God Is with Us to Save Us :: Matthew 1:18-25

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We’ve all had dreams. Good dreams. Bad dreams. Weird dreams. We seldom understand them. Sometimes they freak us out. But dreams have been shaping our lives since the dawn of time. Scripture is filled with dozens of dreams. God used dreams to communicate his will to his people. Sarah was restored to Abraham. ... Jacob was given prosperity. ... Joseph became a redeemer. Both Gideon and Solomon were given wisdom and insight. Daniel interprets dreams and writes about dreams. The overarching theme of these is that God uses these dreams to show that he is still with his people even when he seems far away ... that He alone will save his people. 

That happened again in our Gospel text today. As Joseph reflected on the idea of divorcing his betrothed wife because she had become pregnant with a child that wasn’t his, Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to receive Mary as your wife, for [the child] in her which has been begotten out of the Spirit is Holy. And she will give birth to a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (vv 18-21).

THIS WHOLE THING HAPPENED SO THAT WE WOULD ALL WAKE UP TO THE TRUTH THAT GOD IS WITH US ... EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE

This is our theme. Matthew begins his Gospel by showing us that Jesus is God is with us ... and he closes his Gospel with a similar revelation of Jesus. While you are making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that he has commanded, behold, Jesus says, he is with you always until the culmination of the age (Mt 28:19-20). 

To bring us to this realization ... 

I. First, we must wake up to the truth that we are sinners in need of a savior.

That’s what Christmas is for. That’s why we celebrate Christmas. Christmas is not about a baby in a manger. It is not about gift giving. It is not about family. It is about recognizing the God who is with us.

Sin causes us to live in a “dream world” ... dreams that serve no purpose. We dream up the idea that we don’t need the forgiveness of sins so we don’t need God with us. We dream up the idea that we are good to go ... that we can be “good people” apart from God with us. We dream up the idea that if our good outweighs our bad we will go to heaven. We dream up the idea that all roads lead to heaven ... and that Jesus is just a good man with a good word about good living ... in other words, that he is not actually God with us. 

Do you realize how many “Christians” today don’t know Jesus is God in the flesh?

We are sinners who sin. We are born in sin, and steeped in sin. Like Paul teaches us: We cannot do what we want to do, instead we do the very thing we hate: We sin. This is why God came from heaven to earth to be with us. We couldn’t go to God, so he came to us in the flesh. He is Immanuel ... Hebrew words for God with us. He was born without sin and lived without sin. Sin has no part with God. This is what Christmas is about ... seeing God with us.

II. [Wake up to this truth we confess]

Please now wake up and turn to page 322 in your (Lutheran Service Book) and join me in confessing this truth from the second article of the Apostles’ Creed. As the head of the household should teach it in a simple way to his household: 

What is the Second Article? ... What does this mean? ...

In this confession, God wakes us up to the revelation of how he saves his people from their sins. Jesus is not just a man. Jesus is not just “a son” of God, as if he is less than God. Jesus is God in the flesh, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity. Jesus is at the same time, True Man, born of the Virgin Mary, the mother of God. He was born to die. 

His name means YHWH saves, just like Joshua, Isaiah, and Hosea before him, all of whom pointed us to the fact that God is with us to save us ... in Christ. God loves us so much he has named us ... and renamed us. He renamed Abram as Abraham because he would be the father of the multitude who would be saved through faith. He renamed Jacob as Israel to remind us that God prevails over sin, death, and the devil. And he called Solomon Jedidiah, which means “known by YHWH.” 

It is good to be known by YHWH the God with us. If he didn't know you he wouldn't have loved you this way: sending his only begotten son, Jesus, to die for your sin. God didn’t wait until we somehow got our sin under control. He knew you. He didn’t wait for us to work out our salvation. Jesus was born to know your sin, to pay the price of your sin, to save his people from their sin. He knew your sin, becoming sin on the cross. He knew your sin so well, he suffered and died for it. Jesus was born to become the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. There is no forgiveness of sins without the perfect sacrifice. There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of Jesus’ blood. So thank God he came to you in this way, otherwise we’d just slumber away in sin. This is why we celebrate Christmas.

III. The advent of Christ ... his coming to us ... wakes us up to God’s truth. 

Christmas wakes us up to remember that God is not only with us in the person of Jesus, but he is always with us even to the end of the age through his means of grace. 

He is always with us through his living Word (Heb 4:12). Jesus uses this means of grace to speak to us. He reveals his will and his truth for our lives in plain words that you can see and hear. Through this Word of God he gives you faith in Jesus ... the complete trust of how and why he has given you eternal life in his name. 

He also wakes us up to the truth that he has restored and returned to his holy temple ... the temple of your body, which he sanctified and set apart through Baptism. In Baptism, we are reminded of how, when the kindness and benevolence of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of works which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our savior, so that having been declared righteous in his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Tit 3:4-7).

This leads us into the Lord’s Supper, where he awakens us to the truth that Jesus is actually with us, like the Emmaus disciples. In the Sacrament of the Altar, Jesus opens our eyes to know him as he breaks bread with us and gives us the cup of salvation. All the company of heaven joins us in this feast as he unites us with each other through the forgiveness of sins.

IV. When Jesus wakes you up to the truth, you can then stop dreaming ... eternal life actually is yours ... It is not just a pipe dream.

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and received Mary as his wife, but he did not know her until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus (v 24). 

The realization that God is always with us empowered Joseph to obey the word of the Lord ... even when it was contrary to his society. It also gives you the ability to live your life as a witness to his truth ... just like Joseph. 

So what are you waiting for? This whole thing happened so that you will know the Lord, as Saint Paul told the Philippian church ... God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above all names, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess the Lord Jesus Christ into the Glory of God the Father (Pp 2:6-11).

Thanks be to God unto you a son is born. Unto you a son is given. 

Now he truly is with us always to save us ... in Jesus’ name. 

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