Immanuel: God With Us

INTRO

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” We hear those words on the radio, we sing along to them. We see them plastered on billboards. We see those words in advertisements promoting our favorite seasonal drinks, like at Starbucks.

What makes this time the most wonderful time of the year? Maybe it’s the picture-perfect scenery around our area after a fresh snowfall, especially here in Galena. Maybe it’s the cosy vibes you get on the couch watching your favorite holiday movie with a blanket and a hot drink.

Maybe it’s the gathering of family that occurs this season. I check my email just about every day, and in the last two weeks, most of the emails, whether spam or personal, begin something to the effect of, “I know this is a busy time for you, but…”

You see, whether you think this is the most wonderful time of the year or not, most people find themselves most busy during this time. This season demands our time to prepare. Preparing gifts, decorations, travels, hosting, and doing your annual traditions.

There may be some among us who remember this season to be a “wonderful time” but no longer have that feeling, and maybe you are even dreading the holidays.

I’m not sure what comes to mind when you think of this phrase, “the most wonderful time of the year,” but the reality is that it is far to easy to forget what makes this time the most wonderful time of year.

In the introduction to the Gospel of Matthew, we find some of the major Gospel themes that make this time the best time of the year. It is what Matthew tells us about Jesus in these verses that makes Jesus, the Immanuel (God with us), the best part of Christmas.

What we will find in Matthew 1:22-25 is both Matthew’s “commentary” on the birth of Christ and Joseph’s response to the dream he had about Mary and the baby, and it is this insight that we need to have the right perspective whether you are preparing or dreading the holidays.

As we walk through these four short verses, my prayer is that we will walk away with a sense of awe and wonder of the comfort that Jesus brings. Although the culture tells us that this time of year is “wonderful,” the birth of God, our Savior, is what fills us with wonder.

You’ll find my outline for this sermon on the back of the bulletin and on the screen, as we considering the coming of Immanuel: God With Us.

Immanuel: God With Us

Our Inability to Bring Immanuel

Immanuel must come to Save

Immanuel must be God to save

Our Interest in Immanuel

As we begin, let us commit our time to the Lord in prayer. PRAY

Our inability to bring Immanuel

Last week, we looked at verses 18-21, and today, we are finishing this section, which highlights the birth of Jesus from Joseph’s perspective. We see Joseph dealing with the news of hearing that his betrothed Mary is pregnant and not with his child. We see Josephs's faith in two ways.

First, he believed the message from the Angel in his dream (v. 20), which told him that this child was destined to “save people from their sins.” Essentially, announcing that the savior is coming! Not only did he believe the word of the angel in taking Mary as his wife, but then not “knowing” her until, alluding that he did “know” her intimately after, Jesus was born.

This took faith on his part to believe and abstain. Both (believing and abstaining) communicate that the miracle of Jesus’ birth was brought about by a divine intervention.

Last year, in our Family Bible Hour, we did a 15-week study on the “Christian Story,” where we surveyed the whole Bible and read it as one story of redemption. One of the things that were magnified was the need for God’s intervention and then seeing God. Like in Genesis, when God chooses Abraham, and calls him out and promises a whole nation to come from him and that God intends to use these people to bless the other nations. Then, throughout the story of Israel, we see God needing to intervene over and over again, and He does. Like in the story of Daniel from these last few months when we saw God rescue Daniel’s friends from the fiery furnace, or Daniel from the lion’s den. If God does not intervene, there is no rescue.

The Jews, under Roman rule, when Jesus was born, knew that a savior was promised. We saw that promise in Daniel, too (Daniel 7), where we read about one like the son of man, who we know is Jesus, who will come to establish an everlasting kingdom and put away all earthly kingdoms. Yet there is nothing the Jews or anyone could do to speed up (or slow down) God’s plan to bring a savior. Mankind is incapable of saving themselves without God’s intervention.

Another way of saying this is that we couldn’t bring “Immanuel” without God sending Him. We are at His mercy, and praise the Lord that He is gracious and at the right time, He sent His Son, Jesus, who is Immanuel.

And this is marvelous news!

The preacher and evangelist D .L. Moody from the 1800s tells of a lady who came up to him angry after a sermon he preached. In his sermon, Moody said, “None in this congregation will be saved until they stop trying to save themselves.”

After the sermon, this lady comes to him and tell him how his sermon has made her utterly miserable. She said, “I always thought that if I kept on trying, God would save me at some time; and now you are telling me to stop trying. What am I suppose to do then?! Moody responds, “Let the Lord save you.”

The good news of the Gospel begins with the bad news, that we need saving, and WE CANNOT SAVE OURSELVES, rather, we need God to intervene, we need to Him to rescue us.

This is the marvel of Christmas that at the right time, the Savior was sent to rescue those who belong to Him. Because he came, we don’t have to “keep trying” to save ourselves, hoping that God might look upon us and be pleased with what we have done. No, we are saved and assured that due to God’s intervention in our lives, we are redeemed. So we recognize our inability to bring a savior ourselves, and rejoice that the Savior was sent for us!

Immanuel must come to save

God promised a savior, one who would be born of a virgin and who would be “Immanuel,” which means “God with us,” to save us. This is why the baby that we remember during Christmas was named Jesus, which is the Greek version of the actual Hebrew name “Yeshua,” which means God saves. Both of these names, “Immanuel,” which serves as a title signifying that this child is “God is with us”, and Yeshua (Jesus), which tells us of the Savior’s mission to save us, signal to the reader that the savior that must come, has arrived.

Jumping to another Gospel, In Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, we are introduced to Simeon. In Luke 2:25-32 we see that the Holy Spirit promised this man that he would see the savior before he diedt. His life was marked by waiting for years in anticipation and hope. The the day came when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple, and Simeon embraced the child and exclaimed:

Luke 2:29–32 ESV

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

Simeon waited his entire life for Immanuel, and when he saw Him, he did not hesitate to embrace and proclaim that salvation has come! You see, Simeon understood the amazing news of the savior FINALLY coming to rescue.

Immanuel must come to save

While Luke mentions the testimony of Simeon as one of the evidence for Jesus being the Savior, Matthew takes a different approach. He uses Old Testament prophecy to affirm that Jesus is, in fact, the Savior.

Look at what Matt. 1:22-23 says

Matthew 1:22–23 ESV

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).

Matthew writes, “all this” happened to fulfill the prophecy. Matthew has a pattern of saying, “to fulfill,” and then states the prophecy that Jesus fulfills, but only twice in the whole book of Matthew do we see him say, “all this.” (we find it in Matt. 26:56). The emphasis is that every detail that took place, from a virgin carrying the savior, to Joseph being a descendent of the line of David, and the message of the Angel to Mary and Joseph, which the believed. Every detail was done according to the Old Testament prophecy of Christ’s birth.

Immanuel must come to save

And so, Matthew draws from Isaiah 7:14 and wants to apply all the significance of this promise in Isaiah to the coming of Immanuel, Jesus Christ. Let’s consider how Jesus fulfills this prophecy.

Isaiah

In the context of Isaiah 7, we find Judah in terror under King Ahaz who is also terrified of a war that is coming their way. God sends Isaiah to King Ahaz to bring him a word of encouragement, and even still, Ahaz lacks faith to believe Isaiah’s words from God. God, through Isaiah, responds to Ahaz’s lack of faith, saying that God himself will deliver a sign, the sign of Immanuel, which means God is with us.

So to Ahaz, the sign came through the birth of a child. King Ahaz would likely have known which “virgin” Isaiah was speaking about when he shared this sign with him.

Note about “virgin”

If I’ve lost you, let me recap. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah when he delivered a message to king Ahaz over 700 years before Jesus was born, telling him that a child born of a virgin will be the sign for Ahaz and God’s people that God is with them despite war coming their way.

Although in Isaiah 7, the word “virgin” is used, it has a different meaning in Hebrew. The word “virgin” in Isaiah 7, is being used to describe a woman who hasn’t become a mother or who has conceived but not had the child. This then allows for an interpretation of the prophecy to have an immediate fulfillment for Ahaz, which we see in Isaiah 8 with a birth of a child.

Just like when we were studying Daniel and saw descriptions of Antiochus Epiphanes which we said was a “type” of antichrist, and pointing us to The Antichrist in Revelation. The same kind of interpretation is to be taken here. The birth of this child in Isaiah 8, fulfills the prophecy given in Isaiah 7:14, but it is then fulfilled in a much more complete and literal way in the birth of Christ, which does far more than symbolize God being with His people. IT IS God among His people!

Just like the birth of this child in Isaiah 7-8 affirms God’s salvation of His people. So does the coming of Jesus (Yeshua) God who saves, has come to save! Matthew is bringing all of the connotations of Isaiah 7-8 into the birth of Jesus as He helps us see how Jesus is the complete fulfillment of this prophecy.

Do you see it? It’s like a puzzle…

Laura’s family loves doing puzzles, especially during the holidays. They’ll get a 1000 piece puzzle and finish it over a couple of days. I personally have a “pharaoh’s heart” toward puzzles. The longer I sit around it, the more frustrated and angry I get, but it’s hard to let go. Despite my feelings, I try to participate here and there. One thing that amazes me about the process is how you think a piece should go a certain place, and you try to fit and it just doesn’t quite work, but once you have a few more pieces in place, you know exactly how it suppose to go in. If you do puzzles, you know what I’m talking about.

That’s how we should see this prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. We know that it kinda belongs to Ahaz, but it doesn’t sit right, until we have the rest of the pieces and see the coming of the true Immanuel, God literally dwelling among us, and the picture becomes clear. This is how it’s supposed to go. The hope of salvation comes from God, and the arrival of Immanuel is evidence of salvation has come. Even more significant than the salvation from war, the true Immanuel has come to save us from the penalty of sin!

Immanuel must be God to save

We’ve considered Matthew’s text in an exegetical kind of way, and now I want to get a bit theological. We looked at the “Immanuel must come to save” by looking at the message Matthew is emphasizing by bringing in this prophecy in Isaiah into the birth of Christ. Now let us consider how Immanuel must be God in order to save. (EDIT)

The issue of Jesus as God is one of much debate, not only throughout Church History, but it is still debated today. The Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and Jews all deny Jesus as God. They don’t deny Jesus as a person who came, and they may even say God used Jesus in a special way, but they all claim that Jesus is not God.

Believing that Jesus is God is what makes us Christian and what makes the miraculous birth of Jesus so significant that we retell the story every year for the last 2000 years. I’d like to give two reasons why Jesus, the Immanuel, must be God to provide salvation.

Did not inherit Adam’s sin - for Justification

First, the only way Jesus could be the “spotless lamb” (1 Peter 1:19) is if he did not inherit the sinful nature from Adam, as the rest of mankind has. You see, because Jesus’ father is God, He did not inherit Sin, like the rest of us. This is vital, for if Jesus was not fully God, He could not die the perfect death that God the Father requires for the forgiveness of Sin. It is because Jesus died the perfect death that no mere man could die that led Paul to draw the contrast between the result of Adam’s sin for all mankind and the hope of Christ’s death for us.

Romans 5:17–19 ESV

17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

If Jesus was not fully God, then our hope for salvation is on faulty ground. If He were not God, what assurance do we have that the death of a mere man would be enough to pay for our sins?! That is no Gospel.

Immanuel must be God to save

Matthew understood the significance of Jesus’ identity as fully God and fully man, and I believe it is why we have the details here of Jesus’ conception from a virgin and the response from Joseph to not “know” Mary until Jesus was born. So there is no doubt that Jesus’ conception was not planned nor executed by man, but by God’s divine intervention.

Jesus is God is the Gospel for all of life - for Sanctification

Second, Jesus (the Immanuel, God with us) is God because the Bible declares Him to be, and it is this good news that is saving us from the power of sin over us. Jesus saving us from Sin (penalty and its power) is implied in His name, Yeshua, which means God saves. We just saw how our assurance of being declared Justified is in Jesus, but our confidence that the power of sin is weakened in us is also in Jesus. Look at Paul’s words in Titus.

Titus 2:11–13 ESV

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

These were our memory verses for our study in the Pastoral Epistles in Family Bible Hour last year. In these verses, Paul points Titus to Jesus as the “grace of God” that has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It is in Christ’s appearing, and work on the cross, that Paul says is, “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.”

Immanuel must be God to save

Listen, if Jesus isn’t God, what do you do with these verses? How can the appearance of a mere man Sanctify us? It can’t!

Now, if that wasn’t clear, Paul makes it absolutely clear in verse 13 of this passage. He says that we are waiting for that second appearance of Jesus, “our great God and Savior.” How does Paul view Jesus? As God and savior.

Jesus is fully God and Man

Jesus, as fully God and fully man, is what makes him worthy of our worship. Our God did not just shout down from heaven “I love you!” Nor did He send someone else as a messenger. NO, God himself became like one of us because only God could satisfy his own standards of perfection. In becoming Human, he also became the perfect representative of the human race on the cross. As God, He was the perfect lamb, and as man, He could die in our place.

We will consider in depth the significance of Christ’s nature and work in our new study starting on January 5th. I hope you can join us.

Suffice to say for now, Matthew begins to hint at Christ’s identity by stating that this is Immanuel, God with us. Not a representative of God. Not a messenger of God. Not a symbol of God’s presence. This child was God among His creation and the only one who could rescue us from Sin.

Our interest in Immanuel

As we come to an end, I’d like to address our interest in Immanuel.

The work of our Savior in delivering us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom is a baffling and profound blessing must not be shadowed by our joyous preparation nor our dread of this season. Yes, certainly, the Christmas season is wonderful, and family gatherings, Christmas traditions, the food, and the giving of gifts are all wonderful, and we do well in enjoying them. But these earthly blessings, as beautiful as they are, fail in comparison to the blessing of knowing Christ our Savior.

And that’s part of the wonder of the birth of Jesus. That his coming communicates his desire for us to know him. We should be overjoyed to know that He is interested in us.

I think of Jesus’ words to his disciples in Matthew 16:13-15. When He asks them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” But then He asks a personal question, “But who do you say that I am?”

Our destiny depends on our answer to that question. And the marvelous reality is that we don’t have to seek after God by metaphorically speaking by “kicking doors down” to find God. He has come to us and has initiated by asking us, “Who do you say that I am?” What an amazing gift we have been given.

CONCLUSION

If we have received this gift, rejoice in it. Let every aspect of the Christmas season remind you of the wonderful birth of our savior. If you have not received this glorious gift, you could have the best Christmas you’ve ever had by receiving it today. Come find me in the lobby after the service. I’d love to talk to you about it.

Pastor Gary comes now to lead us in our closing prayer and benediction.