Immanuel

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 Immanuel” (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 knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25 ESV). China was the scene of one of the most intensive missionary efforts in history. And then with the victory of Mao and the communists in 1949, all the Christian missionaries were expelled. The small Chinese church became the object of intense persecution: many Christians were killed or imprisoned, some went underground, and some fell away. Chinese believers were effectively cut off from the rest of the church. For many years almost the only contact they had was through radio broadcasts of the gospel sent out faithfully by several Christian organizations. And we could not even be sure people were listening; there was no way for anyone to respond. During the time of harshest persecution, a letter was received by some Christians in the West from representatives of the Chinese church. Reading it, you could understand why the Communist authorities had allowed it to be sent. It went something like this: We are good Communists here. We don’t need your western religion. We don’t agree with your Christianity anymore. Please leave us alone. But below the signature was a P.S., just a single word: Immanuel. And that one word changed everything. This one word does change everything. Immanuel is a Hebrew word meaning "God is with us." Originally the name of the Christ-child came from the prophet Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 7:14). Matthew quotes from this passage in our reading today. This name only appears three times in the Bible, Isaiah 7:14; 8:8; and Matthew 1:23. The question must be asked, however, “Why did they call Him Jesus?” We need to understand the meaning of that name as well for that answer. Jesus fulfilled that prophecy because he was fully man yet still fully God. He came to live in Israel with his people, as Isaiah had foretold. And, the name “Jesus,” which is Yeshua in Hebrew, means "the LORD is salvation." Do you see it? In Jesus, God becoming man, not only was God physically with us, he was also eternally with us in his divinity. He was God with us! That is the great declaration of the message and meaning of the birth of Jesus. That is good news!