Christmas Promises: Presence
Christmas Promises • Sermon • Submitted
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Every Christmas seems to have one outstanding memory. When I think back to meaningful Christmases, I think of the Christmas of 2000. It was my daughter’s first Christmas. She was almost a year old. I remember I went to my in-laws house, and there in the living room was a proverbial mountain of gifts that was as tall as the tree. I remember this as being so bizarre because she wasn’t a year old, she could hardly play with the paper, yet how crazy did her grandparents love her. How generous they were with her.
I remember many Christmas holidays, but usually it is just one thing, one memory that becomes the anchor for it. I'm sure that you're the same way maybe it was a special gift that you received or that you gave or where you were given; maybe your kids even made something for you. Maybe it was a letter you received that was powerful.
Maybe you were in a special place, but there's a one memory that anchors the year. For me in 2000 it was about while the generosity of grandparents.
My hope is that 2013 will be Emmanuel, God is with us, God is with US! Here and now.
We're in a series looking at the prophecies in the Old Testament that were fulfilled in the birth and life of Jesus. 2 weeks ago, we looked 4000 years before the birth of Jesus to the creation story, to the proto-evangelion, the first good news; the first time God explained that I have a solution to the problem of our broken relationship, I plan to fix it.
Last week we talked about our need for a King who we could be follow and be loyal to, a king who cold actually deliver on God’s promises. How the prophet Malachi promised that this king would be raised up in Bethlehem 700 years before Jesus was born.
Today we are looking at where God promised to come and be with us as our deliverer and it was fulfilled in Matthew. This promise was made 400 years before the promise of God was fulfilled in the person of Jesus. We read that in the text from Matthew that Jesus and Emmanuel are the names given to the child. Jesus is who he is, the savior; Emmanuel is how he would do it, God with us. So those two names are very important in understanding who is God is, who Jesus is.
Before we get too much into the Matthew account, lets look at what we can learn from King Ahaz. He is in trouble, God comes to him and offers to help, but Ahaz has the situation all figured out – or so he thinks. Even though Ahaz won’t ask God for a sign that he will deliver, God determines to provide one himself. He promises to give a sign of deliverance, not for Ahaz but a future deliverance. Christians have long understood this as a promise for Christ to deliver the people of God from their enemy Satan and the effects of sin.
Ahaz though, didn’t need a deliverer or a sign. He had set a treaty in place with the Assyrians. The Assyrians were the bullies in town and Ahaz figured when the fighting broke out, it would be safer on their side. The tribes of Syria and Ephraim offered to make a treaty with Judah against Assyria, but he put them off. You see he was a pretty crafty politician. He made sure he had all his options covered. You know what happened right, the Assyrians eventually broke the treaty and conquered Ahaz anyway. You see Ahaz thought he had a plan and was going to work his plan. He thought his issues were strategic and military, which he had the smarts to work out. But his real issue was a spiritual one. His real problem was the broken relationship between God and the people of God.
Ahaz knew there was a broken relationship, but that was the responsibility of the priests, to maintain and take care of those spiritual issues. That’s why God had given them the priests from the beginning right? Because of sin?
But God is promising Emmanuel to address the spiritual issue when we are only thinking in practical terms. Same for us, we get lost in the issue at hand when there is a bigger issue. We think our problem is our spouse but our real problem is our selfishness. We think our problem is our crazy boss, but our real problem is our sense of entitlement. We honestly believe that our problem is those people who won’t do what they should, when our real problem is that we want to be God so we could fix things as they should be. I didn’t say all our problems are spiritual, some of them are physical, but at their roots, the problems of this world are spiritual.
How do I know this? Because God created everything Good and now everything is far from it as a result of sin; that’s what we talked about two weeks ago.
That's where God sent the priests, into the midst of our sin, to serve as an intermediary, to deal with the effects of sin. In doing so, the priest could actually change the present situation of God’s people.
Jesus being Emanuel, God with us, as our high priest changes everything. Real differences are made as everything changes. Our past, our present, and our future when Emmanuel the high priest offers himself as the sacrifice. The altar becomes the cross and outlines the promise of God to deliver his people from the effects of sin in the work of Jesus. explains that Jesus is providing the rescue that has been long awaited. The one which Ahaz didn’t even think he needed. The one that every Christian, at some point in their lives comes to realize they are desperate for, a rescue from the punishment of sin.
Jesus as the high priest also intercedes for us as Emmanuel. That’s who Jesus was, savior. Sinners know they can’t fix themselves. Sinners know they need something outside of themselves to intercede on their behalf before God. But so do the faithful and the struggling to be faithful. We need Emmanuel not just for eternity, but here and now. Here is where we risk of being like AHAZ, thinking we have it all together. AHAZ couldn’t trust anyone else, only himself and his own craftiness. Forgetting just how much we need God not just for our eternity, but to help us live today a life that glorifies God. Judge others? Lust of flesh? Heart? Want more stuff? We could go through all 10 commandments and we’d probably all fail every one. Jesus intercedes for us. He goes before God the Father on our behalf. He knows our experience because he has lived it, so we can run to him as someone we can trust.
Finally as Emmanuel, God with us, serving as our high priest, God blesses. Blesses us and the world as Christmas continues to change the world. As God is present here today, God blesses us by transforming us, making us more like that which we were created for. But also as God is with us we are able to bless others.
That’s the promise of Christmas. God is with us. That’s the real Christmas present, Immanuel. My prayer is that the Christmas of 2013 will be remembered as the Christmas that we realized Immanuel was real; that our churches lived the truth of Emmanuel in our communities. That Dads can live Emmanuel lives with their families, that moms are able to find comfort in Emmanuel; that kids can experience Emmanuel because of their teachers; that bankers and farmers can begin to experience deliverance and victory as we begin to see God deliver on the promised Emmanuel.