HIS NAME IS JESUS
Matthew 1:18-21, esp. 21
Like so many of you, I love the Christmas story! However the Christmas story gets told, it’s always amazing. And it’s so cool when children are part of telling it because the story belonged to a Child—that precious Christ-child born 2000 years ago.
I was blessed to be raised in a Christian home—a home in which my mom and dad made special effort to keep the main thing the main thing at Christmas. I’m not sure I always appreciated at the time our family tradition of reading through the Christmas story before we dove into our presents—I was too anxious to get to “the good stuff”! But I have fond memories of that, looking back. I really don’t remember many of my presents from those early years—a race track, the “vacuform,” and silly putty in my stocking are a few of the strange things I do recall! But I remember well our family hearing again the Christmas story from Luke’s Gospel, often singing some carols together, and even praying together on Christmas Eve.
You know, the most amazing thing about the Christmas story is its relevance. It is at home in every age and fits into every mode of life. It is not simply a lovely tale once told, but it is eternally contemporary! It is the voice crying out in every wilderness. It’s as meaningful in our time as on that long-ago night when shepherds heard the angels singing and were directed to find the newborn king lying in a manger in a stable in Bethlehem. It’s as meaningful now because this Christ-child has changed our lives…and He continues to change lives. And, as our kids reminded us this morning, He brings hope into our world…into our little corners of the world.
This morning, I want to read a slice of the Christmas story from Matthew’s Gospel—which centered more around the family line of Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, than upon Mary’s journey. Matthew appears to be motivated to prove to the Jewish people that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one from the family line of King David—which was accomplished through Joseph. Turn with me to Matthew 1, and let’s begin reading at verse 18—
[Read Matthew 1:18-21, NIV]
In our Advent series, I’ve been focusing on the question, “What Shall We Call Him?” Last week we looked at a few of the titles given to Jesus—even long before He was born. And for these few moments this morning, I want us to look at His given name—His proper name, if you will—the name “Jesus.”
In the passage we just read, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and reassured him that Mary had not been unfaithful to him—that the child she was carrying was conceived through supernatural means. God had a plan in all of this, and Joseph’s role was to marry this young woman as he had already planned to do, and to accept this child as his own. And, in doing so, Joseph was to give this child a name—and the angel said that the name was to be “Jesus”—which means, “the Lord saves!”
It actually was a fairly common name in that day. It was common in the Old Testament times, too, but in its Hebrew form, which is “Joshua.” “Jesus” is the Greek form of the Hebrew name “Joshua.” The name Joshua is still popular today! If our twin daughters had both been boys, one of them would have been named Joshua—and, as it is, both ended up marrying young men with the name Joshua. Biblically, we know the name Joshua most by the man who was the successor to Moses, who actually led the Israelite people into the Promised Land after Moses had died. There’s a book in the Old Testament which bears his name.
But this Joshua, this Jesus, was like no other. He would embody the meaning of the name—“the Lord saves!”—like no other ever had or ever would, for this Jesus was coming to save people from their sins—the ultimate salvation God was offering to all people.
Jesus came to save us from our sins. This was His big mission—nothing less, nothing else. Earlier this morning our children reminded us of the words found in Luke’s Gospel—when the angels proclaimed to the shepherds out on the hillside near Bethlehem:
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)
Jesus is the Savior. He came to save us from our sins. It’s Who He is. It’s what He’s about.
Christ came to save His people from their sins. He came to purchase for us, not a liberty to sin, but a liberty from sin and to redeem us from all the penalty of sin. To save us from our sin was His great business in this world—the great errand on which He was sent. He came to pay the penalty for our sin, thus delivering us from all the power, guilt, shame and pollution of sin—and that deliverance is the priceless privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus.
To think of Jesus’ purpose in terms of anything less that this would be a misrepresentation of the Gospel, and thus of Him. He did not come to prove His toleration of sin, but His intolerance for it—and to lovingly and graciously provide the way by which we could escape the dreadful curse of sin. He came to set us free from the grip of sin upon our lives!
This forgiveness of sins summarizes the concept of salvation found in both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It means more than just the pardoning of individual wrongs; it means that the barrier between God and each one of us has been lifted. While our sin separates us from Holy God, Christ’s salvation removes the barrier, and is, in essence, our bridge to relationship with our Heavenly Father. Jesus came to do that for us. He is our Savior! He came to rescue us from the ramifications of our own sins. That was His great purpose! The angel said to Joseph, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Don’t let anyone convince you of a lesser purpose in Christ’s coming! Christmas is more than a sentimental season of lights and gifts and treats. The beauty and the kindness and the generosity which is promoted at Christmas is merely to be reminders to us of the beauty and the kindness and the wonder of our Heavenly Father, our Creator God, seeing our need for a Savior, and sending His Son to us in the humble form of a human being entering this world, as every other human being does, as a baby.
Christ came to Earth for one reason: to reconcile God and humanity, to renew the covenant, to make amends. His birth we celebrate this season is only the beginning of His mission. He came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. But the whole story isn’t all such a pretty story, because this salvation was possible only through His sacrificial death on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection from the grave. We praise the Lord for His birth, but without Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, it would have been only that—a birth. Forgiveness would have been impossible. But because Jesus came to save us from our sins, the significance of Jesus to us goes far beyond His miraculous birth.
This assumes, by the way, the reality of sin in our lives. It is the common plight of all humanity. There’s no point in denying it. It’s been the case for people throughout the ages. Scripture says it clearly—“All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
And the fact that Jesus came to save us from our sins assumes that we have need for deliverance from sin—that we are incapable of delivering ourselves, of pulling ourselves up from our bootstraps and making ourselves good enough to be accepted by God. But God has seen our plight—and He has come to our rescue! Jesus is our Savior!—our Hero, our Deliverer!
And that brings us back to the essence of our Hope—Jesus. The Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, inspired by the Heavenly Father, looked ahead to the day when Jesus would come, and prayed, with faith, “I will be joyful in God my Savior!” (Hab 3:18). We need a Savior! Sin separates us from God. Besides that, sin wrecks lives—it always has and always will…you will be no exception to the rule!
But every one of us can find and experience forgiveness of sin and deliverance from it in Jesus—“He will save his people from their sins.” No one else could do that. But now that it’s done, no one else needs to do that.
Therefore, friends, we have hope! We have hope in Jesus our Savior! There is joy in that deliverance, and that joy nurtures an abiding sense of hope in our lives! As long as there are people on the earth, there will be no “peace on earth” as such—but when Christ rules in our hearts, He brings peace to our souls, despite whatever else is going on around us.
Jack London wrote a short story about a hundred years ago called “Love of Life.” It was based on a real-life person names Charles Bunn and an ordeal that changed his life. Bunn was a prospector during the Yukon gold rush of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. One winter he and his partner ventured far up into the Artic regions. As they began running low on food and other supplies, Bunn’s partner took their provision and deserted Bunn after Bunn broke his ankle and could no longer walk.
Finding himself alone in the Arctic without food, matches, or weapons, Bunn began to crawl southwestward over barren snow and ice. He drank brackish water whenever he could find a break in the ice. He scooped out little minnows and swallowed them raw. He ate whatever he could find to eat. After 8 days and nights, Bunn came across some Eskimos hunting polar bear. The Eskimos bundled him in animal skins and furs, gave him food, and let him sleep inside one of their tents. In time, he regained enough strength to sit on a dog sled and be taken to the nearest city where he received medical attention.
A year later, Bunn was fully recovered and back to his desk job in Skagway, Alaska. However, his coworkers noticed some quirky things about him. He never went anywhere without a full box of matches, some simple foods and a small flask of water—nowhere! They laughed about it at first, but came to realize that it had become an obsession to him. His whole ordeal had so horrified him that he promised himself he would never again be anywhere without basic supplies.
Now, consider this: if the human body can crave food so desperately that it takes them to the edge of insanity, how much more so must the very core of a person’s being—our soul—feel desperation if there is no hope in life? And the truth is that, without God, we are trapped and ensnared in our sinful condition. We can’t change that.
But when Jesus, the Savior, was born that first Christmas, Jesus rescued humanity from such desperation. The shepherds knelt before their King. The angels sang praises to earth’s Redeemer. At last the desperate need for a Savior was met—and for the first time, their hope was secure.
So it is for us in this Advent season of 2009. We celebrate that our Savior has come—and therefore, my friends, we can have hope. My prayer for each of you is that the hope of the Savior will be yours this Christmas and forevermore.
