Jesus, Messiah, Immanuel” (Matthew 1:18-25) Pastor Woohyun December 18, 2016

coahtoronto.com ______"Jesus, Messiah, Immanuel” (Matthew 1:18-25) Pastor Woohyun December 18, 2016

(Matthew 1:18-25) 18 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. 19 Because 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. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 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 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.

Core Value: The Name of Jesus and His titles (Messiah and Immanuel) remind us that Christmas is the gospel in summary as it leads us to hope in our hopelessness, have faith in Him in all circumstances, and be reminded that God loves us unconditionally.

Opposing Values: We make Christmas to be all about us, because we do not fully understand and embrace what Christmas is truly about. As a result, we are often distracted and we celebrate Christmas for the wrong things.

INTRODUCTION

As you all know, Christmas is just around corner. So we’ll be going through a short sermon series on the birth of Jesus. That being said, I want to encourage you to invite your family and friends to come and let them see that this is the good news they have been waiting for. This year is special because we get to celebrate Christmas on a Sunday. This week, I read an article that shared how a number of mega-churches in the U.S. will be closing next Sunday because Christmas falls on that day. One pastor said, “The Sunday between Christmas and New Year’s just gives us a great opportunity to say thank you, prioritize your family; so enjoy a week off.” Enjoy a week off? From what? From church? From worship? From God? Well, I’m thankful that City on a Hill will be open next Sunday – and you should be too, because we get to hear the gospel story once more through a babe that was born in a manger. We get to worship this Lord of lords and the King of kings together. So let’s celebrate together.

Romans 1 tells us that the people of this world will continue to disregard and suppress the truth. And as a result, this culture has distorted Christmas to be not about the birth of the King but to be ultimately about us – to diminish it to the peripheral things. We must remember that Christmas is all about Jesus. On this day, we celebrate Jesus’ birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection. We rejoice in Jesus, because He is the Savior of our soul, the Lord of our life, and the Treasure that we’ve been searching for. The Bible tells us that on this day, Light broke through, Hope has come, and Peace has been established. If this is all true, then we can’t help but to question why the world is so passionate in trying to make Christmas not about Jesus. ______650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 1 of 6

coahtoronto.com ______Today, we’re not even allowed to say, “Merry Christmas” at work because it’s insensitive to other cultures and religions. Why is the world responding this way? I believe that it’s because the Christmas message is actually very uncomfortable, offensive, and threatening. Think about it. If Jesus came as the Light, it implies that we are living in darkness. If Jesus is the Hope of the world, it implies that we are hopeless. It exposes us of our shame and guilt, our loneliness and fear. No wonder this world is desperately trying to distract and lead us astray.

If this is true, we all need to know and continue to proclaim that Jesus is the only God-given solution for humanity. In the person of Jesus, our hopelessness will turn to hope, our doubts will turn to assurance, and our fears will be covered by His unending love. So then through our passage today, let’s explore and discover who Jesus is. And we’ll do this by focusing on His name and His titles mentioned in Matthew’s birth narrative. So if you have your Bibles, please turn to Matthew 1:18-25 (p. 783) and as I read it, try to point out the name and the titles.

18 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. 19 Because 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. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 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 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.

From this passage, we find three: Jesus, Messiah, and Immanuel. Now, these titles may be familiar to you (because you’ve sang it, used it in your prayer, heard it many times through sermons); but I wonder how many of us really know what they mean and how it impacts us immensely. Then, let’s take the rest of our time to explore each name, see how it relates to the context, and connect it to our lives.

1) JESUS – GOD SAVES (V. 18, 21, and 25) Now, Jesus is the English word for the Greek word, “Yesous,” which is derived from the Hebrew word, “Yeshua.” “Yeshua” literally means “God saves.” To understand its implications, we need to observe these two words more carefully. If we focus on the first word, “God,” it tells us that it was God who initiated, carried out, and accomplished salvation for all of us. We didn’t do anything. In fact, we couldn’t do anything. Now, if we focus on the second word, “Saves,” it tells us that God didn’t bring condemnation for our sins but brought salvation from our sins. This is exactly what we read in verse 21: “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus tells us that we all needed salvation and that God Himself provided it.

This brings up a few questions. Why do we need to be saved from sin? Why is it important that God saves us? Why couldn’t we save ourselves? In order for us to answer these questions, it’s important that we understand what sin is. One commentary explained that “the essence of sin is to take God’s place.” Think about this. It’s the heart that desires to take God’s rightful throne for ourselves. It means that we want to be in control, instead of God. We want to call the shots. We want what’s convenient and best for us. We don’t want to be restricted and bound by God’s law. If you think about it, this is at the foundation of all the sinful things we do. Why do we cheat, lie, hate, lust, have difficult time forgiving, compromise, and disobey? All because we believe that we are more important than God – “It’s my life and it’s rightfully mine.”

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coahtoronto.com ______This is very scary because the effect of sin was greater than we could ever imagine. Romans 5 tells us that as a penalty for our sins, death entered. Think about what this means. We are living only to know that all things will end. And what awaits us even after death is what we rightfully deserve – the wrath of God. There is no future for us. Sin leads to hopelessness.

Many of us know what it means to be hopeless. We feel hopeless when we lose someone or something very dear to us. We feel hopeless when we fail. We feel hopeless when everything seems to be uncertain. We feel hopeless when things aren’t working out even though we’ve given it all. Maybe you know this because you’re feeling the weight of this right now – work problem, school problem, marital, physical, emotional, financial, or spiritual problem. It just feels like there is no way out and you have no strength or motivation to go on. And I’ve just added the greatest reason for hopelessness: our sin which leads to death. Actually all of our problems arise because of our sins. And this unbearable hopelessness is taking away every bit of joy from our hearts.

I know I’ve painted a very dark picture for all of us – but I have to go deeper; I know it’s depressing but I have a point. Here it is: the greatest despair comes from the fact that we cannot save ourselves. There is nothing we can do to overcome that hopelessness. We are not only hopeless, but also helpless. We may turn to money, entertainment, people, sex, power, prestige, education, or career to find some kind of comfort and security; but it still doesn’t change the fact that we will die and the fullness of God’s wrath will come upon us. We can’t do anything about our sins. We have no way out or I should say we had no way out, until now.

The Christmas story tells us that God saves. God made a way where there was no way. Remember, He wasn’t obligated to do this because we all deserved death. Our sin made us all guilty. But God didn’t leave us in our hopelessness. God not only initiated the process of salvation, He also carried it out and finished it. This is why we celebrate Christmas: Jesus is the living proof that God saves to bring us hope again. Our sins have been wiped away and death has been conquered by the work of Jesus on the cross. There is a reason for us to look forward to future with hope and joy despite the present suffering we’re going through because everything is going to be made right in Him. I don’t want to make light of the suffering we go through in our lives. Life is hard. Life is difficult. We face things that make us want to give up. You say, “After this, how can I go on? I don’t have anything to live for.” But we must recognize that God’s reality is greater than how we feel or how things appear to be – His name, Jesus, reminds us of that. Christmas is a message of hope.

2) MESSIAH – THE ANOINTED ONE (V. 18) It’s interesting that the NIV translated this word as “Messiah” because the original Greek manuscript actually uses the word “Christos” which is where we derive the word “Christ.” No, this is not Jesus’ last name. In fact, these two words are synonymous. “Messiah” is just the Hebrew word for “Christos” and they both mean “the anointed One.” Now, an important thing we have to note is that Matthew has given this title to Jesus. Many of us wouldn’t have caught it; but this would’ve been absolutely shocking to the readers, especially the Jews – it would’ve made them confused and maybe even furious. Let me explain.

The Messiah was a promised King from the Davidic line who would reign over Israel forever. As the anointed King, He would bring justice to His enemies and establish a kingdom that cannot be shaken (2 Sam. 7). So the Jews were anticipating and waiting for this Promised Messiah to come. And Matthew was indicating that their wait is finally over – the Messiah has come in the person of Jesus. But it was not the way they expected.

What was their expectation? The Jewish community expected the Messiah to defeat the Romans and reestablish David’s throne – to bring glory and power back to Israel. In other words, they anticipated a revolutionary king whose mission would be to liberate Israel from foreign occupation so that they will be free to serve God without fear of other nations. It would be glorious.

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coahtoronto.com ______But their expectations were shattered in every way. Jesus’ birth wasn’t glorious at all; rather it was humble and maybe even disturbing. Think about it. The reason why Mary had to give birth in a manger was because there was no room for them to stay. Everyone who could’ve given up their space, or at least share, chose not to. This young couple was rejected everywhere until they had to settle down at a barn. The long-awaited Messiah was born in a manger because He was rejected by everyone. Even when we look at His life, it was nothing like what they expected. Jesus didn’t overthrow the Roman Empire and reestablish David’s throne over Israel. Rather, according to Mark 8:31, His ultimate mission was to “suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and be killed and after three days rise again.” Jesus’ mission wasn’t to bring political victory but to die. The Jews couldn’t understand how Jesus could be the Messiah they have been waiting for.

But we must understand that God often works in ways that we don’t fully understand. And that’s exactly what happened here. The Messiah came but He didn’t come in the way or do what they expected. But the way Jesus came and the things He accomplished were exactly what God desired and what we ultimately needed. We see this idea being unfold also in our passage.

Verse 18 says this: “His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.” This story begins with a young couple that is preparing for their wedding. It was a joyous occasion. The anticipation was growing and everything was going the way they had planned. But something unexpected happens to them. It says, “But before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” Now, of course, Joseph has no idea that the Holy Spirit is involved. So when he comes to find out that Mary is expecting a child, he naturally assumes that she has been unfaithful to him and he begins to think about what he needs to do. Think about what Joseph must have felt: betrayed, angry, sad, or even crushed. The woman he loves and is about to marry has apparently been cheating on him. And she has the audacity to tell him that she became pregnant through the Holy Spirit. She’s not only lying about her unfaithfulness but now she’s blaspheming God. I wonder if Joseph ever thought to himself, “Why is this happening to me?” At the same time, Mary also probably thought, “Something good was going on. Why did God do this? I don’t understand why He would allow this to happen!”

Verse 19 tells us that Joseph was faithful to the law, which means that he knew and obeyed the law. So the right thing for him to do was divorce her as the law permitted him to do. Now, not only was Joseph faithful to the law, he was also a good man. He didn’t want to expose Mary to public disgrace; so he decided to quietly seek a divorce. He probably thought this was the best thing he could do out of this worst situation. But listen to what verse 20 says, “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.’” The angel basically tells Joseph to stay with Mary. Now, I want all of us to know that this would’ve been a very difficult decision for Joseph. Some people may think, “Oh an angel came and told him all these things. Of course, he believed.” I don’t think that’s true. It would’ve been still difficult because what the angel said wouldn’t have made sense to Joseph. “How can a virgin have a baby? Even if she really did become pregnant through the Holy Spirit, the whole community would find out and they have no idea of this possibility of virgin birth. Think about the things they’ll say about me.” It would’ve cost him so many things just to obey. He must have asked, “Why do I have to give up so much?”

Joseph didn’t understand why these things were happening to him. But we know that the way God worked in Joseph’s life was in line with God’s sovereign and good plan – and it was what we all ultimately needed. If we’re honest with ourselves, this still doesn’t settle well with us, because we want to know and understand everything that is happening in our lives. And I think this is the primary reason why we have difficult time going through suffering or facing realities that we didn’t expect. Maybe some of you are asking the same questions that Joseph asked: “Why is this happening to me? Why do I have to give up so much? Why is God doing this to me?” Brothers and sisters, if this is true, I want all of us to remember Proverbs 3:5-6, which says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” ______650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 4 of 6

coahtoronto.com ______According to this, God never asks us to understand why things happen the way they do – it actually tells us not to lean on our own understanding but instead trust in the Lord with all your heart and submit to Him in all our ways. Only then He will make our paths straight.

This should bring some light in our darkness because it’s not that we are to practice blind faith – “just believe because this is how it’s going to be.” Rather, it calls us to trust in the Lord because He is sovereign and good, and most importantly is working for us. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” It’s true that we may not understand why things happen the way they do but we understand who God is. This is how our faith grows – faith begins with a death to self-trust and a beginning of trust in God. I’m not in any way trying to simplify things. I know how difficult this is because of what we see. But we must remember that faith is not about being optimistic but passionately thinking about God, who is able to do all things. Knowing that our God is good and that He’s working for the good of His people, we can persevere through the difficulties of life and obey God even when He works in ways that we cannot understand.

And this is exactly what we see. The angel never really explained how the virgin birth works. He never explained why God was doing all these things other than the fact that what’s happening to Joseph and Mary was good because through this child, people will be saved from their sins. And despite all the questions, confusions, and doubts that Joseph may have had, verse 24 tells us that Joseph submitted and obeyed by taking Mary home as his wife.

Christmas is a time for us to believe and have faith in the Messiah who came to save us. Trust and obey. He may not be the Messiah we imagined, but He certainly is the Messiah we need. He may not have conquered the nations or give us all that we want (jobs, marks, relationships, money, sex, etc.); but He conquered death and through it He gives us what we truly need – salvation from our sins. Joseph believed and submitted. Will you? Christmas is a message of faith.

3) IMMANUEL – GOD WITH US (V. 23) Verse 23 is actually a direct quote from Isaiah 7:14. And Matthew tells us in verse 22 that Jesus’ birth is the fulfillment of this Isaiah passage. Then in order for us to understand the implications of this claim, it would be helpful for us to understand the context of Isaiah 7:14.

Just after Solomon's reign, Israel had been split into two independent kingdoms, Northern kingdom called Israel and southern kingdom called Judah. In Isaiah 7, we read that there's been a military invasion by the Northern Kingdom into Judah. This threat has caused the people of Judah to shake in fear but God sends Isaiah to tell Ahaz (the king of Judah) and his people that this invasion will fail. God promises him that He will preserve the people of Judah and He will keep David’s son on the throne of Judah. God just asked Ahaz to trust Him. But out of fear, Ahaz refuses to believe. So God in His grace and mercy gives Ahaz a sign in order to strengthen his weak faith. Isaiah 7:14 says, “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” God says, “This is the sign I’m giving you – a virgin birth. Look for this sign. When this happens, you’ll know that My promise will be fulfilled. Trust Me; salvation will come.” But Ahaz didn’t believe God and turned to Assyria for help.

The history tells us that the invasion did fail but Judah was ultimately conquered. There was no virgin birth. There was no salvation. Maybe Ahaz was right. It seemed as though God’s Word had failed – until the birth of Jesus Christ. Here in our passage today, we see a virgin birth. God didn’t design Jesus to be born through a virgin because it would make a good story; no, it had to be done this way in order to fulfill His promise. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s Word.

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coahtoronto.com ______Now what's the message for us? The message for us, just like the message for Ahaz, is to trust God because He is faithful to us. He will never fail us. But His title tells us that there is a good reason why we can trust God. Immanuel means: “God with us.” Jesus promises that He will be with us. I shared before that it is often difficult for us to trust God especially in our suffering, because we’re not sure if God really is for us. How do we know He won’t abandon us? How do we know that we won’t be alone? But Jesus’ birth changes everything. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 2:6-8 about Jesus: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Jesus literally gave up everything He had to be with us so that we’re not abandoned.

Then we can’t help but to ask this question: “Why? Why would He want to be with us?” And the answer is simple: because He wanted to have a relationship with us. The reason why He gave up everything to be with us is not to enslave us but to do life with us – so that we may call this Almighty God our Abba Father; so that we may be called the sons and daughters of God. And He desired for a relationship because He loves us. Brothers and sisters, do you know that God loves you? Jesus’ birth reminds us of the depth of His love.

This truth seems unreal. “Why would God love us and care for us? We are His enemies; we are sinners; we are insignificant.” But it’s true. No matter how ridiculous this sounds, it doesn’t change the fact that God loves us. Romans 5:6-8 says, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I shared before that God initiated, carried out, and accomplished salvation for us. Now the way the Messiah came was not the way people expected but the way the Messiah carried out and accomplished this salvation was also unexpected. He did it by becoming sin for us. Our God became sin for us. As He bore all of our sins, all of God’s wrath was poured onto Him. Jesus died on the cross bearing the unbearable and painful penalty of our sins – hopelessness, abandonment, and death. All because He loves us. His love is crazy and radical – it doesn’t make sense. We cannot understand but it’s good for us. Christmas is a message of love.

APPLICATION I want to speak to those of you who haven’t given your life to Jesus yet. There is an invitation for you to start a relationship with Jesus so that you don’t have to live in that unending cycle of searching for hope. Only Christ can bring us true hope. Now, I understand how difficult this is. Starting a relationship with Jesus means that we must surrender our lives to Him. Everything that once gave us identity, security, hope, and life – we must give them to God. I know how hard that is. It’s scary. But don’t be afraid. Jesus will never let us down. He literally gave up His life for you. Jesus is the hope that we’ve been looking for. Enter into that relationship with Him today. And be satisfied in His love for you.

For those of you who profess Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, there is an invitation for you to strengthen and deepen that relationship with Him. It means that we must delight in spending time with God. It means that we must love Jesus and live for His glory at home, school, and work. It means that we are to extend this invitation to others who don’t know Jesus yet. And lastly, it also means that we must fix our eyes on God and trust Him at all times – yes, even in our suffering. This is possible because suffering ultimately doesn’t take away our joy – sure, we may lose many things in our suffering (health, pride, money, people, career, or reputation); but what we lose in our suffering is not where our joy is found. Our joy is found in Jesus the Messiah, our Immanuel. CONCLUSION As we anticipate for Christmas, remember that the name Jesus and His titles remind us of hope, faith, and love. He has come. And He will come again to finish His salvation plan once and for all to bring restoration. This Christmas, let’s celebrate the fact that Jesus’ birth changes everything and let’s live in anticipation for His second coming when we will be with the One who is our everything. Let’s pray. ______650 McNicoll Avenue, North York, Ontario, M2H 2E1 Page 6 of 6