THE GIFT OF IMMANUEL

MATTHEW 1:18-25

Merry Christmas!

I love the simplicity of children. Boone asked me the other day why do we have to say merry Christmas to people. Because with Boone, the question is always “do I have to?”

But I was able to take a second and think about what we say so often this time of year.

Merry Christmas. You are wishing that someone would have a merry celebration of Christmas.

Merry meaning cheerful, rejoicing, celebration!

Christmas meaning the time of year that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

So, YES! I truly and deeply wish that you and you family has a very Merry Christmas! I hope that this time of year is a time of cheer, joy, happiness, celebratory holiday!

(light Christ candle)

Jesus Christ was born in a manger and He broke the barrier between holy God and sinful man! Our Rescuer has come! Our Redeemer was born!

This was such an amazing event that the Father sent angels to Earth to sing about it! To shout praise about it!

Last night’s Advent reading was about the angels singing to the shepherds. What a celebration! What a party! The Savior was born! God humbled Himself to become man. And He did not come to condemn mankind but to provide a path of salvation!

So, yes! Merry Christmas to you! Our Savior was born! Our Savior provided the path of salvation!

If there is any greater news on Earth, I would love to hear it!

The Titans winning a game, great! But God came to Earth to save you!!

A certain person won an election, great! But Jesus stepped out of eternity to rescue you!!

You get everything you asked for for Christmas this year, great! But the greatest gift ever offered was the salvation from paying the penalty for our sin by Jesus Christ!

THAT is worth celebrating! THAT is worth singing about! THAT is worth shouting about!

So, yes! Merry Christmas to you! May you celebrate and praise the Lord for the great, powerful and incredible true event in history!

If you are here this morning and you know Jesus, I mean, you are not just saying “Lord, Lord” but you know the Lord, you have a relationship with Jesus. My prayer for you is that you would intentionally take some time to celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth. Immanuel, God with us.

The gift of Jesus being Immanuel, God with us is an incredible gift!

It started in Matthew, when Gabriel told Joseph about Jesus.

Matthew 1:20–23 ESV

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).

Jesus was going to be God with mankind like He had never been before! Throughout history, God had been with man. God is everywhere but Jesus revealed the heart, will and love of the Father like never before!

Jesus laid aside some of His supernatural power to come to this Earth to show us God! To be an example to you and me. To die a death on the cross, to provide a path for you and me to be able to come to the Father. And then He proved He was not a lunatic or a liar by being raised from the dead! He proved that He was God in the flesh by taking the enemies only weapon and defeating it! We do not have to fear death because Jesus defeated it!

And then Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of our heavenly Father.

Wait a minute, didn’t you say that He was Immanuel, God with us? How can He be with us if He is in heaven?

So, glad you asked!

Jesus promised His Spirit to not only to come and be with us but be IN us!

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.

If you know Jesus, I mean have a relationship with Jesus, you have that because you have the Holy Spirit, the literal Spirit of the holy God residing in you!

You have a more intimate Immanuel with you now! The Spirit of God is not just around you, it is in you! He is for you! God is with you!

this is the greatest news ever! Its so great that when Jesus departed His disciples, He told them to go and make disciples in all nations. We call it the great commission.

And what were His final words in that passage? Was it that He would give them gifts and talents to make that happen? Did He promise to give them college courses on how to lead or share the gospel?

No! He promised that He will be with you! He promised that He would never leave you or forsake you. He promised His presence. He promised HIM! He is our all in all! He is all that we need! Just Jesus! Jesus is enough! Jesus! His power, He presence, His influence! Jesus, Immanuel, God with us is the greatest gift and the greatest promise!

He did not promise wealth, an easy road, comfortable living, naturally talented pastors and worship leaders or kids ministry. He promised Himself and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit with you and in you!

It doesn’t matter if you are

a teenager, like Mary

in prison, like Joseph

in charge of a nation, like Joseph

a murderer, like Moses

leading a group of rebellious people, like Moses

Leading an army of thousands, like Joshua

or leading an army of 300 like Gideon

It doesn’t matter if you are

a shepherd, like David

a carpenter

a tent maker

a tax accountant

a fisherman

a school teacher

a surveyor for a construction company

an electrician

or a stay-at-home mom

The greatest possible truth and gift for you to celebrate and praise God for this Christmas season is that God is with you! If you are in Christ, His Holy Spirit is in you!

Maybe you are here today and you are so far removed from that truth that it feels untrue to you and where you are. Maybe its been a long time since you have thought about God. You have been running.

That does not change the fact that God has been with you.

Psalm 139:7–10 (ESV)

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

Jesus’ promise was not conditional on you. He will be with you!

But the question is are you walking in an awareness of Immanuel, God with you?

Do you know it to be true and yet you walk around like its not or you forget as soon as you are distracted?

Jeremiah 29:13 ESV

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Our phrase for the year has been to do whatever you can do to think about God as often as possible. Why? Because God is with you! You are not alone! You are not on your own in you are in Christ!

Would you take some time today or tomorrow to intentionally stop the distractions and spend time thinking about, talking to, Immanuel, God with you? Would you seek Him with you whole heart? His Word says that you will find Him.

And maybe your Christmas will be a little bit more merry...

Maybe you are here today and you have know that you have never received anything from Christ. You have never felt anything from Him. You know that you do not know Him. He feels far away from you and you have never had a time that He felt close.

Well, this morning, my prayer for you is that you would open your mind and heart to this truth, God loves you, just as you are. He doesn’t want you to feel alone. He wants to not just be with you but in you. He wants to save you.

Jesus told a man named Nicodemus that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, you must be born twice. Nicodemus asked the same question you are in your mind. How can that be?

Jesus said, you must be born of water and spirit.

Water meaning the physical birth. Were you ever born? Did a woman carry you in her womb?

Then check on the first birth!

Jesus said that you must also be born spiritually.

Scripture says that we were born spiritually dead because of sin. Our spirit is not alive and in order to enter the kingdom of heaven you must be born in the spirit.

This spiritual death is also known as condemnation or judgement or separation from God because of sin. Jesus said in John 3:17 that He did not come into the world to condemn us, we were already born into that. He came to the world that through Him, we might be saved from that condemnation. That spiritual death.

It can not be such a mystery that only God can bring spiritual life. Can you do that? Have you been able to? You have tried all sorts of things in this life trying to find it but yet you still feel dead inside. Can anyone claim to do that? Only Jesus, God with us can offer that!

Jesus told Nicodemus that God loved Him so much that He sent Jesus to save us from that spiritual death. His life, death and resurrection proves to us that only He was powerful enough to do that.

Jesus tells us that in order to be reborn spiritually, we must believe.

We must believe in Jesus.

We must that Jesus knows how give spiritual life because He is God!

We must believe that the Father provided a path for salvation and sent Jesus to provide it.

We must believe that Jesus died in our place to remove the cost of our sin.

We must believe that Jesus is who He says He is and He did what He said He would do. That He came to provide a path to spiritual life, to union with God, to receive Immanuel, God with you.

The other thing Jesus taught in order to be born in the spirit was to die.

Wait, what do you mean? To live in the spirit, to be reborn, to enter into the kingdom of heaven, you must die?

Yes.

Jesus said, John 12:24–25 “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Romans 8:13 “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

It is all throughout God’s Word that you can not receive spiritual life unless you die to yourself, your flesh.

Ephesians 4:22–24 “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

But how do you do that? how do you die to self? Do you just flip a switch and stop sinning?

Jesus told Nicodemus that the first thing is to not hid that you have sin.

You have to shine a light on it and admit it. You have to not hid sin or love sin any longer.

You have to admit that you have sinned, not so that you can be judged! You don’t have to admit your sins, so that Jesus can shout “How dare you do these things!” Remember, Jesus did not come to judge you but to save you from your sins!

After you admit that you have sinned, the second thing is to die to yourself now.

Luke 9:23–24 ESV

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

Choose today, to turn your life over to Jesus. Start now, by letting Him not only be your Savior but be you Lord as well.

If you want the spiritual life that He is promising, you must die to yourself!

You must allow Him to lead you, to guide you, to be your shepherd.

But you are not going to do that perfectly but it has to start with surrender to Him! And it continues with a daily dying to self. Wake up every morning and give Him everything that day. If you skip a day, are you lost again? NO! He mercies are new every morning! He is a God abounding in steadfast, patient love, overflowing with grace!

But you must at least start by surrendering your life to Jesus!

Look, it is appointed for every man and woman to die in their fleshly bodies. One day, every single one of us will stop living.

Those who do not believe and love their sin so much that they want to hid it and not die to it, remain under the condemnation that they were born under. Those do not have eternal life because they were never born again.

But here is the great news of Christmas. The news that we are here to celebrate today!

God loves you so much that He sent His Son, Jesus to be born in a manger, to live a perfect life,

to pay the penalty for your sins,

to provide a way for you to escape the judgement and condemnation caused by your sin,

so that you do not have to be afraid of death but that you can have hope that you can have eternal life with God!

That is the good news that started on Christmas and continues on to this day.

Read Romans 6:5–11 “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Would you this morning, begin your new life with Christ, Immanuel, God with you?

Would you believe that all that we have said about Him is true?

Would you put your faith in Him that He will resurrect you from the dead?

Would you admit that you have sinned?

And choose today to die to yourself daily and follow Him?

Would today be the day that you allow Jesus to be your Savior and Lord?

Let’s pray.