grow up to be the savior of the whole world. Mary is an unmarried pregnant teenager, which back then was way worse of a situation than it would even be today, so the angel tells her not to be afraid. Mary and her fiancé Joseph travel to a town called Bethlehem, where Mary has the baby in a stable, because there is nowhere else to go. Shorty afterward, people start showing up — people who’ve heard that miracle baby has been born. There’s a lot more to the story, but here’s the point: God himself came to earth, in the form of a tiny, helpless baby.

This baby was going to change the whole world! Take a look at this prophecy that was written about the coming of Jesus, years and years before he was born.

Isaiah 9:6 That baby may have started out as just a baby, but the people who were paying attention knew that he would grow up to be so much more: they understood Jesus would change everything. Jesus came to earth because God loved us so much that he would do anything to restore our relationship with him. Even if that meant he would give up power and position, come to earth, live, die, and return to life, all for you and me.

Hebrews 4:14-15 This passage says that Jesus, the baby born in the manger, became our High Priest. That title may not mean much to you, but it meant a lot to the people of Jesus’ day. The High Priest was the person who came between humans and God. He was the person who made peace with God on our behalf. Before Jesus, High Priest did this with animal sacrifices, prayers and very specific rituals. But Jesus came to end all of that. With Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, he became the one who could make peace between us and God.

Jesus came to restore our relationship with God. He came to show us what God was like, to tell us how to get close to him. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because of the birth we can have through him. We celebrate the life of Jesus because of the new life he offers us, both now and forever. Jesus changes everything.