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, God with Us, Has Come God with Us: Christmas according to Matthew Advent 2019 Kenwood Baptist Church Sermon Series Pastor Palmer December 8, 2019

TEXT: Matthew 1:18-25

Let’s open our to Matthew 1 as we look at this wonderful paragraph of God's inspired Word to us. Matthew tells us about the birth of Christ and how His birth brings peace to the world, the return of God's own presence to us. Let’s look closely at God's Word this morning. Matthew 1:18 begins our passage as Matthew narrates for us how the birth of Christ took place: “Now the birth of Christ took place in this way. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together [in physical union] she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” Matthew does not tell us exactly how Mary made this known to Joseph, but it must have been an awkward conversation for her to reveal to Joseph during their engagement that she was pregnant. The news of her pregnancy brought conversations that we are not privileged to have, but Joseph and Mary talked and discussed, and Joseph, Matthew tells us, was a righteous man. He was a just man, and upon receiving this news, hundreds of thoughts came through his mind, an awkward associated with this with this pregnancy, uncertainty about his own reputation, and fear of conversation of painful, apparent loss of innocence, the social embarrassment for himself and for his engaged, bride-to-be Mary, or Miriam. In the midst of these questions and uncertainties, Matthew tells us that Joseph's righteousness in this case was to act discreetly, that he resolved to act with discretion, and his intention was simply to divorce her quietly, not Page 1 of 9 in a large public way, but to end this engagement. It was his decision, his resolution, and really the resolution of his fear. He thought surely there'd been sin in some way, and yet his righteousness in this case was to act with discretion, and that was his decision. In the midst of this place, this resolve, Matthew tells us that as he considered these things, that is that course of action, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Theological dreams are precious treasures. God often comes to His people in a dream and chooses to do so. There are many examples in Scripture of people having theological dreams where God comes to them in a dream. I've had just a couple of theological dreams in my life, and each one of those was very special and at times of God's leading or confirming His will in a significant way. They were unsolicited, but they were just gracious gifts. So, God comes to Joseph in a dream. I’ve met many people in the world today that have met Jesus Christ in a dream. Many former Muslims have met Christ in a dream and believed upon Him.

An angel of the Lord comes to Joseph in a dream and begins with direct address in Matthew 1:28: “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.” We discover from this direct address that Joseph, like Mary, is of the line of David. A direct address is followed by direct comfort: “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife.” This direct comfort is grounded with a direct explanation. When God comes to us in a dream, the speech, the communication, is often very clear. “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife.” Why? The direct explanation to Joseph in the dream is to explain that “the Child that is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” What a stunning reversal from everything that Joseph had thought or expected, everything that he had assumed. The angel explains in a direct and clear voice that what's happening in this moment is from God. Sometimes we mistake God's Word and God's work because it's not according to our design or expectation. God's work in the world is often surprising, and the angel speaks with direct clarity: “This is God at work. The child in Mary's womb is from the Holy Spirit.” The angel of the Lord continues in Matthew 1:21 and explains to Joseph: “She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Finally, Joseph is given some direct instructions: “You, Joseph, shall call His name Jesus. You shall call the Child Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.” The name Jesus means Yahweh saves, and this child will be the very Agent of God Himself to save the world. This line is so significant that we are going to have an entire sermon next Sunday on the name Jesus. Look at Matthew 1:22. The direct address of the angel of the Lord is broken, or ended, with another voice. We read: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:”

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All of a sudden, we have moved from the angel’s direct speech to Joseph in a dream to Matthew's voice. Do you see the change? We move from an inspired event, the Holy Spirit's conception of the Child Jesus in Mary's womb, the inspired description or interpretation that's given to us by the angel in this inspired text, and now we have the voice, as it were, of the of the narrator—of the evangelist himself.

Our series this Advent is Christmas according to Matthew: God with us. In Matthew 1:22, we read Matthew's voice, Matthew’s inspired interpretation to the reader, to the hearer, of what's going on. God's Word contains a record, not only of inspired events; God's Word is given to us as an inspired text, and within that text, there is an inspired interpretation or explanation of the events we are reading about. The events of Scripture, or the events of our lives, are not self- interpreting, and this is critical for us as readers of the and as Christians today. The events of Christmas are not self-interpreting. The events of Jesus' birth and the gathering of the nations to bring Him gifts, the music of Christmas, these are not events that interpret themselves. They're not events that are subject to your own individual and private interpretation, either. New Christmas songs come out every year, and some of them are good; some of them are less than good. Some of them won’t be sung in five years or ten years. Some of them won’t be sung next year. As we grapple with the meaning of Christmas, I want to point out to us this morning, and to dive in a little deeper, here to the reality that in the Scripture, we have an inspired interpretation of the event. It's Matthew who tells us that all of these events, all of these things, happened to fulfill the Word that the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

The graphics for this Advent series are inspired in part by a very famous painting. It's a painting called The Inspiration of Saint Matthew. It was done in 1602 by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio. It was commissioned by a French Cardinal Matteo Contarelli, and this painting hangs inside of the chapel in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, Italy. This church was built in 1589, and it's the national French church in Italy. There are famous figures from French history all around the outside of the church—Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, and others, but people don't linger long on the outside of this church. Everyone who visits this church, visits it in order to come inside the church and turn to the left and see this chapel. It's the Chapel of Contarelli, inside the left side of the church. Inside this chapel, there are three giant paintings by Caravaggio.

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On the left side is a painting about the calling of Matthew. It's a fantastic painting that works with light to show light shining into Matthew’s face the moment that he was called to follow Jesus.

On the right side of this triptych of paintings is Matthew's death, his martyrdom. Matthew was killed giving testimony to Christ in AD 74.

The central painting is the one that concerns us the most this series, and it's the painting that captures people's attention when they come into the Contarelli Chapel. It’s this beautiful painting of Matthew and an angel hovering above him. In this painting, we see an angel wrapped in a white cloth and Matthew was at his desk. Of course, Caravaggio painted this according to the artistic conventions and imagination of how people wrote in the Middle Ages, so we have to give the painter some poetic license. The scholar says: “This isn’t exactly how people sat and wrote in the first century,” but I can live with that. Art is given to us by God to help us see the world in new ways, and in this painting, Caravaggio draws our attention to this dynamic of inspiration. It is as though the angel is prompting Matthew. It's a picture of us sensing how God's Word is actually brought to life. Matthew leans to work and the angel enumerates the work for him. The Bible gives us Matthew's own voice. Unlike other religious traditions, when God comes upon the biblical writers, their personality and vocabulary is not eliminated. The angel does not override Matthew. Matthew is still Matthew, and yet God, breathing out His Word through a human author, helps us understand the meaning of what's really happening. Matthew's Gospel is unique in so many ways. Matthew’s Gospel has more quotations than all of the other gospel writers combined. Matthew writes as someone saturated in Scripture, and Matthew invites us to see that Christmas, according to Matthew, is that these events—the birth of Christ, His conception by the Holy Spirit, His coming into the world—actually fulfill God's Word, and we need Matthew to tell us so. Matthew’s inspired interpretation of these events is heralded for us by a passage that he quotes in Matthew 1:23:

“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

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Matthew's line in this verse is actually a quotation from the greatest of 's prophets, . In Matthew’s quotation of this line, Matthew tells us that the events of Christmas happened to fulfill what God had spoken here.

So, let's follow the evangelist; let's follow the Gospel writer as to what God said in Isaiah that's being fulfilled here now. It’s stunning. It's a triptych of sorts. Just as Caravaggio's Chapel has these three paintings, there are three passages that are being drawn and echoed here forward. You’ll remember that Isaiah, the greatest of Israel's prophets, had ministered in the eighth century BC during the reigns of , Jotham, , and , kings of , and Isaiah ministered at a time when God's people were trapped and bound in sin. As they were bound in sin, :18 says:

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

Isaiah saw the sin of the nation, and yet he saw the promise that God would purify and cleanse the nation. In Isaiah 5, Isaiah laments the sin of Israel, and in :3, he is given the great vision of God's holiness in the temple where he overhears the Seraphim singing: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" Isaiah says: “I live among a unclean people,” and yet he is purified and sent out on mission. Then we turn to :1, and read:

“In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, the king of Syria and the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.”

In Isaiah 7, we are brought into the very specificity of a war. I just had a conversation with our son Jonathan about a war. He just turned 18, and so he had to register for select service. He was asking me questions about that and what happens, and I was telling him that my generation was the first generation in US history that never had a threat of imminent war in my primary fighting years, so my generation is untested. Some of you have known war up close and personal; others have served near at hand. The reality of the war in Isaiah 7, or the threat of war, brings terror to the house of David. We read in Isaiah 7:2:

“When the house of David was told, ‘Syria is in league with Ephraim,’ the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.”

There was this threat of war: Syria in league with the northern kingdom of Israel, ready to mount an attack and destroy Jerusalem and Judea. This threat of war strikes terror in the heart of the King Ahaz. He is fearful for his own life; he is fearful for the life of his kingdom. Isaiah comes to Ahaz and tells him to ask a sign of the Lord. Here’s a man who is trembling for his life. He knows that God's judgment is real; he knows that the sin of the nation is real. He stands with

Page 5 of 9 the threat of imminent war and judgment, and he is terrified, and Isaiah says: “Ask for a sign.” Ahaz, with a false sense of piety, says in Isaiah 7:12: “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." But, Isaiah says to Ahaz in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” God gives a sign in this very specific, historical moment where it seems that the king's life and the future of his kingdom is about to end. Sin of the nation brings about this place of judgment and threat, and yet God acts to give a sign. The sign is of a Child, and the Child's name is Immanuel, God with us. This is God's answer, God's answer to: “How do you get from the sin of the nation to the glorious vision of Isaiah that the nations will stream to worship God? What will happen to the sin of the people?” It’s all bound up in the sign of this Child: “A Child is born – Immanuel.” Isaiah continues in :6 telling us more about this saving, ruling Child. In Isaiah 9:6, the prophet says: “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isn’t that a comforting line? The government of the world rests upon the shoulders of this Child! He is given four extraordinary names in Isaiah 9. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. This is no ordinary child. He will be Everlasting Father: His rule will never end. He will be Prince of Peace. This Child, Emmanuel, God with us, will rule and reign. He will be divine; He will bring peace. Isaiah 9:7 says: “Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end.” His rule and reign, His bringing of peace, will not have a limit. He will sit on the throne of David and over his kingdom. He will uphold and establish it with righteousness for evermore. It’s an extraordinary, extraordinary sign. This extraordinary Child.

Another description of this Child comes in , two chapters later, where Isaiah says again in Isaiah 11:1-2: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of , and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him.” (Remember, Jesse was David’s father.) This Son will be filled with the Spirit, and He will judge the earth with righteousness, and He will transform a violent and sinful and hostile world into a world of peace. Isaiah 11:9-10 says:

“They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall Page 6 of 9

stand as a signal for the peoples—of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious.”

Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, root of David, reigning forever—this is Isaiah's promise. This is the sign that Ahaz trembled to even ask for, and Isaiah said: “The Lord will give you the sign Himself.”

Dear brothers and sisters, this is the hope of peace. It comes through a Child who brings God back to His people. It's a sign that points to a reality of God with us in the Person of a Child, born as King, from the line of David, who will banish evil from the world and bring in everlasting righteousness and peace, whose life and, as we’ll learn next week, whose death will provide forgiveness for sins, and who will draw all nations to Himself. We would not know, were it not for Matthew 1:22-23, that the events of Christmas fulfill this hope. The Bible gives us not only an inspired recounting of events, but the Bible gives us an inspired interpretation of those events. That's why I really don't like the song, “Blue Christmas.” For me, it just seems to miss the main point. I’m not down on you if you love “Blue Christmas,” but there's more going on than a lost love, Isn’t there? There's more going on at this season than time with family. There's more going on in this season than gifts to be given and exchanged. What's going on in this season, dear friends, is that the living God has come to us in the birth of a Child, and this Child's name is Emmanuel. As I mentioned last Sunday, this word is precious to us. It is a word that is in Isaiah 7:14, and it’s a word, it's a name, that Matthew brings over, and I love this. Matthew transliterates this word, that is he writes this foreign word in the characters of a different language. Immanuel with an “I” is the Hebrew spelling; Emmanuel with an “E” is the Greek spelling. Most proper names in the English Bible follow the Greek spelling, although the “I” is making a comeback in modern translations. Even more important than the name is Matthew's parenthetical comment to us to tell us what it means. That little phrase in parentheses—which are not in the original as there is no punctuation in the original manuscripts—is Matthew's explanation that this name Immanuel means “God with us.” “Em” is the Hebrew preposition with. “Emmanu” means with us, and “el” is the short form of Elohim or God. Emmanu-el, God with us.

Dear brothers and sisters, we need Mathew’s inspired interpretation of the event to know what's happening, and you and I are called to follow in those footsteps, to be people who understand the meaning of these events. God didn't just do something; He did something in the world, and He caused it to be written down, and He caused it to be interpreted. Joseph Parker was a great preacher in London in the 19th century. He preached a whole sermon on this little phrase: “which being interpreted is” or, “which means,” Matthew 1:23. Parker says: “‘Which being interpreted,’ - that is what we need: a person to tell us the meaning of hard words and difficult things and mysteries which press too heavily upon our staggering faith. The interpretation comes to us as a lamp, we instantly feel the comfort and the liberty of Page 7 of 9

illumination. When we heard that word Emmanuel we were staggered; it was a foreign word to us, it brought with it no home associations, it did not speak to anything that was within us; but when the interpreter came, he placed his finger upon the word and said to us. The meaning of this word is God with us, then we came into the liberty and into the wealth of a new possession. “So we need the interpreter. We shall always need him. The great reader will always have his day, come and go who may. We want those who can turn foreign words, difficult languages, into our mother tongue; then how simple they are and how beautiful, and that which was a difficulty before becomes a gate opening upon a wide liberty.” Brothers and sisters, we must be interpreters of Christmas. We must be interpreters of Christmas so that we can interpret the birth of Christ and say: “God with us, Emmanuel.” We can say to those around us that you are not forgotten, you were not abandoned. God has come to us in Jesus Christ. “Though your sins be as scarlet, they will be white as snow.” Emmanuel, God with us. Immanuel, God with us. The Child born has been born, not just to be born as a babe, but to be born and to grow up and to give His life as a ransom for sinners, to die upon a cross and to be raised on the third day, and to rule and reign forever. There is no place, there is no people upon this earth outside the scope of His dominion. These are the events of Christmas and their interpretation according to Matthew.

I want us this morning to be interpreters of Christmas. You don't have to make up a meaning; you don't even have to download it. You can just follow the footsteps of this inspired interpretation to say the birth of Jesus means God is with us. The birth of Jesus is the turning point in God's metanarrative, His big story. The birth of Jesus signals the ending of exile. We saw that last week, and this morning, we see that the birth of Jesus marks the return of God's presence. Emmanuel, He is with us, to rule and reign forever. I have a dear friend from Germany. His name is Knut Heim. He’s a wonderful man, a jovial man, a great Old Testament scholar. Knut and I were talking recently about a time in our life when we were really surprised. I said: “When were you really surprised?” He said: “I was really surprised, perhaps the most in my life, on November 9, 1989.” Do you remember what happened November 9, 1989? When Knut was in Germany, he was serving in a fairly conservative Christian denomination, and they were having a large retreat at a retreat center in a rural area. Knut got into his car in the morning to drive to the retreat where he was speaking. He didn't turn the radio on as he drove to the retreat area, and when he pulled up at the retreat center, there were a few hundred people gathered. He got out of his car, and everyone was singing and dancing and drinking. He looked at me and said: “These were my people.” He looked at me like: “You know, they were German, they were drinking a little, okay. They were dancing, okay. They were singing.” He said: “The retreat hadn't even started. I got out of the car and said: ‘What’s happening?’ They looked at me and said: “Haven’t you heard?”’” In the time he had gotten into his car and driven several hours to the retreat, the Berlin wall had come down, and everyone was celebrating. The

Page 8 of 9 world had changed, and everyone was rejoicing. At the birth of Christ, something far more significant than the Berlin wall has come down. The wall between us and God has come down in the birth of Emmanuel, God with us. Some of the people close to you may not know. You may be singing and drinking and dancing, and you have to interpret what's happening for them. Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us has come! He brings peace to the world, and the wall between us and God has come down. Hallelujah! Amen! Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we magnify You. We praise You this morning. You are Emmanuel, You who brings peace to the world, and Father, we thank You for Your Word which tells us about these events: that You were conceived by the Holy Spirit, that You were born, Lord Jesus, for a purpose to save us from our sins, and that in Your birth, the hope of Your return comes true, that in Your birth, peace comes to the world. I pray for us, Lord, that You would embolden us to be humble interpreters of these events. Emmanuel, God with us, has come; peace, reconciliation, and the wall between us and God has come down. Would you stand together with me as we worship our King, Emmanuel.

Amen

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