december 18 2022
2022 Advent 4 December 18th
Old Testament: Isaiah 7:10-17
Psalm: Psalm 24 or 1
Epistle: Romans 1:1-7
Gospel: Matthew 1;(9)18-25
Sermon
Text: Matthew 1:18-25 (Isaiah 7:13-14)
Sermon Title: “A Son;
Emmanuel; God With Us”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign; behold the virgin will shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel”. (Isaiah 7:13-14) “Joseph, son of Davd, 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 will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins”. (Matthew 1:20-21) “Immanuel … means God with us”. (Matthew 1:23b)
Have you ever read the genealogies in the Bible or ever wondered why they are there? At the very least, they are there as a record of God keeping His promises to His people. Remember that shortly after the fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, God promised to send a Savior into the world to crush the head of the serpent, the devil through the offspring of the woman.
He later promised that this Messiah/Savior would come from the “House of David”. So, Isaiah speaks to King Ahaz, “Hear then, O House of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary God also”? (Isaiah 7:13) Ahaz was a descendant of King David, and the Messiah would come from his line; even though he did not believe it for himself. We saw this in the genealogy from Matthew, “Joram the father of Uzziah; and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz”. (Matthew 1:8b-9a)
Even though Ahaz, in his unbelief, would not choose a sign for himself, the Lord gave him one. You see, there is nothing that will stop the Lord from fulfilling His promises from of old. Isaiah proclaims; “the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call His name, Emmanuel”. (Isaiah 7:14)
The Lord gave him this sign, but this sign was not fulfilled until 700 years later in the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. The Gospel reading for this morning cites this same passage from Isaiah as being fulfilled in the birth of Christ. Matthew declares, “Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way”. (Matthew 1:18a) Everything that he is about to tell us was prophesied by Isaiah and happened just as he wrote.
“When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, (which was a much more serious commitment than our modern engagement.)before they came together, “she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit”. (Matthew 1:18b) This had been announced to Mary nine months earlier by the angel Gabriel who appeared to her saying, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus”. (Luke 1:31)
This news that his beloved Mary was with child, was too much for Joseph at first, so he, “being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly”. (Matthew 1:19) Though divorce was never considered a good thing, as Jesus would later instruct His disciples, it was allowed by Jewish law in the book of Deuteronomy where it reads, “if a man finds some indecency in his wife … (he can) write her a certificate of divorce and put it in her hand and send her out of his house”. (Deuteronomy 24:1b)
Even though it was not true, Joseph (naturally) thought there had been some indecency in Mary; and we can only imagine the pain and disappointment that he must have experienced. As painful as it was, and even though he still loved Mary, wanting what was best for her, it seems, he had determined to (as we say today) “get a fresh start”.
But he didn’t get very far in his plans to divorce her, for the Lord intervened. The Lord determined that what was best was not a divorce. The child Jesus would need a human father and protector as He was growing up. The events recorded in Matthew 2, which we will hear in a couple of weeks, make this clear.
“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”. (Matthew 1:20) So, not only had Mary not sinned, as Joseph assumed, the child was conceived “by the Holy Spirit”.
So, “do not fear” Joseph; for fear is the enemy of hope. Fear robs us of the assurance that God is in complete control; and hinders our prayers. So, we pray “Grant that we may with faithful perseverance receive from God, our sorrows as well as our joys, knowing that health and sickness, riches and poverty, and all things come by permission of His Fatherly hand”. (Altar Book, page 438)
In all this, Joseph simply believes and does what the angel declares. Not a word of his is recorded here, he simply listens to the voice of the angel and believes the words, “She will bear a Son, and you will call His name Jesus; for He will save His people from their sins”. (Matthew 1:21)
The words, “His people” here are not limited to the Jews, but are for all people alike”. Also, the name Jesus means; “The Lord Saves”. All of this is good news for us this morning, as we are all “poor miserable sinners” in need of what the Christ child came to do; to die on the cross, atoning for the sins of the whole world, that all who believe in Him might have eternal life. This is why the Christ child came; to suffer God’s wrath for our sins that we might not die eternally.
“All this took place to fulfill what was 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”. (Matthew 1:22-23) In the birth of Jesus, the sign given to Ahaz was fulfilled. God miraculously intervened in this world. The virgin Mary gave birth to a son who as both God and man in one person. He is truly “God with us”. (Matthew 1:23b)
We just sang of these wonderful truths in the opening hymn; “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel; and ransom captive Israel … O come Thou branch of Jesse’s tree (and) free them from Satan’s tyranny … O come Thou key of David come and open wide our heavenly home”. (LSB # 357, verses 1a, 4a, 5a) We (also)confess these great and gracious truths in the Creed whenever we gather. Jesus is “God with us”; His people, and He always will be.
He is God with us in human history in His birth in Bethlehem. He is God with us, every time we gather to hear His Word preached and receive His blessed sacrament; the Lord’s Supper. He is God with us in glory, when He comes again on the clouds of heaven. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday and today, and forever”. (Hebrews 13:8)
In contrast to King Ahaz who was the first to hear of this sign, Joseph believed the Word of the Lord, through the angel. “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”. (Matthew 1:24-25) Even though his future was uncertain and looked dark and difficult, Joseph trusted that God was “with him”, gladly fulfilling his vocations as both father and husband; provider and protector.
We too believe that in the birth of Jesus; God has kept the promise made long ago to Adam and Eve after their fall into sin; to send someone to crush the head of the serpent, the devil. Knowing He has kept every promise, we trust in His Word, that He will continue to do what He has promised, to be “God with us” until the end of time.
In Jesus, God has come to redeem the world, to redeem us, and He is coming again in glory to take us home. Therefore, we can sing with the whole church of God; “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee” Amen.
The peace of God …