It's All In The Name

Peace sounds good, doesn't it? Peace comes in Christ. If you have Christ, you can have peace. If you have Christ, you can be a peacemaker. Without Christ, there's no peace. Without Christ, there's just separation from God, turmoil, heartache, brokenness, man in security, man we need Jesus, don't we? Turn over to Matthew chapter one with me this morning. Let me just say this, and I hope you come to our Christmas banquet tonight, not because I'm so worried about numbers, but because when we get together, especially at this Christmas time, we're gonna take some time tonight to talk about what God's doing in your lives, talk about what God's doing in the church, talk about how God's moved this past year a little bit.

A lot of that's gonna depend on you, so I'm hoping you'll come tonight and maybe share a few things about what God's doing, And then we're going to have Jared and Nicholas share from the word. We're excited about that. He's excited. He's excited. Jared pumped up. Ready to go. That's something God's been doing in Jared and Christina's life. We're pretty excited about that. But honestly, you know, This banquet kind of gives us a chance to maybe see some people, talk to some people, sit with some people that maybe you don't normally sit with. I would encourage you. Don't just come in and sit down next to somebody that you are really, really comfortable with. I know that's the default most of the time.

But look for somebody you may not know. Get to know them. Allow them to sit with you, you sit with them, and have a conversation with them. Find out what God's doing. Maybe share with them what God's doing in your life. And I hope that you will do me the graces thing and find me if I can't find you. Some of you, I don't get to talk to you very often, but I'm gonna do my best to try to get around to everybody tonight. I'm probably gonna fail, but if you'll help me, And I mean this sincerely, I'd love to at least be able to look at you, shake your hand, find out how you're doing, and I want you to know I love you, but I want you to see face to

Face. So if you're here tonight, then I haven't gotten to you, come find me, and I mean that, please do that. So anyway, enough commercial, but come tonight. Matthew chapter one, we're going to begin reading in verse 18. The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way. After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband Joseph being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary's or wife because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. See the Virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son. And they will call him Emmanuel, which is translated, God is with us. When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord's angel had commanded him. He married her, but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're gathered in your name today.

And what an incredible privilege it is to come in your name. Lord it's hard to describe you, because you're not like any one of us.

You are so glorious, majestic, powerful, wise, righteous, and holy. We struggle to understand all that. And not only are you all those things, but you are so loving merciful and gracious, that you left the glories of heaven,

And you put on flesh, you took it up, you tinted in it. It's incredible to me, Lord.

You did it all because you love sinners like me, like us. You did it all because you wanted to have a relationship with us that we couldn't have apart from Christ. And so Lord, I pray that today you would bless us and speak to us and reveal yourself to us. And I pray that we would worship you on a shamelessly joyfully humbly.

And I pray that you would draw those that have never trusted Christ today to salvation. And Lord, we'll give you the praise. You deserve it all anyway. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So this year the Lord just kind of laid on my heart to spend some time dealing with just the basics, if you will, of our Christmas message. Last week we started talking about this angel coming to Mary, the angel Gabriel, and announcing to her that God was going to do a work in her life. that she could not even have considered. I mean, no possible way this young lady was going to consider what God wanted to do in her life. I mean, just think about this.

We talked about it a little bit last week, but this is just a young lady, teenage girl. ready to be married, but chose to a man to be married to, you know, having that hope that, you know, she's gonna get married, she's gonna have children, they're gonna live kind of this peaceful life, they're gonna be blessed, right? But absolutely no consideration that God is going to break into her life to do something unimaginable that she would give birth to the Son of God. Then it's an amazing thing because you and I, we think oftentimes that life is just kind of this mundane life. We do what we want to do when we want to do it, how we want to do it, and really God's not really going to have anything for us or have any expectations of us, or we don't have any expectations of God sometimes, right?

No expectations of God interrupting our life to do something extraordinary. And yet God is all about that. He's all about it all the time. I mean, God is working. We talked about how for 400 years God hadn't spoken through a prophet or through angels that we know of for 400 years. God basically said, listen, I've given you the promises of the Messiah coming. I've given you the promises of my presence. And God was working behind the scenes. He was keeping things together. He's holding the universe in check. He was blessing, providing, convicting, but But God hadn't really spoken. And so sometimes we actually think that because we haven't heard something from God or seen something enormous from God that he's not really working.

And so we kind of cruise through life as if God is, I don't know, nominal, right? Like God's not that big of a deal. And the guy's not really working that much. I mean, I can't tell how many people I've talked to that said, man, if God would just do more. Right, if God would just do more, I would be excited about God.

What can I just say this? That's a pretty terrible attitude. And it is really quite shallow and blind because God has already done more for us than we could ever deserve Him doing. that we could ever expect him to do. And he did it all through Christ Jesus. Does that mean he's not working today? Does that mean he doesn't want to interrupt our lives? Does that mean he doesn't have, you know, things for you and I to do that we should be looking for and praying for? No, it doesn't mean that. But man, if you think God hasn't done something already, you've really missed Jesus at a high, high level, right? So we talked about Mary and then we come to this passage today about Joseph.

And again, we come to this passage in God interrupts Joseph's life by sending another angel, another messenger, to speak to him. But this passage is also set in an amazing little understanding for us, right? And we're not gonna go back and read all this, but beginning in verse 1 of chapter 1, we're told that this is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Now that's important because it starts at Abraham, talks about Abraham, Father Isaac, Isaac, Father Jacob, Jacob, Father Judah, Judah's brothers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And most of us, when we get to these kind of genealogies, we like zip right through them, right? I mean, how many of you really actually read these things?

And when you do read them, do you go, oh, that was great. I got this all figured out now, right? Because she out to yell, father is a rubble, and he fathered a bayoude, and a bayoude father, a liar came, and he fathered Azor, and we got that all figured out, right? You know those guys?

No, that was a rubble, should stick out, some other should stick out, but anyway. It's interesting because it goes all the way down through this thing to verse 16. I want you to read that so we can kind of put some things together before we get into this passage. In verse 16, it says, in Jacob, Father Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who was called the Messiah.

And this is all the generations from Abraham to David over 14, from David until the exile of Babylon 14, from the exile of Babylon until the Messiah 14. Now those are very, very important verses for us to understand because Matthew, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, wants us to see that Jesus is the rightful heir to the throne of David. That's incredibly important because God had promised that David would have an heir that would reign eternal and that he would have an eternal kingdom through this heir. And so it's really, really important. But have you ever thought about how, how did that work?

Because even verse 16, it's pretty critical, like Jacob, Father Joseph, but it doesn't say Joseph, Father Jesus, because Joseph didn't father Jesus. God was Jesus's father, right? We learned that last week. And so it goes from Jacob, Father Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, who's called Messiah. So it doesn't address it directly, but it leads us into this passage that gives us understanding of how Jesus became the rightful heir to the throne of David, accomplishing the purposes of God, set a couple thousand years ago before the beginning of time that the Messiah would be of the line of David. So it's kind of an interesting little passage and we're going to get into that in a little bit.

Just keep that in the back of your mind for a minute. But let's get started in this passage. The Bible says the birth of Jesus Christ in verse 18 came about this way. Now this is pretty important because Because again, what the Holy Spirit wanted Matthew to address was the fact that Jesus is the king, that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the rightful Jewish Messiah, that Jesus was the rightful one, come to save people from their sins, but he says the birth of Jesus Christ came about this way, and then he addresses the way that Jesus came into this world, and it's completely unexpected. Matter of fact, if you wanna look at this in a worldly kind of view, it's pretty convoluted.

Right here, we have this message last week. We talked about how Angel came to Mary and he says some pretty crazy things to her. He says, greetings, favored one. The Lord is with you, right? And Mary, she wondered that, marveled that that God would call her favored one. And then he says, you'll conceive and give birth to a son, you'll call him Jesus and be great. And we'll be called to son of the most high. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And his kingdom will have no end. And Mary continued to marvel. And so then later on in that passage, she actually says, well, how can this be right

Since I'm a virgin? She asked this question. And we talked about it last week that the angel told her, right, that the Holy Spirit will overshadow you and for this reason, you'll conceive and your child will be called the Son of God, since God will be his father, literally his father. But we talked about the fact that it's

Unexpected. It's almost scandalous, right? Here's a young woman. She's not been with the man. She's not supposed to have been with the man. She's betrothed to a man. That means that she is legally bound to marry this man. It's a contract designed basically by God and by the Jewish community that says, if you have any kind of sexual relationship outside or even before you're married, you're committed adultery.

You've sinned. Right? And you are not to be then married. It's going to break the contract. It's going to break everything. It's going to be destructive. It's going to be scandalous. It's going to be, if you will, gossip worthy. And we kind of go, well, man, why would God first do it that way? Why would God be so honest about it? Have you ever noticed how transparent the Bible is? The Bible's transparent. God doesn't hide things. He doesn't make things easy for us. We read about full on sinners in the Bible. We read about people struggling in their relationship with God in the Bible. We read about people rebelling against God. We read about people.

Killing the followers of God, crucifying Jesus. I mean, the Bible is, it's tough sometimes. It's way tougher than most of us want, right? Most of us don't want tough things. Most of us don't want convictions. Most of us don't want scandals. Most of us don't want to realize that there's some tough things to work through. We want everything to be nice and sweet and easy, right? Don't say hard things. Don't deal with hard things. We would love to just sugarcoat everything. Anybody want to really let sugarcoat your life? Wouldn't it be better? We would love to have this life that says we don't have any challenges, we don't have any calls, we don't have any convictions, we don't have any requirements.

Anybody with me? And most of us are with me. And most of us, quite honestly, are selfish. And most of us don't want to have to deal with tough things. but the Bible's not afraid of it. And so we dealt with Mary, we talked about how hard that would be with her and yet how Mary last week said, I love this, right? The bond servant of the Lord. Let it be as you have said. Oh man, you're talking about a great response to God. You're the master, I'm the servant. I chose to be your servant, gonna be your servant. So whatever you want from me, yep, I'm in. If we did that more often, we'd be powerful people.

Wouldn't we trust in God, giving God glory, following God? Whoo, be great. Oh man, we're so smart. Are we? Sorry. Let's move on, a quick preaching. We'll just tone it down. The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way. After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. Now, there's just little statements in there that are important for us to see. It's very clear that before they came together,

It was discovered she was pregnant. Now, if you're Joseph, that's devastating. That's just devastating. If you're Joseph, it's not just young ladies that get excited about the prospects of being married. It's not just young ladies that get excited about the prospects of having a family. It's not just young ladies that have their hopes up of what's gonna happen as they come together with the woman or the man that they are

Ready to walk through life with. I mean, Joseph, though he was a little older probably than Mary, was still a pretty young man, and his life was in front of him. Man, I told this this morning because it was too funny, and I'm gonna tell it again because, you know, Beth and I, we celebrated 39 years yesterday, which I praise the Lord for. You don't have to clap, it's... I had no idea the

Blessing I was gonna have when I married my wife. Way, way, way better. It wasn't easy for her, Alan. I promise you that. But anyway, we went out Friday night and for supper and we're sitting this booth. And there's this kid behind us. He's young. I don't know, three, four. I don't know how old he is. He keeps banging his head against our booths. And even the waitress comes by and says, there's a kid over here and he's banging his head. At one point in time, he's hit his head so hard he started to cry. But you know, kids don't really bother. We like kids. And so a little bit later, during supper, we see him peaking his head around the booth, into our booth.

You know, I kind of smile at him. You know, best smiles at him. He's just being a kid. But we hear him say, Mom, I found an old woman and an old man. I'm like, oh my goodness, man. I mean, you know, I told Beth that those 39 years feel like a blink to me. But apparently to this kid, he's got it. I'm not the young husband anymore. I'm not Joseph. We walked down the road aways, praise the Lord. But anyway, Joseph, he's like I was back when I had dark hair, back when I had a dark beard, back when I was young. That's who Joseph is. Well, all his hopes and dreams in front of him.

And then he hears, that she's pregnant. And oh man, all the wind was taken out of his sail and his heart is just crushed. I mean, can you imagine what devastation that would have been and how heartbreaking and yet the dilemma that he was also placed in because he had to have a response to this. Now the thing that's important for us to see in the second part of that versus that. before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. Now God is working in this thing in ways that run contrary to what we would call rational thinking, right? Practical thinking because there's not very many people in here who honestly truly believe that when God says there's nothing impossible with God that he means it.

Most of us actually believe that we... We understand life and the God has to work in the ways that we understand that God doesn't work outside the ways that we understand. I mean, there's a whole movement of people today that within the body of Christ that say, God doesn't do miracles anymore. God doesn't speak, have anybody speaking tongues anymore. God doesn't live in those places that he says he lives in when he gives gifts to men in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. There's many of them to say, no, those gifts don't apply anymore. That's not the way God works. which I find highly offensive, by the way, because the word of God is the word of God and you have to take it out of there just because you're not comfortable with it, right?

God can do whatever he wants to do, but that doesn't mean we really believe that he will, right? When we say we really the God can do what he wants to and we read that a woman becomes pregnant by the Holy Spirit, we're going...

I mean, I don't know if I really believe that. If you really understand what that means, that God did a work to plant Christ in Mary. You've got to believe in a God that has no limits. You've got to believe in a God that has purposes that are greater than your understanding. You've got to believe in God as being God and not your version of God. You've got to believe that. But that's what it says, and that's what it means. Then it goes on to begin to explain some things that says so her husband Joseph being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. Now this is important because it

Gives us a glimpse into who Joseph really is. It says he is a righteous man. Now a righteous man, righteousness literally means one who's careful to keep the law. That's how you're righteous. In particular, before Christ, there was the only way to be righteous was to keep the law. There was no other way to be found righteous. And so it means that Joseph was a man who would keep the law. Well, in this case, when he found out that Mary was pregnant to keep the law, to be righteous, it would mean he had to dissolve the betrothal. He had to put her away if you will divorce her because that's what the law said. As a matter of fact, the Old Testament law said a person found committing adultery was to be stoned.

That's what the law said because there were huge consequences to sin and the impact that sin had on everybody else among the people of God. But because of this time, Israel was living under Roman rule. Roman had taken away the right for Israel to bring about capital punishment. It doesn't mean that she would have been stoned. It doesn't mean that's exactly what would have been happening, but the only basic alternative to be a righteous man would be to put your wife away, to divorce her, to say what you did was wrong, to call this woman to account for her sin. And while we don't like that today, man, we hate that today. We actually believe that if you blow off sin, and don't hold people accountable to sin, and don't make people stand up in their sin, that it'd be better for them, just let them live in their sin.

That's better, right? Don't we? Don't raise your hand. I know it's true. Because when I have to deal with sin and call people out, oh my goodness, man, I'm the most heartless guy in the whole world. But it's not true. When we stand for righteousness, we stand for Christ, and that means we have to expose sin and call it out because it leads to repentance and the righteousness. And man, yep, Joseph was the righteous man and he was gonna have to do the hard thing. The thing he never wanted to have to do put his wife away. But because you're righteous does not mean you're not filled with compassion or mercy or grace. It doesn't mean that at all.

In fact, I'm here to tell you if you want to really have compassion, stand for righteousness and love the people you stand for righteousness with. That's what godliness looks like because that's what God does. And so Joseph, it says, He decides he's gonna put her away, right? But not wanting to disgrace her publicly, he decided to divorce her secretly. So the picture is, here's this man broken-hearted, and yet he's a righteous man. He loves God. He wants to do what God wants him to do, which is harder many times than most of us want, isn't it?

Standing for Christ in His ways means putting aside our flesh, our feelings, trusting God that His ways are better than our ways. All those things are really difficult. It does not mean we throw out compassion and mercy. because Joseph was like, I could just make it a public trial. That's what would have happened. If he wanted to, he could take Mary down before the elders of the city and Bethlehem, not Bethlehem, Nazareth. He could have went to the gate where the elders would stay and he would say, I'm

Betrothed this woman and she's pregnant. And they'd hold a public court. They'd put her on trial. I found guilty, certainly the marriage would have been dissolved. But he decided not to do that because he didn't want to disgrace her, but he had to take a stand. And I got to tell you, you know he wasn't sleeping very well. You know his stomach was churning. You know his mind was whirling and you know his heart was broken because he's having to deal with this thing that wasn't ideal. He thought it was sinful. He thought Mary had sinned, right?

But man, I got to tell you, I love the thought of this. Sometimes we really don't think there's any kind of hope in the brokenness. in this world. Right in the middle of what Joseph thought was brokenness, God was about to reveal his plan. And it is this plan that he revealed to Joseph that gives us hope in the middle of our brokenness, right? Because this is what the angel said to Joseph after he considered these things. The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary's your wife. Because one has been conceived in her as from the Holy Spirit. She'll get birthed to a son and you are name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.

Right in the middle of this thing. Joseph's sleeping. He's considered all these things. He's about to do what he doesn't really want to do. And the aims of the Lord appears to him in the dream. I love this. because literally the angel of the Lord appears to him. He's there with him. He's showing himself to him. God has sent his messenger like he's sent to Mary and he shows up in a dream. And I love that. It's not me if you believe that God can actually speak through a dream today.

Yeah, there's some of you. There's some of you if I said, man, I had a dream the other night. And I believe God spoke to me. He'd be like, okay,

Pastors losing it, right? But did not know, did not know who our God is. He can speak any way he wants to, any time he wants to, any way he wants to, he can speak in a dream, he can speak any other way. Do you know right now that many, many Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus Christ because of dreams?

Because of dreams. I talked to a guy that had served in Pakistan for many, many years. He was telling me when he first went to Pakistan, terrifying place to serve the Lord. Whoo! Whoo! You want to die. Go start preaching Jesus in Pakistan somewhere. They'll be happy to take your life. So he says he shows up and he has a guy that he holds him accountable. And he says, this guy calls me after I've been there a week. And he says, have you prayed and discovered the person that God wants you to begin to minister to and share the gospel with? And he says, I've prayed, but I haven't really done anything. And he says, it wasn't really true because he said there was this, what he called a black,

What's the religious leaders, Imam. A blackie mom is an imam who practices witchcraft. What a great combination. He says, I have a neighbor who's a blackie mom and everybody's scared of him. And he says, I realized I'm supposed to witness to this guy, but I was scared too. So he says, this guy calls me the next week and says, hey, if you found somebody, says, I have found somebody, says, if you begin to make a relationship with him, you're sharing Christ, he says, I haven't. He says, this happens for two or three weeks. And he says, finally, after this guy, I mean, he keeps calling me every week and basically he's holding me accountable. And so he says, finally, I

Go and I find this guy in my neighborhood. And he says, hey, have you ever thought about reading the Bible? And this blacky mom says, well, three weeks ago, and this guy realizes the same time that this guy's been calling me. Three weeks ago, I had a dream.

And in the dream, we were Muhammad and Jesus. He said, both men died and were buried. But I said, in the dream, Jesus rose to the dead. And he says, can you help me understand what that means? You think God doesn't work in dreams? That blacky mom got saved. Man, guys, we have a God that can do whatever he wants to do. However, he breaks into Joseph's life like he broke into Mary's life in this dream and these words of soul encouraging. Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

Can you imagine? Can you imagine how good that must have felt for Joseph? I mean, he is just torn up with what he's going to have to do. He's just torn up the turmoil in his heart and his mind is just raging. And then Christ sends his messenger and his messenger says, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. And here's the reason why, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. So Joseph, maybe he knew Mary may have told him, it's from the Holy Spirit, but he didn't fully understand that. I mean, who would really, right? Who really takes that? That's not the way this works. All of us are skeptical.

All of us doubt. He's doubting. He's not really believing, but the angel says, don't be afraid because this, what's been conceived, what's been placed in her. Right, it's not been created. Christ had not been created in Mary. Christ had been reigning and ruling from the beginning. He had no end. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld this glory as of the, the glory as of the only one, the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth, right? John 111, John 114. Christ has always been but now God has placed Christ. somehow in Mary's womb.

You want to talk about a miracle? You try to figure out how the eternal God has become a man, has taken flesh upon him. You want a great chapter to read during Christmas? Man, read all of chapter two of the book of Philippians, because it says in there, have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or held onto, but emptied himself and became a man, right? taking the former man became obedient to the point of death on the cross. I mean, that's a fantastic chapter that affects us one of those times where you realize what God has done for us.

Man, you and I, we walk around here many times talking about our rights. I have the right to do this. I have the right to do that. Nobody can tell me to take away my rights. I'm going to claim my rights. I'm an American citizen. I've got rights, rights, rights, rights.

And the Bible says, God. God did not regard equality with God. I think to be grasped for held on to. He didn't hold on to the right of being God so that He could come and be one of us and live a sinless life among us and then willingly lay that sinless life down that He might save us from our sins. Isn't that amazing? Do you think maybe Godliness looks different than what we claim it does?

Godliness looks like laying down our life for somebody, not claiming our rights in opposition to somebody. That's what Jesus did. And he said, that's why you don't have to be afraid. Joseph, take Mary, because this is the work of God. Man, of all the things that you should hear from the Bible sometimes is just don't be afraid. Jesus said it over and over and over again do not be afraid. Because the work that God had done and has done through Jesus Christ enables us to have security and life eternal and we don't have to be afraid. gracious of God to not just interrupt Joseph's life and Mary's life, but to interrupt this world by sending his son who he might have life in Christ.

Well, he goes on and says, she will give birth to a son and you're to name in Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. This verse is powerful. Powerful in the first part of it being that name in Jesus. Every time you name him or every time somebody says, what's your name? And he says, I'm Jesus. He's literally pointing to the people that says, I'm the savior. I'm gonna save you. Forgive you of your sins. Save you from your sins. I'm the savior. Save you from your sins, man. How awesome is that? I know there were other people probably named Jesus, but man, not this Jesus. This one's the savior. And man, when you name him Jesus and everybody knew him, you could point out over and over again, we have one that's come to save us from our sins.

And I don't know about you. You should think about that. I think about it. What would I do? What would I do without Jesus? What would I do if He hadn't forgiven me and saved me from my sins? What would I do? Who would I be? Certainly would not be the man I am today. Certainly would not have the blessings I have today. And I certainly would not have the hope I have today. Hallelujah. Name Him Jesus. He's going to save us from our sins. But it also has more. Remember we talked about how does Jesus fit into the line of David? How does he become the rightful heir when his father is God and not of the lineage of David?

Well, naming a son identified you as the father. Naming the son was the father's job. Does that son would be his son? And like it says earlier, it's a rubable father of Biyud. A Biyud father of Lyachim and so forth and so forth. It's a father's job to name it and I'll show you so that you understand. So you don't think I'm making this up. Over in Luke chapter 1. This is the angel coming to speak to Zechariah, who is married to Elizabeth, who are in their older years and beyond childbearing years. In Luke 113, the angel says to Zechariah, do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard, your wife Elizabeth will bear you with Son, and you will name him John.

This is introducing the birth of John the Baptist, the four runner of Christ. Well in Luke 157 through 63, it shows us about naming the Son. Says, now the time had come for Elizabeth to give birth, and she had a son. Then her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her his great mercy, and they rejoiced with her. When they came to circumcise the child on the eighth day, they were going to name him Zechariah after his father, but his mother responded, no, he will be called John. Now let me inject this for a minute. Zechariah was mute. Because when the angel came and told him about him, the birth of John, he didn't believe him.

The angel said, you won't speak until the child's born. So he's not able to speak. So the wife says, no, he'll be called John. Then they said, there are none of your relatives has that name. So they motioned to his father to find out what he wanted him to be called. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, his name is John. and they were all amazed. You see, the one that determined the name was the Father. And so now when the angel tells Joseph, you name him Jesus. You name him Jesus. and Joseph named him and said, this is what he's going to be called. He was identifying Jesus as his son. If you will, adopted because he wasn't his father, God was his father, but by saying that Jesus became in the line of David and fulfilled the prophecy that said, you will always have a son on the throne.

And I gotta tell you, I love that about the Bible. I love that about the Bible because God keeps every single promise he makes, fulfills every prophecy that he makes. He lets nothing slide. And you and I need to know that this wasn't just some happenstance thing, right? The angel was moving that God would show that Jesus was Joseph's son and become the line of David. Hallelujah. He's a faithful God. But he goes on, and we'll finish up here pretty quick. He says, now in verse 22, now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.

See the Virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated God with us.

Now, one of the sweetest, deepest, most profound names in the Bible is Emmanuel. It's out of Isaiah 714 where this quote comes from. prophesied some 720 years approximately before Christ was born. But this name, Emmanuel, God with us. I mean, it's my embeggling to me. I sing songs with Emmanuel in it that make me cry,

Partly because it's so profound to me and it ought to be profound to you.

Why would God want to be among us? We don't deserve that. I know some people actually believe, no, we deserve that. No, none of us, zero. Bible says there are none who are good, not even one, not one. How profound is God's love and grace and mercy that he would want to come and be among us. How profound, how deep, how incredible is that?

But God with us is even more profound when you think, how could Jesus save us from our sins? How could he? I mean, if he's just a man, If Jesus was born, he was just a man, then one man might be able to die for one man. It might be a fair trade. If Jesus had lived a sinless life as a one man, he could have died for another man, because he would only have the value of one man.

But if he's God, if he's a man you will, if he is the one that has always been who's never been less than God, always been God. If he's the God man, Emmanuel, then when he goes to the cross

And he takes the sins of the world upon him, he's so glorious. His value is immeasurable. It exceeds every man or woman who's ever sinned against him. And he is worth, his sacrifice is worth enough to pay the price for all the sins of the world. He's the only one that could. Only a manual could be our savior. And so here we have this simple little passage of scripture.

And sometimes we actually think, Christmas is nice. Christmas is comfortable. Christmas is pretty. Christmas evokes some sort of emotions in our lives with the traditions that we have at Christmas, whether we open our presence on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning or whatever we do, we go to the Christmas Eve service. I mean, all these things that we feel like are really sweet and they are, they're incredible. Man, I love some of those things. I love some of those traditions.

But the birth of Jesus is about life or death. The birth of Jesus is about heaven or hell. The birth of Jesus is about forgiveness of sins and becoming the righteousness of God or about being judged and condemned eternally by God. This was not some casual birth. This is about the birth of the Lord God Almighty, taking the form of an infant that he might live on this life for us and die on this life for us, that we might be saved. At Christmas time, it ought to be sweet at some level. We ought to be incredibly thankful. But man, we need to see it for what it is.

Our God loves us and it's not cheap love. It's not blowing past sin like we love to do. It's holding us accountable for our sins, blatantly accountable for our sins. This is what your sins cost. This is what your sins are gonna have to be dealt with by the death of Jesus or yours. This is about life or death and hallelujah. He made a way for us to have life.

Do you understand that? He made a way for you and I to have life to know the Lord God Almighty and live with Him forever. It's not cheap. There is no present. You're going to receive this Christmas that's going to come anywhere close to that. But you can have Him. You can trust Him. He's given his life for you, rose again on the third day. If you put your faith in him, he will do what you cannot do. He will save you. He'll forgive you. He'll make you his child. Hallelujah. Let's pray.

Father, I'm thankful. I am so thankful what a great God you are. What a merciful God you are. What a right and just God you are. You have made a way in righteousness for us to have life. You didn't hide our sin. You became our sin. You didn't pretend it didn't matter. You took it to the highest level of mattering. You Lord God showed us how much you loved us through Christ. I pray for those that have never trust you that today they'd be saved, they'd truly trust you and you'd wash their sins away in the blood of Christ and you'd be glorified. For those of us that have maybe viewed you cheaply, decided that you're not that important,

Treated you Lord God like you're just another blessing rather than Lord God almighty, the blessing. Would you forgive us? Would you call us back to you? And Lord, I love you. And I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

When I ask our deacons to come forward now, we're going to do our Lord supper. And I think it's appropriate after the word shared this morning.

And in fact, this is the verse that the Lord laid on my heart to begin this with. It's Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. says, for a child will be born for us, the Son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Again, talking about the child that would be born for us, no ordinary child. Like the government of the world and all eternity will be upon his shoulder. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. When we talk about the cross, that's what we're talking about. We're talking about the matchless one, the beautiful one, the faithful one, the glorious one. We're talking about Him. And so the sacrifice that we're celebrating today is profound, and it's for us. That's why Christ gave us this reminder. And so while these guys are passing out, the juice and the bread, first I want you to take some time and truly thank God for sending Christ into this world. Thank Jesus for coming and willingly laying down His life for us.

And secondly, I want you to spend some time confessing your sins and asking God to forgive you through the blood of Jesus Christ. Listen, we're approaching a holy God. He's calling us to a right relationship, not to treat Him as inconsequential or insignificant, but to give Him glory. And part of doing that is to ask Him, confess our sins and admit we need Him to wash us clean. So as these guys carry this bread and this juice to you, spend some time before the Lord. Let's pray.