You may not realize this but Christ is not Jesus last name.  Christ was a word in Jesus day which referred to the ONE, the anointed one, the legendary one, the one of prophecy, the ONE King.  Sometimes we forget the incredible honor that we have on this side of Christmas.  We know the name of the Christ.  His name is Jesus.  We know the name.  

The Old Testament is filled with prophecies pointing us toward Christ, but we never knew the name. Abraham was called the friend of God, but he never knew the name. Moses was so close to God that they spoke face to face as a friend speaks to a friend, but God never told him the name. God called King David, “a man after my own heart.”  You might think David would’ve been given the name.  But he never knew the name. The prophet Micah was told he would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2) but he never new the name. 

Perhaps the prophet Isaiah came the closest. He knew that He would be a light which would bring joy. He knew that He would suffer for us and be like a lamb led to slaughter. He knew that He would be born as a child. In fact He knew that He would be born from a virgin. And he almost got the name. “Behold the virgin shall conceive,” Isaiah said, “and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Wait a minute, Immanuel simply means “God with us.” We knew that Isaiah.  Try again. And so he tried again. “For unto us a child will be born and the government will be upon his shoulders and his name will be called, ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.'” 

Not even Isaiah knew the name. But we… WE KNOW THE NAME.

His name…is JESUS.  JESUS is the name above all other names and we know that name.  Let me ask you, do you love his name? You know some people will tattoo the name of the person they love on their arm. “MOM”  What if you tattooed “Amy” but then married “Julie?” When you were young…and in love…you would doodle that guy’s name all over your notebooks. When my daughters were in high school, I would look through their notebooks to see who’s names they were doodling… so I could pray for him. :)

Did you ever doodle the name of Jesus in your notebooks?

As you got older you found that loving someone might mean defending their name. Maybe you had a brother or sister that you thought you hated, until you heard someone use their name in vain, and then stuff inside your heart just overflowed and you want to battle for their name. Did you ever go to battle Jesus’ name? Did you ever look up and gently ask someone to stop using Jesus name as a swear word?

And then one day you fell in love…this was it, the person you were going to marry, and we learned when we fell in love that we might love some one so much that we would make their name our own name. Or maybe you’ve gone out and found children that you loved so much, you gave them your name.

Do you love his name?

Is that all we talk about? Not in some push-my-religion-on-others kind of way, but have you have found yourself in a season when you just could not stop talking about Jesus?  Seems like that should occur even more at Christmas? Do I love the name of Jesus?

This is the Christmas message, “The Christ has come and his name is Jesus.” Paul was a man who understood the one message,he said things like,  

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ…  (Philippians 3:8-9)

Christmas really isn’t Christmas without his name.  Jesus.  Doodle that today.