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23/12/07

 

 

Immanuel -God is With us

Is 7:10-16

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I can't work out where we stand as Christians in Australia today. It seemed for a while that our influence was declining. No-one seemed to care any more what Christians thought, then the rise of the Christian right in America and to some extent here in Australia meant that politicians started to take notice again. The Family First party won a seat in the Senate and suddenly Christian values became an important issue again. Our Archbishop is listed in the Age list of the 100 most influential people in Melbourne. But on the ground there's still a resistance to Christianity. The Christmas story is no longer told in many pre-schools. There's a growing trend to follow the Americans and call this the holiday season rather than Christmas. My guess is that the Carols in the Myer Music Bowl will include as many secular songs as they will Christmas carols and they'll certainly be sung by people who, in the majority of cases, hold no allegiance to Christianity let alone commitment to Christ.

 

Di discovered a few weeks ago that very few of the children in her prep CRE classes this year recognised any of the Christmas story. The vast majority of people will never go into a church unless it's for a funeral, or maybe a wedding. So it seems we're fighting a losing battle in our mission to reach the world with the gospel. You may even begin to think how can we compete against the glitz and glamour of the world anyway?

 

Well before you get too depressed there's good news for us in today's Bible readings. Isaiah 7 is set at a time when the southern kingdom of Judah is surrounded by enemies who are threatening their entire world. Judah is under threat from an alliance of Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel. Ahaz the king is getting worried and he doesn't know what to do. He could form his own alliance with the much stronger nation of Assyria, though that itself carries a great risk, or he could wait it out and trust that God will protect him.

 

It's a bit like the situation I've just described, where Christians are on the back foot. So what do we do? Do we trust God to help us in a difficult situation, or do we use our own political savvy, our own applied logic, our own advertising people perhaps, to find a way out by ourselves?

 

Well, in the case of Ahaz, God helped him out. He sent Isaiah to speak to him and say "Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood." Ahaz could relax in the face of this threat, because God was with him. This was God's city and he wasn't going to let these almost burnt out enemies take it captive. Now you'd think that when the prophet of the Lord speaks to Ahaz he'd be reassured, wouldn't you? But maybe this is too soon in Isaiah's career as a prophet, because Ahaz doesn't seem too reassured. So Isaiah speaks on. He tells him that within 65 years Ephraim, that is, Israel, the northern kingdom, will be shattered. Their alliance with Syria will bring about their own downfall as Syria takes them over. So too, if he decides to take up an alliance with Assyria he risks Judah being swallowed up. He says: "If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all."

 

Still, Ahaz isn't ready to trust God, so God speaks again (here we come to today's reading, v10): "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." All Ahaz has to do is ask God for a sign that he's with him. You may remember that this was what Gideon did when the angel told him God was making him the leader of his people. He asked God for a sign that he really would be with him. And God gave him that sign. In fact he gave it to him twice. So too, here Ahaz is told to ask for a sign to reassure him of God's intention towards Judah and Jerusalem. But Ahaz refuses. He uses pietistic language to excuse himself: "I won't put the LORD to the test." But can you see why he doesn't want to ask God for a sign? It isn't because he doesn't want reassurance. No, he doesn't want a sign because he doesn't want to have to risk trusting God.

 

We're like that sometime aren't we? We'd rather find our own solutions than wait and see what God will bring out of a situation?

 

Well by this time God is getting a bit sick of Ahaz. He can see that Ahaz is scared and thinks that this alliance with Assyria might be an easier solution that trusting God to work a miracle. But he wants them to continue to trust him to protect them. So he tells Isaiah to say that he's going to give him a sign anyway. He says: "A young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and they shall name him Immanuel." The naming of a child is a common technique in the prophets to bring a message to God's people. Hosea uses it to warn them of God's judgement, then to promise his restoration. Here the child is to be named Immanuel, that is, God is with us, to assure them that God is ready to defend them against their enemies.

 

Well, in the end the things God warned them about happened. Both Israel and Syria were taken over by Assyria. Even Jerusalem was threatened, though not taken, because God protected them.

 

But of course the history of Israel isn't actually our focus today. Today we're interested in the way that prophecy had its outworking in the birth of Jesus. There's no record in Isaiah of this baby actually being born. It's not until we get to Matthew that we discover this is one of those prophecies that look forward centuries to their fulfilment in Jesus Christ - despite what the Archbishop of Canterbury may have said last week. Matthew identifies this child, Jesus, with the prophecy of Isaiah 7: "They shall name him Emmanuel," which means, 'God is with us.'"

 

Now I think that we're so familiar with those words that we've lost some of their import. We tend to think of Jesus' name as simply signifying the incarnation. Here's a child who's also God. God has come to dwell among us in human form. Now certainly that's true. The passage we'll read on Christmas day, from John 1 makes that very clear. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." But in this passage from Matthew, I think there's a little more to it than that. You see, Matthew knew his Old Testament. He delighted in pointing out the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus had fulfilled. And so too, here, he points to the prophecy of Isaiah being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. This child, born of a virgin, is the sign that Isaiah pointed to. He's a sign that God is with us, looking after us. A sign, that is, not just of God's presence, but of God's protection, of God's salvation.

 

I guess it's safe to say that the people of Israel in Jesus' day were in a similar situation to Isaiah's time. In fact if anything, their situation was worse. They were already a conquered people, under the control of Rome. They were in danger of losing their national identity. In fact in a little over half a century Jerusalem would be destroyed and they'd virtually lose their homeland. So they needed to be reassured that God was with them still.

 

The only trouble was, God being with them wasn't to save them as a nation. It wasn't to preserve Jerusalem from defeat, as it was in Isaiah's day.

 

No, this child, as 'God with us', was a sign to assure us that our separation from God was coming to an end. The name the angel gave him was Jesus, because he'd save his people from their sins. God is with us, first and foremost to save us from the reality of the judgement we deserve but also to assure us that the opposition we face can never overcome us if we'll continue to trust him.

 

It's a complex idea isn't it? Jesus is both a sign of God's protection and the means of that protection. Jesus both assures us that God is fulfilling his promise to restore the creation and is the means by which God brings about that restoration.

 

And what about right now? We look back on the events of the first century and we understand what happened. We know that God has brought about the salvation he promised in this young child. And that might be all we get out of a passage like this. But that would be to miss, again, the deeper significance of this name, Immanuel. This baby Jesus continues to be a sign for us, doesn't he? He continues to act as a reminder, as a token of God's ongoing love and protection. When we look back to the birth of Jesus, and to his death and resurrection, we're reminded again and again, that God is mighty to save.

 

We read about Ahaz hearing about the alliance of Syria and Israel and being afraid that they might come and defeat him and it all seems such a long time ago. But really, his situation isn't that much different from what most of us experience from time to time. We all experience times when it seems like everything is stacked against us; when it feels like the whole world is coming down on us like a ton of bricks. And as Christians we often feel like we're on our own; pitted against forces beyond our ability to resist, let alone overcome. You may be feeling that particularly at this time of year as the forces of political correctness, led by the secular humanists, try to limit the celebration of Christ's birth and turn it into the holiday season instead; when images of Santa are plastered everywhere as though he were the one we were celebrating and some people treat Jesus as though he's another mythical character like Santa. I went looking for Christmas cards the other day and all I could see were cards with Santa and his elves on them! So much for Christmas as celebrating the birth of Jesus.

 

But of course we're the only ones who would think that that was an issue. The rest of the world couldn't care less. We're just a small minority in an increasingly secular world. But here's the good news of Christmas. We're not alone. We're not facing insurmountable opposition. God is with us. He came in the form of the baby Jesus. He lived as one of us. He died and rose again. And in his last few hours with the disciples before his death he promised them this: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18'I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.'"

 

Then before he ascended to the Father he gave this promise: "Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

 

Immanuel is still with us. His Holy Spirit dwells within each and every Christian. He is with us so we need never be afraid.

 

Paul puts it like this in Rom 8: "What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?" God promises to remain with us. He's given up his only Son for us. What could we ask for, that he wouldn't give, if that's the level of his generosity towards us?

 

So let me encourage you today to have confidence, not in your own ability to overcome those who oppose the gospel, but in the God who sent his only Son as both a sign of his love for us and as the means by which that love could bring about its purpose for his people. Have confidence in the God who continues to be with us through all the trials of life.

 

We're going to spend some time now listening to a song by Michael Card that sums up beautifully this idea of Immanuel, God with us.

 

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