We're going to be looking this evening at another name of Jesus, which we find in the beginning of Matthew's Gospel, the name Emmanuel, the name Emmanuel. And I hope that our time in this series has caused you to think a little bit more deeply, perhaps a little bit more fully, about our Lord Jesus Christ. We could spend a lot more weeks than we will answering the question, who is Jesus? We're going to take up this name and then one more, the Lord willing. and next week. Here in this passage, a passage familiar to many of us, which we usually read around December sometime because of Christmastime, we're reminded that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. And so this is true, this is equally true here at the end of March as it would be at the end of December. And we're going to study it this evening under four headings. So let me pray. And then I will read the Word and we'll dive in. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for the Word of God. We thank You for the living and active Word that You have given to us to make us wise unto salvation and to change us and renew us into the image of Christ. O Lord, we know and we believe that the best thing that could happen this evening is for Your name to be honored. We know that it is our greatest joy and delight and our greatest good for our God to be praised and to be honored and to be glorified. And so we pray, hallowed be Your name, O Lord, in the preaching of Your Word and in the reading of Your Word. We pray, O God, that You would give our minds and our hearts attention to Your Word. We pray that by Your Spirit, You would point out to us where we are erring, and You would encourage us where we need to be encouraged, and bring us, O Lord, to great rejoicing as we study Your Son, the Lord Jesus. We pray for the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in our midst, and we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's hear the Word of God, Matthew chapter 1. I'll begin reading in verse 18. This is the Word of God. 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. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 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." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. 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. We're going to focus in this evening, especially on verse 23 and the immediate context, that they shall call his name Immanuel. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. which means God with us. We're going to look at this name of Jesus under four headings. Four headings. And the first is promised to be with us. Promised to be with us. Jesus was promised by God to be with us. And we see this in verse 22. that Jesus' birth is not just some happenstance event that popped up around whatever a couple years BC or the year 0 AD or whatever the case may be, but that this is an event that has long been on the calendar of God and long been established in the Word of God. We see that in verse 22. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophets." So, the birth of Jesus Christ is not some isolated event on the radar, but a long-planned, you know the hymn, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus? It is a long-expected event on God's redemptive calendar, an event promised long before His birth is a fulfillment of the promise of God. And God promised a sign, God promised this birth back in Isaiah chapter 7. And we see this specifically in Isaiah 7 verse 14. Isaiah is speaking to King Ahaz. King Ahaz was living and operating around the year 730 BC. This is about 730 years before Christ was born. And in Isaiah 7.14, we read this, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. So here, in approximately the year 730 BC, God sends Isaiah the prophet to go speak with King Ahaz, and he says, a sign will be given, that a virgin is going to bear a son, and that his name will be Emmanuel. God with us. Later on in Isaiah chapter 8, this Immanuel figure pops up again. God's people are going to run into some trouble because of sin, but they will not be overtaken, we read, because God will be with them. And so this is a redemptive promise, a promise of God's presence, a sign will be given. And you and I know this, and we're kind of accustomed to saying these things, but it's important for us to remember. The promise of Jesus' birth to a virgin was given about 730 years before Christ was born. If I had to guess, nobody predicted your birth 740 years before you were born. I'm happy to be proved wrong. That's about three American lifetimes. America was founded in 1776-ish, right? We're now in the year 2016. So America, three times over. The birth of Jesus to a virgin is promised, and then here we turn to Matthew 1 and we see things unfolding exactly as God had said that they would. A woman shall conceive, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son. And there are two unique things in this promise that we see, especially in verse 23. Something about a son and something about a mother. The son is going to have a particular name, Immanuel. Immanuel, which means God with us. And so this son who will be born to this virgin is going to have something to do with the presence of God dwelling with his people. Something to do with the protection of God from his enemies. Something to do with God's presence among them. And there's also something unique about the mother. We would assume all sons have mothers, except for Adam, but there's a mother and this mother is unique. Jesus was born just like every other child in history, but he was not conceived like every other child in history. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son. And all I'll say about this is, lest we, as C.S. Lewis would tell us, put on our arrogant modern hats, those silly old people, They knew how children were born and how children were conceived and this was just as implausible in the year 730 BC. It would have been just as implausible to Ahaz as it was to Mary and to Joseph and to their contemporaries. Ahaz might have responded in the same way that Mary would have later on. How can this be? How can this be? And yet we see God promising to bring a son through a virgin. God with us. And this Emmanuel promise is not only specifically promised in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 7, but it is a pattern that we find throughout the Old Testament. We find that throughout the Old Testament, it is the desire of God to dwell with His people. And the coming of this Son will be a culmination of something that God has desired and has worked from creation itself. In Genesis chapter 3, around the time of the Fall, what do we find God doing? He's in the Garden. There's almost this sense that this walking in the garden and communing with his people is something for which Adam and Eve were created. That it wasn't the first time that God came down into that garden to meet with his own people. From the very beginning it was the desire of God to dwell with his children. We see this in the Exodus. God's people out in the wilderness? And are they left alone? No, no. You get the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. God is with them in the wilderness. When they get in early on and they're using the tabernacle, the tent, not even a building. There's that great passage in 2 Samuel 7. David says, I'm dwelling in this great house of cedar. And the Lord is just dwelling in a tent. And God says, I've never asked you to build me a house because I dwell with my people. The Lord our God, the maker of heaven and earth, in a tent that you can pick up and the Levites would carry around, because He dwells with His own. And so, this coming of this Son, Jesus, who would be born of the Virgin, is the culmination, not only of a promise given by Isaiah, but of a pattern established throughout the Old Testament. So when Jesus comes, Emmanuel, God with us, it is the culmination of all of this Old Testament promise, this whole pattern, that He is going to consummate the presence of God with God's people. So He is promised to be with us. Second, born to be with us. to be with us. Look in verse 23. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Which means, God with us. Now we said way, way back in the Wayback Machine, in like the second, first or second week of this series, that Jesus, he's called the Lord Jesus Christ, and I think it was when we were talking about the name Jesus, we said, it's not just a series of letters, but it tells us about something that Jesus is. His name tells us something about himself. And the same is true of this name, Immanuel. It's not just a list of letters that they said, oh yeah, this is a pretty name, but it tells us something about His person. It doesn't merely tell us that God will dwell with His people, perhaps in some abstract way, but He is given this name because He is God who dwells with His people. He is given this name because Jesus is God with us. And He's with us in a number of ways, and I want you to think through these with me for a moment. He's with us in our nature. He's with us in our nature. In verse 25 we read that Mary gave birth to a son. He's with us in our nature. Jesus is one like you and me. He has a body. Eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. Jesus is a human soul. Jesus is a human mind. He grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. Luke tells us. Just like us, human beings, Jesus loved human companionship. He called the disciples to be with Him. And He has human emotions. He knows joy. He knows sorrow. He knows anger. He knows fear, fear of the Lord. He's with us in our nature, like us in every way as we, yet without sin. He's with us in our place. He's with us in our place. He came to our earth. The dust of the earth got caught between His toes when He would walk around Jerusalem. The sun that touches our backs tanned His own skin. When He was working and breathing, He was working in and breathing in the same atmosphere that you and I work in and breathe day by day by day. He's with us in our circumstances. He's with us in our circumstances. That boys and girls, Jesus had siblings. Some of you may say, ah, siblings. Jesus knows what it's like to have siblings. One of them, most likely, is James, who wrote the book of James. Jesus knows what it's like to share food at the dinner table. He knows what it's like to wear hammy-downs, most likely, or not hammy-downs, because he would have been the oldest, but to share clothes, to live in a house and bump shoulders with his brothers and with his sisters. He knows what it's like to be a teenage boy. To be 15 and to be tempted in every way that a 15-year-old teenage boy would be tempted. And he knows what it is to age. In the Gospel of John, when he says, before Abraham was, I am, they say, how can you know Abraham's father? You're not but 50 years old. But Jesus must have looked pretty worn and ragged because when he died, he was in his early 30s. And what do the Jews say? Oh, you can't be but 50. how the weight of His task and the weight of His earthly mission aged His body, such that those who looked at Him would see a man worn by the things of this world. He is with us in every way, yet without sin. With us in our nature, with us in our place, with us in our circumstances, but always God with us. This is the amazing thing about Jesus. Nobody can get closer to us than Jesus. And yet at the same time, He's still the infinite God who upholds the universe by the Word of His power. He is born to be with us. Born in a manger, born to a woman, Mary gave birth to a son. And in the birth of Jesus, God with us, we see a couple of things. We see an answer to the question, how far will God go to keep His Word? How far will God go to accomplish His purpose of dwelling with His people? To what lengths will the Lord our God go to dwell in our midst? Well, He'll go to the womb of a virgin, and He'll go to the manger, and He'll go to the earth, and He'll go to the cross, and He'll go to the tomb. That's how far Christ will go to keep His Word. Further, we have an answer in this name of Jesus to the question, how well does Jesus know your needs? He knows them as well as anyone could know them. Because as I've said before, He's walked a mile in your shoes. He knows what it is to deal with loss. He knows what it is to deal with joy. He knows what it is to share a house with brothers and sisters. He knows what it is to be tempted to sin. He knows what it is to have a body ache. He knows what it is to be slandered. He knows what it is to have very little. He knows what it is to walk and live in this life by faith in the Word of God. He knows your needs and He knows my needs. He was born to be with us. Promised to be with us. Born to be with us. Third, still with us. Still with us. And providentially, we covered this a little bit in the scripture reading earlier. We have to move out of this passage. But His name is Emmanuel. And you might ask the question, well, how is it that He is still with us? You remember we read moments ago in Matthew chapter 28. I will be with you always. Well, the apostles, they could go walk around, they could shake Jesus' hand. Remember, after His resurrection, the disciples could touch Him and eat with Him and put their hands on His side, but you and I cannot do that. There is no place on this planet that you or I could go and go meet Jesus physically, face-to-face, and shake His hand and speak to Him in a physical and literal way. How is it that He is still with us? His name is Emmanuel. How is He still God with us? Well, at least in two ways. First, He's still with us in our nature. And this may seem elementary to you, but it's important. It bears mentioning. Jesus still dwells in His body and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus still has his body, and he's seated at God's right hand. I saw a tabloid once, you know, we were going through, going grocery shopping with my mom, and they have those little tabloid racks, you know, when you check out with all the candy, which is what I was particularly interested in. But this tabloid said one time, oh, they found the body of Jesus. No, they didn't, because it's at the right hand of God the Father. But he's still with us in our nature. All of the sympathy and all of the knowledge that he has of life in human form. Still belongs to Him. He didn't outgrow it. He hasn't cast it away. So the one who intercedes for us in heaven and stands for us in heaven and reigns from heaven is still with us in our human nature. Jesus still has a body, a human mind, and a human soul. But perhaps more importantly, or more particularly, Jesus is with us by His Spirit. Jesus is with us by His Spirit. And Paul makes a very big point of this in Romans chapter 8. He says, the Spirit, in Romans 8-9, dwells in you. The Spirit dwells in you. And in John 16, Jesus tells us it's actually to our advantage that He's going to go and ascend to the Father, because He's going to send the Spirit. How is Jesus still with the church? How is Jesus still with you, His child? He's with us by His Spirit. Paul says the Spirit, that same Spirit that upheld Jesus Christ, dwells within the believer. And the Spirit and Christ are so intimately connected, that in the next verse in Romans 8, Romans 8.10, he's talking about the Spirit, the Spirit dwells in you, and then he says Christ dwells in you. They're so intimately connected that Jesus Himself dwells in you by His Spirit. Paul says this in Galatians 2.20 as well, Christ lives in me. How is Jesus with the Church? He dwells within you by His Spirit. In the same way that the Lord God dwelt in the temple in the Old Covenant, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.19 that He dwells in your body. So Jesus is not farther away, so to speak, but He's actually closer than He's ever been. I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. And He couldn't be any closer, and He couldn't be any more with you. The same Spirit that upheld Christ in the temptation, in the wilderness, at the hands of Satan, indwells the believer. And the same Spirit that upheld Christ in the garden of Gethsemane when He cried out to His Father that the cup would pass, upholds the believer. And the same Spirit that upheld Christ on the cross of Calvary dwells within the believer. Christ Himself, by His Spirit, dwells within the Christian. He is with us. And there's all sorts of applications we could make that Jesus is still with us. If you are the temple of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, what kinds of things are you bringing into that temple? Into your mind, and into your eyes, and into your mouth? What about worry? Should we ever worry if Christ Himself dwells within us, if He's that near? What about strength? The Spirit that hovered over the waters at creation, the Christ who upholds the universe by the word of His power, dwells within the Christian. What about the way we deal with other Christians? How should we deal with other believers if they are temples of the Holy Spirit, walking holies of holies? Jesus is with us still, promised to be with us, born to be with us, still with us, and then fourth, and finally, forever with us. forever with us. I think there's a question that we should ask. You know, it's been about almost 2,000 years since Jesus came and ascended up into heaven. Will things always be like this? Will we always be with Jesus like we are now, by faith but not by sight, indwelled by the Spirit, praise the Lord, but not physically in His presence? And Scripture's answer is no. Things are going to be different. Things are going to be different. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13 that we see now in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. And John says in Revelation 21 of the new heavens and the new earth, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. Things won't always be as they are now. The day of faith will give way to the day of sight. We will see him coming on the clouds. The one who came in the manger will return for all of his own and will reign visibly, bodily, over the new heavens and the new earth. He will be with us forever, not just by faith, but by sight. And I want us to think as we close I want you to think of everything that you know to be true about Jesus. Think about His divinity. That He is God of very God, God the Son, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. In His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. That He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. That in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and nothing in heaven or earth was made apart from Him. And I want you to think about His humanity. I want you to think that He has a nature like your own, that He has a mind like your mind, and a heart like your heart, and a soul like your soul, that He has walked a mile in your shoes, that He knows what it is to be tempted in every way as we, yet without sin. All in one person. And I want you to think about how Jesus has perfectly met your needs in giving Himself at the cross, and in bearing your sin upon His soul. and in going to the grave, and in ascending up into heaven, and how Jesus has met your every need, and has justified you before God the Father, and has brought you in to God's family, and has secured your soul for eternity, and intercedes for you even now in heaven, and that you have a promise from Him that He will return. I want you to think of everything that you know about Jesus, and all of the glory of everything that you know about Him. And you know what Paul says about all of those glorious things? He says, that is as seeing in a mirror dimly. Think of all of the glory of the Christ that you have known and that you have worshipped, and Paul says the greatest glory that you could ever articulate in this life is but as looking in a glass dimly. And my friends, if you know this many glorious truths about Christ here, how glorious will He be when you see Him face to face? If all of the things, if you were to pile all the things you know to be true about Jesus, and Paul says that's as looking in a glass darkly, then how glorious will it be to see Him? If the glory that you know now is but a dim glass, how glorious will it be to look in His face? Where Paul says the radiance of the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. What glory will that be? You and I cannot fathom His glory here and now with the words that we have. But we will see Him. But we will see Him. Friends, you need to believe in Jesus because there is no one more glorious than Jesus. Anything less would not satisfy, anything more could not be imagined. There is no one more worthy of your praise. There is no one more worthy of your worship. He is the fullness of God. who dwells bodily with His people. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. He was promised to be with us long ago. He was born to be with us and is like us in every way, yet without sin. He is still with us by His Spirit, but we will be with Him. We will be with Him forever. We will see Him as He is and we will know Him even as we are fully known. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for Jesus. Oh Lord, he is the great proof of all of your promises. We love him, we praise you for him. We pray that you would make us like him. And we pray that you would cause us to see his glory. Glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. We ask it in his name, amen.