Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.16 – April 2006

 

God’s Son Saves!

 

A Sermon by Rev Sjirk Bajema on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 11

Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25; Colossians 1:15-23

 

Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have confessed the first phrase of the Apostles’ Creed. Each one of us have said, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”

You know, that’s a phenomenal thing to say. This believing is throwing your whole life on whoever this God is. And to confess that He is your Father is claiming a relationship that’s quite unique. There’s no other religion in this world which has ever claimed to come so close to God – nor will any other ever do so! And for those who are in Christ, the claim is true!!

What we have declared about God the Father is that He is the One who’s been planning and working out all the different circumstances of our lives. It’s His creative and caring goodness which has brought us here – right now! The most almighty and persuasive power is at work. And we’re right in it!

But, how come? How have we come to this amazing grace? To look up into that deep, dark, and star-embedded sky at night, to walk along a beach, to realise our insignificance – who are we that we can know this God? How has this wonderful relationship become mine?

We don’t need to ask, do we? The Apostles’ Creed and the Catechism says next what we knew before we saw God as our Father. Before you could call Him your Father, He first had to be your Saviour! And so the Creed continues, “And in Jesus.”

There is only one name mentioned here in Lord’s Day 11. It’s only one part of a whole line – the line which says, “And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” But, congregation, what a name! “Jesus!”

Forget however you might have heard others use this name! Whether they use it as a swear word, a good example, or whatever. Rather, see that no man can describe this name. It’s in this very name that God has come down to us in love! In the words of Isaac Watts, “Join all the glorious names of wisdom, love and power, that ever mortals knew, that angels ever bore. All are too mean to speak His worth, too mean to set my Saviour forth.”

There’s definitely something about this name. In fact, there’s something so very special about this name that it sets it far apart and far above any other name!

Congregation, this is what we’ll see today. And in the first place, through the name “Jesus”, WE KNOW WHAT HE’S DONE.

We Know What He’s Done

So what does this name tell us about what He did? Of all the names of the Son of God, the name “Jesus” appears first in the Creed. It’s this name we have to begin with in seeing the work of the Son. This is what Lord’s Day 11 starts with and ends with. The first line of Answer 29 answers the question, “Why is the Son of God called ‘Jesus’ meaning ‘Saviour’?” with the words, “Because He saves us from our sins.”

The Son of God saves us! He Himself took away the insurmountable barrier of sin. We could never have moved the mountain of sin ourselves. We, as part of this huge mass called humanity, have been trying to find our own answers to the questions of life. We looked under every possible religious stone. In fact, mankind has looked so thoroughly now that all it does is only uncover beliefs that were thrown out long ago! The search for salvation in ourselves is really that futile!

That’s why someone else had to save us. Sin has so blinded us that we simply cannot find our way out. We only end up going around in circles – circles which become the most self-destructive vortex possible!

In fact, sin has caused such a terrible blind spot in our eyes that we can have the answer right there before us and still not see it! The Almighty and Perfect God declares Himself in creation and yet we don’t understand. The LORD can proclaim the greatest and most devastating statement of any time or any place, “I am who I am,” and yet no man or woman has any idea what it means! At least, not with their natural eyes.

But we have a completely different vision altogether now, haven’t we? We who profess this Creed are wearing the right glasses. WE KNOW WHAT HE’S DONE! This is our first point – WE KNOW WHAT HE’S DONE!

We Know What He’s Done

Thus, as the first line of Answer 29 spoke of Jesus saving us from our sin, so the last two lines of Answer 30 confirm, “those who in true faith accept this Saviour have in Him all they need for their salvation.” Now the door is opened to true salvation. One place we see that door swinging open is in Acts 4. For right there in the temple, before the powerful religious leaders of the day, Peter and John proclaim Jesus in verse 12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” In other words, they’re bravely saying, “Jesus did what your whole plethora of intricate rules and regulations could never do! He’s the Answer promised and finally given by God.”

Later, another apostle, Paul, wrote just as strongly in his letter to the Romans. In chapter 3 verse 20, he says, “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.”

Congregation, the evidence speaks for itself. Consider all those who’ve tried to follow Scripture without Jesus. How about those rulers, elders, and teachers of the law, whom Peter and John addressed in the temple? And what about those Christian fringe groups and sects today that seem so true to the Word, and yet they miss the Living Word!

Some of them are the fastest growing churches! It’s a terrible travesty! To come so close and yet to be so far! They simply don’t see! For all the while they’re claiming great insight and direction they’re failing to see they don’t have it at all – because they don’t have Him!

Sincerely they come to your door. With a zealousness you just can’t miss, they tell you about God’s plan for the end times. And given enough time, they’ll tell you all about those detailed prescriptions of Old Testament Law, or what their own prophet has laid down. Just as those Pharisees had over six hundred specific laws for the everyday details of life, so they’ll have a rule and regulation for the tiniest thing. While they may smile their religion is actually so unfeeling and harsh. It’s just like what happens to love when it grows cold.

And that’s often it, isn’t it? I mean, when do others see us Christians in a similar light? Isn’t it when the warmth of our love for the Lord has become a facade, a tradition, an institution? And we know it. This love comes in a very special type of relationship. A love so vital that if we don’t live in it we quickly show how dead we are apart from it.

Let me picture this difference. Boys and girls, each of you have a name. Whether it’s Michael or Jessica, whether it’s Elijah or Anya, you’ve got your own name. Now, you might sometimes think, “Oh, I’m just another person with this name. I’m nothing special!” But I don’t think your Mum or Dad would agree! You’re someone very special to them. That’s why they gave you your own special name. That’s the name you were baptised with.

The mother and father of Jesus gave Him that name when He was circumcised. But do you remember why they gave Him that name? Was it because they liked that name? Actually, they gave Him the name “Jesus” because the angel of the Lord told them to. You see, He was going to be something special to lots and lots of people! His name told of what God was going to do through Him, and through Him alone. His name means He will save His people from their sins!

Congregation, if the names we give our children show how special they are to us, imagine how much God loved us to send His own Son for us. His name means everything to us. For it tells us that God came Himself for us!

We confess in this article of the Creed that the One who saves us from ourselves could only be someone who is quite apart from the sinful humanity which we are. To take our place He had to be man. But to be able to do it He couldn’t be other than God!

And so, through the name Jesus WE SHOW THAT HE’S THE ONLY ONE. Our second point. WE SHOW THAT HE’S THE ONLY ONE. For He is the Saviour God. He is the great lover of our souls.

We Show That He’s the Only One

The apostle Paul is full of this in his letters. As we read in Colossians 1, from verse 19, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Jesus, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Through Jesus we can come before God Himself!

So what Jesus consistently claimed, and showed Himself to be throughout His earthly ministry, He actually was! Something which no other man ever claimed. Mohammed confessed he was a sinner. Buddha rejected personal veneration. No religious leader ever identified himself with God in the way Jesus did. Because they couldn’t! But Jesus could claim to be God!

In John’s Gospel chapter 10 we read of when the Jews tried to stone Jesus because He claimed this. To them that was preposterous. How could this mere man be God?

Jesus answers them. He says to them, in verses 34 to 38, “Isn’t it written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods?’ If he called them ‘gods’ to whom the word of God came – and the Scripture cannot be broken – what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Don’t believe in me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you don’t believe me, believe the miracles, that you may learn and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”

But they couldn’t see. Again they tried to seize Jesus, to kill Him, though He escaped their grasp. Yet the most terrible thing of all was that they didn’t believe.

You know, that is like someone using your Christian name when they don’t know you. Somehow they have got hold of your Christian name, and they use their manipulative technique to try and get something out of you. But that’s the last thing you’re going to let them do! You don’t know them at all! And what a cheek to think they can just smooth talk their way in. For no one can properly use your name unless you know them first of all.

That’s exactly what it’s like with the Lord Jesus. You can’t truly call Him by this name unless He is your Saviour! You can’t rightly call him “Jesus” unless you are looking to him alone, and to no one else, for your salvation.

That’s what Answer 30 shows as it replies to the question about whether those looking for their salvation in saints, themselves, or elsewhere, really believe. Because they don’t! In the words of the Catechism, “Although they boast of being his, by their deeds they deny their only saviour and deliverer, Jesus.”

WE SHOW HE’S THE ONLY ONE. Here we prove our faith to be real. Here is the opportunity to prove who is the love of your life! While our Catechism brings out what it is not to be in love with Jesus, by the same thing we can also learn what it is to be in love with Him!

And where else can we look for this than our own personal fellowship with Him? If He is the living Word, where are we opening up that Word?

Do you speak often to the Heavenly Father through Him? You’re not distracted, are you? Having trouble finding the time? It’s so hard to keep up. Anyway, you mostly do it at your meals together.

That’s good. But it’s what you do with others, isn’t it? And that on its own can become the very traditions which we have to watch out for. Then you’re depending on others.

That’s how the church drifted away from Jesus in the past. The so-called saints seemed to say it better. Their testimonies were a lot more interesting than the ordinary member. But all-too-soon and they’ve taken centre stage. Just like people’s stories take up so many worship services today. Not that they’re called “worship services” anymore!

Congregation, what if someone were here who was not saved by Jesus? Perhaps that’s you! Because you don’t feel you really need saving. In fact, you wonder what you’ve done that’s really that wrong!

Dear friend, who really loves you? Isn’t it the person who knows all about you? Isn’t it the person who loves you in spite of some of the awful things you do? That’s a real relationship. When they call out your name to you, you are glad they do. Because you know what he or she means to you.

Well, here’s someone who knows you through and through. The person who has always loved you. But also the person whom you’ll only know when His Spirit has broken you.

That’s what you have to see in His Church. We pray and work that His love will come shining through. Once you know Him by name we know He’s saved you!

Then you’ll know what the apostle Paul declared to Timothy. For in his second letter to Timothy, Chapter 1:12, he says, “I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” He knows someone you can trust! He knows Him by the name that says it all – the name “Jesus”.

Amen.

PRAYER:

Let’s pray…

O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bow our heads and our hearts before you now.

For we cannot do anything good whatsoever, let alone try to save ourselves from your righteous judgment.

Only in the blood of your Son can we be cleansed – as we know we are, for we confess his Name alone.

By your Spirit do so move your saving power among us now.

Change, transform, and reform us.

For we bear his Name.

Amen.