(Preached at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church, December 11, 2016)
In his famous play, “Romeo & Juliet”, William Shakespeare wrote: “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And there is some truth in that. But it is also true that when we give someone a name, there is often some significance in it. Some of you know our little grand daughter Lottie; she is named after Lottie Moon, the Southern Baptist missionary who went to China in the 1800’s, and who gave her life to reach the people there. We Southern Baptists have named our offering that is the biggest source of support for our foreign missionaries, after her. Names often convey something important. In our culture we don’t always place the significance on names the way they did in Bible times, but names were extremely important in scripture. They didn’t just give you a name because it sounded good to them, or because there was a “top 10 harp player” by that name; they gave you a name because it had a certain meaning for God’s purpose for your life.
And no other name has a more important meaning than the name of Jesus, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas time. In Matthew 1:21 the Bible tells us that the angel told Joseph, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The name that they gave Him was very important. The name we call “Jesus” is actually the Hebrew “Yeshua” or “Yehoshua” — what we might call “Joshua” — and it literally means, “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.” So when they called His name “Jesus” they were saying, this is the One who is bringing us God’s salvation. Thus the meaning: “You shall call His name ‘Jesus’, for He will save His people from their sins.”
But understanding that, what does it really MEAN when it says that He “will save His people from their sins.” What has our sin done to us, and what does it mean that Jesus will save us from our sins? Continue reading →
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