Beholding the Christ of the New Year

01.09.25 | Global | by Chris Jones

Beholding the Christ of the New Year

    What does the Christ of the new year look like for you? Is He the King of a kingdom you are part of and building for? Or is He a Savior you once trusted, and now gratefully live out your days waiting for heaven? What you are looking for may decide what you see.

    If we are waiting for heaven rather than building the kingdom, “...on earth as it is in heaven,” it will change how the Christ of the new year looks. Are you a co-creator and joint heir with Christ of the kingdom He began or are you waiting to see what happens? On Christmas Eve we learned from Isaiah 9:6–7 four names of Christ—Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. Powerful names for Christ. But no less powerful is what He began with His coming, where we are told “... of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.”

    In this world so filled with the remnants of other kingdoms that dispirit and grieve us, it’s good to remember the words of Christ to His 72 disciples returning from their “people of peace” finding mission. In Luke 10 these disciples return and tell of a kingdom that came with authority, breaking the power of demons over the people.

    In Luke 10:18 Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” The authority of Christ cast down the kingdom of Satan through the prayers and words of his disciples. He tells them privately in vs. 23–24 ”Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.” In the Christmas Eve meditation I asked, “Do you see what God sees?” As we enter 2025, can we pray that we will see and hear what God sees?

    The King has come and with Him the kingdom of heaven on earth, beginning with us as the new creation of God in Christ. Christ our King gave us kingdom authority wherever we go, to make disciples, baptize them and teach them to obey all that He has commanded, as citizens of the kingdom. This is not new. The Jews found freedom from Egypt, went through the waters and made a covenant with God as His priests, all leading to building a new kingdom. But this time a greater one than Moses leads us, and He is God and King as he was always meant to be. I can’t say what you hope to see in the new year, but I want to see His kingdom come, and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

    Let’s build for, not merely wait for, the kingdom. 


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    Pastor Kyle Davison Bair
    Chris Jones is the Global Outreach Director at New Hope Church. He longs for the unreached people of the world to experience the life-changing love of God and for people at New Hope Church to find fullness of joy by obeying the Great Commission.