The Gospel of Immanuel
A Sermon by Rev. Robert L. Broline Jr.
Matthew 1:1, 18-25; 28:16-20.
What is the Church?
Where should you worship? Maybe no more pressing question can be asked today than this. How would YOU answer? Many would no doubt say, and I have heard these kinds of things said:
"In the church where I was raised."
"Where the people are nice and friendly."
Choirs, organs, architecture, and even the preacher's personality are prime considerations for some.
Others seek security in big churches, others for fellowship in small churches.
Now, saying these things, I am not saying that you cannot worship in the church were you grew up. This is not inherently wrong, of course. For some of you were raised in this church, that is, in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
And I am not saying, that you cannot or should not worship where people are nice and friendly, as if the proper place is a church where the people are mean and nasty.
And I am not saying that you cannot worship in a church that has a choir, an organ, or a nice building, or that you can't like the preacher's personality.
And I am not saying that you cannot worship in a large church or a small church, as if the only church would be the median size -- whatever that might be.
So, what am I saying with respect to this important question, "Where Should You Worship?"
I am saying that these things I have mentioned as being typical responses to this question must not be the basis, nor the determining factors in deciding where you should worship, according to the Lord, as revealed in His Word, the Bible. Rather, according to the Bible, the minimum factors for determining where you should worship are:
Where the Word of God is faithfully preached so that the Jesus Christ of Scripture is faithfully held forth.
Where baptism and the Lord's supper are faithfully administered.
Where church discipline is faithfully and lovingly exercised for the sake of Christ, our chief shepherd, and elder.
These characteristics or features are what the Protestant church, particularly those of the Reformed Faith, regard as the three minimum marks for identifying the true church of Jesus Christ. This is where Immanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church begins.
What does Immanuel OPC stand for?
But as our name suggests, we have more to say still in filling out our distinctive identity as a true church of Jesus Christ. So, what does Immanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church stand for?
First, working backwards, we are a Presbyterian church. The word Presbyterian means "ruled by elders," which speaks about our organizational structure as a church -- our church government.
The Pastor, along with the elders who are elected from the members of the congregation, govern our church. However, the word "Presbyterian" is a pregnant term that carries within its womb the doctrine that we hold to, historically understood as Calvinism, the Westminster Standards, the five points of TULIP (total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints read a fuller explanation of TULIP).
Secondly, as a church we are Orthodox Presbyterians.This adjective "Orthodox" in front of Presbyterian is essential to understanding our church's distinct identity in our modern day.
That which is popularly known as "The Presbyterian Church" today (alias the PC USA), or as the "Mainline Presbyterian Church" is that large denomination that we desire to distance ourselves from. It is this mainline church that is in the news, and spotlighted by the media often. Most recently, the PCUSA gained much attention in the recent vote of its General Assembly to support opening up the offices of minister and elder to homosexuals.
In order for this action to become official and part of their constitution, it must be passed by two-thirds of the Presbyteries. Well, this is the ugly fruit of the liberalism, the false gospel that was allowed to creep into the Presbyterian Church back in the 1920's and 30's. When J. Gresham Machen and others with him protested, they were eventually kicked out, and in God's providence the Orthodox Presbyterian Church was born on June 11, 1936 for the stated purpose to be the continuation of a true Presbyterian Church in faithfulness to the biblical gospel of the Scriptures as summarized so wonderfully in the Westminster Standards (read more on the origin of the OPC).
Finally, in answering the question as to what we stand for as a church: We are Immanuel OPC. Immanuel means "God with us." (Matthew 1:23). And you may have noted in our text that this name "Immanuel" (God with us) is applied specifically to the one who is to be called "Jesus" (Matthew 1:21).
Here in these two titles the gospel of the Scriptures is wonderfully expressed. Here is the good news about a monumental event expressed in the very names given to this One who is be conceived miraculously by a lowly virgin, Mary. This man to be born of the virgin is to be called "Jesus" "Savior." But, he is also to be called "Immanuel" which translated means, "God with us." Jesus is man. Jesus is God. This is Jesus the Messiah (Old Testament title equivalent for the Christ) Matthew 1:18. Both titles take us back to the OT. So that the birth, the incarnation, the coming of Messiah as "Jesus" and as "Immanuel" is the promised coming of God himself. And in the name "Jesus" we are told plainly what God incarnate has come to do. For what he has come to do is gospel, good news for sinners: "Jesus" means "Savior." "For he is the One, who will save his people from their sins."
This is good news about a glorious, even eschatological event! God himself intruding into the plane of this world from above to save his elect people from their sins as Immanuel, "God with us."
This is the gospel of Matthew. This is the gospel of Immanuel Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This is the gospel we believe and confess as a true church of Jesus Christ. This is the Jesus we embrace through grace by faith alone that He might deliver us from the wrath to come through His redemptive work. Our Savior "Jesus" is fully God, and fully man. Hence, as the title of the sermon suggests, this is: "the Gospel of Immanuel." This is the "Gospel of Immanuel OPC."
What is Matthew's Gospel?
But, this is not the only meaning I have in view in the title of the sermon: "The Gospel of Immanuel" that is, the one and only gospel of Jesus Christ, whose person and redemptive work we embrace for our salvation. I have in mind also, in this sermon title, the Gospel according to Matthew.
We are beginning a sermon series this morning on the Gospel according to Matthew -- the first sermon series of Immanuel OPC. Some of you, maybe most of you, are ahead of me, and have already figured out my play on words here in the sermon title. You see, biblical commentators have called Matthew's Gospel, that is, the Gospel according to Matthew, "Immanuel's Gospel." Or, "The Gospel of Immanuel."
But, why is Matthew's account of Jesus' life and ministry given this particular designation, and that in distinction from the other three accounts of Jesus' life and ministry on earth? And then once we have answered this question, what may be the significance for us? Why has Matthew's Gospel been given the nickname "The Gospel of Immanuel?"
Simply put, at least to start with, Matthew's account, or Matthew's witness, is called the Gospel of Immanuel because Matthew alone explicitly refers to Jesus as "Immanuel." Mark, Luke, and John do not.
Now, in saying this, and in emphasizing this, are we saying that Mark, Luke, and John do not teach that Jesus is God, or that they did not also believe that Jesus is "God with us"? Of course not. As you read through the other Gospel accounts in the New Testament, it becomes plainly evident to those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear, that each divinely inspired writer bears witness to and preach the same gospel of Jesus Christ. Namely, Jesus is fully God and fully man, who came to save his people from their sins, by his incarnation, death, and resurrection.
All four Gospel accounts agree and are in complete harmony in their testimony concerning the person of Jesus Christ, and the gospel, the "good news" of his redemptive work for sinners. Yet, at the same time, without wanting in anyway to take away from the perfect harmony of the one gospel message concerning Jesus, in the four accounts, there are still four accounts. There are four distinct accounts by four different authors.
If you were to line up each account, and I have in mind the first three gospels, since they are most similar. If you were to line them up side my side in order to try to harmonize them, as many have done, what would you find? Well, you would find great agreement and uniformity on many things, as I have said, but you also find differences, even "apparent contradictions" as well.
In part, this is the so-called "synoptic problem" identified by biblical scholars especially in critical circles. Now, it is true, despite some claims by conservative, evangelical commentators, that the accounts cannot be perfectly harmonized to account for all the differences, and even apparent contradictions between them. But, we need not panic for at least two reasons:
The reliability and accuracy of the four gospel accounts as the Spirit-inspired, inerrant Word of God is not dependent upon man and our ability or lack of ability to harmonize these accounts at every point.
These four divinely inspired accounts, as is often assumed, were never meant to be a full biography of Jesus' life and earthly ministry to be harmonized. We should not spend our time seeking to force a harmonization among them in order to minimize or even explain away this diversity. If we were to seek to do so, we would do one another a disservice in appreciating and laying hold of the four-fold witness of our Savior and his redemptive work on our behalf in its rich and profound diversity.
In this regard, listen to the following statements by Dr. Ned B. Stonehouse, formerly a professor of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia:
"In particular, it has seem to me that Christians who assured as to the unity of the [four-fold] witness of the Gospels should take greater pains to do justice to the diversity of expression of that witness. It is a thrilling experience to observe this unity, to be overwhelmed at the contemplation of the one Christ proclaimed by the four evangelists. But that experience is far richer and more satisfying if one has been absorbed and captured by each portrait in turn and has conscientiously been concerned with the minutest differentiating details as well as with the total impact of the evangelical witness."
Dr. Stonehouse is no liberal in making these statements. This is the conviction of a man thoroughly convinced that the four Gospels do not contradict each other.
So, without neglecting or compromising the unity in anyway, we must do justice to the diversity of each Gospel. We must acknowledge the rich diversity to be God's deliberate design for confounding those who do not believe, and for the benefit of those who do believe. This is why there are four gospel accounts and not one. Not that we might put them together simply to form one, but that we might compare and contrast them in order to discover the particular angle of vision that each brings to the person and work of Jesus.
The fact that there are four different accounts or witnesses to the same Jesus is meant to help us in our faith and life as believers. That we might be brought into a deeper appreciation of each gospel account as to how Christ is uniquely presented to us in each, that we might love and appreciate our Savior and what he has done for us all the more.
Matthew, standing in unity with Mark and Luke especially (the synoptics), and with John yet distinct in each one's own particular perspective on our Savior his person and work. So, Matthew's Gospel, the Gospel according to Matthew, is called "Immanuel's Gospel," "The Gospel of Immanuel."
But, Matthew has earned this unique designation not simply because he is the only one to refer to Jesus as "Immanuel" in his Gospel account. Rather, more significantly and comprehensively, Matthew is called "The Gospel of Immanuel" because Matthew shapes his entire Gospel account around what we might call this "Immanuel theme." Matthew, in fact, structures his account around the theme of "Immanuel."
Did you pick up on this in the two places in Matthew that we read from in our Scripture reading this morning? We read from the beginning and end of Matthew's account. In this regard, to know where a writer is going in a story, to understand his particular intent, it is very useful and instructive to read the story, to read the book in light of its conclusion:
End: Matthew 28:20 -- "And, Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age."
Begin: Matthew 1:23 -- "And they shall call his name, "Immanuel, which translated means, God is with us."
Matthew is describing for you the Gospel of Immanuel. Matthew is describing for you in a unique way, from a particular angle of vision, the Gospel of "God with us" in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, Matthew's Gospel ends where it begins on this theme of Immanuel "God with us" in the abiding Spiritual presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with his church. And this is the controlling theme and intent throughout Matthew's Gospel from the first verse to the very last (note Matthew 1:1 & 28:18-25).
By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Matthew, as you move through his Gospel, is developing for you the "Gospel of Immanuel."
In Matthew 11:20, Jesus says, "Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." You can come to Jesus now, because he never left.
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus proclaims that wonderful promise, "I will build my church." As Immanuel, he remains, and continues to build his church today!
In Matthew 18:20, again Jesus says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst." Christ is with us in church discipline. Christ, himself, presides over the courts of the church!
In Matthew 25:40, Jesus says, "And the king will answer and say to them, ÔTruly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.Õ" Christ continues with his servants of His Word that those who minister to them, minister to Christ himself!
Jesus as Immanuel, not only came into this world and condescended to become man to us in our time of sufferings and struggles, but he entered into those sufferings and struggles in the ultimate sense, in his death on the cross!
But, as Immanuel, "God with us," the Living Lord remains with us in our sufferings and struggles now!
Matthew concludes his Gospel account with Jesus' incredible promise: "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew ends his account here... with no mention of Jesus' ascension.
Is Matthew ignorant of the fact that Jesus ascended back up into heaven? No, of course not!
Matthew wants us, the NT church, to understand that the Risen Christ is Immanuel, "God with us."
As Immanuel, our Risen Lord never leaves us nor forsakes us!
The Risen Christ is present with you, His Church, by His Spirit through His Word!
So "Where should you worship?"
You should worship at a church where the three marks are manifest:
Where the Word of God is faithfully preached so that the Jesus Christ of Scripture is faithfully held forth. Where baptism and the Lord's supper are faithfully administered. Where church discipline is faithfully and lovingly exercised for the sake of Christ, our chief shepherd, and elder.
You should worship at a church that embraces the teachings of the Reformed Faith in keeping with the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ.
You should worship at a true church where Jesus is Immanuel "God with us."
Amen.
OPC