Not Celebrity, Not Teacher, But SAVIOR

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1: 21)

When the Angel prophesied to Mary about the baby to be born to her, he called Him "Jesus" which means "God saves" or "Savior".

I remember reading one book about Jesus' earthly ministry, and the first chapter declared:

"Jesus came teaching".

The departure point for this reference? Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

The first two sentences in the verse below outline that Jesus was facing two types of people: fans and followers.

1And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying. . " (Mathew 1: 1-2)

There were multitudes from all over the region, wowed by His power and word of mouth about Him:

"24And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 25And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan." (Matthew 4: 24-25)

However, the first thing that Jesus taught His disciples, they could not do:

"3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthre 5: 3)

In fact we are all power in spirit, because we all enter this world dead in out trespasses (Genesis 3:1-7; Ephesians 2: 1).

Disciples usually seek lessons on how to live, and what to do. Jesus was teaching the fullness of the God's law, the Ten Commandments and all the rest, to dissuade the fans from seeing him as some idle passing fancy, and to show the disciples that He was not an example to follow.

No one could follow the example He was setting out:

"20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5: 20)

and then

"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5: 22)

and then

"28But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. " (Matthew 5: 28)

And who can forget:

"And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." (Matthew 5: 30)

No one can keep these commandments. No one can be perfect like our Father in heaven, because we are dead in trespasses, in need of a Savior (Matthew 5: 48)

Today, we need to see Jesus as our Savior, just as the leper did following Jesus' Sermon (Matthew 8: 1-4). Jesus did not come to show us what a great life He had, or how to live, but rather He came to give His us life, and that more abundantly (John 10: 10)