Unwrapping the Name
Series: (un)wrapped: Advent 2018
Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
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 fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
- Promise fulfilled
- Personal friend
- Savior who loves me.
“Jesus” means: God is salvation. God saves, God rescues.
[There are two ways in which God gave a name to a person in the Bible. Some people were given a name before they were born (or shortly after), while others were renamed by God later in life. In Bible times, a person's name carried great significance, and was VERY important. A person's name could be chosen based on number of things. For example, something reflecting: how God had played a role in his birth, his character, his future life, his birth order, a physical trait, where he was born, and more. When God gave names, it generally reflected something to do with Him.]
Promise
Jesus did not have an earthly father.
Matthew 11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and on one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom teh Son chooses to reveal him.”
This is the One who was Promised: The one I promised to Abraham, the forefather of the Jewish race, had been promised. (and the nation) that ‘In his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed'
The Lord had declared to David through the prophet Nathan: “I will raise up your offspring after you… and I will establish the throne of his kingdom… forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” 1 Chronicles 17:11
“In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand a signal to the peoples of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” -Isaiah 11:10
Personal
Promise is now PERSONAL
God gave him a personal name.
“Jesus” is greek form of Hebrew name Joshua…means God saves. Joshua great figure in OT, after Israelites left Egypt. It was Joshua who conquered Aanannites who brought them to the feet of the land of milk and honey, many named their sons to Joshua. They were looking for the one who would be the promised Joshua.
John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
Savior
You cant separate Jesus..name from Savior
Romans 5:8 But God shows His love for us in this, while we were still sinner Jesus died for us.
“But the most amazing thing is that God not only is interested in us; we mean more to God than all the universe.
The reason I know this is true is that though it cost God nothing to create the worlds, it cost Him His Son to save us. He made the worlds by just saying a word and calling them into being, but when He wanted to fix the sIn problem, He had to become a man and bear the punishment that sIn deserv by dying on a cross.”
Now, Every one of you can write down your NAME and after it write, 'means more to God than all the universe.” -Jim Rayburn
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.
Twenty long centuries have come and gone, and today he remains the central figure of the human race, and the leader of mankind's progress.
I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as that one solitary life.
Todd Madonna
Discipleship + Multiplication Pastor
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