Intro

-         Do you know what your name means?

o       Mandy: lovable

o       Daniel: God is my judge

o       Bob: bright fame

o       Katie/Katherine: pure

o       Mildred: gentle strength

o       Leonard: brave lion

o       Paula: humble

o       Ben: son of the right hand

o       Alice: combination of noble and kind

o       Linda: beautiful

o       Connie: constant/ steadfast

o       Joan: God is gracious

o       Ryan: little king

o       Ray: protector

-         Were you given your name for a specific reason?

o       Mandy.  After the Barry Manilow song and to give a nickname with a proper name

-         Why did you name your kids the names you did?

o       Boys: no nicknames, simple boy names

o       Mazie: after Mandy’s great grandma

-         The longest name of a person in the Bible is Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isaiah 8:1)

o       means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil.

-         The award for the longest name for a person belongs to a German immigrant to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The name he was given at birth, and which somehow fit on his passport was:

            First and "middle" names:

            Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvim John Kenneth Loyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor Willian Xerxes Yancy Zeus

            Last name:

            Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorffvoralternwarengewissenhaftschaferswesenchafewarenwholgepflegeundsorgfaltigkeitbeschutzenvonangereifenduchihrraubgiriigfeindewelchevorralternzwolftausendjahresvorandieerscheinenbanderersteerdeemmeshedrraumschiffgebrauchlichtalsseinursprungvonkraftgestartseinlangefahrthinzwischensternartigraumaufdersuchenachdiesternwelshegehabtbewohnbarplanetenkreisedrehensichundwohinderneurassevanverstandigmenshlichkeittkonntevortpflanzenundsicherfreunanlebenslamdlichfreudeundruhemitnichteinfurchtvorangreifenvonandererintlligentgeschopfsvonhinzwischensternartigraum

                       
                                    Senior

Sometimes a name is all you need to connect with a person, or forgetting a name is all you need to do to disconnect from people.

Example: calling your date by the wrong name.

(Ever play the name game when you don’t know people’s names?)

Our names have meaning.  We were all named for one reason or another.  Our names speak of something about us, about what we come from.

Our names, especially the names people call us, (nicknames, bad names) speak of who we are.  Often we are named by what we do.

The Son of God’s birth name is Jesus, but He was called many other things because of what He has and does do for us.

Today we are going to look at the names Jesus was given at His birth.  (entire books have been written about all His names, but toady we are only going to focus on those names that were mentioned at His birth and what they mean.)

Read Matthew 1:20-23

1. Immanuel…

-         …means “God with us”

-         John 1

o       Jesus was around before the world began and yet He came to this earth in the flesh, as a human being

-         It is important to understand that the Son of God came to the earth, and for a brief moment in time He walked the Earth with us and for all time, He continues to walk the earth within us.

-         Why?

Romans 5: ¹² When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. ¹³ Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. And though there was no law to break, since it had not yet been given, ¹⁴ they all died anyway—even though they did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. What a contrast between Adam and Christ, who was yet to come! ¹⁵ And what a difference between our sin and God’s generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s bountiful gift. ¹⁶ And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins. ¹⁷ The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.  ¹⁸ Yes, Adam’s one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness makes all people right in God’s sight and gives them life. ¹⁹ Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God’s sight.  ²⁰ God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant. ²¹ So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful kindness rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (NLT)

-         Jesus, the son of God, came to the earth as a man, experienced life as a man but was without sin so He could take the penalty for our sins

Read Luke 2:21

 ²¹On 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.

2.  Jesus

-         Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua which means “the Lord Saves” or “God is salvation”

-         His entire life, every time someone said his name, He was reminded that He was sent to save the world.

-         The entire time Mary raised him as a child, every time she called his name “Jesus, don’t eat that.”  Jesus the savior of the world.

-         Form even before His birth, Jesus came with one purpose in mind:

o       He came to save us

-         Save us from the wages of sin

-         Save us from eternal punishment in hell

Remember…

Matthew 1:20-21

20But 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. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

-         our sins will send us to hell unless we let Jesus save us from them

-         Jesus did come to save us/ to help us with earthly needs, but more importantly to save us from our sin

-         Jesus came to this earth to die for you and me

Read Luke 2:

 ²²When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord"^]), ²⁴and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons."   ²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

3. The Lord’s Christ

-         The name Christ signifies anointed.^[1]

-         The Lord’s anointed one

-         God anointed/ set Him apart for a specific purpose. 

-         Once again, we see that the Son of God came to the Earth to die.

Read Luke 2:

 ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
 ²⁹"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
      you now dismiss^] your servant in peace.
 ³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,

3. Salvation

-         Jesus was God’s plan to save you and me

-         John 3:16-17

o       Jesus was sent into the world (how was he sent?) to save us from our sins

Luke 2:

    ³¹which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
 ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles
      and for glory to your people Israel."

4. A Light

John 3:18-21

¹⁸ “There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. ¹⁹ Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. ²⁰ They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. ²¹ But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants” (NLT).

-         People know who Jesus is but they often choose sin over the Savior.

-         We are a society that accepts the short term pleasure over the long term results

-         The here and now feels better and is easier than the long term effort God wants from us

-         The light exposes sin…remember not to condemn them but to show them they need the savior.  Sin is a poison that messes your life up.  It may seem like the better option but it is not.

Remember:

Romans 5: For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins. ¹⁷ The sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over us, but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Now that we know His names, what do we do with Him?

now that we know why He came, we know what He is all about, what do we do with that?

-         Call out His name.

-         Return to him

-         ask for forgiveness

-         Ask for his help to overcome the sin in your life

-         let Jesus be who He is…your savior

-         Stop being a savior complex

-         He wants to help you

-         He’s the only one that can help you

-         See your sins and give them to Him

-         Accept his gift this Christmas

-         Christmas is such a joyful time because the savior came!  Who would not be excited about being told that the cure for all your sins has been born.

-         Who wouldn’t be excited?  Are you excited?

Christmas saved us all.

I’ve had you say Jesus because I want you to get used to who Christmas is all about.  Jesus the savior.