The Mystery of Christmas

INTRODUCTION:

If you could spend a lifetime, understanding one word, what would it be?(Economics, Politics, Love, Men, Women, Parenting,) Wouldn’t you just love to delve the depths of some of those words?

That’s what I want us to do this morning with a Christmas word. The word is Emmanuel which means God with us.

They say familiarity breeds contempt. And most of us are familiar with this word: Emmanuel. We’re familiar with the concept. And that familiarity might tempt us to let this word address us in a familiar way. But I want you to try and examine it with fresh eyes and ears this evening.

What difference would it make if you really deeply understood the reality of God with us? What implications would that have on your life? How might it transform your life and relationships?

Let’s read the passage. Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew 1:18–25 (CSB)

18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23 See, the virgin will become pregnant

and give birth to a son,

and they will name him Immanuel,

which is translated “God is with us.”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her 25 but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.

This is such a wonderful and classic Christmas text but I want us to focus specifically on verse 23 which is a quotation of Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 (CSB)

14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.

Emmanuel: God with us. What does it mean? How should it change us? To answer, let’s meditate deeply on each word of the definition. GOD. God WITH. God with US.

JESUS IS FULLY GOD:

First, Jesus is God.

Not God-like (in some mythic sense). Not godly (in some moral sense). Not a lesser created God from the Roman pantheon (or like Hindu’s believe). No. Jesus is true and only creator God.

The eternal God. Uncreated, uncaused, creator and sustainer of the universe - second member of the Trinity, God the Son, Jesus is God.

The Scripture says this explicitly and implicitly over and over again.

There are four explicit passages of the divinity of Jesus in the NT.

John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word (the logos). And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Colossians 1:15 “Jesus is the image (icon) of the invisible God.”

Heb 1:3 “Jesus is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint (character) of his nature.”

Phil 2:5-6 “existing in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped...”

There are also implicit references to the deity of Jesus throughout the NT.

Jesus forgives people of sin. "No one can forgive sins but God alone!” (Luke 5:21) Implication? Jesus was God.

Jesus accepts worship. (Mat 14:33) Angels don’t accept worship but Jesus did? Why? He was worthy of worship because he was God.

This wasn’t just his self-understanding. His disciples also believed Jesus was God.

And 1st century believing Jews would’ve been the LEAST LIKELY group of people to say God could become incarnate in human flesh. (Hindus maybe but not Jews!)

And yet, the NT is full of examples of his disciples preaching the divinity of Jesus, worshipping Jesus, and dying horrible and painful deaths because they would not abandon their belief in the deity of Jesus. How do you explain?

It wasn’t just his disciples. It was members of his own family. (mother, brother)

You might be able to fool some people that you’re God. (worship of Elvis) But the handful of people you cannot fool are the ones who live with you, see you warts and all. They know the REAL YOU.

And the family of Jesus didn’t see a hypocritical man with a God-complex. They saw transcendent personal greatness and glory that matched his personal claims. And they worshiped him.

All the evidence that we have points to the fact that he is who he said he was, he is who his disciples believed him to be, he is who even his family knew him to be, He is God. God the son.

JESUS IS GOD WITH

But not only is Jesus God. He is Emmanuel which means he is God WITH. Jesus is also truly human.

Truly God. But also truly flesh. Fully human.

Even the word, incarnation, illustrates this fleshly nature of Christmas. It’s where we get our word “carnivore” which means “meat.” Jesus was human. God in bod.

John 1:14 (CSB)

14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

What does the Bible mean by that statement? “Became flesh?”

Addition not Subtraction

Well it’s not that Jesus subtracted anything from his divinity. He retained his full deity. He just added humanity. It was an act of addition not subtraction.

That’s not to say his experience of being embodied is any different than our experience. He felt the full brunt of being human.

Philippians 2:6-7 says he “emptied himself…didn’t count equality with God a thing to be exploited...”

Jesus’ divine nature was retained in his incarnation but it was not exploited.

As God Jesus is omnipotent. Yet, embodied he had to take naps.

As God Jesus is omniscient. Yet, embodied he grew in wisdom and stature.

As God Jesus is all-good. Yet, embodied he was made perfect through his obedience to the Father in all things.

Jesus didn’t empty himself of divinity. But he did empty himself of the glory, privilege and exaltation that divinity warrants. He came as a servant.

He did that so he could be WITH US. So that we could see just how great God is and just how deep his love is for us.

This is the glorious reality of Christmas. The eternal God, in all His majesty - infinitely greater than the universe - has put himself into a form of “with-ness.” (Keller)

He has come alongside. He is God WITH.

Fear No More

If you look through the OT, anytime God chose to “draw near” it wasn’t a pleasant experience for whoever was involved. (Tornado, burning bush, hurricane, burning angels, pillar of fire, etc.)

Until Jesus showed up, the presence of God was terrifying.

Moses had to put a veil over his face or the presence of God would’ve consumed him. But Jesus has removed that veil. God has taken on flesh so that “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God can be seen in the face of Jesus Christ."

In the incarnation God doesn’t reveal himself as a tornado or pillar of cloud or pillar of fire or a burning bush. He reveals himself as a baby. What an incredible reversal.

There’s nothing more vulnerable than a baby and yet that’s exactly how God chose to reveal himself in Christ.

The God on whom the universe depends became dependent.

The one who sustains the universe by the word of his power is now being sustained by a nursing mother.

What an incredible contrast. All of that so that God could be WITH US.

Never the Same

Through Jesus Christ you can know God! You can meet God! Do you realize this magnitude of this gift? All of God’s majestic glory can now be embraced. Held. Touched.

When you really understand this, your life will never be the same.

Never again do you have to feel alone. (The Spirit lives within us)

Never again do you have to feel like nobody understands. (He was tested in every way that we were but without sin)

Never again do you have to feel like an orphan. (He is the everlasting Father)

Some of you need to be reminded of this.

Some of you are suffering. You’ve got problems in your life. You feel alone. Desperate. Isolated.

Others of you have habits in your life that you don’t think you’ll ever break. Addictions. Secrets.

You need to be reminded that Christmas is about Jesus being WITH us.

He’s God. Yes! Omnipotent. All-knowing! Creator and sustainer of the universe. The Lord of all. And yet he’s WITH. Near. He comes alone side in love, in patience, kindness, faith, stability, and steady arms. He can identify with you because he has “been you.” Do you see that?

Responding To His Nearness

Look at what Jesus has done to be near you. Let me ask you this: what are you doing to be with Him? Near him?

What’s keeping you from drawing near to him? What are you doing that keeps you from embracing his presence?

Is it a lifestyle decision? A habitual sin? A simple lack of discipline?

Are you just “too busy?” Are you just “too pressed by other things?” Do you find yourself saying things like, “I just wish I had more time to pray... I just wish I had more courage to share... I just wish... ____whatever it is.”

I promise that whatever it’s going to cost you to draw near to Jesus, to be WITH him, that cost is NOTHING compared to what it cost him to be WITH you.

An extra hour of sleep?

A childhood friendship?

A fling that that makes you feel important?

Another evening during the week?

That’s nothing compared to what Jesus has done so that he could be God WITH us.

Look at what he’s done. What are you going to do to get with Him? Claw your way through whatever is stopping you. That’s what Christmas is all about. He clawed through heaven to get to you. What keeps you from being with Him?

I love what John Stott points out in his book Basic Christianity.

“Anybody who ever met Jesus Christ only ever had three responses to him. They either were (1) terrified and wanted to run away, (2) hated him and wanted to kill him, or (3) they worshipped him; got down on their knees and gave him everything.”

Don’t you see? Because Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, those three are the only rational responses. You cannot be casual.

You cannot say, “well He’s an interesting person” or “he’s there when I need him” or “I make room in my life ‘someday.” If that’s what you think then you don’t understand what it means when we say that Jesus is Emmanuel.

IS JESUS GOD WITH YOU?

Jesus is GOD. Jesus is God WITH. And Jesus is God with US. Who is the “us?”

In one sense Jesus is God “with all.” Because Jesus is Lord whether you recognize that truth or not. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So he’s Lord of ALL in that sense.

But that’s not the US that’s in view in the word Immanuel.

Remember the announcement of the angels in Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people he favors!” Well that sounds narrow.

Or again in John 1:11-12 “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name,”

Or our text in Matthew 1:21 “...he will save His people from their sins.”

The gift of God WITH us is universally offered but narrowly applied. Christmas is exclusive.

So the “US” in Emmanuel may or may not include you. How do you know if God is with YOU?

A Gift to the Humble

If you look at the contexts of all the Christmas texts, God comes to the humble and the lowly (the shepherds).

So while the invitation of God being WITH US is available to all. It is only received by humble and the lowly.

People hate this about Christianity. Because our sin nature drives us towards self-justification. Self-made man/woman. I can do it myself. I can prove it. I deserve it. But that’s the opposite of the Gospel.

For Jesus to be “God WITH YOU” there must first be a humility of heart and recognition of need.

You’ve got to come to Jesus the way he came to us. He came as a baby. He came with vulnerability.

You will only know Jesus as God with you when you come to him with nothing. All you need is NOTHING. No references. No arguments. None of this, “you owe me because...” All you need is nothing.

Repent & Believe

The Bible calls this repentance. “God I can’t but you can. I’m was wrong but you are right...” Repentance bring you to a place where you can receive the gift.

But faith is what brings the gift of Emmanuel into your life. What is faith? It’s trusting God enough to do what he says.

We saw it in our text with the actions of Jospeh. His bride to be was pregnant (a scandal!) and God comes to him in a dream and says, “don’t divorce her - what she’s carrying in her womb is from me. Here’s what I want you to do...”

And instead of responding based on what he saw and felt and was being pressured to do by everyone else around him - he trusted God. He obeyed God’s word to stay with Mary and name the child Jesus (which means God saves his people.)

I know some of the things that we’ve talked about today are hard to believe. Just like it was hard for Joseph to believe. But through faith the gift of Emmanuel can be received in your heart just like it was his.

Conclusion

As fully God, Jesus was able to pay the eternal penalty for our sins. Finite human beings would never be able to atone for the infinite offense towards God that our sins have caused.

As fully human Jesus is our advocate. He is uniquely equipped to be our representative and substitutionary sacrifice. What was not assumed could not be redeemed.

The Son of God became a man so that sinful men could be called sons of God.

He is GOD. He is God WITH. He is God with US. Are you in the family of God? You can be.

If you are, let us live with this truth of Jesus as Emmanuel on our hearts and not just our lips. Let us worship Jesus as God, living for him and drawing close to him as God WITH us.