Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, author and finisher of our faith, bread of life, bridegroom, captain of our salvation, chief Shepherd, chosen one, chief cornerstone, dayspring, Emmanuel, firstborn from among the dead, firstborn of all creation, great Shepherd of the sheep, head of the church, high priest, holy one, image of God, advocate, King of Kings, Lord of lords, Lamb of God, light of the world, lion of Judah, Lord of glory, Morning Star, Prince of peace, son of God, Son of Man, great teacher, living rock, stumbling stone, the way, the truth, the life, the great I am, wonderful Counselor, word of God.
That is just a taste of the names and titles attributed to Jesus. There are at least over 150 and depending on how selective you are that list can go up to 200 and more. There is great meaning and impact behind both the number of names the names themselves given to Jesus. It would not be hard to do a devotional series just on the names themselves.
Christmas, Christ-mass, is the holy day we have set aside in the year to celebrate the Advent, the first coming, of Jesus to the world and it is and should be a time of joy and celebration as we look back to his incarnation as well as look forward to his second coming. The first announcement of his birth was made to a group of shepherds who were out in the fields around Bethlehem. The first people to celebrate Christmas in that sense, together to worship God at the coming of the Savior. Who God chose to hear that announcement, to celebrate the first Christmas is a great subject of contemplation on its own especially as we think about the names associated with Christ and his many references to shepherds and sheep throughout his ministry.
But it is not the shepherds that I want to look at this morning, it is announcement that they heard from the Angels, that good news of great joy that the Angels brought. Christmas stories often read out of Luke two, and I am sure you are all familiar with this announcement which serves as our text for this morning, Luke 2:10-12, it is the words that are read over and over again in children’s Christmas plays and TV and movie specials that are true to the origins of this holiday. “But the angel said to them, do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.”
Good news of great joy. The gospel in a nutshell. “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That is who the baby that the shepherds would find truly is. That is what we celebrate at Christmas, “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” That is the focus of all of Scripture, and the central point of human history. “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” And it is those three titles that I want to highlight this morning. That I want to flesh out a little bit so that we have something a little more to contemplate for the next few weeks.
We start with the title “Savior.” And if he is a Savior, then we have to ask the question saved from what. That word “Savior” in and of itself is not a particularly special word. It comes from the root word “to rescue,” or “to help” and its use throughout both the Old and New Testament in many different ways. We often see words in Scripture used in many different ways and we cannot always invest their full meaning in every instance. In the Old Testament, for example when the Army went out into battle against a stronger foe, they would cry out for salvation, but the rescue they are looking for is not spiritual it is a physical saving of the troops. So of God delivered the enemy into their hands, he makes himself there Savior.
In the same way, when people are stricken with diseases or illnesses to the point of death and God spares their lives, they are said to be saved. And we see Jesus doing this many times throughout his ministry, healing the sick and the blind. There are several instances where he then says to the person he has just healed “your faith has saved you.” He is not necessarily saying that their faith and trust in him to heal them physically and has also translated into them being made into a right relationship with God, being reconciled from their sin. That might be there, but his focus is on the physical restoration and them being saved from their physical condition.
All three of these titles “Savior, Christ, and Lord” are used of Jesus much throughout Scripture, but this one is literally right in his name. The name “Jesus” is the English transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew “Yeshua.” It is a bit of a roundabout way of getting there and if we want the direct equivalent from Hebrew, the name Jesus is the same as the name Joshua. The name Joshua is incredibly significant, not just because the second great leader of the nation of Israel after Moses was named Joshua, but because the name itself means “Yahweh Saves.”
When Jesus is called “Savior” both through his name and this direct title we have to ask the question “saved from what?” In part, he is the Savior of people as he healed disease, cured illnesses, and even brought people back from the dead. He is a Savior as well in that he is God and responsible for many acts of physical salvation throughout history. But the most significant comes of course in the salvation from our sins. And if you remember back to when we looked at the first chapter of Matthew the angel explains to Joseph, the real implications of this name when applied to Mary’s child “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
It is also worth noting in what way we are saved from our sin. We are not saved from sinning. Not yet, we are saved from the consequences of our sin. We are saved from the results of our sins. As Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 1:10 that it is Jesus who rescues us, or who saves us from the wrath that is to come.” This is the ultimate sense of salvation, and we cannot forget it.
So often today people think of Jesus as Savior and think about being saved from unhappiness caused by sin. “I was an alcoholic and then Jesus saved me and now my life is put back together.” Or they think of loneliness, “I never knew what it was to be loved by someone until Jesus saved me.”
As much as we should feel joy and love having been saved by Jesus, we must also remember that what he primarily saved us from was the wrath of God. That he came to earth not to give us a better life, or show us a better way, but to take upon himself the fullness of the justice and punishment of God against the sins of the world. That is the ultimate sense of Jesus as Savior.
The next title given to this newborn baby is that of “Christ.” The word “Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Meshiach, or “Messiah” as it is generally pronounced in English. They are one and the same. When you hear the word Jesus Christ, or Christ Jesus, you should in your mind associate that same Hebrew word, Jesus Messiah or Messiah Jesus.
The word “Messiah” itself means “anointed one.” The Hebrew root word for the term “Messiah” is a verb which means “to spread a liquid over,” it is used in ancient literature very frequently because it was a very common function. The same word is used to refer to painting in the book of Jeremiah.
In Jewish religious history, the idea of anointing someone or something, generally with olive oil, was a ceremonial spreading of the oil on an object or person to symbolize that they were set apart for some sacred responsibility. It was done to set apart a secular or common object or person and consecrated it, to identify it as sacred, to set it apart for God’s use alone.
This sort of anointing happened with objects like the entire tabernacle in the book of Exodus as well as individual objects and vessels that were used in the tabernacle and later the temple. More importantly, it was used on individuals. There are people in the Old Testament who were anointed to set them apart for specific spiritual duties. They were to be representatives of God and they had a responsibility to God to act in His place, to act as His intermediaries. They were recognized as “anointed ones,” messiah’s with a little “m,” and there were a lot of them.
There are three different groups of people that were required to be anointed and setting them apart for service. They were the priests, the prophets, and the kings. The anointing of the priests began in Exodus 28 with the anointing of the first high priest, Aaron, the brother of Moses. The high priestly office passed through Aaron’s line and the priesthood as a whole was required to be part of the tribe of Levi. The act of anointing them was a symbolic gesture to show their unique consecration to service to God.
All three of these offices were intended to be mediatorial roles between God and his people. The prophet was the mouthpiece of God. They represented God before His people like an ambassador speaking the words of the king who sent him. Throughout Israel’s history, from Moses until John the Baptist, the prophets presented the revelation of God that had been revealed to them and pass it on to the people of God. They were the arbiters of the Word of God and its many different forms, whether in dreams, visions, or direct communications from Him.
The priest’s primary function was to be the spiritual representative of the people to God. Their function was in part to be the teachers of God’s revealed law. But their primary function was the offering of sacrifices for sins on behalf of God’s people. They were the arbiters of the people before God, the ones who had been consecrated as holy. Held to a higher standard so that they could come before God when the people could not. It was the job of the high priest to enter into the Holy of Holies on the day of atonement and sprinkle the blood on the Mercy Seat.
The king’s primary function was to be the divinely instituted ruler and protector of the people of God. God himself rules over the universe and his own the people as a theocratic king but instituted the kingly line in Israel to rule over his people on earth during the times of the Old Testament.
These were all of the little “m” messiahs through the Old Testament.
As you read the Old Testament it is not hard to see the focus on the single big “M” Messiah that is to come. The Old Testament is a deeply messianic book from beginning to end. Starting in Genesis 3 and The Fall, God promises Satan, disguised as the snake in verse 15, that he will “put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring: he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is the first prophecy in a long line of prophecies that described a coming figure who would reverse the effects of sin on the earth.
In Isaiah the Messiah is presented as someone who will suffer on behalf of the people of God. We read in 53:5 that “he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourgings we are healed.” In this way, the Messiah is understood to serve both as the priest in presenting the offering but also as the offering itself as a payment for our transgressions.
We also see in Deuteronomy 18 that Moses predicts a prophet that will be greater than himself. This idea of Jesus as the greater Moses is seen especially in the sermon on the Mount as he takes the words of the Old Testament and reinterprets them for the people. Not that he changes their meaning but that he removes them from the corporeal actions and refocuses them on the heart of the individual. In the narratives that have him being accused of breaking the Sabbath, and we will see several of these in the book of Matthew, Jesus presents himself as the institutor and authority over the law itself.
Far more than that, Moses was the prophet who instituted the covenant between God and the people of Israel. Jesus, as the greater Moses institutes the New Covenant that is not only open to all peoples of the world but is based upon his sacrifice rather than on the Law.
In the book of Hebrews, especially in chapter 9, Paul explains in detail how Christ fulfills the roles of both the high priest and the greater prophet with the institution of the new covenant in the blood of Jesus.
The role of the Messiah, the big “M” Messiah, the one who is promised from Genesis 3 to come developed from just the one who would crush the head of Satan into a complex combination of a prophet, a priest, and a king. All three are essential needs for us. Our sin has separated us from God, it keeps us from approaching God, and it left us in ignorance. Before the fall, man enjoyed perfect communion with God and was able to understand things in a way that we will not comprehend until we are reach heaven and are given our glorified bodies.
After the fall, mankind did not know God and therefore needed a prophet to tell us about him. We had no relationship with God and so we needed a priest, an intermediary, to take us to God to reconcile us. We were ruled by Satan and the evil forces of this world and so we need a king to conquer the devil and to free us from our enemies.
The Old Testament is the combination of 1400 years of anointed profits, priests, and kings, all writing, serving, and looking forward in earnest hope for the coming of the Messiah. The announcement made to a group of shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem proclaimed the birth of this Messiah. “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” The one who would function as the perfect prophet, the perfect priest, and the perfect king. The one who the people of Israel had been waiting on for so long.
The third title that he is given in this great announcement is that of “Lord.” This title has a rich background for the Jewish people. And we must understand it as it is applied to Jesus. The most important title given to God in the Old Testament is “Lord.” Having the basic meaning of “master of all.” And the fact that this title is so repeatedly given to Jesus throughout the New Testament is one of the primary arguments for his deity as Jesus is given the title that is reserved for God.
This is supported by the most frequently cited and alluded to passage of the Old Testament in the New, Psalm 110. Where David declares “the LORD (or Yahweh) says to my Lord, sit at my right hand.” Almost exclusively in the Old Testament when you have a combination of Yahweh and the Hebrew word Adonai it always refers to the same person. What we see here is that God the father is speaking to someone else, and David calls him “my Lord.”
By recognizing Jesus as Lord, it is a recognition of Jesus his absolute sovereignty over all things in the same way that God in the Old Testament is called “Lord.” That is the first meaning of calling Jesus “Lord.” To recognize him as on par with God the Father.
The second meaning is to recognize him as master over you. To be a Christian, to be part of the church which comes from the Greek root word kurios, the word used for Jesus is title in Luke 2. The word “church” literally means “those who belong to the Kurios, to the Lord.” If you are part of the church than your part of the people of the one who reigns as Lord.
How may times have you heard the angelic announcement of Luke 2:10-11 read? “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Calling this announcement “good news” is such a massive understatement. This is not just good news, this is great news, this is the best news that had ever been announced in the hearing of those shepherds. A Savior has been born. Not just any Savior, not a Savior who would rescue people from calamity, who would keep people from danger or heal illnesses and disease. But a Savior who is “Yeshua” the God who will save people from their sins. The Savior who is Christ the Lord. The culmination of all of Old Testament prophecy. The ultimate profit, ultimate priest, and ultimate king. The one who has been coming since Genesis 3 to crush the serpent. The greater Moses, the great high priest who will sit in the presence of God, and the King of kings. A Savior who is Christ the Lord, the Almighty God himself to whom all the world will bend the knee.