GIVE HIM THE NAME “JESUS”                                      12-23-07 a.m.

Luke 1:26-38; Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2:1-20

Strip away the commercialism of Christmas in America; give no thought to the businesses who so desperately seek your dollars so they can make it financially for another year; lay aside the frantic rushing to buy last minute gifts and to decorate your home and to prepare the food for your festivities; and let’s look for a few minutes today at what Christmas is really all about.  

Christmas is about God taking the initiative to bridge the gap between Himself and His favorite part of His creation – human beings. 

We have just read the three portions of the Bible that talk in the most detail about the events that led up to and that night when Jesus came to this earth. It almost sounds absurd – heaven opening and God coming down into the body of a young woman named Mary – God as a human fetus. 

It almost sounds absurd that God would be born to such a poor couple, in such a poor place – no medical attention, in a stable with the sounds and smells of animals, no one in Bethlehem even noticing. It sounds absurd that God even would come to be our Savior, but the way He came, that’s what sounds especially absurd. Yet that’s the way God so often does things – not the way we would have done things if we were calling the shots, but in His own unique way, a way that often surprises us. 

In the three accounts that we just read there are some clues as to why Jesus came. You are to give Him the name “Jesus”, because He will save His people from their sins”. (Matt. 1:21) Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ, the Lord.” (Luke 2:11). 

So Jesus was to be a Savior. That’s even what His name means. But what kind of Savior would He be? The word means “to deliver or protect, either literally or figuratively.” When the Jews of Jesus’ day thought about a Savior, they thought of a political deliverer, one who would set them free from the Roman occupying forces that often made their lives miserable. 

Even following Jesus’ resurrection His disciples were still seeing Him as a political Savior. Just before His ascension back into heaven they asked Him: Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Ac1:6

But listen more carefully to the words of the angel to Joseph: You are to give Him the name “Jesus”, because He will save His people from their sins”. (Matt. 1:21). His coming did not have anything to do with any sort of political oppression, but rather it had to do with spiritual oppression. He came to liberate us from sin. 

WHAT IS SIN, AND WHY DO WE NEED TO BE SAVED FROM IT? 

Sin in the human experience began in the Garden of Eden. God had created two perfect human beings, Adam and Eve. They lived in a perfect setting, with all of their needs met. But God had forbidden them one thing: there were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Other than that, everything was theirs to enjoy. 

Tempted, they yielded to temptation and disobeyed God. That’s what sin is: yielding to the temptation to disobey God. It may be doing what He has forbidden; it may be refusing or even neglecting to do what He has commanded. But sin has to do with disobedience to God. 

Adam and Eve’s sin separated them from God, and our sin does the same. None of us is exempt. Both the Bible and our experience say the same thing: All have sinned. You, me, Billy Graham, Mother Teresa: we are all in the same boat: we have sinned and are separated from God. None of us is righteous in God’s sight. That’s why Jesus came.

There was no other way for us to bridge the gap between us and God. If we were going to be saved from our sin and its consequences, it would have to be God taking the initiative rather than us. None of our good works, none of our best efforts could bring us and God back together. Religion is man’s efforts to make himself good enough for God, and religion always ends in failure.

Religion is based on what we can do, if we can just get enough good in one side of the scale to outweigh the bad we have done that is in the other side of the scale, if we can only be good enough. But how good is good enough? Does it have to be 51% good so that it will outweigh our 49% bad? Or does it have to be 75%, or even 90%? Surely a just God would tell us how good would be good enough!  

It’s like asking how much poison in our water supply is acceptable? Would 10% or even 1% of arsenic in our drinking water be ok? Or E-coli, or coli- form bacteria? What we want is absolutely pure water to drink – that’s why bottled water has become a multi-billion $ business. 

God looks for absolute purity in us; He wants total obedience from us, and we all fall far short. And that’s why we have Christmas; that’s why Jesus came, because none of us could save ourself from our sin. 

He was a unique combination of God and man – like no one else either before Him or since. He was God in human flesh. Man had sinned, so man had to pay the penalty. But all men were sinners. Who was worthy to die for the sins of others since each had his own sin to die for? And how could one man’s death suffice for the sins of all people? 

Jesus Christ was the coming together of perfect man and perfect God.  As perfect man He was sinless; as perfect God He was infinite and could die for everyone’s sins. No one else could do what Jesus could do, and that’s why we have Christmas.  

Rev 1:5 speaks of Jesus as: him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood… Rev. 5:9 speaking of Jesus says: You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased men for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation. 

Jesus’ death on the cross completes what Christmas started. Jesus came to save His people from their sins. That did not happen the night He was born in a manger. That did not happen as He taught people important truths about God and about life. That did not happen as He healed people. That did not happen as He set people free from the power of demons. He did not save us from our sins until He died on the cross, the blood dripping from His head, and from His hands, and from His feet, and from His side.  

The purpose of Christmas, the purpose of Jesus coming to earth in Bethlehem that night so long ago, was to save you and to save me from our sin and its penalty. 

SO WHAT IS OUR PART? Since Jesus came to save us from our sins, does that mean universal salvation for everyone, since Jesus died for everyone? Or is there a response we must make in order for what He did in coming to earth to be effective for us personally?

There is no formula, no magic prayer that we can pray and if we get the words all right we will be saved. But there are a number of verses in the Bible that sort of outline it all for us. (walk through each of these verses) 

Eph 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.  

John 5:24 "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. 

Acts 16:30-31 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household." 

Rom 10:9-11 If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  

Those verses are not just for a small segment of people whom God has chosen to be saved. There are those who teach that God has a select group that He has chosen to spend eternity with Him. No, those are universal verses and they include you, and they include me. 

1 Tim 2:3-4 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 

If you are not sure of your salvation as you sit here this morning, I want to encourage you to be sure before you leave today. The verses we just looked at tell us what our part is in making Jesus our Savior, who came to save us from our sins.  

PRAY