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CHAPTER
1
CHAPTER
ONE
JESUS
CHRIST
JESUS
His
name is Jesus Christ. Undoubtedly the greatest name
in history; spoken of in adoration, reverence, fear,
loathing, and used in vulgar cursing for very nearly
2,000 years. Unlike you and I, whose parents picked
our first (or Christian!) names, Jesus was not given
His name by His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary; and
Christ was not the surname of Joseph. Jesus was given
His name by His Father in heaven:
This
is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother
Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before
they came together, she was found to be with child through
the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous
man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace,
he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he
had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to
him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not
be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what
is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 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 chapter 1, verses 18-21).
Notice
the last bit of the angel’s message, ‘you are to give
Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people
from their sins’. Jesus comes from the Greek form of
the Hebrew word Joshua. Hebrew names mean things, they
say something about their owner---Joshua, therefore
Jesus, means ‘God saves’. We read in Luke, chapter 1
verses 26-38, that Mary was told by the angel Gabriel
that, though she was a virgin, the miraculous power
of God would cause her to give birth to One who:
“will
be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”
And “you are to give him the name Jesus.”
So
Jesus is known as the Saviour because His name means
‘God saves’ or ‘God is salvation’, and to secure our
salvation is precisely what He came to do---to save
us from our sins:
---the
Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world
(1 John chapter 4, verse 14).
----and
you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2
Peter chapter 1, verse 11).
This
is a book about the names and titles of Jesus, so let
us just take note of three additional titles seen
in the above verses: ‘Son of the Most High’; ‘Saviour
of the world’; and ‘Lord and Saviour’. Over the years
of reading my Bible, I have come across all of the names
and titles which refer to Jesus, however not all of
them have impinged on my consciousness or caused me
to meditate on them much. The writing of this book has
caused me to seek them out again, to look at them anew
and to, sort of, brush off the cobwebs. During the process,
I found something I didn’t realise existed---I was under
the impression that the name of our Lord, His personal
name, Jesus, was not foretold in the Old Testament.
Well, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and we
come across several individuals who were called Joshua
(God saves). Even one of the Old Testament books is
named Joshua---he led the Israelites over the River
Jordan and into the land of Israel after the death of
Moses. I had not, until now, become aware of a definite
connection where the Hebrew name of Joshua related specifically
to Jesus. In the time of the prophet Zechariah, approximately
500 years before Christ, the Jews were returning to
Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. At that time their
high priest was a man named Joshua. The name Joshua
is an earlier form of Jeshua, which many Christians
will more readily recognise as Hebrew for Jesus.
God
told Zechariah:
“Take
the silver and the gold and make a crown, and set it
on the head of the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak.
Tell him this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Here
is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch
out from his place and build the temple of the LORD.
It is he who will build the temple of the LORD, and
he will be clothed with majesty and will sit and rule
on his throne.’”
(Zechariah
chapter 6, verses 11-13).
As
we will see in a later chapter, the ‘Branch’ in the
above verses refers to Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who
will build the real temple of God, the living temple
made up of all the believers in Christ; it is Jesus
who will be ‘clothed with majesty’; and it is Jesus
who will ‘sit and rule on his throne’. All the high
priests of Israel were only shadows representing the
One who would be the final, supreme High Priest---Jesus.
So what we see in the above Scripture is prophecy acted
out, as if on a stage. There was a future High Priest
coming, whose majesty would demand a crown of all the
silver and all the gold, and Zechariah set a crown
on Joshua’s head and said, ‘Here is the man whose name
is the Branch’. The high priest’s name was Joshua (‘God
saves’, or ‘Jesus’ in the Greek). The scene was a prophetic
representation of the coming Messiah (Jesus); it reveals
the majesty of His Kingly office---the crown of silver
and gold; it reveals His office of High Priest---Joshua
being the first high priest of the Jewish return from
exile; and, maybe we could say, it even reveals our
Lord’s prophetic ministry---He will build God’s true
temple, He will be clothed with majesty, and He will
rule on His throne, all in the, then, distant future;
and, of course, it reveals His very name---Joshua, Jeshua,
Jesus. I have also just recently come across what I
consider to be another significant use of the name of
Joshua in the Old Testament: Moses led the children
of Israel for forty years in the desert on their roundabout
way to the promised land. But, Moses then died without
entering that land, and Joshua became the leader of
Israel---and Joshua took them into the promised land!
This was surely a foreshadowing of the true Joshua who
would take His people into the true promised land. Anyway,
back to the New Testament, which is filled with the
name Jesus. We are told to pray in His name:
“------I
am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask
in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do
it.”
(John
chapter 14, verses 12-13).
It
is very important, when asking God for anything, to
ask in the name of Jesus Christ; and, since we are asking
in His name, we should carefully consider beforehand
just what He would put His name to---we should not ask
for anything we could not see Jesus being happy with.
Every time we pray in Jesus’ name, it helps to remind
us just Who has opened up the way to the Father for
us; and the name of Jesus is very precious to the Father’s
ear. We have heard that great hymn, ‘There is power,
wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb.’ Well,
there is very great power in the name of Jesus; Jesus
is a name like no other:
Therefore
God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the
name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Philippians
chapter 2, verses 9-11).
There
is healing and saving power:
“It
is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you
crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this
man stands before you healed-------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
chapter 4, verses 10, 12).
This
chapter could become many books simply devoted to the
name of Jesus---there is so much could be said about
Him. Hear the words of John:
Jesus
did many other things as well. If every one of them
were written down, I suppose that even the whole world
would not have room for the books that would be written.
(John
chapter 21, verse 25).
Since
we have to cover many other names and titles attributable
to our Lord, we must move on, while being aware of the
fact that all of the following names, titles and descriptions
speak of the One to whom all the previous Joshuas (God
saves) were pointing; One in whom the name becomes a
perfect reality. God could not save anyone through all
the other Joshuas. God can save all who come to Him
through the true Joshua---Jesus the Christ.
CHRIST
Again
we are looking at the Greek form of another Hebrew word,
Messiah, which means ‘anointed one’. Throughout the
Old Testament the true priests and prophets of God
were all anointed by God. But there was always the expectation
of one who would be very specially anointed in the sense
of being God’s ultimate deliverer of, and King over,
Israel and indeed the nations. The Bible speaks of three
distinct, yet obviously related, offices or ministries
of the promised Messiah (Christ): King, Priest, and
Prophet. As we will discover throughout this book, Jesus
fulfilled each of these and much more. In the following
verses Jesus proclaims Himself to be that Messiah:
The
woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is
coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to
us.” Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
(John
chapter 4, verses 25-26).
Interestingly,
in verse 42 we also see the connection between the Messiah
(Christ) and His saving office of Jesus (God saves):
And
because of his words many more became believers. They
said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because
of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and
we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.”
In
the above passage of Scripture a number of people proclaim
Jesus to be the Saviour of the world because they had
listened to His words. They had heard what He had to
say and had become convinced He was the Messiah. It
is just the same today---people read or hear the words
of Jesus and believe He is exactly who He says He is.
For the many who say He was only a good man or a wise
teacher or something in this vein, such sad delusions
have no meaning when we look at His own claims about
Himself---if His words were not true then He was neither
good nor wise. But, someone will say ‘The writers of
Scripture have put these words in His mouth. He never
actually said such things.’ I say that no human mind
could invent such words, and I agree with the temple
guards in chapter 7, verse 46:
“No-one
ever spoke the way this man does.”
All
that is written about Jesus, in the Scriptures, is written
with one purpose in mind---to make the meaning of His
name (God saves) become a reality to individual sinners:
Jesus
did many miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples,
which are not recorded in this book. But these are written
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name.
(John
chapter 20, verses 30-31).
So
let us stay in John’s Gospel for a little while and
review some of the powerfully unique descriptions and
titles, which Jesus claimed for Himself. If you already
know Him as your Saviour these claims will make your
heart sing; if you don’t know Him, read carefully and
think seriously about them. Better still, also prayerfully
ask Him to open the eyes of your understanding.
Once
more I am grateful to Charles Wesley and the poetic
way in which he sings the praises of his Saviour:
Jesus!
The name that charms our fears,
That
bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis
music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis
life, and health, and peace.
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