With us

“Immanuel” – Part 3

(Matthew 1:22-25, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, Christmas Eve, 2010)

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).

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.

All this took place... (22)

Something has taken place. Have you heard about it? I am amazed when I think about the events that we are celebrating tonight that there are places around the world so many centuries later where people still have not heard the news. There are places that cannot read the account of what took place in their own language because the message is not written yet for them, and there is no one who has been sent to them who knows their language who can give an accurate testimony of the facts.

It is also amazing that people are growing up in places where the Bible is available, and they still do not know the basic facts of such an important event that has taken place. But God is bringing forward this truth throughout the earth as He promised He would through the prophets. In Numbers 14:21, written by Moses, the Lord said, “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Many centuries later the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk said “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

When Jesus spoke about the expansion of His kingdom, He said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” This kingdom has been expanding now for many centuries. With these words, the kingdom is reaching you right now.

All of the Hebrew Scriptures, all of the books of Moses, all of the Psalms and Proverbs, all of the accounts kings and priests, all of the prophets, find their fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah, the Son of Mary and the Son of God. We were prepared for every aspect of His coming, as much as God wanted to prepare us, by all the chapters in the Bible, from the opening Voice of creation in Genesis 1, until the announcement of the One who would turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers in Malachi 4. Those books told us that He would be low.

These Scriptures told us that He would be God, and they told us He would be man. They told us that He would be united to a chosen people, and that all of what He did, He would do for them. They told us He would be a suffering servant and that He would be a glorious eternal King. They told us that He would die on a cross, that He would be buried, that He would rise again from the dead after three days, and that He would ascend into heaven. And they told us that He would defeat all evil, all bigotry, all small-mindedness, all self-centered preoccupation, all oppression, all immorality, all sin, all disease, and finally all death.

Behold the virgin shall conceive... (23)

They also told us, through the prophet Isaiah, that He would be with us. That is what Immanuel means in Hebrew: “With us God,” all in one word. That is Hebrews works... forming more than one idea into a unified whole, one beautiful Word. How was He with us?

He was first with Mary in a very special way before He was with the rest of us. She, a young woman who had never been intimate with a man, would carry within her a baby, Christ the Lord. Like every other baby, He would not remain in His mother forever that way. He would be born. He would grow up in a family, and He would be with the family of Joseph and Mary and the rest of their children.

But He would come into His own, and He would be with us in another way. He would be something for us, and He would do things for us. During the three years of His public life in Israel He would stand in for all those who would later be counted as His body. His life would be our life. His death would be our death. His resurrection would be our victory over sin and death.

But there is another way that He would be with us after He ascended into heaven. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father on high still today. Yet Paul tells one of the New Testament churches that received His correspondence that their hope of heavenly glory was this: “Christ in you.” For all who call upon the Name of the Lord, He would make them alive in their spirits. He would visit them in a way like He visited Mary. He would be born in them, not so that He would be alive, but so that we would be alive by the power of the His Spirit. He instructed us to ask for this that our joy would be full.

This is the way that God is with us now, and it as much of a miracle birth as the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. He did this all for us out of His infinite divine love. He did this because it was the right thing to do for the glory of our great God. He did this because it was the only way that we could have a future and a hope.

When Joseph woke from sleep (24-25)

Joseph heard the words that the angel announced to Him about Mary and her baby, and He believed them. I announce to you tonight that Christ can be born in you by the Holy Spirit. Are you willing to accept that good word? Can the kingdom have a fresh start in you tonight, a small beginning that will grow into something strong, something that will live forever?

Do what God tells you to do now. Welcome Jesus. Call Him who He is, the Lord's salvation for you and for your family. This is the way for us to live now. Let Christ be born in you. Let the Spirit of Christ bring about the growth of heavenly life in you. Immanuel, the with-us God, is with you. Discover the fullness of what that means in the experience of the New Testament life recorded for us in the rest of the Scriptures from Matthew through Revelation. Let a mustard seed of heaven grow in you, and consider Him a happy gift.

Immanuel is! He can grow in you. One day the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will truly cover the earth as waters cover the seas. You are a part of that glorious undertaking.

1. What did the prophets say about the coming of Jesus?

2. Why would God come to be with us in the person of Jesus?

3. How did Joseph respond to the dream?

4. How do these events prepare us for the life and ministry of Jesus?