Advent: You Shall Call Him Jesus
Advent 2019 • Sermon • Submitted
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· 63 viewsThe birth of Jesus and his coming is so signficant that we cannot understand what it means to us now and in the future. The fact remains that Jesus came and Jesus is coming again and bringing hope with him.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome back!
This morning if you will I would like for us to turn back to a passage that we looked at a few weeks ago, .
This morning though we are only going to be focusing in on four verses from the passage, verses 20-23.
But if your remember back a couple of weeks ago, the passage found here in the end of , told us the backstory of the birth of Jesus.
We looked at Mary and Joseph and the announcement of Mary’s pregnancy and birth of Jesus.
And we spent quite a bit of time looking at Joseph and the decisions that he had to make and how his decisions during this time were very important to the overall fulfillment of the prophecies of Jesus.
We did that because many times we have a tendency to look at stories about great heroes and only look at the person who is the subject of the story, in this case Jesus, but we often fail to see all the people who supported the hero along the way, who honestly were heroes in their own right.
And if Jesus were standing here today, I am confident that he would testify to all of us of the support and help that people gave him throughout his life, including his parents, Mary and Joseph.
And we should never lose that, but this morning we are going to look at something just a little bit different.
This morning we are going to spend some time looking at the message that the angel gave to Joseph and particularly when the angel told Joseph what the name of this baby they were going to be having would be.
So, this morning if you have you are able to, I’d invite you stand with me as we read , verses 20-23.
Matthew writes this . . .
Scripture Focus
Scripture Focus
Matthew 1:
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
His Name Will Be Jesus (vs 20-21)
His Name Will Be Jesus (vs 20-21)
Now just to refresh us a bit, remember this is part of a much larger narrative concerning the announcement of the birth of Jesus.
And we see that play out in verse 20, when Matthew writes, “but after this...” and the “after this” is in reference to Joseph finding out that Mary was pregnant and his plan to divorce her “quietly” so as to not publicly disgrace Mary.
This is when the angel appeared to Joseph and said, “hold on just a minute buddy, let me explain to you what is going on here,” and and then proceeds to explain to Joseph that Mary would be giving birth to the Son of God—the Messiah—the Savior of all the universe.
No pressure though, as if Joseph and Mary didn’t have enough to deal with already.
But then the angel tells Joseph something else in verses 21 . . .
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Now we know the name “Jesus” because that is what we have always been taught.
However, do we know what the name Jesus actually means?
Have we ever slowed down to think about it?
Because the thing about Jewish names is they always had meaning behind their name.
Most of the time the name was an indication of the person’s actual character and personality.
This was one way that God actually put His stamp on people—by the name they were given.
And this baby, this Son of God, well it was not going to be left up to chance what they named him.
After all if, it were left up to Joseph and Mary, Jesus could have actually been named Ben-Tekton, which means “Son of a Carpenter.”
Not as nice a ring to it as Jesus.
So, the angel took control of things and told Joseph, you are going to name Him Jesus, which is actually the Greek form of Joshua or Jesuah, which literally means “The Lord saves.”
And “Lord” here is a reference to God Almighty-Yaweh, because Jesus had not been born yet.
So the long translation of Jesus’ name would mean “Yaweh saves all through this one.”
And 2000 years removed from this we have to study to understand the meaning behind Jesus’ name, but the people in those days did not need any help understanding.
In fact they would immediately know what it means.
So, even before Jesus was born the significance of His name was being proclaimed.
But how?
How would this baby save people?
Is he going to grow up and overthrow the Roman government?
Is he going to grow up and establish a kingdom of his own?
Is he going to sit on David’s throne once again?
Is Israel going to once again enjoy freedom, peace, and prosperity?
And all of these are reasonable questions to ask, but these are narrow-minded questions.
These are some of the same questions we ask when we are contemplating accepting Jesus.
Is he going to make my problems go away?
Is he going to fix everything?
Is life going to be a bed of roses from here on out?
What’s in it for me?
And I don’t say that to shame us, I say that because it is the truth. It is how we think based on our own human nature.
But the answer to those questions is really—no.
No, everything is not going to be hunky-dory from here own out.
For the Jews, no he was not going to overthrow the government and set up an earthly kingdom.
His mission was much more important to that.
God was not thinking in our temporal and immediate mindset.
When Jesus came, God was thinking on an eternal scale.
The Bible tells us that “he will save his people from their sins.”
Two big points here—First, who are “His people?”
His people are all who follow him.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Whoever, includes absolutely everyone.
If you are willing to put your faith in Jesus Christ, He will save you.
The second major point here is what Jesus will save His people from—their sins.
Why is that so important?
Because that is the only way we have eternal life and avoid the punishment of death.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death is the eternal penalty for sin.
And it is not talking about physical death of our bodies.
It is talking about the death of our soul—which means the separation of our souls from God, which lands us in torment, agony, loneliness, and darkness for eternity, which is not a limited amount of time.
Which creates a problem for us.
We do not understand eternity because the way we understand time is that there is a beginning and end.
Think about it this way—you have to go to the dentist to have a tooth pulled because it is hurting.
Now all the way up until the time the tooth is pulled you are generally in agony—it hurts.
Even probably while it is being pulled, it may hurt.
However, as soon as the tooth is pulled and things are healed up, the time period of agony is over.
You can endure it because you know that the pain will over.
However, Hell is not like that.
There is no end-time.
There is no point in which you can endure for so long and then the agony is over.
It exists outside the limits and restrictions of time.
And it is a lot worse than a tooth ache.
And when we actually start and think about it, it is a very scary thing.
But we don’t want to think about it so we don’t.
There are people sitting here this morning who are trying their best to convince themselves that what I am saying is not true.
But just stop for a second and listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you, because you know it’s true.
And you know that if you do not give in to Jesus and follow Him, that is your future.
But it does not have to be that way.
Look at the last part of again . . .
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And . . .
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus came to save His people from their sins.
Jesus came to save you from your sins.
All you have to do is accept Him.
But some of us won’t.
We will continue to sit here, week after week, month after month, year after year, refusing him.
And one day, either me or someone else will be preaching your funeral and trying to offer as much comfort as we can to your family, but we will not be able to say that you are with Jesus now.
And you will be like the rich man found in Luke 16. . .
Luke 16:19
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
You see, the rich man knew that he had messed up.
He knew that all of the warnings and all of the the messages were now true.
And he knew that he was doomed.
He was in so much agony all he asked for was a drink of water…just a drop off of the tip of Lazarus’ finger.
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
Luke 16:25
You know why Lazarus was in comfort and the rich man was in agony?
Because Lazarus listened and responded and the rich man did not.
Lazarus heeded the warnings and realized what he was being told about Jesus and about salvation was true.
And the rich man just ignored it, dismissed it, didn’t pay any attention to it.
And now he was paying the price.
Look at the next part of this . . .
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
Luke 16:27-
Topic 2
Topic 2
Topic 3
Topic 3
Altar Call
Altar Call
What is it going to take for us to listen?
For us to respond?
And I know that this is not the “Christmas message” that we all wanted to come hear.
A nice warm-fuzzy message about the baby Jesus.
But Jesus did not come to be remembered as a sweet little helpless baby lying in a manger.
Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, the Lion, the King.
His name means “God saves” and the prophesy tells us that . . .
23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
22 All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
God with us.
Folks, God is with us this morning.
And He has a Christmas gift for us all.
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
That is our Christmas gift, if we are willing to accept it.
Are we willing this morning?
If you are I would encourage you to come right now, before it’s too late.
Don’t be distracted by others around you or the thoughts racing through your mind.
If the Holy Spirit is calling, answer, right now.
This is your time. Will you come?