Matthew 1:18-25; 1 John 4:7-16

Matthew 1:18-25 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet 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. ²¹She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All 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 Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). ²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

December 24, 2020 – Christmas Eve

Title: Good News of Immanuel

This evening we are going to be looking at the Good News of Immanuel. The name, or title, Immanuel, means “God with us.” This expresses God’s desire to dwell with His people. Even in the Garden of Eden, God walked with Adam and Eve. His purpose in creation was that they would have a relationship with Him. Their decision to rebel against God damaged that relationship.

But that didn’t change God’s heart to be our Immanuel. We see throughout the Old Testament God’s desire to be present with His people. As He lead them out of Egypt and guided them by His presence in the pillar of fire and cloud. As His presence rested in the Tabernacle, and later the temple. But these things were just meant to be a foretaste of God’s ultimate plan for His people, for He doesn’t just want to live among us, but He wants to dwell in us. To really share life with us. And that is the promise of Jesus. Jesus came to make that relationship possible. But in order for that relationship to be possible, the sin that separated us from God in the first place needed to be take care of.

1) v. 21, the name of Jesus is given because He will “Save His people from their sins.”

The heart of God is to free us from the bondage of sin, but our heart usually leads us back to that bondage.

We see this illustrated in the account of the Exodus of the nation of Israel out of Egypt. Although it is hard to call them a nation at this point, because all they had known in their history was slavery and servitude. For when Israel went into Egypt, it literally was just the man Israel, who was also known as Jacob, his twelve sons, and their families – that’s it. Just a family, hardly a nation. But when they left 400 years later, they had grown into a nation estimated to be as many as 2 million.

At the time of their deliverance, times were tough. They had been forced into grueling manual labor, and their baby boys were being murdered. And, yet, when God delivered them out of oppression by miraculous intervention though Moses, at every sign of trouble in the wilderness they grumbled, complained, and even suggested it would be better for them to go back to Egypt.

Seems insane to us, why would you want to go back? But that is the same thing we do. For even though God has set us free form the bondage of sin through the deliverance of Jesus, it can be easy for us, when things get a little tough or uncomfortable, to find ourselves heading straight back to the same sins that God has set us free from. The truth is, we are often captives to our known, even if our known is unpleasant. This is seen in those who are unable to leave an abusive situation because they are more afraid than the unknown than their known situation – however terrible it may be. To really have God as our Immanuel, we need to trust him, we need to trust that even when God leads us into the unknown, that He is leading us to a better place. But to get to where God is leading, we need to be willing to leave our Egypt, our sin, behind.

2) Jesus saved us by being willing to sacrifice Himself for us. 1 John 4:10, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

The heart of God is willing to sacrifice to make that relationship possible, however, our hearts usually want that relationship w/ minimal sacrifice and change.

Again, God was willing to go to great lengths to make it possible for us to live with Him. And the greatest example is Jesus. Jesus came in human flesh, lived a life on earth, not in luxury and ease, but in hardship. And He was willing also to suffer and die a painful death, alone, with all of his followers abandoning Him, all of that He did to make Immanuel possible.

The greatest measure of our love for others isn’t what we are willing to give them, but what we are willing to give up to make that relationship possible. Too often this world measures love for others by how much that other person gives us, but true love is willing to give for others.

Jesus was willing to sacrifice greatly to have a relationship with us, but often we approach our relationship with God in a, “well, as long as you don’t ask too much of me,” approach. We’ll go to church if it entertains us or is at a convenient time, we will help others as long as it makes us feel good or, again, is convenient. But when we must truly sacrifice something to follow God, we might balk at it.

How important is Immanuel to us? How important is it to us, not to just have God as a part of our life, but for Him to be the focus of every part of our lives. How strong is our desire to truly live with God, and have Him live in us?

3) God sent Jesus “into the world that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9). Immanuel means that Jesus has reconciled us to God. In 1 John 4:16 we see that, “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

The heart of God wants to live in closest relationship with us, however, our heart often wants to keep God at a distance. Close enough when we need Him, but at arm’s length at other times.

Do we have a heart for Immanuel? Do we desire the presence of God in our lives at all times? Do we long for the indwelling presence of God? Do we want God not to just live near us, or visit once in a while, but to take up residence in our hearts and lives? For that is why Jesus came. He came to set us free from our sin, and Jesus did that through sacrifice, not demanding that we atone for our sins, but making that atonement through His own blood. That’s love. And He did it so that we might live with Him, share life with Him, eat with Him. What a privilege that is that God, the Creator of the Universe, would even want to have a relationship with us! Christmas is a reminder of the great lengths He went to in order to make that possible. If we truly understood the worth of that, we would do everything we could to live each moment in His presence. And I hope this Christmas that God would stir in our heart that desire for Immanuel, that desire that God would live with us, and that we would live with Him. Welcome, Lord Jesus. Amen.