JESUS - "Saviour" Matthew 1:21

Matthew 1:21 “….you shall call his name Jesus, For he will save His people from their sins”

INTRODUCTION: Matthew intends the opening of his gospel to be dramatic and for those who hear - to see the links – connect the dots, understand the significance.

1. The Genealogy of JESUS THE SAVIOUR is connected with “Sovereignty and Mercy”.

• The (biblos geneseos) Genesis – Origins. – The New Genesis.
• For Jews the importance of Identity and where people came from.
• We find three themes in this genealogy

• The God who is sovereign in all things– Behind each name in the list we find human stories riddled with sordid, scandalous, glorious and honourable details. The human story is messy, unfaithful, complicated and inconsistent. Matthew reminds us that despite this human story God is weaving another story of harmony and redemption and that this should give us hope behind all our Human stories. Jesus comes as part of the story of a sovereign God and messy humanity and is fulfiller and saviour. So this is the story of Jesus who is connected and placed within the plan of God’s sovereignty over all. The plan of God’s sovereignty behind the lives of ordinary people.

• The God who is merciful to all people. – Injured and hobbling humanity, from soaring faith to sullied unbelief the people who have lost their way as well as the mercy hungry warfarer. The Jews and the non –Jews an odd bunch on human beings and doings. Jesus comes as a pro-sinner, he is for us in our sin. He is for the irregular and inconsistent, the damaged and broken. So this is the story of Jesus who is connected and placed within the plan of God’s mercy for all. The plan of God’s mercy to ordinary people.

• The Fulfiller of Sovereignty and Mercy: Jesus is seen as the fulfiller of God’s sovereignty and mercy to whole of creation. – Jesus is placed in the genealogy as the fulfiller of the covenants both of Abraham and David. The blessing of God to all (Abraham) and the establishing of an unshakable everlasting kingdom (David) Fulfiller of the promises of god to ordinary people on the whole earth. Reminds us of the other bookend of Matthew in which Jesus sends his disciples to the whole world with the good news.

2. The name of JESUS THE SAVIOUR - is connected with “Inheritance and Restoration”.
The name “Jesus” is also translated “Joshua” or “Jeshua”

• Here Jesus is connected with Salvation – The freeing of captives and the restorer of freedom.

• Joshua - Joshua was chosen to lead the people of God into the reality of their inheritance. Joshua takes over from Moses in fulfilling God’s promise of “leaving captivity and moving into freedom” 

• Jeshua – Jeshua was chosen to lead the people of God into the reality of restoration as a nation when they returned from captivity. Jeshua was chosen to be the first high priest and to fulfill God’s promise of that restoration “leaving captivity and moving into freedom” Jeshua and the priests build and establish a new altar of God they restore the offerings, and began work on restoring the Temple inorder to re-establish the presence of God in the nation. – Jeshua is mentioned in Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah.

Just as an aside – In Matthews Gospel connection play a bigger role that what we have looked at today. Jesus is more than the new Joshua or Jeshua. He is the new Moses, the new Elijah, the new Israel, the new Law, the New Priest, the new sacrifice and so on…….

CONCLUSION:  What a picture, what a story, what a beginning, what a Saviour, who really saves.