Immanuel Isa 7:10-16; Ps 80:1-7, 17-19; Rom 1:1-7; Matt 1:18-25 (28:18-20)
Audio: https://www.daleappleby.net/index.php/mp3-sermons/51-recent-sermons/1000-emmanuel-matt-1-18-25
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJEHW3ZZaLo
Introduction
This is a Christmastime sermon with a difference, because in preaching from Matthew’s Gospel, we must recognise that it not only begins with one of the great promises of the Bible, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).” (1:23) but ends with the same pledge escalated to a limitlessly higher level. “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matt 28:18-20). I will return to this emphasis later.
Matthew’s narrative concentrates on the experiences of Joseph leading up to Jesus’ birth. This is important because legally Christ’s birth line passed only through the father (Luke 4:22; John 1:45) and as the “son of David” Joseph confers on Jesus the ancestral line of the long-prophesied Messiah (2 Sam 7:14 etc.).
Exposition
v.18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
In saying “the birth of Jesus Christ took place this way” Matthew outlines the way in which the promised Messiah-Saviour came to be born. Joseph and Mary are said to be “betrothed”, which at the time meant the laws of marriage already applied. Mary was likely 12-14 years old and Joseph 18-20. In their obedience to God and sexual restraint the couple are models for Christian living.
We are told that Mary was “with child from the Holy Spirit”. this shouldn’t surprise us, for what God begins he begins through his Spirit, like the movement of the Spirit in Genesis 1:2 at the start of creation. The action of the Holy Spirit in conceiving Jesus was a divine initiative giving to humanity a new beginning on a foundation far deeper than Adam’s formation from the ground (Gen 2:7). The coming of God in the flesh through the Spirit generated a human nature available to God from the beginning to the end of Christ’s life (Luke 1:35; Heb 9:14). The full dimensions of the Christ-event, God with us, for us, in us, radically redefines what it means to be human.
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
Joseph could have had Mary put on trial for adultery. Even though he must have felt deeply hurt and betrayed, instead of exposing his betrothed to public shame he lovingly chose a private divorce. We can see the wisdom of God in sending the angelic messenger to Joseph after Mary was pregnant. For only in this way could Joseph’s his merciful heart be revealed, this made clear that in his wisdom God the Father chose a human parent for his Son, someone merciful and compassionate like himself (Luke 6:36). Joseph is a very neglected biblical figure, but at the very least we can see he was free from jealousy, an ugly insecure passion which has destroyed many relationships.
20 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. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
There are many miraculous conceptions throughout scripture (Gen 16:11; 17:19; Luke 1:13), and I’ve known several childless couples who became pregnant after prayer. The conception of Jesus however is complete unique, it is a transformation in the life of God himself! “Jesus”, the Greek form of Hebrew Joshua/Yeshua, was a common name in the first century (Col 4:11) and means “God is salvation”. Only this sinless Jesus can save people from sin, for after all only God can forgive sin (Mark 2:7). It was important for Matthew to ground the birth of Christ in ancient prophecy.
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
This prophecy is from Isaiah 7:14. At a time of national crisis when Jerusalem was besieged by its enemies Isaiah was sent to the king with a promise that before a soon to be conceived child reaches the age of moral responsibility deliverance will come. Since Christ declared himself to be the key to understanding all scripture (John 5:39) we need to understand Isaiah’s prophecy in the ultimate sense of the virginal conception of Jesus in Mary.
The use of Immanuel, God with us, ties in with Isaiah’s later predictions of a child to be born who will be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” and ruler of all (9:6-7 cf. 8:8). Through the conception of Jesus we can truly speak of a humanised God who understands from the inside what it means to be a baby, a toddler, a teenager, what it means to be tempted, misunderstood, betrayed, abandoned, who remembers what it’s like to be a suffering dying person. The Immanuel promise is so profound that it is the climax of heaven. At the very end of the Bible we read, ““Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.” (Rev 21:3). To take this limitless promise to heart will revolutionise our prayers and mightily embolden our speaking out the gospel. This is what drives Paul to declare, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31).
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Contrary to some mythology about Mary the expression “not until” means that Joseph had sex with Mary after Jesus was born. After all his “brothers…James, Joseph, Simon, Judas” are named later in the Gospel (Matt 12:46; 13:55). There is no sentimentality in Matthew’s nativity story for his Gospel isn’t interested in how we feel about Christ’s birth but in whether we will become followers of Jesus.
Application
In naming himself “Jesus” the Lord has made his mission clear, to save people from their sins. Those liberated from their sins will be moved to follow their Saviour, whatever it costs. This involves coming to terms with the tough fact that the message of Immanuel, God with us, is mostly not received as good news. When Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from the presence of the Lord, when the Israelites gathered at Mt Sinai to receive the Law in terror they begged that God would stop speaking with them (Ex 19:16; 20:19; Deut 18:16; Heb 12:21). The tragic truth is that anyone who is not moving towards Christ but away from him is already convinced in their heart that “god”, as they understand him, is against them. Immanuel is good news only if the God who is with us is recognised as Jesus in the fulness of his presentation in the Gospel as a crucified and risen Saviour to whom we must bow as Lord. Even in our post-Christian society many people are happy to be like the angels, shepherds, wise men, and Joseph and Mary in our popular nativity scenes, safely admiring the Christ child from a distance. But in the real Immanuel all distance has been taken away. Jesus is no longer the fragile child in the manager but the Ruler of heaven and earth and the Judge of the living and the dead.
Whereas the first promise of “Immanuel” in Matthew comes in the apostle’s own words, the final promise “God with us” comes in Jesus’ own sovereign words. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matt 28:18-20). The presence of Jesus is experienced as with us only as we make ourselves available to disciple others to obey him. This is the real challenge and glory of Christmas; forgiven sinners moved in their hearts by the love of God to follow Jesus and to recruit others to do the same. Immanuel, God with us, is a great promise, but a promise whose reality depends on our obedience to the Great Commission. If in Christ God came down from heaven for us, we can surely go to the ends of the earth with him.