Emmanuel God With Us
Isaiah 7:10- 17 Matthew 1:18:25 12-8-2019
Have you ever had someone say to you, I have some good news and some bad news? Which do you want to hear first? How many of you want the good news first? How many of you want the bad news first? How many of just don’t want to be in the at position at all. Sometimes to understand and appreciate the good news, we have to know what the bad news is.
We are in the Christian season of Advent. Advent literally means the “coming” or the “arrival.” For us as believers, Advent is associated with the coming of Jesus Christ to the earth to provide salvation by his life, death, resurrection and ascension. Believers today look forward in anticipation to the second advent of Christ in which Christ will return to the earth in a bodily form in bodily form to receive the church and to judge the nations.
The term Advent also refers to a season of the church year during which the church prepares to commemorate Christ's first coming to earth (Christmas). The first four Sundays before Christmas Day make up the Advent season. That is why sometimes Advent begins in November and other times in December.
Have you ever been singing a song for years, and then discover that a phrase you’ve been singing for years is not what is really in the song? You catch yourself saying, “I never heard that before in that song.” Sometimes things that seem so familiar are distortions of what is really being stated in the song.
Sometimes we learn Christmas Carols at an early age and sing them without knowing what they really mean. One of my favorite songs is O Come, O Come Emmanuel. But who is Emmanuel and what exactly is he supposed to do when he gets here.
The tune of the song causes the emotions of sadness and hope to rise up in us. It is obvious that things are going to change when Emmanuel arrives. Emmanuel literally means “God with us” and is only found 4 times in the bible, 3 times in Isaiah 7 and once in Matthew 1. In both places there is a struggle going on with a person, and they don’t know exactly what to do or where God is at the moment.
God’s people were known as the nation of Israel. They would often disobey God and go after idols to worship, and at times God would let them suffer the consequences of their actions. This often meant being defeated at the hands of the nations around them.
As a nation, they would often only seek God when they were in trouble from warring nations. Instead of seeing God as the Almighty God worthy of praise and honor, they kept God at a distance until things really got bad and they had nowhere else to turn. They wanted a God, but not one that expecting them to live righteous lifestyles.
The king of Israel at the time was King Ahaz, and Jerusalem was his capital city. Two armies had surrounded the city and held it captive, but they could not overthrow it. King Ahaz had received word, that they had contacted a third king to come and help them overthrow Jerusalem.
He and the people in the city were terrorized with fear. King Ahaz himself was not walking with the Lord. He was doing a number of things God had ordered never to be done. Ahaz had even sacrificed one of his sons in the fire to a pagan God.
Yet with all he had done contrary to the will of God, God had compassion on him and the people. God sent the prophet Isaiah to him, to let him know that his enemies would not prevail. They would not enter the city of Jerusalem ,and the people being held captive in the city would be set free.
Isaiah asked the king, “what sign would you like to see to know that God was going to do this?” The king refused to ask for a sign, because his pride wanted to continue to handle things his way. If he asked for a sign and got it, then he knew he would have to admit he was not serving the Lord. Sometimes we ask God for a sign, but we don’t want to accept the changes required of us when the sign comes through.
So Isaiah said “I’m going to give you a sign, so that when it happens, everybody will know that God is the one who brought about the deliverance.” Isaiah told him, a virgin will have a child, who will be called “Emmanuel” and by the time the child is two years old, the nations attacking Israel would be destroyed.”
When people heard about Isaiah’s prophecy, no doubt they looked forward and mostly likely prayed that this child “Emmanuel” would be conceived and come to them quickly so that they would be granted deliverance.
The second time we see the name Emmanuel show up is in the gospel of Matthew. We are introduced to Joseph. Joseph was called a righteous man. He was looking forward to his upcoming completion of his marriage. He was engaged to this beautiful young woman by the name of Mary. They had had their official engagement with their parents having exchanged a dowry and gifts.
They were now in that one year waiting period between the engagement and the final wedding banquet. The couple lived separate and apart for a year, which was to guarantee that the father would be the father of whatever child was born in the marriage. This stage of the process was one of such commitment that you would have to get a legal divorce as a couple to go you separate ways.
Mary had come to Joseph with some good news and some bad news. The good news is that God had sent an angel to her to let her know that she would be giving birth to the Son of God who would save his people from their sin. The bad news is that they didn’t have much time to get ready for everything, because she was already pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
How many of you are thinking, that Joseph might be thinking, there’s some worse bad news than “ they didn’t have much time to get ready for the child.” Keep in mind Mary has been out of town for three months visiting her aunt Elizabeth. What would you do if your fiancée went out of town unpregnant and came back pregnant.?
You know the two of you have not come close to having sex, and the only name she will give you is the Holy Spirit? Since he is convinced Mary’s story is not true and that she has betrayed him, Joseph’s life goes into a tailspin.
What should he do? This child coming into his life was an absolute disappointment. It’s amazing what God can do with our disappointments if we do not give up hope and remain faithful. Joseph could have let his anger determine his next step but he didn’t. He really wanted to do the right thing. When it all boils down to the bottom line, Joseph has but three choices.
1.) He can publicly humiliate Mary because of what he perceives to be her immorality. This choice could possibly lead to her death under the Law, for she would be guilty of adultery, Deut. 22:13-21.
2.) He can divorce her quietly and just walk away from her, leaving her to raise the child in shame and poverty.
3.) He can marry her and raise the child as if it were his own. This last option would rarely have been chosen.
Joseph being a righteous person needed wisdom to make a decision. Unfortunately, he made a compassionate decision, but it was not the best decision. Joseph decided to divorce Mary quietly without making any accusations, but that meant that he would have to take some of the financial responsibility for raising this child.
He obviously cared for Mary and as the Scriptures says,” he did not want to expose her to public disgrace”. He also knew that in taking this route he would be putting his own reputation at stake. Many would believe he was the father of the child and had backed out on the deal for some unknown reason. Had he found somebody else? There would be plenty of speculation going around.
Sometimes even when we have all the facts in front of us, we still can’t see or understand the whole picture. God may be up to something in a situation that we simply cannot understand with our earthly wisdom.
The gospel of John does not give us an account of the birth of Jesus, but it does begin with letting us know that in the beginning was the Word and the word was with God, and the word was God. That Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word for word is logos in the Greek and it is associated with knowledge, reasoning, and wisdom.
In O come of Come Emmanuel, the third verse of the songs asks for Wisdom to come from on high and to put order in all things. Wisdom is to show us the path of knowledge that we need in order to go in the right direction. Joseph didn’t know it, but God had pre-ordained this union between him and Mary, and God was going to see to it that it came to past.
Just when Joseph was about to feel okay with the course of action he was about to take, God sent him off in a different direction. God sent wisdom from on high through an angel in a dream, who explained to him the rest of the story.
The Scriptures tell us 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,[a] because he will save his people from their sins.”
I believe that Joseph was wanting some kind of a direction from God to know that God was still with him, even in the midst of what seemed like a terrible loss. God gave that dream to Joseph. Anybody else could have dismissed it as wishful thinking, or too many collard greens at supper, or whatever.
The point is that even when it seems as though God has forgotten us, because of God’s silence, God is still looking over our situation. God is feeling our pain, and God knows when and how to intervene.
Joseph was not going to let anybody try to talk him out of what he had dreamed. He was willing to go and humble himself before Mary and beg her forgiveness for not believing her. He was willing to endure the scorn and ridicule of others who would labeled him as the guy who just couldn’t wait until the wedding night. He wasn’t as righteous as they had first thought.
Joseph’s goal was to get back on track thanks to the wisdom that had come from on high. When he woke up, he went to get Mary and took her home as his wife, but they waited until after Jesus was born before they had sex with each other.
The Holy Spirit used Matthew to connect the event in the Old Testament with Isaiah and King Ahaz to the New Testament Event of Mary and Joseph in writing the gospel of Matthew. 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 Emmanuel”[g] (which means “God with us”). There are several things that happen in the Scriptures that have double meaning and connect to prophecies about the Messiah or the Christ.
We see this double meaning of an event again in the Old Testament when God calls his son out of Egypt referring to God’s people. Then in the New Testament when God tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus out of Egypt and back into Israel, the writer lets us know it is a fulfillment of the prophecy Hosea 11:1.
Now that Mary and Joseph are reunited, they could look forward together to the coming of this child. There is no doubt in either of their minds that Jesus is going to be different. The angel that came to Joseph in the dream, gave Joseph the privilege to give him the name of Jesus. For it is this child that will save his people from their sins.
When God called Abraham in the Old Testament to create a people for himself, Abraham became the father of the Jews. Abraham was at first a Gentile look everybody else. But when God first called Abraham and gave him a promise, the promise was not simply for the Jews, but for the whole world.
God told Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 12 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.[a] 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” I want you to see that God has never given up on reaching peoples from all groups from all over the earth”[b]
In the final stanza of O Come O Come Emmanuel, we see the cry for the Desire of nations to come and to bind all people in one heart and mind. My friends this is exactly what Jesus has come to do. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. God revealed in the coming of Jesus that we could all be reconciled with God.
God has since given us this ministry of reconciliation to let others know that God was working in Christ to reconcile the world to himself. Even in our worst moments of sin, God’s goal is to bring us back to himself.
There is a world that needs to know the goodness and the mercy of our God. We have Christmas tracts that you include in your Christmas gifts to those family members who do not know the Lord. Use Christmas as a time to tell others the good news of why Jesus is coming. For we share the goal of reaching the world for Christ together as believers.
The good news of Advent and Christmas is that a Savior who will forgive our sins is coming into the world. The bad news is that we are all in desperate need of a savior to be saved from our sin, but don’t know it. Far too many of us want to deceive ourselves into thinking we really aren’t all that bad. Sure we fall short here and there, but overall we are pretty decent individuals.
But the cross of Jesus Christ says otherwise. It wasn’t the birth of Jesus that cleansed us from our sin. In connection with Advent and Christmas, the scriptures state that Jesus shall save us from our sins pointing towards the future. Jesus’ birth was miraculous in that he was born of a virgin and conceived by the Holy Spirit. But that was required for him to be put in the position for our sins to be forgiven. For only a perfect sacrifice could remove the penalty for our sin.
The crucifixion of Jesus lets us know that our sin is more than just a mistake or a bad choice or something else trivial that could be easily wiped away. It was the painful death of Jesus Christ upon the cross, the nails going through his hands and feet, the beatings with the whip, the crying out of My God Why Have You Forsaken me, It is finished, the shedding of his blood, the burial and then the resurrection that removed the penalty for our sins.
The whole purpose for Emmanuel to come was to change our situation in relationship to God. When our relationship to God changes, then we can have true meaningful relationships with one another. The peace that we often sing about at Christmas is found first of all in knowing Jesus Christ for ourselves and understanding the meaning of Emmanuel. Knowing that God is with us no matter what is going to come our way.
As you look at your own life, where do you need to invite Emmanuel to come and to make a difference today. Is your home full of envy, strife, or arguments? Emmanuel’s presence brings peace. Inviting him in today can change what the next few weeks of Advent and Christmas are going to be for you. Is there something you will have to let go off as Joseph did in order to discover God’s plan for your life.
Invite him into your disappointments, invite him into the areas where something has you bound and made you a captive. Invite him into you brokenness and allow him to have your singing rejoice, rejoice for God has ransomed you.
VERSE 1
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
VERSE 2
O come, Thou, Dayspring from on high
And cause Thy light on us to rise
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadow put to flight
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel
VERSE 3
O come, O come, true prophet of the Lord
And turn the key to heaven’s door
Be Thou our comforter and guide
And lead us to the Father’s side
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall by His word our darkness dispel
VERSE 4
Oh come, Desire of Nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind.
Bid envy, strife and quarrels cease;
Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.
Rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
