Immanuel

INTRODUCTION

I have found there are three types of people this time of year.

People who love Christmas and are crazy and they would drape themselves in green and red velvet everyday if it were socially acceptable and they have been all in since November 1st

People who love Christmas, but demand that the celebrations wait until Thanksgiving is over

And people who don’t really care for Christmas

For the first two groups, you have had a good month and today is one of your favorite days of the year

There was a time when I didn’t recognize Christmas Eve for what it was

It felt like a day of tiresome waiting

You know, when we were kids and we were dreaming of the treasure the morning might hold

But now, as an adult, I see Christmas Eve as the peak of anticipation

Tomorrow, that cloud that has been gaining moisture is going to bust loose and wash over us with Christmas joy

I have grown to love this day where Christmas isn’t quite here, but it is as close as it can be

And I enjoy all the stuff that goes with it, from music to movies to cookies and lights

I am one of those people who falls somewhere in between the first two groups

But there is this other group that doesn’t like Christmas.

It isn’t that they are Scrooges.

It is that something has happened in their lives or their hearts and minds that makes this a season of lamentation.

Everyone else is enjoying their Christmas of white, but theirs is a blue one

The pain of loss

The pain of loneliness

The pain of lack

They flow throughout your body with each thought of supposed Christmas cheer

But you don’t want to say much about it because people will think you are a Scrooge, when really you are just in pain

After all, old Scrooge was in some pain too, wasn’t he?

I want to speak to both groups tonight.

The rejoicing and the lamenting.

And I want to give you one word to increase your joy on this Christmas Eve.

That word is Immanuel. God with us.

BACKGROUND

For our purposes tonight, we find that word in Matthew 1.

Matthew is one of two of the New Testament Gospel writers to record the birth of Jesus

The other is Luke

However, Luke tells the story from Mary’s perspective, while Matthew tells is from Joseph’s perspective

In truth, Matthew’s account is less about Jesus’ birth and more about His origin

How did God become flesh? How is Christ conceived?

And how does Joseph, His step-father on the earth, deal with the whole situation?

And what does it all mean for your life tonight on Christmas Eve 2022?

READ Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew 1:18–25 ESV

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

THE BIRTH NARRATIVE (v. 18-20)

As I mentioned earlier, we could really call this the origin story of Christ because it doesn’t deal with His birth as much as His conception and Joseph’s reaction to it.

The Greek word that translates to birth in verse 18 can actually mean beginning.

Matthew is letting us all know how the earthly life of the Son of God started.

The timeline of the story begins with Mary being betrothed to Joseph.

Betrothal is a bit different than our modern-day concept of an engagement

ILLUSTRATION: I remember talking to a church member once who was telling me that before she got married and her dad was about to walk her down the aisle, he pointed at the door and said, “We can walk right out. No consequences. Last chance to be sure you want to do this.”

And truly she could have. There would have been no real consequences beyond the social stigma of walking out on your wedding day.

Engagements are not legally binding in any way

But a Jewish betrothal was much more significant than that.

It was a binding contract, which was only terminable by death.

In fact, the man was already seen as the husband in the marriage.

His family would pay the dowry for his bride

He becomes the husband, even though they have not consummated the marriage

The bride waits in her father’s household while the husband goes and prepares a home for them

Then the husband returns to get his bride and consummate the marriage

But in that year of waiting, the betrothal was legally binding and a divorce was required to get out of it.

So with all of that in mind, it is not hard to see why Joseph would have had a difficult time with the news of Mary’s pregnancy.

He is still preparing a life for them.

He is still making them a home.

He has not been with her, in the biblical sense—keeping it PG for the 7pm Christmas Eve crowd...

And yet, she is with child.

There is only one logical conclusion that every single one of us would have jumped to.

And that is why Joseph has decided to divorce her quietly and not put her to public shame.

This shows us the fairness and mercy of Jesus’ earthly father.

Matthew says Joseph is a just man

That means he is law-abiding

The law says he has the right to divorce her and he will do that

But Joseph is not just just—he is merciful.

See, the law also allowed Joseph to take Mary into court and have her tried for adultery

That he is unwilling to do

That is what Matthew means when he says that Joseph is not willing to put her to shame

So in verse 20, we see that Joseph mulling these things over. He is considering these things. He is making decisions about how to walk through a devastating situation.

He must have been so excited to start this life with Mary

As a Jewish man, he would have spent years learning his father’s trade

He would have longed to have kids with his wife and fill the earth just as God commanded in Genesis 1...

All those hopes and dreams—smashed with the news that Mary did not wait for you

And yet you don’t want to humiliate her

This is all bouncing around in Joseph’s head when an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream

And the angel says:

Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

Joseph is called the “son of David.” A little reminder from the angel that Jesus’ earthly father was from David’s line.

And since God promised that a King would come who would sit on David’s throne forever, and legally, a person’s lineage came through their father’s side of the family—it is an important reminder.

The angel is letting Joseph and all of Matthew’s readers know that we are dealing with the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy that is hundreds of years old

The baby in Mary’s womb is the promised King to come from David’s line

And yet, the king over Israel at the time of Jesus’ birth was barely Jewish.

King Herod was a puppet king put in place by the Romans so the Jewish people would feel like they have their own monarch

The kingly line descending from David has all but disappeared

But God is bringing it back to the forefront by bringing about a King from Joseph’s betrothed

And this King that is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

What we have in verse 20 is the angel explaining the mystery of the Incarnation.

The central miracle asserted by Christians is the incarnation. They say that God became man.

C. S. Lewis

God became man. That is the Incarnation in three words.

But how did it actually happen?

I would encourage to accept the words of the Bible by faith and not to try to do too many mental gymnastics in order to explain the miracle away

The Bible tells us here that Jesus is “from the Holy Spirit.”

In Luke, we see the situation from Mary’s perspective as things are being explained to her by the angel Gabriel

Luke 1:30–33 ESV

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary hears this and says:

Luke 1:34 ESV

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

It is a fair question. Gabriel responds with these words:

Luke 1:35 ESV

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

The Holy Spirit came upon Mary.

The power of the Most High overshadowed Mary.

The Son of God was conceived in Mary, without the help of a man.

This is outside the laws of nature. God stepped in and brought about the miraculous through the divine power of His Spirit and Mary conceived.

I wouldn’t go further than that to try and explain it away.

“Thus saith the Lord,” and we accept it by faith

JESUS SAVES (v. 21)

It is a crucial doctrine though because we see in verse 21 that the child’s name will be Jesus.

Jesus is the Greek from of the name “Yeshua” or “Joshua.”

It means “Yahweh Saves” or “O save, Yahweh”

And it is an appropriate name because Jesus will save His people from their sins.

This is where we have to stop and remember the purpose of Jesus’ birth.

He did not come to be a spiritual guru

He did not come to simply be a teacher

He did not come just to do miracles

He came to die on the Cross and save sinners

1 Timothy 1:15 ESV

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Matthew 20:28 ESV

even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Our understanding of Jesus’ birth is incredibly important as it relates to His death.

See, Jesus died as a Substitute for sinners.

He died in your place and my place.

We know we are sinners because God’s Law exposes us as sinners

His Ten Commandments serve as a litmus test to let us know if we are acceptable to God or not

If we have sinned by breaking the commandments, we are not acceptable. We are not fit to be in His presence now or for eternity.

So have you always loved God the way He has called us to love Him as worshippers?

Have you ever given your worship to something other than God?

Have you ever lied, stolen or coveted your neighbor’s stuff?

It doesn’t take long for us to realize that we are sinners who have broken God’s laws.

If God is a Judge, and He is, then He will judge us for breaking His laws.

That is what happens at the end of our lives.

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

And if God gives us the justice we deserve, then we will get eternal punishment for breaking the holy law of an eternal God.

So the good news of Christmas is that God gave us His Son as a gift, so that we would not feel the wrath of His judgment.

Jesus lived a sinless life and then died as the perfect Substitute on the Cross

All of the judgment that you deserve for your sinning was given to Jesus when He died on the Cross.

That is what it means for Him to be your Substitute.

Substitutionary ... simply means that Christ suffered as a substitute for us, that is, instead of us, resulting in the advantage to us of paying for our sins.

Charles C. Ryrie

He paid for your sin with His life’s blood and He was qualified to do it because He was sinless.

He was a perfect, spotless Lamb, given to die in our place.

See, our sinning doesn’t come about in a vacuum. We are products of our parents.

They are sinners and they handed it down to us.

And their parents handed it down to them.

And so on.

You can trace sin all the way back to the first two people in the Garden of Eden.

God gave them the entire Garden for their delight, but told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden

But they doubted God’s Word and believed lies about Him and they sinned.

When that happened, they were separated from God and every generation that came from them is stained with the brokenness of sin.

Every person after them born from two human parents was born separated from God.

And so for centuries, God’s people made sacrifices.

Spotless lamb after spotless lamb died, showing the seriousness of sin

But now, God has provided the Ultimate Sacrifice. He has provided His Son—the Perfect, Spotless Lamb of God.

And this is why the Incarnation and the virgin birth are so incredibly important.

Jesus had to be born of a virgin, or He would have two sinful parents just like you. And He would have been conceived in sin, just like you.

If He was born with sin like us, He wouldn’t be a spotless Savior. He would just be another sinner in need of saving.

His conception by the Spirit ensures that He is born holy.

And then He lived holy.

And then He died like a sinner, even though He never committed a single sin in thought, word or deed.

Thus the purpose of the incarnation is Jesus’s substitutionary atonement.

Andreas J. Köstenberger

Maybe I would adjust Kostenberger’s statement for our purposes tonight and say, “Without the Incarnation, we do not have substitutionary atonement.”

We don’t have a Savior dying in the place of sinners.

This is why the birth of Christ and the story of Christmas is everything.

If He is not born as a sinless Savior, He cannot die as a sinless Savior.

If He cannot die, He cannot resurrect.

If He does not resurrect, then anyone who worships Him should be pitied.

IMMANUEL (v. 22-23)

So we have Joseph being told that the child in his betrothed’s womb is from God and that He will be a Savior to His people.

He will save them from their sins.

And Matthew says that all of this is taking place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.

He quotes from Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

This prophecy was uttered by Isaiah more than 700 years before the angel comes to Joseph with the news of Mary’s miraculous pregnancy.

It is a prophecy that has what we would call a “double fulfillment.”

It was fulfilled in part during Isaiah’s time, but it won’t be fulfilled completely until later.

Initially, the prophecy is fulfilled in the time of Isaiah.

The King of Judah, which was the Southern Kingdom of Israel after the kingdom divided, was considering some unwise foreign partnerships in order to be safe.

But God promised to give a sign to Judah that they did not need to make those unwise partnerships, and that sign would be the birth of Isaiah’s 2nd son—Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz

Isaiah’s wife wouldn’t have been a virgin, but the Hebrew word for virgin could simply mean “young woman.”

So yes—in the immediate, the birth of Isaiah’s second child was a sign to Judah’s king to not make unwise partnerships and to trust in God.

A sign that God was with His people

However in Isaiah 9, we find out that this child will have some qualities that no human child could ever lay claim to:

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

If the prophecy is ultimately fulfilled by a child who is also Mighty God and everlasting, who will rule and reign forever, then we cannot say this is just about Isaiah’s 2nd son.

There must be another child to come.

And this is where we turn our attention back to the angel’s words to Joseph:

“She will bear a son...”

When Matthew connects the “son” of Isaiah 7:14 to the “son” of Matthew 1:21, what he is doing is making it clear that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Jesus in Immanuel—God with us.

GOD WITH US (v. 23)

See, when Jesus was born in the manger...

And then grew up in stature and ministered as a man...

And then, in an unspeakable act of love, voluntarily laid down His life on the Cross...

God was making His love toward humanity known in the most undeniable of ways.

And I am not just talking about the birth of Christ when I say that.

His birth is the first miraculous sign that God is with us—He comes to us as Immanuel.

But God’s nearness to us through His Son, Jesus, does not end at His birth.

It is just beginning.

In His birth, we have Immanuel—the God who comes near in human skin, to live a perfect life and die for His people’s sins in order to save them.

But we would also say Jesus is Immanuel when He is promising to be there with the church whenever they are gathered to protect the church’s unity and confront sin.

Matthew 18:19–20 ESV

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

People will apply that to any gathering of Christians, but that is not the context.

If you read the passage, Jesus is giving instruction on confronting sin in the church and He is saying that when the church goes about the hard business of confrontation, He will be there.

And yet, He is also Immanuel as He promises the indwelling Spirit of God that will take up residence in all of the people of God.

John 14:16–17 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

While the Son is not the Spirit, it is the Son who is asking the Father to give the Spirit to the church.

So we still have God working and promising to be close to His people.

The Spirit is so near to disciples of Christ at every moment that Jesus actually says it is to our advantage that He would go away and the Spirit would come.

And finally, Immanuel will be near to us when He returns one day to rescue His people and take them into the eternal dwelling place of heaven with Him:

Revelation 21:1–3 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

And until He comes back, the His followers, the church, have been left with a task.

To tell everyone so that they can repent of their sin and trust in Christ and be baptized and become disciples who make other disciples

It is not an easy task. The world is hostile to Christ. The world can be illogically hostile to His message of love.

But what does Immanuel say to us?

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

He is with us on our mission until He returns. God with us.

In the end, Immanuel is not so much about Jesus’ name, but Jesus’ character. Here is Leon Morris on this:

As far as our information goes, nobody ever called Jesus “Emmanuel”; it was not the child’s name in the same sense as “Jesus” was. Matthew surely intends his readers to understand that “Emmanuel” was his name in the sense that all that was involved in that name found its fulfilment in him. The quotation and the translation of the Hebrew name underline the fact that in Jesus, none less than God came right where we are.

Leon Morris

God came right where we are and right where we needed Him:

In His birth

In His life

In His death

And He continues to be with His people:

In their hearts

In their churches

On their mission

CONCLUSION

So what does all this mean for our two groups tonight—the lamenting and the rejoicing.

I will start with the Joy Crowd.

You are busting at the seams with Christmas fervor.

You are like a kid at Christmas every year at Christmas.

You would agree with the country music singer, Cody Johnson, who asks, “What the heck’s wrong with a little Christmas all year long?”

That is fine. I am happy for you. Most of the time, you are my tribe.

But your joy cannot be laid on the wrong source.

Understand that if we took away the presents and trees and the holly and the bells, Christmas is just as good.

Do you believe that?

Take away the Home Alone, the ham, the light shows and the family gatherings—it would still be just as much a cause for rejoicing as it is tonight.

Let the Grinch steal the whole thing—it doesn’t matter.

Not ultimately.

Because everything I mentioned are just garnishes that we have put on the plate.

I like those garnishes—but you can lose garnish and still eat like a king.

See, even if we lose all the sentiment, we still have a God who is with us—a truth that drives away all fear.

Fear not to die. Fear not to go to the grave; Emmanuel has been there. He will go into the grave; He will bring us out of the dust again. For “Emmanuel” is “God with us,” who is God over death, over sin, over the wrath of God, God over all, blessed for evermore; and has triumphed over all.

Richard Sibbes

So divorce Christmas from all the tradition and commercialism and it is still Christmas.

And Christmas means that God with us has brought victory and peace to His people.

That is why we shout “Gloria!” and we say, “Merry Christmas!”

But then I turn to the Lamenting Crowd.

Maybe the tradition and the movies and the decorations are the things that trigger so much pain for you.

It is hard to embark on traditions without the ones we always did them with.

It is hard to enjoy the movie when the house is empty.

It is hard to put up the decorations when the hands the first hung them are no longer with us.

But you don’t have to say, “Humbug.” Even if you are weary from the whole dance, you don’t have to let that take you into bitterness.

Quite the opposite—the Lord hears your lamenting and want to answer it with comfort.

Matthew 5:4 ESV

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

And yet, here is the thing—when I am hurting, it is hard to receive your comfort if I know you have know clue as to what I am going through.

Like—as a man who battles depression—I want to talk to others who battle depression.

You really have to face a dark night of the soul to help someone else through it.

Well, here is good news for you this Christmas Eve—because He crossed the horizon of this world in the Incarnation, God does know what you are going through.

Not just because He has all knowledge, but because He humbled Himself and came to earth and subjected Himself to the rigors of the task of being human in a fallen world.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Christ lived in skin on this earth.

He doesn’t just see your years—He gets them. He understands.

So hard as it may be—God is with you. And Christmas itself is the proof.

Whether you are in joy or lament tonight, be in peace.

If you have repented of sin and trusted Christ—God sent His Son to save you and He is with you.