Why Call Him Savior

The speaker discusses the importance of names in the Bible and how they reflect a person's essence. They highlight that the name Jesus was given by God and represents His mission to save people from their sins. They also mention other names for Jesus, such as Immanuel, which signifies His closeness to humanity. The speaker emphasizes the power and purpose of Jesus as the Savior and discusses the supernatural and unique circumstances surrounding His birth. They also mention the fulfillment of prophecies regarding the Savior. Overall, the main ideas are the significance of names in the Bible, the mission of Jesus as the Savior, and the supernatural circumstances and prophecies surrounding His birth. Today our topic is, why do we call Him Savior? And this is probably one of my favorite messages and the one that I've been looking forward to the most because it deals with the names of Jesus Christ. I can remember back when me and Lisa had Mandy and we were at the hospital and we had thought for nine months, you know, what in the world are we going to name her? And she actually came about three or four weeks early and called us off guard. And before they could release her, they had to fill out a birth certificate. And they kept asking us, what name do you want on the birth certificate? And we said, well, we don't know. We don't know. We'll let you know tomorrow and the next day. And finally, when we got ready to release, we said put Mandy Haynes on there. And we came up with a name. But how many of you have ever struggled with coming up names for your kids? You know, was it just us or, you know, Daniel and we're glad with the names we picked out, but we struggled because just like in the Bible days, names kind of mean something. And now all these years later, Mandy is definitely a Mandy and Daniel is a Daniel. We couldn't imagine any other name for them, but names are sometimes difficult to come up with. But in the Bible days, names expressed a person's essence. And so when they gave them a name, it kind of brought about their character and their nature. So names were very, very important. Most of the names in Bible days was given by their mother. However, we do know that several individuals throughout the days of the Bible were given names by God. One of them, Isaac, was the one that told Abraham what he was going to call his son. We know that Jesus Christ was a name that was given by God. It said in Matthew 1.21, That thou shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. This came from God. This wasn't something that Mary and Joseph thought up. It came from Him. And when we think about the name Jesus, you know, we have all of these different names for Jesus and everything, and all of them have their own little nuances and their little twists. I know Lisa has gone through with the women the names of God. And when you go through Genesis and all of these different names that Abraham and different ones gave God as God showed them a new character, they would give them a new name. And Jesus was like that. And each one of these names are very similar, but they all have their own little nuances. And today, I want us to notice that Jesus is really the name of the Lord's personality. It says here in Matthew 1.21 that we are going to call Him Jesus because He shall save His people from their sins. And so when you hear the name Jesus, this has to do with what He will do. He will save His people from the sins. Another name that we have around the Christmas season is the name Immanuel. And if you remember, Immanuel is the name of proximity. When they called Him Immanuel, He said, which is being interpreted, God with us. And so Jesus is the name of what Christ came to do, but the name Immanuel is how He did it. He came to be with us. And when you look at all of the different names for Jesus Christ, you have Man of Sorrows, you have Prince of Peace, Good Shepherd, Mighty God, Bright and Morning Star, Dayspring, Rock, Judge, Bread of Life, King of Kings, Teacher, Light of the World, Servant, the only way to Heaven. And I could go on and on because do you know that the Bible uses almost a little over 300 different words for Jesus Christ? And so when you go through and you look at these titles that describe Jesus Christ, Jesus is so spectacular and He is so big that there's not one single name that can confide everything about who Jesus Christ is in just one name. But today, probably His favorite name and the one that means the most to me is the name Savior. Savior. And when we look at this name Savior, Mary rejoiced in her Savior. And when she found out from the angel that she was going to have a child, and here she was a virgin, she says, my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior. Savior, when we look at the name Savior of Jesus Christ, Savior is a name of potency. A name of power. And we're going to be able to see that this morning because this is the name of the Lord's earthly mission. This is what He came to do. He was Jesus. He came to save the people, but then He became the Savior and He accomplished what He set out to do. And so our Scripture reading this morning, we're going to be in Luke 2, verse 11 all morning, but I wanted to back up to verse 10 this morning. And it says, And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. And so He uses this word Savior, and Savior is the purpose or the power that He came. He came to save His people, but He became the Savior as He accomplished that. And so it's His power, His purpose that is there. And you think about Israel at this time. Israel had dealt with many different saviors. You go through the book of Judges and you read about all these judges that delivered them. That's what Savior means. It means a deliverer. You think back to Moses who delivered them from Egyptian bondage. And so Israel through their history had all kinds of saviors with a little s that have came because that's what the name means is to save or deliver. As a matter of fact, you remember the story that you learned in Sunday school about Zacchaeus. Do you remember Zacchaeus? He was a wee little man and he went up in the tree. And Jesus Christ went home with him that day. And all of the people looked at Jesus Christ and said, man, He is eating and fellowshipping with sinners. This is not a good thing. And Jesus Christ made this statement in Luke 19, verse 10. Jesus said, For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And when we have that phrase to seek and to save that which is lost, we have the two-fold method of what Jesus Christ did. Not only did He come to die on the cross, but He came to find us as sinners. He came to us. And so this morning, I want us to look at this verse of Scripture in verse 11, and I want us to look at this Savior that has come to us. And notice, first of all, His performance. When you look here in this verse in verse 11, it says, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord. If you accept the Bible as being the Word of God, you are obligated to believe in the supernatural birth of Jesus Christ. You have to believe that God was virgin-born. We've gone over that several Sundays already. I was up this morning listening to Charles Stanley preach on the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. And you have to believe. You cannot believe in the Bible. You cannot believe in God and not believe in His virgin birth. And so it was this process of birth that was natural, but yet His conception was divine. That was part of His deity. And it comes all the way back to Genesis 3 and verse 15. That the seed of the woman would be united with the Spirit. A holy life of the Father was now produced, His incarnate Son in the flesh in the womb of Mary. An amazing event that took place. But as we think about that, it says in Luke 1 and verse 35, the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy being which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. You cannot afford to ignore a person who has been born into this world in such a unique way. Jesus Christ was the only one that was virgin-born. And so if He is really God, then we need to pay attention. We need to follow Him and obey Him. And so that was His performance. He came and He was our Savior. He came to seek and to save. But there was also His providence. When we think about the providence of Jesus Christ, notice what it says. It says for unto you is born this day. This day. If you think about it for just a minute, have you ever really sat down and thought about the timing of all of the circumstances that were surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ? You know, it starts out in Luke 2, verse 1. In those days, there went out a degree from Caesar Augustus. Did Caesar Augustus really know that he was playing a critical part in biblical prophecy? Did he really know that all of a sudden that Mary was already conceived of Jesus Christ? He was down there in Nazareth. And we've got to get Him to get to Bethlehem. And so God, working in His timing, all of a sudden brought it. I love Galatians 4, verse 4. Because it says in the fullness of time. In the fullness of time. In other words, when we think about the providence of our Savior, He said it was born this day. It is a fact of history. It is recorded. No one denies the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Nobody in their right mind will deny that. There was a very specific moment when the Lord God was born into humanity and when He arrived through the Virgin Mary. A certain day, in a certain place, at a certain time, God all of a sudden was birthed into humanity. And the Bible is clear that Jesus' birth was an historic event. His birth was not the beginning of a spiritual force that some religions teach and practice today. But it was the record of a person who had an actual birthday. We don't know what day He was born, but He had a birthday. He was birthed on a particular day, at a particular time, at a particular place. And when we understand God's performance and His providence in bringing about this Savior into the world, then it naturally leads us to go back and check on the prophecies of the Savior. When we think about the prophecy of the Savior, remember, a prophecy is something that was spoken of God. Something that was revealed in the past that is now brought out in the current time or in the future. And so, He says, for unto you is born this day in the city of David. Now when He makes that statement about our Savior, He is fulfilling prophecy. There are over 333 prophecies about Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. The majority of them are fulfilled in His first coming. There are a few that are still waiting to be fulfilled in His second coming. But one of the greatest proofs in all of the Bible is the Word of God. When God says something, God does it. He has to do it because He cannot lie. And so when He gives a prophecy, He has to fulfill it. And so we see Jesus Christ being born of the lineage of David. We saw through Mary and Joseph how that He got to the line. But through Joseph, He was adopted into the kingly line. By Mary, He was born into the kingly line. We see the deity of blood. And we see all of these things that come out around the deal. And then we see the city of David. The city of David referring to the town of Bethlehem. It was prophesied 700 years before Jesus Christ was ever going to be born in Bethlehem. Can you imagine saying something 700 years in advance and it actually coming true? In other words, when you think about that one little old prophecy in Micah 5 and verse 2, But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me, that is to be the ruler in Israel, whose going forths have been from of old, from everlasting. What this promise follows up, what Isaiah said in Isaiah 9 and verse 6 says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. And then just a few months before Jesus Christ was actually born, God reiterated this very same passage of Scripture, this same prophecy to Mary in Matthew 1 and verse 21, And she shall bring forth the Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And so we see the performance of the Savior. We see the providence of the Savior. We see the fulfilling of prophecies of the Savior. But here's where I want us to focus on this morning. The purpose of the Savior. Why do we need a Savior? And why do we call Him Savior? And refer to Him as Savior? Well, notice again back in our text in Luke 2 verse 11, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks very frequently about the purpose of His incarnation. As He goes through His life, He's constantly, why did Jesus Christ come? He came to do His Father's business. He came to seek and to serve. He came to serve people. And all of this was wrapped up in the will of the Father. And as I mentioned a while ago, there was the little old man Zacchaeus that Jesus Christ in amongst of a crowd of people as He was going through the town, all of a sudden out of all of these people, He is drawn and attracted to Zacchaeus. And all of the people when He went home to eat with Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus became very angry. And they hated Zacchaeus because he was a tax collector. He robbed from them in order to make their living. And when they questioned Jesus about eating with this type of a person, as I mentioned, His response was, For the Son of Man come to seek and to save that which was lost. Notice the focus of why Jesus Christ came. The focus is the lost. Jesus Christ came to the lost. If you go through Luke and you continue to read it, you will find this word lost come up quite a bit. Jesus had a parable, you remember, of the lost coin, of the lost sheep, of the lost son. But what happened? Every one of them He left and He went and He found. That was His purpose was to seek. That was His focus is the lost. But there's two actions in order to get to that focus. He came to seek and to save. Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission. Aren't you glad this morning that He rescued you? When we celebrate Christmas, we are celebrating the fact that we have been rescued. You say, What in the world have we been rescued from? Well, Romans chapter 5 and verse 8 says, But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the seeking part. We didn't seek God. We didn't go after God. As a matter of fact, we are living our life like nothing is going on, nothing is happening. We are eating and drinking and being merry, and life is good and everything else, but guess what? The whole time life is being great, we're dying on the inside. We're spiritually separated from God. We're sinners. But guess what? In that condition, Jesus Christ came to us. And so when we think about His purpose, we need to understand that you and I need acceptance. We need to be accepted. In the first coming, Jesus Christ comes as our Savior. And that Savior is a title of acceptance. In other words, as Savior, He came for who? To seek and to save that which was lost. As Savior, He came for those of us that are sinners, that were dying, that were on our way to a devil's hell. He came for us and He accepted us. He went to the house of Zacchaeus. He healed and forgave harlots and all of these different things that are in the Bible. Our greatest need in life is someone to accept us. You know what makes Christmas so hard for a lot of people? Because they get around and their families get together and different things happen, and all of a sudden they realize that nobody accepts me. Nobody accepts me for who I am, for what I am, for anything. But listen, Jesus Christ as Savior came to accept us. Now I want you to understand this though. In His first coming, He came to accept us. In His second coming, He's not coming as Savior. When He comes in His second coming, He's coming as Judge. He's coming to judge. And so the first time, He says I'm going to be accepting of you because you are a sinner and I'm going to give my life for you. But the second time when He comes back, guess what? There is going to be no opportunity of salvation. The Bible says it is appointed unto man once to die and after that to judgment. Now is our time to be accepted. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the day that we call upon the name of the Lord. And so our greatest need in life is to be saved. And we talk about being saved from so many different things. You can be saved from drowning. You can be saved from a car accident. You can be saved from a fire. But what we need to be saved from is ourselves. The sin that is in to our lives. And Jesus Christ came to accept us and to save us. As a matter of fact, that's why the angel told Mary to name Him Jesus. Because He will save His people. Not from a fire. Not from a drowning. Not from an accident. But He will save you from what? Your sins. Your sins. And so there's a particular reason that He came to save. And man has everything that he could ever need in life, but one thing. And you go through the Old Testament and you see all the talk about the prophets. You hear all the talk about the priests. You hear all the talk about the lawgivers. Man, all of these sacrifices. How many of you get bogged down with the sacrifices in the Old Testament, right? You've got sacrifices for this. Sacrifices for that. Read Leviticus and all of the offerings and all of the purification and everything else. And so the people of Israel lived around all of this constantly being in there. But guess what? They all had a problem. That none of these sacrifices, none of these priests, none of these prophets could deliver them from sin. That's what I read this morning in Hebrews 10. All of these sacrifices was being offered. But you know what happened next week? They had to come back and offer the same sacrifice. Next year, they had to come back and offer the same sacrifice because none of them was complete. Man doesn't just need a message from God, from a prophet. Man doesn't need a way to worship God through the priest. What man needs is a standard to live by. What man needs is a Savior. Someone who will accept us where we are and take us to where we need to be. And nothing in the law accomplished that fact. As a matter of fact, Romans 6 and verse 23 says, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We deserve death, but Christ as Savior accepted us. Now you see why Mary rejoiced in her God, her Savior? Because Mary was a sinner just like us. We saw last Sunday, or a couple of Sundays ago, that even Mary was not righteous. She needed a Savior. But not only did we need a Savior for acceptance, but we also needed a Savior for access. You see, we couldn't get to God. Look at what He says. He says, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. And then He uses the name for Jesus Christ, which is Christ the Lord. When we look at Christ, Christ literally means the Anointed One. And when you hear the term Christ, what you find is this is a title of access. And this is really neat, because when you read all of Paul's letters, who does Paul always say that he's writing from? He always says the Christ Lord. The One that has given me access, and then I have made Him Lord. He always uses these terms together. But he realizes that without Christ, he couldn't go before God. He couldn't have access to God because he needed a Savior. When we look at Christ in that title, it's included in that title Him as a prophet, Him as a priest, Him as a king. You are more than just a body and a soul. God made you a three-part being. You are a body, you are a soul, but you are also a spirit. You have a spirit within you. And guess what? This body, because of sin, is going to die. It's going to decay and turn back to dirt from when it comes. God is really... listen to me, and I don't want to be mean, and I know we're praying for a lot of sick people and stuff right now, but God is not interested in our physical self. God didn't die for our physical. He came and died for our spiritual. He came for us spiritually. See, He's concerned about your spirit. Your body is going to die and it's going to rot in the ground, but your spirit is going to live eternally. That's what God is interested in. He's not interested in today. He's interested in your future. And so Christ is this title that is there. You are dead, for the wages of sin is death. And so every one of us is dead. And in order to have access to God, we have to be made alive. We have to be reborn. And so we need access. And Jesus Christ stepped in as our Christ. And He died in our place. See, He was perfect and without sin. And He gave His perfect life. By His stripes are we healed. And He died and He suffered. He became death for us, so that through His resurrection, we can become alive again. Go back and read 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul talks about the resurrection. But not only did we need acceptance, and not only did we need access, but folks, we need an authority. We need an authority. When you go through the Bible and you look at the Bible, notice what it says, For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ, who? The Lord. The Lord. Lord is a title of authority. In other words, you remember what Jesus said? Why call you Me, Lord, and do not the things that I tell you to do? Lord is a title of authority. It's a word that will never be put right until Jesus Christ sits on the throne of your hearts as King of kings and Lord of lords. Not only is this true worldwide, but it's also true in your own individual life. The reason our world is messed up, the reason our churches are messed up, the reason people are messed up, is because Jesus Christ is not the authority in your life. We've been preaching this for the last several months as we went through briefly the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus Christ came in. What was He saying? I am the authority. I have a kingdom that is different from this world. And listen to me, you will never ever know peace, purpose, or power in your life until Jesus Christ reigns in your heart. One of the saddest things is listening to people cry out at Christmastime that they want peace. They want peace for Christmas when the only thing that can give us peace is Jesus Christ. He was born to be Lord. Do you realize when Jesus Christ was born, He was born to be Lord? He was Christ the Lord. In that manger that He laid there, He was Lord. But you know what? He not only was born to be Lord, but He also died to be Lord. See, because He died, God brought Him back from the grave. And where is He now? Seated at the right hand of the Father. He is there as our authority. So He was born to be Lord. He died to be Lord. And He was resurrected to be Lord. He is our authority. He is the One that knows what we need and when we need it. And from Romans 14, it says, for to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living. And so, here's what I want you to understand this morning. He wants to be Lord of the dead and the living. And we celebrate Christmas in order for God to reign on the throne of your heart through the beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Let's just be real honest for just a minute. Not many of us here this morning. I don't know how many is on Facebook this morning. But let's just have a time of real intimacy and realism this morning. You and I have broken God's rules, haven't we? We're all sinners, right? How many of you have ever told a lie? How many of you have ever coveted? How many of you have ever hated someone else or wished ill against someone else? See, we've all broken the rules. There is none that is righteous. No, not one. But listen, one day, the Lord Jesus Christ came into our world. And He was holy and He was righteous. He had never once ever broken one of God's rules. And He set aside His righteousness in order that He may take upon Himself flesh. And all of a sudden, He went and He stretched out His arms on a wooden cross. And He died for you. Even the thief standing there says, I deserve this. But truly, you are the Son of God. You're perfect. You don't deserve to have what's happened. And He stretched Himself out. And all of the stripes, all of the beating, the plucking of His beard, the thorns on His head, every bit of this was the punishment that you and I deserve because of sin and breaking the rules and breaking the law. But on that day, Jesus, that was born in a manger, became our Savior. He became our Savior. He stepped in and took my place. Therefore, He gave me access and acceptance and authority into my life. And it says, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Now here's the question that I want to ask you. Do you know Him as your Savior? See, I said at the very beginning that what? His first coming, He came as Savior. He wants to accept you. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Anybody that will, He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man will come in, I will open up the door. I will come in and I will sup with him and I will be with him. Jesus Christ has come for whosoever will may come. But at His second coming, He's not going to be a Savior. At His second coming, He's going to come back as Judge. And He's going to judge us. You go back to John 3 and verse 16, you know, with the verse that we all love to quote, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's all talking about Him as being our Savior. We deserve death, but He gave us the gift of eternal life. And then He goes in verse 17 and He says, I did not come to condemn you. I didn't come to condemn you. I come in order that you might be saved. But then all of a sudden, when you get down to verse 18, there's a change from Savior to Judge. He says, if you don't accept Me as Savior, then guess what? You've already judged yourself. And when I come back at My second coming, then what's going to happen? Go read Revelation. Sin and death is going to all be taken with hell and thrown into the lake of fire, which is the second death. When we wait until then, it's too late. Today is the day to accept Him as our Savior. And that's why He was the Savior, because we needed acceptance. We needed access to God. We need that authority in our life. You read the book of Judges, and things are going so good in Joshua. If you've read through your Bible this year, you remember in Joshua, man, things are going good. They're going in and conquering land. They're winning battles. They're doing good. And then all of a sudden, you get to Judges, and what do they do? They no longer had a leader. They no more had authority in what? Every man began to do what was right in their own eyes. And we see from that point on, the nation begins to fall apart. And it's the same way with you and I today. We need an authority. We need Jesus Christ ruling and reigning in our heart. It's one thing to recognize Him as Jesus, the One that came to save. It's something else to recognize Him as Christ, the One who stepped in for us. But it's a whole other thing to rejoice as Mary rejoiced in God, my Savior. See, it wasn't just a Savior. It wasn't just one of the many Saviors that Israel had. Because she said, this little baby Jesus is my Savior. Do you know Him as your Savior today? As we stand and have a verse of invitation, as we sing, if you do not know Him as your personal Savior today, He says, if you will simply believe in your heart that Jesus Christ was born, that He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, you shall be saved. It's that easy to make Him your Savior as we sing.