Message Description

Senior Pastor Dr. Kurt Bjorklund and Young Adult Pastor Evan Brem share from Matthew 1:18-25 on the importance and meaning of two names for Christ - Jesus and Emmanuel.

Message Transcript

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Dr. Kurt Bjorklund: 

Good morning. Today we are doing something here at Orchard Hill that is a tradition just before we get into our Christmas Eve run, and that is our Message and Music service. And it's always one of my favorite services because the music is so awesome every year when our team does this. And this is actually the last of eight weekend gatherings at Orchard Hill, this weekend’s last chronologically. And usually what happens here is we stream to other locations. So, if I say something like, wasn't that awesome, it makes no sense to people in other rooms, but wasn't that awesome the music that our team just put together? They're great. 

And there are a couple more songs coming because what Message and Music have become is a time when we explore some of the music that's maybe familiar, or familiar concepts, and we show you where some of that comes from in the scripture. And so today we're going to look at this word, Immanuel, and where it comes from. And then in just a few moments, Evan, who is our Director of Young Adult Ministry here, will be leading us to consider the name of Jesus. And so will you just take a moment and pray with me. Father, I thank you for each person who's gathered here online and gathered in the other gatherings through this weekend. And God, I pray that you would speak to each of us, that my words, that the words of Evan in a few moments would be words that reflect your word in content and tone and emphasis. And we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

So, if you were to play a little word association with people in the culture who aren't churched, and you were to say to them, what comes to mind when you think about church, if you think about church? And my guess is very few people would say, oh, church, it's like an awesome place full of joyful, happy people that have a lot of good news to share. It'd be my guess. I think I'm probably pretty safe to say that. And if you were to say, well, what do you think about when you think about Christians? Again, my guess is very few people would say, oh, they're the most joyful people full of good news and good cheer. And certainly if you said, well, what about a group of Christians known as evangelicals? 

I saw a news broadcast recently and they were talking about the evangelicals and how they position themselves on a current issue. And I found it funny because talking about evangelicals or Christians is a little bit like talking about Steeler fans, there are different opinions. Some think the quarterback is washed and old. Some think he still has it, but there isn't just one opinion that you can say, that's what everybody thinks. But probably one thing is fairly certain, and that is very few people would say that group of people, good news. And even when you think about Christmas, there are probably not a lot of people who would go, that is just the Christian declaration of good news, people would maybe say, I know there's some religious significance. I know there are a lot of things that happen, but it isn't necessarily good news. And I think it's unfortunate because the name, the names of the founder of Christianity communicate good news. 

And today we're going to look at two of those. I mentioned Immanuel and Jesus, and this comes from Matthew one where Mary was pregnant, but she and Joseph had never come together. So, an angel appears to Joseph and tells Joseph, hey, this is not that crazy. The woman that you're engaged to is pregnant, she didn't get with anybody else. This is the son of God. And you are to give him the name Jesus. And then he says, and he will be called Immanuel, which means God with us. Now, I don't know about you, but if an angel appeared to you and said, here's what you're to name your baby. You'd probably have some moment of saying this is pretty significant. And what's significant is there are over two hundred names used for Jesus in the New Testament and in the Old Testament, if you look them up by reference, and these are the two that the angel said, I want you to understand. 

I read years ago an article, I don't know how the person researched this, but they said that in a typical pregnancy the man who is the father will make 67 joke names before they land on the actual name that they'll come up with, just ridiculous names to name their child and that the typical woman will be annoyed after the seventh one. I have four sons, and I've often thought that if I had known that I was going to have four sons with what I do vocationally, now I think it would be cool if I had named them Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, although my wife didn't think that was so funny. And it was probably good. I didn't know. And we didn't go down that route. I saw another article recently that said that the name Legend for a little boy is now more popular than the name, George. 

And for those of you who are part of our Wexford campus, we have a Pastor George here, who's in charge of pastoral care. He's the care pastor. Maybe you've had him at a wedding or a funeral. Maybe he's been at the hospital with you. In the future instead of calling and saying, can Pastor George come, or can I connect with Pastor George? You're going to say, may I speak to pastor legend. By the way, Kurt wasn't even on that list of names that are being replaced. It's just gone. It's not there at all, but here's where Immanuel comes from. In the Old Testament when Isaiah was prophesying, he said in Isaiah seven, Isaiah eight, a couple of different places, he said that Immanuel, which means God with us is coming. 

And what was happening at that time was the people had come back from exile, this is Old Testament history, the people were in the holy land. They were taken into exile in Babylon. And when they came back, they had this hope that the kingdom would be restored. And Isaiah prophesied in that time and said that there's one coming that will be God with us. In other words, God will rule. And so, the people had this amazing expectation that when the exile happened, that God's rule was imminent and here they were waiting for this God to show up. And when this baby shows up, the angel says, this is Immanuel. Now that means a lot of things, but at least it means that the way God shows up isn't always the way we expect or want him to show up, because they didn't expect a baby, they expected a ruling king. They expected something different than what it was that they experienced. And then when Jesus did come, this Immanuel, this God with him came to a politically oppressed people. 

The Jewish people were oppressed by the Roman people, the Roman government, if you read the history of the day, oppressed, anybody that they were over. And it was to these people that God said, Immanuel, this is Immanuel. God is with you. Many of the people lived economically disadvantaged lives. They lived hand to mouth, and it was to these people that God said, Immanuel, God is with you, it may not seem like it, but he's with you. The people were divided in a host of ways. And it was to these people that God said, I'm coming, and God is with you. And there were certainly crime situations that riddled the populous, even the story of the man going from Jerusalem to Jericho being robbed shows just how pervasive crime was. And it was into this kind of a situation that we get these words, Immanuel, God is with you. When God said he's with you, it wasn't exactly what the people wanted, but he was saying in your hardship, in your pain, I am with you. I am present. 

And now we live in a time in which it's easy to say, well, is God really with us? Maybe you're living in a season of prolonged loneliness. Maybe what started as months has turned into years, maybe in some cases into a decade or more. Maybe today you need to hear the word that God is with you even in what feels like an intolerable aloneness. For some of us who are gathered, maybe as we're gathered, it's not that we feel alone, we feel as if we're surrounded by people, but it feels like the people who surround us take us for granted, that they don't really know our heart. They don't care about what's going on in the depth of our soul. We're just churning out life and churning out what everybody else needs. And we feel unknown, unappreciated. And what we need to hear is this word that says, Immanuel, God is with us. 

Maybe you gave yourself to your kids, to a spouse, a husband, a wife for decades, and you've been betrayed. Never thought you'd be where you are. And today you need to hear the word that God is with us. Maybe you're in a place where the hopes that you had felt a little dashed, maybe it was a relational hope, maybe it was a career hope, something that you said, this is how my life should go, and it hasn't gone that way. And now you're sitting and saying, I'm not sure where God is, and you need to hear the word again that God is with you. Maybe you've made some mistakes. Maybe you've done some things over the last year, two years that have caused pain and there are consequences. And the thought of God being with you seems so foreign that you need to hear the word again that God is with you, even in the things that you've done that have brought pain and suffering into your life, or the lives of others. Maybe you're facing a health situation. 

Maybe it's the pregnancy that you're hoping to hear about that doesn't seem to come. Maybe it's a sickness to somebody you love, or maybe it's your own, and you need to hear the words again that God is with you, or maybe you know that you're going round the bend for one of the last laps in your earthly life. And maybe you have confidence that God will save you in eternity, but there's a sense in which you're still unsettled about the last lapses of the journey, and what you need to hear today again, is that God is with you. See the promise in the Old Testament that God is with you felt as distant as maybe those words feel to some of us here today, but what we need to remember is the same thing that people needed to remember then. And that is that God is with us doesn't mean that he's with us in exactly the way we want it to be, but it doesn't make it any less real. 

Immanuel, Jesus, communicates God's presence, God's care, God's understanding of exactly where you are, exactly where I am today, but there's something else that's true about this name. When you think about this name, Immanuel, it also means that we know who God is, because he's been with us. You see, simply saying, God is with us isn't necessarily universally true. You know how people be like God's with us. God is with those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And how we know who this God is, how you know which God it is that you're relating to is because God came and walked this earth in the person of Jesus Christ is Immanuel. Here's where we see this. This is Hebrews one. 

It says in the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being sustaining all things by his powerful hand. So how has God spoken? In the past it was through the prophets, it was a little obscure, but now he's spoken clearly through Jesus Christ so you and I can know that the God we relate to is the God of the universe because we've seen this God as he's revealed in the Bible through Jesus, meaning you can have clarity. 

And so, whenever you hear the words, “O, Come, O, Come, Immanuel” or some version of that Christmas song, it's a longing to say, God, let your presence be seen in my life today. Let your presence be known in our world, our darkness, our waiting, our pain. And it's a clear picture of who God is. Father we do pray, O Come, O Come, Immanuel, to all of the situations that are represented here today and let us encounter and experience your presence, your presence is always with us, but let us experience it and know your goodness and the good news of a God who is with us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Evan Brem: 

Well, good morning. It is good to be here together and to celebrate Jesus Christ and his birth as we near our Christmas celebration. Let me pray for us before we dive back into the scripture. Lord, thank you that you are Immanuel, you are God with us. And God, I pray that in these next few moments as we dive into your scripture that you are here through your Holy Spirit, that you are present, God, that you're drawing hearts to you. God, that if there are wandering hearts, that you're bringing them back to you, God, if there are hearts who do not know you yet, that you are drawing them to your majesty and your love. God, we pray this all in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

So, Kurt talked a little bit about Immanuel and what that name means. And I'm going to talk about the name Jesus, as he said. And we all know that names mean something, that names mean something to us, our name means something to us. One of the parts of my job is that I meet a lot of people in the lobby, and I get to know a lot of names. And one of the worst things that I think I can do is forget someone's name and then confidently call them the wrong name. And so just from here now, I'm sorry if I've ever done that to you and I'll try my best not to. But what we see is that a lot of the common names that we know today actually find their root in the Old Testament, Hebrew, the ancient Hebrew that our Old Testament was written in. And so, there's a name Johanan in the Old Testament Hebrew, and that means God is gracious. 

And the way we would translate that name into English today, the common name is John. But the cool thing is that if you're from a Spanish-speaking culture or a Spanish-speaking country, you wouldn't say, John, you would say Juan. So, John and Juan, both are derived from the same Hebrew root Johanan, and both mean God is gracious, but they have a different way that they sound today, depending on what culture you're in, in the same way, there's a Hebrew name, Joseph. And that means God will give, or God will increase. And the way that we would translate that today, I think you may have thought of it, is Joseph. And again, if you were in a Spanish-speaking country or Spanish-speaking culture, you wouldn't say Joseph, you'd say Jose. And so again, same Joseph, Jose, same meaning, same root, but different sounds today. 

And there's a third name, Yeshua, in the Old Testament Hebrew. And that means the Lord saves. And the New Testament, our New Testament was written in Greek. So, the Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew and the New Testament was written in ancient Greek. And so, the way that the Greeks translated Yeshua was Jesus. So same thing, Jesus, Yeshua, both mean the Lord saves. And the way that we would translate Jesus is Jesus. So, Jesus, Jesus, both derived from the Hebrew root Yeshua, and both mean the Lord saves. And so, if we look at the scripture that we're in today, in Matthew chapter one, what we see in the name of Jesus is first an awesome proclamation of his Lordship. Starting in verse twenty, it says this, this is when an angel comes to Joseph in a dream. 

It says, "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. 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.'" You see you already give him the name, Jesus, which means the Lord saves because he will save his people from their sins. So right there is a declaration of the Lordship of Jesus Christ that you will name him the Lord saves because he will save his people from their sins. And as we talk about that though, as we look at the fact that he will save his people from their sins, that raises the question of, well, why do we need saving from our sins? Why is sin something that we need saving from? And why is it such a big deal? 

But here's the reality that based on what scripture says and what scripture points to, that if sin is not a big deal, then neither is Jesus Christ. And that is definitely worth talking about. A.W. Tozer, he's an old Christian writer, he says this. He says, "The basic trouble with the church today is her unworthy concept of God. Our religion is weak because our God is weak. Christianity at any given time is strong or weak, depending on her concept of God." So, a weak God would care little about sin, just as a weak king would care little about defiance against his reign. I think we know these things intuitively and it makes me think of before I worked here at Orchard Hill, I was a middle school teacher. And let me tell you, that first year of teaching right out of college, I got stepped on. 

And there's one story in particular that comes to mind, although I have a hundred more of the same degree, I walked into the classroom one day and one of my students, so I had a fish tank in my classroom because I was the science teacher, and I walked into my classroom and one of my students is just elbow deep in the fish tank, just fishing, and fresh out of college, wanting to be the teacher who was relatable with the kids. I didn't want to make a big deal of it, played it cool, and didn't do anything about it and was like, hey, maybe don't do that. Come back into the classroom the next day. And again, elbow-deep in the fish tank, fishing for fish, because I hadn't done anything about it. And again, I didn't really make a big deal. I didn't know how to address it beneficially. 

And I walk in a few days later and instead of having his arms in the fish tank, he's spraying Lysol in the fish tank. And so, one way or another, those fish left the classroom. And I say that because you hear that, you're like, yes, that was weak leadership there as a teacher, that was weak use of authority because we know these things intuitively that to not take sin, or to not take transgression, or going off of the way that things should be, to not take that seriously, if you're the one who is the authority, is a weak display of authority. So, we know that. And what we see in the truth of scripture is not a God who takes sin lightly because sin is rebellion against his authority. 

We see first in the book of Romans chapter one, verse eighteen, it says the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppressed the truth by their wickedness. In another translation of the scripture, instead of saying godlessness, it says unrighteousness, and what righteousness is, is right standing with God. So, it says the wrath of God is being revealed against all unrighteousness, all who have no right standing with God. And the kicker then is in Roman's chapter three, just a couple chapters later, verses 10 to 12 it says this, "As it is written, 'There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there's no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.'" 

So, the conclusion we have there is that everyone on their own, under their own strength, is under the wrath of an eternal, all-powerful God. That's the truth that we have in scripture because of sin, because of our sin. And you might listen to that, and you say, but what about the love of God? Isn't God love? The Bible says God is love. Well, in verse twenty-one of chapter one of Matthew that we're in today, it says that Jesus will save his people from their sins. And the way that he does that, what scripture tells us, if we continue to read the gospels, the first four books of the New Testament, is each of them end with an account of his crucifixion, that he was executed on a Roman cross, but what we're told in scripture is that he did that willfully, that he willfully lost his life to pay the penalty for the sins of humanity. 

And so, what kind of God would give his life if nothing were at stake? Think about it like this, if you turned on the news and you saw a report come in about a father who dived in front of a bullet to save his daughter, it was certainly going to hit her, and he dove in front and he took the bullet and he died but saved his daughter's life. You would say what a great father, that father loved his daughter to lay his life down for her. But if you turned on the news and you saw a report of people who were at a gun range where they were supposed to be allowed to be shooting guns with all the protection and everything and shooting targets. And then someone jumped into the range and dove in front of the targets and said, no, not the targets and lost their life because of it. You say what a fool, nothing was at stake. You didn't have to lose your life. 

And I think when we don't take sin seriously, when we take the seriousness of sin and take it down because we don't want it to make us uncomfortable, what we also do is take the worthiness of Jesus Christ and completely take it away, because a worthy God would not lose his life if nothing was at stake. But what we see in scripture is the most beautiful, direct picture in the cross of both the love of God and the seriousness of sin, because the place in scripture where it says God is love, that's first John chapter four, it says, God is love. Do you know what proof that the author then uses to show that God is love? He uses the cross of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus on a cross. That is the perfect image that we have of God's love because both the seriousness of sin and the love and majesty of God are held together perfectly. 

I Timothy chapter two verses five and six put it like this, about what Jesus did on the cross. It says, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people." This is the highest price paid for great stakes for the eternal status of you and me, the life of our Lord for the ransom of his beloved people. And it's not just that we are ransomed from sin, but we are ransomed to him. And that's the even better part that we are ransom to eternal life with Jesus, that now because of Jesus Christ taking our place, our punishment by his death on the cross, that we can now stand in right relationship with God only because of him. And that is made certain for us in eternity because Jesus rose from the dead. We can have certainty in that fact because he is alive today and we can follow him there through faith in him. 

So maybe if you're here today and you would say, I'm not a Christian, this just isn't my thing. First of all, I'm glad you're here. And second of all, consider this, that if scripture is true about the seriousness of sin and that sin is a problem in everyone's life and how seriously God takes sin, that outside of Jesus, that you stand as an enemy of God, but if Romans 5:8 is true when it says that God shows his great love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. What love, what mercy, even in a broken state, if that is what is true, if scripture is true that outside of Christ, we're in a broken state, what love and what mercy would step in and say, my life in the place of this, that is a God worthy of worship. 

And maybe you're here today and you are a Christian, but then I started talking about sin and you were like, I've heard the message of sin before, I can zone out for the next 15 minutes. And my question and challenge to you would be this. It would be how cold has your heart grown to the reality of your savior? How cold has your heart grown to the depth of the pit from which Christ pulled you out of? That the gospel is not something that we graduate from, that we accept once and then accept its truth and then move on and live the rest of our lives. But the gospel is something that daily we come back to because I don't know about you, but I tend to want to put the crown back on my own head and live life on my own accord. But to be reminded daily of how lost I am outside of Christ and that only because of him, can I stand in front of a holy God, that seeing our sin clearly leads us to rejoice in our savior. 

There's an old hymn called “Rock of Ages.” There's a line that I love. It says nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross I cling. What a beautiful picture of how we on our own are helpless, broken, destitute before God, but that Jesus in his mercy and his love has made a way to bring us into the kingdom of God. And that is something that makes us rejoice in him when we see that clearly. And a third thing is maybe you're here today. And again, you would say, yes, I'm a Christian, but the concept of when we talk about sin, it makes you uncomfortable. It feels like it pushes down on your shoulders and sinks you into your chair a little bit more because you have those things in the back of your head that you just can't get out of your mind that it feels like maybe I out sin the cross. Maybe I just went too far. Maybe I'll never be good enough. 

And then you just feel like you have these walls built up in your life that you just can't reach God because of your own messiness. And there's a writer named Thomas Brooks. He wrote a book a long time ago called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. And he argues that one of Satan's strategies to make Christians miserable is to keep them thinking about their sin more than they think about their savior. And this is what he says. He says, "So may a believer say to the law and the justice of God, if I owe you anything, go to my Christ who has undertaken for me. I must not sit down discouraged under the apprehension of those debts which Christ to the utmost degree has fully satisfied. Would it not argue much weakness? I had almost said much madness for a debtor to sit down discouraged upon his looking over of those debts that his savior has readily, freely and fully satisfied." 

So yes, you were once in great debt, but the privilege of the Christian is to look to the cross of Jesus Christ to see the full penalty, the full weight of their sin washed away by his death, by his sacrifice in your place. And then to look to his resurrection when he walked out of the tomb three days later and see the surety of your resurrection to eternity, that is the privilege of the Christian to know that death has been conquered on your behalf. 

And again, if you're here today and you would say, I'm not a Christian, that privilege is made available to all who will humble themselves to see the depth of their sin before a holy God and their hopelessness in that place. And then would call on the name of Jesus Christ, the one true God who has made the way to stand rightly with God is a good thing to know that savior. So when we read in the scripture, we read about the name of Jesus, the Lord saves, and the weight that carries, may it remind us, or maybe reveal to us for the first time, the depth of our sin and the hopelessness that we were in without Jesus, that we may treasure him above all else, because the message of scripture, especially as we move into Christmas, is that hope has come, that in the birth of Christ, hope decisively stepped into a broken people and said, death will no longer reign. And that is the hope we have in Jesus Christ. 

So let me read our scripture one more time now that we've considered the name Immanuel and the name of Jesus to read God's word about this, and then I'll pray. Starting in Matthew chapter one, verse eighteen. This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. "His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 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, but after he'd 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. 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.'" 

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to his son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to his son and gave him the name, Jesus." Let's pray. Lord, we are helpless without you. I pray God that for everyone in this room, whether they know you, or don't, whether they call you savior or not, that you're drawing each person to see their neediness before you, for those who do know you to draw them to see their neediness and their weakness before you, to lead them into greater rejoicing of you and your glory and your love. For those who do not know you, God, for them to see their neediness and their brokenness before you, that they would then come to call you savior, father, a friend. Lord, we love you. We thank you. We praise you. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.