His name is a title. A description that tell us not just who he is, but what he came to do.

Jesus. The Lord Saves. God to the rescue.

Christ. The anointed one. Messiah. King.

It’s actually more title than name. Christ isn’t his last name for sure. He wasn’t born into the Christ family. The first Christmas card didn’t come with a picture from the stable and a note – Happy Future Holidays from Joseph and Mary Christ… and baby Jesus.

Jesus was what he was called and it was his name. But his name was given for a much bigger purpose than just identification.

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” –The Angel (Matthew 1:21)

And this wonderful name is a reminder to us all. We needed a rescue. We were dead in our sins. We were cut off from God. We were without hope in this world. We needed a Savior.

God to the rescue. The Christmas story is a rescue story. God leaves his heavenly throne, takes on flesh, is born in a small town, and takes our place on a cross.

To save us. To rescue us. To bring us back to Him.

Christmas tells us that our God is on mission. The Christmas story is a mission story. And the mission is a rescue operation.

Remember that this Christmas. Remember that you had no hope of rescuing yourself. God came on mission and saved you.

And remember that the world still needs to be rescued. Living on mission is joining the rescue operation. The global rescue operation.

Let’s take the good news of Jesus Christ to a world in need of rescue.