Friends if you are able, would you please stand for the reading of God’s word. Today we read from 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.”

Would you pray with me? Pray Go ahead and have a seat.

You ever realize that you’ve been saying something that you had no idea what it actually means? Or if you’re even saying it correctly?

Christmas music is full of these.

How about Hark the Herald Angels sing? First, Hark is a word that sounds like someone is trying to clear the throat. We don’t use that word anymore. And The song isn’t about Angels named Harold.

And the big refrain in the song: Gloria, in excelsis deo. Cool - also in latin.

The one that got me for quite some time with We Three Kings - I think I’ve told some of you this before - but the song starts

We three kings of Orient are; bearing gifts we traverse afar

Okay - well growing up, I didn’t read it like this, or sing it like this - I thought the first line was

We three kings of Orientar

As if they were kings of a place called Orientar. That confused me when I think I actually saw in a hymnal or something what it actually was.

And for all I know Orientar was located in the Orient so it is what it is.

Here’s the thing - often times we sing songs, even memorize Scripture and creeds, but we don’t always understand what it is we are saying or singing.

Like scripture is rich, decadent, and you need to slowly work through it at times to savor all that there is to be gained.

And good worship songs and hymns are drenched in scripture and captivate our minds and our hearts as we sing. IF we take the time to realize what it is we are proclaiming.

This year for advent, we are using the some O Come O Come Emmanuel as our template. Each week we will use a different stanza as a sort of trellis for our time.

This week is from the first stanza

O Come O Come Emmanuel

The concept and name of Emmanuel, or Immanuel in the Hebrew, is one that we can miss, and we just sing the song. And we only sing it during Christmas season.

First things first, did you know that historically speaking anyway, advent songs were a normal part of the churches rhythm? And while this song does speak of the arrival of Jesus, the words are timeless and universal.

Why have christians been proclaiming Christmas songs throughout the year? don’t they know that you have to wait till after Halloween?

Well for them, the incarnation, that is the event of God taking on Flesh and dwelling among us was not JUST about the forgiveness of sins - but that Jesus, who is the new and better Adam, was demonstrating a new way of humanity, and culminating with the Resurrection, that the earth was being remade into the new creation.

The birth of Christ was the answer to the prophets and the law.

Our Whole Advent series is geared to helping us better appreciate and understand the person of Jesus Christ.

From our passage we read to start the morning - you may be familiar with the story. But Mary and Joseph were engaged - but then Mary conceived through the intervention of the Holy Spirit, and Joseph is understandably a bit upset, and incredulous at the idea of Mary becoming pregnant while remaining a virgin!

But Joseph was kind, and didn’t want to bring shame on her - and was going to divorce her silently.

But then God sends an angel to Jospeh, look at Matthew 1:20-21

Matthew 1:20–21 CSB

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.”

The Angel confirms Mary’s account - but then reveals to Jospeh that Jesus will be the savior of HIS people from their sins. This is just blatant messianic language. And that’s what the next two verses say Verses 22-23

Matthew 1:22–23 (CSB)

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.”

Immanuel, which Matthew lets us know is translated God with Us.

I don’t think we fully realize the scandalousness of the incarnation. Often times those in Christian circles can take for granted of this bewildering miracle without grappling with what that means or looks like.

And that is partly due to our ignorance in the Old Testament and often times not fully coming to terms with the Jewishness of Christ. We often fail to see the messianic expectations that were in the air during the times of Jesus life on earth.

O Come O Come Emmanuel and Ransom captive Israel. Who mourns in lonely exile here, until the son of God appear.

Matthew here is quoting from Isaiah 7, where there was great terror in the air of the Jewish peoples. In the context of Isaiah, the nation of Israel had divided into the northern and southern kingdoms. And due to idolatry and immorality and failure to keep the commandments, God, through the prophets, warned that there would be an exile of God people, from the promised land to far off lands.

In Isaiah the prophet reveals to king Ahaz, king of the southern kingdom of Judah, that there will be a sign from God of a coming son that God would rescue Ahaz and the people from the threat that is about to befall the northern kingdom.

This son, immanuel, would be a sign that God is with them. God with Us.

For the jewish people, the messianic expectations were not for someone to come in a penal substitutionary atonement way. They wanted and expected a king who would come, defeat all the enemies of the jewish peoples, and reinstate the kingdom of Israel. They did not expect God to come in flesh.

They wanted a new moses. The wanted a greater Elijah. they expected a king like David. They needed a savior - but they had no concept for the kind of savior.

What God ended up providing was far greater, mysterious, glorious, awe-inspiring, and confounding to the jews and the gentiles alike.

Artists typically do a good job of conveying this best. One of may favorite Christian artists of the last decade plus is John Mark McMillan. On his Advent album, I think of the song Baby Son ; the first verse says this:

We thought You'd come with a crown of gold; A string of pearls and a cashmere robe; We thought You'd clinch an iron fist; And rain like fire on the politics

But without a sword, no armored guard; But common born in mother's arms; The government now rests upon; The shoulders of this Baby Son

I love that. Such a good way of talking about our ways of having expectations on Christ and what God would be like - and how our expectations are often not met or are superceded by Jesus.

This is like the meta-narrative of all Scripture and the cosmos.

-

From the very beginning, God creates the cosmos, and the world, and then he plats a garden and in the garden he puts his image bearers, Man and Woman, and they are given a divine mandate to be fruitful, multiply, and to subdue the whole earth.

We see that in Genesis 1:27-28

Genesis 1:27–28 (CSB)

So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

The idea some scholars posit, that Adam and Eve were to partner with God as his divine representatives to bring that garden city over the whole earth.

But it doesn’t take long in the story of scripture for them to get their own ideas.

You see God placed in the middle of the garden two trees, the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were instructed to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - and the idea is that Adam and eve were to trust God to lead them, to be their lord, and as their source of good and evil.

But then Eve is tempted by the serpent, her husband with her - and gives this clever lie. Genesis 3:4-6

Genesis 3:4–6 CSB

“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

They decided that they would rather be king rather then trust God. And it just didn’t go well. Sin enters the world and death with it. Creation fractures. They’re expelled from the garden and the consequences are heavy and severe.

But in the midst of the consequences, God reveals his plan of redemption, way back in Genesis, in Genesis 3:15 we get what theologians call the proto-evangelium, in his consequences to the serpent, God says this.

Genesis 3:15 (CSB)

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

From the offspring of the woman, there will rise someone who will be struck on the heel by the great serpent, But this coming one will strike and crush the head of the serpent.

God’s plan was always to come and redeem and restore creation. Not just back to the state of Eden, but better than that - and from the beginning, from teh genesis of it all - we have this forecast of the coming snake crusher. Now we know him as JEsus Christ.

And throughout the whole biblical narrative there is this tension of are the people of God going to trust God to be the king, to follow his ways, or to try and be like the world, and suffer the consequences.

From as early as Abram and Sarai, God tells the elderly couple that he will give them a biological son, the son of the promise who will make good on the covenant God is making with them. But Sarai gets impatient and decides to take matters into her own hand, and gives her servant Hagar to Abram to have a child, and while a son is born - it is not the child of promise. And it ends up causing issues with Ishmael and Issac that we still feel the tension of today!

There are so many of these stories of rebellion in scripture.

When the israelites make it the promised land, and they have a period of the judges, where they just continually forget that God is in control and everyone does what is right in their own eyes - they eventually ask Samueal for a human king, so that they could be like the nations around them. And samuel warns them that they don’t know what they’re asking for. They don’t need a human King, God was to be their king.

But they get what they ask for, and then we get the israelite monarchy with Saul who ended up being a wretched king. Then David - who all though after God with his heart, wouldn’t be a guy i’d want my daughter to marry. And so on and so forth - and then kings come and lead wars, and the kingdom is divided, and the people of God turn from following God to trying to be like their idolatrous neighbors. Which leads them into exile in Babylon.

But God is so faithful. He continues to be present, to speak, to move, and eventually to come, in the flesh, to not just institute his kingdom, but to free us from sin, and death, and that serpent. And he does that in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and savior, and healer, and sanctifyer, and coming king.

And what a glorious truth that is!

But I think why O come o COme emmanuel is so compelling to me is its a reminder that we are not there yet. We aren’t finished yet. This is not the end. Christ will return again to make all things new.

And so, we, much like the israelites, find ourselves rescued out of the bondage of slavery in egypt, and in this wilderness wandering waiting for the promised land to come!

And we, much like the israelites, are prone to wander, and complain, and want to give up, rather than trust in God, receive the manna he provides, and trust him to lead us in and through adversity.

The Exodus story is one of the greatest typological stories for us as believers. I mean think about it.

The israelites were enslaved, and they call out to God for salvation. And he sends them one to lead them out of slavery, moses, and Jesus is a greater Moses. And they are saved from egypt through the waters of the Red Sea, and Christian’s entrance into the church is through the waters of baptism. And then they are to follow Moses through the wilderness on their way to the promised land.

But do you know what they do when they arrive and moses sends spies into the land? They freak out at the work that needs to be done, and some even wish to go back to be enslaved in Egypt!

So they are forced to dwell in the wilderness longer, for a whole generation.

But God does bring them into the promised land - and like we have read in Revelaion - with trumpets around the walls of the enemy, the walls tumble down and israel arrives in the promised land.

Friend, O come o Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive israel, who mourns in lonely exile here, until the son of God appear - this is a glorious reminder that God came and saved us, but we are not finished yet. God is still on the move - this aint the promised land.

This brings us to the question:

So What?

Friends, many of you here have by grace through faith, been saved and are now freed from the bondage and consequences of Sin. PRaise God.

Perhaps you are here and you haven’t - just humbly, I’d invite you to ask Christ to forgive you now, and to follow him, and be saved.

But friend - like the israelites, we often stand at a cross roads - of knowing God has given us life, but being frustrated, and deciding to be like the people around us instead of owning our sojourning status till he returns.

We decide to make our babylon our home, isntead of working with the King to spread the message of the arrival of our Lord.

Like Adam and Eve, we are told to trust God as the ing and the lord - and yet we often play God ourselves. The kings of our own castles. Build our own legacy.

Friend - there is now a new tree for us to stand at and consider. A Tree on which the prince of glory gave it all for us. Where wrath and mercy and love all meet.

Would we remember that we are in need of a savior, time and time again, and to come to the cross - and choose to follow Christ as king, rather than make our bed in wilderness or egypt.

This is not our home! BUT We do partner with God to raise the spiritual tmeperature of south eastern South Dakota and our world by the proclaimation of the gospel.

So What?

So, would you at the tree, choose obedience, and choose to in faith follow Christ, and would you love God and love your neighbors - rather than making ourselves comfortable in the here and now.

For Christ is coming again. And he promises new creation. Where there is no sin, no death, no sorrow, no pain. A promise land that extends for eternity into the future, What a glorious reality that is and will be.

So don’t take your eyes of Christ - god with us. Emmanuel.

Pray