8. Jesus: I AM Your Salvation

Introduction

Sometimes a single sentence can have a lot of meaning.

Commas save lives!

Let’s eat, Grandma. OR Let’s eat Grandma.

Some people enjoy cooking, their families, and their dogs. OR Some people enjoy cooking their families and their dogs.

Stop and think about what that says...

Early humans hunted mammoths armed with spears.

I found my missing hat cleaning my room.

I saw lots of horses on vacation in Spain.

My personal favorite: A woman, without her man, is nothing. OR A woman: without her, man is nothing.

This evening, as we worship on Christmas Eve, we’re going to focus our attention on one sentence from Matthew 1.

Scripture - Matthew 1:18-25 (NIV)

He will save his people from their sins (Matt 1:21).

He WILL SAVE his people from their sins. (Matt 1:21)

What does it mean to save?

To save for something, like saving up for a car.

To save from something, like saving someone from drowning—to rescue.

In Matthew 1:21, the focus is on being rescued. This is why Jesus came—to rescue the world. See John 3:17.

We are sent not to be agents of condemnation but agents of salvation.

He will save his people FROM THEIR SINS. (Matt 1:21)

What is sin and why do we need saved from it?

Sin = anything that goes against God’s will

Why is that such a big deal? It comes down to the issue of trust.

Sin always leads to death (Gen 2:16-17). This isn’t a threat of punishment but a warning of danger.

As parents we tell our young children not to play in the street or they’ll get hit by a car…

God is the source of life. When we reject God, we separate ourselves from the source of life, and that leads to death… like a phone without a charger.

Rejecting God’s will brings death to us and to the world around us. Where did all the evil in the world come from? From rejecting God. Sin always leads to death. This is what Jesus came to save us from.

HE will save his people from their sins. (Matt 1:21)

Not the government, schools and education, science, technology, social services, or humanitarian non-profit organizations.

Most importantly, we can’t save ourselves from our sin. We are powerless to fix the problem.

We tell our kids to be more thankful, but we can’t actually make ourselves be more thankful… or loving… or generous… or kinder.

Who is Jesus, that he actually can save us from our sin? See Phil Robertson… “Jesus Isn’t Just a Cute Baby in a Manger.”

While the world may be singing “Joyful, joyful we adore thee” during December, we are adoring him all year long. We worship him because he’s not just a harmless little Christmas baby but the God who appeared in human flesh 2,000 years ago.

It’s true that our Jesus did come as an infant, but he wasn’t a baby before he came. He was the mighty God who created the universe and everything in it. But as he grew into manhood, he matured into the same Jesus who healed disabled people, people who were blind from birth, and those who were possessed by demons. He is also the same Jesus who raised the dead. He is the same Jesus who died on the cross only to be raised from the dead himself three days later. And he is the same Jesus who now sits at the right hand of God…

It is a dangerous thing to be confused about Jesus. He’s not our bellhop, ready to tote our bags to our rooms. He’s not our personal assistant who helps us find parking places. Instead, he is the God who came to serve us by doing for us the one thing that we couldn’t do for ourselves — he came to pay the debt of sin that we are unable to pay.

He will save HIS PEOPLE from their sins. (Matt 1:21)

Who are his people? Not who you might think. Just look at some of his followers.

Mary Magdalene — former prostitute who had seven demons

Peter — the stereotypical macho guy who overcompensates to cover up his own insecurity and fear

James & John — power-hungry racists who wanted to call down fire from heaven to destroy a Samaritan city simply because the people living there were Samaritans

Nathanael — excessively arrogant

Simon the Zealot — alt-right political radical who advocated violence against the Roman Empire

Matthew — a leftist tax collector extorting his own people to raise money for the Roman Empire

Followers of Jesus included

Wealthy & poor

Married & single

Men & women

Old & young

Educated & illiterate

Jews & Gentiles

What did they all have in common? They recognized that they needed saving.

Who are Jesus’s people, the ones he will save? They are the people who confess their sin and come to Jesus for salvation. Those are the people who are saved.

Conclusion

Do you need to be saved? Are you one of his people?

Good people don’t go to heaven. Forgiven people do. The only people who will be saved are those who admit they’ve sinned, recognize they need to be saved, and come to Jesus because he’s the only one who can save them.