Recently I got into a conversation with a teenage relative of mine about their name. We all call him Jack – and that’s the name he goes by – but his first name is really John. That led to a discussion about how that at his birth his parents named him John, but immediately they began to call him Jack. Why? That led to a little historical review and another famous person in history, President John F. Kenedy, was
actually called Jack by those who were around him. Why the change? Why do we use different names to call out someone if it’s not their given name?
It is Christmas season officially, and we are taking the next four Sunday mornings to look at the names of Jesus. We are calling it “Unwrapping the names of Jesus” as a title for this series, but we are not trying to be cute or clever… nor or we trying to change Jesus’ name. Quite the opposite. Yes, the given name of the one born in the stable that was given by his parents was Jesus. But this Jesus who was born at
Christmas, is given many name and title’s that reflect the many attributes of who He is, what He has done, and what He is still to do. In one study I saw they identified almost 200 names and titles of Jesus that are found in Scripture. But even if you narrowed this down, you can easily find more that 25 names and titles that are of incredible significance.
Over these next four Sunday’s as well as our Christmas Eve Candlelight services we are going to look at ONLY five of these names. This coming Sunday we will unwrap the name “Messiah” as it describes Jesus. In order to come prepared I would ask that you read ahead these passages:
Matthew 2:1-12 (the Christmas story of the wise men)
Micah 5:1-2 (the Old Testament passage that is quoted in Matthew 2)
John 20:30-31 (Why believing in Jesus the Messiah is so critical)
Now, why did we call President John Kenedy “Jack?” A little trivia for you… In the middle ages the name John being a biblical name was super common. But as it got passed around from German to other languages they sometime used a nickname of “Jankin” or “Jackin” which eventually for us became Jack. It’s about that simple.
More important for us is why we use the name “Messiah” for Jesus, the one born in the stable in Bethlehem. It is extremely profound and life altering. We’ll see you Sunday morning as we unwrap this name of Jesus.
