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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor December
22, 2002 The
angel went to her and said,
"Greetings, you who are highly
favored! The Lord is with
you." Mary
was greatly troubled at his
words and wondered what kind
of greeting this might
be. But
the angel said to her, "Do not
be afraid, Mary, you have
found favor with God. You will
be with child and give birth
to a son, and you are to give
him the name Jesus. He will be
great and will be called the
Son of the Most High. The Lord
God will give him the throne
of his father David, and he
will reign over the house of
Jacob forever; his kingdom
will never
end." Why
"Jesus"? Why not some other name.
As Juliet asked Romeo: "What's in
a name?" Today,
names are hardly more than
convenient labels used to
distinguish things and people.
But in the ancient world,
Juliet's question would have been
taken very seriously. In
biblical times, people recognized
that a name expresses something
of the character or nature of the
person. Indeed, a radical change
in one's life would often give
rise to a name change. Thus
when Abram -- which means "father
exalted" -- received the promise
that he would be the father of a
great nation, God changed his
name to Abraham -- which means
"father of a
multitude." The
name Jacob -- which means
"supplanter, substitute" -- was
given to one who would later
deceive his brother and blind
father to receive the blessing
rightly belonging to his elder
brother. But he was changed by an
all night wrestling match with
God or an angel, so his name was
changed to Israel -- which means
"he struggles with God".
Ever
notice that most people seem to
have right name. When they don't,
you hear comments like: "He
doesn't really look like a
Henry." There seems to be a
strange, mystical power at work.
Either moms and dads guess right
or people seem to grow up to fit
their names. Many
names have a traditional meaning
and a Scripture passage that just
seems to go with them. Not
long after Bev gave me this, my
whole self-image began to change.
I began to understand some of the
feelings I had inside -- some of
my personality traits began to
make sense. I
started thinking of myself as
God's warrior, fighting against
the strongholds of Satan. Knowing
the meaning of my name helped to
confirm to me the call to preach.
The
angel made it very clear: "You
are to give the name
Jesus." Matthew
tells us that when Joseph wanted
to end his relationship with Mary
-- because of the pregnancy he
didn't participate in -- an angel
also appeared to him and said,
"She will give birth to a son,
and you are to give him the name
Jesus, because he will save his
people from their sins" (Matthew
1:21). You
see, the name "Jesus" is
extremely significant. "Jesus"
literally means, "Yahweh is
salvation" -- or "Yahweh
saves." Saved
from what? "Sin and death" is the
correct theological answer, of
course, and I've preached on that
many times. But today I want to
talk about two other things Jesus
saves us from: self and
fear. Actually,
we can narrow these two down to
one, because one is rooted in the
other. Our selfishness is rooted
in fear -- fear of poverty; fear
of rejection, fear of the
future. Whether
we recognize it or not, at some
level fear has a hold on us, but
Jesus can set us free. Charles
Wesley understood this. Listen to
these words from his great Advent
hymn: I've
come to the conclusion that many
kinds of sin are fueled by fear.
Think about idolatry, for
example. One of the gods in India
is Shiva, the god of destruction.
If you don't honor him he might
harm you or your
family. An
what about greed? Greed is rooted
in the fear that tomorrow I might
not have enough. The
pro-abortion movement is fueled,
at least in part, by the fear
that we are going overpopulate
the planet. It
is the fear of rejection keeps us
from loving others intimately
from the heart. We're afraid that
if others really knew us they
wouldn't like us. Now,
let me make one clarification.
Fear can be good or bad depending
on the context. We're supposed to
be afraid of some things -- like
wild animals and dangerous
situations. You've
probably read in the the Bible
"the fear of God" is the
beginning of knowledge and
wisdom. But that's talking about
a healthy respect for and
submission to the sovereignty and
power of God. We
need to "fear God" in that sense.
But the basis of our relationship
with God isn't fear. It is love.
Listen to these verses from 1
John 4: In
this way, love is made
complete among us so that we
will have confidence on the
day of judgment, because in
this world we are like
him. There
is no fear in love. But
perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with
punishment. The one who fears
is not made perfect in love.
(1 John 4:16b-18) Once
we discover that the one true
God, who created the universe,
loves us, is with us and is for
us, it changes how we see things.
As Paul so eloquently put it in
Romans 8: "If God is for us who
can be against us?" In all the
trials of life we are "more than
conquerors through him who loved
us" and gave himself for
us. Once
we experience the unconditional
love of God -- once that love
gets inside us -- it begins to
root out fear, which frees us
from a lot of junk that causes us
a lot of problems. It
works like this: When we learn
that God is Jehovah-Jireh -- our
provider -- when we know that He
will meet all our needs according
to his riches in glory, the fear
of poverty and it partner, greed,
begins to loose its grip on our
lives. If
we comprehend the vastness of
this universe and thus the wisdom
and power of the God who created
it, we will no longer fear a
population problem. God did tell
us to be fruitful and multiply,
to fill the earth. If we run out
space on this planet God will
give us another one. Beside
that we're not really taxing the
space on the earth. Look at those
countries that are seemingly
overpopulated. It's not the
population but false religion
that causes many of their
problems. India illustrates that
point. I read some statistics
several years ago that the sacred
cows eat enough grain every year
to feed the whole
country. Once
we've comprehended God's
unconditional love and realize
that God has poured his love into
our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
that we have been empowered to
love with God's love, we're free
to be ourselves, to love and to
be loved, to be truly intimate in
our relationships. All
these benefits are the byproduct
of knowing God, living in a
relationship with the God who
created us and being released or
delivered from our
fears. That's
what Jesus is all about, that's
what Christmas is all about.
Jesus opened the way for us to
return to God, to return to that
intimate relationship with God,
which was intended in the
beginning but tarnished by sin.
A
man and son were looking out of
the picture window in their home
when a bird flew into the glass
fell to the ground. They went
outside and the boy tried to pick
up the stunned and injured bird,
but the bird thrashed about and
raised quite a ruckus. Finally
the dad explained: "Son, you look
very large to the bird and so it
is afraid of you, he doesn't
realize that you only want to
help him." The son looked down at
the bird and then looked up at
his dad and said: "I wish I could
become a bird for a little while
so I could help him." Get
it? God
became a human being in the
person of Jesus of Nazareth to
help us -- to free us from our
fear -- so we can have life
that's abundant, full, and
free. "You
are to give Him the name Jesus,
because he will save his people
from their sins." What's
in a name? Everything if that
name is Jesus. "Salvation is
found in no one else, for there
is no other name under heaven
given to men by which we must be
saved" (Acts 4:12).
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
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sermons
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Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
What's
in a name?
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
(Fourth Sunday in Advent)
In
the sixth month, God sent the
angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a
town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledged to be married to a man
named Joseph, a descendant of
David. The virgin's name was
Mary.
The angel was very specific: "You
are to give him the name
Jesus."
A personal
example
Years
ago, Beverly took a caligraphy
pen in hand and made this for me.
It has my name on it and the
biblical meaning: "Gerald --
God's warrior." It's been in
prominent place in my home or
office ever since.
'From our fears...release
us...'
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release
us,
let us find our rest in
Thee.
Not fear but
loveGod
is love. Whoever lives in love
lives in God, and God in
him.
The love of God casts out
fear
He became one of
us
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release
us,
let us find our rest in Thee.
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
021222a: What's in a Name?
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado