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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from
God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
All this took place to fulfil what was spoken
by the Lord through the prophet, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means, ‘God with us’.”
Prayer:
Lord God, our heavenly Father, enlighten our darkness with the light of your
Holy Spirit, so that I may preach well and we all may hear well, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
In our Gospel reading today, we have a wonderful prophecy
from the prophet Isaiah about the birth of Jesus. And we are also told the
history of how this prophecy was fulfilled. So in our sermon today, we are
first of all going to look at this prophesy, and how it came about. Then, we’re
going to look at our Gospel reading and how it was fulfilled.
The prophecy goes like this: Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.
These words were spoken by God at the time of the prophet
Isaiah to King Ahaz. Ahaz was one of the Kings of Judah, and he was from the
family of King David. He is not a king that we think about too much—normally we
think about the famous kings like David or Solomon. But it’s important for us
to know a little bit about him so that we know about the prophecy that was
spoken to him.
King Ahaz was actually one of the worst kings that Judah had
up to that time. Often the bible talks about the kings by saying, “He did right
in the sight of the Lord” or “He did evil in the sight of the Lord.” Ahaz was
one of those kings who did evil. And the reason why he did so much evil is
because for him everything was subjective, everything was about his feelings,
and what felt good. It didn’t matter whether something was good, or right, or
true.
Let me gives a couple of examples of this. King Ahaz had
gone to meet the King of Assyria in Damascus. You might know the city of
Damascus from the news today—Damascus is one of the oldest capital cities that
still exists. Today it is the capital of the war-torn country of Syria. King
Ahaz went to Damascus and went into a pagan temple, and he saw the altar in
there and he thought it was…nice. He must have thought, “Wow—these people in
Damascus really have a good sense of taste. They must be really spiritual
people to have such nice things like this altar.” And so King Ahaz commanded
the priest in Jerusalem to build an altar for God just like it, and to replace the
altar that was in the temple in Jerusalem. Now, what’s wrong with that, you
might say? Well, God had actually given the exact measurements of the altar,
and had specified exactly what it should look like to Moses. If you read the
book of Exodus, after all the things about the history of the people being lead
through the Red Sea, there are pages and pages where God outlines exactly how
the altar, the lampstands, the bowls – and all kinds of things – should be
built, and how they should be laid out. God didn’t leave these things to people’s
imaginations; he himself gave specific instructions.
And so, what did King Ahaz do? He replaced the altar which
God had planned, with some altar he saw in Damascus, just because he thought it
looked pretty and it made him feel good. And the priest back in Jerusalem did
everything the king said without batting an eyelid. Since when did the people
in Damascus have better taste in architecture and interior design than God?
But also, we read in 2 Kings 16, that King Ahaz did some
other things as well… He must have gone to the temple and saw all the things
that were going on there. He saw the priests there doing what God had commanded
them to do—they were offering their burnt offerings of lambs, and doing
everything they do, and he thought… all this is a bit boring, isn’t it? And
then he went for a look around and he saw how the Canaanites worshipped their
gods, and they weren’t sacrificing lambs, but they were sacrificing their own
children. They would burn their children with fire and offer them to their god
Moloch.
And then King Ahaz thought, “These people are really
spiritual—they are really devout. They are really on fire for their god. Maybe
we could do the same thing too.” And so King Ahaz did exactly that and burnt
his own son as an offering with fire.
Can you see that all this happened because King Ahaz didn’t
listen at all to God’s word, but just did what he felt was right? He listened
to his own heart, instead of to God.
As soon as we listen to our own hearts and only do what
feels right, then we have no need for God, but God has a word to speak no
matter how we feel. God’s word and our feelings are not the same thing, as King
Ahaz thought.
But you know, we are living in times when people also are
thinking like King Ahaz. There are plenty of Christians who go around and look
at what the pagans do, and how they pray, and they think, “Those people are
much more spiritual that we are, let’s do what they do, and make it Christian,
and then we can be really spiritual too.”
For example, take yoga. Yoga is the heart and centre of the
Hindu religion. Hindus believe that everything is god and that god is in everything.
And so they practise yoga, and perform all kinds of exercises, to connect themselves
with all kinds of spirits, and to awaken the snake spirit in them. And then
Christians see these people doing this, or they see these healthy-looking young
women sitting cross-legged in their active-wear, and they think: “Look how
peaceful they are. If only I did the same, I too could be as spiritual as they
are.” And so, people think, if I do all the same things, and empty my mind, and
say “om, om, om” for half an hour, and repeat some mantras, instead of meeting
the snake-spirit, I can meet Jesus inside of me and the Holy Spirit. – It doesn’t
work like that. Just because it feels good, doesn’t mean that God wants you to
use it to worship him or to find him.
Or we might think of the way in which young people,
teenagers, are manipulated, by bringing them altogether and hyping them all up,
sugaring them all up, and then right when they feel vulnerable and emotional,
and softening them up with the right kind of music, then we tell them to give
their lives to Jesus. – This isn’t Christian conversion. Just because it feels
good, or feels a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s the Holy Spirit.
Or remember King Ahaz wanting to build an altar like the one
in Damascus. And there’s plenty of people who have holidays in Bali or Thailand
or Japan or China, and see the lovely green gardens with statues of Buddha, and
think how peaceful they are. So they think, maybe I should put a Buddha statue
in my garden too! – Why? It’s a statue of a god that doesn’t exist and that you
don’t worship.
God’s word is God’s word. And often people think it’s a bit
boring, or it’s a bit “blah-blah”, or it’s all a bit the same. This is what
King Ahaz thought, and instead he just did what felt right. And in doing so, he
was one of the worst kings Judah had had up until that time.
Now, there was a time during King Ahaz’s reign when Jerusalem
was going to be invaded, and King Ahaz was worried. But God sends his prophet
Isaiah to King Ahaz to tell him not to worry. After all, even though King Ahaz
was a terrible king, he was still from the lineage of David. And God had
promised that David’s line would continue forever. God says to David: Your
throne shall be established forever.
And so we read in Isaiah: Because Syria, with Ephraim and
the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you saying, “Let us go up against
Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves… thus says the Lord:
It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. [God says: Don’t worry.
I am a faithful God and I will defend my own people.] For the head of Syria
is Damascus and the head of Damascus of Rezin. And within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is
Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. [What’s he talking
about? He’s saying: He says: Don’t worry about them. They’re just men, and they
have nothing but mere men in charge of them. But I will fight for my own
people! And then he says:] If you are not firm in faith, you will not be
firm at all.
What wonderful comforting words! God encourages Ahaz to be
firm in faith. He wants Ahaz to remember his promise to King David that his
throne will continue forever, and to trust in that word.
But then God does something very special for King Ahaz. He
says: Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as
heaven. God says to King Ahaz, I am going to give you a sign that will
confirm and strengthen you in faith so that you can look at it and remember
that I am faithful. Tell me what you want! Choose a sign, any sign, and I will
do it for you!
But you see, Ahaz hasn’t been a follower of God for a long
time. He has been bored with God’s word, and he has been following his
feelings. And so he says: I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the
test. What’s wrong with you, Ahaz? God just gave you the greatest offer
ever! Why are you turning him down?
It’s like those people who come to church and say, “I would
never dare to presume that my sins are forgiven.” What are you talking about?
God actually sent you a pastor to speak that forgiveness to you, and give you
that forgiveness in his name, and you’re too holy to believe it? What’s wrong
with you?
And so the prophet Isaiah says to Ahaz: Hear then, O
house of David! 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 shall
conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Sound familiar? Yes it does! We hear these words every
Christmas! We have heard them in our Gospel reading today.
What’s going on though is God is saying: King David’s throne
will continue, and it will continue forever, and it will continue in a
marvellous and miraculous way. And yet, the kings of Judah, and the kings of
Israel, will fail miserably. Don’t put your trust in princes. They will worship
idols, they will burn and kill their babies, they will destroy the worship in
the temple that God had set up. But I will remember my promise to King David.
And so, what happened in history? There were many kings, and
many terrible kings. And eventually, God put an end to the kings, and the
people of Israel were sent into exile to Babylon, and when they returned, eventually
the Romans took them over, and it looked like God had not kept his promise, and
that the kings had all finished. Until the event we read about in our reading
today.
Our gospel reading today tells us about how this prophecy
was fulfilled.
If you open up a bible and read the beginning of the Gospel
of Matthew, the beginning of the New Testament, what do you find there? You
find Jesus’ genealogy. And one of the people in Jesus’ genealogy is King David.
And if you keep on reading you also come across King Ahaz.
Now, after all of that, this is what we read: Now the
birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child
from the Holy Spirit.
Now, in those days, before a couple would become married,
they would become betrothed. This is much like when a couple become engaged.
They have made a commitment to each other to get married, but they are not
married yet. And they would not sleep together before they were married. And in
those days, an engagement would often last about 9 months. Why? Well, 9 months of
engagement would prove that the woman was not carrying someone else’s child!
And so, if a couple was engaged, and all of sudden, the
woman was found to be pregnant, it would be of great shame, of course.
And so, it says: When his mother Mary had been betrothed,
before they came together, she was found to be with child. But Matthew
tells us very specifically, that this child was not from another man, but from
the Holy Spirit.
Now, can you imagine what Joseph must have thinking? We
read: Her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to
shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Joseph, we are told, was a just
man. We could say, he was a “righteous man”. We might say, he was an honest
chap, he wanted to do the right thing. And it is a wonderful thing for a person
to be like this. St Paul writes to Titus that we should live self-controlled,
upright and godly lives in this present age. “Self-controlled” refers
to how we conduct ourselves, “upright” refers to how we treat others, and “godly”
refers to how we live before God. Matthew is telling us here that Joseph was
this kind of person: he was self-controlled, upright and godly. He wanted to do
the right thing by God and by other people. He was a just, righteous man. We
might say, he was “conscientious”. He thought things through. And he thought
through this whole situation, and he carefully churned it all over in his mind,
and he came to the conclusion that he would call off the engagement quietly. He
didn’t want to make a big fuss.
Sometimes we also find ourselves in a situation where we’re
not sure what to do. We don’t know how we should move forward in our life, and
we think about it and we think about it, and then we work out what we think is
the best idea, even if we’re not entirely happy with it. And yet, we still
worry, we still anguish over it. And then we remember those words of Jesus: Which
of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? In other
words, Jesus says, let me worry about it. And just when we think we’ve got it
all sorted, Jesus comes and changes the whole game, and sends us completely
where we didn’t expect.
Remember the women going to tomb on Easter Day who get
halfway there and think, “Hang on a minute! How are we going to roll the stone
away?” And then they get there, and God has sorted the whole problem out for
them. He has sent his angel to roll away the stone.
And in the same way, Joseph is worrying and anguishing, and
he’s got it all worked out. He says, “I’m going to divorce her quietly. It’s
the only way I can get out of this bad situation. It’s the best thing I can do.
It’s the best thing for everyone.” And right at that very time, when Joseph is
thinking this, what do we read? Well, this isn’t about Joseph, this isn’t about
Mary. This is about God and his word, and his prophesies being fulfilled. And
so God sends his angel to come to Joseph in a dream. It’s amazing how we read
about Joseph, about his desires, about his mind ticking over, and about his
conscience. Now we read about his dream. How closely God involves himself with
Joseph! And the angel says: Joseph, son of David, [very important! He is
from the same family as King Ahaz!] 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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, and for he will
save his people from their sins.
Do you see how everything so closely follows the prophecy? That
which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. That fulfils the words: Behold,
the virgin shall conceive. The angel says: She will bear a son. This
fulfils the words: The virgin shall conceive and bear a son. The angel
says: You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their
sins. This fulfils the words: They shall call his name Immanuel, which
means, God with us.
Now, why is it that Jesus is called Jesus and not Immanuel?
Well, the prophecy is not fulfilled in such a way that we should think that that
this baby Immanuel is going to be just another king like Ahaz. We are not
talking about any earthly king, but we are talking about a king who will save!
And this is a king who will not simply save his people from their earthly
enemies, but who will save his people from their sins. This is what the name Jesus
means: he saves. And so it says: You shall call his name Jesus, for
he will save his people from their sins.
Think of the many sins of king Ahaz… of King David… of King
Solomon. All of Jesus’ ancestors are full of sin. And yet, Jesus comes to save
his people from their sin. And at the same time it’s not just that he is simply
called Immanuel, but he really is true God with us. His father is
God the Father, and so Jesus is true God. But his mother is the virgin Mary,
and so he is a true man, is truly one of us. He is our Immanuel, God with us. Jesus
has God as his father, and a true human mother, and so he is both God and man
in one person. And this Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is the God who is with us, and who will
eventually go to the cross and die for the sin of the world. He will save
his people from their sins.
Think about the thief on the cross. He is a sinner, and he
is being punished for his crime by the Romans. And yet Jesus saves him. He
says: Today you will be with me in Paradise.
And so we read, that after the angel had put Joseph on the right
track, and intervened in his life and in his thinking and put his worries and
anxieties to rest, we read: 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.
I like it in this reading how even though Joseph is not the
biological father of Jesus, he is given a very important task to do. Mary will
give birth, but the angel says: You [Joseph] shall call his name
Jesus. Joseph is commanded to name the child. Actually, when the
angel Gabriel goes to Mary, he also says to her: You shall call his name Jesus.
The prophecy from Isaiah confirms this, and says: They shall call his
name Immanuel. This shows a beautiful unity in the marriage between Joseph
and Mary, and this unity comes from God’s word. The angel tells both parents to
call their baby “Jesus”. Can you imagine the joy when they realise this, and tell
each other?
You remember that when John the Baptist was born, everyone
was arguing about what he should be called. And Zechariah, John’s father, had
to come in and put his foot down, and settle the matter, and write down: His
name is John. With Mary and Joseph, there’s no disagreement, but perfect unity.
But not unity that comes from them and their strength, but from God’s word and
his power. Let that be a little encouragement to those of you who are married.
I for one know what it’s like to sit and have to work out what to call to a
child! If only my wife and I had it so easy as to be given the names straight
out of heaven by angels!
But Jesus has descended from heaven as our God! And so it’s
only natural that the angels should follow him! He is our Immanuel! And he is
our Jesus, our saviour from sin! And all this took place to fulfil what the Lord
had spoken by the prophet!
Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those with
who he is pleased! Amen.
Dear Lord Jesus, our Immanuel, our Saviour, come and descend
among us with your powerful word of forgiveness, and fill our hearts and lives
with the joy of your coming. Enter into our lives and into our every thought,
and when our last hour comes, save us from this sinful life and take us to
yourself in heaven. Amen.
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