Immanuel – God With Us
Matthew 1:18-25
“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” vs. 23
Room At the Inn
A Sunday School was putting on a Christmas pageant which included the story of Mary and Joseph coming to the inn. One boy wanted so very much to be Joseph, but when the parts were handed out, a boy he didn’t like was given that part, and he was assigned to be the inn-keeper instead. He was pretty upset about this but he didn’t say anything to the director. During all the rehearsals he thought what he might do the night of performance to get even with this rival who got to be Joseph. Finally, the night of the performance, Mary and Joseph came walking across the stage. They knocked on the door of the inn, and the inn-keeper opened the door and asked them gruffly what they wanted. Joseph answered, “We’d like to have a room for the night.” Suddenly the inn-keeper threw the door open wide and said, “Great, come on in and I’ll give you the best room in the house!” For a few seconds poor little Joseph didn’t know what to do. Thinking quickly on his feet, he looked inside the door past the inn-keeper then said, “No wife of mine is going to stay in dump like this. Come on, Mary, let’s go to the barn.” And once again the play was back on track! (sermoncentral.com)
Cute story. Today we are going to look at the one of the most important stories in history and the significance it has for our everyday life, it’s the birth of Jesus Christ and the name that Jesus is given which the Bible says is the “name above all names.” (Phil. 2:9) If you are able, will you please stand as we red God’s Word from Matthew 1:18-25.
Read Passage – Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Two Names
Anybody notice something seems a bit off or inconsistent in the reading? I mean did Joseph not hear what the prophet prophesied? For 800 years the Israelites have memorized the passage in Isaiah and they have been waiting for the Messiah and he was going to be called Immanuel. Okay, so here is the child and when they go to name the name they give him is “Imm—“, no, Jesus. Huh? What happened? How did it change like that?
Immanuel
Immanuel – ‘God With Us’ ~ Reveals His Character
• Reveals: Not just another child, but God in human flesh
• Reveals: Not a normal birth, but a virgin birth, Isa. 7:14, which produced a child without a sin nature
• Reveals: God came to fight a battle that humanity could never wage or win. He came to do battle with Satan and sin
*Just an FYI. Ever wonder why you see Immanuel or Emmanuel and which one is right. Well it’s actually pretty simple. In the Old Testament an in Hebrew it is Immanuel. In the New Testament and in the Greek it is Emmanuel. So really they are both right and you can use whichever you prefer.
Jesus
Jesus – OT Joshua – Yeshua ‘Yahweh Saves’ ~ Reveals His Purpose
• Speaks Of His desire to save sinners. We are told that Jesus came into this world not to condemn the lost, but to save them
• Speaks Of His deliverance for the purpose of setting us free, Luke 4:18
• Speaks Of His death: that He came into this world to die for our sins. Jesus came that He might die on the cross to set us free from sin!
Sent From God
One of the unique things about the Christian faith is that God chooses to interact with people, to build a relationship with people, and to reveal himself to people. In most “religions” God is depicted as a ruler and a judge and the purpose fo God is to rule. God is usually also very elusive and impersonal. If you recall Jesus words in his prayer from John 17:25 he says:
“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.” John 17:25
God chooses to reveal himself and his character to us; he wants to be known and he wants to know us. Jesus has come to show us that there is a real true God who wants us to know him. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
Immanuel “God With Us” Means You Have
This was not a new desire, but it was the heartbeat of God even before the world was formed, Rev. 13:8; 1 Pet. 1:18-20. God doesn’t reveal himself and then go away. This act of sending His Son, does not just mean God with us for 33 years. No, it is God with us in human form in the person of Jesus but Jesus makes it very clear that he must go back to the Father so that the Holy Spirit comes. That is the great news, God with us is forever. So the best thing for us is to understand what that means for us in living our everyday life. Here are four things that change our life when we embrace and accept God with us, Immanuel.
1. The Presence and Peace of God
The first difference it can make in our life is that knowing God is With You means you have the presence and peace of God. God makes a promise to us in Hebrews 13:5:
“God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
God’s promise is that we always have him with us. We may like to be alone at times but we never want to feel that we are all alone in the world. We were wired for relationship. Knowing God is with is you is knowing that God has your back. It gives you confidence and strength.
Ex. A child’s desire to have their parents at their recital, play, sports game, etc.
And when you have that presence, a secondary thing comes along with it, peace. God’s presence and God’s peace are synonymous; they go together. In fact, it’s his presence that brings the peace. Romans 15:33 says:
“The God of peace be with you all.” Romans 15:33
Why do so many people feel lonely, lost, or alone? They are missing the presence of God that brings peace.
2. The Resource of Hope
The second difference that “God With Us” makes in our life is that it brings hope. We have spent the last 8 weeks discovering how important hope is and that in the end, it all boils down to three things, faith, hope, and love. (1 Cor. 13:13) Hope is more than just an optimistic dream that things will turn out well. Hope is the assurance that no matter how things turn out, you have God with you and pouring his love into you. We’ve discovered that hope is not everything happening the way you want but the knowledge that God loves you, has the best for you, and in the end you can depend on him. It’s a blessing that we find in Psalm 146:5:
“Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.” Psalm 146:5
Notice that when your hope is in the Lord, you are blessed. Let me follow this up with another verse to show you how hope is “God is With You” from Romans 15:13:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
Notice the first words of this verse, “The God of hope.” When God is With us so is his hope and it’s not just a little hope, it’s an overflowing hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that Holy Spirit live sin you and me.
People put a lot of hope in a lot of things, riches, jobs, relationships, etc. We put hope in things and forget that we have the resource of hope, God’s Holy Spirit in us.
Ex.
3. Never Ending Love
A third difference that “God With Us” makes is that we have never ending love. Now this is really important to understand, God’s love is unending and the way that he shows it to us is by being with us. I love the way David puts it in Psalm 36:7:
“How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.” Psalm 36:7
Isn’t that great? God’s love is priceless. You can’t put a value on how important, how magnificent, how comforting god’s love is. And…nothing, and I mean nothing can take it away. Romans 8:38-39:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
We want to believe in love. We want true love and love that never ends, but we live in a world where we give love and promise love and then we see how so very quickly people take it back. It’s hard to imagine how quickly we as humans go from “I love you” to “I don’t love you” or even worse “I hate you.” Our nature is to be reactionary and to go on our feelings rather than on what we have committed to and given ourselves to.
Ill. Companies who commit to us and then turn their back. Spouses who commit to love til death do us part and then change their mind. Friends who promise to love forever and then when struggles come they are gone.
Not so with God. It’s hard to understand but God’s love is not reactionary or based on action. God’s nature is to always love and to love unconditionally.
Ex.
4. Limitless Joy
And finally, “God With Us” makes a difference in our lives because with God’s presence with have limitless joy. This limitless joy is not limitless happiness. It’s not everything always being smooth and easy. We can best understand this joy by looking at a couple of verses. Psalm 30:11 says:
“You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy…” Psalm 30:11
Notice that it is in the time of mourning that David talks about God’s joy. He puts it in a way that really paints a great picture. In those days you had mourning clothes. Mourning is a time where someone has died and you put on clothes the express your grief. David show how God’s joy takes off those clothes of doom and grief and clothes us with something beautiful, joy! Another promise that in God’s kingdom, joy is abundant. Romans 14:17:
“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit…” Romans 14:17
Notice the deepness of this verse. This is not a light, frivolous, kind of thing, it’s a deep contentment. I think most of us would choose joy over sadness yet many times we choose to live in sadness. We choose to struggle by doing it all on our own, we embrace the sadness and the misery and miss the opportunity to live in God’s joy. God sent his son so we might know his joy.
Ex. We sing about this in the traditional Christmas Song:
Joy To The World
Joy to the world
The Lord is Come
Let earth, receive, her king!
You have a choice; Do you choose to live in your mourning clothes and in sadness and depression or do you choose God’s joy? Do you choose to limit yourself and those around you or do you choose to embrace God’s limitless joy?
The Great Substitute
The final reality of God with us is to know how much God really loves you. This Christmas season you can embrace the love God has for you because he sent Jesus. Jesus birth is a great even in history but even in that event there is the reality that Jesus came to die so that our relationship with God is made whole and that we experience the full love of God. Myrrh, one of the gifts the Magi bring to Jesus is a tree resin that is used for burial of the dead. Weird gift for a child? Not for Jesus. He came to die and to restore our relationship with God so that we could experience his full, unconditional, love and experience his peace, hope, love and joy. Jesus even says that the same love God has for him, God has for us. John 17:26:
“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:26
“God With Us” is great news. Jesus came to live on earth to show us God in the flesh, and so that we can have his presence, peace, hope, unending love and limitless joy. Now that is one great Christmas present.
