WEEKEND Edition, 26/27 December, 2020 “His Name”

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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,

Christmas 2020 is history… and this weekend I suspect will be very busy as many people EXCHANGE some of the things they received as Christmas gifts, for other things which they prefer. Have you ever stood in a major retail store and watched the long lines of people returning things the day after Christmas? I wonder how many people would like to exchange this entire year of 2020 for something better?

What would it be like if you and I could walk into God’s throne room and EXCHANGE that which is painful, or disappointing in our lives, and God would take from us the ‘junk’ and give us a brand new future… almost like receiving a second chance at life!? Guess what my friends… THAT is what Christmas is all about! That is why Jesus was born in that stable. Jesus grew up to be the one promised by the angels… a SAVIOR, who could handle for us the ‘great exchange’! Jesus will exchange our pain, our broken hearts, our guilt and shame for a new, clean, fresh future! Can you believe that??

That’s the promise of 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come, and all this is from God who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus…and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore ambassadors of Jesus Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us… God made Him (Jesus) who had no sin, to take our sin upon Himself, so that we might receive His righteousness.”

It’s the ultimate GREAT EXCHANGE my friends! We repent of our sin, and God takes our sin and places it upon Jesus on the cross. Then God takes the holiness of Jesus and applies it to us! Do you see that? Now that means you and I can live our lives forgiven of our sin and restored into the holy, wonderful relationship with God that God created us for! And we then have before us an unlimited potential for what our lives could become! Have you experienced this my friend? As you step into this final week of December 2020, are you doing so with great hope for finishing this year in celebration of Jesus as your Savior, friend and Master, and leaving your pain and failure in God’s hands?

Now let’s look at this remarkable miracle of exchange through the lenses of the Christmas story. Luke 2:21 tells us that 8 days after Jesus was born in that stable, Joseph and Mary did for Him what all good Jewish parents did. They brought him to a spiritual leader for both His circumcision and His official naming ceremony. They were still in Bethlehem and so probably a priest or perhaps Rabbi in that village did the honors. Since they likely didn’t know anyone in Bethlehem, it was probably just the four of them. Perhaps they went to Jerusalem, 6 miles away, for this event. Circumcision, as you know, gave baby Jesus the irreversible mark of being born into the line of Abraham, God’s chosen people. (Gen. 17) It was the mark of the covenant between God and His people Israel.

Normally at the naming ceremony the entire family and many close friends would be present, as we saw in Luke 1:57-66 with Zechariah, Elizabeth and baby John. As the baby’s name was pronounced for the first time, a great blessing was also spoken over the child. You see, the parents would have chosen carefully a name which would declare their aspirations and hopes for their child. In this case of both John and Jesus, however, the baby’s names were already chosen, not by Joseph and Mary, or Zechariah and Elizabeth, but by God Himself!

Remember both Mary and Joseph and also Zechariah had received angelic visitations explaining Mary and Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancies and the life purpose of both baby boys, John and Jesus. The angels had made it very clear THIS baby boy had been given the name Jesus by God Himself, because “He will save His people from their sins.” (Matt.1:21) Jesus, or Yeshua, means Deliverer, Rescuer, Savior.

Dr. Luke also explains in Luke 2:22 that Joseph and Mary went to the Temple in Jerusalem “When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took the baby to Jerusalem to present Him to the LORD.” There are two important things happening here. First is the presentation of a firstborn son, 30 days after His birth. Do you know why? Way back when God was preparing to free 1 million Hebrew slaves from their bondage in Egypt do you remember God showed His power through 10 plagues that ravaged the countryside. But Pharaoh’s hard heart kept refusing to acknowledge the God of the Hebrews or allow the slaves to leave, so finally God said there would be one final plague which would bring death to every family who did not trust Him. The first born would die UNLESS they followed God’s instructions and trusted Him to protect them from the angel of death.

Do you remember what they were supposed to do to be protected? They were to take a lamb and kill it, then take some of the blood and paint the outside door frames of their homes< Then when the angel of death came through he would “pass over” any home which had blood on the doorposts! You’ll recall the great Jewish festival of Passover comes from this night of deliverance. Exodus 12 gives us that account. Exodus 13 begins with this statement: “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The firstborn of every womb among the Israelites belongs to ME.” Exodus 13 then gives further instructions and explanation, and this is ONE reason why Joseph and Mary went to the Temple about a month after Jesus was born. They went to thank God for His deliverance of their ancestors from slavery and to present to God their firstborn son, with great thanksgiving and expectation of what God would do in the life of their son Jesus!

But the SECOND reason that they went on this occasion is wrapped up in the little phrase ‘the time of their purification’. Do you see that in verse 22? God had put in place a plan that every mother would take an extended time immediately after childbirth to spend at home with her child, loving, nursing, caring for her child. For a boy child, that was 40 days. For a girl child it was 80 days. Leviticus 12 gives us those details. It’s interesting to me that in some modern societies now, employers are required to give “Maternity time off” for the birth mother, and even in some cases for the father! In God’s plan, after that ‘purification time’ was complete, the parents would take their newborn child to the Temple with a sacrifice thanking God for their child and promising to love, care for, nurture and teach that child in the ways of God.

You’ll note the little sacrifice they brought to the Temple was “..a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:24) This is important, for it tells us Joseph and Mary were poor people according to Leviticus 12:8, but very committed to being God honoring in everything they did, according to the laws of God. So we see here my friends that while Mary’s pregnancy was shockingly unusual and she gave birth to this special baby in an animal stable, she and her husband Joseph were determined to do all they could to honor God with their lives, their marriage and their parenting of Jesus. May I ask, has that been the passion of your family heritage? How about you, if you have children, has it been your passion to honor God in all ways with your family? This part of the Christmas story calls to all of us, challenging us to set a very high standard for our marriages, our families and our parenting, would you agree?

As Joseph and Mary came to the Temple that day, they came without an appointment. They came expecting to find it very busy, as always, and simply look for any priest who might help them with their important ceremonies. Suddenly as they walked through the crowd of people at the Temple, they were approached by an old man, and what he said to them indicated that he had been waiting a long, long time for that special day. We’ll meet him on Monday!

For this weekend may I leave you with three questions to ponder…

1. Do you know if there is any special significance to your name? What were your parents expectations of you as you were born and they chose your name?

2. Do you know if you were dedicated to God by your parents, after your birth? Was it a private time in your home or did your parents, like Joseph and Mary, take you to a spiritual leader and have a public dedication service witnessed by many people and did your parents and others rejoice at your birth and pray over you seeking God’s great blessing on your life?

3. Finally this question… have you discovered yet what you think GOD had in HIS mind when He conceived and formed you in your mother’s womb? How close do you think you are TODAY to the person God had in HIS mind that you would be by December 2020?

May I urge you to spend some time with Jesus this weekend discussing who HE is trying to shape and lead you BE at this stage of your life, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you what things might be disrupting the process God is working in His ongoing development of your life, according to His great plan for you! I hope you have a great weekend with Jesus my friends.

Here’s a wonderful video helping us see how God might be working to shape and form you into the person that HE designed you to be:

Click to read today’s chapter: Luke 2:21-24. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)

Click here to listen to a dramatized reading of Luke 2.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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