Sermon: Names of Jesus: Christ

You take a copy of God's word this evening and we're gonna turn open to the gospel of Matthew

this evening. Matthew chapter one, verse 16.

Uh, read verse 16 through 17.

Let's pray before we open God's word together this evening.

Father, as we come to this passage this evening and even this thought this evening, Jesus is the Christ confess. We have heard that so many times that

our hearts can be cold to it.

Spirits are too often not stirred by it.

I find that there's very little affection stirred as we hear it

and what folly that is, what sin that is,

stupidity and ignorance. That is we pray this evening that as we consider the great truth, that your son is the Christ that we would find like those disciples on the ama road, that our hearts are strangely warmed within us, afresh a new and a different way, and that we are rejoicing once again, this great gift that we have been given.

We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Matthew chapter one, verses 16 and 17. We're just gonna look though there at verse 16 In Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ. 14 generations with the grass withers and the flower fates.

Word of God is forever speak to God. Amen. We're uh, doing the series in the evenings here on the names of Jesus. And so looking at different names that Jesus is referred to in the scriptures, different names that are attributed to him as we go through the scriptures, and this is surely the most famous of all names that is given to Jesus, Jesus Christ. Uh, maybe not always for the right reasons. Too often it's affixed to his name as a,

as a kind of exclamation. Uh, other times it is often treated as Jesus's last name. Uh, the first an exclamation that is just sin, it's blasphemy. Uh, the second that it is his last name is just ignorance and stupidity. Uh, it is neither of those. It's rather a title and I want to look at that together this evening. That's where we're going to begin. First that Christ is a title. And second, what I want to do is look at it

that it is more than a title. We will look at it as a fulfilled promise. And then third, I wanna look at the blessings that flow from it. So Christ is a title. Second, it is a fulfilled promise. And then third, the blessings that flow from it. Matthew begins this gospel as he launches into this entire account of the Lord Jesus and he walks through the genealogy of Jesus and you'll notice that he says in the very first book,

first verse, this book, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He does this entire genealogy to show that Jesus is both from the line of Abraham and he is also from the line of David. And there are three groups of 14 generations that he walks through as we just read as a summary there in verse 17. And when he gets to the end of the genealogy in verse 1615, he gets to verse 16 and he says this, Joseph, the husband of Mary

of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ, he's called the Christ. That's a title. Christ is from the Greek word Christus. It's a word that means anointed. Anointed one. The Hebrew form of that word is also a word that you know, it is the word Messiah, anointed one. He is the Christ, he is the Messiah. He is the Anointed One. Well, where does that title come from? Let's think through the derivation of it together in the Old Testament,

there were often occasions in which God commanded the people of God to anoint something or someone. It was a way of setting that thing or that person apart for some special use for something that it was to do. You see something like this in our day, you will have the beginning of a thing and usually it is a ship or it is a a building and there will be a bottle of wine there or champagne and they will break it and they will christen interesting word.

They will christen the ship before they launch it and they inaugurate it going forward. It's being set apart in a distinct way. Well, God does the same thing over and over. It's a wave setting a thing apart or setting a person apart for a holy use. For example, we see in Exodus 30 that God told Moses to take fine spices, liquid me, sweet smelling, cinnamon aromatic cane, Cassie and olive oil. He says that Moses, you are

to blend these things together into a perfume which God called a holy anointing oil. And then he commanded Moses to take this oil and quote, you shall anoint the tent of meeting and the ark of the testimony and the table and all its utensils and the lampstand in its utensils and the basin and its stand. And then God says in summary, you shall consecrate them that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy.

The entire tabernacle and all of its furnishings were being set apart for a holy use. And so as it's inauguration, as it's very beginning, when it's going to be used for this holy use, it's set apart by Moses putting together this holy anoint oil and he is to anoint the tabernacle and to anoint all the furnishings so that it is set apart for this holy use. It wasn't just the tabernacle. He goes on to command Moses to anoint Aaron and his son.

So they may serve as priests. You were to take this anointing oil and you were to pour it over their heads. And so they were set apart as priests say holy setting apart. We see this as well with kings. In the Old Testament you will see it with Saul and with David and with Solomon. You'll even see, say, see God say it of Cyrus that he is my anointed one. And with Saul and David and Solomon, they will be anointed with oil.

Why? Because they were being set apart for a purpose. But it's not just pre priests, it's not just kings. It was also true of the prophets throughout the Old Testament. This oil or anointing was a sign that marked him, set apart for a very specific use for the glory of God and for the good of his people set apart

with regards to people, it signified that the Holy Spirit had not only set them apart, but that the Holy Spirit would give them the attendant gifts necessary for the fulfilling of their particular office. And so you have these, these anointed people throughout the Old Testament. We could say there were all kinds of little Sea Christ all over the Old Testament, anointed ones, but all of them were the prophets or priests or kings.

They were but shadows of the anointed one to come, the perfect prophet, the perfect priest and the perfect king who was set apart for God's glory and for the true lasting, eternal good of his people and the Jewish people as they're walking through redemptive history. And as the Old Testament scriptures continue to compile, they they begin to understand this framework. They begin to see it and they begin to expect that God is providing for them

as they see throughout the scriptures what they call a Messiah, an anointed one. Now in Israel it was not always clear to them. It seems as we look back on history, it was not always clear to them that this person would be the prophet and the priest and the king of God's people. But they knew he would be an anointed one, a messiah that that they believed would come and he would, he would set Israel free and would restore Israel to a place of prominence

and would dash all of their enemies. And so they longed for this anointed one as Christ to come. He's promised one. They knew the promise of Isaiah 61 verses one through four. This was always seen as a messianic text.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim the liberty de captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor on the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn and Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes.

The oil of gladness instead of mourning the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me, the Messiah, the Christ.

In light of that passage, I want to think about two significant events in the life of Jesus where he pulls upon this imagery.

A third I was to give you a third and quickly, I'll give you the third as it comes to mind right now. Do you remember when John the Baptist sends his disciples to go to Jesus and ask if he is the one that they are to expect? You remember Jesus' answer. He says, go back and report to John that the lame are healed and the blind sea, he's pointing to Isaiah 61,

but two passages of sworn I want us to think about or this evening, I want us to think about 'em. Significant events in life of Jesus. The first happens in just a few chapters after chapter one here in Matthew chapter three. It's the beginning of Jesus's earthly ministry. And before he begins, before he goes out and he begins to preach and he begins to heal and he begins to teach. Matthew says that he approaches John the Baptist

and he, he gives us this picture of Jesus' baptism. What's fascinating is Matthew gives us the most full picture of Jesus's baptism, but he almost tells us nothing about the actual baptism. Alls he tells us is that Jesus came up out of the water, that that is all that he tells us. He simply says Jesus was baptized and then what he tells us is when Jesus comes out of the water, the heavens were open to him. And when, when the heavens opened, the spirit

of God descended like a dove upon him, anointing him

before he begins his ministry, he's anointed spirit comes upon him, sets him apart and empowers him. He's anointed by the third person of the triune Godhead. Why? So that he's set apart for his ministry before he begins his ministry so that he is empowered in his humanity to fulfill his ministry so that there is a visible sign before all of those that are watching that the father has said, this is my son with whom I am well pleased.

And here is the spirit coming upon him in power. So that you know there is a testimony of the triune Godhead that this indeed de is the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ

Athanasius, the early church Father. He rightly captured Jesus' distinct anointing by the Holy Spirit. When he said this, he said not like Aaron and David or any of the rest was he thus anointed with oil itself but in a different way surpassing all his companions that this oil is the Holy Spirit. He explains to the prophet, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me. Isaiah 61,

The second passage is Luke four, when Jesus comes to his hometown of Nazareth and in Luke it's the very beginning of Jesus's public ministry. So Luke chapter four, Luke is taking us to the very first event of Jesus's public ministry. He goes to Nazareth, his hometown, and he walks into a synagogue immediately after his baptism and Luke tells us that he stands up. He takes a scroll of the prophet Isaiah and what does he read?

Isaiah 61, He reads Isaiah 61. He then rolls up the scroll, he gives it back to the attendant and he takes a seat.

He's just read in their hearing all of Isaiah 61 Again, it begins, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he is anointed me. And then all the rest of the passage. And Luke wonderfully says, the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on him. And then Jesus says, today this scripture is, is fulfilled in your hearing.

I'm the Christ. I'm the anointed one. I'm the one that the spirit has come upon.

Our second point, Christ is the fulfillment. He's very clear. The scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, Isaiah 61. But we could say in a very real sense all of the scriptures,

if we go back to Matthew's genealogy, he's pointing out this with the way he begins his gospel,

the genealogy is set up the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the anointed one, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. Notice that genealogy has a purpose. It's to lay out the lineage of Jesus, but not simply Jesus, but Jesus as the Christ. It's establishing Jesus's right to that title. That is that he is the fulfillment, he's the Christ. And thus Matthew breaks down the genealogy by speaking of Jesus, being a son of David and a son, son of Abraham.

He's focusing his readers upon the two great moments in redemptive history where God enters into covenant with this great prophet priest and with this priest king. And he's saying Jesus is the fulfillment of these covenants. So let's refresh our memories about this covenant with Abraham and the covenant with David. You remember the covenant with Abraham. First in Genesis 12, God calls Abraham, Abraham at the time from the earth of the kaldi's

and tells him that he's going to give him a promised land. And so Abraham starts out in faith not knowing where he is headed as the writer Hebrew says. And then Genesis 15, God enters into a covenant with Abraham enters into this binding agreement with him. And in a covenant there are always two sides of a covenant. There are always curses that are attendant to the covenant if you do not uphold the covenant. And on the other side of the covenant there are blessings

that attend to the covenant of the covenant is upheld. And the verb that is often used with covenants throughout the scriptures is that a covenant is cut. You remember this is what God does with Abraham. He takes animals and he cuts them in half and he separates them and he puts Abram in a deep sleep. And then we see this theophany where God takes the form of a a blazing torch and he walks through these pieces of animals

and he commits himself to this covenant with Abraham.

And what is the promise of the covenant? The promise is that I will give you this land and you shall be a blessing to all of the nations and you shall have more descendants than there are stars in the sky than there are grains of sand upon the seashore, I will be your God, you will be my people, your descendants. I will be their God and they will be my people. The promised to Abram

David, of course the promise. And with David we have David entering into a covenant with God. God entering into a covenant with David. It's interesting that in Matthew's genealogy here, he, he names a number of kings of Judah. Remember that the promise to David is in the covenant that David, if, if this covenant is upheld, the blessing is is that you shall have a descendant of yours that shall sit upon the throne forever,

who will be king forever and ever. And you go through this genealogy and you see king after king of Judah after David are good and bad kings listed after David. Aja was bad, ASF was good, Jehosaphat was good, J was bad. What's fascinating about the genealogy here in Matthew is that Matthew doesn't call any of them kings except David. He only calls David King.

He's pointing out that none of these are the fulfillment.

None of these are what was promised. These are just lesser king. He's pointing us forward to the Messiah to come Jesus,

this one that would sit upon the throne forever.

Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the fulfillment of all the promises to Abraham, all the promises to David. It's through the Son of Abraham that all the nations of the earth are blessed. It's through the Son of Abraham that we are ushered into the eternal promised land, a place flowing with milk and honey, an eternal rest. It is in the Son of Abraham in Jesus

that we are forever God's people and he is forever our God.

It is in the Son of David, Jesus, the Christ that we have one that is seeded enthroned forever. He was crucified. He died. He is descended into the grave. He was raised from the grave, he ascended to the right hand of the Father where he's enthroned in glory and reigns forever.

But we could take it back even further than Abraham and David and you could say he is the promise of Genesis three 15 of the seed of the woman that would be born that would crush the the head of the serpent. He is the fulfillment of all of the promises of scripture. The true anointed one, the true messiah, the perfect prophet, the perfect priest, the perfect king, the anointed one. He fulfills it all.

Matthew is trying to get us to see this

is of all the attendant blessings that flow from Jesus the Christ. And that's our final point this evening. I wanna look at the blessings that flow from Jesus the Christ. There are a lot of ways we could do this, a lot of ways we could think about it. What I want to do though is I want you to term with me to Psalm 1 33. It's one of my favorite Psalms.

First time I remember really taking the psalm in was it used to be at PCA General assemblies. The denomination we're in at the general assembly is the gathering of all the pastors and representative ruling elders from every church in the denomination each year to do the business of the church. We used to sing this to close out every assembly. Still wish we did, but I wanna read the whole thing to you because it's, it's a beautiful picture

that the psalmist is painting for as David here

says, behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity and then this is the picture. It's like the precious oil on the head running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of the robes is like the do of Herman, which falls on the mountains of Zion. There the Lord has commanded the blessing life evermore

The pictures of what we just looked at, Exodus

where the oils poured out upon the head of Aaron. And as it's poured out upon his head, it runs down onto his beard. Then from his beard it runs onto his collar and then it runs down onto his garments.

Psalm says it refreshes. There's blessing that that flows from from the head down.

That's the picture.

Jesus is the anointed one.

He's the Christ, he's the head and we are his body.

And the picture is that as he's anointed and if we are in Christ that all the blessings that are poured out upon Christ, all the blessings that are his, all of that anointing that it flows down,

that it saturates us in the body.

That's the picture. All his blessings become our blessings.

He's the anointed ones.

This is why you realize this, right? This is why you are called Christian.

You are Christ's one. What does that mean? It means that you belong to Christ. You are Christ one. Or we could say it this way. You are anointed ones of the anointed one.

Paul makes a very interesting argument. First Corinthians three. Along these lines, there's division in the church. There are different people that align aligning themselves with various leaders in the church. There are boasting a Paul or Apollos or CEUs. And Paul says in one Corinthians 3 21 and following that, that's nonsense. It's it's silly. What's wrong with you? And then he says this, so let no one boast in men for all things are yours.

How Paul, how are all things ours? Well, he continues. Whether Paul or Apollos or CFUs or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours and you are Christ and Christ is God's, all things are yours. He then goes on to list a bunch of things he could just list. He could have listed for all time and forever and never stopped. But he just gives you an eye, a little sampling because he summarizes it by saying, all things are yours.

How are all things mine?

Because I am Christ. I belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to me. And all that is Christ's mine.

You are his. And if you are his as Paul says in Romans eight, you are an heir heir of God and a fellow heir with Christ, the anointed one.

And what is Christ? An heir of all things.

It's all his.

All things are yours because all things are Christ and you are Christ from the head. It flows down.

What does this mean? Well, it means you can stop being worried. It means you can stop being afraid.

It means you can stop being anxious about tomorrow.

It means that you can know that peace which surpasses understanding in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus.

You have the Christ. Christ has you. This is what Paul leads Paul to eventually be able to say or to me, to live is Christ

and to die it's gain. Why? It's more of Christ. The anointed one

head has been anointed and you are members of his body if you are indeed in Christ with pray.

Father, we are thankful for the great gift

of Christ, the savior of men and women, boys, girls.

It is amazing to think that you would take sinners, you would make us children. It is even more amazing

to think that all the blessings of Christ as the anointed one that flow down to us, those who are his,

truly, he is the great gift to the world. One who fulfills all and we be able to say more and more for us to live is Christ.

And to be able to say for us to die is gain because it is more of Christ and we exalt. Your Son or savior is perfect, prophet, priest, and king. It's in his name we pray. Amen.