Jeff gives a brief and powerful message on the importance of your given name. He explains how Jesus' birth name means so much more than we can even believe!
Matthew 1:18-25
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Matthew 1, we're going to be picking up a very familiar story.
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Verse 18, Matthew writes, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
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When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they had come together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
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and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
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"But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
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"You will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
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"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel," This means God with us.
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"When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
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He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
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And he called his name Jesus." I want you to think for a second.
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How did you get your name?
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Do you know?
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Did you ever have that talk with whoever named you?
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Like, why did you decide on this name?
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Do you know why you have the name that you do?
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Well, a name means something.
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Even if it's random.
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I picked that name because there was an actor that had that name and I thought it sounded nice.
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Even if it's accidental.
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I've known people that received their names by accident.
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Even if it's arbitrary.
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Like, no reason.
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Just thought it would sound good.
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So whatever the case is, your name has definitely come to mean something.
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You know, God is all about naming things.
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Did you know that?
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In fact, when you read in the Bible Genesis, when He created man.
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The first job that He gave man was to what?
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Name all of the animals.
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Hasn't really changed, has it?
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We love to name things even today, don't we?
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We name our kids, and we get to name our pets.
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Some of us name our cars.
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Some of us actually name our biceps, right?
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To intimidate people, we say this is truth and justice.
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Right?
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This is law.
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This is order.
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Right now, some of you are thinking, no Jeff, that's more like Bert and Ernie, right?
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But we love to name things, don't we?
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Because a name means something.
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Did you know that God has a name?
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Did you know that?
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And you're like, yeah, it's God.
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Technically, it's not.
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You see, technically, if we're going to get technical, God is more of a title.
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In fact, in the Hebrew, in the Old Testament, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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The Hebrew literally is "Elohim Barah," and that name "Elohim" means the power, or the Almighty.
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And yes, when we say "God," we say it reverently, And really, it's the title that means "the Almighty." Even when we say "Lord," "Adonai," that's also a title.
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Technically, God's name, as we would spell it, is YHWH.
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What's called the Tetragrammaton.
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four letters, and it finds its source in Exodus chapter 3, when Moses said to God, "Well, who should I tell them sent me?" And you remember his answer.
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He says, "I am who I am." In fact, the Hebrews would consider this name too holy to even speak.
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They would write it, but they wouldn't even say it.
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Even scholars today have said, "We're not even quite sure how to pronounce it, because the Hebrews wouldn't pronounce it." It's too holy to say.
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And that brings us back to the point that a name means something.
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Doesn't it?
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A name means something.
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We call people names.
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We call people names for good and for bad.
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meaning if somebody does a great job playing a game or something, we might say, "Hey, great job, superstar.
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That name makes you feel pretty good, doesn't it?" Or for bad, you hand your friend something and they drop it.
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"Nice hands, genius." Didn't quite mean it for good.
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And they mean something, we get offended.
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We get offended if somebody uses the wrong name, don't we?
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I remember my moment to shine in my high school yearbook.
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You know how they have the candid shots and they have the names on the side, you know what I'm talking about?
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And, well I went to a very small high school.
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Okay, it was very small, it was like the size of two phone booths put together.
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It was a small high school.
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everybody knew everybody. It wasn't just like everybody knew everybody.
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Everybody knew everybody else's family and life history and everything.
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My point is whoever was working on the yearbook, I've gotten over it, it's been a while, but whoever was working on the yearbook absolutely 100% knew who I was.
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But when the yearbook came out, there it was, my picture, and beside it, it said It said Jill Miller. Do I look like a Jill?
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I was a little offended. Because a name means something, right?
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We get offended if somebody uses the wrong name.
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We also get offended if somebody doesn't use a name at all.
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I mean, just imagine with me.
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Imagine we have a guest with us tonight, and they stop by to say hi in the lobby.
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And let's just say it's a lady that's wearing red pants.
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And as you're leaving the lobby, I'm introducing this guest to some of you.
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And I'm like, "Hey, have you met Miss Red Pants here?" "Yeah, Miss Red Pants says this is her first time here." "And where'd you say you're from, Miss Red Pants? How long have you lived there, Miss Red Pants?" "How many times do you think I'm going to say that before she says, 'My name is Jill'?" Right?
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And I'm gonna be like, oh, what a coincidence.
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According to my high school yearbook, me too.
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Don't you see the point?
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Names are important.
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Names are important.
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In fact, when God was giving the commandments, did you know the third commandment, God says, "Don't misuse my name.
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"Don't take my name in vain." Meaning, use my name in an empty way.
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Like it doesn't mean anything.
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God says, "Don't do that." Because my name means something.
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So, in this account that we read in Matthew, God is going to come to the earth in the most amazing way possible.
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But you think about it, if God were going to come to the earth, the Almighty, the Powerful One was going to come to the earth, I don't know, I would sort of expect it would be an entrance like the heavens open up There's lightning and flashes of just brilliant light.
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And He comes with much thunder and fanfare, and every single person on the planet is forced to stop what they're doing and look at Him, because the Creator and the Holy One is here!
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So stop what you're doing!
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That's how I'd expect Him to show up.
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Notice God doesn't often do things the way we expect.
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he comes to the earth is in the most humble and regular way possible a person can come to the earth. He came as a baby.
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So when the announcement is given that he's coming, when the angel in this passage gives Joseph the news, you can be sure that God wasn't going to roll the dice on what his name was going to be I mean could you imagine if the Lord was like you'll give birth to a son and he's gonna save his people from our sins and you know best of luck to you and Joseph and Mary are trying to come up with a name and Joseph's like you know what Old Testament name I really like is Melchizedek let's call him Melchizedek and like in 2016 we would be getting up and worshipping the name of Melchizedek.
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So God wasn't going to roll the dice on this.
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He says, "No, here is what you're going to call him." Did you see that in verse 21?
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"She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus." It's actually the name Yeshua or Joshua, which literally means Jehovah shall save.
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Notice he goes on in verse 21, "For He will save His people." So, He's coming, and He's coming to save.
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So this is a rescue mission.
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This is the purpose for which He came is to rescue.
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Will save from what?
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And it says, "He will save His people from their sins." This is the reason that Jesus came.
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The Bible says it's to save His people from our sins.
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Now the word for sins in the Greek is the word hamartia.
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And it means, literally, it means missing the mark.
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Now when people hear that, missing the mark, they think it means something like this.
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Like, okay, I'm an archer, and there's a target, and I'm going to try to aim at the target, and my aim was just a little off, so I didn't quite hit the center.
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I missed the mark.
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And some people think that that's what the mark means, like, "Oh, you know what? I really tried, I really tried, but I didn't quite hit it." That's actually not what it means at all.
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It would mean you have your bow and arrow, and you have the target, and you decide to aim somewhere else.
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You intentionally - not accidentally - you intentionally miss the mark, meaning this, when God gave His law, He said, "This is how to live.
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This is how I designed your life on the earth.
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This is how I want you to act.
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This is the kind of people I want you to be." And we, the created mankind, we have repeatedly said, "No." God says, "I want you to be people who always tell the truth." And we say, "No. There's times that telling a lie is going to suit me better." God says, "I want you to honor your parents." And we say, "No, because my parents are dumb and always know better.
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And we tell God no.
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God says, "I want you to love others the way you want them to love you.
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I want you to treat others the way you want them to treat you." And we say no!
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They don't deserve it!
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That's sin.
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When the Holy One, the Creator, says to His created, "This is the deal," and His created says, "No, you don't tell me what to do!" and we intentionally miss the mark.
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We have to ask ourselves what are His options?
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What are God's options at this point?
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Some would say, well, maybe His option is just to ignore, right?
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Like sometimes parents are like, "Don't do that!" And then the kids do that, and the parents are like, "What can you do, kids?" And we just ignore it.
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Well, God is unable to do that because of His holiness.
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He can't just overlook flagrant rebellion.
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What are his options?
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Another option is he could punish us as we would deserve.
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The other truth is that he loves us.
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So he can't ignore us, and he doesn't want to punish us.
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He has a third option, and that is right here.
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It's to save us.
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It's to rescue us.
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It's to come into this world himself as a man, as a man, bear the wrath of God on himself on our behalf.
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The thing that he accomplished 33 years after this moment that's talked about here, when he took the penalty of our sin on the cross.
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Right now somebody's thinking, "Wait, wait, wait, I thought this was a Christmas service.
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This sounds a lot like Easter." But here's the reality, church.
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We can't separate Christmas from Easter.
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I think people like the Christmas message in general.
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I think people like the Christmas message better because we've sort of reduced the Christmas message to, "Oh, here's this sweet little Jewish couple, "and oh, she's so pregnant, and oh, they had to travel, "and oh, there's no room at the inn, "and she had the baby in a manger."
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(sighs)
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Wasn't that a Hallmark movie waiting to be filmed?
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And we're sort of comfortable with that.
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When the reality is the reason He came was ultimately fulfilled 33 years after that event.
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He was nailed to a cross to fulfill this mission right here, "For He will save His people from their sins." You know, as God is poised to pour out His wrath on sin in steps Jesus Christ to bear that penalty.
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And there's a sense in which literally God is saving you from Himself because of Jesus Christ.
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And even when some people hear the message about salvation, I think sometimes people think of salvation just as the ticket to heaven, right?
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You don't want to go to hell, do you?
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Well, no, of course I don't want to go to hell.
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Well, believe in Jesus and you'll go to heaven.
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And understand that the mission of saving people from sin is so much more than that.
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It actually has a past, a present, and a future aspect.
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The past aspect - Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin.
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Yet while I deserve and you deserve to be punished by God for all of the wrong things that we've done, Jesus saved us from the penalty that in Christ we are pronounced not guilty.
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Saved from the penalty.
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Some people want to stop there.
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Like, yeah, that's all I want.
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I just don't want to pay for the wrong things that I've done.
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But you see, the reality is the person that's truly saved, the person that's born again, receiving His Spirit, there's another aspect of salvation.
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He saves us from the power of sin.
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His Holy Spirit gives us the power to say yes to God and to say no to sin.
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A power that we wouldn't have on our own.
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So not only are we saved from the penalty, today, right now, we are being saved from the power, but it also has a future aspect.
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Salvation.
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Someday He will save us from the presence of sin.
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The day is coming when sin everything of the past.
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The Bible is so clear in heaven, there is no sin.
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There's no wrongdoing.
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There's no hurt of any kind.
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So when the Bible says He will save His people from their sins, don't just look at it as your passport has been stamped for heaven.
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It's so much more than that.
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Saved from the penalty, being saved from the power, and you will be saved from the presence.
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This salvation doesn't just come from anyone.
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You have to see that it's centered around a name.
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My encouragement to you this Christmas, don't keep it generic.
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Don't keep it generic.
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We say things like, "Well, we're just going to celebrate and spread some Christmas cheer." Like, what does that even mean?
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Or, you know, "We would like to wish you some good family tidings." Or, "Isn't it just a season of heavenly peace?" I want to encourage you to take that name, the name that's given here, the name by which we must be saved.
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I want you to celebrate the name, Jesus.
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I'm going to give you an opportunity.
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I want you to say that name.
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Are you ready?
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Say Jesus. Say it again.
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Jesus, the name of the one who saves His people from their sins.
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We're going to get really specific.
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We're going to celebrate how He saved His people from their sins.
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I'm going to receive the Lord's Supper.
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Will you bow with me in prayer?
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Father in Heaven, we are so familiar with this story as we just prayed before the service.
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We get so familiar that it sort of loses the impact over time.
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And I pray, God, that You would with the reality in a fresh way.
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That you came to save your people from our sins.
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You came to accomplish for us the thing that we couldn't accomplish on our own.
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And you chose to do it by fully embracing humanity.
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That Jesus didn't just step out of heaven and onto the cross for a few minutes and then go back to heaven.
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That you would actually start life in the womb to be born in a way that we can't even understand grow and develop and mature as a human, but to still fully be God at the same time.
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Father, we gather around Your table now to reflect on the reason that You came.
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While we were yet sinners, You died on our behalf.
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You took the wrath, You took the penalty, and took the judgment that we deserve.
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We stepped in.
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So Father, I pray in the midst of all of the other distractions and thoughts and plans and even now the itineraries that are running through our heads over what's going to happen in the next couple of days, I pray Father, it would all be cleared off.
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Right now, we would focus on one thing only.
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The sacrifice of Jesus Christ, represented through communion.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.