So This is Christmas - Emmanuel

Matthew 1:18-23

Matthew 1:18–23 CSB

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. So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. 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. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 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.”

What is the Meaning of Christmas?

What is the meaning of Christmas? When we think about Christmas and what it is all about we should ask what is the meaning of Christmas?

We all have different traditions around Christmas. Things that we do or places we like to visit. There are a lot of things that are supposed to happen at Christmas.

Parties

Gift exchanges

Movies

Cookies

Gingerbread Houses

A Church service

Loving Others

But none of these are the meaning of Christmas. These are important parts of Christmas. These are important aspects of Christmas, but they are not the meaning of Christmas.

Christmas Means Emmanuel

When we ask what does Christmas mean, the answer is Emmanuel, God with us. This is both a title for Jesus and the meaning of Christmas and the incarnation. Christmas means Emmanuel and Emmanuel means God is with us!

Emmanuel means God is with us

Emmanuel means God is commited to us

Emmanuel means God is our example

Christmas is God’s commitment to His people. Christmas is God’s promise that He is with us and that we get His fullness in Christ Jesus.

Christmas is a the first advent of Jesus. Christmas is a message to the world for God. The Message is Emmanuel God with us. The message in the person of Christ is you are wanted and loved. You are forgiven. Jesus says for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in Him would have eternal life. The message of the incarnation is that God is now joined to humanity forever! God is with is now and forever.

Our entire faith revolves around this idea, that Jesus who is God became human. This is why so many different expressions of our faith exist.

The message if I can sum it up: I am with you! That is a powerful message. From this point forward, from the moment the Spirit of God comes over Mary and she conceives, God is now and for all times connected to His people, He has become one of us. The song what if God was one of us has an answer, we know what God would be like as a person.

God has moved into humanity and in doing so He forever bound the two. This is why Jesus can and does intercede for us to the Father even now in heaven. He understands our weakness, He has compassion and mercy, He has total understanding of what it means to be human. He felt hunger, tiredness, joy, pain, thirst, all of it. God fully understands what it is like to be us.

When we are tempted Jesus understands because He was put to the test. Jesus gets it and says I am with you. So, what do we do with this amazing message? I think there are a few things.

Emmanuel means God is with us

First, we understand that we are not alone. So often in life we feel alone. We feel like nobody gets it and we are on our own. But the Incarnation tells us a different story. It tells us that we are not alone and so much more it tells us that we are so not alone that God has become like us to prove His love to us.

When we feel weak, tired, sad or whatever else we can remember that we serve a God who went the full distance to let us know that we are not alone. We have a God who is with us. We can use the name Emmanuel as a battle cry to push back the loneliness and fear that we are on our own. When fear, doubt, and weakness come creeping in we can shout Emmanuel God is with me.

This is huge and the more we understand this, the more we understand the Suffering Servant the more we understand that Jesus,

Isaiah 53:3 CSB

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him.

The more it changes everything to know He is with us.

The Bible tells us He was acquainted with grief. He understand what it mens by experience to be us and live in this world.

We set this up like a banner and do like Moses did

Exodus 17:15 CSB

And Moses built an altar and named it, “The Lord Is My Banner.”

We make Emmanuel our banner and our war cry.

In times of trial, temptation, or difficulty we can cry out to God and remember that He is with us. He is for us. We are not alone.

Loneliness is an epidemic in our country. In a recent study

61% of people say they sometimes feel lonely

Men generally report feeling being more lonely

79% of Gen Z reports feeling lonely

71% of Millennials report feeling lonely

People feel lonely and the message from God is you are not alone. I am with you.

Emmanuel means God is commited to us

Second, we can know that we are wanted. When we remember the Incarnation, we can remember that we are wanted. Maybe you have been left by others, unwanted by family, wrongly left out, made to feel less than others, but the Incarnation says you are wanted. You are desired and loved. You are not just not alone because of the Incarnation you are wanted. You are desired by God. In Christ the full nature of God and the full expression of humanity are connected to prove that you are wanted by the created of the universe.

The one who imagined and hung the stars is the same one who looks across the cosmos and time and says I want you. Growing up I did not know my real father. This left me always wanting to know why I was not wanted by him. I have a stepfather who loves me and cares for me and I love him, but there was always this nagging feeling of why did my birth father not want me? It was always lingering over my head. Why am I not wanted? It affected all of my relationships and left me feeling that eventually everyone else would not want me either, but the Incarnation changes that narrative.

It flips everything around and says I am wanted. I am desired by the greatest Father ever. The Incarnation proves to us that we are wanted by God.

Zephaniah 3:17 CSB

The Lord your God is among you, a warrior who saves. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will be quiet in his love. He will delight in you with singing.”

We are wanted by the Father and He proves His commitment to us.

Emmanuel means God is our example

The third thing is the Incarnation tells us is that we are to be like the God who seeks and goes. The Incarnation was not as passive event, it was a full-scale attack on hell. It was the most brazen thing imaginable. God invaded the world and said, “I am taking back what’s mine!” The Incarnation was an attack, and the Bible says that we are called to walk like Jesus walked. 1 John 2:6 says that if we claim Jesus then we walk or act as He did.

The implications of this are huge. It goes way beyond WWJD. What would Jesus do is a great start but we, as His people who call Him Lord and Savior need to say, not ask, DWJD, Do What Jesus Did. Walk like Jesus walked.

1 John 2:6 CSB

The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.

We do what Jesus did because He has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us.

Part of doing what Jesus did goes back to what we talked about a few minutes ago.

Loneliness is an epidemic in our country. In a recent study

61% of people say they sometimes feel lonely

Men generally report feeling being more lonely

79% of Gen Z reports feeling lonely

71% of Millennials report feeling lonely

People feel lonely and the message from God is you are not alone. I am with you.

Part of the call of God is to go and bring hope to the lonely. Not just to tell them that God is for them. Not just to tell them God is with them but to also go and be with them.

The call is to go and be the hands and feet of Jesus. To be the body an the body is active. We do not just say it we do it.

Emmanuel is both the promise of God to be with us and our cry to God.

Emmanuel is both the promise of God to be with us and our cry to God. When we are weak or tired we cry Emmanuel, God be with us.

When we are confused and lost we cry Emmanuel, God be with us.

When we encounter brokenness and sin we cry Emmanuel, God be with us.

When we want to see our family members and friends saved we cry Emmanuel, God be with them.

The whole message is summed up in that because God’s fullness and all of His promises are in Jesus our Emmanuel. We get the fullness of God, the trinity because of this.

Closing

I do not want to fail to give you an opportunity to respond to this. Maybe this is the first time you have heard this message. Maybe you had no idea that God loved you in this way. Maybe you have heard it a hundred times and you just now understand that God went the full distance for you.

Romans 10:9 CSB

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

I plead with you, I beg of you, accept the gift of love from God. Take hold of that which Christ Jesus has taken hold of for you! Accept His free gift of forgiveness for your sins and welcome Him into your heart. Receive Him today.