Let me just read a few verses
for you from the book of Acts. And I think you'll find this
story perhaps a little bit familiar. You'll have heard it before.
But we're going to be speaking from Acts chapter 16 and verse
25. And this is what it says. It's
about a man called Paul and a man called Silas. And Paul and Silas
are in prison in Philippi. Philippi was an old city and
the apostle and his friends had been preaching there. And the
town council were offended by the things that they were saying
and the works that they were doing. And they put them in prison.
And this is what we read in Acts chapter 16 verse 25. Let me just take a moment here before I start. Acts chapter
16 and verse 25. And at midnight Paul and Silas
prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. That was the other prisoners
that were in the prison with them. And suddenly there was
a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were
shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's
bands were loose. All their chains fell off. And
the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his sleep, because it
was midnight, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out
his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners
had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called
for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down
before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And
they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that
were in his house. And he took them the same hour
of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he
and all his straight way. And when they had brought them
into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing
in God with all his house. I want to draw your attention
to a little verse that we read there, and this is it. And they
said, this is when the jailer, we call him the Philippian jailer,
because the city of Philippi was where the jail was located. And he was the jailer in that
prison. So the Philippian jailer came
and said to him that he was so concerned, he was ready to kill
himself because everyone he thought had escaped. And he asked this
question, what must I do to be saved? Because he realized that
these men had something that he didn't have. He realized that
they had a peace in their souls that he didn't have. I think
he had probably heard these men preaching. He certainly heard
them singing. He certainly knew that there
was something in their attitude, something in their personality
that transcended the dark life that he had. And Paul and Silas
said to him, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. And it's that little verse that
I want to draw to your attention today and just think about for
a moment or two. When we come to church, When
we do this activity and you come out, maybe someone brings you
here to church, we come to worship and learn about the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why we are here today.
The Lord Jesus Christ is very important to us. We speak about
Him, we think about Him, we sing about Him, we listen to sermons
about Him, so that we can learn more about Him, that we can worship
and serve Him better. But have you ever thought about
His name? Paul said to this man, believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we call Him the Lord Jesus
Christ? It's a very important question,
because this name not only identifies the man, Jesus, who was born
in Bethlehem, who lived in Nazareth, and who was a carpenter, this
Jesus of Nazareth, this name that we give to him, the Lord
Jesus Christ, how did he come to have that name, and what does
it mean? It explains who he is. It explains
why he came to earth. And it tells us about his success. For example, we call Jesus Lord. Why is this? Why do we call Jesus
Lord? Why is he the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, Lord means supreme. It means master. It means the
sovereign controller, the king of all the earth. And this name
is given to Jesus because Jesus made the world and everything
in it. All things, John says, all things
were made by him and without him was not anything made that
was made. So Jesus is the creator of everything. He's the creator of the world.
He's the creator of the heavens. He's creator of you and me. So we call him Lord because he
is the creator. He is the sovereign God over
all things. He is the Lord, our God. But we also call him Jesus. He
is the Lord Jesus. Now, I think most people here
have got their name because their mom and dad liked it. When they
were born, they looked at that little baby and they thought,
I know he's just a... And they gave him his name, or
they gave her her name, because they thought that name would
suit them through life. And that's where we usually get
our names. When a baby is born, we all wonder,
what is this baby's name going to be? When Jesus was born, Mary
and Joseph did not give Jesus his name because they liked it,
but because Joseph had been told in a dream by an angel that Jesus
should be the child's name. The angel said, call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus
means Savior. That's the translation. That's
what it means. It comes from the Old Testament
name, Joshua. It means Savior. And the angel
was telling Joseph and Mary that the child should be called Jesus
because he would save his people from their sins. So the Lord
Jesus is God. the Sovereign, the Supreme Creator
of all things, who will save His people. You see how important
the Lord's name is? You see how important it is for
us to know the Lord Jesus Christ? And then we call Him Christ.
Christ is not Jesus' surname. My surname is many. Your surname is, well, whatever
it is. Christ is not Jesus' surname. Christ means anointed, and it's
an important aspect of who Jesus is. It means chosen. It means set apart for a particular
purpose. It means sent of God. When Jesus was born as a baby,
he came into the world as the chosen one. He came into the
world as the one whom God had sent to do a particular job. The Chosen One sent to fulfil
the role of prophet, priest and king. He came in order to declare
God's Word, in order to intercede for his people and in order to
rule in his kingdom. It's a big job. but the Lord
Jesus Christ was fit for that job. He came from heaven to fulfill
the purpose of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. And he came to accomplish everything
necessary to fulfill and bring peace between God and sinners. We cannot save ourselves. So
Jesus was specially chosen, uniquely set apart to save those whom
God loves. And he was appointed to reconcile
us, to bring us back and make peace with God and us. So this one that we come to worship,
this one that we come to learn about is the Lord. Jesus Christ, the sovereign God
who came to save his people and was anointed and enabled and
equipped to do that great task. He is the sovereign savior. And
so you see, when we come together, we are looking at one who is
glorious, who is powerful, and whose purpose is to save his
people. So let's go back to Philippi.
Let's go back to midnight that day when Paul and Silas were
in prison. And this jailer came running
in to the prison, thinking that everyone had escaped and knowing
what would happen to him. He would be punished by his superiors
for letting everyone escape. And instead of letting that happen,
he was ready to kill himself with his own sword. And he asked,
what must I do to be saved? And what was it that Paul said?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You
see what we're saying here? The Lord Jesus Christ is who
he is, the sovereign God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
savior of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
anointed one sent to secure our redemption and reconciliation
with God. And when we believe in him, It
means we trust Him. We trust Him for the work that
He did. We trust Him for the person He
is. We trust Him for what He has
accomplished and what He has provided for us. So I want you
to think about that, and we're just about done now. I want you
to think about that. When you hear someone saying
that we are to believe in Jesus, We are to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what we're talking about.
We are to trust in the one who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening.