You shall call his name Yeshua Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. If you know the Bible, people’s names have meaning. Adam means ‘man’, ‘human being’. Eve means ‘hover’ taken from the Hebrew verb ‘to be the mother of all life all living beings’. Abraham means ‘father of a multitude’. And Yeshua, Jesus means ‘salvation’. His name defines what He is, what He has done for us. He will save His people from their sins.
And the purpose of Jesus coming into the world was clearly:
- to be the Saviour of the world,
- to live a perfect life,
- to lay down His life as a sacrifice for the sin of the world on the cross,
- to rise from the dead so that we can have eternal life through faith in Him.
Jesus came 100% according to prophecy, according to the will of God. He lived a life which was a 100% in the will of God. He laid down His life, and rose again from the dead. All these things to fulfil the words of scripture and to be the Messiah, the Saviour who would redeem us from our sins and give us eternal life.
And our last reading will be from Luke and Simeon’s words after Jesus’ birth and the days of purification in Luke chapter 2 verse 22. This reminds us again of the Jewishness of Jesus. He was the firstborn son of Mary and Joseph and they’re going through what is called the pideon haben, the redemption of the firstborn.
The firstborn son has to be redeemed and they take Him to the Temple in order for Him to be redeemed 50 days after His birth.
22 Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord
Luke 2.22
And verse 25 says,
25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:
Luke 2.25-28
In other words, Simeon is waiting for the Messiah to come, the Consolation of Israel. God has told him that he is not going to die before he sees the Messiah coming. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, revealing to him he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah, Christ.
So, he came by the Spirit into the Temple when the couple (Mary and Joseph) brought the child in, the child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law. And Simeon took Him up in his arms and blessed God.
Simeon is standing in the Temple. God has told him to go there because he’s going to see the Messiah. I don’t know what he expected to see but he sees this young couple coming in with a baby. How can that be the Messiah?
And yet, the Holy Spirit tells him ‘This is the Messiah, this is what you’ve been waiting for‘. Now you are seeing the fulfilment of all that you’ve hoped for and all that has been promised to your people in Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah.
Imagine what must have gone through his mind when he saw that. And as the Holy Spirit came upon him, he said these words:
29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation.
Luke 2.29-30
Yeshua, that’s what it says, ‘your Yeshua’. ‘Your Salvation’ in Hebrew is ‘Yeshua’. ‘Yeshua’ is the Hebrew name for ‘Jesus’. So, to say ‘my eyes have seen your Jesus’, I’ve seen Him. This little baby, this, is your Salvation,
31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, 32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
Luke 2.31-32
Jesus the light of the world. He is going to be a light to the gentiles, that’s you and me. And He is also the glory of your people Israel. He’s the most glorious thing which Israel has given to us. And, as Israel has given us the glorious Messiah, so we should give back blessings, and peace, and love to the people of Israel.
And God is saying this baby is going to bring revelation and light, and truth to all people in the world. Those who will receive Him
as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.
John 1.12
And right now, we have the right to become the children of God because we receive Yeshua, Jesus into our lives.
Then he says,
33 And Joseph and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him.
Luke 2.33
I imagine this would have been a tremendous confirmation to them, wouldn’t it? They didn’t know this man from Adam and, suddenly, he comes in and says ‘I know you. I know I know your baby. He’s the Messiah’. It must have been a tremendous event.
34 Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against 35 (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
Luke 2.34-35
This child is going to be a sign to many in Israel, a sign which will be spoken against.
There will be people set against Him and He is going to lead to the rising and fall of many. The rising is to those who believe Him. Those who believe in Him are going to rise from being under the condemnation of God to being under the blessing of God. From being in their sins, to being saved through faith in Jesus. Those who reject Him will fall into condemnation and be eternally separated from God.
So, He is going to be the separation to come between you and God based on how you respond to Jesus. And that is still the case today. Are you going to rise to eternal life as you believe in Jesus or are you going to fall to eternal death as you reject Jesus?
So, don’t reject Jesus. Accept Him and rise to eternal life because there is no other name by which you’re going to be saved except the name of Jesus.
And he has a specific word to Mary says,
a sword will pierce through your own soul also.
Luke 2.35
Exactly what that means, we can only speculate on. But, as Mary was at the cross, watching Jesus being crucified, you could imagine the pain and that terrible sorrow which she must have felt after she’d been through all this: to bring Jesus into the world, seeing Him minister to others, witnessing His miracles. And now, she saw Him on the cross, suffering and dying.
And you can imagine, as a mother, how that must have felt. As a human being, what she must have felt as someone who believed in Jesus. What that must have felt to her. And yet, of course, Jesus dying on the cross was going to be the way in which He would pay the price of the sin of the world, so that you and I can be redeemed and have eternal life.
Therefore, you will see your salvation and we can see our salvation through faith in Jesus. We can see that He has fulfilled all these prophecies, that He is the Messiah, that He is born to live the only life that has ever been perfect life that’s ever been lived on the face of the earth. Born to reveal God to us through His miracles, His teaching, through His life, through His love, and born to die, and, in dying, to be resurrected to eternal life to save us, who were born to die, that we might be resurrected to eternal life and not to eternal death.
And He took the punishment for our sins so that we can be redeemed and that’s how much He loves us.
In conclusion, I just say that all the signs of the Second Coming of Jesus are taking place around us. We need to be ready to meet Jesus.
If you’re not ready, if you’re not saved, you’re in trouble. So, make sure that you are saved now and that you believe in Jesus because there is a time of immense trouble that’s coming on the face of the earth.
I don’t know if we’ll make it to another Christmas to be honest. There’s a crisis coming on the world which may mean that we’ll be closed down or something will happen which will stop us from being able to continue to meet like this. I hope not.
But you can see the signs that are coming around us now, which may mean that we have to change how we meet, how we behave in the coming years. Certainly, there is this tremendous onslaught on the truth which is taking place around us.
We also know that Jesus is going to come back at one point and take those who believe in Him out of the world in the event we call the Rapture of the Church.
I’m not sure how long we have before that. Jesus said, ‘be ready because it’s going to come’. At some point, Christ will rise and, if we are alive, we will be caught up to meet Him as He comes in the clouds of heaven, and we will be with Him always.
There’s a time coming when we need to be ready to meet with Jesus. Or rather, there’s not a time coming, the time is now to be ready to meet with Jesus. As I say, I don’t know if we’ll meet Him in the coming year, I don’t know. But we need to be ready, and we need to be ready for the Second Coming of Jesus which will be quite different from the First Coming.
At the Second Coming, He is coming with all the power of God to judge the world in righteousness. And, at the Second Coming, there’ll be an eternal separation between those who are saved and those who are lost. So, now is the day of salvation, now is the day to be saved through faith in Jesus.
The way to be saved is quite simple: repent, believe the Gospel, put your trust in Jesus, and accept Him as your Saviour.
We’re going to sing now the last hymn which is ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ and I just want to read out the last verse before we sing it. It says,
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris’n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Have you had the second birth? Are you born again? Make sure that you are!
There is another verse which is not often seen but we’re going to sing. It says,
Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to thine.
Jesus came to crush the head of the serpent, that ‘Satan’, and to restore in us ‘the woman’s conquering seed’. That means He has conquered, He is conquering over Satan, and the seed is the seed of the Gospel through which we can be born again to eternal life and be joined to Him so that we are His and that He is ours for all eternity.
May everyone who is listening to me know that, in your life, you are a child of God, that you have eternal life, and that Jesus died for you. He was born, came into the world, lived a perfect life, died, rose from the dead, and ever lives to make intercession for us. So, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation.