Name Above All Names "Jesus" | Advent Series Part 1

Hey, once you turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, Matthew chapter 1, if you're not familiar with where

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

that is, look at my Bible about 3/4 the way through.

There's this section, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John called the

Gospels. And this is the first one in

chapter 1 there. Just before we start, just a, a

thank you kind of a shout out to Jonas and to Jacob for

delivering those messages and the, you know, last two messages

of the series. Very grateful for you guys.

Very grateful It's Advent. Anybody, anybody notice it's the

first Sunday of Advent already? Did this come as a little bit of

a surprise? I, I think the reason why we

sell, one of the reasons why we celebrate Avon is it kind of

gets us ready. We're not quite ready for

Christmas that for that celebration and it's this time

of preparation for this incredible, um, acknowledgement

and really a party over the, the the greatest event that has

taken place. Jesus is coming to this planet.

His death and resurrection, of course, for very important too,

but his coming was the initiation of that.

So we're starting this series, name above name above all names.

And it's really just a series on Jesus, you know, on Jesus in

particular and his name or the many names that are associated

with him. When when we choose a name today

for a child, for example, often what's happening is we're

thinking of, OK, you know, what sounds nice, or maybe the name

reminds us of somebody. But it's not as popular to be

choosing names based on the meaning of the name.

I remember when you know, our first child.

So this was how old? Steph, 3435 She we, we went to

the hospital and we went went to the hospital with a short list.

We didn't know where it was gonna be a boy or girl.

So we had a couple of short lists and this precious baby was

born and we look at her and she doesn't fit any of the names on

our list. You are not a Laura, you are not

an Ellie, you're not a Gertrude. And so we we had to go back to

our old our our long list of names and we selected Stephanie.

This fits who this little one is.

And it was only after kind of looking at the meaning of her

name, We knew the meaning of the name, but crowned one, we

thought that's appropriate. This is our little Princess,

this precious, But the meaning was secondary to us in Bible

times. The meaning was up front and

centre. How it sounded and and perhaps

who it reminded of reminded it of us.

Those things may have been important, but but secondary to

the meaning of that name. There are 200 names, I think 198

names in the Bible for Jesus. Names and titles.

But this one person and every single one of those names tells

us something about who he is, tells us something about his

character and his purpose for coming his heart towards us.

And we're going to take some time just to study some of those

names. Now it's it's we're heading

toward Christmas. And so we're going to look

specifically at the names that are associated with the

Christmas narrative. And we're gonna start simply

with Jesus, the name Jesus. Ever thought about the name

Jesus actually means we're gonna, we're gonna do that

today. So that name has become the name

that is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ, and all

the other names that are associated with him stem from

this. So This is why we're beginning

here today. So we're going to take a look at

Matthew's Gospel chapter 1 and starting at 18, we'll read 18 to

21. And Lord God, we thank you for

this glorious gift that You've given to us in Your Word.

Reveal yourself to us in a deeper measure, that we could

love you more sincerely and worship you Lord more deeply.

For your namesake we pray. Amen.

Are you with me? Matthew chapter 1 starting at

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

verse 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.

Oh no, 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, 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. That's good news.

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.

That's where we're gonna stop. There's a lot here.

It's a basically a a whole scandal.

Mary is found to be pregnant and there doesn't appear to be a

father involved. And Joseph has this very, you

know, pretty stressful moment, I'm sure deciding what he's

going to do with Mary. Well, it was because of the

angels visitation speaking directly to him.

Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

Now that would have meant a lot for Joseph, and we don't have

time to get into that. But the name was given to the

child by an Angel, so from heaven given.

And the name is Jesus. And the way that this name is

defined is right here, that he will save his people from their

sins. That name Jesus literally means

Yahweh saves. So Jesus Greek is Yeezus, but

it's based on the the Hebrew Aramaic so which is Yeshua.

And Yeshua literally means Yahweh saves or the Lord says

simply the Lord saves. The Lord is often used for for

Yahweh. This is so significant, so

significant. If you look back through

Scripture, you know your eyes are kind of open to things.

So Psalm 130 verse 7 to 8 says this is what the Sama says.

Psalms 130:7–8

Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is

unfailing love, and with Him is full redemption.

He Himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

Right there in Scripture, in the Old Testament has been

prophesied that He Himself, Yahweh Himself, the Lord Himself

is going to redeem His people from their sins.

So if you ever have a picture of God as this distant, aloof being

that sends His wrath on people and sends other people to do His

dirty bidding, the just the coming of Jesus, of Jesus, blows

that whole picture up into a million pieces.

God himself has come to redeem his people in person.

That's what the incarnation is all about.

Jesus is Yahweh, come to earth, come to save.

That people come to me and ask, you know, hey, you know, love

the service, you know, the music's great.

You're not a bad speaker. Why do you talk so much about

Jesus? And there's this, there's this

little bit of a disconnect there because Jesus is at the heart

and centre of everything to do with this book, right from

beginning to end. In fact, it was a conversation

was going on with the disciples and the road to Emmaus.

Jesus was walking with them and actually rebuking them that they

hadn't seen that everything in the Old Testament was all

pointing to Him. The Yahweh, the God of the Old

Testament is the God of the New Testament, who is Jesus Christ

of Nazareth. Jesus, he's everything.

He's on every page. And then Charles Spurgeon, he

says, no matter what passage that I'm preaching on in the

Bible, in the Old Testament, I always just make a beeline to

the cross, a beeline to Jesus because it all ultimately points

to him. So let's talk about this.

Name Jesus for a minute. This is a very common name in

1st century Palestine. It was a lot of Jesus out there.

Don't you find it kind of weird when people actually, maybe I

shouldn't say this, but people call their kids Jesus.

You see that in Latin American countries sometimes it was a

very common name. Why would God choose a very,

very common name for his entrance?

And you, you would think that his entrance into the planet,

he, he would, he would have this incredibly unique, different

name, but it was a very common name because he was making

himself accessible to us. You see, Yahweh, which was the

name, the personal name for God, which was for, for for many

Jews, it was too sacred and too holy to even to pronounce.

And so we're going to find other names to kind of kind of insert

there, but God wants to reveal His Holiness to it.

He comes makes himself accessible with very very common

name coming in a very common way to help us to see what His glory

is like who He really is, what that holy Yahweh, you holy God

Yahweh is and who he is and and and and and for us to be in awe

like we pray that prayer. You know how there would be your

name, which essentially is a request to God?

God, may your name be recognized as holy in my life and in the

world. He is doing that.

He is showing us just by who He is and how He does it.

How, how, how He is come to us at Christmas that He is.

He is the holy God. There is no one like you, Lord.

There are two, two points, 222 parts to his name, Lord and

saves. That's the simple part.

Those those two things Lord and says and we see this in the

announcement that the Angel gives to the shepherds on the

night that Jesus was born. And if you want to flip over

with me to Luke chapter 2 in your Bibles, so goes Matthew,

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Mark, Luke, you can do that. We'll have it up on the screen

as well, but I always like to have it open before me in the

Bible. Luke Chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

Oh sorry. Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

Thank you. Verse 11.

This is one of the verses that that Haley read to us this

morning. Angel says this is today in the

town of David. A Savior has been born to you.

He is Christ the Lord. Similar translations would have

the Messiah. Messiah and Christ, very

similar. We're gonna leave that for next

week, actually. But these two titles, Savior and

Lord, make up the name Jesus, and they're very, very

significant. Let's just talk about those for

a minute. Savior.

What are we talking about when we're talking about a savior?

Savior is someone who saves, obviously.

Now, to save means that we're rescuing someone from danger.

We're restoring. Another way of of defining what

saving is, is restoring something to its former state so

that it's safe and for the sake of its well-being as well.

The save is at least the way that it's spoken of biblically,

is is is about healing the word, the word, the word, same, same

word for heal and for save they can use be used interchangeably.

This is the heart of God for us. He's all about rescuing us from

danger, He's all about restoring us to a better state for our own

well-being. And He's all about bringing

healing into our lives. This is what He is about,

getting us out of trouble. And that's why Jesus, when he

was defining his own mission, said that the Son of Man has

come to seek and to save the lost.

Think about that parable of the of the lost sheep and the

shepherd going out and pursuing that lost sheep.

Endanger in trouble, rescuing, rescuing that one.

This is the heart of God for us and the greatest trouble that we

can ever get into. He's, you know, I'd say the most

popular prayer ever prayed is help, right?

Those who don't even believe in God.

It's like if you're up there, help right?

When we get into these tight spots.

But the greatest trouble that we'll ever get into, which is

the source of all of our troubles, is our own sinfulness,

is our own rebellion toward God, is our own self centeredness and

living apart from him. That's the trouble, and that's

the trouble that he came to deal with and to deal with

decisively. And He makes this provision

through his death, life, death and resurrection for our sins,

completely identifies with us as humans, lives the life that we

were meant to live but have failed to do so, and then gets

nailed to a rugged wooden cross that we actually deserve for our

sins. The an exchange could take

place. He gets what we deserve and we

get what He deserves, and we get forgiveness as a result.

That's His saving grace and He's leading us to that place of

repentance so that He can forgive us for our sins.

So that's the Savior portion, but what about the Lord portion?

The earliest Christian confession ever 3 simple but

powerful words. Jesus is Lord, He is the boss of

the universe, He is the king over all.

He is the Lord now. The Greek word for Lord kurios.

It was used in the New Testament times to refer to an owner,

emperor, king, father, husband, master, kind of authority

figures. And yet that same word was also

used to translate Hebrew titles and names for God like Yahweh,

Adonai, Elohim. So in the Gospels, when people

were referring to Jesus, they would refer to him as Lord, but

it was probably more so like as show of respect.

You are our rabbi. You are our teacher.

It's kind of more like Sir, as opposed to I'm referring to you

as God. But after the resurrection,

everything changed. Suddenly that title Lord was

elevated to the highest place and this is you know where we

get you know that that right after the resurrection.

Remember Thomas and and John chapter 20.

John 20 · chapter mention

But Thomas is doubting that Jesus rose from the dead and

then Jesus appears to him and shows him Hey Tom, put put put

your hand in my in the scars in my put your finger in the scars

in my hand into my side. It has been pierced.

And Thomas's response was this. Thomas said to him, My Lord and

my God. Now Thomas was not swearing.

I lowered him like no, because Jesus would rebuked him at that

point, but Jesus blessed him at that point, right?

This was a recognition that you Jesus are my Lord, You Jesus are

my God. And Jesus did not correct him

over that. And that is why Jesus's name was

exalted. And we read it in Philippians

Philippians 2:9–11

chapter 2 verse 9 to 11 says therefore God exalted him to the

highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, and

on earth and under the earth, and every tongue.

Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the

Father. New NIV is actually

acknowledged, right? But acknowledge, confess Jesus

as Lord elevated. Let me ask you a question.

What? What do you have in common with

Billy Graham, Taylor Swift? Mother Teresa.

Austin Matthews and Adolf Hitler.

What do you personally have in common with these people, apart

from the fact that there you were all human, right?

There's one thing and that is that at some point everyone of

you, including myself, is going to bow the knee to Jesus Christ

and confess that He is Lord. Those who love Him and those who

oppose Him all will at one day bow the knee and confess or

acknowledge your Lord. Now, it's great when we're

willing and joyful about that, but some will get to that point

where they're going to continue to resist.

But we have to acknowledge that He is Lord, He is Lord, He is

the Lord of your life even when you do not acknowledge it.

He is the Lord of your life, and the challenge for each one of us

is that really the invitation is will you acknowledge that and

will you live as though that is true?

You know, the world thinks of lordship is in, in, in often in

terms of dominance, of abuse of power.

Um, and God shows us how He exerts His Lordship in the very

next verse in Luke chapter 2 when he says this, this is the

Luke 2 · chapter mention

angels announcement. So he said, you know, today in

the town of David have been born to you.

He is Christ the Lord. And then in verse 12, it says

this will be assigned to you that he has come.

You will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a Manger.

The Lord of all has come. In all this power and he is a

helpless little baby in a animal feeding trough.

Talk about condescension. Talk about humility.

Talk about, well, I mean poverty and meekness, it's all there.

This is how he exerts his lordship.

So we need to be thinking about Savior and Lord.

Yeah, he is exalted, but he is also humble and in fact his

humility is the reason why he's exalted.

That's why in in Philippians chapter 2, before it gets you

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

know, therefore, God exalted him to the highest place.

It says this Jesus Christ who being in very nature God, did

not consider equality with God something to be used to his own

advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human

likeness and being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on

a cross. That's why He's the exalted

Lord. So why are we talking about

this? Because God has revealed himself

in his Son Jesus Christ, and Jesus has been revealed in two

ways, as Savior and Lord, and that is significant.

Significant. If we take one without the

other, we're missing something significant and it will have a

very negative impact on us. Savior and Lord speak of His

character and and what He is about and those two things as

well are going to shape our character if we can hold them in

balance. So it's Advent, right?

I think right it is first they Sunday of Advent.

We're not quite ready for it, and Advent is the celebration of

Jesus's first coming. And as well, it helps, it's

helping to prepare us for his second coming.

And so let's just start that preparation time.

This is what we're gonna do. Just gonna just gonna start into

this. My question to you is this, how

is your spiritual life? How is your spiritual life right

now? How are you feeling with God?

How spiritually alive are you currently in this moment?

I know many of us are and this we're moving into a season,

digital month where things can get very harried, we can feel

stressed, etcetera. How are you doing spiritually?

Most of the trouble that we have on the spiritual plane, in fact

I could argue on any plane in life has to do with how we are

interacting with God as Savior and Lord.

And if one of those two aspects of God we're not really in touch

with, we're not connecting with, it's going to it's going to

cause a shift in our life in a negative direction.

For example, if my emphasis is on Jesus Savior, you know, I

believe that He has, you know, forgiven my sins, but I'm

ignoring the fact that He is Lord and boss of my life and the

level of my obedience is at an all time low.

That's going to have an impact on my spiritual life.

Saying the flip side, if my emphasis is on the fact that

Jesus is Lord and obeying Him, but the Savior aspect of who He

is to me is minimized, then it's going to be all about my effort

to obey. I'm losing the fuel that enables

me to obey when I'm missing out on His mercy and His love for

me, you know? I just think of myself, you

know, I knew Jesus as Lord before I really knew him as

Savior. I remember the first time,

someone, the first time that that information was

communicated to me, that, you know, Jesus came to save me.

I remember thinking, save me from what?

Like, OK, well, save me from my sins.

Well, I don't have too many of those, right?

I, I was the kind of guy that recognized I need, I need God's

help, but just a little bit of help every once in a while.

I really didn't see myself as desperately needy of God's

forgiveness for my sin until I started spending time with the

Lord, reading the Scriptures, communing with Jesus, communing

with a sinless one, the one that is absolutely squeaky clean and

realizing, Oh my word, like there's a lot of dirt in my

life. There's a lot of sin that's

residing in there. And when I came to realize that

here I am thinking I'm so good, so proud of who I am, and

realizing no, I'm stinking sinful and he's loving me still,

it's like that just broke me. Just broke me.

We need to have, yes, certainly a a record.

We need to have a recognition of Jesus Christ as both Lord and

Savior of our life in order for us to grow in the direction that

He's that he's really created and redeeming us to grow in.

So this is the point your spiritual vitality.

In fact, the revival if you, if you're, if you're seeking

revival in your in your, in your spirit toward God, it's all

dependent on how serious you are taking Jesus as your Savior and

Lord, both of those taken in check.

So just a little reflection time.

How are you right now experiencing Jesus as your

Savior? Like if you just think about

this season of your life, how are you experiencing Jesus as

your Savior? Do you see your need for Him?

Do you are, are you, are you recognizing?

Are you thankful for His forgiveness?

Maybe you know when is the last time you have confessed your sin

and received His mercy? Or is that sort of in the

background? That's something the Lord would

say, come closer to me, come closer to me, recognize my mercy

that's new every morning, something that you desperately

need. You know, sometimes we, we use

language like, well, I have been saved already and in the

scripture does use language like we have been saved, but

Scripture also uses language that we are being saved and we

will be saved fully. In other words, God is still

saving me. He's still saving you.

If we've entered into that relationship, we need His saving

grace absolutely every day and He just wants to wake us up to

that fact. Um, the parables do a really

good job of that. And I alluded earlier to the

parable of the, of the lost sheep.

You know that that that parable where the 99 Jesus leaves the 90

nor the shepherd leaves the 99 and heads after the one in that

parable was spoken. You've got to learn the context

was spoken to the scribes and Pharisees who were muttering at

Jesus or spending time with with riffraff with with tax

collectors and sinners. And then Jesus speaks this

parable and Robert Kaplan, he he, he's kind of is, is is

pondering over this parable. Very interesting.

He was saying that shepherds wouldn't think of leaving 99

sheep to go after one. They they would never leave

these sheep unattended and exposed to predators.

And so this, that the point is that, you know, the one this,

this is how he sees he how he sees it.

The one that Jesus went after is actually humanity as they really

are, as we really are. But the 99 are those who think

that they're OK. They don't, they don't, they

don't recognize that they're lost.

They think that they're fine. They don't need any saving

grace. They don't need any help and

Jesus would leave the 99. And the fact that the fact of

the matter is that he never comes back to the 99.

That was the point that Captain was making.

He just goes after the one and after he finds the one, he

throws a big party. But the 99 there, we don't even

get back to the 99. In other words, Jesus resist the

proud and gives grace to the humble, to those who know their

need. And this is for for each one of

us. We need to recognize, hey, you

know what, there's going to be a growing self righteousness in us

as we as we're following Jesus said, hey, I'm doing pretty

well. I'm doing pretty good.

And we kind of start to lean on our own capacity and not think

of ourselves as in need of a savior.

But we, of course, we need a savior, continually need a

savior. It's the poor, it's the weak,

it's the addicted, it's the troubled, it's the fractured,

it's the broken that have some inkling that their life is off

and I need a savior that needs to be that.

That's the that's what a Christian is, is a recognition.

That's me right now and I need you more.

Second thing, second question, how are you right now in this

season of your life, obeying Jesus as your Lord?

Like if you think right now, currently, how am I engaging

this? How am I?

How am I actually obeying Jesus as the Lord of my life?

And, and, and I think we have to when, when we think about this,

you need to realize, OK, it's not just that we have to

identify ourselves as Christians because that could mean a whole

lot. Christian can sometimes even

mean just a nice person, but no Christian is more than that.

How? How am I following Jesus like

right now? How?

How am I actually following Him as my Lord?

What does that obedience look like?

What am I doing that might be a bit painful to me, that is going

to bring pleasure to my Father in heaven?

What? What challenge am I willing to

face in doing something that I know is right?

It's gonna cost me, but it's going to be for the good of

another person and for ultimately for the glory of God.

What, what, what, You know, sometimes we get so consumed

with our problems, with our with our own life, you know, we cut

our world can kind of close in on us.

How can I be putting aside my problems and and think outwardly

toward those in my life? And I'm not saying that we don't

all have, but we all have problems we have to deal with.

But there's something about putting our problems aside for a

moment and doing what God would. Jesus is commanding us to do and

loving Him and loving our neighbors, ourselves that

actually can bring healing to our life.

You know, there's a Savior. He's giving us wisdom, and as we

follow through on that wisdom, recognizing that He is Lord,

that healing comes like we begin to be saved.

And so how are you obeying Jesus as Lord of your life right now?

I don't know if you've seen the documentary on Prime.

This is one that Mark Corbeau recommended to GAIL and I were

we've been watching it. So Jonathan is Jesus.

Anyone seen that one? So Jonathan Rumi, who is the

actor that plays Jesus in the television series The Chosen.

And it just really just chronicles some of his time,

what it's like to be acting Jesus and then to be known

worldwide as Jesus, right? And what that's been like.

So it's very interesting documentary.

What fascinated me is that there's this part where Francis

Chan was being interviewed and the interview was about, you

know what? You know that responsibility

that an actor has to play such an important role to actually

play the son of the living God. And chance is this.

This is, I guess that's why I would be afraid to go, hey, we

want you to help people know what Jesus was really like by

acting like him says, wow, I don't know.

In other words, I wouldn't want that job.

But it got me thinking that if I'm a follower of Jesus, I do

have that job. And, and it's not to try to act

to, to, to, to, to kind of, you know, like to, you know, put on

a show of some sort. No, it's actually to act like

Jesus, like to, to be, to be really Jesus.

That is the call of our lives. Jesus say come follow me, do

what I do, obey what I say and that will bring you to life, not

the the the light, the life. It's in other words, it's part

and parcel. It's it's what what Jesus is

calling us to is not a cheap grace like what Bonhoeffer

talked about or an easy believe ISM MacArthur talking about

where I just received Jesus as my savior.

And then I go about living my life the way I want to live it

know his, his saving grace and my obedience to him.

And as Lord, they're they go hand in hand.

And that's how we continue to grow in him.

So we're coming to the table, and Jesus gives us his great

invitation as our Savior and as our Lord, as the one who is

holy, comes near to us and invites us to come near to him.

He makes himself fully accessible.

The Lord of all wants to come and bring healing to your life.

The Lord of all is coming. I want to save you from trouble.

I want to forgive your sins. I want to set you on the right

path. Come to the table and receive me

fully as Savior and as Lord were given by Jesus bread, which

represents his body, His crucified body for us

represented in the bread and as well we're given the cup which

signifies his blood that was shed for us for the forgiveness

of our sins. And he gives us this meal to for

us to remember him, but remember him for who he is and to be

nourished by that truth by him, what's true about him as well as

his presence in this meal. So I want to just invite us to

pray this would be close this message and move into into

communion. This is a a very sacred moment,

Lord. Wherever you are, it's a sacred

moment, and we recognize that right now.

We thank You for what you have done for us on that cross as our

Savior. But Lord, we do thank you also

that You are our Lord and that you know better how to run our

lives than we do. And so we pray that you would

reveal yourself to us deeply now just to encourage you here.

If you have, if you have not received Jesus as your Savior

and Lord, this, this is a moment you can do that and just say

maybe this might be for the first time.

Maybe it's I'm gonna do this again.

But I think we can all just simply receive Jesus as Lord and

Savior. But Lord, I recognize you have

saved me from my sin through your death on the cross.

Thank you for taking my place. Thank you for your cleansing.

Blood wash me clean. Wash me clean.

Not on the basis of the good things I've done, but because of

your great mercy. Wash me clean, Be my slave.

And also Jesus, I ask you to be my Lord.

I acknowledge that you are the Lord of all, but now I come

under your lordship. I submit to you.

My desire is to obey you and do what you command, not because

you're a ruthless taskmaster, but because you are a gracious

Savior and a humble Lord. I receive.

You receive, receive them again. Thank you, Lord and Lord, as we

come to your table and we respond to your invitation, we

ask that You would grant to us a fresh vision of who you are and

a deep appreciation and a desire to worship You all the more with

our lives and begin with this meal.

It's in your name, we pray.