Sunday Recap 12-18-11

Morning: The sermon, "Jesus: the Reason for the Season," looked at Matthew 1:21. This text focuses on the reason that Joseph is to name the child Jesus. Jesus means the Lord saves.

The angel said, "He will save . . .," but what does he mean? What do we mean when we say that Jesus saves. Much like the context of this passage, we usually mean that Jesus saves from sin. What does it mean that he saves from sin. He saves from the penalty of sin (justification). He saves from the power of sin (sanctification). He also saves from the principle of sin (glorification).  When Jesus saves us he moves us from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from hell to heaven, from rejection to acceptance, and from alienation to adoption.

The angel said, "He will save his people . . .." It is interesting to note that the angel doesn't say that Jesus will save "God's people," that would be redundant. Jesus' identity is hinted at in his name. Jesus means "the Lord saves." The term "Lord" refers to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Yahweh was the covenant name of God, and expresses his compassionate, faithful nature (see Ex. 34:5-9). Jesus will save his people, those he has created and chosen to redeem. But what does he save his people from?

The angel said, "He will save his people from their sins."Scripture is clear, we have a big problem-sin. We have a problem even larger than our own sinning, and that is the sin nature passed down from Adam. Even if we could keep from sinning (which we can't), we still bear the sin guilt of Adam. God, who created mankind, set Adam as the head of our race. As our representative, he brought us into sin and death. Christ sent a second Adam, Jesus Christ, to become our head (representative), and he brings us into obedience and life (see Romans 5:12-21).

We need our sin forgiven, and Jesus provided the payment for our sin by dying in our place.

Evening: A group of 25 hit the road tonight and sang Christmas carols for some of our neighbors. At the risk of sounding boastful, I thought we sounded good. I want to thank everyone who participated.