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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] 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 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
00:00:43 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 the a 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
00:01:19 she gave birth to a son and he gave them the name jesus this is the word of god once again it's my joy and privilege to be standing here sharing with you from the word of god last month i celebrated my 61st birthday maybe i shouldn't use the word celebrated i observed my 61st birthday in my six decades of existence i have never experienced such a subdued and quiet christmas season as the dynamic is still raging out there nevertheless i trust that all the same the god will pawn us the spirit of christmas and
00:02:00 grant us grant us a deeper sense of the reason for the season it's customary for us in the month of december to have a series of sermons connected to the birth of jesus and this morning the sermon topic is and you shall call his name emmanuel although the text read to us is from matthew 1 verses 18 to 25 i shall not dissect or unpack this block of verses as i normally do instead we shall focus our attention mostly on just one verse verse 23 where we find the name emmanuel matthew quoted this verse from isaiah 7
00:02:42 14. so this sermon will revolve around this important word emmanuel how shall we understand it what does it mean for us in the journey of our life and in the conduct of our faith emanuel means god with us and hence we shall examine broadly this impossible concept of god being with us god is the almighty god the creator of heaven and earth whom the israelites referred to as the most high how can he be with us we shall search the scripture from genesis to revelation to try to understand this but shall we
00:03:19 first commit this time to the lord in prayer or fought in heaven amidst the trying times we live in christmas this year seems different we pray it will be different not because of external circumstances but because we are refreshed by you in increasing measure as the spirit continues to minister to us the significance of the birth of your son our lord jesus he was born because you long so much to be with your people your children help us understand what this truly means for this we are in jesus name
00:03:59 amen our son jeremy left for ireland to pursue his further studies in august 2016. our daughter melody left for england a year later in august 2017 to do the same when the boy left he went alone but when the girl left my wife and i actually flew with her to london somehow the girl gets preferential treatment don't ask me why okay even and i reckon that at that time that it wouldn't be so easy for us to be together as a family from that point on and so after we arrived at london the four of us went on a holiday in europe jeremy of
00:04:42 course flew in from dublin to join us after spending two wonderful weeks together they were among the best days ever in my life we were back in london again and from there the boy would head back to dublin the girl will make her way to exeter to enroll herself in the university there and my wife and i will return home to our emptiness and this is what it was like our last lunch together in london i still remember this day vividly it was the 14th of august three years ago and later that day we said goodbye we
00:05:21 said our goodbyes at this south kensington station where lifan and i will be taking the piccadilly line going east to hidro airport it was a long and sad and painful goodbye at the station as we hug and kiss our kids and wish them well it is indeed sad to be separated from the ones you love it is so nice to be together with those who are precious to you to be close and near to them physically for about two decades the kids had always been with us all the time and so it really wasn't easy for us
00:06:00 that they were going to be apart from us separated from us by vast distances only god knows when the day will come when the four of us can be together again like we used to before they left and those of you who have children living with you do you realize how lucky and how blessed you are i guess you can sense what i'm driving at as i relate all this to you just as we want so badly to be with our kids god loves his children so much that he longs to be with them he doesn't like the idea of being
00:06:36 separated from them and with this in mind we now look deeper into the word emmanuel or god with us i shall start by offering you some peripheral knowledge surrounding the name immanuel sometimes it is spelled with an i sometimes with an e depending on whether you are translating from greek or hebrew if it is translated from hebrew it was it will be spelled with an i if from greek then it's an e and since matthew was originally written in greek the word emmanuel in verse 23 of our text is often spelled
00:07:14 with an e as in the title of today's sermon now as i mentioned at the beginning this verse is a direct quote from isaiah 7 14. if you check that verse all english translations spell it with an eye since isaiah was originally written in hebrew now whether it's with an e or i i also mentioned at the beginning that the name emmanuel means god with us the suffix e-l at the end is the hebrew genetic word that means god from the word elohim where else imanu simply means with us now technically the practice of embedding the name of
00:07:58 god within a person's name is known as theo4a t-h-e-o-p-h-o-r-y and hence emmanuel is referred to as the geophoric name because it has this el at the end now i wish to point out that there are in fact many names in the bible that similarly carry the name of god in it christian parents are fond of taking hebrew names from the bible when naming their babies but you may not be aware that a certain name may be carrying the name of god for example ariel means lion of god daniel judged by god ezekiel god will
00:08:41 strengthen gabriel strong man of god and then the popular michael which means who is like god raphael god has healed and samuel which means god has heard if your name is one of these names listed here you better behave yourself you better not be naughty for you carry the name of god in your name even if your name danny or mickey or sammy they are all originally geophoric names including also michelle which is the feminine form of michael this is what i call the l series names ending with el now in the hebrew bible god is also
00:09:25 referred to as yahweh or jehovah in english and because of this there is another series of theophoric names known as the yeah series from the ya in yahweh and these are names ending with ah for example isaiah salvation of god jeremiah god exalts nehemiah god comforts obadiah god's servant and so on and so my son's name jeremy is the theophoric name since it is a short form of jeremiah now if this type of names frightens you maybe you should just play it safe and name your baby maybe poach you or bang god or something
00:10:09 like that now coming back to our topic what happens is that about 740 years before jesus was born isaiah the prophet isaiah prophesied that he was to be given the name emmanuel and this prophecy was made during the reign of this king ejes who was the king of judah at that time and the prophet isaiah gave that prophecy to this king it has and this is what matthew wrote in verses 22 and 23 of our texts and i quote from the king james version now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the lord by the
00:10:47 prophet the prophet here refers to isaiah saying behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name emmanuel which which being interpreted is god with us now let's see what isaiah prophesied 740 years before this isaiah 7 14 again from the king james version therefore the lord himself shall give you a sign now you here refers to this king ahead behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name emmanuel so you see matthew was quoting isaiah almost word for word
00:11:28 but why later when he was born was this baby in the manger given another name which is jesus how did the name jesus come about now in his account of the birth of jesus matthew wrote in our text of how the angel of the lord appeared to joseph and joseph was told to give the baby the name jesus this is what the angel of the angel said to joseph in verse 21 of our text 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 and so we see in our
00:12:04 text that mary's child was to be given two names firstly the name jesus as instructed by the angel and secondly emmanuel as prophesied by the prophet isaiah 740 years earlier but why not just stick with one name emmanuel it mean that jesus had two names now one way of understanding this is that emmanuel is a sort of a functional name it speaks of god's plan to dwell with his people whereas jesus is more of a personal name a name which we use to address him personally that's why when we pray we say
00:12:44 in jesus name not many people say in emmanuel's name which is not wrong of course not to be sure mary wouldn't have called her son emmanuel she would have used his personal name also certainly she didn't call him jesus because jesus is the english version of his actual name mary would have called her yeshua which is in aramaic a language very close to hebrew and which they used at that time during his time jesus full name would likely be yeshua bin yourself yeshua ben yosef or jesus the son of joseph the word ben
00:13:27 is like the word bin that we find in the names of our malay friends and you may like to know that yeshua is the short form of the hebrew name yehoshua yehoshua by the way is the successor of moses in other words yahuwah is none other than joshua in english now how uh yeshua became jesus how yahushua became joshua it's a long story in any case all these four names are in essence the same and notice that yehoshua is also a theophoric name remember the ya series it means god saves as the david adams pointed out
00:14:09 last sunday now since yeshua is a short form of yehoshua it also means god saves and that's why the angel said you are to give him the name jesus because he will save his people from their sins the angel was merely stating the meaning behind the name yeshua which come from the name yahushua and so we see that jesus was given two names when he was born two geophoric names and how do these two names jesus and emmanuel relate to each other now we shall see how they are both so intertwined and connected to each other as we get on
00:14:47 with the rest of the sermon let's we shall also examine how god saves which is the meaning behind the name jesus is tightly linked to the idea of god with us which is what the name emmanuel means moving on to our main discussion you should know that the name emmanuel appears only three times in the bible the first time in isaiah 7 14 as i've pointed out the third time in matthew 1 verse 23 in our text and the second time it appears in the bible it's in isaiah 8 verse 8. now since it's only mentioned twice in
00:15:24 the old testament it appears that the idea of god with us or god in our midst is not something prevalent in ancient biblical times is that the case was god with or was god not with his people before jesus was born the answer is not so simple well if jesus was to be given the name emmanuel or god with us be upon his birth it does suggest that prior to his birth that god was not with his people because if god had been with his people all along then the name emmanuel wouldn't make much sense and so the implication is that prior to
00:16:04 the birth of jesus god was not with his people he was not dwelling among them and that the birth of jesus changed all that the name emmanuel would attest to god changing the way he was interacting with his people he was not there in their midst and now in the person of jesus he was right before the eyes now indeed the idea of god being with his people is unique to christianity for example there is this other major religion of the world where god is often portrayed as someone far away someone rather unapproachable someone to
00:16:43 whom there is no easy access god is like social distancing from us he keeps his distance because he is god and we are not and for this reason in the minds of non-christians the message of christmas the idea of god being together with mankind is rather incredulous something very hard for them to accept what do you mean god in our midst together with us that's nonsensical that's not in god's nature but as i described during the introduction to the sermon when i talk about how we want so much to be together with our
00:17:18 kids i say that god loves his children so much that he longs to be with them he doesn't like to be separated from them now this is very central in the teachings of the bible it is so also very the very core of the christian faith now this is so important that i'm going to zoom in on this now although the word emmanuel only appears three times in the bible if we scan the pages of scripture we find that the idea of god with us god longing to be with his people it actually stretches from cover to cover of the bible
00:17:55 how so now although i mentioned that a while ago that the birth of jesus marked the beginning of a time of god with us the whole matter is actually not so simple it is more than just god not with us before the birth of jesus and then god with us after the birth of jesus is more complex than that i shall now present you the five faces of how god interacts with his people from genesis to revelation now whenever i mention earth i don't mean just us but god's people in general okay the five faces of god's
00:18:31 interaction with his people one god with us in eden from genesis chapters two and three two god near us in sinai as recorded in the exodus and also stretching throughout most of old testament history three god with us in galilee in the person of jesus as documented in the four gospels and this is what christmas is all about for god within us today started from acts chapter 2 and throughout church history and lastly god with us again for eternity as described in revelation 21. now to help you digest this better i've
00:19:17 expanded this as a as a timeline chart we shall run through this so that we can get a full picture of god with us i shall start from the left in the garden of eden marked by the red a double arrow which is a limited sword of a god with us limited because it was just adam and eve but still god was with his children from the time he created adam until the time adam and his wife fell into sin now we are not sure how long this phase one lasted there is a curious verse in genesis 3 verse 8 that describes
00:19:56 god walking in the garden of eden in the cool of the day many bible scholars have speculated that god was present with adam and eve in some sort of a physical form because both of them could hear a god approaching and both of them tried to hide from him now whether god took the form of this physical being or not is not important but what this verse does suggest is that god was in close fellowship with adam and eve in the garden of eden he was with them until he came to an abrupt end when they chose to disobey him and
00:20:35 fellowship with god was broken and god and man became separated by sin fast forward to exodus 25 we find the israelites in the sinai desert roughly about a year after they had left their bondage to slavery in egypt they would wander in the sinai wilderness for the next 39 years and all this time god was cut off from his people because of sin but i also imagine that god must have missed his people very much although it might sound a little odd to put it that way and that's why he told moses in exodus
00:21:14 25 8 then have them make a sanctuary for me and i will dwell among them god wanted to be with his people and so he instructed moses and the israelites that the sanctuary be built this sanctuary is also known as the tabernacle which was a sort of a mobile temple in the shape of a rectangular tent and that's why an exodus is often referred to as the tenth of meeting and this is a phase two in our chart the glory of god would fill the tabernacle as a column of clout by day and the pillar of fire by night the
00:21:54 awesome physical presence of god will be manifested in that place which was set up just outside their camp god was dwelling with his people again but the trouble is not just anyone who could enter the tabernacle to meet god with his sins she would die immediately in the presence of a holy god only the priests were allowed to enter to be with god in his holy presence and that would be aaron and his sons but they needed to go through all kinds of consecration and purification rituals before they could step into the
00:22:31 sanctuary and this would go through this will go on throughout much of most of the old testament history that's why the double red arrow is quite long here including the many years after the tabernacle was replaced by a proper temple in jerusalem god was not exactly so accessible although his physical presence was in the temple or in the tabernacle we may say that god was near padosunir god was far but not so far and that's why instead of god with us i wrote here god near us now here i must point out
00:23:09 something important that as the period of the old testament came to a close god became silent for 400 years between malachi the last book of the old testament until matthew the first book of the new testament god didn't speak a word he didn't appoint any prophets to speak on his behalf total silence for 400 years in the chart i marked this with a with a row of red x now we may call this period god not with us and in all likelihood the presence of god was not in the temple and again this might sound a bit
00:23:50 odd but i think god must have been very fed up with his people and why do i say that now you see at the end of phase one we see the presence of sin in eden when adam and eve fell and throughout phase two we witnessed the poor sin taking hold as the people of god became more and more rebellious more and more disobedient as they turn away from god and this is the sad overall story of the old testament from exodus to malachi with this in mind we come to the third phase of god with us but in the person of
00:24:29 jesus which is the message of christmas the two earlier faces are a necessary backdrop to truly understand why jesus was given the name emmanuel god with us god again was in close fellowship with his people through the person of jesus but only this time he was going to do something drastic to deal with the unresolved issue of sin i just explained a minute ago that the presence of sin in eden gradually led to the power of sin overcoming the israelites this will eventually lead to the penalty of sin
00:25:04 which is eternal condemnation for the wages of sin is death from romans 6 23. notice the sequence first the presence of sin and then the power of sin and then finally the penalty of sin now what god did is that with the birth of his son and his subsequent death on the cross he first dealt with the penalty of sin with jesus which jesus bore for us on our behalf on the cross then he deals with the power of sin through the holy spirit in phase four and finally the presence of sin will be totally eradicated
00:25:41 in phase five so now do do you see how the five phases are interconnected how they weave together as one comprehensive plan by god from the beginning of time until the end of time and into eternity as i was saying with the birth of jesus god was again a witness but the purpose of word becoming flesh the purpose of jesus taking the form of a man is very specific the lowly manger in bethlehem may be a popular symbol associated with christmas but ultimately it's about the rugged cross in calvary this phase 3 is relatively short only 33
00:26:24 years including only three years of jesus in his earthly ministry he performed many miracles he healed the sick he thought about the kingdom of god he did many things but his focus was always on the cross he was he was very single-minded about going to the cross on our behalf for our sake so that we can be so that we can be safe from our sins and that's the purpose why he was born hence on the one hand the name emmanuel encapsulates the message of christmas which is god with us but why did god need to be with us
00:26:59 the name jesus encompasses the reason as the angel explained to joseph he came to be with us to save us from our sins why did he need to do that in order that god can be truly with us so that sin will not come into the way anymore so that the people of god can be finally reconciled to him and this summarizes the link between the two names emmanuel and jesus and back to our chart one last time i shall quickly go through the last two phases of god with us phase four started in jerusalem about a week after
00:27:34 jesus extended to heaven and as recorded in acts chapter 2 on the day of pentecost the holy spirit descended and filled the early believers about 120 of them and since that day until today the holy spirit would dwell in anyone who professed jesus as lord and savior and that's why in this phase four it's more than just god with us it is really god within us and we are now in the midst of uh phase four in the timeline of god's plan now remember in phase two god's presence used to dwell in the tabernacle in sinai or in the temple in
00:28:14 jerusalem now we all have become temples of god with the spirit dwelling within us as paul wrote in 1 corinthians 3 16 and also 619 there is no need for the physical temple anymore because the dwelling of the dwelling place of god is here as a matter of fact the temple in jerusalem was later destroyed in 70 a.d now the purpose of the holy spirit dwelling within us is to transform us to sanctify us to renew us you may ask why is it necessary for the spirit of god to do this work in us now if you remember what i said is to
00:28:54 help us overcome the power of sin our sins may have already been forgiven because of the work of christ on the cross but sin casts a long shadow in our lives and its hole on us needs to be dismantled and that's the role of the spirit dwelling within us and further in in phase one we saw adam and eve were given a choice but they chose to disobey god and fell into sin bad choices have consequences now the holy spirit is also known as the counselor so through his counsel or guidance he helps us make the right choices to to obey god's
00:29:34 command to lead lives that are that are pleasing to him the end result of this renewal process is that we will be ready for the last phase of god with us this last phase is in the future in the near future uh i believe it will stretch into eternity this this wondrous and blessed period of god with us and this is described in revelation 21 look the god's dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them they will be his people and god himself will be with them and be their god now in some translations it says he will
00:30:16 tabernacle with them with a noun a tabernacle is now used as a verb and so in a way this is linked to exodus 25 8 when god said he wanted to dwell among his people it would happen again and now in a more intimate way unlike in sinai we will be in the physical presence of god enjoying close and sweet fellowship with him just like it was in eden and galilee because there will be no more sin there will also be no more death nor mourning no pain this is the blessed hope that should bubble up in the soul of all believers
00:30:55 as we look forward to the day when god will be with us physically again in the short time that we have we have covered in depth the background and the significance of the name behind the name emmanuel now to conclude the sermon the question is this how can the understanding of emmanuel be practical and meaningful for us what lessons from emmanuel we can apply in our journey of life to impact the conduct of our faith i shall offer you two applications that can make a difference in our day-to-day
00:31:32 living number one as jesus was concluding his ministry on earth he said in matthew 28 surely i am with you always always to the very end of the age what did he mean i'm with you i'm with you always when he was about to ascend to heaven of course he was referring to the impending coming and ministry of the holy spirit so that god will be within us as we have discussed and so the first lesson is this because god is always with us better still god is within us you never ever have to feel lonely anymore loneliness
00:32:17 can be a terrible feeling friends may forsake us colleagues may avoid us relatives may abandon us husband or wife may leave us children may be far away as i described at the beginning but always remember god is always with you he is within you and let me repeat the first lesson because god is always with us better still god is within us you will never ever have to feel lonely anymore as just as he told joshua in the joshua chapter 1 as i was with moses so i will be with you i will never leave you
00:33:01 nor forsake you god is also saying to us i will never leave you i will never forsake you god never abandons his people no believer should ever feel lonely or abandoned number two emmanuel means god with us if god is with us god is also for us and time and again throughout the old testament god said to many individuals do not be afraid for i'm with you since i'm with you you don't have to be afraid and he said this to abraham to isaac to jacob to moses to joshua to gideon to daniel etc the word the word of god in the in
00:33:46 isaiah 40 verse 10 41 10 do not fear for i am with you do not be dismayed for i am your god i will strengthen you and help you many of us carry a lot of fears in the journey of life we feel anxious about our job our business our children our health what's going to happen in the future etc especially during these trying times of a pandemic which has brought about much fear to cite an example you know a couple of months ago in august melody was tested positive for kovite 19. were we worried of course we were
00:34:32 worried and the other day she told me that she's scheduled to take her the vaccine the next month in january is the vaccine safe i hope so are we worried of course we are worried but god is saying to us look i'm with you am i not why do you need to worry so much don't be afraid and god again told joshua in joshua 1 be strong and courageous do not be afraid do not be discouraged for the lord your god will be with you wherever you go and this is what emanuel can mean to us just as no believer should ever feel lonely or abandoned
00:35:15 no believer should ever need to feel afraid or anxious because almighty god is with us and for us and let me repeat the second lesson no believer ever needs to feel afraid or anxious because almighty god is with us and for us and may these reflections surrounding the name immanuel instruct us as we observe christmas soon and as we transition into 2021 shall we close in prayer father in heaven how can our finite minds ever fathom the idea of god with us that the one who set the stars in their courses above
00:35:57 the one who established the sun in its place would empty himself and take the form of a man your son our lord jesus laid aside his majesty to dwell among us and became obedient to death on the cross so that we might live and be saved from our sins so that you and we our children can be together may this christmas be an occasion for us to ponder these profound thoughts and what emanuel means to us for we ask this in your son's name amen
