128. He Is A Bigger Deal Than You Think

Haggai 2:9

Does it ever seem like Jesus hasn’t made that big of a difference in your heart? Do you ever look at your own self and think, “Is this it? I mean, I gave my life to Jesus, but where is He? When is He going to show up?” The other day I was thinking about the Christmas story, and how Jesus came as a baby and then basically lived a normal, quiet life in a small town for thirty years, slowly growing from a baby into a little boy - then from a little boy into a man. In all those years, nothing world-changing really seemed to happen. For three decades, the excitement and upheaval of the Christmas story seemed to be an epic failure. Well, it seemed to be an epic failure unless you’re in on the secret: You see, hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the Israelites had come back to their homes from captivity in a foreign country and rebuilt their temple. Only problem was, the new temple was a lame version of what had been this incredible masterpiece of architecture and devotional art. All the old folks who remembered the former temple were brokenhearted, but God spoke through a prophet called Haggai and said that “The Desired of all Nations” would come and fill the new temple with more glory than the former. After Christmas, baby Jesus went in there with Mary and Joseph and quietly fulfilled the prophecy. On the surface, just a baby in a building. Behind the scenes, all of heaven freaking out! Jesus in your heart is like a secret behind-the-scenes change. It’s more than it seems. He’s doing more than you know.