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He will save his people
Matt 1: 18 – 21 Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 14 Dec, 2003 |
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| “YOU ARE to give him the name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.” Christmas is about
Jesus coming to save us from our sins. Today I want to talk about Jesus. Today I want to talk about his people. Today I want to talk about sin, and, above all, today I want to talk about salvation. Paul wrote 1TI 1:15 Here is a
trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very
reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ
Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who
would believe on him and receive eternal life.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is presented as the One who came into the world to save sinners. Since I was converted to faith in Jesus Christ at a street evangelistic meeting just before my sixteenth birthday, I have known that Jesus died to save me from my sins. But it’s one thing to know the fact, and it’s another thing to understand what it means. Sometimes I have struggled to get my head around something as big as salvation from sin. I feel like a boa constrictor trying to swallow a cow: you know that you’ll get there in the end, but you could die of old age waiting! I imagine that every one of us here has had the same feeling from time to time. It seems so simple that it’s a shock to find how big it really is. It’s a topic like Dr Who’s Tardis: it’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Fortunately, as one of my College colleagues frequently reminded us, “There’s no theology exam to get into heaven!” God does not test us on the quantity of our knowledge, but on the sincerity of our love. JESUS So, let’s talk about Jesus. ...you are to give him the name Jesus...
That’s what the angel told Joseph. It was a clear direction. It was
explained in terms of Jesus’ task. This coming baby had to be named
Jesus, because he was born to save people.If you had gone into the streets of Bethlehem and had called out, “Jesus!” twenty little boys would have looked up. It was a common name. It was a name like John is in our society. No one would blink at the idea of a boy being named Jesus. Sometimes people want to give their child a special name that indicates something of their hopes for the child. You hear of children named Ulysses after the legendary traveller, or Dwight after the famous preacher. You find more unusual names, like Ogden or Pandora or Anaïs. It might even be a common name spelt in a rare way, like Shawn — s–h–a–w–n or Kerryn — k–e–r–r–y–n. But parents can give a child a common name while also encouraging their child to find something special in the well–known. For example, my brother and I were Stephen and Peter. From my earliest years, I was aware of Peter’s loyalty to Jesus and his trustworthy character. I know Peter wasn’t always like that, but it said a lot to me at the time. At the same time, Stephen heard about the original Stephen, the first martyr. I remember my mothers stories about how brave Stephen was, how no threat and no pain could turn the famous martyr away from confessing Christ. It was like that with Jesus. It was a common enough name. Everybody knew a Jesus. But this Jesus was set to fulfil the meaning of his own name. This Jesus was prepared by God himself to put new meaning into old forms. He was the new Jesus for the new Age. Jesus is a Greek name, so I cheated when I said you could call out, “Jesus” and have twenty boys look up. But Jesus is the Greek form of the ancient Israelite name, Joshua. You remember, Joshua fit the battle
of Jericho
The Israelites would have pronounced his name like, “y’shua”. It is
short for Yahweh–shua. It means, “Yahweh, the Lord, saves,” or “Yahweh,
the Lord, is the saviour.”And the walls came tumbling down? This baby had to be called Jesus, he had to be called Y’shua, because his role in life was to be the Lord who saves. There are many things people say about Jesus. Hardly anyone would deny that Jesus was a great teacher, but his higher duty was to save. Who would refuse to acknowledge him as a prophet? Yet his higher duty was to save. Or who would not acknowledge him as a leader? Yet his higher, his supreme responsibility was to save his people from their sins. 1TI 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that
deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners—of whom I am the worst.
HIS PEOPLE Now, if Jesus is to save, we need to know whom he is to save. I once saw an advertisement saying something like, “Jesus saves, but Kerry Packer invests.” It was funny, a pun on “save” as in money and “save” in a more “spiritual” sense. And you know me, I can’t let a pun pass by unspoken, no matter how bad a pun it was. Unless we define our, terms, though, that's a very easy thing for an advertiser to do. What does Jesus save? The answer in the Bible is, “his people.” But who are “his people?” The Jews in Jesus’ day would have quickly said, “Israelites, Jews.” But we know that the Bible says, He came to his own people, and his own
people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, to all who
believed in his name, he gave authority to become sons of God...
In the context, we read about how religious officials were sent to
check John’s mission, and the Jewish leaders were already distancing
themselves from God’s new movements.There was an official reaction against these innovations, a reaction which led to a massive combined Jewish and Gentile collusion to kill Jesus, because it was expedient that one man should die so that the nation would survive. But many people came to Jesus. Ordinary Jews, people away from the centre of official Jewish life. People whom the "good" people looked down on. They were willing to receive what the self–righteous rejected. Jesus’ own people were the Jews and Gentiles who, together, came to Jesus. That’s still how it is today. Whoever comes to me,
I will in no way cast out,
says
Jesus.That includes you, that includes me, if we come in faith. On Friday night, we were reading from Isaiah 11, one of the great prophetic passages about the coming messiah. It says, ISA 11:1 A shoot will
come up from the stump of Jesse;
A little further on, we discover
thatfrom his roots a Branch will bear fruit. ISA 11:2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD— ISA 11:3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. ISA
11:10 In that day the Root
of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally
to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord
will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is
left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt,
from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands
of the sea.
Elaine was delighted to read and interpret the passage, because, up at
St Brigid's church, they have a big banner depicting “The Jesse Tree”,
and she never knew what it was all about before.ISA 11:12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. Well, here are Jesus’ people: it is all who rally to the banner of Christ the Lord! The passage is about a descendant of King David, someone in the family of Jesse, as David was. And this person re–establishes the kingly line even when it seems to be a burnt-out old stump in the ground. And this person becomes a rallying point for all nations. God might have to drag the Israelites from the places where they were scattered to, but the nations, the gentiles, come gladly and find an abundance they never before experienced. It’s a wonderful image: and you and I can be there, simply by turning in faith to the Lord. THE SIN PROBLEM The salvation that Jesus offers is from sin. None of us is silly enough to think that we are not prone to sin. It is our constant companion. But we also need to be careful not to fall prey to thinking of ourselves as sinners. The Bible never refers to saved people as sinners. We are saints. We are God‘s children. We are heirs of the Father, and joint heirs with the Son. But we now are saved. Yet we must be true to what is happening in our lives. We are far from perfect. Every good deed is tainted with evil, stained with selfishness. I help someone in need: why? Because they are in need, for sure; but also because of wanting to look good to people who are watching, because of having been taught that there is something not quite right with people who don't do good, because it boosts my own self–image. But when we get down to the real basics, we all know that we don’t even get within light-years of loving God with every fibre of our being. Or, at least, if you do, tell me your secret, because I’m way off! There is none
righteous, no, not one.
So I need help; apart from Christ, I am in debt to God up to my neck
for my sins. Without Christ, I deserve every punishment that sin might
bring on itself. Idi Amin reputedly bashed out the brains of former friends when they crossed him. Ronald Biggs and his cronies killed a guard and stole millions of pounds of other people’s money. Don Juan even seduced nuns in his self-centred pursuit of sexual fulfilment. If we agree that people like these deserve punishment, what makes me exempt from punishment because my ambitions have been smaller, my courage has been weaker, or my power has been less? We murder when we angrily exclude, we steal when we take time from those we owe it to, we commit adultery when we commit it in our minds. Sin is both an infection in us and a disfigurement of the image of God in which we were made. HE SHALL SAVE This, then, brings us to the purpose of Jesus’ coming. He came to save his people from their sins. He does not make us sinlessly perfect, though that is his ultimate goal. And he does not remove the consequences of sin. By that, I mean that, if you steal, you might face prison; and becoming a Christian doesn’t prevent a prison sentence for our sins. But he pays the penalty and breaks the power of sin. In dying for me on the cross, he took on himself the punishment due to our sins. He became God’s sacrificial lamb, which takes away the sin of the world. He made satisfaction for my disobediences. And now God is fully satisfied because of the finished work of Christ on Calvary. How, though, does he save us from our sins? Is it only in a heavenly transaction, which I can only take on faith? It is more than that. The price is fully paid. And now I find that, as someone who has trusted and confessed, I am a forgiven sinner. The fear of exposure is being removed. Whatever the penalty I have to suffer in my human existence as a consequence of my sin, Satan can no longer manipulate me. For example, I read of a young man who was converted and then, over a period, was prompted to confess a previously unsolved crime. Naturally, he had to face a lengthy prison sentence. But now, instead of running and hiding, instead of being controlled at every point by the fear of being caught, he is in prison with a clear conscience and with a sense of purpose as God’s man in that place. Furthermore, the sentencing judge was impressed by the evident change this young man had undergone, and sentenced him more leniently than he otherwise would have. So there was even some reduction in the earthly consequences. And, because he was exposed and because he was repentant, and because he was able to be open about his weakness, the power of his sinful tendency was also lessened. He could even be relaxed about his sinful state, because he was no different from anyone else, and had discovered, through Christ, that he was still acceptable. In other words, the penalty and the power of sin have been broken at Calvary. We can discover freedom beginning from the moment we first believe, and growing as our maturity and understanding grows. I might carry scars from my sin-sickness which covered me with oozing sores, but the disease is broken, and the ultimate consequence — eternal death — is averted. CONCLUSION Jesus came to save his people from their sins. He came and gave himself freely for me. He does not confine himself to Israelites, but his salvation reaches to you and to me. By faith in him, I am changing, and sin is losing its hold over me, even though it may sometimes flare up again and entrap me. I am not a sinner, for the disease has been broken; I am a recovering sinner, who one day will be fully healed. Let’s rejoice in our salvation this Christmas! And let’s trust Jesus, our Saviour, forever and ever, AMEN |
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| © Peter R. Green 2003. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. | |
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