Matthew 1:23 and Isaiah 7:1-17 God With Us

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. Our desire is to help you draw near to God by growing in faith, community, and service. Well, as I mentioned in my introduction, I'm a pastor, and pastor is a pretty general term.

The job description of a pastor or undershepherd is to spiritually care for and guide a local body of believers. So we study the Word of God and we work to implement it and model it and share it with the lives of those that God brings to us.

But most pastors, depending on the setup of the church, have areas of focus or specialty. Don's is vision and teaching, and mine falls a little bit more on the side of operations or the execution of the work of the church.

And this involves some administrative things like maintaining the website and office technology and the proclaim stuff I just shared with you. But most importantly, my job is helping Recast be successful in making disciples.

So, one of the main questions rolling around in my head as I go throughout my day is if someone gets involved here, are they going to become a fully committed follower of Jesus Christ? To me, for reasons I hope will become clear after today's teaching, this means a lot more than creating some workbooks for you to go through or laying out some verses to memorize or creating some classes for you to attend.

Those may be tools we use or implement, but what we really need to be a healthy family here of growing and maturing Jesus followers is a culture of disciple making that carries on the ministry of Jesus.

So my purpose over the next two weeks is to share my heart as one of your pastors for you as a Christian under Recast care and for our church as a whole. And I hope it will lay a foundation or continue a foundation that's already been laid by Don or other teachers of a followership culture.

I've titled this mini-series, The Gift of Incarnation and today we're talking about God with us. So please turn with me to Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 through 25 and then we're going to go back to provide some context to the prophecy that's given by Matthew in relation to the birth of Jesus.

And it may be a story that you haven't heard before, the Isaiah story, but I think it creates a richer meaning and understanding of what it means for God to be with us. So we begin in Matthew chapter 1 verse 18 and it's page 687 in your Pubec Bible.

Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. And then turn back with me to Isaiah chapter 7 verses 1 through 17.

And again, for some of you this old King stuff and the history of Israel is a little bit.

Confusing.

God With Us in Matthew and Isaiah

And just to set it up a little bit, we have two kingdoms. You know, you had David who was one of the most famous kings, then his son Solomon, and there was one nation, but at a point they split. And so you had the nation of Israel in the north, and then you had the nation of Judah in the south.

And King Ahaz is a king of Judah in the south. And they're actually not friendly with the nation of Israel or the nations around them. And this is the story of Ahaz into which this prophecy is given. In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Romalia, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.

When the house of David was told, Syria is in league with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. And the Lord said to Isaiah, Go to Me, Ahaz, you and Shir Jashub, your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the washer's field, and say to him, Be careful, be quiet.

Do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Romalia. Because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Romalia has devised evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it.

Thus says the Lord God, It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Romalia. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all. Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, Ask a sign of the Lord your God.

Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. And he said, Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria.

This is the word of God. Will you pray with me? Father, we come to you this morning and delight in you. You are the great God. You are the savior of mankind. And we thank you, Lord, that this day we have an opportunity to gather as your church, to hear your word and to be strengthened, I pray in our hearts, God, and I pray that your spirit would do that work, that you would help us to understand your word and to know you better.

And God, as we prepare to worship you, I just pray that our hearts would be in the right place, that we direct our praises and our adoration and our thankfulness to you together as the body of Christ.

And God, that you would meet us here. I pray that you'd be in our midst, that you'd bless this time that we have together. And it's in your son, Jesus, that we pray.

Amen.

I just want to thank Heidi and Josh for coming and leading worship for us. And we're just, we're blessed that they're here at Recast and using their talents to serve us.

It's awesome.

Discipleship as Following Jesus in His Presence

So, one of the things I like to do in my kind of spare time, often I do it while I'm working at night, is watch documentaries on Netflix.

Anybody with me?

All right.

Yeah.

Nonfiction.

Woo!

So, I just watched a documentary called Holy Rollers about this group of young Christians, 20-something Christians, who figured out how to count cards. And they set up a blackjack team to go and make a living at casinos, playing blackjack.

At their height, they made $1 .5 million in a year, revenue. Isn't that crazy? Interesting concept. I think I'm going to run it past the elders, a little additional income for Don and I. But at one point in the film, the team wasn't making any money.

They weren't winning. And so, they started testing their players. They had a group of about 20 or so at that time. And they realized that people were making really basic mistakes. What they discovered was that they were bringing in new teammates, giving them concepts and initial training, and then sending them out to play high-stakes poker or blackjack.

But essentially, they were unprepared. They hadn't had enough time to learn the trade, so to speak. So the head of this company, ironically, I think, identified a weakness in his training that is the same issue that we have with making disciples.

He said, we're sending them out thinking that they know their stuff, and they don't. They need one of us, meaning the team leads or experienced players, to be out there at the tables with them, watching them, teaching them.

He just described, I think, the difficulty that the church has, not with making good blackjack players, but making disciples of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus showed us how to follow and how to make more followers, which is the first, I don't want to say surfacy, but the first concept that we get from Immanuel, God with us, right?

God became flesh and dwelt among us, so step one, he intentionally, actively, went to people and called them to follow. Notice it's never a request when Jesus calls someone. It's always a command, not a, hi Peter, I'm Jesus, it'd be great if we could hang out.

Some time.

You want to go save the world, if you're not busy or anything, right? That wasn't how he did it. It's follow me. It's an imperative, a command. And a rabbi calling someone to follow means literally, enter into relationship with me so that I can make you like me.

I want to teach you to know what I know and do what I do. Those in the gospel accounts either obeyed or rejected his command. It wasn't optional from his point of view. And those who followed, he transformed moment by moment, sermon by sermon, task by task, miracle by miracle, confrontation by confrontation, which could only happen while being with them.

The reward for obedience to Jesus' call to followership is his constant presence in your life as Lord, teacher, friend, savior. And I do think that the call today is the same as it was back then. Jesus, right now, is commanding you, follow me.

What happens if you say yes? What's step two? What happens if you believe and get saved? Scripture answers that for us. Just a couple of verses. Ephesians 1, 3 -4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

First Peter 1, 13 -16. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

But as he who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Is that what you signed up for? Did you know that that was part of the deal?

What did you commit to, if and when you said yes to Jesus? I ask that because I, just honestly, I'm afraid that many of us in the modern day church have given a false impression. That you could somehow take on the incredible grace of God and receive his salvation and swim in his blessings and not follow.

Can you imagine the scenario with one of the disciples? Jesus comes to them, Kyle, follow me.

Really?

Yes!

Yes, God! Yeah, you, me?

I'm just a grubby fisherman, I, yes, I will, I'll go with you. I'll follow you everywhere. I'll be your right-hand man.

Yes!

Can't wait to see the walk on water thing. And then Jesus says, like Jesus would, mount up, right? Probably wouldn't say that. But he takes off and he goes on to the next place. And then you're like, okay, see you later.

See you next time you come through town.

You and me, Jesus, we're like this. What a fool!

Who would do that?

Who would confess?

Yes, Jesus, I want this opportunity that you're giving me to be your disciple, to follow you and be like you. And then think that they could hang out where they were and not go with him wherever he.

Went.

That's not following. It's something else. I have to admit, the being holy aspect of Christianity wasn't a strong part of my understanding.

Of the Christian life.

If anything, I associated be holy with a dry, dead, ritualistic, stuffy Christianity that had to be put to rest, preferably by cool, hip Christians that could do the long hair thing and listen to indie rock and not go to church on Wednesday nights and still love.

Jesus.

But that's not really what it means to be holy, any of those things. And I'm growing more and more in my understanding of this high calling to be like God. You see, we signed up for a personal makeover when we reconnected with the mighty God through.

The blood of Christ.

Our sins were washed away and forgiven and we have a new life in him. We have a clean slate. And we committed to a comprehensive training plan in which we are to be refashioned to resemble the one who laid his life down for us.

You agreed to follow. There's no believing and not following. And when you follow, you are watching and listening to and spying on and eating with and traveling next to your rabbi. This should revolutionize your understanding of the study of scripture.

This is why you read your Bible. In large part, it's a front row seat to Jesus' life. What's he going to do? What's he going to say in this situation? Why did he go there? A personal relationship with Jesus means you understand that he was a person and he is a person.

He's not a self-help book or a theology term paper. He was a leader and he is your leader. Step one is to believe and commit to following. Step two is following. But I think the problem for us in the church is when we get people in the seats on Sunday and they hear some teaching, but then they walk out into everyday life alone.

No one is with them. No one is in an intentional relationship with them to model the life of Christ, to teach them, correct them, encourage them, to debrief them, to sit at the table with them when the cards are dealt.

If this is more than an anomaly in the life of any congregation, but is the overriding culture of the church, then I think all sorts of bad things result. A few that come to my mind. Such a church can become entertainment driven.

Since there's a low spiritual maturity among people, you have a low appetite for God's word, and an anemic desire for worship and fellowship. So the church has to get flashy and spectacular, otherwise what's the point of going?

You're not offering me anything. Entertain me. It can result in a social club mentality where the focus becomes the building and the programs rather than the people in and around the church. And probably the worst of all, especially if a church is growing in numbers but not in love for God and people, is the defamation of the name of Christ.

Because there's a lot of churchy people walking around, but not many of them look very much like the founder of their faith. We don't want to be this kind of church. We want to be a healthy, vibrant gathering of people who love Jesus and one another to the death, who know what they signed up for, and live every day in the adventure of being transformed into His likeness.

We want to be a church where people learn from the word to act righteously in every circumstance. We want to be a church that understands the significance of Emmanuel, God with us. So is God with us, Recast?

Is God with you? If you're like me, you have a lot of moments where you feel alone, where you doubt the presence of God and His love for you. Ever been there? And that's just on the God level. What happens when we feel socially alone?

When no one around you gives you a hand, or a hug, or shares an encouraging word? Even worse, when there's a lot of people around, but no one knows you, no one sees you, no.

One loves you.

As tragic as these feelings are, they can be put to good use. I think it's in isolation, whether real or perceived, that we recognize the impossibility of the task to become holy, to be better than we are, or to save ourselves from sin.

If it is up to us to save ourselves, we are doomed.

Right?

These are the moments when I just have to admit that I'm lost, that I'm weak, that I'm broken. And when I look around at all the terrible junk that happens on this planet, I realize that I have a lot of company, but praise God.

It's into this dreary, dark night of humanity's lostness that angels interrupt with the proclamation that Don spoke about last week. Today in the town of Bethlehem, a Savior is born, amen? And this Savior, Matthew assures us, is the fulfillment of a prophecy given through Isaiah almost 800 years earlier to King Ahaz, that a child would be born whose name would be Immanuel, meaning God is with us.

And to begin to understand the implications of the fulfillment of this prophecy, it would be good to know a little bit about King Ahaz, I think, one of the kings of Judah from around 750 BC. And as I mentioned earlier, he was a ruler over God's people.

And it might seem a little bit disconnected, but I do think that in this story, we get a deeper understanding of what that God with us concept is, and it influences what we mean by discipleship. Because yes, discipleship does mean that we walk with Jesus just like he modeled for us and we're with him, but it also relates to the character of Christ and the motivation that we have to cling to him in all circumstances.

Ahaz, God cannot save me from our enemies. The record of King Ahaz's rule is found in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28. And we certainly don't have time to go all through it, but it's really interesting to read, to put the story of his life together from those two passages.

A few highlights of this fine gentleman. He made metal images of the Baals, who were foreign gods. Remember this is a king of God's people in the southern kingdom called Judah, who was to rule over his people in a godly way in order to present them a holy people.

They were to be a light to the nations around them, who embodied God's word in everything that they did. This king was to be the leader of all of this. Instead he sets up images to the Baals, transgressing the first and second commandments right off the bat.

He set up places of worship to foreign gods all around Judah called High Places, where people could perform their pagan rituals. He burned his sons, plural, as offerings to these foreign gods, as 2 Chronicles 28 verse says, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the.

People of Israel.

Ever struggled with the harsh God of the Old Testament? He had no compassion and no tolerance for people who would do such things as burn their children in fires to appease false gods. That was his justification for removing them from the land, and instead Ahaz joins in their practice.

When God introduced corrective action through Syria and Israel, neighboring nations, rather than turn to God for help, he plunders the temple in Jerusalem, cutting up the artifacts and the fine utensils that were used in worship, and sends the gold and the bronze and all of that to the king of Assyria for military assistance as a tribute to him.

And the king of Assyria never came to his rescue anyway. And so after the Syrians plundered his land, he said, well their gods must be powerful, so I'll worship them and ask them for help. It's at the point of preparing for war with Syria and Israel that Isaiah the prophet confronts this walking travesty of a king with the Immanuel prophecy.

What was behind Ahaz's fear? Remember that line? When the house of David, meaning Judah, and King Ahaz was told, hey Syria is in league with Ephraim and they're coming after you. What happened? The heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before.

The wind.

He was fearful. Wasn't it a recognition of his own inadequacy? Wasn't it a fear that the enemy would exploit his weaknesses? That he wasn't powerful enough to win?

Yes.

And that fear comes from the recognition that all is not well with the world, that the enemy exists and is out to kill us. And that is what gives us the choice of faith. It's in the face of our own inadequacies and failures that we choose whether to call out to the one who can save us or get to work trying to fix things ourselves.

That's what Ahaz was doing. He was trying to fill the void that his lack of faith had left with strategy and machinations and alliances with spirits and pagan kings. Ever been there? Ever been in a situation where evil, whether yours or that of others, put you in a fearful situation?

Ever been caught in a sin? Ever had someone threaten you, do evil towards you? Ever been in a situation where you had the choice to throw yourself at the mercy of God for rescue or try and fix things yourself?

What did you choose? What will you choose when it happens next? Ahaz chose to trust in himself and everything else but Yahweh. And both Isaiah and God were wearied by him. Do you think God doesn't know what you're going through?

Do you think he's unaware of the power of the enemy? He does know. And he's willing to be there with you in it and through it.

God with us.

And this blows my mind in the story. This terrible king, right? God sends his prophet to him and I believe he's genuinely trying to comfort Ahaz and by his mercy call him back to himself saying, trust me, follow me, I've got your back.

And God gives him a choice. He says, he offers to perform any sign for him, as high as heaven above or as low as Sheol below, anything. He said, ask for anything and I'll prove it to you that I'm here with you and that I'll protect you, that I'll keep my promise and protect this people.

But Ahaz refuses under the guise of spiritualism. Don't put the Lord to your test, he says. Don't put the Lord your God to the test, he says. So God provides his own sign. He says, fine, I'll give you a sign that will prove that I'm with you always.

And a child will be born and you'll call him Immanuel, Immanuel. God is with us just as he promised. There's actually a lot of debate in the commentaries as I was studying as to whether Isaiah was really speaking of Christ and his virgin birth.

And we don't have time to get into the significance of the Hebrew words for virgin and all that. But suffice it to say that I think that the arguments for the messianic reference are the strongest. That not only was Isaiah speaking into that situation, that political situation of King Ahaz, but he was predicting the coming of the Christ.

And I think one of the strongest arguments for that begins with the fact that Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says so. In fact, this is from the Holman Treasury, it says,. The concept of God with us was often reiterated by Jesus in Matthew's Gospel.

He told his disciples that where two or three are gathered in his name, he would be present with them. Matthew 18, 20. And at the very end of the Gospel, just before his ascension, Jesus assured them that he would be with them until the end of the age.

Matthew 28, 20. Though the exact title Immanuel does not appear again in scripture, the book of Revelation concludes with an affirmation that the one called God with us will be with us forever. The tabernacle of God is among men, it says, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them.

Revelation 21, 3. So I think it's pretty clear that Jesus understood himself as Immanuel, as the one that Isaiah spoke of. So the incarnation of Christ. It's our salvation and our model for discipleship.

Is God mighty to save? Will he keep his promises? Can he protect Judah from the Syrians and Israel? Yeah, he did. If you read the full account, they couldn't stand, and yet God still introduced correction to Judah for their lack of faith.

But can he protect you against your enemies? Your enemy, capital E? Can he protect you from yourself?

Yeah, he can.

The birth of Jesus some 2 ,000 years ago that we celebrate in a couple of days. Here is your sign, your proof. Your salvation has come and you have nothing to fear.

Amen?

Don't let your heart be dismayed though your enemies surround you on every side. The Messiah has come and he is with you. And no one can snatch you from his hands. He has saved you from your sins if you have faith.

Immanuel means Ahaz got it wrong. Ahaz didn't trust God. He didn't think he would save him. Don't be Ahaz. Stand firm in the faith. Jesus is with you. And together, you fight to remove the impurities in your life now, to be holy.

You can and you will succeed if you trust in Immanuel. And he's there by your side. There's a great quote from John Calvin, it's a little thick but I think it's pretty meaningful. He said, And as Christ, in whom dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2 .9, and who is our true Immanuel, Isaiah 7 .14, now resides amongst us, he has furnished us with matter of more abundant joy.

We are therefore ungrateful and stupid if that promise, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world, Matthew 28 .20, does not ravish us with exceeding joy.

Joy?

Yeah.

Easy? No.

It's downright scary to follow Jesus. He goes to hard places, dangerous places, to death. He goes into the dark places of your heart. He goes to the wounds from your childhood. He goes to the outcasts of society, the prisoners, the orphans, the widows, the sinners.

To be with Jesus, to accept the call to follow, is to acknowledge up front that your sinful flesh and your self-centered will will not make it out alive. That's the hard part. But the joy is in the fact that he is with you in the midst of it all.

Every step of the way, encouraging you not to give up because one day it will be over and your transformation will be complete and you'll be home with dad. The reward is great. It is a great and glorious truth to know that God is with us and it's a powerful metaphor and all.

But how does this really happen? Didn't Jesus go back to heaven? Isn't he sitting at the right hand of God the Father? I haven't seen him in the flesh very much. How can we walk around with him and follow him?

How does this all relate to recast and how we intend to do discipleship? Well first, his spirit is alive in us to comfort us and lead us. You could be on an island all by yourself or you could be the last living person on the earth.

And if the spirit of God is in you, you are never ever alone. But the spirit of God is also building the church and it's never his intention for us to be alone out of fellowship with other believers. We are his body and we love each other into maturity.

We take on Jesus' example literally and enter into intentional relationship with one another. And what's crazy is that just as Jesus put on flesh and dwelt among us, so we too as we are made into his likeness more and more become Jesus to one another.

We are made into his likeness more and more. We incarnate the Son of God through the work of the spirit as we are conformed to his likeness. God uses us, his church, to carry on his discipling ministry.

We share the gospel. We call others to follow. We teach and love and heal and correct and forgive. Emmanuel is more than a promise for God to be with you. There's also an us. This is a family business.

Don and myself and the elders, we can't do this alone. Jesus' model is too inefficient, too time consuming. He started with 12 and he had three that he really, really poured into for three years. We must have a culture where we walk hand-in-hand with each other, loving each other, growing one another.

I found a moving illustration of this in last week's Sports Illustrated in an article by Gary Smith called Stand Up and Speak Out, which is partly about R .A. Dickey, Cy Young award winner, major league pitcher.

Career was on the rocks and he made a great comeback with a knuckleball. And while R .A., while Dickey was working to recover from sexual abuse, which haunted him, he spent three days in silence at a monastery, trying as a grown man to reconcile with a wounded little boy that still lived inside him.

Smith describes the scene of inner dialogue. Sometimes a child would say, I should have run away. I should have kicked and screamed. I should have told someone, why didn't I? You didn't know any better, the grown up Dickey said.

You were too afraid. You were too ashamed. Don't beat yourself up. It's okay. Then he put his arm around him again and they'd walk on through the rolling meadows in silence, letting the world be what it is, sad and beautiful.

I don't mean to take anything away from this beautiful account of the inner healing that Dickey was doing. I think the kind of exercise he was doing can be very helpful. I've done it myself before, but I also see in it something too beautiful to be left in the world of pretend.

I think God wants more for us. He doesn't want us only wandering alone with mental manifestations of our former selves or fairy tale Jesuses, ghosts and apparitions with which to dialogue as we search for healing and holiness.

He wants to put real arms around us and offer real words and take real walks and shed real.

Tears.

And he can, because he's still in the incarnation business. And when you and I draw close to one another and we cry with the hurting and defend the powerless and forgive the unforgivable, he lives in you and he moves in me.

And that is what it means to be a disciple. That is what it means to be holy. And that recast is my heart for you and for us and for me, that we would be like Jesus to each other. And in the context of that kind of community, we are transformed into his likeness.

I pray that we would be a church where Jesus is alive in us and every single one of us gets to experience the joy and adventure of unwrapping the gift of the incarnate son of.

God.

Amen.

Amen.

Father, again, we thank you for this beautiful day and for the bright, crisp morning. And God, I thank you for the warmth that's in this place, for these people that love each other and are working to follow you.

And God, that's my sincere prayer is that you would teach us to be better followers, that your spirit would dwell inside of us, that you'd help us to realize the commitment that we've made. That now that we are not our own, the fact that we've been bought with a price and that by your great grace, you have saved us and redeemed us to yourself, God, that we now.

Live for you.

And God, we want to know everything about you. We want to be holy as you are holy. And God, we can't do that alone. We can't do that without the work of you in our hearts. And we can't do it without each other, without this family.

So I pray that you'd create in this place that recast just an awesome culture of followership, that you would teach us what it means to walk together towards you and to love you and to love our community.

Thank you for being born as a little child, God. Thank you for being with us always. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.