He Will Be Named...

When we are familiar with things, we tend not to celebrate them as we once did. Familiarity tends to rob us of our wonder. And here’s what’s important about this: what has captured the wonder of our hearts will control the way we live.

Sadly, many of us aren’t gripped by the stunningly magnificent events and truths of the birth of Jesus anymore. Sadly, many of us are no longer gripped by wonder as we consider what this story tells us about the character and plan of God. Sadly, many of us are no longer humbled by what the incarnation of Jesus tells us about ourselves. We walk by the garden of the incarnation, but we don’t see the roses of grace anymore. Our eyes have gone lazy and our hearts have grown cold.

Sure we love the Christmas story, but possible like we love the movie “A Christmas Story”, it is familiar, comfortable, nostalgic, but doesn’t prompt us to wonder and awe.

I feel this same struggle even in preaching Christmas sermons each year.

The cure to our familiarity isn’t to recreate the Christmas story, but to dig into it deeply and refresh our eyes and revive the wonder in our hearts.

So this morning, after spending last week in the genealogy of Christ, we are going to dig deep into the rest of Matthew 1 where Matthew powerfully and intentionally account the story of Jesus’s miraculous birth.

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.

Names are Important

Our girls names are quite popular, though not the reason we chose them.

Before we had Hannah we lost our first child to miscarriage.

In that healing time, Pam was reading 1 Samuel and came across Samuel’s mother Hannah who had struggled with infertility. She prayed to God and He showed her favor and grace by bringing her a son, Samuel.

Hannah’s name means grace and favor, and we see her as a gracious gift and God’s favor on us.

Olivia’s name comes out of a difficult pregnancy.

Early on Pam experienced some bleeding that made us think she was miscarrying, only to find out it was something else that was concerning, but not the worst case scenario.

Throughout the rest of the pregnancy we had a few more scares and a lot of doctors visits where things seemed to get better and better.

One night, as Pam was reading to Hannah in a children’s bible, she read about a dove bringing Noah an olive branch showing that the flooding was over and peace had been restored on earth.

Olivia means and God brought peace into a really hard pregnancy.

So even though she is a ball of energy and excitement, Olivia is a reminder of God’s peace.

Before Jesus is even born He is given 2 names with incredible meaning and purpose.

Immanuel and Jesus

These names together answer the question “Why did Jesus come to earth?”

Why did Jesus come?

He came to be WITH us...

The first name He was given, long before the stable in Bethlehem, is the name Immanuel, which means “God with us”.

400 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah was the prophet in Judah under King Ahaz, a wicked king who didn’t follow God.

He was a young king, only 20 year old when he became king, and he inherited a kingdom in turmoil.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel, along with the Syrians also to the north, were targeting and attacking Judah and Ahaz was scared and overwhelmed.

In chapter 7, God comes to Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah and offers to give him whatever he wanted to ask for.

Ahaz was a proud man, so he basically sad, “thanks, but no thanks”.

Even though Ahaz didn’t want help, God speaks this message to him:

Isaiah 7:14–16 CSB

14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel. 15 By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating curds and honey. 16 For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned.

Though it might seem like God is making a promise to Ahaz through this prophesy, it us more likely that God is looking past Ahaz and his immediate family, to the ONE who would come hundreds years later.

Some believe there were 2 levels of fulfillment in this prophesy, that there was a boy born in this time who fulfilled the prophesy in that time, but that Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment.

Though that might be true, it seems like the Lord is responding in anger toward Ahaz since he is basically choosing to disregard God’s presence and help at the expense of the kingdom of Judah.

So God is saying, “In spite of your wickedness and incompetence, I will tell you what I will do to guarantee that survival of My Kingdom. I will bring a king who will rule forever, born of a virgin, who will be Immanuel.”

Ahaz probably didn’t understand it, but God was saying He was coming Himself, and that is just what He did.

Joseph would have known this prophesy, but probably wouldn’t have understood it in the way it was being fulfilled.

He would have imagined the Messiah being born as a king, on a throne, full of power, with a sword in his hand.

Not born into a poor family from a small town, to a mother who wasn’t even married yet.

But He came to be WITH us, not to be OVER us.

Sure He is King and Lord, but Christ our Immanuel came to earth to be LIKE us and to be WITH us.

He was born like us.

He grew up like us, went through puberty like us.

Skinned his knees and stumped his toes like us.

He was lied about, mistreated, disappointed, and discouraged like us.

He was tempted like us, but he did not sin.

Hebrews tells us:

Hebrews 2:17–18 CSB

17 Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Hebrews 4:15–16 CSB

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.

He knows us better than we know ourselves.

He knows our hurts, he knows our struggles, he knows our insecurities, and our worries.

He came to know us, to be like us, and to be WITH us.

The same one who spoke all of creation into being, who told the oceans where they must stop and placed the planets and stars in the heavens, that same one joined His divine nature with a fleshly body to become like us and to be with us.

But there was an even higher purpose for His coming, expressed in His second name.

…in order to SAVE us...

The name Jesus means “God is Salvation”.

The Second person of the trinity, the Son of God, the Word made flesh came on a rescue mission and He was the only one who could do it.

He is Jesus (savior) because He is Immanuel.

It is only because Jesus is God-With-Us that He is able to save us.

The Angel tells Joseph to name the child Jesus “because He will save His people from their sins.”

The virgin birth of Christ is an unmistakable reminder that salvation can never come through human effort, but must be the work of God himself.

From Adam on, every human generation has inherited the curse and corruption of sin.

Romans 5:12 CSB

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.

This lineage of sin was broken in Jesus.

Gabriel tells Mary in Luke 1:35

Luke 1:35 ESV

35 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.

Jesus was uniquely born, holy and blameless because His father was not Adam, but was God Himself.

He came to save us by becoming like us, while also remaining entirely divine and holy.

This is a union that we cannot explain with science, but it was the most important union ever made.

By God becoming a man the possibility of true, eternal salvation was accomplished.

Hebrews 2:14–15 CSB

14 Now since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these, so that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil—15 and free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.

Hebrews 2:17 CSB

Let this sink in.

There are a million reason why God should have nothing to do with us.

From the beginning we have turned our backs on God and gone our own ways.

How many times a day do you knowing or unknowing choose your way rather than God’s? That is sin.

But here’s the amazing thing about our God. When people sin, he doesn’t step away or turn His back or reject them. He comes even closer.

When he saw our sin, our sorrow, and our pain, God didn’t ignore us or reject us, God came.

But he didn’t come and set up his God headquarters and rule from his throne.

He took on our flesh and blood and made himself one of us.

And He did this so that He could live a life none of us could ever live, and die a death ALL of us deserve to die, in order to be raise to life in order that any of us who believe in Him might also be given a new life in Him.

This is Christmas! This is who He is! This is why He came.

…that we might be LIKE Him.

Matthew 1:24 CSB

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her

Before we close I want to highlight Joseph’s response to the Angels commands.

We see clearly in this passage that Joseph was a kind and thoughtful man.

He had every right to divorce Mary the moment he found out she was pregnant.

No one would have scorned him or rejected him for doing it, or for doing so publically to shame Mary.

But even before the Angelic meeting, Joseph had decided to divorce Mary quietly, so that she could avoid a least some of the public shame.

But then we see his response to the Angel in verse 24. He did as the Lord commanded.

Don’t miss the significance of this. His obedience reveals something about Joseph.

He must have really believed and trusted God’s Word.

He knew the passage mentioned and the prophesies made about the Messiah. But it was more than just head knowledge for him, he believed it.

This is not the plan he had for his life, for his marriage, or for his family, but he trusted that God’s way was the better way.

We don’t know much about the rest of Joseph’s life, but what we do know is he believed the baby born in a manger in Bethlehem from his wife whom he had yet to sleep with, was the promised Messiah.

And He had given his life to love, serve, follow, and share that with the world.

Jesus came to make us like Him.

To listen to His words and let them change us and shape us.

To follow His footsteps and go where He leads us and do what He call us.

And to share His message with anyone and everyone we can that they may know Him, follow Him, and share Him as well.

Invitation

He’s the Savior for all.

Jesus came for all of us, to live for all of us, and die for all of us, and rise for all of us.

If he came for all of us, do you know whom he came for? You.

His death was for you. His forgiveness is for you. His offer of salvation is for you.

Maybe your whole life it’s seemed like God is with somebody else.

Maybe it feels like you’ve done too much bad stuff for God to ever love you again.

Maybe you’ve been told that you’ve strayed too far away for God to ever find you.

It’s not true. If you are hearing these words.

God at Christmas looks you in the eye and says, “I am with you. I came to save you.”

No matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’ve been, you have a Savior named Jesus, who is Immanuel.

Will you receive Him? Believe in Him? Surrender your life to Him.

Acts 4:12 CSB

12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

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