Sent by God: On a Mission

“’[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’” – Matthew 1:21

The angel told Joseph, “You are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” That is the Christmas story. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). God delights in mercy and not judgment.

When Jesus began his ministry, he knew how it would play out. He would end up being misunderstood, shunned, mocked, hated, plotted against, and finally hung on a cross to die.

Most of us want to be accepted by others, and so we “go with the flow.” But Jesus went against the culture of his day. He had a mission. He had our salvation to accomplish and hurting people to go to. The Bible says that he came to his own, but his own did not want him. They felt no need for salvation. The religious leaders became jealous of him because he didn’t fit into their system; and yet God was with him. When others were trying to win favor with Caesar in Rome, he didn’t even talk about the politics of the day. What a contrast with what we do today, fighting about things Jesus ignored as he loved all the people and called them to come to him. Have we not lost our way? Oh, Lord, have mercy on us!

Jesus kept busy doing his Father’s work. He didn’t follow the traditions of the day; and so, the religious establishment plotted his death. But after dying on the cross for our sins, he rose from the dead on the third day. Because of that, all glory and honor and praise belong to Jesus, the one who was the light, the one who came to help the wounded and rejected ones. He suffered in order to bring many sons and daughters to glory (Hebrews 2:10).

Jesus accomplished his mission. Because of his sacrifice and because He conquered sin and death when he rose again, we’re going to be in heaven with him one day, singing “Worthy Is the Lamb that was slain.” Let’s proclaim the hope we have in Jesus this Christmas!