Steve: This is one of those verses we might read quickly, but if we slow down, we see that the angel isn't
Steve: just naming a baby. He's declaring the gospel in a single sentence.
Steve: Welcome to the debut episode of Lifespring Media's Verses We Missed. Podcasting since 2004,
Steve: I'm your host, Biroji Godcaster, Steve Webb. On the Verses We Missed show, we're going to be
Steve: looking at verses you may have never read before, and we'll sometimes look at verses you may have
Steve: heard or read dozens or hundreds of times, but maybe you didn't realize just how much meaning
Steve: was just below the surface. Our verse today is one of those. Today's verse is Matthew 121.
Steve: She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people
Steve: from their sins. And that's from the English Standard Version.
Steve: I'm starting the show with this verse because all of Scripture points to Jesus
Steve: and the salvation He made possible for anyone who will believe in Him.
Steve: When we study Scripture and we're trying to find meaning,
Steve: it's important to look at the context.
Steve: We don't want to just focus on one verse.
Steve: We want to look at the verses before and after the verse we're interested in.
Steve: Because when we do that, we can get a better and hopefully more accurate idea
Steve: of the intended meaning of the verse.
Steve: So before we dig in on today's verse, let's take a look at the context.
Steve: Of course, you probably know Matthew is the first book of the New Testament
Steve: and the first of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Steve: Matthew was an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus.
Steve: The first two chapters of the book established Jesus' background.
Steve: In the first part of Matthew chapter 1, we see Jesus' genealogy.
Steve: Now, you've probably seen it if you've looked at the Bible before.
Steve: This is that long list of names that most people just skip over.
Steve: But believe me when I tell you that just the genealogy alone tells an amazing story.
Steve: I won't spend a lot of time on it today, but here are just a few of the people that are in that genealogy.
Steve: One or two of them just might surprise you.
Steve: Now Matthew begins the list with Abraham, from whom the entire Hebrew race began.
Steve: One of his sons was Isaac, and one of his sons was Jacob, who had 12 sons, from which came the 12 tribes of Israel.
Steve: One of those sons was Judah, and of course his tribe was named after him, the tribe of Judah.
Steve: And in the book of Revelation, chapter 5, verse 5, Jesus is referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
Steve: Dropping further down the family tree, we come to a man named Salmon, S-A-L-M-O-N, not to be confused with Solomon.
Steve: Now, Solomon was married to a woman named Rahab.
Steve: Rahab was a prostitute, who I think you would agree is a pretty unlikely person to be in
Steve: the lineage of Jesus, right?
Steve: But Rahab was one of the heroes of the Old Testament.
Steve: She sheltered the Israelite spies and confessed her faith in Israel's God.
Steve: And for that, she and her family were spared when Jericho was defeated.
Steve: And I think you'd probably agree with me that her place in the line of Jesus tells us a
Steve: lot about God's forgiving grace.
Steve: Down the family tree a bit, we come to David, the shepherd boy who slew the giant Goliath with a
Steve: slingshot. The same David who wrote many of the Psalms, including the 23rd Psalm, and of course,
Steve: this is the same King David who slept with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. And when Bathsheba
Steve: became pregnant, David had Uriah moved to the front lines of battle so that he would be killed
Steve: as a way to try to cover up the adultery. David did end up marrying Bathsheba, but get this,
Steve: The next name in the genealogy is Solomon, but listen to how it's recorded here.
Steve: And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.
Steve: Bathsheba's name is not even mentioned, and David's sin is not covered up.
Steve: Yet, God still referred to David as a man after God's own heart in 1 Samuel and Acts 13.22.
Steve: Even though David sinned greatly, he trusted and loved God with his whole heart.
Steve: He truly repented of his sins and pursued God wholeheartedly.
Steve: The genealogy ends with verse 16.
Steve: And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who was called
Steve: Christ.
Steve: Well, you might ask, why did Matthew use the genealogy of Joseph when he was not the father?
Steve: Well, because legally he was.
Steve: It was not a word for stepfather.
Steve: And in that time, genealogies were almost always traced through the father's line.
Steve: Now, interestingly, Luke's account of Jesus' genealogy is through Mary's line.
Steve: And through both lines, Jesus is a descendant of King David,
Steve: which is absolutely necessary to fulfill that particular prophecy.
Steve: After the genealogy, we read about Jesus' birth.
Steve: And most of us have probably read or heard the account of how Jesus came into the world
Steve: dozens, hundreds, or possibly even thousands of times.
Steve: But just in case you need a refresher,
Steve: let me read a partial account from Matthew's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 18 through 21.
Steve: Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph
Steve: before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband
Steve: Joseph, being a just man and being unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
Steve: But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,
Steve: saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in
Steve: her is from the Holy Spirit. Okay, and now we get to today's focus verse. She will bear a son,
Steve: said the angel, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Steve: Now let's finish the chapter. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken to the prophet.
Steve: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
Steve: which means God with us.
Steve: When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
Steve: He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.
Steve: And he called his name Jesus.
Steve: Now we're going to get to the hidden treasure in just a moment,
Steve: but I need to stop again and talk about Emmanuel.
Steve: Verse 23 there was a quote from Isaiah 7, 14, where he said,
Steve: they shall call his name Emmanuel. Now there are many names given to Jesus in both the Old and New
Steve: Testaments. Isaiah 9.6 says he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting
Steve: Father, Prince of Peace. In Luke 1.32, the angel says that Jesus will be called the Son of the Most
Steve: High. These are things he is called because they do accurately describe him, just as Emmanuel does
Steve: because he truly is God with us, which is what, of course, Emmanuel means.
Steve: All right, well, we've heard a lot of rabbit holes, right?
Steve: Let's climb out of this one and get to our verse for today.
Steve: And by the way, rabbit holes are one of the really fun parts of studying scripture.
Steve: Climbing down rabbit holes is one of the primary ways to find hidden treasures.
Steve: So get used to it.
Steve: We'll be doing a lot of it here on Verses We Missed.
Steve: So what is the hidden treasure in today's verse?
Steve: She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus,
Steve: for he will save his people from their sins.
Steve: The treasure is in the name itself, Jesus.
Steve: To our ears, it's just a name.
Steve: It isn't descriptive like Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Steve: So what is so special about the name Jesus?
Steve: After all, even in the first century, it was a fairly common name.
Steve: It was easily in the top ten.
Steve: Now, not that it's a definitive source,
Steve: but ChatGPT says that the name Jesus was the sixth most popular name in the first century.
Steve: And just for fun, here are the top five.
Steve: Simon, Joseph, Lazarus, Judah, and John.
Steve: Also, according to ChatGPT, in 2025, the sixth most popular name is Henry.
Steve: Can you imagine praying in Henry's name?
Steve: Probably not, since Henry doesn't have the meaning that Jesus does,
Steve: which we're going to get into right now.
Steve: Of course, Joseph was not told to name the child Jesus because of the popularity of the name.
Steve: There was another reason.
Steve: Listen, the name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Yahashua, which in English we pronounce
Steve: as Joshua.
Steve: So what does Jesus, Yahashua, or Joshua mean?
Steve: It means Yahweh saves, or the Lord is salvation.
Steve: By the time of the New Testament, the shortened form Yeshua was a very common name, and that
Steve: is the Hebrew version of Jesus.
Steve: Yeshua equals Jesus
Steve: Now in the first century, many parents gave their sons this name
Steve: because it expressed hope in God's salvation
Steve: At that time, the Jewish people lived under Roman law
Steve: They wanted to be delivered from the sometimes brutal oppression
Steve: So what set this particular Jesus apart
Steve: was that his mission was proclaimed in his name
Steve: This Jesus was actually going to do what his name proclaimed
Steve: but not as they expected
Steve: He would most assuredly bring salvation, but a much more precious and long-lasting one than just salvation from Rome.
Steve: He would bring eternal salvation from the wages of sin, and not only for the Jews of that time, but for all people who would place their faith in Him.
Steve: And the promise applies to those who place their faith in the coming Messiah from times past, to those alive today, and to those who are yet to be born.
Steve: Yes, even those from the Old Testament who place their faith in the prophesied Messiah.
Steve: Now, here's another hidden or overlooked jewel.
Steve: Remember, this was the angel of the Lord talking to Joseph.
Steve: And in that culture, naming the child is a father's right.
Steve: And here, God rightly takes that authority and Joseph humbly submits to God's command.
Steve: Jesus is God's son with God's mission.
Steve: And Joseph was a truly remarkable faith-filled man, wouldn't you say?
Steve: So let's wrap this up, shall we?
Steve: We miss this verse because it just seems to be a part of the whole Christmas tradition,
Steve: with its pageantry and ribbons and bows and lights.
Steve: It's just part of the whole Christmas bundle.
Steve: We miss the weight of the name.
Steve: Sometimes we almost take the name of Jesus for granted, don't we?
Steve: We get so used to saying the name that we don't truly think about its meaning.
Steve: But God was very intentional about what the Messiah's name would be.
Steve: It was so important to him that he sent a special messenger, that angel,
Steve: to tell Joseph what to name him.
Steve: So, beloved, let's try to remember every time we speak the name Jesus
Steve: that we are expressing God's plan of salvation.
Steve: Jesus didn't come to fix our circumstances
Steve: any more than he came to deliver the Jews from Roman rule.
Steve: He came for the much more eternally significant work of saving us from our sins.
Steve: Today's verse reminds us that the heart of the gospel, the good news,
Steve: is not our comfort, but our salvation.
Steve: Every time we say his name, we proclaim the good news.
Steve: Yahweh saves.
Steve: The Lord is salvation.
Steve: And this is the hope of Christmas and the hope of eternity.
Steve: Let's pray, shall we?
Steve: Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you today with thanksgiving in our hearts for the name of Jesus
Steve: and that he did accomplish his mission for those who believe and accept the salvation he purchased with his shed blood.
Steve: Thank you, Lord, for loving us before we even knew you, when we were yet captives to sin.
Steve: Thank you for saving us.
Steve: We pray this in Jesus' name.
Steve: Amen.
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Steve: Bye.