The Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 19th, 2010

“HERE’S YOUR SIGN – IMMANUEL”

Isaiah 7:10-14

Are you feeling “Christmasy” yet? I have to admit, until the last couple of days, I wasn’t in the
Christmas mood. The decorating of the churches, the Christmas music on the radio, the Christmas
specials on television, even the Christmas celebration at Disney World failed to get me into “Christmas
mode.”
If you’re not quite there yet, not quite prepared for the celebration of our Savior’s birth, if you’ve
been caught up, like me, in the frenzy of the Christmas preparation, then you’ll want to pay close
attention today to the lesson from Isaiah chapter 7, this verse that you learned when you were a young
child, when you were in Sunday School or the Lutheran Elementary School, the verse that has been read,
recited, narrated and expounded upon from the pulpit time and time again; a verse that has as much to
say about our preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth as the virgin birth itself.
And as you listen closely to the beauty of the prophetic message announcing the virgin birth of
Immanuel, pay close attention to the context and occasion in which this prophecy is given, because they
will enlighten us to know not only the FACT of the virgin birth of Jesus, but the REASON for God choosing
this miraculous entrance into our world ~ with the prayer that the Spirit shapes our attitudes so that we
are in the proper “mode” for Christmas.
In this prophecy, we enter into the heart of God in his Word, and we return with a promise that is
as “Christmasy” as they come. Get ready to celebrate the Child of Promise by remembering who this child
is. He is the sign, the omen, the one who created sun, moon and stars, and who’s birth is proclaimed by a
star; the one who created man and woman and was born of a woman; the one who established the law,
and then placed himself under the law. Immanuel – he’s our sign. Immanuel has come to help us – so
swallow your pride and come to him in faith and repentance. And stifle your assumptions – because this
lowly sign, so pitiful, so frail, so ordinary, so poor, is our God.

I. Swallow your pride – Immanuel is our help

Isaiah 7:14 is one of those “Christmas Eve” verses that Christians have heard and recited for
centuries. Listen now to the context of this verse, because it will shed light on our understanding and
help us to see what this promised sign/omen means to us!
“10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest
depths or in the highest heights.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13
Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try
the patience of my God also?”
Now, who is this Ahaz and what in the world does he have to do with the Christmas gospel? 2
Chronicles 28 gives us a little information about him. He was a king in the Southern Kingdom, Judah,
after the nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms. Generation after generation saw predominantly
wicked kings, especially in the North, and the wickedness became exponentially greater as the years went
by. Ahaz was one of those wicked kings who departed from the Word of God, embraced the fertility cult
rituals of the surrounding pagans, reveled in earthly wealth, and then gave himself all the credit for his
wealth, even though it was a gift of grace – undeserved!
The Chronicler describes Ahaz this way: “3 He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and
sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the LORD had driven out before
the Israelites.” This man was the epitome of wickedness, and yet, it is Ahaz that the Lord speaks to,
offering this gospel message of the virgin birth.
Strange, isn’t it? But the whole purpose of this promise was to shatter the pride of the wicked
king. How ridiculous that when the Lord told Ahaz, “Ask me for any sign at all, any omen and I will give it
to you to let you know that I am the one True God,” ridiculous that he comes back and says, “No...that’s
okay, I don’t need it!”
“I don’t need it!” Foolish pride, pride that is rooted in a sense of false security and piety! We can
be so proud of our righteous deeds ~ that we give money to the poor this time of year (even though the
rest of the year we ignore them) that we have a more charitable attitude nowadays, proud that we think
of others, that we send out Christmas cards, proud that we site our rear ends in a church pew and listen
to Pastor White’s sermon, proud of what we put in the offering plate, proud of how we contribute to the
church ~ oh, how proud we are of our righteousness that merits us NOTHING in the sight of a perfect God
who demands perfection from us!
God’s answer to that prideful foolishness: “I’m going to do what’s necessary whether you want it
or not, whether you like it or not, because you can’t bring peace and deliverance to yourself.” That’s the
sense of the great Christmas proclamation: “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with
child and will give birth to a son and will call his name Immanuel.”
Salvation is not a Do-It-Yourself project! Prideful hearts bring judgment upon themselves from
God, eternal separation from him, because they seek to do or make a contribution to the work that only
God can do. This promise, this sign, this omen, stands forever as a sign against our sinful pride, and
drives us to recognize our lack of righteousness as well as our deep need for Jesus.
Swallow your pride in repentance. This child, this Immanuel is exactly the help that we need. We
need him! The world needs him! We need the grace he came to bring! We need the eternal life he came
to impart! We need the blood he came to shed, the life he came to sacrifice, the death he came to die!
Swallow your pride and come to him in faith and repentance, because we have forfeited heaven by our
sinful pride. But God has gone into action to restore eternal life to us through this child, this Immanuel,
through Jesus Christ.

II. Stifle your expectations – Immanuel is our God

This restoration would take a rather unexpected form. That’s reiterated specifically in verse 14:
“14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a
son, and will call him Immanuel.”
Again, the historical perspective helps us to understand the verse in its context. God attempted to
shine gloriously through the kings that were placed over the people of Israel, but they stifled God’s glory,
they hid it behind a curtain of wickedness, idolatry and unbelief. They darkened the hearts of the people
that God had entrusted to them. So, God made his glory evident in a different way – in an unexpected
way, even when the kings, like Ahaz, didn’t want it: a child, a son, born of a woman, 100% human and yet
truly God, 100% divine – God with us!
 That’s what the name “Immanuel” means: God with us! But his local presence in this world wasn’t
going to be visibly glorious. It wasn’t going to be visibly impressive: a baby, an infant, a child, born of a
humble woman, having a poor step-father, Joseph, from a pitiful nobody, nothing town of Bethlehem, and
living his life in a country bumpkin town of Nazareth, about which it was regularly said, “Can anything
good come from Nazareth?” He wasn’t an aristocrat, he wasn’t politically powerful, he wasn’t one that
you could say by appearance alone – “Yes, he’s the promised one!” And yet, he is Immanuel – God with
us!
So, what does this lowly birth of the divine child teach us? It teaches us with grand clarity that
God is willing to bridge any gap that exists between his chosen people and their eternal destiny because
of sin; and if that means being born, if that means having a non-famous mother, if that means sleeping in a
stinky animal barn, if that means being mocked and jeered throughout his life and ministry, if that means
getting whipped and scarred, if that means leaving this world through a criminal’s death and lying in the
depths of the tomb – so be it! Whatever it takes, whatever is demanded, Immanuel was willing, because
that child, born in such a lowly way, is God, and every moment of his earthly life, he executed divine will
to perfection in our place, in our stead so that our eternal future is secure.
That’s why we stifle our sinful human expectations of the Messiah. That’s why we must come to
the Scriptures blind, without pre-conceived notions, without humanly defined expectations for the
world’s Messiah, because only then can we see how glorious Jesus really is! Even in all his humility,
Immanuel shines with all the glory of the Father, for his will is the will of the Father who “wants all men
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” And his purpose in this world was to ensure that
everything that needed to be done to atone for our sins was accomplished in full for us – from beginning
to end, until those great words were uttered from the holy hill, “It is finished!”
Well, you may not “feel” more “Christmasy” now than you did 20 minutes ago. But we are all
better prepared for the Christmas celebration. This verse, which you learned as a child and recited in
church and in Sunday School not only teaches us of the fact of the virgin birth, but why it remains
significant today. It stands as a sign against the sinful pride of man and in judgment of the haughty heart,
but this sign is forgiveness and eternal life to all whose boasting is in Christ Jesus alone, in whom there is
forgiveness and eternal life for you and for me. Amen.