Influenced by the British tradition of Nine Lessons and Carols as a Christmastime service, my home church, like so many others has taken time to worship the risen Christ while remembering the wonder-filling details of his birth. Miracles, angels and prophecies abound!
One of the points of meditation at our church has been the angel’s message given to Joseph, Mary’s betrothed husband. That angel gave Joseph a promise (a name for the miracle-child) and a message of deliverance which that special child would bring.
The Promise: “She will bear a son”
According to Matthew’s record of the angel’s message (Mt 1:21), a promise was given to Joseph regarding the birth of a son to Mary. It can be easy to forget or overlook the fact that only God can make promises and keep them, guaranteed. Stock market forecasters fail. Gurus and prognosticators fail. Artificial intelligence fails. You fail to keep your promises. Others have failed to keep their promises to you. Our lives are littered with broken promises.
But God makes a promise that Mary would bear a son. This announcement would fulfill a promise from centuries before of the child to be called “Immanuel”, that is “God with us” (noted in the next verse). God was fulfilling the promise given to Abraham of his offspring to be born as heir of the world. He was also fulfilling the promise given to serpent in the garden that the offspring of Eve would crush the serpent’s head.
If you have felt your world becoming more unstable, chaotic, and unpredictable, then maybe you need to stop ignoring God and start listening to his promises, guarantees, and assurances. No matter how chaotic our world gets God’s promises still stand. He has proven he keeps his promises.
As Thomas Chisholm’s hymn puts it:
Thou changest not,
Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been
Thou forever wilt be.
The Name: “you shall call his name Jesus”
I don’t need to tell you that the name of Jesus Christ is the most repeated swear-word in the world today. It is a curse word. The irony is that the name Jesus is the highest name, the name that is “above every name”, as Paul said, so that “at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”(Phil 2:10-11).
Why do people cuss with the name of Jesus? Nobody really thinks about what they are doing. But that’s the point. They are thoughtless toward God. Without a thought they break the third commandment, by taking the LORD’s name in vain. They use Jesus’ high name to give their anger weight and meaning. Meanwhile they want to assert their power and their pride above that name.
Despite how people use the name of Jesus, His is a special name. Jesus, is an English translation of the Greek word, Iesous, which is the Greek translation of the common Hebrew and Aramaic name, Yeshua, or Joshua. That Hebrew name is simply stating that Jehovah, the LORD, saves.
The name of Jesus draws a connection to all of the names and confessions of faith which God’s people Israel proclaimed when they gave their sons names. How many “Joshs” are in your church?
More importantly, such names expressed their trust in God. Jehovah saves. He saves. Another way of thinking about it is negatively. Israel did not, and could not save itself. Israel needed saving. Israel did not deliver itself out of Egypt. But Yahweh saves. Israel did not deliver itself from Babylonian captivity. But God saves.
So the name of Jesus should remind us of a simple truth. God does the saving. We don’t and can’t save ourselves. He saves. To believe that name is to believe that only the true God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, the God who created the universe out of nothing who created the galaxies and solar systems, who created Adam and Eve, male and female he created them, the God who made promises and has kept them over and over without fail, without change—that God is the one who saves.
The apostle Peter made this point in one of the first sermons ever preached about Jesus. He said in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (v.12).
We need to ask ourselves, what is the name of Jesus to us? As CS Lewis said, is Jesus the name of a lunatic, a liar or Lord? If you confess the name of Jesus, taking his name to yourself, you must admit readily that only God saves.
The Deliverance: “for he will save his people from their sins”
The question of being saved from trouble is not a unique one anymore. Modern advertising offers all kinds of good news for people suffering a problem. If you’re feeling ugly, there is good news; buy this makeup to a save you from ugliness. If you’re feeling sad, buy these clothes, or this car, or that food to deliver you from your sadness. Or if you’re really sad, look at this screen on this app with these algorithms and you will be delivered from your sadness with bright likes and emojis.
The name of Jesus communicates what Jesus would do. His good news is not to solve a problem with your looks or your emotions. He is given to save his people from something far more important, far more serious, far more profound, and far more unsolvable. He will save his people from their sins.
Christmas is about dealing with people’s sins. Your sins. Your moral criminality. Your offenses. Your trespasses and transgressions. Your neglect and failure. Your commissions as well as your omissions under God.
This is where Christmas Day And Good Friday and Easter Sunday meet. It is in the name of Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.
The child Jesus became the man Jesus who suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried and the third day he rose from the dead according to the Scriptures. Only Jesus, the God man, can be the one to save you from your sins. Only God can save you from God. Only the perfect man can offer his obedience in your place. Only the Jesus is qualified to bear the wrath of God for your sins, shedding his own blood in atonement, so that there is no wrath leftover for you.
The only question, is whether you will stop saving yourself and take the name of Jesus to yourself.
Only God saves.
This is news to fill us with awe and wonder at Christmastime!
