Advent 3: A New Presence

A New Presence

Matthew 1: 18 – 25

Introduction

If you are like me, you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your own name. Names are very interesting. We usually don’t have any control over our names. Someone else gave us our names before we were old enough to decide for ourselves. Then, we spend our entire lives “stuck” with what other people call us. A name is so much a part of our identity that we can’t even imagine having any other name.

But, when I think about it, I am actually glad my parents named me “Andy.” After all, everybody calls me “Andy,” so it would be somewhat awkward if that wasn’t my name.

Are you happy with your name? How do you feel when you hear someone speak your name for the first time? Do you feel proud of your name? Or, do you have to explain what your name means or why your parents stuck you with such an unusual name?

In our culture, names don’t really carry a lot of significance. It’s just a name. It doesn’t say anything about the kind of person we are deep down.

That was not the case in the world of the Bible. In the Bible, names were significant, because they revealed something about a person’s character. In fact, there are several Bible stories about God changing a person’s name because that person’s character changed.

The name Abram means “father.” When God called Abram to become the father of the Jewish people, God changed his name to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude.” The name Jacob means “trickster, or deceiver.” When God called Jacob to become the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, God changed his name to Israel, which means “one who strives with God, or God prevails.” The name Simon means “flat-nosed.” When Simon confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus changed his name to Peter, which means “rock”—and Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church.”

Since names actually mean something in the Bible, it should not surprise us that Matthew told us the story of how Jesus got his name. Like most newborn boys, Jesus was named by his father, Joseph. And, while Joseph might have been tempted to name this baby Joseph Junior, he didn’t. Joseph was instructed by an angel from God to name the baby Jesus.

Matthew 1: 18 – 25.

18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"-- which means, "God with us."

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

(NIV)

Families usually celebrate when they discover that a baby is on the way. It is supposed to be a joyous event. However, this was not the case with Joseph. This birth did not take place in the normal progression of things. Joseph and Mary were supposed to get engaged, then get married, and only then have their first born child. That is not the way things happened for Joseph and Mary.

Joseph discovered that his fiancée was pregnant before they were married. We know that this was a miracle. God had selected Mary to be the virgin mother of God’s Son. But, Joseph didn’t know this. He assumed this baby was conceived humanly, and this could only mean one thing. Mary was guilty of adultery.

Even though Joseph and Mary were not yet married, their culture afforded them many of the rights and responsibilities of a married couple. For example, a woman whose fiancé died before their wedding day was considered a widow. And a woman who had intimate relations with another man was considered an adulteress.

Matthew tells us that Joseph was a righteous man. This probably means that Joseph took the Old Testament Law very seriously. He tried to live up to the standards of the Law, and he tried to fulfill all the requirements of the Law. As a result, Joseph had a very difficult decision to make. On one hand, he could follow the letter of the Law and make a public spectacle out of Mary. He could publicly accuse her of unfaithfulness and allow the legal process to run its course. The end of that process would have been the death penalty by stoning. On the other hand, Joseph could have taken a more private action. He could bring two witnesses with him to Mary’s house, accuse her in their presence and demand a divorce.

Fortunately Joseph was visited by an angel in the middle of the night. An angel is a messenger, and this particular angel delivered two messages to Joseph. The angel told Joseph that it was God’s will for him to go ahead with his plans to marry. The baby was the result of God’s activity and not the result of human sinfulness. This baby was a part of God’s plan to enter into human history and accomplish salvation.

The angel also told Joseph to name the baby Jesus. (I’m sure this was a relief for Joseph, since naming the baby was the farthest thing from his mind. He had much bigger things to worry about than coming up with a name!)

Given Name

In some ways, there is nothing really special about the name Jesus. Jesus is the Greek form of the English name Joshua or the Hebrew name Yeshua. Yet, the name Jesus is significant because of what it means. It literally means, “Yahweh saves.”

It was a fairly common for Jewish people in the First Century world to name their sons Jesus. There was a Jesus in the Old Testament—Joshua, who succeeded Moses as the leader who led the Israelites into the Promised Land. There is even a reference to another Jesus in the New Testament, in Colossians 4. More than likely, this Jesus was named after Joshua in the Old Testament. His name was a reminder of all Yahweh had done in the past to bring salvation to the Israelites and to bring them into the Promised Land.

But, that is not how Jesus got his name. Jesus was not named to remind us of what God had done in the past. Jesus was named to point us toward the future.

Matthew 1: 21, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

The name Jesus reminds us of Jesus’ miraculous birth and foreshadows Jesus’ divine mission. Jesus is God’s plan for salvatiom.

Matthew goes to great lengths to show us from Jesus’ ancestry that he is a legitimate “son of Abraham” and “son of David.” As a son of Abraham, Jesus is a legitimate Jew. As a son of David, Jesus is a royal heir to the throne.

Matthew makes us wait before he gives us insight into Jesus’ nature as the Son of God. He holds this until the story of Jesus’ baptism. After the baptism, a voice from Heaven declares that Jesus is “my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” But, Jesus did not become the Son of God at his baptism. We know this, because of the miraculous virgin birth.

The birth of Jesus was something that had never happened before. A baby was conceived in the womb of a virgin young woman.

The life of Jesus would be something that had never happened before either. Jesus lived a sinless and perfect life. He fulfilled the entire Law of the Old Testament and lived up to all of God’s expectations.

And, of course, the death of Jesus was something that had never happened before. Jesus was the virgin-born Son of God. Jesus lived a sinless and perfect life. And, he was crucified as a perfect and final sacrifice for all our sins.

The name Jesus tells us who this baby will become. The fact that God named the baby Jesus tells us this is God’s plan. All of God’s plans for salvation are fulfilled in the life and the eventual death and resurrection of this baby. God’s plans are no longer tied to a person’s biological race or to a national entity. God’s plans are tied to Jesus.

As a result, everyone must decide for themselves what to do with Jesus. This is a baby who demands a decision. Either, we will reject this baby as God’s plan for salvation, or we will accept him through faith. His life is to be our example. His death was a sacrifice for our sins. His resurrection is our assurance of eternal life.

Symbolic Name

Matthew tells us this baby actually has two names. On one hand, his given name is to be Jesus. On the other hand, he has a symbolic name that comes directly from the prophecy of Isaiah 7.

Matthew 1: 22 – 23, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means, ‘God with us.’’”

As far as I know, this is the only time Jesus is referred to as Immanuel. No one in the Bible ever addressed him as Immanuel. They called him Jesus or Lord. But never Immanuel. This is a symbolic name. It symbolizes Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and God’s plans for our lives.

The name Immanuel—much like the name Jesus—reminds us of Jesus’ miraculous birth and Jesus’ divine mission. God’s plan for our lives includes two things. God wants to save us from our sins, AND God wants us to be in relationship with himself. God wants to be with us…to be the most important relationship in our lives…the relationship which controls everything we do and every decision we make.

God with Us

God’s plan for our salvation is much like what we have been reading in the Book of Exodus. When God’s people were slaves in Egypt, God rescued them from slavery. But, God told his people that he had two objectives for them. First, God wanted to rescue them from slavery. Second, God wanted to be with his people.

We can see this in the overall story of the Book of Exodus. The Book can be divided into three sections: the Israelites in Egypt, the Israelites at Mount Sinai, and the Israelites in the wilderness. At Mount Sinai, God gave his people specific instructions on how to build the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was the place where God met with his people. It was built as a tent so that it would be portable. Wherever God led his people, they would always have access to the presence of God.

Eventually, the people were settled in the Promised Land. They no longer needed a portable Tabernacle to carry the presence of God with them. Therefore, God gave King Solomon instructions to build a more permanent Temple. This Temple was a constant reminder that God was present with his people. It was fixed in one location in the center of the religious and political capitol city, Jerusalem.

But what are we supposed to do today? There is no Temple in Jerusalem. We don’t have a Tabernacle. Instead, we have Jesus, who is Immanuel—God with us.

John 1: 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John does not tell us anything about the birth of Jesus. Instead, he wrote a theological description of who Jesus is. Jesus is the Word of God who reveals God to us. And, in the Incarnation, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Interestingly, there is only one Greek word that gets translated “made his dwelling among us.” It is the word “tabernacle.” Jesus is the “tabernacle” that reveals the glory and presence of God among us.

John 2: 18 – 22, “Then the Jews demanded of him, ‘What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’

Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’

The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”

These are the words of Jesus, no less. John makes an obvious connection that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Tabernacle which reveals the glory and presence of God. Then, Jesus himself tells us that he is our Temple

1 Corinthians 3: 16 – 17, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.”

The pronoun “you” is a plural pronoun in this passage. In East Texas, we would translate, “Don’t ya’ll know that ya’ll are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in ya’ll?”

According to Paul’s theology, the church is the temple of God. The Holy Spirit lives in the church. We experience the presence of God in the church. This should be our primary reason for not causing problems in church.

1 Corinthians 6: 19 – 20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

This passage sounds a whole lot like 1 Corinthians 3. The difference is that Paul has shifted from the plural to the singular for of the pronoun “you.” The Holy Spirit lives in you, individually, as a man or woman saved by Jesus.

Here, we can trace a thread through the entire narrative of Scripture. God gave his people a Tabernacle in which they could experience the presence of God. When they were settled in the Promised Land, God gave them a Temple. Then, God sent his Son, Jesus, to be the fulfillment of both the Tabernacle and the Temple. Then, God placed his Holy Spirit in the lives of individual Christians and in the corporate body of the church.

Conclusion

Are you searching for God today? There is good news. God is right here. God is present in the life of the church. God is present in the life of men and women who have placed their faith in Jesus.

It’s like searching for your car keys before you leave the house. You look in your pockets. You look in your dresser. You look in the refrigerator. And then you feel kind of silly, because the keys are right there in your hand. God sent Jesus so that we no longer have to search for God. God is searching for us.

The Good News of Christmas is not that God is everywhere. God is right here. The Good News is not that God can be accessed from anywhere. God can be accessed where we are. God is with us.