This year for Advent, we are going through Matthew’s account of the events of the birth of Christ. And in Matthew’s gospel, the emphasis on fulfilled prophecy is extremely important. This is because it was written primarily for a Jewish audience. Last week (Abraham and David). And here we see the word spoken through the prophet Isaiah if fulfilled: “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means God with us)”. 

God is given many names in the bible. What seems to be unique about this one is it implies that all that God is, all that he does, in all the holy scriptures… this God is with his people. Of course, it  refers to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and God becoming man. So Immanuel, God with us is with us in a way he was not before. The OT testifies that God was with his people. 

In Numbers 14:8-9 - 8 If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” Twice in Psalm 46 (v. 7,11), it says, “The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

In fact, Moses, in his prayer to God in Exodus 33, says that the thing that distinguishes God’s people from all the other people on the earth is that He goes with them. He is with them. So there is something about God being with his people that stretches throughout the bible. What we see here in the birth of Immanuel goes beyond God being with us like he was with Israel prior to Jesus coming. This event of the birth of Christ and the manner in which he came and is with us is new and better. And I want to show you that this morning. If you are a Christian, God is with you - profoundly with you. But first, let’s get a sense of what’s going on in this story. 

Matthew begins, not with Mary, but with Joseph. By the time we come to Matthew 1:18, we know that the events of Luke 1 have already happened. What must it have been like to Joseph? He must have been torn and disoriented. 

Verse 18 says Mary was betrothed to Joseph. A betrothal is similar to an engagement, but more binding. If you were betrothed, there was a pledge or promise to marry. And if you broke off a betrothal, it was not a situation where the man would ask for the ring back. It was like a divorce. That’s the language that is used in verse 19. It says Joseph resolved to divorce Mary. And given his situation, perhaps you would not blame him.  Mary was pregnant. Verse 18 says, “before they came together Mary was found to be with child.” The phrase, “before they came together…” means before they had sexual relations. So before Joseph could have possibly been a father, Mary was pregnant. 

I think we can assume Mary told Joseph her story. Luke 1 records for us how this all came about, and I just want to read it for you (Luke 1:26-37 READ). Mary thought getting pregnant was impossible. And when she told Joseph, he thought it was too. So Joseph was going to divorce Mary. He wanted to do it in a way that didn’t publicly shame her, but it was over. And then verse 20 says “as Joseph considered these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and said,

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, for he will save his people from their sins. (v. 20-21)

The angel of the Lord confirms four things: 1) Mary is pregnant, 2) it is from the Holy Spirit, 3) the name (same as told to Mary), and 4) the divine nature of this child (a Savior - One who will “save his people from their sins; and “who can forgive sin but God alone”). Joseph does a complete 180. Verses 23-24 tell us that Joseph woke up from his dream; he did everything the angel commanded him - he took Mary as his wife, and she remained a virgin until she had given birth. And when the baby born was named Jesus. This brings us to the center of this passage, which is verses 22-23. This was to fulfill what God had spoken beforehand. This was a fulfillment of prophecy. Listen:

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Immanuel, God with us. How is this new and better than God being with his people before? I want to draw out four things. And the first is paramount and bleeds into all the others:

1. Jesus is God with us in our nature  
2. Jesus is God with us as our Savior 
3. Jesus is God with us as our ever-present Helper 
4. Jesus will be God with us face to face, forever 

First, Jesus is Immanuel, God with us in our nature. The angel of the Lord told Joseph, “that which conceived in [Mary] is from the Holy Spirit…” So there is a human being conceived in Mary… and the conception is “from the Holy Spirit”. This is a miraculous birth. In the birth of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, without ceasing to be God, became man. A birth unlike any that has ever happened. The apostle’s creed says Jesus was “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary”. This language is right out of Matthew 1 and Luke 1. The baby in Mary’s womb was God in the flesh. The wonder and glory of Christmas is not the angelic visitations or the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem. The wonder of Christmas is that the true and eternal God - worshiped by angels, infinite in majesty, wisdom, glory, and power entered time and space in the womb of a peasant girl and was laid in a manger upon his birth. 

The Son of God in the flesh was not sort of half man, half God. Hebrews 2:18 says he was made like us in every respect. Yet, Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily.” Jesus was not partially God when came into the world. He is Immanuel, “God with us”. You may disagree (which is fine), but I think this is the greatest and most central miracle of the Christian faith. Jesus healing, raising the dead is amazing… Jesus rising from the dead is glorious. But God becoming a man? It seems to be going the opposite direction. This seems to be a sign of weakness. God taking on a human body. But it is truly a wonder of wonders. For God is with us in a way the OT saints never knew. By taking on our nature, he has lived the entire human experience. He has walked in our shoes. He has walked through sorrow, temptation, rejection, hardships, and death etc. And because of that He can be truly sympathetic toward us. Hebrews 4 says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.” The Son of God is touched by and knows our weakness experientially. Dorothy Sayers (friend of Lewis) said,. 

For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is— limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death—He had the honesty and the courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game He is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from Himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair and death. When He was a man, He played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile.

He is Immanuel, God with us in our sorrow, temptation, rejection, hardships, defeat, and death. And because Immanuel is with us in this way, he is able to be sympathetic to us… compassionate toward us, not from afar, but intimately acquainted with us. O Holy Night: “He knows our need. To our weakness he is no stranger…” He is Immanuel, God with us. But we can’t stop here. Jesus is Immanuel, he was made like us in every way, [Second], in order to be our Savior.

That’s what the angel said to Joseph: the baby in Mary’s womb will be called Jesus, “because he will save his people from their sins.” If Jesus only came to us to be in some sort of solidarity with human beings, we might think that nice of him. But we need more than just that. If Jesus came to be merely an example to us for how we are to live as image bearers of God, we might thank him. Because he certainly does show us a better way to live. Jesus is our example… we are to follow him… follow his example. But we don’t in the first instance need an example or solidarity in our hardships. 

We need a Savior. The angel said to the unassuming shepherds, “Unto you is born in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” This utterly unique Person, Jesus Christ, born of the virgin, God in the flesh, is uniquely suited to be just the kind of Savior we need. Which is good news, because there is no other! You see, as the God-man, Jesus Christ is able to mediate a peace agreement between a holy and just God and sinful rebels against God. First Timothy 2:5,

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all.

So Jesus Christ represents both sides perfectly. And he can bring the two parties at odds - God and rebel sinners together. Because Jesus is a true man, he is able to sympathize with human beings under a load of temptation, sin, and suffering. And he is able to suffer and die for them. And yet, as true God, Jesus Christ is also able to satisfy divine justice - the justice sinners deserve. And he is able to secure and perfect and eternal redemption for us. He brings us back to God! Reconciliation! First Peter 3:18,

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.

That’s the goal of salvation; the goal of the gospel is reconciliation - for God to be with us and for us to be with Him. Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us in our nature in order to be our Savior. 

[This may bring up a question. But is he with us, present now? Yes! A thousand times yes!] 

Third, Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us as our ever-present Helper by His Spirit. The last thing Jesus said to his disciples before ascending was, “I am with you always to the very end of the age…” Always with you. In what way is Jesus present with us to the end of the age? He dwells within us by the Holy Spirit. The Nicene Creed states, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son…” The Holy Spirit, who is (fully) God, is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Jesus told his disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). How will he come to us? Right before this, he promised the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of adoption… who is with us and in us forever (John 14:15-17). He comes to us, is with us, is IN us by His Spirit. 

Without nitpicking… I think this is important. Just like Jesus shows us what the Father is like, he also shows us what the Spirit is like. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). If you want to know what the Spirit who dwells in you is like, look at Jesus. Look to the gospels. What is he like? We should never think of the Holy Spirit as some nebulous, impersonal force. The Holy Spirit, the Helper who is with us and in us forever, is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9). Jesus is Immanuel - God with us. 

Fourth, Jesus is Immanuel, who will be with us face to face forever. Our final hope is to be brought into his full presence and see Him face to face. The beatific vision. We will look upon the One who in love came down and became like us; the One who bled to save us. We will look upon the One who has been with us every step of the way and see him face to face and be with him forever. 

Jesus is Immanuel. What more could we ask for? What more could he do or promise to do? He is our loving, sympathetic brother (bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh), our perfect Savior, or ever present help by His Spirit, our dazzling hope for the future. He is Immanuel. Charles Spurgeon wrote a poem entitled Immanuel. 

When once I mourned a load of sin, When conscience felt a wound within,
When all my works were thrown away, When on my knees I knelt to pray,
Then, blissful hour, remembered well, I learned Thy love, Immanuel!

When storms of sorrow toss my soul, When waves of care around me roll,
When comforts sink, when joys shall flee, When hopeless griefs shall gape for me,
One word the tempest’s rage shall quell, That word, Thy name, Immanuel!

When for the truth I suffer shame, When foes pour scandal on my name,
When cruel taunts and jeers abound, When “Bulls of Bashan” gird me round,
Secure within Thy tower I’ll dwell, That tower, Thy grace, Immanuel!

When hell, enraged, lifts up her roar, When Satan stops my path before,
When fiends rejoice and wait my end, When legion’d hosts their arrows send,
Fear not, my soul, but hurl at hell, Thy battle-cry, Immanuel!

When down the hill of life I go, When o’er my feet death’s waters flow,
When in the deep’ning flood I sink, When friends stand weeping on the brink,
I’ll mingle with my last farewell, Thy lovely name, Immanuel!

When tears are banished from mine eye, When fairer worlds than these are nigh,
When Heaven shall fill my ravish’d sight, When I shall bathe in sweet delight,
One joy all joys shall far excel, To see Thy face, Immanuel!

Is there a sweeter name that could come upon your lips than Immanuel? Beloved, if you are in Christ you should never think of yourself without Immanuel. You should never think of yourself without a God who is near and sympathetic to you in your life-struggles. You should never think that you are without a Savior who has bled and died to take away your sins in order to bring you to God. You should never think of yourself apart from his real help in every time of need. And you should never think that your final end in these mortal bodies will be met with anything other than the bliss of seeing Immanuel face to face. He has come to you. He was born for you.

And so if you are discouraged today or suffering some painful trial or loaded down with a weight of guilt and sin or hopeless about the future, come to Him. He has come to you. Come to him.

His name, His sweet glorious name is Immanuel - God with us. He is with us. And he is for us. And if Immanuel is for us, who or what can be against us? (Romans 8:31). Let’s pray.