Unto You Is Born - A Savior Series

Alba 12-3-2023

UNTO YOU IS BORN – A SAVIOR

Luke 2:11

An online Reader's Digest story entitled, “What to do when you’re kidnapped at gunpoint”, updated November 24, 2022 shared the following:

Around 9:30 on a cold March morning, a 17-year-old girl was carjacked at gunpoint in Wildwood, New Jersey. This was unexpected. The identity of the woman holding the gun on her was not.

In the preceding weeks, the teenager had given her newborn baby up for adoption. Forty-five-year-old Floribert Nava—the woman now pointing a gun at her—desperately wanted the child and was devastated when a Philadelphia family was chosen instead.It seemed she was not taking no for an answer.

“Drive,” Nava said, “or I’ll kill you and your family.”

Nava demanded she be taken to the home of the baby’s new parents, on the other side of the Delaware River. Besides the pistol, Nava carried with her duct tape, trash bags, and latex gloves.

Whatever this woman was planning, the 17-year-old thought, it was going to be violent, and it was going to happen soon. As they were crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge into Pennsylvania, the teen spotted a police cruiser pulled over on the shoulder.

Could she somehow get this cop’s attention without getting shot by her kidnapper first? The girl pointed her car toward the cruiser and rammed it. The result: She got the officer’s attention! With the kidnapper stunned, the girl leaped out of the car to safety. Nava was arrested on kidnapping, carjacking, and weapons charges and has since been sentenced to 12 years in prison. The 17 year old was saved.

There are many stories about someone being saved. Stories of someone being saved in battle by another soldier, stories of someone being saved from drowning, stories of someone going to distant lands to save people from starvation and disease.

There are stories of someone coming along side another person in a dark moment of time and helping save that person from disaster. There are many stories about people being saved that could be pulled from history today, but I am going focus on just one.

On the night Jesus came into this world, an angel appeared to some lowly shepherds who were in the fields watching over their sheep. The angel gave them some really good news. In Luke 2:10-11 it says, “Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Unto you is born... a Savior!

The angels announced Him, the shepherds watched Him, the wise men sought Him, King Herod feared Him, the world needed Him. And it still does. Of all the titles given to Jesus, perhaps none so expresses the great need that only He could fulfill as does Savior.

Without the Savior, there would be no eternal life, no heaven, no mercy, no grace, no salvation. We need a Savior! From before the foundations of the earth God’s plan for the redemption, the saving of mankind, was in place. He ordained from the beginning of creation that Jesus would be our Savior.

To describe Jesus as Savior is a correct description. But how does He save? The angel announced before He was born that He would, “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

1. He Is A Savior From Sin

This obvious truth is often obscured by other needs. Too often Jesus is presented as the one who will rescue people from unfulfillment in their marriages, families, or jobs or from a sense of purposelessness in life.

And while relief in those areas may indeed be a by-product of salvation in Christ, it is not the primary intent. Our true problem, of which those issues are only symptoms, is sin.

The true gospel message is that Jesus came into the world to deliver people from sin and guilt. Not psychological, artificial guilt feelings, but true, actual guilt that damns unbelieving and unrepentant people to hell for all eternity. We need a Savior.

Joseph who was engaged to Mary, was told, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Why the name Jesus? That is because that name means “Yahweh saves” or “the Lord is salvation.”

To say that Jesus is Savior is to also say the Savior is Jesus. His name tells us the purpose of why He came to this earth: to save us from our sins. That is wonderful, isn't it? But then Hebrews 9:22 tells us that there is only one way for sins to be removed. Of all the Old Testament sacrifices it says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.”