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I want to welcome you here on this most special of Days, which we remember and celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. This morning we will have a look at the account of His glorious birth and sing carols of praise to our king.

What do you enjoy about Christmas? Sometimes people say to me, ‘I’m so looking forward to time off work or school, to see friends, to have a break, to relax with food and family, to get lots of presents.’ While some of these things are important, it is nothing compared to the real meaning of Christmas. Everywhere you go people will wish you a happy Christmas. However all the money that is spent and the hustle and bustle means people can tend to forget the real meaning of Christmas. I want to tell you this morning of the greatest gift ever given, foretold for centuries, and is still the greatest gift 2000 years after it was given to us – that gift has been given to us if we accept it.

The First Christmas an angel appeared to some shepherds and said, ‘I bring you good tidings of great Joy.’ (Luke 2: 10-11). At Christmas you can be happy about the gifts, the nice things to eat and the other surprises that you might get on Christmas day. However, you can be especially joyful that the Lord Jesus came to be our Saviour. Without Him there would be no forgiveness for the wrong things we have done, there would be no hope of going to Heaven to be with Him. The promised Saviour came.

The announcement of the angel must have come as a surprise to the shepherds. They were afraid. They did not fully understand all that it meant that the Saviour was born. Here was the most important event in the history of the world so far and they were the first to know that the Saviour had come. What a privilege!

Before this great event in  Bethlehem 2000 years ago, let us look further back to the prophet Isaiah who foretold this at least 700 years beforehand. This is a story of a baby born in the most lowly of stables despite being the King of Kings who can save each and every one of us. He is also with us in every circumstance. He is God who is with us!

“For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

    and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

    there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

    to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

    from this time forth and for evermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”

Matthew records the fulfilment of this prophecy in his gospel, 1:18-25. We are here this morning to celebrate the fulfilment of the prophecy from Isaiah 9, which was over 700 years before this account in Matthew chapter 1, when our Creator stepped into His creation in the most unbelievable way, stepping out of eternity into the constraints of time.

The Gospel of Matthew begins by introducing us to the “with-us” Jesus (1:23) and concludes with the same emphasis when Jesus told the disciples: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (28:20).

Matthew 1:22-23 is an important marker in his book. These verses record a momentous fulfillment of prophecy. The fact that Matthew highlights the ‘with us’ theme so early in his gospel unveils this as a key theme. All throughout his account we read of God’s presence with us and ultimately reaching its climax in the last verse when Jesus states to His disciples and us, (Matt 28:20).

God came down from the infinite glory of heaven into the finite world of man. The omnipotent Creator became one of creation’s most helpless  – a new born baby.

Many sermons will be preached today celebrating the birth of our Saviour, but today I find myself captured by the meaning of one of His names, Immanuel – which means God with us.  During this Advent season I have been contemplating the reason why God would leave the glory of heaven to be born in that lowly stable in Bethlehem.

In Matthew He is given two names. We read in verse 21 He is named Jesus, and in verse 23 He is then named Immanuel. What is the significance of these names?

Immanuel – “God with us” reflects Jesus’ unique nature as God in flesh, but also describes the direction of all of God’s actions from Genesis to Revelation. In the Garden of Eden, we see that God placed Adam and Eve there as more than caretakers of His creation, but also to form a special relationship with Himself as He would walk among them in ‘the cool of the day’. 

When Adam and Eve sinned, the relationship drastically changed. Yet even sin and judgement did not change the purposeful path of God’s love. Again and again God has been reaching out to His people in order to rescue them and this rescue plan came to being through the birth, death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,

The name Immanuel describes His nature, whilst the name Jesus describes His mission. The name Jesus means ‘Saviour’. It is the same name as Joshua in the Old Testament and given to our Lord because He will save His people from their sins. This is His special mission from God, our Father: He saves us from the guilt of sin by washing us in His own atoning blood and granting us new life through Him, if we place our faith and trust in Him, asking for repentance of sins.

The earthly rulers of this world might have often called themselves great, conquerors, bold, magnificent, yet the Son of God is content to call Himself a servant, to save God’s people from their sins! His role is shown in John 3:17, ‘For God did not send His son Into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.’ The Bible tells us our need for salvation and how Jesus has to be a man to redeem us.

But I want us to look this morning and see the heart of a God who desired to come near His children. He was not content to be a distant deity removed from our real day to day life. Not like Bette Midler’s song which said that God was watching from a distance, no, not our God. He came as close as you could ever imagine. He stepped right into our human world and not even as an adult. He could have just appeared as a man at the Jordan river, been baptised and started His ministry, but no, our God wanted the whole human experience from conception to the grave.

The name Immanuel was first given as a prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

This name given to the Lord Jesus shows His nature. God with us, or slightly changed to God manifest in flesh: Jesus is ‘God with us’. He had a nature like our own in all things, except the sinful part. But Jesus was ‘with us’ in human flesh and blood, and at the same time truly God.

Those who followed Jesus for the three years of his earthly ministry experienced the presence of God with them in a very intimate and personal fashion. During Jesus’ last night with His disciples, Phillip asked Him to show them the Father (John 14:8). Jesus responded to him that if they had seen Him, Jesus, they had seen the Father.

In Matthew 18:20, Jesus tells us that where two or three of us gather, in His name, He will be with us. While we no longer see His physical presence among us when we gather, but we can be assured that He is with us. As the church, we are His body. Wherever we are, He is as well.

In the New Testament gospels, Jesus’ followers experienced the presence of God with them in the person of Jesus. Jesus was God in human form, walking, talking, and eating with them. I have often wondered what it would be like to have spent time with Jesus like that.

But the reality is, we have an even more intimate relationship with God now. While Jesus walked side-by-side with the disciples, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. For those who believe in Jesus, God is with us every moment of every day. God personally entered our very humanity so that He would feel what we feel, live what we live, know the same limitations and the same temptations. His human experience allows Him to relate to us at our deepest point of need. The Christmas story is about a God who is near, a God who is here, a God who is real, a God who understands everything you feel.

Immanuel is so much more than Jesus coming. It is Jesus staying. God not only was with us – God is with us. He has always been with us and always will be with us. He is with us even now. From His coming to His going, God has been reminding us that He is with us.

Jesus came to earth to be ‘with us’, just Joseph and Mary found comfort in this truth, you too can have faith and reassurance that Jesus is Immanuel to all who trust in Him. His name is more than a title, it is a promise and it serves as a signpost until we reach our final eternal destination with Him. He alone is worthy of the name Immanuel, as He is the Holy God who draws near to us and the only One through whom we are able to draw near to God.  1 Peter 3:18 says, ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.’

The baby that was born in Bethlehem, the greatest gift ever given, grew up to be a man who was perfect. He performed miracles, healed the sick, drove out demons, walked on water, and died for our sins. He is our wonderful counselor and Mighty God, who rose again on the third day and now is with us for eternity.

The Lord is our strength, our refuge. He is the one we can lean on in every circumstance as He promises that He will never leave or forsake us, if we put our trust in Him this Christmas.

Immanuel is not just a name to remember at Christmas, but throughout the year. The gift of Christ given at Christmas, is with us forever and He will come alongside us, if we accept the wonderful free gift of salvation today.  As the hymn says,

‘Every need His hand supplying,
Every good in Him I see;
On His strength divine relying,
He is all in all to me.’

If you do not know the greatest gift for yourself, do not leave here today without speaking to someone after the service. This could be the greatest gift you will receive today.