Dr. Bingham’s Lesson for December 18, 2011
Christmas Message
“Yahweh Saves! / Immanuel!” – Matthew 1:18-23
The Name, Jesus, which is the Latin form of the Hebrew, Yeshua, was originally Yehoshua and centuries later was shortened. For translations of the Old Testament into English, it has been rendered as Joshua. It is associated with the holy name of God in the Old Testament where He is introduced to us as Yahweh which, alternatively can be pronounced Jahweh, from which has come the pronunciation, Jehovah. The letters in the Hebrew are the same, only pronounced in a different way.
Jesus’ name (Yeshua/Yehoshua) means “Yahweh saves.” Jesus pronounced according to Latin rules would be Yay-sus. The name was in common use in the first century AD and before.
Jesus was to be a savior of a particular kind. He is not meant to be, in this life, a savior from disease, bankruptcy, or danger or any other kind of physical trouble; but He is to be particularly a savior from our sins.
Naming Jesus is a fulfillment of a particular Old Testament prophetic teaching and promise. But in what way? His name means “Yahweh saves” but Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 in which the child is called Immanuel, meaning “God with us.”
Isaiah 1:1-20
(Isaiah has been called the fifth gospel because it contains so many prophecies of the coming Savior.)
In these verses, Isaiah heaps great condemnation on Israel because of her unfaithfulness in sin.
Isaiah 59:1-8
“At the end of Isaiah’s prophecy, he is still overwhelmed as the Lord burdens his heart and gives him words to speak and to write about the sin, the transgression, the iniquity, the evil that characterizes the people that God has chosen as His own.”
“Our basic, fundamental problem is sin.” The Lord could say the same thing about us that He said of Israel.”
“All of the sorrows that humanity knows arises out of a world that is fallen and perverted by our most basic sickness, which is the sickness of sin.”
“So, when the angel appears to Joseph and tells him to name the child Jesus, he is telling him to name the child “Yahweh our Savior,” who will be with us as Immanuel to deal with the problem that is most fundamental and basic to us.”
“In other words, what the prophet is telling us and what the evangelist, Matthew, is telling us is that you are to name Him Jesus, for Yahweh, the God of Israel, will be with you for one basic, fundamental reason. In this life, it may not be to alleviate your sorrows and your heartaches, sickness or the grief of your friends turning their backs on you, or the agony of circumstances that repeat day after day after day. But what Matthew wants us to know is that God has become present with us in the baby born in Bethlehem who is named Jesus. He has become present with us to deal with that which is our great and unyielding enemy, our sins. He has delivered us and He has saved us from our sins. There isn’t a person in this room who has claimed the name of Jesus as his savior who, as Isaiah said in chapter one, has not been washed as clean as snow, who has not been forgiven their sins, removing them as far as the east is from the west, as far as the north is from the south. Their isn’t a person in this room who has claimed the name of Jesus as his savior, whose sins have not been washed away and has not arisen clean, forgiven, and purified in the eyes and sight of God. Because the baby whose birth we honor and remember this season is none other than the eternal Son of God who is by nature divine and who by nature is the Yahweh of the Old Testament, who has become present with us in His humanity and who is now present with us in the form of the indwelling of His Spirit, who has passed on to us deliverance from our sins. We may have to wait until the child returns in the glory of the heavens before we will know freedom from sickness and death and betrayal.”
