No Other Name … (December 2021 Update)
“A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” That famous line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet captures a universal truth – what something is matters more than what something is called. But when we are thinking about Jesus, His name is more than just a name that He is called. His name signifies WHO He is as well as WHAT He does! The names of Jesus are unique and special. They convey meanings that remind us about the real meaning of Christmas. They tell us WHO Jesus is and WHY He came to us that first Christmas morning.
In the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel, two of the names of the Messiah are given … Jesus and Emannuel. Both are essential to the Christmas message. He is Jesus – born to save His people from their sins. And He is Emannuel – God with us. Both names are essential. Jesus must have a human birth to be our savior. He must be one of us. But if He is just one of us, then He cannot save us. He must also be God to have a perfect, infinite righteousness able to cover all our sin. That’s why He is Emannuel – God with us.
In Matthew 1:18-25, we can see three truths about the birth of Jesus. In verses 18-20, we can see His Special Birth. In verse 21, we see His Special Work. And in verses 22-25, we see His Special Person.
First, we see His Special Birth (verses 18-20). These verses tell us about the virgin birth of Jesus. No fact about Christmas is more important than the virgin birth. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, then he is not God and he cannot save us. If his birth was just an ordinary human birth, then Christmas has no meaning for us at all.
The virgin birth is mentioned all the way back in Genesis 3:15. There God tells Eve that “her seed” will crush the head of the serpent. That is strange terminology – the seed belongs to the man; the egg is from the woman. Yet Genesis 3:15 speaks about “her seed.” In Isaiah 7:14, God says, “behold a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child.” The rabbis interpreted these passages to speak about an unusual birth for the Messiah. One rabbi said it means that “the Messiah shall have no earthly father.” Another said that the birth of the Messiah would be “like the dew which falls on the ground without the action of a man.” Even though they did not understand it, the rabbis understood that the birth of the Messiah would be unique and special. And that’s what Christmas is about – the special birth of the Messiah.
Second, we see His Special Work (verse 21). The angel said, “You shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins.” The name Jesus literally means, “Jehovah saves.” It was a common name in Israel (Joshua or Yeshua). But it was the name that was chosen for Jesus for a specific reason – He was born to accomplish a special work – to save His people from their sins. During his ministry on earth, Jesus repeatedly reminded people that he came “to seek and save the lost.” This is the message of Christmas. It is not about a baby in the manger – it is about a savior on the cross. Jesus was born for one reason – to save us from our sins. No one else had a special birth like him. And no one else accomplished a special work like him. This is why Peter says, “there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12). Christmas is about the special work of Jesus – he came to save us from our sins by dying on the cross in our place.
Today, we often celebrate the birthdays of important people in history. We don’t celebrate because they were born – we celebrate because of what they did. It is because of the work they accomplished in their lives that we celebrate their birth. We celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln because of the work he did. If he had not accomplished the work of ending slavery and keeping our nation together, we would not celebrate his birth. We celebrate the birth of Jesus because of what he accomplished – our salvation. That’s why the angel said, “You will call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.”
Third, we see His Special Person (verses 22-23). Jesus is also called “Emannuel – which means God is with us.” Christmas is not about the birth of a great person or a great teacher. It is about the coming of God incarnate. It is about the “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Christmas is not about the infancy of Jesus; it is about the deity of Jesus. Jesus had to be born human to be one of us. But he had to be God to be able to save us. If he was just a man, then he could die with us. But if he was Emannuel, God with us, then he can die for us. If he was just a man, then maybe his righteousness might pay for the limited sins of one man. But if he was God, then his infinite righteousness could cover the sins of all mankind. That’s what makes Christmas so special. God became man so that He could die on the cross and pay for all our sins. But he had to be God to be able to do this for all people for all time. That’s why he is called “Emannuel – God with us.”
The name of Jesus is special. Not because he was born in a manger or because we celebrate his birth every year. His name is special because his birth was special – “behold a virgin shall conceive….” His name is special because his work was special – “You shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins.” His name is special because his person is special – He is “Emannuel – God with us.” That’s why we celebrate Christmas. Jesus came to be one of us so that he might save his people from their sins! That’s why in 2 Corinthians 9:15 Paul says, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” There will be many gifts on Christmas but none compare to the great gift that God gave us on that first Christmas. Because “there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.” Christmas is not about lights and trees and wreaths. It is about a savior who is Christ the Lord!
Teaching Ministry ….
November was a very busy month for teaching. I taught two classes. First, I taught Church History for 44 students at Kyiv Theological Seminary. I finished on Friday and left on Saturday for Lviv to teach Worship and Prayer at Ukrainian Baptist Seminary. I’m also still grading papers from the Worship and Prayer class from September and the Evangelism class in October. I’m almost finished grading those papers now but I’m still working on papers from the Church History class.
Both classes were enjoyable to teach. I love teaching Church History because students get to hear how believers before them struggled to live out their faith. They also get to see how important doctrine is and how incorrect doctrine affects even the very foundations of the church. One of my favorite tasks for students is to have them read historical excerpts from some of the early church leaders and have them write reflections about what they learned from these leaders. They read works from Bernard of Clairvaux, Cyprian, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Wycliffe, some of the early Church Fathers and Thomas a Kempis. Many of the students said this was their favorite part of the class.
Following the Church History class, I taught Worship and Prayer to a group of pastoral students in Lviv. David Snead also helped with the class, especially helping with teaching some of the worship lectures (he is pictured here during one of his lectures). The Pastoral Ministries Director, Alexander Savich was one of my first students in Kyiv in 1996. Now he is the director for this program. It is a great joy to see the work he is doing with these pastoral students! This class is very practical and full of questions from pastors who are struggling to help their churches move away from traditions back to biblical principles. Talking through these real issues that they face is one of the best parts for this class.
Also, I’m working on getting my February class (Theology and Bibliology) translated into Ukrainian. This year, Kyiv Seminary decided to change all their teaching into Ukrainian. So that means I have to redo the entire class and get everything re-translated now into Ukrainian. Be praying for me. I’m worn out from a very busy Fall, and I still have a lot of papers to grade and another class to get prepared for.
Family Time ….
In our Home School (Sophia Academy – we finally decided on a name), we are continuing to study about the various continents and cultures around the world. Each week, we look at different country and their traditions as well as study about the various biomes in these regions. Last month, we finished South America and started on Europe. Katya says she is learning as much as the girls are! We are also having a great time reading through the Little House on the Prairie series. We finished The Long Winter and we started reading The Little Town on the Prairie. Along the way, we are learning about life in the 19th Century. One thing that constantly amazes me is how they lived without most of the things we think are essential today. It is hard to remember that things like electricity, refrigeration, and washing machines did not exist then. In fact, most of America didn’t have these things even 100 years ago! We are certainly blessed to live with such conveniences today!
We often try to include a craft or cultural meal for the countries we are studying. Last week, we studied about France and so the girls wanted to make croissant sandwiches and desserts. It was a simple but fun time making and eating the croissants while listening to French café music.
Because I was teaching over Thanksgiving (there is no Thanksgiving holiday here in Ukraine), we were not able to have our Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving. But after I returned on the weekend, we invited Katya’s mom and grandmother to join us for a late Thanksgiving dinner. We had lots of good food and even got our Christmas decorations put up.
Kyiv is still in a Covid quarantine so we are limited as to where we can go. You now need a vaccine passport to go into many stores and most restaurants. But we found one restaurant that allowed us to dine in without a passport. It was a special treat after being so long without being able to go out together.
Katya’s mother and grandmother continue to move toward immigration to the United States. They have completed their medical work and might be ready to immigrate as early as March. There is still a lot to be done. We especially need to make some decisions to help care for Katya’s aunt who has Altheimer’s. So far, we haven’t been able to get everything ready for her. Pray we can find a good place for her care that we can afford.
Also, we started working immigration documents for Katya. This is something we need to complete so that we can move back to the states. We are still not sure about our time frame, but we are hoping that we can move back in a year or two. Please be praying for us as we work on all the details related to trying to move back. It was a whole lot easier (and cheaper) to move to Ukraine that it is to move back to the states.
Health Issues …
While I am certainly doing better, I still have some complications with my colon and also some occasional difficulties with my heart. I am wearing a heart monitor this week to see why I have some occasional irregularities and we will be doing a stress test later this month. We are also doing a few more tests and medicines to see what is causing my colon spasms. Please pray for my health issues to clear up.
Pray for Ukraine ….
Please pray for Ukraine. Things do not look good right now with Russia stationing over 175,000 troops on our borders and sending specialized tanks, missiles and anti-aircraft batteries to the area. The number of troops is massive – the Allies landed only 156,000 troops on D-Day in the battle against Germany! It is a great concern for us. Many have asked about leaving but it is hard to know if Putin will attack or not. While the scale has been smaller in the past, he has done something like this almost every year. We never know if this is just a way for Russia to gain some leverage in talks or if they will really attack. Pray for our wisdom and our safety.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support. We are so grateful for your gifts to help us do this ministry here in Ukraine. But most of all, we are grateful for God’s “indescribable gift” of Jesus! Merry Christmas!
By His Grace,
Jim, Katya, Kristina, and Nadia
If you missed previous updates or just want to read some short theological reflections, you can find these at our website at https://teachingresources.org/ .
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