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- Every year on this Sunday many churches around the world start preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus because it is the first Sunday of Advent.
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As we think about Jesus as the figure of advent, I think it's important to get
back to the basics.
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It's important to get back to the basics because we need to keep reminding
ourselves, remembering what the Christian faith is all about.
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I think the best way to do that this morning is to explore why it's important
that Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Why is it important that Jesus was
conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit? (Why is Jesus the New Immanuel?)
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The short answer to that question is our take-home truth for this week's
message: In Jesus, God is with us and we
are saved.
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As we look at our Scripture passage for today, let's place ourselves in
Joseph's shoes.
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We discover our betrothed is with child, pregnant!
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She comes to us with some story she's cooked up about an angel of God and being
with child of the Holy Spirit!
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Imagine the feelings of anger and betrayal.
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but being humble and righteous, we don't want to make a public spectacle of the
issue so we decide to end things quietly by presenting her with a certificate
of divorce.
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But before we can protect our reputations and dismiss her quietly what should
happen, but the Lord's angel appears to us confirming Mary's story and the
child within her conceived by the Holy Spirit.
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Imagine the shock, the shame, the frustration, and the relief Joseph
experienced all jumbled up inside him.
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Shock over the story that Mary told him being true.
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Shame over his unwillingness to trust Mary to be truthful with him.
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Frustration over the knowledge that he and his family would bear the shame of
infidelity unjustly for the rest of their lives.
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Relief in the knowledge of Mary's integrity and faithfulness to both Joseph and
to God.
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I imagine another feeling would also surface out of this mix, a feeling of awe
that the Lord God Almighty chose him and his beloved to rear Messiah, the
Savior of the world.
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The account now brings us to the most significant verses of this passage of
Scripture.
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20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be
afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the
Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a
son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their
sins.”
22 All
of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
23 “Look!
The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”
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There are few things in these verses that convince me as to how important they
are.
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First, the angel calls Joseph, son of
David.
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We know from the Old Testament histories and the prophets that God promised
that a descendent of David would sit on the throne of David forever.
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As a son of David, those born to Joseph's family line are heirs to David's
throne.
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Joseph was instructed by the angel to name the child Jesus and in so doing
adopts him as his own.
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As Joseph's adopted son, Jesus is David's son.
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Second, the child is conceived by the
Holy Spirit.
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This pregnancy was not a result of human passion or family planning, but God's
plans.
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As the Holy Spirit was present at creation, hovering over the face of the deep,
so also the Holy Spirit's power hovered over Mary to cause her to conceive.
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Mary's pregnancy was a pregnancy unlike any other, a pregnancy that was a
special, creative act of God.
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Therefore, the child conceived within Mary was unique, a child like no other, a
child born in the flesh, but not of the flesh.
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This child was conceived by divine will and received a divine character; he
would be born as a human being, yet he would be holy.
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Third, this child would save his people
from their sins.
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The name Jesus, the Greek form of Joshua, suits this child perfectly.
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Joshua comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua/Yeshua, meaning Yahweh saves.
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And this is no political Messiah, like people were generally expecting, this
Messiah would save his people from their sins.
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Isaiah 53 makes it very clear that the suffering servant described in the
passage suffers for the sin of the people, bearing their sins, while being an
offering for their sins.
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Let's read Eugene Peterson's Message translation of that chapter so we have the
general sense of it.
Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?
Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
2-6 The servant grew up before
God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.
7-9 He was beaten, he was
tortured,
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn’t true.
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn’t true.
10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
11-12 Out of that terrible
travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.
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This child would save his people from their sins.
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Fourth, this birth fulfills the words of
the prophet.
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Matthew was originally written for a Jewish audience, Bible scholars tell us,
so Matthew was concerned about the fulfillment of Scripture and he reminds his
readers that he's not just making this stuff up because the Scriptures
foreshadow, and foretell the coming of Messiah.
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Remember, "God will act in the future the way he has acted in the
past" (Evans, Matthew, 47).
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Matthew reminded his readers that just as the birth of the infant Immanuel was
a sign of God's salvation to Ahaz and the people of Judah, so also Isaiah's
prophecy foreshadows the coming Messiah, who would save and deliver his people
from their sins.
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In Jesus, God is with us and we are
saved.
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If the conception and birth of Immanuel to a young, unwed woman was a sign of
God's salvation to his people, then there can be no other way for us to
understand the surprising pregnancy of Mary (Evans, Matthew, 47).
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Jesus is the new Immanuel; through the person of Jesus Christ, God is with us.
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In Jesus, God is with us and we are saved.
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What if Jesus had not been conceived by the Holy Spirit?
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He could have been a son of David, but he would not have been the son of God.
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His birth would not have fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah.
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He could have died on a cross, but without being uniquely holy his death would
not have the power to save us from our sins.
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As the figure of advent, the stories of Jesus birth present us with God's good
news.
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God's plan all along has been to save people from their sins, and he sent his son
in the flesh to carry out this promise.
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You can receive that promise this morning.
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If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. - Rom. 10:9
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In Jesus, God is with us and we are
saved.
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