OUR GREAT NEED

“…….. you are to give Him the Name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21)

Greetings to you in the precious Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On behalf of Shalom Family Enrichment Mission families and General Secretary, I wish you a blessed advent month.

God alone knows the need of the people. Somebody penned like this: “If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist;   If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer”. But our greatest need is forgiveness, so God sent us a redeemer.

GOD PLANNED SALVATION

Let’s look then more particularly at my text in verse twenty-one. “…she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call His name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins”. The first point I wish to make to you is this, would you notice here that Jesus came according to God’s wise and eternal plan. Everything here was planned and worked out by God. For one thing, for instance, the right time was appointed by God: He came not a day too soon or a day too late. In the fullness of time, says the Bible, God sent forth His Son; made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem us from the curse of the law. This was the golden moment of history that God had ordained and appointed from times eternal, to send His Son into this world to redeem and save us. The plan, the purpose, the scheme of redemption in the mind of God and everything working out according to that plan.

THE NAME GIVEN BY GOD

Another thing, in verse twenty-one: notice what is said about His name; “you shall call His Name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins” (verse 21) – the name Jesus means savior. Remember, we are lost sinners – sinners in the hand of an angry God. Because we could not climb up to God, He came down to us. So this is the message of this verse that we need not climb up a long ladder in order to get to God, but Jesus came down the ladder to us and meets us on the ground and receives us even though we are sinners. All religions in the world teach human kind to climb up the ladder. Only one person dared to reverse this and they crucified Him for it – JESUS. God is not to be found at the top of the ladder but at the bottom – this is awesome!

WHAT IS A SINNER?

A sinner is someone who breaks the Ten Commandments in thought, or word, or deed. The Ten Commandments go like this. First and foremost is that you should put God first in everything. If you fail to do so, then it means you are a sinner. Second thing is I should not have any graven images, thoughts, which amount to be a sinner. Do I love somebody more than God and obey somebody rather than the Words of God? This again is a sin.  Superstition is also a great sin. The third one is missing the bulls-eye. That is, according to Paul, following the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is at work in those who are disobedient.

Now sin means breaking the Ten Commandments in your own thoughts without anyone seeing or hearing a thing. Let me give you an example. It’s possible for a young person, or indeed an older person, to lie in bed at night and you can have the most terrible thoughts and imagine you are doing the most wicked things. People imagine that it’s not hurting anybody else, so I can just enjoy these thoughts but do you realize that God sees our thoughts? Maybe you never thought of that – God can see our thoughts just as though you had a wide screen and all the pictures were being thrown on to the screen. God can read your mind absolutely. He sees those filthy thoughts perhaps, or whatever they are. We can sin with our minds and imaginations without ever speaking a single word – nobody knows about it. Our husbands and wives may never know about it, our children may never know, our parents may never know; we may never tell anybody, it’s just a secret we have in our own minds – these terrible thoughts. There are plenty of people like that. But do you realize it’s an awful sin to have wicked thoughts.

Well, my friends, Jesus came to wash away these filthy thoughts and filthy lives that we all have, every one of us. He came to save us from sin and from the devil. That’s the next thing, from the devil. You see we’re all under the power of the devil. Why do people live such terrible lives? They’re under the power of the devil. We’re reading about men raping children and killing them. That’s the human heart. How can people do that to children? It’s happening every day of life. How can people behave like that? The answer is, because by nature the devil has power over our wicked hearts. Jesus came to save us from the power of the devil. He can deliver us from the devil’s power.

THE SAVIOR

He came to save us out of this evil world. Do you realize that God calls this world an evil world – evil it is indeed. The way people live is evil; the way they talk is evil. Even in our schools now there is tremendous wickedness – tremendous evil. Things undreamed of are being talked about in schools today, not to say in the wider society. Yet, my dear friends, here’s the good news. Into such a world, Jesus came to save us from our sins.

He came to save us from hell. Hell is a real place; God tells us that. He speaks of heaven and of hell. They’re both real places after death and the terrible thing is there’s no getting out of hell. Once you’re there there’s no way back – no return ticket. But the unspeakable kindness of God will pave a way to escape this hell. He has sent His Son into the world. There is only one way to escape hell and that is by Christ. You shall call His name JESUS because He will save His people from their sins. There’s the comfort for God’s people; He will save them. Who are His people? His people are those who believe in Him, who trust in Him. What about you? What about your family? Do all your family members have this assurance? Let this Christmas be a time of accepting or renewing our life with Jesus.

Prayer: Father, you sent your Son to save me. Give me the grace to renew my salvation. In Jesus’ Name. Amen