November 17, 2019 | Son of God, Son of Man | Rev. Gary Gibson | Sanctuary

The name Immanuel appears twice in Hebrew scriptures (Isaiah 7:14, 8:8) and one in the New Testament (Matthew 1:23). One of the most comforting of all the names and titles of Jesus, it is literally translated “with us is God” or, as Matthew’s Gospel puts it, “God with us.”When our sins made it impossible for us to come to him, God took the outrageous step of coming to us, of making himself susceptible to sorrow, familiar with temptation, and vulnerable to sin’s disruptive power, in order to cancel its claim. In Jesus we see how extreme God’s love is.

Kyrios: Christianity’s earliest confession of faith consisted of three short but incredibly powerful words: Jesus is Lord!When people addressed Jesus as Kyriosor Lord in the Gospels, they were often simply showing respect to him as a rabbi or teacher, addressing him as “sir” rather than acknowledging him as the Lord God. But after his death and resurrection, the title “Lord” began to be widely used by believers in a more specialized sense. (Thomas’ confession of faith in John20:28, “My Lord and my God!”) Over time, the title “Lord” began to take on the characteristics of a name; as such, it clearly identifies Jesus with Yahweh, the covenant name of God in the Hebrew scriptures. Knowing Jesus as Lord will lead you to a deeper experience of his presence and his power.