WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:06.719 The sermon text for today is from Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:12.960 You can find this passage in the Blue Pew Bible on page 1468. 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:17.280 Please listen as I read God's word. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:23.440 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:27.920 His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:33.759 But before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:45.520 Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:59.840 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. 00:01:00.960 --> 00:01:04.959 Because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:14.319 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. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:20.159 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:29.760 The Virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:39.120 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:48.079 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus. 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:50.640 Here ends the reading. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.240 Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. 00:02:08.479 --> 00:02:13.280 And I got to eat some good food and uh hang out with family. 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:18.159 Uh be honest, how many of you really enjoy the snow that's out there right now? 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:20.400 Okay, lots of you. 00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:23.039 How many of you don't care for it as much? 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:25.439 Quite a few of you. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:28.560 Uh I I like the snow. 00:02:28.639 --> 00:02:30.080 It's just everything about the snow. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:36.000 It's just the like the driving in it, and it's the shoveling it and snowblowing it. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:38.080 I don't care for that much, that part of it. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:39.360 But it's beautiful. 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:41.840 So at least it has that going for it. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:49.599 If I haven't uh had the chance to meet you yet, my name is John, and I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood. 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:57.759 And uh once again, there may be uh another voice uh welcoming you, saying we're so grateful that you would spend a Sunday morning here with us. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:02.240 As we come to look at these verses today, I want to invite you to join me in word of prayer. 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:28.479 God, as we come into a season where we think about your incarnation in a focused way, we ask God that you would help us uh this year to experience you in new and fresh ways. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:42.639 We ask that as we think about who you are and what the incarnation, your birth means for us, that you would uh give us a greater sense of clarity into who Jesus is and what he's done for us. 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:48.560 And we ask God that you would uh please just awaken our hearts in new ways to who you are. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:52.080 Be with us now in this time. 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:57.360 We ask, Holy Spirit, that you would uh open the eyes of our hearts, open our minds. 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:05.199 God, give us receptivity to the ways that you would like to bring challenge or conviction into our lives today. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:13.680 We desire our lives to be conformed into the image of Christ, and we ask you, Holy Spirit, to do your work this morning during this time. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:16.000 We pray all this in Jesus' name. 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:17.279 Amen. 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:25.199 This morning we are beginning a new series of messages titled Behold. 00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:33.360 And what we are doing is we are going to be looking at the life-shaping power of fixing our eyes on Jesus. 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:36.959 Now, the idea behind this series is quite simple. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:41.519 What we behold will determine how we behave. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:46.560 What we behold will determine how we behave. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:54.000 Now, we don't typically use the word behold very much in conversational English unless we use it in something of an ironic way. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:57.279 Um but the word simply means to look at. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:06.000 It means to stare at something, it means to fix your gaze on something in a kind of wonder and awe. 00:05:06.240 --> 00:05:12.319 And so when someone says, Man, you gotta check this out, what we do is we behold. 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:18.720 When someone says, feast your eyes on this, what we do is we behold. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:20.959 Here's another example. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:25.199 Uh, at the end of each school term, our girls asked me to decorate a cake. 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:29.439 I have, uh I think a few years ago I shared one of these cakes that I decorated. 00:05:29.519 --> 00:05:37.439 Uh, but at the end of each school term, they asked me to decorate a cake, and they always asked me to decorate it based on something that they learned about during the course of that term. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:06:05.199 And so then during the end of our term celebration, I always present this cake, and so we're sitting down, we eat dinner, and then I go into the other room and finish decorating it, and I bring it into the room, and of course it's hidden, no one has seen it, no one knows what it looks like, and I bring it in, and after a very long dramatic pause, I reveal the cake, and we all behold the wonder of my amateur artistic skills, if you can even call them that. 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:11.120 When this last term ended, our children they don't ask me for easy things. 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:12.879 The first one was the Mona Lisa. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:26.720 The most recent one, they asked me to draw a picture on top of a cake using frosting icing stuff of the guy who tight roped over the Niagara Falls pushing a woman in a wheelbarrow. 00:06:28.240 --> 00:06:29.839 So this is what they got. 00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:41.920 See, you've all just beheld, you've all beholded the glory of my uh artistic skills. 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:48.240 Uh this may be a very cheesy example of this, and it is for sure, uh, but that's what beholding is. 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:54.319 Beholding is being taken in by something, it's having your attention captured by something. 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:59.040 And I think we all know this, that there's a kind of beholding that's completely on the surface. 00:06:59.279 --> 00:07:02.720 For example, beholding my quote-unquote cake art. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:11.600 You look at it for a second, and maybe you're drawn into it and you want to, you know, look at how good it is, and then you move on with your life very quickly from it, right? 00:07:12.079 --> 00:07:20.959 But we also know that there is a kind of beholding that is a deep heart-level beholding. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:29.920 And that kind of beholding shapes how we live, it shapes how we behave because what we behold will determine how we behave. 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:40.160 So, for example, if you are a single person and you meet someone that you are really attracted to, you behold that person, and oh boy, does that change the way that you live? 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:58.720 If you behold a life of success and approval and popularity and accomplishment and achievement, if you have in your mind's eye a picture of that beautiful life and you behold it, that is going to change the way that you live. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:14.000 If you behold the kind of life that can be yours through more money or more or better or newer possessions, you think of the comfort and the convenience and you know all that stuff that comes with more money and more possessions. 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:18.800 If you behold that life, that is going to change the way that you live. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:32.960 And this is because what we behold, the things that our heart loves, the things that our hearts find beautiful and compelling, those things that we behold will determine how we behave. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:39.919 The goal of this Advent series is very simply to help us behold Jesus. 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:59.039 Each week we're going to look at an aspect of Jesus' identity, and together these sort of little pictures, these snapshots, these vignettes are going to give us a fuller picture of Jesus, who is the only one truly worthy of our beholding. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:03.679 So who is who is Jesus? 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:09.600 The way we're going to answer that question this morning is this He is the one the prophets foretold. 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:18.480 Jesus is the one the prophets foretold, and in our time today, where I want us to leave and to land is beholding him. 00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:22.080 Beholding him as the one the prophets foretold. 00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:31.360 So you heard in the text, as it was read this morning from Matthew, that uh Matthew, the one who wrote this account of Jesus' life and ministry, he's convinced. 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:40.399 He's totally convinced that the birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah wrote about some 700 years prior. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:46.399 And that's why he talks about Jesus' birth and then says, Yeah, this all happened to fulfill what took place in Isaiah. 00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:54.159 And so the question that we should uh wrestle with this morning and explore is, okay, what exactly does Matthew see in Jesus? 00:09:54.559 --> 00:10:01.120 In other words, in what ways does Jesus fulfill Isaiah chapter 7? 00:10:01.919 --> 00:10:04.960 To try and answer those questions, we actually tricked you. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.519 We had Matthew, the sermon text, read. 00:10:07.679 --> 00:10:11.200 We're gonna spend our time this morning in the book of Isaiah. 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:16.879 So if you haven't already, because you didn't know about this, open a Bible to Isaiah chapter 7. 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:21.600 It's found on page 1024 in the blue Bible that you find in front of you. 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:30.159 And so we're just gonna look at these verses to get a sense of what does Matthew mean when he tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah 7? 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:34.879 What does he mean when he tells us that Jesus is the one the prophets foretold? 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:46.240 So this morning I want to walk through these historical events found in Isaiah, and as we do so, we're gonna organize our time around a couple different headings. 00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:50.320 And the first heading is this the threat of invasion. 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:56.080 So here's what's happening in Isaiah chapter 7. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:59.360 Here's what's happening geopolitically in Isaiah's day. 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:01.200 So there's a king named Uzziah. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:04.240 We're told in Isaiah 6 that King Uzziah died. 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:11.440 He ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah for 52 years, which is a long time to rule and to reign. 00:11:11.759 --> 00:11:19.279 But he died, and then by the time we get to Isaiah 7, we see that his grandson Ahaz took over king of Judah. 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:24.399 And so Ahaz is reigning down in the area of Jerusalem. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:43.200 And what's happening is that the two nations north of where Judah is have decided that they are going to form a political alliance and they are going to launch a military campaign against Judah so that they can basically wipe Judah out and they can conquer it and they can divide up its land among themselves. 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:44.639 So that's that's what's happening. 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:48.399 There's a threat of this invasion from their neighbors to the north. 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:55.440 And as you would expect, Ahaz and the people of Judah are very frightened by this. 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:56.720 They're terrified by this. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:07.440 And we read in Isaiah 7, verse 2, it says, the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:15.360 So the kingdom of Judah is living in a time of political uncertainty. 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:22.080 They're living in a time where there's this threat against their existence that's being posed by these other nations. 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:30.720 And it's into that uncertainty that God speaks a message of comfort, and he speaks a message of hope to Ahaz and to the people. 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:38.159 So in verse 4, God says, Be careful, keep calm, and don't be afraid. 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:43.919 Don't be afraid of these two smoldering stubs of firewood. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:47.759 And then God goes on to say, Why they shouldn't be afraid. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:57.600 He says, They have plotted your ruin, saying, Let us invade Judah, let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabiel king over it. 00:12:57.840 --> 00:13:01.039 Yet this is what the sovereign Lord says. 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:03.679 It will not take place. 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:06.559 It will not happen. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:15.840 So there's this threat of invasion from these other nations, but God speaks a message of hope and says, Don't worry, it's not going to happen. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:26.879 Now, to someone in Ahaz's situation, and to someone who is just a resident of the nation of Judah, this is precisely the news that you want to hear, is it not? 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:29.279 This is wonderful news to hear. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:32.799 And look at how God says, goes even further than just saying this. 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:42.720 He says in verse 10, ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or the highest heights. 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:48.960 So God says to Ahaz, I'm telling you that their plan to invade you and to destroy you. 00:13:49.120 --> 00:13:50.399 Their plan is gonna fail. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:51.679 It's not gonna work. 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:56.000 And I know that you may be skeptical that this message may be too good to be true. 00:13:56.159 --> 00:13:59.440 So what I'm gonna do, Ahaz, is I'm going to give you a sign. 00:13:59.679 --> 00:14:06.320 I want you to ask me for any sign that you want, something big, something small, ask me for any sign. 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:11.440 I want to prove to you that I'm on your side and that you have nothing to fear. 00:14:15.919 --> 00:14:20.480 God gave Ahaz a sign blank check. 00:14:22.159 --> 00:14:24.000 And Ahaz said no. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:30.399 So we see this threat of invasion that's followed by an act of disobedience. 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:33.519 God says, Ask me for any sign. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:37.519 Ahaz in verse 12 said, I will not ask. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:39.840 I will not put the Lord to the test. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:44.720 Now on the surface, that sounds really spiritual, doesn't it? 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.720 It sounds like, man, Ahaz is just like, man, what a mature person. 00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:53.279 I just doesn't want to test the Lord. 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:59.679 It looks really spiritual on the surface, but this is actually an act of defiance. 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:04.000 Because remember, God was the one who said, Ask me for a sign. 00:15:04.399 --> 00:15:09.519 And Ahaz disobeyed the Lord's instruction to him. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:14.879 So Ahaz said, I don't want to test the Lord, so I'm not going to ask for a sign. 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:22.000 And of course, the irony in this is that in refusing to test the Lord, what did he do? 00:15:22.399 --> 00:15:23.759 He tested the Lord. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:24.320 Right? 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:28.000 You're like, Ahaz, duh, just ask for a sign. 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:28.960 But he doesn't. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:30.240 He refuses to. 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:37.120 And the question that that comes up in this is why would he refuse an offer like this? 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:50.080 You know, I don't know about you, but I would be thrilled beyond words if God ever extended this offer to me and said, ask for anything you want, I want to give you a sign. 00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:53.919 I would give sometimes anything for that. 00:15:54.000 --> 00:15:56.080 So why did Ahaz turn it down? 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:14.320 Well, all the commentators and the scholars and Bible nerds that write about this, uh, pretty much all of them say the same thing, and they're saying that it's because Ahaz and his political advisors had already predecided that they were going to make a political alliance with the nation of Assyria. 00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:19.039 So it's two nations to the north, three nations are threatening to invade them. 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:23.919 And so when when a bully comes and threatens to beat you up, you go find someone bigger. 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:38.159 And that's what they were gonna do, is go to the nation north of those nations, to the nation of Assyria, to make a political alliance so that Assyria would uh provide provisions and protections for them against these other nations. 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:53.519 So instead of trusting the word of the Lord, when God says it's not gonna happen, don't worry, trust me, ask me for a sign, instead of following the instruction of the Lord that came through Isaiah, he trusted his own political maneuvering instead. 00:16:53.919 --> 00:17:00.399 He did what was right in his own eyes instead of listening to the good instruction that God gave him. 00:17:01.279 --> 00:17:11.920 And so, in response to this disobedience, God then spoke a word of judgment, which we're gonna see right now, is accompanied by a sign. 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:16.000 So we see the threat of this invasion, this act of disobedience. 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:23.279 Ahaz refused to follow God's instruction, and as a result of this, God gives a sign of his judgment. 00:17:23.440 --> 00:17:25.839 So listen to verse 13. 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:31.279 So Ahaz in verse 12 said, I will not ask, I will not put the Lord to the test. 00:17:31.920 --> 00:17:36.160 Then in verse 13, Isaiah said, Hear now, you house of David. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:39.279 Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? 00:17:39.519 --> 00:17:42.160 Will you try the patience of my God also? 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.759 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:54.240 So God tells Ahaz, I want to give you a sign. 00:17:54.559 --> 00:18:00.319 Ahaz refuses, and God says, Fine, I'm still gonna give you a sign. 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:06.319 But the sign I'm gonna give you is no longer a sign that you should receive as a message of hope. 00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:10.160 It's a sign of my coming judgment on you. 00:18:11.680 --> 00:18:18.079 The Lord Himself will give you a sign, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call him Emmanuel. 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:24.160 Now, if your Bible's like mine, you've got a footnote on Emmanuel, which tells us that word means God with us. 00:18:24.559 --> 00:18:30.799 And can I just tell you, to the people in Isaiah's day, God with us is not good news. 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.880 Because God is coming to his people in judgment. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:40.720 So he says, She's gonna give birth to a son and call him God with us. 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:58.799 You see, what God says to him is this this sign, this symbol of my judgment, is a sign pointing towards this nation of Assyria that you are looking to to deliver you and to rescue you, is actually going to be the instrument that I use to bring my judgment upon you for your disobedience. 00:18:59.119 --> 00:19:04.319 So he says, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:15.599 Then in verse 17, the Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your fathers a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah, he will bring the king of Assyria. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:21.680 So the king of Assyria is coming, which is not good news for the people. 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:25.839 The king of Assyria is being used by God as his instrument of judgment. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:45.519 And if this wasn't as clear to us in chapter 7, if you flip a page over to chapter 8, you read God telling his people, okay, Assyria is coming, and you may try and come up with a smart plan to resist them, but he says in verse 10, devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted. 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:50.480 Propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us. 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:52.880 And it's the same word, Emmanuel. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:20:01.839 So Assyria coming to uh coming against the nation of Judah is God with us. 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:12.079 And if we're if we're reading, paying attention as we read Isaiah 7, it should be obvious to us that birth of this son in Isaiah 7 is not good news. 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:17.680 God with us is not good news when he's with us to judge. 00:20:19.839 --> 00:20:39.519 So if you're like me, you you read Matthew and you're like, oh, it's this wonderful account of the Christmas story, and oh, Emmanuel, God with us, and you're like, man, uh I want to go, you know, double-click on that little uh link that Matthew left us there by quoting from Isaiah 7, I'm gonna go read Isaiah 7. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:20:48.480 And then you read Isaiah 7, and if you're like me, you're left scratching your head uh thinking to yourself, what in the world does Isaiah 7 have to do with Christmas? 00:20:49.920 --> 00:21:01.599 Like, if this child who is born of this virgin in Isaiah 7 is a sign of God's judgment, why would Matthew quote this verse to talk about the birth of Jesus? 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:04.400 That doesn't seem to make any sense. 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:14.960 And we have to remember that when we're given those little verses to double-click on, those quotations, they're not just ripped out of their context and cherry-picked to make a point. 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:21.920 Matthew wants us to double-click on that and actually go back and read the whole section in which that verse is found. 00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:31.119 And so if we look at Isaiah 7 and 8 only, it doesn't make any sense why Matthew would quote this, because the Son is a sign of God's judgment. 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:40.480 But we have to remember that in the prophets, especially, when God speaks a word of judgment, he always speaks a word of hope. 00:21:40.799 --> 00:21:43.039 He always speaks a word of deliverance. 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.400 And so listen to how Isaiah chapter 9 begins. 00:21:46.559 --> 00:21:50.319 And this is where we get into some familiar Christmasish territory. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:52.720 So look in verse 2 of Isaiah 9. 00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:57.359 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. 00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:59.759 And those living in the land of deep darkness. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.920 A light has dawned. 00:22:02.480 --> 00:22:12.240 Verse 4 For as in the days of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressors. 00:22:12.480 --> 00:22:22.960 Every warrior's boot used in battle, and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:41.599 When Isaiah speaks of God's future deliverance from and out of the nation of Assyria, he speaks about it with such certainty that he uses language that's present tense language. 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:47.519 He's talking about a future event, and he says, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. 00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:53.680 He says, God has broken the rod of their oppressors. 00:22:55.599 --> 00:23:04.160 So in chapter 7, God promised judgment on his people, and the sign of that judgment is the birth of a child. 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:08.160 In Isaiah 9, God promises the opposite. 00:23:08.400 --> 00:23:11.519 He promises hope and deliverance and restoration. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:16.160 And what do you suppose is the sign of that deliverance? 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:22.319 Listen to Isaiah 9, verse 6. 00:23:22.640 --> 00:23:25.680 For unto us a child is born. 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:28.640 To us a son is given. 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:31.039 And the government will be on his shoulders. 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:37.440 He will be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:43.200 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:54.240 He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:59.440 The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. 00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:07.279 So in Isaiah 7, the birth of a son is the sign of God's judgment. 00:24:07.359 --> 00:24:16.079 And here in Isaiah 9, the sign of God's deliverance is again the birth of a son. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:32.720 And you see this scene that started with this offer, this extension of hope, disobedience, and then the sign of God's judgment, and now things have been reversed, and God promises to bring his deliverance to his people. 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:40.480 And as you read about this son in Isaiah 9, what becomes what should be pretty clear is that this is no ordinary child. 00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:48.319 When you read about this child, this child is spoken of using language that is God language. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:54.319 This child is said to reign on David's throne now and forever. 00:24:54.640 --> 00:25:00.319 So his dominion and his reign is not just here and now, it is forever. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:04.880 This is no ordinary child. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:09.039 He's called wonderful capital C counselor. 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:14.400 Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:20.400 This is no ordinary child that is spoken of in Isaiah chapter 9. 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:22.720 This is God Himself. 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:34.720 And that's why Matthew, when he looks at the birth of Jesus and is telling us that story, his mind goes to Isaiah chapter 7. 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:42.799 See, he's not just inviting us to recall the judgment of Isaiah 7, he's inviting us to recall the deliverance and the hope of Isaiah 9. 00:25:42.960 --> 00:25:50.559 That scene that started with judgment and ends in hope and deliverance, that's what he wants us, that's what he wants us to see. 00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:54.240 Matthew wants us to behold Jesus. 00:25:54.559 --> 00:26:01.039 He wants us to behold the one who can provide an even greater deliverance than we read about in Isaiah. 00:26:01.680 --> 00:26:17.759 Because deliverance in Isaiah's day is spectacular, it's important, it's necessary, it's so good, and it's also there's a better kind of deliverance out there. 00:26:18.079 --> 00:26:24.000 See, in Isaiah, we read about how God would deliver his people from the threat of Isaiah, Assyria, rather. 00:26:25.440 --> 00:26:35.680 But what Matthew clues us into, what Matthew tells us, is the fact that we face an even greater threat than any foreign military or human enemy. 00:26:36.559 --> 00:26:38.000 Listen to how Matthew says it. 00:26:38.079 --> 00:26:40.400 Listen to how he describes the birth of Jesus. 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:47.680 She will give birth to a son, and you will give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:57.680 The threat of our sin is so much greater than the threat of any foreign military or human enemy. 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:00.480 Our sin is the greater threat. 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:04.480 And the Bible says that we are enslaved to it. 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:09.839 The Bible says that in our own strength we are powerless against it. 00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:18.640 And it's not that sin is some sort of outside force that just acts upon us and we have no control over it and we're just victims of it. 00:27:19.039 --> 00:27:26.640 The Bible says that, yes, uh we we sin by nature, meaning sin has infected our hearts. 00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:34.079 And there's a kind of born with it corruption that exists inside of each human heart. 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:37.599 So we sin by nature, but we also sin by choice. 00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:45.119 So to put this just as maybe crassly as I can, we give ourselves over to sin because we want to. 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:51.759 We give ourselves over to sin because it feels good in the moment. 00:27:53.200 --> 00:28:02.880 We give ourselves over to sin because there's an immediate payoff that blinds us to the horror of what our sin actually is. 00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:12.240 We give into it because there's an immediate payoff that, if we are honest, is more valuable to us than intimacy with God. 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:22.720 And so we sin, yes, because we're so deeply corrupted by it, and it infects every part of our life, and also we sin by choice. 00:28:23.039 --> 00:28:25.039 And the Bible says that's the bad news. 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:33.440 And unless God miraculously intervenes, our slavery and our addiction to sin will lead to our eternal ruin. 00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:39.039 But listen again to the good news. 00:28:39.279 --> 00:28:48.079 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. 00:28:50.319 --> 00:29:03.519 In Jesus, who is the one who Isaiah foretold, in Jesus, God himself took on human flesh and became like us in every single way, except he did not sin. 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:14.000 He lived in perfect obedience to the Father, meaning, yes, he followed all the rules, yes, he he behaved the right way in every situation. 00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:22.559 He lived a perfect life of obedience to the Father, but he also perfectly delighted in the Father. 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:29.039 Meaning he loved the Father with his whole heart and mind and strength. 00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:40.559 He lived a sinless life, and then when he went to the cross, he experienced the complete and utter forsakenness that we deserve because of our sin. 00:29:41.759 --> 00:29:51.200 And then we're told that he rose on the third day, and in doing so, he proved that sin has no power over him. 00:29:52.000 --> 00:30:06.160 And the good news of the gospel, the good news that's possible because of the birth of Christ and because of Christmas is that for those of us who have been united to Jesus by faith, sin no longer has power over us either. 00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:13.680 Jesus came and Jesus died so that we would no longer be enslaved to it. 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:18.799 And so that we would no longer bear the consequences of our sin. 00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:26.559 This good news, it reaches into and affects every single part of our lives. 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:34.720 And instead of giving you a list of things to do this morning, I want to invite you to behold him. 00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:38.720 Behold the one the prophets foretold. 00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:40.240 Behold Jesus. 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:43.839 Behold the one who saved us from our sin. 00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:54.319 When we look to the manger and to the cross, we see and we behold God's love for us. 00:30:56.559 --> 00:31:02.400 Look to the manger and see the greatness and the magnitude of the love of God. 00:31:03.200 --> 00:31:11.440 There was no outside force that coerced God to rescue us from our sin at great cost to himself. 00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:16.319 There was nothing that coerced him to send his son to save us from our sin. 00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:18.960 He simply did it because that's the kind of God he is. 00:31:21.599 --> 00:31:28.000 Look to the cross and see the place where God defeated the power that sin once had over us. 00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:32.640 See how seriously God takes our sin. 00:31:34.240 --> 00:31:39.759 And behold the one who gave his life in place of ours to deliver us from our sin. 00:31:41.039 --> 00:31:45.039 Friends, behold the one who saves us from our sin. 00:31:49.119 --> 00:31:53.119 In a way, the communion table is a physical act of beholding. 00:31:55.119 --> 00:32:08.000 It's physical because it requires we get up out of our seats and physically with our bodies come forward and receive the elements which represent the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. 00:32:09.039 --> 00:32:18.240 And so every time we come forward down the aisle and we receive those elements, we are again beholding the work of God for us on the cross. 00:32:19.039 --> 00:32:27.279 We're beholding Jesus and the love of God for us that's poured out through his death on our behalf. 00:32:29.920 --> 00:32:38.079 As we come to the communion table today, I want to invite you to take a moment for silence, for confession and reflection, and then we will come celebrate Christ together.