Previously, we have seen that:
When Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus, the Angel Gabriel had told her that the Holy Spirit, the power of God most high would come upon her and overshadow her. Therefore the child that she would bear would be holy and be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35).
As the Son of God, our Lord Jesus has been appointed the heir of all things (Heb. 1:2), through whom God made the universe. And we who put our faith in the Son of God have also become children of God (Gal 3:26), are made joint heirs together with him (Rom 8:17).
Mary's child, Jesus, was described by Simeon of Jerusalem as God's salvation which God has "prepared for all peoples, as a light for a revelation to the Gentiles and a glory to Israel". By learning obedience through sufferings, culminating in his crucifixion, offering himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, the Lord Jesus has been made perfect and has become the source and author of our salvation.
When we put our faith in this sacrifice, the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in us. And He who raised Christ from the dead will also make our bodies alive through His Spirit who dwells in us. We have been predestined by God to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, so that Jesus is the "first-born among many brethren" (Romans 8: 11, 29). In this way, we are made holy and have become one family with Our Lord Jesus, who is not ashamed to call us his brothers! ((Heb.2: 11, 12, Psalm 22:22).
Now, let us proceed with:
III Jesus is the Saviour, who was promised by God (Luke 2: 18 - 19)
On the night our Lord Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, a group of shepherds were watching their flock out in the pastures. Suddenly, an angel of the LORD appeared to them. The pastures around them were brightly lit, as the glory of the LORD shone on them.
The shepherds were terrified!
But the angel said to them:
Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-11After the angel had told them how to look for the new-born baby, a large number of other angels appeared together. They gave Glory to God most high and pronounced peace and goodwill on earth among men.
The shepherds hurried over to Bethlehem to look for the baby. When they had found Joseph and Mary with the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloth in the manger, they recounted the words of the Angel to the parents: on that day, in that City of David, the child who was born was the Saviour, the anointed One, the Messiah who is "Christ the Lord".
Let us pause and take a closer look at what the Angel meant.
The word Christ, or Christos in Greek, was originally used as an adjective in ancient times. It simply meant "anointed". Later, around the second century BC, at the time when the LXX was being translated, Christos has become a substantive - i.e. it carries the meaning of an "anointed person". Its meaning continued to evolve, subsequently to become a generic term meaning "the anointed person" and, by the time the Gospel accounts were being written, this word Christos had become a technical-specific term that referred to "the anointed person who is hoped for".
Eventually, in the Pauline Epistles, Christos was used as our Lord's last name: Jesus Christ or Jesus the Anointed.
As such, when the Angel told the shepherds that night of a Saviour being born, Christ the Lord, the shepherds would have understood it to mean the Anointed One whom they have hoped for. In other words, the baby is the promised Saviour from God: Christ the Lord.
Now, those very words, "Christ the Lord" as related by the shepherds, would have caused many questions to arise in Mary's mind. What would this baby actually grow up to be? What would he do? In what way would her son, Jesus, reveal himself as the promised Christ, the Anointed One whom everybody hoped for? Most of all, how would Jesus save his people?
Luke 2: 19 tells us that Mary kept (Gr: syntereo, meaning "preserved") all these words in her heart. And she pondered (Gr: symballw, meaning "conferred with") over them. It was as though she was conferring with her own self over all that she had heard that night.
Now, it is noteworthy that the Jews were already familiar with the promise of a Saviour, the Christ or Messiah from OT scripture. So when the shepherds hurried over to tell Joseph and Mary the angelic announcement, they were telling a long awaited piece of good news: that, at last, their promised Messiah has arrived! Among the promises found in scripture, two of the most well known, and probably well-taught by the Rabbis in their synagogues, are found in the Psalms below:
The LORD (Heb. YHWH) says to my Lord (Heb. Adoni) the king:After the death and resurrection of our Lord, the apostles began to preach that Jesus is the Christ. The good news that God's promised Anointed One has finally arrived was spread to people every where the apostles went. Many believed them and repented and put their trust in the Lord Jesus as the Anointed Saviour, promised by God.
"Sit here at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." Psalm 110: 1 TEV
The Kingdom that God (Elohim) has given you will last forever. You rule over your people with justice. You love what is right and hate what is evil. That is why God, your God, has chosen you . . . Psalm 45:6,7 TEV
In closing, let me share with you an example of how Christ was preached in those early NT days, by the Apostle Peter to the household of Cornelius the Centurion at the coastal city of Caesarea, forty miles north of Joppa.
In Acts 10: 38 - 43 we read,
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins."
Such was the powerful preaching of the apostle Peter, in demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ, anointed by God. Normally, among the Israelites, a person was anointed with oil. But Peter pointed out to the household of Caesarea that Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God "with the Holy Spirit" and "with power" (Acts 10:39).
And that was not all. Peter went on to describe many marvellous acts that God performed through his Anointed One:
God was with Him (v 38b).
After he was killed, God raised him up on the third day (v 39).
God who showed the resurrected Lord Jesus openly to selected witnesses (v 41), witnesses whom God had chosen, so that they could even eat and drink with Him.
Finally, God who ordained the Lord to be judge of the living and the dead (v 42).
Brothers and sisters, let us also keep these words in our hearts. Like Mary who heard the words of the angels through the shepherds, let us ponder over them: that on that night, in Bethlehem the City of David, was born a Saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord.
When we remember that our Lord is the Christ, we remember that he was anointed not with mere symbolic oil, but with the Spirit of God, with power! We ponder over the things that God had done in Jesus: God was with him wherever he went, healing all who were oppressed by demons, God raised him from death on the third day, and showed him to selected witnesses. And God had ordained him to be judge of the living and the dead.
Let us keep these things in our hearts.
