Immanuel – God with Us
Matthew 1:18-23
December 2, 2007
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT USED IN MY MESSAGES IS BORROWED FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me: It’s easy for me to let the significance of Christmas get lost in the hassles of getting ready to celebrate it.
It’s not like I forget Christmas. How can you when you go into stores and they’re breaking out the Christmas stuff just after Labor Day?
I remember when I worked for a store in the mall a few years back. Christmas started early there!
One of the things I remember most about it was that it was only during the Christmas season that certain items came out, and one of those was an electric nose-hair trimmer. You’ve seen them, right?
And those things sold like hot-cakes! For $18 apiece, no less!
But can you imagine giving one of those to someone? “Here you go, honey! Merry Christmas!”
“Thaaaaanks…”
Anyway, I forget to spend time just in wonder and awe about what Christmas really means, because I can get caught up in everything just like everyone else.
What do I mean by getting into what Christmas really means? I don’t mean “the spirit of giving” or anything like that. I mean the fact that God took on human flesh and came to a cruel world, knowing it would reject Him and finally kill Him.
We: I’m going to go out on a limb right now and suggest that I’m not the only one who gets lost in the glitter, the pressures of making sure your getting just the right present for someone, and making sure you catch my favorite Christmas movie, “A Christmas Story” – you know, the one with Ralphie who wants an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and ’this thing’ which tells time." But all the grown-ups tell him that he’ll shoot his eye out. I love that movie…
We all have stuff to do to make the holiday just right. Decorate the house, make arrangements with in-laws and relatives, office parties, and then dealing with the hassles of paying for everything we hope to do.
It’s a busy time of year, and it’s easy to lose sight of what the season is all about.
But I wonder if maybe it could be that many people don’t really understand the significance of Christmas.
They don’t understand just what it took for God Himself to come down from heaven in the form of a helpless little baby that had to depend on a whole bunch of imperfect humans just to get His most basic needs met.
They don’t necessarily understand the purpose behind it all. And that’s sad because they’re missing out on the joy that comes with being able to sit and reflect on the love of God for people that drove Him to come to earth.
So my hope is that for some of you, this will be a long over-due reminder of the wonder of the baby at Bethlehem and you’ll leave here today with a renewed sense of awe and joy.
And I also hope that if you have never really given it much thought, or have had questions about why Christmas is such a big deal, that you’ll walk out of here today with a new perspective and that it will cause you to want to know Jesus all the better.
For the rest, I’m hoping that this will serve as an opportunity to just savor the idea that you have taken hold of the wonderful notion that God loves you so much that He came to earth for you.
God: Matthew 1:18-23 (p. 681) –
18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and 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."
Now right there is enough to chew on: a baby conceived not by a man, but by the Holy Spirit. And this baby would be given a name that would mean that He’s there to save people from their sins.
But then Matthew takes it a step further to let us know something about what was really involved. Pick it up in verse 22:
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"[4]--which means, "God with us."
“God with us.” That is huge.
Important: not “a good man” with us. Not “a spiritual teacher” with us. Not “a prophet” with us. Not even “a god” with us. God. THE God. The Alpha and Omega.
Listen to these familiar words from Philippians 2:
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
God understood something that we never would on our own, and that is that we would have no hope for eternity in heaven unless something happened from outside of our human context. It would never be enough if it began or even ended with us puny humans.
It needed to be from God, by God. No mere human could do what needed to be done – the saving of people from their sins and the penalty of them.
John chapter 1 gives us even more information on this:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
The fancy theological term for all this is “incarnation.” God took on human flesh.
It’s beyond what we can comprehend on our own. It’s simply too much to grasp.
He could have remained as pure spirit, and He could have remained outside of the earth, and He could have let us die in our sins, and we would have gotten what we deserved.
But God said, “No – I love them too much for that.”
So He took a form we could understand and relate to. A person – a person who walked and talked just like other people. Dressed like them, spoke like them, laughed like them, cried like them, was tempted like them, was rejected like them, even needed his swaddling clothes changed from time to time like them.
But He wasn’t just any person. He was God in the flesh who came to earth so that you and I could go to heaven.
During the long war years a boy looked frequently at a picture of his daddy on the table. He had left when the boy was a young infant. After several years the boy had forgotten him as a person but he would often look at the picture and say, "If only my father could step out of that picture and be real...."
Christmas means that in a sad day of sin when man had almost forgotten God, He stepped into the world in the form of His Son. (SermonCentral.com; contributed by DR. WHEELER JONES).
And He did it for one reason. You.
He wants to spend eternity with you. The Bible says that He sent the Son into the world to save the world, and that all who call on Jesus for forgiveness and salvation would gain it.
Folks, we can all think of people we’d rather not be around at all, much less for eternity, right? Please don’t name names!
But God, in spite of all your faults and shortcomings wants you to be with Him for eternity.
And for that to happen, Jesus had to come to earth as a baby. And not just to be a baby, but to grow up and die. For you. For me. We were the reason. Listen to this song.
(Play CD – We Were the Reason, Avalon)
You: Three main applications for today:
First, accept the gift Jesus came to give you – the payment to cover all of your sins, no matter how many, no matter how great or small, and no matter whether you think you’ve sinned or not.
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I’ve used this example before, but it’s so fitting, especially this time of year.
A gift isn’t really yours until you take it for yourself. A person can offer it to you, and even leave it on your doorstep, but until you take possession of it for yourself, it doesn’t really belong to you.
In this case, you need to take the gift of eternal life in Jesus for yourself by simply telling Him that you need it, believe that He paid the price for you, and that you want it, asking Him to give it to you and to help you live for Jesus from this point.
The second application is for those of you who have taken that first step already. You’ve taken hold of Christ for yourself and you’re trying to live for Him until you see Him face to face.
Here it is: Step out of the “culture” of Christmas and live like you actually believe what Christmas is really all about.
In the midst of the hustle and bustle, show grace to others. Be generous to those who are less fortunate. Share the love of Christ, in both word and deed.
Show people that the basis of your celebration goes beyond the presents and into a deep appreciation for what Christ did on your behalf by leaving His glory in heaven to come and die so you could live forever.
The third application is to share the gift of Jesus. Tell someone else how they can have forgiveness of sins and a home in heaven. Help them discover the real reason for Christmas for themselves.
We: The world expects everyone to be part of the same frantic frenzy that surrounds the holiday.
I’d love it if they could look at us and see something different.
I’d love it if they could see that our Christmas isn’t defined by our pocketbooks and the sales.
I’d love it they could see that we don’t just follow the crowd in terms of our priorities this season.
I’d love it if they could see that our claim to love Jesus is demonstrated by our actions.
I’d love it if they could look into each of our eyes and see that Christmas means Christ – God with us. God in us, reaching out to them like He reached out to us.
I’d love it. How about you? Then by the power of God, make it happen. Let’s pray.
