22nd December 2023

22nd December 2023


Pray (ACts)


Read - Matthew 1:18-25 (focus v23)


Message Alan Burke 


If you read Matthew 1:18-25 we are told in effect Jesus has two names. One being Jesus the other Immanuel. Today as we think of the ‘The Name Of Immanuel, ‘God with us’ v23’ we look to why that is the case. The name Jesus we have already thought about so let’s park that for a moment and think to what we are being told about Immanuel. The prophecy here that is being referred to is from Isaiah 7:14,  14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Is 7:13–14). The Lord was giving his people a sing, a virgin Mary who was with child, that was conceived within her by the power of the Holy Spirit but why was he called Jesus and not Immanuel, who is calling him Immanuel we have no record of Jesus being called Immanuel by his family or followers. Well the answer is simple, Jesus describes who he is and what he has done for he was the one who came as saviour, to save his people from their sins, Immanuel describes the event of the incarnation, how the every presence of God is with us through the Lord Jesus Christ, his coming. 


Jesus is Immanuel, he is God with us, he is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah and for those who have trusted in him, who have received him, who have believed in him, as we are saved by his grace, we have become children of God, born of the Holy Spirit, we in our lives testify to the truth of Immanuel for God is with us, within us. It is Immanuel, God with us who is the very reason for the churches existence. Both Jesus and Immanuel testify to us who Mary carried for those months in who womb, the saviour of the world who is God with us. Matthew’s gospel finishes with the words of Jesus “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20).


The coming of Jesus, Immanuel is something for us to marvel at, that the Lord God would intervene in the events of human history to bring salvation to us part of Adam’s sinful race. But it was not only his coming but his death that was prophesied. The promised one, the Christ Child was to die according to the plans and purposes of a Holy God, even before God created Adam and Eve he knew that they would sin, and even before their sin and the creation of the world he knew that he would send his only begotten Son to take the punishment that that sin deserves. Jesus was despised, rejected, stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted, to be pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, led like a lamb to the slaughter, cut of from the land of the living (Isaiah 53). 


The eternal son of God became man. And in becoming a man he did not cease to be God. And his becoming man was not a charade. The true God became a true man without ceasing to be fully divine and fully human. And on the cross God poured upon him all the sins of those who have received him, who have believed in his name, the sins remembered and forgotten, the sins not yet committed and gathered them from all the children of God throughout the ages, the sins of his people, Noah’s drunkenness, Jacob’s lies, how Moses murdered another man, Rahab’s profession, Marta’s worry, Peter’s denials, Alan Burkes selfishness and stupidity, and your sins remembered, forgotten, hidden, not yet committed and he poured it upon Jesus. In that moment the child that we celebrate his coming into the world cried out “Eli, Eli lema sabachthani,” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). 


It was not with the pain of the crown of thorns or the nail pierced hands or feet but our sin which he bore so that he could be Jesus, who saves their people from their sins and Immanuel God with us. If you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ this day know you have been bought with a price and live accordingly, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We deserve what he faced, each one of us, to be condemned for our sin which he did not share, yet it pleased God to make him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Co 5:21).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q22 How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, (Heb. 2:14,16, Heb. 10:5) and a reasonable soul, (Matt. 26:38) being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, (Luke 1:27,31,35,42, Gal. 4:4) yet without sin. (Heb. 4:15, Heb. 7:26)
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