Teaching Text

Matthew 1:18-23 

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, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Sermon Recap

This Sunday, Pastor Ralph Castillo kicked off our new sermon series during the Advent season, He Shall Be, with a teaching on Jesus as Immanuel, or “God with us”.

The word advent comes from the Latin word “adventus”, meaning “arrival”. Advent is a season in which we await the second arrival of Christ by remembering and celebrating His first arrival. Pastor Ralph posed two questions for us to consider during this Advent season: How is the coming of Jesus at Christmas good news? And how does He meet the core longings that surface most intensely during this Advent season?

The Gospel of Matthew describes Jesus’ first arrival to Bethlehem through Mary’s virgin birth. It can be easy to forget that Mary was a young adult who faced severe ostracization from her community by becoming pregnant before marriage. However, she made the decision to say yes to something she could not fully understand and did not ask for because she decided to trust in the Lord’s plan. Similarly, Joseph was invited into a costly obedience by continuing to remain betrothed to Mary in light of her circumstances. Both Mary and Joseph found themselves in a complex situation, as we often do in our own lives, but they chose to respond in faithful obedience, and ushered the greatest gift of all time into the World: the Messiah Jesus.

Today, we are facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in our culture. Each of us may be carrying great joy this advent season, but each of us may also carry great losses at the same time. However, God is not removed from or oblivious to our suffering. He is deeply aware of our loneliness, as He created us in His image for relationship not only with one another, but with Him. Each of us have eternity set in our hearts and that longing can only be fulfilled by Him.

Pastor Ralph explained that this is why we celebrate Christmas: because God came. If He did not come, we would not have the Gospel and there would be no salvation for us. He answered our loneliness and grief with Himself, and Pastor Ralph invited us to consider that the best Christmas present of all is Jesus’ tangible presence with us. The good news of Christmas is not that life will always be easy, but it is that whatever life brings us, God promises to be with us.