Did Matthew get it wrong about Jesus? What can we learn from what he said about Jesus as Immanuel? Jump in with us in Sections 8 of the Gospel Harmonies @ https://www.harmonychurch.cc/tracking-jesus-timeline/. IT’S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).
Sermon Notes Slide Key:
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
You guys, it’s officially Christmas season!!! Woop!
Have you ever thought something was one thing and it ended up being another?
Like for instance, the first time I tried a persimmons fruit, I thought it was a fruit, but turns out it’s an invention of the devil to deceive us all!
Ha, or you showed up on for a date of someone you met on tender and they were not the person in their profile, oof!
Or maybe for you, the job you got hired into wasn’t completely honest with you about what you would be doing and you got there and it felt like the old switcheroo!
This morning we are going to look at a switcher-oo that Matthew sees in a passage from the Old Testament. We’re going to dig into it and see how it digs into us!
Open your Bible to Matthew 1 for a moment, hold it with your finger and get open to Isaiah 7 also…
Here we go…
This is the setup, Mary is, according to tradition in her home in Nazareth, I’ve been to this spot – there’s this whole huge church built over this little hobbit hole in the side of the mountain. People literally lived in caves in Nazareth. The cave can’t be bigger than 10×10. Mary, this little poor teenage girl has an angel visit her and announce that she will be with child – God’s spirit will overshadow her and place a baby inside her – we don’t know how that happens, but we do know that Mary is a virgin – she’s never been with a man. She’s told to give the baby the name Yeshua – or we say, Jesus, meaning “The Lord Saves.”
Matthew is going to click on this hyperlink for us and take us back to a passage in the book of Isaiah
Check it out…
Matthew 1:22-23
“ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
Now, if you’ve EVER been to a Christmas church service, there’s about a 40% chance you’ve heard about this passage, but
Did you know that Matthew is literally quoting a passage from the book of Isaiah, and that passage was never thought of as a messianic passage? So, what’s the deal?
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Why quote it? Is Matthew taking it out of context? It feels like a switcher-oo…
Check it out…
Is 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 is Isaiah’s version.
The actual context is that the King of Judah – the southern Kingdom is worried that he is going to be attacked. God has told him not to worry, but he’s not really listening to God. God finally tells the King Ahaz to test him and ask for a sign, Ahaz feigns spiritual integrity and is like, “I won’t put God to the test,” God’s like, “Come on man, I literally TOLD you to do it!”
He literally says:
Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?
And this is when God says He himself will give a sign to Ahaz since the dude is unwilling to ask for one…
The sign says he will give is the virgin will be with child – the word virgin could also be translated as “young woman”.
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In the next Chapter, Isaiah will tell us that he “lay” with the prophetess and she became pregnant. His wife will have a baby, and they give it a crazy name, but in 8:8, Isaiah will again say, “Immanuel”.
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Isaiah, at least, believed the prophecy was about HIS wife getting pregnant and the impending disaster for the nations that were against Judea and as a warning to the King.
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What’s the deal? Is Matthew making a connection that’s not there?
Let me tell you what I think Matthew is doing…
The guy is sharp!
ILLUSTRATION:
As a pastor, I’m all the time seeing things that happen in one context and thinking about how they could be used for a sermon illustration. Anything can make a great story, whether it’s picking a turtle up on the side of the road or your pants ripping open when you bend over. There is gold in dim dere hills!
Matthew was a tax collector, would not have been allowed at synagogue, would not have been allowed in the temple.
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But I think Matthew was studying the scripture.
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He as much or more than any gospel writer connects the scripture with the story of Jesus.
I can’t prove it, but I have a feeling Matthew owned his own copies of the Torah and the other manuscripts of the old testament. I have a feeling he had been pouring over them by himself.
I have a feeling when he heard the story of Mary & the announcement of Jesus’ birth, it triggered a memory in him about Isaiah.
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Isaiah goes on to tell us about this boy that will know right and reject wrong by the time He’s eating honey and curds.
That seems like a strange statement, but it’s literally an indictment on the leaders and the people of Israel because this child will know right and wrong early in his infanthood – but these leaders can’t see right and wrong as adults.
It is a prophecy about God coming against unfaithfulness…
What Matthews sees is a shadow of Jesus – He sees Isaiah thinking this was about his own son, and Matthew says it’s about God Himself coming into the world.
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Matthew sees Jesus coming and sees how
-He will reject wrong (for His whole life) and choose right.
-He will come to bring faith to those who seemed the most unfaithful
-He will come and be God With Us in person and in the flesh
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God Himself will take up dwelling with man
Do you see why Matthew makes this switcher-oo?
Matthew knows God is up to more than any of us ever knew. He’s after you and me!
CLOSING 2:
When I was a kid, I was the king of sneaking down to look at Christmas presents and unwrap them a little bit. I could get the tape off without ripping the paper and put it back so it looked like no one had ever touched it.
Could I just unwrap this gift for you today? What Matthew says isn’t just a gift for the people who lived at the time he was writing. Matthew is pointing to a gift that is so much better than what most of us even know – he’s pointing to God’s plan to invade our lives.
Listen to me, the Jesus in the bible is SO much better than what most of us have settled for. He is literally God with us, He came to free you from the hold sin has on your life and let you enter into His Kingdom. Why would you not step into a relationship with Him, it literally starts with you just simply taking a step of faith and choosing today to believe Jesus is God and that He rose from the dead and died for your sins.
You could experience the best Christmas present of all time, right now! God with us – Even today!
