When I was at L.M. Prince elementary school right here in Tucson, every year we had a Christmas pageant and as far as I remember, every single student in the school participated in that pageant. As the Christmas story was reenacted, the students did choral readings of the Christmas story directly from the King James Version of the Bible and sang songs like “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Away in a Manger”. Today, I still remember those Scriptures word for word as a result of all the time we spent memorizing and reciting them.
Obviously that could no longer happen today. It’s no secret that Christianity and Christmas are increasingly under assault in our culture. Just this week, a nativity display that had marked Christmas for nearly 40 years had to be removed from outside a Dallas, North Carolina courthouse after a complaint from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. In another case, a nativity scene was removed from in front of city hall in Jay, Florida after a complaint from that same group. In both cases, the city declined to pursue legal fights because of the potential costs.
Certainly none of us are happy about the direction of our culture when it comes to the way it treats Christmas and to Christianity as a whole. But the question of how to respond to what is occurring leaves us with no easy answers.
The message this morning is going to take quite a different approach than I first intended. But a couple of blog posts I read this week got me to thinking about how the theme of God with us ought to impact how we deal with others, especially unbelievers, this time of year. When I think about the way that God came to be with a sinful world that rejected Him, it seems to me that we can learn some important lessons from His incarnation. So I’m praying that the message this morning will help all of us to make some practical applications from what we’ll learn.
This morning we’ll wrap our series on the “Good News of Christmas”. We’ve already seen that Christmas is good news because it means we can fear not. Christmas is proof of God’s sovereignty and His grace and when we humbly seek Him and join Him where He is already at work, God allows us to live a life that is free from fear.
We also saw that Christmas is good news because it reveals that there is a Savior. Because of Christmas God makes it possible for us to experience the salvation that we can’t possibly obtain on our own and be saved from the penalty, power and presence of sin.
The theme for this morning’s message comes from the angel’s message to Joseph recorded in Matthew 1.
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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 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 1:20-23 ESV)
This is one of only three places in the Bible where we find the term “Immanuel”. We’ll look at the other two in just a moment.
Most of you have probably seen Immanuel spelled with an “I” – Immanuel or with an “E” – Emmanuel and wondered what the difference is:
• Immanuel is a transliteration of the Hebrew word:
“immanu” (“with us”) + “El” (God”) = “God with us”
• Emmanuel is a transliteration of the Greek “Emmanouel” which is merely the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word.
So either spelling conveys the idea of “God with us.” Matthew confirms that meaning when, after quoting Isaiah 7:14 he explains to his readers that the name Immanuel means “God with us”.
I’m going to be relatively brief here this morning. First we’re going to go back to Isaiah’s prophecy that Matthew quotes here so we can better understand the significance of the idea that God is with us. Then I’m going to share a classic Paul Harvey piece that illustrates the importance of God with us much more eloquently than I ever could. And then we’ll wrap up by thinking about how what we’ve learned should impact the way we deal with others this time of year.
Take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 7. I’m not going to read the entire chapter, but if you have your Bibles handy, you’ll be able to follow along as I share what is going on here.
As I mentioned earlier, the word “Immanuel” is found only 3 times in the Bible. We looked at one of those times in Matthew 1. The other two are both found in Isaiah – here in chapter 7 in verse 14 and again in chapter 8 in verse 8. Let’s begin by reading Isaiah 7:14. Will you read it out loud with me?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
(Isaiah 7:14 ESV)
We find the context for this prophecy at the beginning of chapter 7. Ahaz is the king of Judah, the southern two tribes of Israel. Israel, the northern ten tribes, has made an alliance with Syria and their two respective kings, Pekah and Rezin have come to Jerusalem to wage war against Judah.
Because Ahaz had been a wicked king and had not followed God, he was rightfully frightened about his prospects against the two powerful armies he faced. But God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to assure him that God would deliver His people, not for Ahaz’s sake but because of His faithfulness to his people. God commanded Ahaz to ask Him for a sign, but when Ahaz refused, God gave him a sign anyway – the one that we just read in verse 14.
In the rest of chapter 7 and the first part of verse 8, we find the both the meaning of this sign and the fulfillment of this prophecy during the reign of Ahaz.
God is going to bring forth a child who will be named Immanuel. And while that child is still very young, God is going to be with Judah and protect them by using the king of Assyria to come and conquer both Syria and Israel before they can wage war on Judah.
We see the fulfillment of that prophecy at the beginning of chapter 8 where Isaiah is commanded to conceive a son with his wife, the prophetess. And before that son is old enough to cry “my father” or “my mother” God is going to bring Assyria against Judah’s enemies.
But in verses 7 and 8 we see that after that, Assyria is going to keep on advancing into Judah.
And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
(Isaiah 8:7-8 ESV)
Judah is going to be attacked by Assyria, but they will not be destroyed because Judah is the land of Immanuel, God with us, the Messiah that God had earlier promised would come from the line of David, who was from the tribe of Judah. This prophecy is God’s assurance to the people that regardless of how it might appear, God will be with them in a way that guarantees that His purposes cannot be thwarted. That is the message we see repeated again in the next two verses:
Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered;
give ear, all you far countries;
strap on your armor and be shattered;
strap on your armor and be shattered.
Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing;
speak a word, but it will not stand,
for God is with us.
(Isaiah 8:9-10 ESV)
The people of Judah are going to be shattered, but that is not going to mean their defeat, because God’s purposes are going to stand. And the reason that is true is because God is with them. That phrase “God is with us” at the end of verse 10 is the Hebrew word “Immanuel” once again.
In the midst of gross moral and spiritual wickedness when hopelessness prevailed, God was giving a sign that there is indeed hope. Deliverance was coming in a most amazing way.
Over 700 years later, Matthew took that prophecy and applied it to the birth of Jesus. This is another instance of what we could call a “double prophecy” – one that had an immediate fulfillment in the present, but which also awaited a more complete fulfillment in the future. When we studied the Old Testament prophecies related to the “Day of the Lord” in connection with our study of the book of Revelation, we saw a number of those “double prophecies” in connection with the second coming of Jesus. So we really shouldn’t be surprised to find the same thing when it comes to His incarnation.
By calling Jesus Immanuel and connecting His birth with the prophecy in Isaiah, Matthew was confirming that deliverance and salvation was coming to this earth in a most unique and amazing way. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to always be with His people.
Originally I was planning to go into some detail to explain the importance of the incarnation of Jesus, of God coming to dwell with us in human form. But then I ran across this Paul Harvey piece from 1965 that does that much more eloquently and memorably than anything I could share with you. So I’ll let Paul Harvey give you the rest of the story.
[Paul Harvey video]
Jesus humbled Himself and left the glory of heaven to come here to earth and be with us so He could, in the words of Paul Harvey, speak our language and tell us not to be afraid and show us the way - to help us to see and hear and understand.
As we discussed last week, our sin has separated us from God. But rather than waiting for us to come to Him, Jesus became Immanuel, God with us. And the way He chose to do that has some important implications for us. Let me conclude by pointing out just two of them.
First, let me address those of you for whom the holidays are really tough. Perhaps you’re celebrating Christmas without a loved one and you know firsthand the pain of separation, be it from death or distance or broken relationships or for some other reason. Maybe you’re dealing with an illness of your own or with that of someone you love. Maybe you really dread this time of year because you’re having financial difficulties and the stress of the season is overwhelming.
If Christmas is a struggle for you, then God’s promise for you in the midst of that pain is that you aren’t alone because God is with you. His presence is the only present you need. Christmas is the evidence that Jesus in indeed God with us, and because of that, even though we may struggle and face difficulties He will be right there beside us through the pain. And if you’ll allow Him, His presence will sustain you through whatever trials you’re experiencing. I’m reminded again of one of my favorite Bible passages:
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…
Fear not, for I am with you…
(Isaiah 43:1-3, 5 ESV)
And because Christmas is the evidence that Jesus is Immanuel, it is also our assurance that God will be faithful to His promise that one day those who have trusted in Jesus alone for their salvation will get to spend eternity physically in His presence in a place where there will be no more pain or tears. So if Christmas is a tough time for you for any of these reasons, take comfort in the fact that Jesus is with you.
Finally let me come back to where we began this morning and see how the idea that God is with us should impact how we deal with others, especially unbelievers, during this Christmas season. It seems to me that the way Jesus came to be with us is instructive. The way he dealt with all of mankind ought to be the model for the way we deal with others.
First of all Jesus came humbly. As we’ve talked about before He chose to be born to an unwed teenage mom who was betrothed to a carpenter. And when He was born, he was placed in, of all things, an animals’ feeding trough surrounded not by royalty or by the rich and famous, but by Mary and Joseph, some animals and some lowly shepherds.
Second, as Jesus grew up and began to engage with other people, He always invited people to become part of His kingdom. He never tried to coerce them or force them or demand that they do so. He treated people with grace and mercy. Although He never condoned sin and He pointed out people’s sin when necessary, He always did that in a loving, gracious way. He, as Paul would later exhort His followers to do, spoke the truth in love.
As I mentioned earlier, I read a couple of blog posts this week that really caused me to think more deeply about how we can better follow the example of Jesus as we deal with others, especially unbelievers. I’m convinced that we often fail to see how our enthusiasm to hold to the true meaning of Christmas can be expressed in a way that isn’t very Christ-like.
One of the blog posts I read this week was titled “2 Reasons NOT to ‘Keep Christ in Christmas’”. We’ve all seen that particular phrase on bumper stickers and car decals, and more recently on Facebook posts. That phrase has always bothered me a bit, probably because the idea that any person has the ability to somehow remove Christ from Christmas is pretty far-fetched in the first place. But this particular blog post looked at that phrase from the perspective of an unbeliever and caused me to think of some things I’d never considered before.
He begins his post like this:
Keep Christ in Christmas is the slogan of choice for many Christians during this time of year. We see the phrase used all over the place – from Facebook posts, Twitter feeds and Instagram pictures, to Pinterest links and blog posts. However, while Keep Christ in Christmas is a good way for Jesus-followers to remember the season, the slogan should never be used as a means to force others to do so.
I guess I’d never really considered that this seemingly innocuous phrase could be viewed like that, but the more I thought about, the more I understood how unbelievers more than likely do view it as a 2x4 that Christ followers are using to try to convince them they need to celebrate Christmas in a certain way that is totally contrary to the way they think.
Later in the post, the author explains the potential danger here:
Trying to force the message of Jesus’ birth into the pattern of the world is an exercise in futility. We will use enormous amounts of energy, time and resources attempting to do something that will never work. Round peg, square hole. Force will never further the message of Jesus. If God didn’t employ such means, why do we?
It seems to me this same logic applies to making a big deal about whether some person or some business says “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.” Do we really think arguing about that is ever going to convince anyone to check out who Jesus is or attract them to investigate His body, the church?
Given the manner in which Jesus came to be God with us, I think there is a better approach that is more consistent with the way He came. I think the author of this blog summed up that preferable approach quite well:
Advent and Christmas is the Church’s time to reflect, ponder and anticipate the King’s arrival, as we wait for his return. And, we should point people to the story and invite them to experience it for themselves. However, the means we use to do so should echo the means God used – humility, invitation and embrace…
Keep Christ in Christmas is a good way for Jesus-followers to remember the season, but the slogan should never be used as a means to force others to do so. No one has ever become a follower of Jesus through force. There will always be a better way – a loving, humble, gracious invitation that points people to the redemptive story of Jesus. A story that entered the world through a peaceful and unassuming means. An ordinary story that showcases an extraordinary gift.
Christmas is our proof of how much God loves us. Shouldn’t our presence in the lives of others reflect that kind of love that was characterized by humility and grace?
