January 1, 2012
Dear Friends in Christ
What do you like best about your name? Do you like the way it sounds? Do you like the meaning that it holds? Do you like the fact that your parents chose
it especially for you? Or do you like
the fact that your name is everything that you are? For that, if you think about it, is exactly
what a name is and what it conveys. In
most cases, names are a simple, one, tow, three or perhaps four word summary of
everything that we are and have been.
Well, this morning, as we celebrate this New Year’s Day, we will also
celebrate the festival of the Name of Jesus.
We will take a close look at the name Jesus and see everything that it
contains and tells us about Jesus as we answer the question, “Why is Jesus’
name so special?
So, let me ask you then, “Why is Jesus’ name so
special? Is it because of its
sound? Is it because the name Jesus is
simply the Greek version of the Hebrew name, Joshua? Or is Jesus’ name so special because it is
the name that tells us who Jesus is and everything that he has done for us? The answer is obvious, for we know that
wrapped up on those 5 simple letters is a summary of everything our Savior is
and all that he has done for us. This,
in fact, is the very reason why we could go so far as to say that the text
before us is one of the most comforting texts in the Bible! Though on the surface, what I just said might
seem like a gross overstatement, the simple sentence which Luke recorded in verse 21, “On the eighth
day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel
had given him before he had been conceived,” show us why Jesus name is so
special.
These simple words, “On the eighth day, when it was time
to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before
he had been conceived,” (Luke
2:21) are so comforting to us, because wrapped up on them is everything
that Jesus is and everything that he has done.
Let me show you what I mean! Take
out the Bibles in front of you and turn to Luke 1:31-35, which can be
found on page 1013. About 9
months before Mary and Joseph had embarked on their Journey to Bethlehem, the angel had appeared to Mary and
said to her, verse 31: “31 You will be with child and give birth to a
son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and
will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne
of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob
forever; his kingdom will never end.” 34 “How will this be,” Mary asked
the angel, “since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered, “The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
So the holy one to be born will be called a the Son of God. (Luke 1:31-35)
With these beautiful words, the Angel Gabriel assured Mary
that this child, whom the Lord had named Jesus, would be no ordinary
child. Instead, he would be the Son of
God himself, born by the power of the Holy Spirit. He would be born in fulfillment of all the
prophecies spoken about him, as we celebrated on Christmas Eve, not more than a
week ago. This Jesus, whom we see as he
is receiving his Name in our text is the very Jesus who came in fulfillment of
the prophecies that Isaiah spoke about him.
Turn to Isaiah 7:14
found on the bottom of page 681 and see what I mean. For this prophecy, which the Lord made
through Isaiah, was a prophecy made to evil king Ahaz who simply refused to ask
the Lord God for a sign, even when the Lord was commanding him to do it. So, Isaiah prophesied, “Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give
birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
In this prophecy, the Lord God marked the coming Savior as
Immanuel, which Gabriel told us means, “God with us.” In this stunning prophecy, the Lord God
promised that he would come and physically dwell among his people Israel. But not only that, just a few chapters later
the Lord spoke about what the coming Savior would do among his people. Turn to Isaiah 9:1-2 on the bottom of page
683 and see what I mean. For here
Isaiah tells us, “1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those
who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land
of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the
way of the sea, along the Jordan—2 The people walking in darkness have
seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a a
light has dawned.” (Isaiah
9:1,2)
Seven hundred years before Christ was born, Isaiah
prophesied that the Savior would proclaim the Gospel message to the people
living in what had been the Northern Kingdom of Israel before the Assyrians had
come and destroyed it, taking the people into a captivity from which they never
returned. In these verses, in verse 2
especially we see Jesus as he withdraws to the region of Galilee
after John the Baptist was arrested by King Herod and how he proclaims the
message, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” In this way, as the gospels record, Jesus
brought these beautiful words into fulfillment as he brought many to the Light
of Gospel from the shadow of unbelief and death.
Yet this was not the only purpose that Jesus was born to,
for Isaiah tells us in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 9, “6 For to us a child
is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And
he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the
increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on
David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice
and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.” (Isaiah
9:6,7)
These words remind us that when Jesus was born, he was
indeed born with the government on his shoulders. Not that he was born into such a high
position that he was heir to the throne of Israel, but that he was born under
the authority of the Law as Paul tells us in Galatians 4:4,5 which I have
printed on the screen for you: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his
Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might
receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:4,5)
It was to redeem us, to buy us back from the slavery of
sin that Jesus was born under the authority of the Law. For when he was born as a little child, he
was born to perfectly keep the entire law which we have never been able to
keep. Though Jesus was the very one who
established his covenant with Abraham, and given Abraham the sign of
circumcision, Jesus himself was circumcised, and marked as a child of the
covenant. He was circumcised and
declared to be the Seed of Abraham-the
promised Messiah whom generations looked forward to expectantly. He was circumcised and thus empowered the Old
Testament right which the Lord had commanded in Genesis 17:12, “For the
generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be
circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a
foreigner—those who are not your offspring.” (Genesis 17:12)
Not only did he do this, but through his willing
obedience, Jesus became our substitute as Isaiah prophesied he would. Turn with me if you would one more time to
Isaiah. We will look at Isaiah 53:1-6
which can be found in the middle of page 731. “1 Who has believed our message and to
whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like
a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty
to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with
suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we
esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our
sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are
healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to
his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:1-6)
Though there was nothing special that made Jesus stand out
of a crowd, he is the one who carried our sorrows. Though he had no special beauty or majesty to
attract us to himself, he is the one who was pierced for our transgressions and
crushed for our iniquities. He carried
our punishment, and we have been healed by his wounds. Though we see him today as a little 8 day old
baby, wrapped up in the name Jesus is everything that he will become and
everything that he will do for us.
Wrapped up on that name Jesus is the man who proclaimed to the
Pharisees, “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I
am!” (John 8:58) He is the Lord God who proclaimed, “I, even
I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior.” And again, “I, even I,
am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your
sins no more.” (Isaiah
43:11, 25) He is the Lord who
appeared to Moses in the burning bush and again revealed his glory before Moses
as he covered Moses face with his hand so that Moses might only see his
back. In short, this Jesus whom we see
as an 8 day old baby in our text, is the Lord our God who came to free us from
our sins by his perfect life and innocent suffering and death. For in the same way that the Lord appointed
Joshua to lead the people Israel
into the Promised Land and receive their rest, the Lord our God appointed Jesus
to lead his people into his Rest in the Promised Land of eternal life.
This is why Jesus’ name is so special to us today. For like our own names are summaries of all
that we are, Jesus name is a summary of all that he is. For wrapped up in that simple name of five
letters is the Lord our God who willingly came to the earth so that he might
take our place and free us from our sins forever.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
