God's Agenda- Matthew 1:18-25

Introduction

Well, lets go to the Lord in prayer.

Alright, 2nd—5th graders you guys are free to dismiss. And as a reminder, parents you can pick those children up at the Wetlands Building, and if you need any help finding where that is, don’t hesitate to ask someone with a lanyard.

If you’re new with us, welcome to CBC, my name is Andrew McClure and I’m one of the Pastor’s here, and at this time I’d love to call up ________ for the reading of our text, and lighting of the Advent Candle of Joy this morning.

Thank you.

From the years 2012-2019, Annie and I spent a majority of our lives investing in 18-24 year olds who were considering a calling into cross-cultural missions.

We would host these young people into our homes and lives, while we lived overseas and train them in missions by exposing them to the unreached, but also treaching them language, culture, theology, and missiology.

It was a lot of fun, but working with that demographic had its challenges.

For instance, and this is an area where I respect those in education so much, but every semester we’d host a new batch of students and learn a whole new vocabulary.

We’d be taught words we’d never heard of.

No cap. Bet. Dab. Just weird urban slang.

But on a more serious note, we also faced significant missiological challenges with these college students.

And it was because as a generation, due to the pressure of our cultural climate, these students had adopted some bad teaching. some faulty doctrine.

And as I stated last week, our beliefs always drive our behvaiors.

And that generation had bought into the belief that we don’t really need to share the Gospel with our lost friends, we just need to love them.

We don’t want them to feel like a project, or an agenda. So we’re just going to love.

They would often quote me, the popular saying “Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words.”

Sounds good. Catchy. Feels right.

Except for its unbiblical.

Maybe you’ve heard something similar, maybe you’ve even thought it yourself, but semester after semester we were confronted by students who believed having an intent or an agenda for somebody was the antithesis of love.

But church… that’s not true.

Like, Jesus didn’t organically descend to earth.

Jesus didn’t drift to the manger.

He didn’t just unintentially go to the cross.

No, Jesus came with a plan. He came with intent. He came with an agenda.

An agenda that was purposed before the foundation of the world.

And today in our text, the angel speaks to Joseph in a dream, to clearly communicate what that agenda was, and how it would be accomplished.

So today, I want us to see God’s Agenda by unpacking the two names for Christ that appear in our text.

Jesus & Immanuel.

But first let me remind you of a little context.

Context

Mary and Joseph are betrothed.

And as we learned last week, the betrothal was a legally binding engagement, and would usually last a year until the bride was of marrying age, or reproductive age.

Leaving us to believe that Mary could have been as young as 12, but probably no older than 15.

And Gabriel told her that she was favored, and chosen by God to conceive and bear the Son of God.

But the child woudn’t be conceived naturally, but supernatually. She would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And Mary, humbly submits herself to the will of the Lord.

But Joseph… he wasn’t so sure.

He understandably struggled with this news, that his fiance, is all of a sudden pregnant, and he knows he had nothing to do with it.

I mean how would you feel!

Betrayed!? Humiliated? Insecure. Angry, no Seething.

Maybe shocked? Anxious, that the town will assume he has sinned as well?

Right, becuase in his mind, and everybody else’s mind, young Mary has been unfaithful.

On top of that… Verse 19 says that Joseph is a just man.

Meaning righteous in his adherence God’s law, and God’s law clearly states.

Deuteronomy 22:23–24 ““If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones...

Joseph is just. He loves the law of God, and he knows what he must do according to the law.

Drag Mary to court, and eventually stand as witness to her stoning.

But verse 19 also says, he was unwilling to put her to shame.

He knew God was also merciful, and gracious and depite her apparent unfaithfulness, Joseph loved Mary… so he didn’t want her killed, so he has firmly resolved to divorce her secretly. He has made his decision.

So look with me at verse 20.

Matthew 1:20 “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.”

As he condsidered these things. As he wrestled. Tossed and turned. In and out of sleep, an angel of the Lord appears.

An angel… a heavenly creature, whose reponsibilty is to serve God in the ministry to mankind.

Hebrews 1:14 “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve...”

And this angel appears in a dream and quells many of his questions.

The angel explains that Mary hasn’t been unfaithful, but instead… the child isn’t a chilld of adultery… but royalty.

He is the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit.

So the question is why? What is God’s plan? What is his intent? What is his agenda?

Well the answer is found in the names.

I wonder how your names were chosen? More often than not we American’s chose our baby names from online searches, or tik tok trends, or perhaps we name kids after revered matriarchs or patriarchs in our family.

The point is that we tend to care more about how the name sounds, or how it looks monogrammed; whereas in other cultures around the world, especially the biblical culture names were chosen with a purposeful agenda in mind.

Names communicated personality and purpose.

They revealed who someone was, and what they were to do.

This is why God often reveals himself by his names.

When Abram was promised to be the father of many nations, although he was 90 years old and without child, God told him “I am El-Shaddai— or God Almighty.

Communicating, that there is nothing He cannot do.

When the people of Israel murmured against God in the wilderness, and a plague broke out by the waters of Marah— God in his mercy healed them all declaring, “I am Jehovah Rapha”

The God who heals.

When Abram was about to sacrifice his one and only Son, and God stayed his hand and instead provided a ram caught in the thicket as the sacrifice God revealed Himself in his name--- Jehovah-Jireh—

The God who Provides.

Names reveal personality and purpose.

They reveal an Agenda.

And here, the angel says this this child, born of a virgin, will be called Jesus.

Jesus, that’s the first Name.

Look at verse 21.

Jesus

Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.””

This name reveals his agenda.

Jesus is the English form, but in Hebrew his name is Yeshua.

And in Hebrew, the name Yeshua means “to deliver” or “to rescue” or “to save”

His name is Jesus. And His name reveals his purpose.

He has come to deliver. He has come to rescue. He has come to save.

But the remainder of the verse makes it clear from the outset the deliverance and salvation he would work would not involve the physical liberation of Israel, but the spiritual salvation of God’s people.

He came to save people from their sins.

Sin

Jesus has come to deal with sins.

To deliver you from sin. To rescue you from sin. To save you from your sin.

Yet, the saddest reality in all of life is that people live ignorant to the fact that they are in need of saving.

We lack any real, life altering understanding of sin and its role in our lives.

But all human problems are ultimately symptoms, with sin being the root cause.

But we live our lives seeking deliverance from fruits, without any attentive awareness to the root cause of sin.

But Jesus came to deal with Roots, to deliver us from Sin.

So what is Sin?

Sin is commonly known as missing the mark.

It’s the picture of an archery target, and there is a bullseye. A Standard. And to drive that arrow even a miniscule degree away from that standard is to sin. It’s a miss of the mark.

Well what is the Mark when it comes to Morality or Spirituality? What’s the standard?

The answer to this question is so important to the Gospel Message.

Because many falsely believe that the standard or mark can be determined and dictated by us. By man.

So many people fall in the trap of doing a bunch of good things, convincing themselves they are good people— hitting the mark, meeting the standard--- especially when they compare themselves to others around them.

But church… you’re not the standard. God is.

God is the one who has defined perfection. He is the Mark. And we were made in His image, to be like Him.

We are commanded to be perfect as He is perfect. Holy as He is Holy.

Not holier than your spouse.

Or holier than your friends.

That’s insufficient.

The standard is God.

And we have all fallen short of God’s Holy standard.

And we’ve sinned, or missed this mark in 3 big categories.

First, in our activities

This is what we usually first thing of when we thing of sin. In our actions.

In the way that we live and act we sin.

We gossip, and lie, and get drunk, and lust, and steal, and on and on.

We commit sin, in fact these are usually called Sins of Commission which is when we actively do what is wrong.

But we also sin in our lack of action, commonly known as sins of omission.

This is when we omit, or willingly fail to act upon what is right.

When I see the sink full of dishes, and I know it would bless my wife and be good unto her… and I choose not to.

When I see someone in need, and fail to meet that need.

When a parent tells a kid to clean their room, and they don’t.

This isn’t sin of what they have done, but what we have failed to do.

We omit.

So we sin in our activities, committing wrong ones, and omitting right ones.

But secondly we sin in our attitudes.

God isn’t merely concerned with your actions, but the motivation behind them, becuase the Pharisees show us that we can do a lot of right things, but still be in sin because our hearts are corrupted.

We can give in a way that draws attention to self--- which is pride and sin.

We can serve, but driven by a desire to win the approval of man which is sin.

So our sin is evidenced in our actions, but also in our attitudes.

But it gets deeper, because the Bible teaches

Thirdly, we sin in our natures.

Sin has changed our natures. Instead of being naturally oriented toward God we are now oriented toward self in the deepest recesses of our hearts.

We have a rebel nature… unwilling to meet God’s standard, and also incapable of doing what God desires.

As Paul David Tripp wrote, “It’s not just that I don’t want to do God’s will, its that even when I have the right intentions I can’t pull it off.”

It’s the wrestling of Romans 7.

Paul writes, Romans 7:18–19 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

He goes on to say, that in this wrestling he’s becoming aware of a law… or a power. a force that is operating within him.

And he goes on to say that that law, or power, or force is his sin nature. It’s sin.

It’s a war… Our natures, natures of sin wage war against the standard of God.

So that’s sin… failing to meet Gods standard in our actions, attitudes, and our natures.

But it gets worse--- because there are serious consequences to sin.

Consequences to Sin

First, it fractures all of our relationships.

Self— we wrestle with so many personal insecurities, fears, lies, and wrong views of ourselvs. Becuase of sin.

With Others--- Church there is no such thing as a private sin.

EVERY sin is communal. Even sins we commit in private, and don’t believe will impact another… they will.

Your secret pornography addiction isn’t a private sin.

It is a sin against those you are lusting after and objectifying, it will change how you view your spouse, or your future spouse.

Gossiping is another example. Although the other person may not know you’re talking about them, your sin of gossip will always impact the person you’re gossiping to and influence how they view the person you’re gossiping about… and listen, it’ll also impact how they view you.

There is no private sin. All sin is communal.

And Creation— when adam and eve sinned it imapcted the creations ability to grow food. It brought about catastrophic creation upheavals.

But at its core, sin fractures our relationship with God.

Pastor and Theologian J.T. English writes, that the best way to understand sins impact on our relationship with God is in the term Exile.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost access to God.

Born to be at home with God, but now exiled and cannot return.

And that is the plight of every one of us.

We are exiled from God. Seperated from God.

And every piece of pain and suffering we experience in this life is really the result of the knowledge that there had to be more. That this can’t be all there is. That there must be a home in whcih we belong… but the tragic realization that we can’t get there.

We are exiled. Cut off. Seperated.

And due to the corruptoin of our natures… there is nothing we can do about it.

We need Rescue. We need Deliverance. We need a Savior.

So God sent His Son… and His Name was JESUS— FOR HE WILL SAVE PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.

The Gospel begins here… in the angelic visitation to Jospeh.

That it isn’t rome or russia that’s our problem.

Tht it isn’t our spouse, or career.

It isn’t our parents, or past.

It’s our sin… and we need a Savior.

But How would Jesus, the sent Savior, accomplish this agenda?

Well that’s found in our next name.

Look at Matthew 1:22–23 “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).”

Immanuel

To understand this Name we need to go back to Isaiah 7, which is what Matthew is quoting here.

In 734 BC, King Ahaz was King of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, and the neighboring nations to the North, Aram and Israel were pressuring Ahaz to join a military alliance with them in response to a threat from the Assyrian King who was well on his way to establishing a middle eastern empire.

Well, Ahaz refused to join the alliance, so these two northern kingdoms sought to conquer Judah, dethrone Ahaz, and put up their own puppet king in his place.

So what does Ahaz do… well he appeals to the King of Assyria to support him, by conquering Aram and Israel.

So if Assyria squashes these northern Kingdoms, Ahaz believed that Judah would be preserved.

But God sent the Prophet Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him not to do that.

To not trust in political alliances, or military gambles… but to trust in God and in God’s word… not the wisdom, schemes or strategies of man.

God tells Ahaz, that he will deliver him. That he will rescue him. That he will save.

He only need to trust Him.

And to aid in that trust, God says to Ahaz.

Isaiah 7:10–11 “Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.””

God says… ask for a sign. It can be any sign! As deep as the deepest depths or as high as the highest heights.

Ask for a sign, and God promises to fulfill it to utterly convince Ahaz he will deliver him.

Well Ahaz, refuses. Something about a sin nature there. Either unwilling or incapable, Ahaz rebels.

So God says, Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Alright, so don’t miss this context.

God is saying… not the Northern Kingdoms, nor the Alliance will Syria is powerful enough to save. The wisdom of man, or the counsel of nations is not strong enough to deliver… but only God.

God Himself will Save. God Himself will Rescue. And what will be the sign of this promised deliverance…

A virgin will conceive and bear a son… and his name will be Immanuel.

Immanuel

Alright, let me slow down here…

Sin is the Problem… Sin is what has exiled us. Seperated us from God. We know there’s a home we’re made for, but because of sin we can’t get home.

So God sends a Savior--- to bring home to us.

In our sin we can’t be with God--- in Immanuel God comes to be with Us.

Immanuel reveals that salvation is solely a work of God. We couldn’t save ourselves.

But because God is so for us, he has come to be with us.

because we couldn’t get to him, he chose to come to us.

The infinite came within finite reach of sinful man.

He who is transcendent and unapproachable in His holiness, has condesended to be with us.

This is not a matter of our works or merit, but solely a matter of His grace and a picture of who He is.

He is the Savior, He is Jesus, Immanuel.

Veiled in flesh the Godhead See; Hail the Incarnate Deity. Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, Our Emmanuel.

The Son of God became Man so that he could pay the penalty for Man so that we could be sons and daughters of God.

This was His Agenda. The Perfect One.

Because as God he couldn’t simply pardon sin, for then he wouldn’t be Just.

But he also couldn’t kill mankind, for then he wouldn’t be Loving.

So before the foundation of the World he hatched a plan. He set an agenda.

He would exercise Justice in the killing of Jesus on our behalf.

So that we can once again be receipients of His Love on Jesus’ behalf.

And church--- that is the Good News. That’s the Gospel.

Tim Keller rightly said it, “Too many people believe the Gospel is Good Advice, or tips on what we should do. But it’s not. It’s Good News--- a report of what He has done for us.”

He has fulfilled His Agenda.

He has sent His Son. Yeshua--- the deliverer of sins. Immanuel— God with us again.

Conclusion

So what does this mean for us today?

Well first in foremost it means that if you have never trusted in Christ, and accepted His Salvation--- then you are still in need of saving.

It doesn’t matter what’ve you done, or what you’ve failed to do. Sins of commission or omission. The Good News of the Gospel is that no one is too bad for Jesus… but listen,

unfortunately too many people believe they are too good for Jesus.

The prerequite for receiving the grace of God is to know that you need it.

Meaning, you can’t appreciate the agenda of God, until you first appreciate the tragedy of sin.

So acknowledge your sin, admit your need of saving, and believe in Christ.

Secondly, I also think it means that we would all be greatly aided in our spiritual growth if we would spend some time meditating and contemplating the Names of God.

Psalm 148:13 reads, “His Name alone is exalted.”

Isaiah 26:13 says, “Your name alone we bring to remembrance.”

and Psalm 8:1 sings, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Names communicate personality. Names reveal purposes and agendas.

and this Christmas, your worship and your lives would be greatly edified by meditating on the scripturally revealed names of God.

Perhaps you can begin with the names of God that accompany Christmas.

I’ve give you two— Jesus & Immanuel.

But in Isaiah 9 we also see Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Communion

So as we close today, I’d actually love to lead you in this practice.

Today we are going to take communion, so if you’re serving communion please go ahead and move to your locations.

But communion is a sacrament of the church, instituted by Jesus on the night when he was betrayed.

It was a meal, rife with symbolism where he broke bread--- symbolizing his body that would be broken for our sin.

And he poured wine— symbolizing his blood that would be spilled in payment of our sin.

And that night he commanded his church to regularly Remember Him in the taking of bread of juice.

But if you’re not a Christian, I’d like to kindly ask you to let these elements pass you by, for communion is for the Christian who seeks to genuinely remember our Savior and Deliverer.

But as you take the elements, here’s what I’d like for you to do.

John’s going to play, and I want you take one of these names of God on the screen and meditate.

Simply choose one, and mull over the following questions:

One, what does this tell me about the personality of God?

What does it tell me about God? Who He is, what he’s like, His personality.

Two, what does tell me about the Purposes of God?

What he has accomplished? What he can accomplish? What he will accomplish?

Three, what does this truth about God change in my life?

Everybody got it?

So John will play, you meditate, and in a moment I’ll come back up and lead us through taking the elements together.