Matthew 1:18-25 The Rescue Rescued from What? 1 Rev. Brian North December 6 th, 2015 This morning we continue our Advent series of sermons on the theme of Rescue, which we began last week, when we looked at the question of who will rescue us? And today we look at another question: From what are we rescued? And underlying that is an even more basic question, Do we need rescuing? In a lot of ways, this is the place to start this whole conversation of rescue, because if we don t need rescuing, then there s nothing from which to be rescued, and there s no rescuer needed. Swimmers at a beach don t need a lifeguard to rescue them if they re not in trouble in the water. And if we aren t in need of being rescued, then there s no rescuer needed. So, do we need rescuing? Is there a problem for which we need heavenly help to overcome? Well, in this passage, we re told that Jesus will be named Jesus because he will save people from their sins. Apparently, there s a problem, and it s called sin. It s a word that makes an awful lot of people uncomfortable because it s a word that has a history of being used in a very accusatory, judgmental kind of way. And that would make me uncomfortable, too. No one likes to be called a sinner by someone else, with fingers pointing at them, judgment condemning them and with a holier than thou attitude. I get that. That being said, there s a lot of sin in the world, and we all see it and its effects all the time: shootings like this last week in southern California, the bombings in Paris, hate language like that which has plagued Western Washington University recently, child abuse, sex trafficking, lying, cheating, stealing, and more. The fact is, sin and its effects are everywhere, and yet we re uncomfortable naming it that way, and not many people seem genuinely open to being rescued from it. So there is something from which we need rescuing, and we are unable to do it ourselves. And into the world comes Jesus, whose name means Yahwehh saves. Or, God saves. Now, as you probably noticed, there is more than one name given to Jesus in this passage. There s Jesus, and there s Immanuel. So where do these two names come from? What do they mean, why should you or I even care about the name? What's the big deal about Jesus, or Immanuel, or whatever he
should be called? I think that's the final question that really matters. Some of us might be intrigued by what's in a name...but when it's all said and done, the question to answer is: What's the big deal about the person of Jesus Christ? Well, his name gives us some insight into why he s a big deal. In many translations, there kind of appear to be three names used here in this passage. Jesus, Christ, and Immanuel. I want to start with what appears to be his last name, Christ. Many people wrongly assume that Christ is Jesus' last name. It's not. Christ is the Greek word, and it's really a title, with the same meaning as the Hebrew word, Messiah. They both mean anointed one. And in fact in the translation we read from just now, we read in verse 18, This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: Some translations say something along the lines of, This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about So you might say that when talking of Jesus, the more proper way to speak of him is to say Jesus the Christ. The problem is, given that many people think Christ is his last name, you'll probably have people thinking that the word the is his middle name. And that s just weird. Brian the North Karin the Darragh Tim the Weltz Lexie the Koga that just isn t right. So Messiah and Christ are titles one Hebrew, the other Greek and they mean anointed one. Jesus is the anointed one, who fulfills and even exceeds the prophecies of the Old Testament. A few verses later, in verses 22 and 23, Matthew quotes a prophecy from Isaiah that in Hebrew reads, The virgin (some translations read young woman ) will conceive and give birth to a son and will name him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). Before we get to the name Immanuel I want to make a side comment here. There is some debate over whether the text should read virgin or young woman. The Hebrew can go either way and probably your Bible has a footnote with the word that tells you that it could read either way. But, the end result is the same, because in that culture, unlike ours, a young woman and this really means someone who's not married a young woman like that was most certainly a virgin. So even if a virgin conception isn't literally what Isaiah was intending to prophesy, that's the implication. Matthew, writing in Greek several hundred years after Isaiah, uses a word 2
that translates more precisely, virgin. And he connects the dots for us that what Isaiah wrote some 800 years earlier has now been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Did Isaiah literally have a virgin birth in mind when he wrote the prophecy? The reality is, he probably didn't. And that's not how the Jewish community would have read it, either. But this doesn't make it any less prophetic. In fact, it shows us the providence of God and his guiding hand throughout the coming of our Lord and Savior. This revelation of a virgin birth was as unexpected to Matthew and the people of his day as it would be to us today! Matthew isn't taking this birth of Jesus and fitting it into a preconceived notion that there has to be a virgin birth as if they're all on the look-out for it. It's more like the light-bulb going on in his head and saying, This is what Isaiah was writing about, and it's bigger than even he envisioned. In Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophesied 'Immanuel', which means, God with us. So the one who is to come, and who is ultimately to be named Jesus, is God with us. This is the incarnation of God in human flesh. Notice it's not God like us or God similar to us or anything like that. It's God with us. Now in our culture, we don't associate our names with their meaning very much such as here with the name Immanuel. I mean, I ve looked my name meaning up before, but I always forget what it means. Until the first time I looked, for all I knew, Brian meant poop scooper or something like that. So I looked it up again this week. Brian means, noble, strong. That's a good meaning. I thought it would be fun to look up a few other names. I began with my wife. Gwen means, Blessed. I thought, That's a good name for my wife, because she's totally blessed to be married to me, for sure. Then I got intrigued with this whole thing and looked up a few of your names...i won't get into any specifics, but after doing a few minutes of research, let's just say that I'm glad I have my name. You can keep your names. I mean, there are some very uninspiring meanings to names out there. But Immanuel means God with us. In Jesus Christ we have the very presence of God in our midst. That's inspiring. That s powerful. And it s meaningful. In this Immanuel, God is with you in the midst of whatever is going on in life. He hasn t abandoned you, he hasn t left you to our own devices to rescue yourself, he hasn t walked away from you. He is with you. 3
4 Now, the name by which most people know Jesus is...jesus. And it's the other name we see for him in this passage. The angel told Joseph that he was to name the baby Jesus and that's exactly what he and Mary did, as we see in verse 25. The name Jesus is another great name. It comes from the Hebrew name of Joshua, which means Jehovah is salvation. Jehovah is one of the names of God that is given to us in the Old Testament. And the name Jesus, as this derivative of Joshua, means God saves, or God is our salvation. And in fact the angel tells Joseph in the dream to name the baby Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. He will rescue his people from their sins. If Immanuel is a name of presence (God with us) then Jesus is a name of action, of intentions, of purpose. And rescue is exactly what Jesus does. Jesus came to fulfill exactly what his name means. Jesus himself affirms this throughout his ministry. And when it says, he will save his people from their sins the angel is saying that this is anyone who claims the name of Jesus for their salvation. It s not a select, closed group of people whom Jesus chooses and the rest have no hope. The New Testament reality is that Jesus claims us all he came for the whole world as John 3:16 puts it so bluntly but not everyone claims him back. Those who do are his people. Today, we d say, they re his peeps or his homies. Anyone who claims Jesus is one of his people. That begs the question: How do we know who really claims the name of Jesus? Ultimately, that's in the heart of every person. It's between each individual and God. But there are probably some boundaries we might be able to draw. For example, let me share a story with you that I believe I've shared previously, but it's worth repeating. This story is about an atheist who was taking a walk through the woods. He kept admiring the majestic trees, mountains and the river he was walking along. All of a sudden, a huge grizzly bear appeared and started chasing him. The man ran and ran but the bear kept getting closer. At last the man stumbled and fell, and as he came upright the bear was almost on top of him, getting ready to swat him with his paw. The man cried out to God, exclaiming, Oh my gosh! (Actually, not gosh, but you get the point.)
5 At that moment, everything came to a standstill, and a voice called out from the heavens: You ve denied my existence your whole life, taught others that I don t exist, and credit creation for a cosmic accident, and now you expect me to help you out of this predicament? The man replied, I guess it would be hypocritical of me to convert to Christianity now perhaps you could make the bear a Christian instead of me? Very well, replied the voice from above. At that moment, life resumed around the man the birds chirped, the river ran, and life carried on. The bear stirred, slowly lowered its paws, brought them together, bowed its head, and spoke: Lord, I am truly grateful for this food which I am about to receive. When we cry out to God like that, as sort of a half-baked, my heart's not in it kind of way, it's not really claiming Jesus as our savior. Or perhaps more accurately, it s claiming him as savior, but not as Lord, and we re not living as his people. So: When we cry out to God with heart-felt desire, when we sincerely ask him to be born in our lives so that we might have true life, then we are living as his people. It doesn t mean we have to be perfect or that we never sin from that day forward when we first genuinely reach out to Jesus to rescue us, because he always welcomes us back into his arms. Wherever you ve been, whatever you ve done, Jesus welcomes you. And he rescues you. He rescues you, and me, from our sin, and all of its effects. He rescues us from being far from God, from having no relationship with our creator, so that we are brought back into the safety of His presence. That, ultimately, is the problem we find ourselves in, that needs heavenly help to rescue us out of. We re out of relationship with the God of the Universe, who s given us life. As a result, as I mentioned earlier, there are all kinds of effects of this: broken relationships between husband and wife, parent and child, between countries and people groups; Hatred, shootings, terrorism, genocide, physical abuse, emotional abuse, child abuse, spiritual abuse, sexual abuse, addictions, cheating on taxes, greed, selfishness, and more. And all of these kinds of things bring about pain, tears, frustration, anger, disappointment, grief, sorrow, brokenness there s so much. And Jesus came to rescue us from all of that.
That doesn t mean we re relieved of the effects of sin here and now. We still have life to live here on earth, and sin has such a stranglehold on this world, that it s only in the next world that all of sins effects can be completely washed away. But by God s grace, and filled by his Spirit, we do see the effects of Jesus rescue here and now. We pray, Thy kingdom come, they will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. And we get glimpses of it here and now. God s grace breaks through, sometimes His people respond and live as God calls them to in such a way that heaven on earth becomes a reality in some places and for some time. The alcoholic who gets and stays sober. The girl who is freed from the sex trade. The husband and wife who confess and forgive one another. The hungry who are fed, the naked who are clothed, the sick who are healed, the homeless who are given shelter. I realize that whether or not to take in Syrian refugees is a politically loaded and more complex topic than probably any of us realize, especially after the events of this past week in Southern California but talk about people in need of being rescued and in need of experiencing the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven! The point is: One day, God will wipe away every tear, and there will be no more death or grief or crying or pain (Revelation21:4). That day comes in the next life, not in this one. And when that happens, we will be fully living into the rescued state for which Jesus came. It s assured. It s not whimsical. It s not a fantasy like the football league you bought into at the start of the season. It s a concrete reality that Immanuel, God with us Jesus the Messiah will bring us into. He s the one who will rescue us. It s why he came. It s why he lived. It s why he died. It s why he was raised from the dead by his heavenly father. And he invites you and me to be recued from our sin its effects, this Christmas. Let s pray Amen. 6