God with us

So we're going to be starting at verse 18, we're kind of skipping the genealogy which is Jesus' family tree.

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.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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 Emmanuel, which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.

Good morning, everyone.

It's good to be together, isn't it?

Will you pray with me as we come to God's word?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I pray that your spirit would take your word and press it deep into our hearts,

that we might rejoice in the name of Jesus, afresh and all the more.

And I pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, Christmas corrects the lie about God that has wounded us all.

There's a lie that has wounded all humanity, whether religious or not.

And a Scottish pastor has a really great illustration to help us feel this lie.

So imagine there's a father who takes his son to...

I remember Toys R Us.

Is that still around?

It's gone.

Okay.

All right.

Kmart.

Insert your store.

Around the shopping centre.

A father takes his child, his son, around the shopping centre and just looks at all the toys,

going, look at this.

Isn't this awesome?

Oh, yes.

I see that, Daddy.

I'd love to have one of those.

Isn't this cool?

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

That is cool.

Wouldn't you love one of those?

And this just goes on for an hour, maybe more.

Maybe it's leading up to Christmas time.

And then at the end of that hour, the father turns to his son and says,

son, all these great things you've seen, you will have none of them.

I want you to know I will not allow you to have a single one of these your entire life.

Now let's go home.

Now, any kids, this is just a story, okay?

This didn't really happen.

No one would ever be that cruel, would they?

That would be profoundly wounding for a child, wouldn't it?

They may never recover from that.

The child's view of his father would be forever changed.

He could never trust him, perhaps never trust anyone.

When he gets older, I'm guessing he would either want to run as far away from that kind of father as possible

or try and live up to the strictness of that father to try and prize some blessings out of him

because he's so reluctant.

There's this view of God as that kind of father.

That lie entered humanity at the start of human history.

That's what Genesis 3 is about.

And the human race is wounded.

We're wounded by this false view of God.

It's a view of God that deep down we say,

if I ever give myself completely over to God, I will be miserable.

I can't trust him to give myself completely to him.

Now, I'm going to suggest a few symptoms I've found in my own thinking, in my own attitudes.

Believing this lie, if I give myself to God completely, I'll be miserable.

I think I find it when I have this dichotomy in my mind.

Either I can serve God or I can do what will make me happy.

Scripture says there is never a choice.

It is always the same thing.

But in my head, somehow, I've made a choice.

I think it sometimes looks like justifying a course of action.

Someone saying, Scripture, that's the wrong path, David.

I know that.

I know it's the wrong path.

But I don't care.

Because I think this path will make me happy.

I see it in me when I'm fretting about my future.

I can't just let God take care of my future.

I can't completely hand that over to him.

I see it when demanding my circumstances change.

Refusing to believe that God in himself can be my peace.

He can be my hope.

He can be my life.

He can be enough.

I've got to have something else.

I can't completely just have him.

I think it can look like being too afraid to come to God with your sins.

Like, he doesn't want to see you.

He can't handle that.

He won't forgive.

He won't look after you.

I think sometimes it looks like hanging on to my pride.

I have to see myself as a good person.

Because if I'm going to get blessing from God, I have to see myself as righteous.

I can't just let go of that.

All these things, I don't know if any of them resonated with you, but we fear to give ourselves

completely over to God.

So what's going to heal such a deep wound, a false view of what kind of father God is like?

What's going to heal us?

One thing, Emmanuel.

We've got to see Emmanuel.

We've got to see who God truly is.

giving himself completely to us, to have us.

And that's what we see in Emmanuel.

Picture yourself again at the shopping centre, and after the miracle of finding a car park

at Charlestown or Qatar or somewhere, you're in the shopping centre, you're hearing the carols

come over the speakers, and finally a carols comes over, and you hear that name, Emmanuel.

Why doesn't everyone just stop and drop their presence with fear and amazement,

and some people just dropping to the floor?

Why aren't we moved by that name?

God with us.

It is an incredible claim.

I want to look at three things today of what Emmanuel means from our passage.

He is God.

He is with us.

And he saves us from our sin.

That's what Emmanuel means.

So let's go through these things.

I hope we see more of Emmanuel today.

Well, physically, Jesus is Mary's boy.

He's a baby.

Conceived in, I assume, Mary's fallopian tube.

He grew in a womb attached by an umbilical cord, dependent on her blood and nutrients,

from the size of a blueberry to an eggplant.

I'm not sure what our third child is up to these days, a cauliflower or something.

I don't know.

Kicking her bladder?

Physically, Mary's boy.

Matthew's point, we didn't read this, but there's a family tree just before our section,

and the point of that is that legally, Jesus is Joseph's boy.

God's promises throughout history is that a Jew, a descendant of King David,

would be the saviour of the world.

The genealogy shows Jesus is, through Joseph's line, the David, the expected David.

So physically, Mary's boy, legally, Joseph's boy.

But this whole section that was read to us is all from Joseph's perspective.

We're in his mind.

We're in his shoes, so to speak.

We're meant to feel the crisis.

We're meant to feel the crisis.

Imagine the personal crisis for him, his future ahead of him.

They're engaged, and she's pregnant.

How dashed would he be?

He's wrestling.

What do I do with this?

He's a godly man.

He doesn't just brush the law of God aside.

It must be adultery.

Like, Mary, you look so godly, but what other explanation is there?

But he's so – he doesn't want to put it to shame.

There's this crisis going on.

Why are we meant to feel that?

Because he's not Joseph's boy.

That's the point.

I think that's the point in this section.

It's a pretty simple point.

Physically, he's Mary's boy.

Legally, Joseph's boy.

But his deepest identity, his deepest origin, he's Yahweh's boy.

He's not Joseph's.

He's God.

He's God's boy.

He's God's boy.

Would struggle to believe this claim more than the Jewish culture.

If you think of Eastern religions, God is this impersonal thing, a force in everything.

We're kind of like all connected to the divine in some sort of way.

If you think of the Greeks and Romans back then, the gods kind of became human in all sorts of ways

and pretty crass ways sometimes.

that kind of claim wouldn't be too shocking but he's quoting Isaiah

the same Isaiah who's speaking on God's behalf

imagine God was he got out his kitchen scales to make some Christmas cookies and

you're gonna have to use your imagination here he gets out the scales and for some reason or

another all the nations of the world in all the military might are on those scales I don't know

how they got there but just come with me in this bizarre illustration it doesn't register on his

scales you put all the nuclear warheads on those scales it's not even half a gram to Yahweh

behold the nations are accounted as the dust on the scales it don't even register

and he's saying this Yahweh has

has become one of us it's a huge claim he's very God

like would you as a grown adult for the adults in the room would you as a grown adult freely choose if

if if illness didn't make you would you freely choose to be dependent on your parents that they

would have to wipe your bottom and give you a bath again that's nothing I'm sorry if that's a bit

crass but that is nothing compared to how far Yahweh has come down

to be a dependent human being

I'm searching for language here like it's too big to get our heads around isn't it

so let's see Emmanuel God is giving himself his eternal son

to lower himself as a creature forever forever for you for me

that's what Emmanuel means and Emmanuel also means he's with us

he's with us in this dark world

as as Adam's already open the morning talking about we we didn't read what happens next in the story

he enters the world in poverty

the straw in the animal feeding trough probably piercing his sides this is not a neat comfortable image

Herod King Herod determines to exterminate him

killing many other boys just to try and wipe him out

he chooses to enter this dark world and experience it firsthand

for many Christmas is a joyful time but for a lot it's the most difficult day

potentially of the year

because you've got the grief

of the loved one who's no longer at the table

you've got the fear

that this could be your last

you've got the anger

and the despair

of the fractured relationships

yes you're in the same room but

your world's apart

you've got the loneliness

and we've got the evil at Bondi Beach

Christmas tells us God hasn't given up on his evil world

Emmanuel means he's come into the darkness

he's tasted it firsthand

he's experienced it

all of it

we all know the difference

when you're going through a hard time

we all know the difference

when someone who's trying to be kind

is trying to sympathise with you

but then someone comes

who's been through the same thing

you know the difference don't you

they really do know

what you're going through

they understand

Jesus knows the loneliness

of being abandoned by all

he knows it

he knows family rejection

his village tried to drive him off a cliff

he knows temptation to be unfaithful

when you're really

hard situation

and you just

you just want to escape it

he knows unjust treatment

he's come

in Emmanuel means he's come in

and he's tasted the suffering firsthand

now it doesn't explain the reason for my suffering

your suffering

it doesn't give you an explanation for it

but it tells you what it isn't

it can't mean

God doesn't care

it can't mean he's remote

because God totally gave himself to be with us

in all the evil

and all the grief

of this world

and all the temptation

of this world

that's how far he's come

so Emmanuel

let's see Emmanuel

God come down

Emmanuel

he's with us in this dark

sinful world

and Emmanuel

he saves his people

from their sins

Isaiah the prophet

who Matthew quotes here

800 years before Jesus

in Isaiah's day

that sign

was awful

news

God was going to show up

before this child

comes of age

through military

foreign power

to punish his people

for their sins

the angel

announces to Joseph

the good news

for us today

Emmanuel

now means

he will save

his people

from their sins

now that's only good news

if we know our sin

I feel a bit sorry

for Joseph

there's almost no

Christmas carol

we didn't sing a Christmas carol

about him last night

we had one about Mary

but

we've got a whole section

of the Bible here

about Joseph

and nothing

he's a really good man

he's an

admirable

guy

he thinks

Mary's broken

the law

of God

and he's faithful

to the law

of God

he can't just

ignore it

and push it aside

but then

he's not self-righteous

he's not trying

to punish

Mary

he's trying

to quietly

divorce her

he doesn't want

to it seems

but even

this good man

Joseph

needs

to accept

that he needs

a saviour

to rescue him

from the power

of his sin

there was a British

atheist

Francis Buffett

who once said

about anyone

who pauses

to reflect on

themselves honestly

he said this

you discover yourself

as a being

who does not

fit easily

with your own wishes

a being

who acts

against yourself

as often

as you act

for yourself

who is resistant

to your own

best intentions

who whatever

the line is

that your society

and you yourself

draw between

the good

and the bad

are some

of the time

voting haplessly

on both sides

of it

can you

resonate

I can resonate

with that

in 1961

Adolf Eichmann

he was the

first lieutenant

in the SS

World War II

he was the

mastermind

behind the

death camps

and he was

put on trial

and a man

called

a survivor

you healed

in all

he came

to testify

against him

and when

he saw

him

he collapsed

on the floor

and he was

sobbing

and he fainted

which

you could

imagine

but 22

years later

Jehiel

was interviewed

on 60

Minutes

and he

showed the

clip of him

falling apart

in the

courtroom

and he

was asked

what was

going through

his mind

at that

point

was it

hatred

were you

just

overwhelmed

with fear

was it

the trauma

coming back

and Jehiel

said no

no

no

he said

I came

in and I

looked at

Eichmann

and I

realised

this is

not a

demon

this is

someone

just like

me

and if

he's

capable

of doing

this

so am

I

and he's

famous

for this

line

Eichmann

is in

all of

us

he's

a

survivor

he said

Eichmann

is in

all of

us

he was

facing

himself

every

other

religion

says

here's

what you

got to

do

to find

God

here's

what you

do

Emmanuel

says

God

came

down

to

find

you

he

came

down

to

save

us

from

the

power

and

the

punishment

of

sin

he

is

one

day

going

to

get

rid

of

all

evil

he's

going

to

remake

this

world

and

when

he

does

that

he

won't

have

to

end

you

because

he's

already

taken

your

sin

he's

come

to

save

us

from

our

sin

so

that

we

are

free

to

enjoy

God

with

us

forever

Joni

Erickson

Tata

a

quadriplegic

was asked

by Billy

Graham

to paint

a picture

of Mary

and Jesus

if we

could

do we

have

that

yeah

thanks

so

you'll

see

Mary's

knees

transition

into

the

hills

where

this

Emmanuel

will

go

to

save

us

from

our

sins

she

was

inspired

by

a

poem

by

Lucy

Shaw

to

know

my

darkness

ended

brought

to

this

birth

for

me

to

be

newborn

and

for

him

to

see

me

mended

I

must

see

him

torn

do you

see

Emmanuel

giving

all

of

himself

to

us

well

the

angel

says

to

Joseph

do

not

fear

do

not

fear

to

take

Mary

and

the

implication

of

him

taking

Mary

do

not

fear

to

take

Jesus

what

did

Joseph

have

to

fear

well

he

had

to

fear

the

loss

of

his

self

image

as a

good

and

decent

person

if

he

takes

Jesus

in

that

traditional

moral

community

everyone's

going to

assume

he's

the

father

let's

face

it

kiss

his

good

reputation

!

Goodbye!

They're

going to

be

treated

as

a

bit

of

a

scandal

he's

got

to

embrace

that

but

more

than

just

the

false

reputation

from

others

he's

got

to

embrace

what

the

angel

says

that

he

really

isn't

a

good

man

he

might

be

decent

but

he's

not

a

good

man

he

will

need

this

child

to

save

him

from

his

sins

don't

fear

to

take

him

don't

fear

to

lose

that

image

of

yourself

as

good

he

will

give

you

something

so

much

better

forgiveness

Joseph

do

not

fear

to

lose

your

self

control

your

authority

you

all

know

we've

got

a

son

due

in

March

and

we've

got

a

short

list

of

names

and

Colin

made

a deal

with

us

when

sorry

Colin

I'm

throwing

you

under

the

bus

here

when

he

was

cutting

the

carpet

squares

of

the

tiles

he

made

a deal

with

us

that

if

you

cut

them

perfectly

we

might

just

have

a

Colin

bot

in

our

midst

come

March

!

you

don't

name

this

child

he

names

you

don't

fear

to

take

him

but

if

you

embrace

Jesus

Joseph

give

up

all

your

authority

this

child

comes

into

your

life

and

he's

going

to

totally

take

over

and

that

is

great

news

that's

wonderful

news

because

he's

much

better

at

running

your

life

than

you

are

don't

fear

to

lose

your

sense

of

control

brothers

and

sisters

let me

end

with

this

do

not

fear

to

take

Jesus

don't

fear

to

give

yourself

completely

over

to

him

no

boundaries

no

no

no

conditions

there's

only one

way

you and

I

will

do

that

if

we

see

Emmanuel

let

him

heal

that

wound

in

your

heart

see

the

light

flood

in

to

expose

that

lie

of the

kind

of God

he

is

he's

the kind

of God

who

gives

all of

himself

to us

to have

us

Emmanuel

giving

all of

himself

for us

to have

us

forever

to be

with us

forever

if you

see

Emmanuel

you don't

need a

fear

let's

let's

completely

give

ourselves

over

to him

will

you pray

with me

let's

pray

father in

heaven

you know

each of

our

hearts

you know

where

we're

fearing

to trust

you

where we

just

can't

let go

or

we're

in

too

much

pain

Lord

I pray

that you

would

press

the

truth

of

Jesus

come

down

to

be with

us

in the

darkness

to

rescue

us

from

the

darkness

so

that we

might

be

healed

and

mended

forgiven

and made

new

forever

with you

Lord

please

press

Emmanuel

deep

into

each

of

our

hearts

forgive

us

for

having

a

false

view

of

you

please

fill us

with a

true

view

of you

this

Christmas

that we

may

trust

you

and have

joy

in

you

and

make

choices

that

honour

you

pray

this

in

Jesus

name

Amen