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In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear saints, the problem is bigger than you think and the solution is smaller than you think. That’s what I want to talk about today. But I want to look at the text to get there.
Matthew chapter 1 is an amazing, amazing text, an amazing bit of history of salvation. It’s when already Mary, the mother of our Lord, had been visited by the angel and by the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus was conceived in her, and she had to go and tell Joseph. You wonder why the angel didn’t wait for Joseph to be hanging around so he could hear it too, but Joseph has to have his own cross to bear. This is part of it—that he has to hear that now Mary is pregnant. He knows the child is not his, and so he has determined to put Mary away privately, to not bring her to court and ask for the full weight of the law to be brought down on her so that she wouldn’t be put to shame.
But he’s thinking about these things. He’s not acting hastily. That occurred to me in the text this week. He’s patient. As he’s contemplating what he ought to do and what wisdom would dictate, then the angel appears also to him in a dream and says, “Joseph, don’t be afraid to take Mary for your wife, for the child conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, as the prophet Isaiah promised. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
The angel even gives Joseph the second name which he is to give to Jesus, Jesus. So Joseph wakes up, and, convinced by both the angel and his dream, and most especially by the word of the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah is married to Mary and becomes part of the Holy Family, the protector and the stepfather of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s an amazing story, amazing history, and there are a number of things that we notice about it.
I mean, first of all, Matthew gives us the text from Isaiah chapter 7. This text was from before the Assyrians destroyed the Northern Kingdom, so maybe back in the year 730 that the Lord had promised that the virgin would conceive. And for over seven and a half centuries, the Lord’s people have been waiting for this promise. Matthew doesn’t just give us this promise, but he gives us six others.
This is one of those things that is just good for us to remember apologetically—that Jesus came as it was promised. There are all these old, ancient, written-down promises that are dusty and hidden away in the temple that all come true in the life of Jesus. I don’t know how it is for you, but this is one of those things that strengthens my own faith as I meditate on it—how Jesus fulfilled all of these promises.
And then there’s something really wonderful about the two names that Jesus is given in the text. The first name is Emmanuel. Well, maybe we can take a look at it this way. Remember there are three great mysteries of the Christian religion. Two, three great mysteries. The first great mystery is the doctrine of the Trinity—that there is one God, three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father. This is the first great mystery.
The second great mystery is the incarnation—that the Son of God took upon Himself our humanity, our flesh and blood, so that He became a man. The two natures are united in the single person of Christ, and united forever in the single person of Christ, so that Jesus is still God and man, united. And the third mystery is the mystery of salvation. That that God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ, didn’t just assume our humanity, our flesh and blood, but He also assumed our sin and He took our place under God’s anger so that He would be for us righteousness and hope and peace and sanctification.
Those are the three great mysteries, and two of them are here in the names of Jesus. Emmanuel—that’s the mystery of the incarnation—that God is with us. And Jesus, which is another Hebrew word, the Hebrew is Joshua or Yeshua, comes from the name of God, Yahweh, and the Hebrew word Sus, which means saved, is that Jesus saves. And specifically, He saves us from our sins—the third great mystery of the Christian faith.
So that God is with us and God is our Savior, all of that in this baby, carried in the womb of Mary, born in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, all for us.
Now in this way, I want us to think about how the problem is bigger than we think and the solution is smaller than we think. We all, each and every one of us, came here today with a lot of problems, a lot of difficulties, a lot of burdens, and they’re different for each one of you. Some of you woke up this morning and said, “That’s weird, I’ve never felt that pain in my back before.” And you wandered into church kind of rubbing that spot, wondering what’s going on.
Some of you pay attention to the news, and you wonder, “How in the world can we keep going this way?” It seems like things are falling apart all over, internationally, nationally, locally. Some of you have burdens in your own family—people who aren’t speaking to one another, or there’s troubles in marriage and in the home and in the conversation between husband and wife. Some of you have friends and family whose bodies are breaking down, or maybe your own, and you’re looking at surgery or treatment or all this sort of stuff. You have children who’ve left the faith or grandchildren who haven’t been baptized. I mean, there’s a whole heap of problems. You could make a list of them if you wanted to, and it seems overwhelming sometimes.
I mean, all these difficulties, all these things that we worry about, all these things that we pray for, but I’m here to tell you that it’s worse than you think. These problems that we all face are just the beginning, and we have brutal enemies. The world is in fact against you, and the devil hates you, and your own sinful flesh is bent against God and His Word, that you’re dying and that you’re a sinner, so that to die in your sin means to face the judgment of God, which is a terrifying thing. That is, in fact, the worst thing, and we just can’t get there. We can’t get there apart from the Scripture—this realization that we do in fact deserve God’s anger and His punishment.
I was trying to figure out how to preach this—that it’s worse than we think. And so I was imagining that you work for a company that has certain rules—some big, huge, imagine some monstrous company—a lot of employees, a lot of rules, a lot of things have to work right. If one person violates one rule, everything falls apart.
So the owner of the company calls you in and he says, “We’ve got a problem.” You say, “Well, what is it? Did someone break a rule?” And he says, “Yes.” You say, “Well, who?” And he says, “Everybody.” You say, “What rule?” He says, “All of them.” You say, “When did it happen?” He says, “All the time.”
In other words, the problem goes all the way down. We all are always breaking all the commandments. And he says, “But I’ve got a solution for the problem.” He brings you out back. Vicar told me after the service that he thought I was going to say the boss was going to say, “One of us is going to have to jump off the roof to fix it.” I don’t know—that’s what the vicar thought I was going with.
But he says to you, he brings you out back and he shows you a baby and he says, “There’s the solution.” This is what Christmas is— all of our hopes and all of our longings and all of our fears and all of our problems and all the condemnation of all the sin, of all the sinners, of all the world. All of this is a huge, big, massive problem, and the Lord’s solution is this baby, this child, in the womb of Mary, in the Bethlehem manger, on the cross, and in the tomb, and risen to the Father’s right hand. That is the solution.
The problem is a lot bigger than we think, but the solution is a lot smaller. What do you think, like seven pounds, six ounces? Clothed in flesh, the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity! So that this one, this child, this baby, this is God in the flesh who comes to save. This is our hope. He is our hope; He is our life. This one is our salvation. Whatever troubles we bring, whatever troubles we make, He is our hope and He is our peace. He is for you.
He takes upon Himself flesh and blood so that there would be something to nail to the cross and something to spill and something to put on the altar, on the plate, and in the cup, so that you would know that He loves you. This is our hope—behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, and you will name Him Jesus. He is God with you and God for you. Amen.
May this one, our Lord Jesus Christ, be your hope and your peace to life everlasting. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.