HIS NAME MUST BE JESUS
She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” If the story is true, then it is the most amazing story in the world.
A Jewish maiden is visted from an angel Gabriel. She is told that she is going to have a baby boy, of the Holy Spirit, even though she is a virgin. His name is to be called Jesus. Joseph is clearly instructed about the baby. Angels appeared to the shepherds to give them news of the birth.
A star appears in the East, and later wise men come guided by it. If we believe this story is true, our lives would show it, and the One of whom it speaks would have a profound impact on our lives. Wesley put his amazement like this: The incarnate Deity, / Our God contracted to a span, / Incomprehensibly made man. ||||||| WHY HE HAS COME “For He will save His people from their sins.” He had come to save. To Zaccheus, Jesus said “Today salvation has come to this house”, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost. Whoever believes in Him should not perish. 1Tim 1:15. If we talk to people this Christmas about Jesus being born, and do not mention that He came to save people from their sins, then it is an opportunity wasted. This was why the Son of man came at so much cost to Himself. Phil 2:6-8. |||||||| WHO HE HAS COME FOR Who did He come to save? “He will save HIS PEOPLE from their sins.” Who then are His people? Am I one of His people? Eph 5: 25-27 His people are the Bride of Christ, those who are in the fold, saved by sovereign grace, washed in His blood. Acts 20:28. We have no idea who are the redeemed of the Lord, so we offer the gospel to all. The blood cleanses every child for whom He died. ||||||||| WHAT HIS COMING WILL ACCOMPLISH He will, not He might, save His people feom their sins. This was accomplished through His birth, death, and resurrection. Jesus came to restore His people and to that, we must talk about SIN. Rom 5:12. 1John 3:5,8,9 for He came to destroy the devil’s work and reverse what happened in the garden. 1Jn 4:9-10. He came into the world to save His people FROM their sin. ||||||| FROM THE PENALTY OF SIN: The penalty is death for the wages of sin is death. Eternal death in the caverns of the damned. 2 Cor 5:21 1Pet 3:18 Rom 5:6 As the hymn writer said: Jesus paid it all, / All to him I owe / Sin had left a crimson stain / He washed it white as snow ||||||| FROM THE POWER OF SIN: The power of sin is death. Christ was raised from death and so death will no longer have dominion over us who have been washed by His blood Rom 6:14. Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin, but if the Son of man sets us free James 4:7 Resist the devil and he will flee from you. ||||||| FROM THE PRESENCE OF SIN: He will soon come to save us from the very presence of sin. Rev 21:1-4. [Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.[c] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”] This is why His name must be called Jesus.