Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: Like many this week, Jaynie and I will soon be traveling back up to New Jersey to spend Christmas with family.

And inevitably, whenever the family gathers, there is always a time when we tell the kids stories about when their dad, aunt, and uncles were growing up.

It's a fun time together to recall antics of the past while also embarrassing one another in good fun.

There is one story in particular that my parents like to tell about when I was about five years old or so.

Apparently, I did not like being alone at that age, as there must have been something about it that frightened me.

So one day, I asked my parents if they would come with me to the back room because I was afraid to go alone.

They said to me, "You can go alone, and you'll be fine."

To which I replied, "But I am afraid to go back there by myself."

"Don't worry," they said, "Jesus will be with you."

I thought for a moment: "But me and Jesus are both scared and need you to come."

As a five-year-old, I definitely didn't have sound theology, but my parents were trying to teach me something significant.

They wanted me to understand that there is nothing to fear if the Lord is present with you.

From a young age, they wanted me to realize that you can live a blessed life even in a scary world when God is present with you.

Just a few moments ago, the teens read for us Matthew 1:18-23, and I am sure at this point in his life, Joseph was troubled as well.

But he was afraid for legitimate reasons.

He was betrothed and committed to marrying a godly woman, and he finds out that she is pregnant out of nowhere.

How can this be?

Well, there could really only be one explanation, right?

Mary had been unfaithful.

Well, he couldn't marry her now, could he?

But neither did he want to publicly break their commitments to one another, which would devastate Mary's life.

After all, he still loved her; that hadn't changed.

So, he made plans to quietly and privately dissolve their betrothal.

That is until an angel from the Lord visits Joseph.

The angel tells him that Mary hadn't done anything wrong, but that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

The angel continues by telling him that the child would be a Son who would save His people from their sins.

At that moment, Joseph's mind must have rushed back to Isaiah 7:14: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

Long ago, Isaiah had given a prophecy to Ahaz saying that even though Ahaz had forsaken the Lord, the Lord had not abandoned his promises.

Regardless of Ahaz's disobedience, God would preserve the Davidic line, and one day, a Son would be born who would fulfill all the Messianic promises.

The sign of this prophecy's fulfillment would be that a virgin would conceive and bear a Son, and this Son would be Immanuel, God with us.

By faith, Joseph believed that there was nothing to fear.

Instead, excitement must have welled up inside of him.

It was happening!

The Messiah had come, and it was better than man could have imagined.

The Messiah was not just a man, but God's special presence had finally come.

Immanuel, God's special presence, is what makes Christmas so significant.

Immanuel is not another empty promise.

Immanuel is not the promise of a legalistic Santa who rewards you for the goodness you don't have.

Immanuel is not the promise of earthly gifts or sentiment, which will inevitably be forgotten.

Immanuel is not about pretty decorations and an immaculately decorated tree.

Christmas is the fulfillment of the promise that the people of God have always held dear, that we could be reunited with God.

Christmas fulfills the oldest promise there is - God with us.

Transition: In many ways, the wait for Immanuel has shaped human history, and tonight, I want to consider the coming of Immanuel from two different perspectives: man's wait for Immanuel and God's plan for Immanuel.

Man's Wait for Immanuel

Since the fall of man, God's people have been waiting for God to provide a way back into His presence.

By taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve decided that they would rather do what is right in their own eyes than trust that God knew what was best for them.

Because they had rejected God, they had to leave God's special presence in the garden.

However, God made a promise that he would not abandon man in this lost state but that He would provide a way back to Himself.

In Genesis 3:15, God promised there would be conflict between the forces of Satan and the seed of the woman from that point forward.

Although Satanic forces would do significant damage to the woman's seed, ultimately, one man would be born of woman who would deliver the fatal blow and crush all Satanic opposition, making a way back into God's presence.

From that moment on, God's people have been looking for the man who would bring us back to God.

Well, Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain.

The woman, Eve, seeing that the Lord had given her a son, said, "I have acquired a man from the LORD."

Eve thought Cain would be the one to crush the serpent's head, but then she has another son named Abel.

Maybe him?

No, it wasn't either of them.

Cain killed Abel and was cursed by God, so it had to be someone else.

Well, Adam and Eve have another son, Seth.

Again Eve says, "For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed."

Maybe the promised seed was Seth.

But Seth doesn't reconcile anyone to God.

In fact, Genesis 5 tells us about the continuing effects of sin as generation after generation after generation of Seth's descendants continue their march toward death.

It's not until Lamech has a son named Noah that the idea of the seed is brought up again, and Lamech says, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed."

But Noah didn't redeem man.

In Noah's day, the forces of the serpent had become so active that "that every intent of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually."

Instead, everyone in Noah's day drowned in judgment.

Noah was preserved to preserve the promise of the seed, but it wasn't Noah who would redeem man.

God does, however, renew His promise and identifies the seed of the woman would eventually come from Noah's son, Shem.

Well, in Genesis 12, we are introduced to Abram (Abraham), a son of Shem.

Maybe Abram would bring man back to God.

After all, Gods promised him, "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

But Abram, although he is a man of great faith, lived a life marked by deceit.

It's not Abram but through Abram.

Maybe Isaac?

No, but through Isaac.

Isaac has two sons, and the promise is passed down to Jacob.

But Jacob definitely isn't the one as he is a liar and deceiver.

Jacob has twelve sons, and the promise is passed down to Judah in Genesis 49:10.

But it's not Judah.

If you've read Genesis 38, you know it's definitely not Judah, but through Judah.

Centuries pass.

Perhaps it's Moses.

It isn't.

But Moses says in Deuteronomy 18:15 that “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren.

Him you shall hear.”

The seed will be a prophet like Moses, but it isn't Moses.

Another four centuries pass, and God has commanded Samuel to anoint a king to replace Saul.

God directs him to the house of Jesse, who is of the house of Judah, and Samuel anoints David.

Will David bring people back to God? No, we find out in 2 Samuel 11 that David has his own deeply rooted issues with sin.

However, God promises in 2 Samuel 7 that the seed will come through David.

The prophets identified the man who would bring man back to God as being very closely associated with David.

In fact, Ezekiel identifies the Messiah so closely with David that he calls the Messiah David.

Another 400 years pass, and no one has come to bring man back to God.

Perhaps this is too great a task for a man.

What man can reconcile mankind to God? Will man ever be able to enter into the holy presence of God?

According to Genesis 3:15, it must be a son born of a woman, but who can accomplish such a task?

It's at this moment that God reveals to Isaiah in Isaiah 9 that a son will be born, and His name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

So, the son will be a man, but he will also be God, and the sign of Immanuel's coming is that He is born of a virgin.

He will be the seed of the woman, not the seed of man.