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I'm going to start by talking about names.  Now many of you would be familiar with my name, Jason.  Some of you call me, Jason, Pastor Jason, PJ for short and, but I think not many of you would know my Chinese name.  My Chinese name - I, I might have said a few times but for Punggol residents who may not know, it's “Lin Jin Yuan” [林金源]. Oh you all laugh because it's, it's quite a funny name in a sense, because it speaks about how I am the source of gold.  I'm the origin of gold.  I'm the rich man, alright, that's what, maybe, my parents wanted or hope for but another thing funny about my name is that the word “Yuan” [源] which mean source in Chinese can also be the same sound as the word “round” in Chinese “Yuan” [圆] and it didn't help that I was a fat boy growing up. I was overweight, I was fat.  I was an honorary member of the TAF club.  For those who are young, you may not know what it is but in my days of growing up, TAF club is the Trim and Fit club, the fatties la and every week, got to go to exercise so and so and I was one of the members there so my friends will look at my name, look at my shape and say you're the roly-poly, the round one and so, since young, I have learned the importance of having a good name, a carefully chosen name that will not be laughed at and I found that there are actually many examples of names that are rather unfortunate, for example, I, I read that someone said - in my dental school, we had a Doctor Filler and a Doctor Hurt.  Well, coincidental and funny and then you have others who say - I had a dentist called Doctor Paine, not a very popular dentist I would suggest, or I, my current dentist is Doctor Chew and it may happen here in Singapore.

Then I found screen grabs of some names that are quite interesting - for example, someone whose name is called Park Jurassic or Jurassic Park.  I mean that's just an unfortunate name or how about this guy - Sam Sung or Samsung who works for Apple. I mean this is just bad.  They say alright, these are all foreign people, not so Singaporean.   Singaporean got funny names or not?  Ya, I think so.  Nelson Tan, you say what's so funny about Nelson Tan?  It sounds fine what but that's the problem in Singapore, we have so many languages and Nelson Tan in the English can be read Nelson Tan [鸟生蛋] or “bird laying eggs”.  Now if there is a Nelson Tan here, please, this is not targeted against you and this is just what I found on the web alright.  Er I made fun of my own name.  Er how about the other one called Michael Tan.   Aiyah [local slang: wow/sigh] so fast you all, these are the naughty boys uh, ya, it's “Mai Kai Tan” [买鸡蛋] or selling eggs in Cantonese.   Last one, Paul Chan - aiyo [local slang: wow] all of you so fast - “Por Chan” [破产] so not an auspicious name, I would suppose so we all know the importance of names right - you don't want to be laughed at.

Now in the Bible, there's additional reason why your name should be very highly regarded or chosen.  For example, uh there's a man called Abram, we all know him, uh subsequently, he has his name changed, but Abram, the name means high father so he's probably a rich, influential, respected man, that's, that's his name, it fits him - high father but one day Abram came to know God and God subsequently changed his name. From Abram and it is changed to Abraham and Abraham means father of many people or father of a multitude. You see God promised Abraham - in your seed, in your descendants, shall all nations be blessed - so he will become a father of a multitude and so God said - I'm going to change your name to reflect who you are.  Names are important. How about this young boy, when he was born into this world, his name is called Jacob, why - because when he was born, his twin brother came out ahead of him, he was not happy even though he was a newborn and he would grab his elder brother's heel and want to pull him back and that defined Jacob's character for the rest of his life, I think, or not for the rest of his life, at least until he came to know God.  Jacob wanted to trip up his own brother Esau and cheat him of his birthright. That's the character of Jacob, so heel grabber, very appropriate but one day he met with God. God met with him and God changed his name, from now onwards he will no more be called the heel grabber, but you'll be called Israel, which means, various ways to look at it, some people say - the prince who prevails and so on but most would say he would be called the prince of God.  Israel is the prince of God. Jacob, you're no more this heel grabbing guy, but you will be the prince who prevails the prince of God so names are important and that's what I realise when I have my two sons.  I thought quite a bit about giving them names, first of all the Christian names or the “angmoh” [literally means red-haired, a racial epithet describing white people] names and then the Chinese names, both have to be carefully considered.

Now how about God? When His Son is to be born into this world, what name will the God of the heavens give to His Son?  I mean it's important to me.  I think it must be important to God so the name that God is going to give to His Son, our King, will be something worth our consideration today. So today, in our second sermon in Revelation of the King presenting who He is, we are going to move from just His, not just His ancestry, we're going to look at His arrival, His birth, His advent and we're just going to focus on one thing, His names.  There're many details about His birth but just for today, we're going to look at the names given to the Son and it's all found in verses 18 to 25 in chapter 1 - when it reads now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother Mary had been betrothed and engaged to Joseph, before they came together before they had any intimacy, she was already found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.   This is a very important verse because it tells us Je, Jesus Christ God's Son is born of a virgin.  She does not have Joseph as his biological father. Now that's important because anyone who was an offspring of a man and a woman will inherit sin - original sin from Adam and Eve. He is born a sinner, but Jesus, He is not born with a biological father. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is sinless so that the sinless Son of God could save sinners so this is important, an important doctrine in the history of the Church so this is a supernatural pregnancy and Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly - let this rest because he must have thought, if she's pregnant she must be pregnant with another man's child so let's call this wedding off, I, I don't want her to be stoned to death, I don't want to be made a joke, but let's call this off, settle this quietly, but then, the Bible tells us, as he thought about these things, 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 was not adulterous, she was not immoral, this is something the world has never seen - the Holy Spirit is the one who has done this.  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 has 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, no sexual intimacy, until she had given birth to a Son and he called His name Jesus so here we see some names or titles of this King who is born into this world, the Son of God who is born into this world and today, the sermon is just going to focus on three names, alright, three words so if you're new with us, I think this is going to be easy to follow so I hope this will be an encouragement for you to keep listening on.

The first name I like to mention, I think is the most obvious, probably the most popular name known of the Son of God, it is the name?  Wow - you all so hesitant like not sure whether it's the most popular?  The most popular name, the most commonly known name is? Jesus! Absolutely! Now what is the meaning of the word Jesus? We are told in verse 21, she will bear a son and you shall call His name Jesus. So Joseph and Mary did not have to be like me, hey, what to call uh…  the big one, the first one come out, wow very important,  don't know what to call His name, they didn't have that problem.  It was told to them - you shall call your son, Jesus.  No need to ultrasound also, sure boy - sure son and uh I tell you what name you should give- Jesus, but why Jesus?

What's the meaning of Jesus? Jesus is a Greek name, alright, it's a Greek name and this Greek name is a translation from a Hebrew name. The Jews, they are Hebrew people and the Hebrew name is the name Joshua, very good - Yeshua.  You may say it in Hebrew so what is the meaning of Yeshua?  Well, Yeshua is a combination word.   It's a combination of two words - Yeshua and Yasha and Yeshua is a, is, is a combination of Jehovah or/and Yasha.   Jehovah and Yasha, combination, Jehovah is the name of God, Jehovah, Yasha Jehovah is God, Yasha is Jesus, no, no, no, no, Yasha is save. So Jesus is Joshua, which is God saves - that's really what His name means.  It's simple as that - Jehovah saves or Jehovah is Saviour.  Jehovah is salvation, that's what it means, God saves and the Jews understood that they wanted Jesus to save them. They wanted Jesus to be their Saviour but they wanted Jesus to save them from the Romans - they wanted Jesus to save them politically.  They wanted Jesus to save them socially, save them economically because in those days, the Jews, the nation of Israel, they were not a free country.  They were a country under subjugation. The Romans were ruling over them.  Caesar was their king and they have to pay taxes to Caesar.  They didn't like it. So when Jesus came along, they wanted Jesus to save them from the Romans.  They expected Jesus to be the King who will fight for them, rebel against the Roman Empire, overthrow this oppression, maybe a little bit like King David would have fought, but you know Jesus didn't fight.

If you read the Bible, Jesus didn't kill anyone, so He was going to be a King but not a King by killing anyone but He's going to be a King who will die without killing anyone.  In fact the Bible tells us on the surface - He looked like a sad man, lived a relatively good life, did many, many miracles but was in a sense so hopeless and helpless as He hangs there on the tree. He died but you see, the Bible tells us, Jesus is the King because when He went to the Cross and even though He died, He died for a purpose.  He died for our sins so this King is not a King who will be enthroned by killing someone but He is a King because He is going to die for us.  He is not a King by slaying but He's s a king by sacrificing.  He's not a King who will deliver us politically, socially, economically, at least not in His first coming, but is here to be our King, spiritually to save us from our sins. That's what the angel was telling Joseph, she will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus.  God saves.  God saves Israel from the Romans? No, He is called “God saves” because He will save His people from their sins. That's why He will go to the Cross to die. That's why He is not going to kill anyone. That's why He is not going to fight because here He is to lay down His life to save us from our sins, to bring us back to God.

Many people don't understand this.  Even up to today, many people think you come to church.  You worship Jesus so that He will give you a good life now. You want a political saviour, you want an economic Saviour, you want a social Saviour but no, but He is a spiritual Saviour who will save us from our sins, to bring us back to God. No wonder Jesus when He was alive, He said My kingdom is not of this world, you got it wrong. You wanted me to be to be a political King but I'm not here to be that political King.  My, if my kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting but I'm not here to fight, I'm here to preach good news, I'm here to die to save you from your sins so instead of a conquering King in His first coming, the Bible tells us, He's going to be suffering King, it's all prophesied, it's all said in the Bible, hundreds of years before, some 700 years before, in Isaiah 53, God has already said - this Saviour, He will be despised, rejected, a man of sorrow.  So He is not going to come in His pomp and His pride the first time. It's that Zechariah tells us Jesus will come on a donkey. I mean which King wants to ride a donkey? I mean it's almost like a dignitary, maybe the US president come to Singapore and we give him a “lau pot chia” [hokkien: old, broken down car] pot, pot, pot, pot, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it must be a BM, it must be a Mercedes, Rolls-Royce, fitting for a majestic King but Jesus didn't come in a stallion or warhorse nor even sit in a tank.  He came on a donkey because He's here to lay down His life for His people. This is our King.  Jesus came to save sinners from their sins.

This morning I want to tell you this good news.  You may not really appreciate this good news, you, you, you hope that from this pulpit you, you hope that from this stage, people will tell you about how you can believe in Jesus and all your problems will be solved.  You long for people to tell you how you believe in Jesus and all your sicknesses will be taken away but I'm here to tell you there is much better news than these things. There's a Saviour who will save you from your sin and give you eternal life and a relationship with God, even if you suffer in this life, the life that is to come is extremely blessed because you know God. Many people don't get this, even the people in Jesus' times.

A story goes that Jesus did an amazing miracle from five loaves and two fishes - He fed thousands of people - you say five loaves sounds like a lot, like Gardenia [local brand of bread] loaves - actually the five loaves are more like five pieces of chepati [Indian pancake] or five pieces of roti prata [Indian pancake] , whatever you want to put it.  It's, it's just round flat bread.  Five pieces of bread, two fishes and Jesus fed five thousand men.  I mean if you add the women and children, probably 10,000 or so, I don't know but thousands of people and you say no, maybe everybody just take a bit like the Lord's supper - a bit, a bit, no, because the Bible tells us after they had distributed the fragments, they gathered them all, all up the leftover and it was 12 baskets full so undeniably Jesus did an amazing miracle.

All four Gospel writers recorded it, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and John tells us, when Jesus did this amazing miracle, you can see the picture wow, they must be cheering, they must be excited. What a miracle worker - nothing like this has ever been done so when the people saw the sign, they said this is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world, ah, our Saviour is here, let's go and make him King.  Why - so that Jesus would deliver them from the Roman Empire.  Arrgh…we have this guy who can conquer Caesar now.  Oh, we will have victory but Jesus knew their heart and Jesus didn't want to have any part to do with this political overhaul so He withdrew Himself but the people “buay gum guan” - we say in Hokkien, not happy - they said wa, how can He run away from us?  We must follow Him some more and so they follow Him until the next day and Jesus then began to explain - truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, you come to Me, you, you follow Me why - not because you saw signs, not because these signs point you to who I really am but you come to Me because you ate your fill of the loaves. You came for the loti [local: bread], you came for the chepati, you came for the food, you came for the physical but don't labor for the food that perishes. You came for that which perish but don't labor for that which perish but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

Let me make this clear.  Jesus is saying, let Me make this crystal clear, thousands of people will come to Me for bread but I'm here to give eternal life, forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God.  This is what I'll give.  He went on to speak further of how you can receive this.  He said something quite shocking - you must eat My flesh and drink My blood.  He's not actually telling you to do cannibalism of course but He's saying - you must personally receive Me into your life not about bread that perishes but about eternal life.  You must receive Me into your life so when He made this crystal clear, the Bible tells us after this, many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.  Thousands of people came because of the bread and when He says - I'm not about giving physical bread, I'm here to save you, I'm here to give you eternal life - when they heard that, they turned and did not want to follow Him.

Have you ever wondered why people will come to church, claim to believe and then leave because maybe you came for something that Jesus never promised them they will receive and when they were disenchanted, disillusioned, arrggh…this God is not worth my following, they leave.  No wonder Jesus tells us that there're people who will leave the faith when tribulation, that is pain and suffering and difficulties and persecution arises because they are like that seed that has fallen on to shallow ground, no real roots, looks good in the beginning but when the sun of affliction and pain comes and shines because it has no root, it dies, it withers away.

The Son of God is called Jesus, because He will save us and we have to be clear what He came to save us from. He came to save us from our sins and to save us back to God. Jesus went to the Cross to bear our sins in His body.  If Jesus is here to give you money and an easy life, let me tell you, He didn't need to die.  Why did He die - because of our sins!  Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.  God's holy justice against evil, wickedness and sin can only be satisfied with the death of a righteous life because there is none righteous in this world, we are all damned in our sins so the Son of God is the only one who can be born into this world to die for us and that's why He came and that's why the angel say - you shall call His name Jesus, God saves, for He shall save His people from their sins.

MacArthur, he says - a Gospel that does not confront sin is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today, the word Gospel is heard in many corners of the world, all we preach the Gospel, all we preach the Gospel, great that at least that's the awareness that we need the Gospel, but it's not the Gospel if you just say, believe in Jesus.  It's not enough, why - because people do not know why they need to believe in Jesus.  A Gospel that does not inform people, reveal to people about their deep problem of sin is not a proper Gospel. I mean if I were to say - come to see the doctor but the doctor doesn't tell you what your disease is, you're not going to come to the doctor.  Sin is that deep problem people need to grasp. I feel that today as a church, one of the ways you, to me alright, at least to me, how do I know if this church is biblical, is faithful to the teaching of Scripture. I think it's a very, one of the tests, not the, the only test but one of the things I look for is do they faithfully teach about the problem of sin or do they avoid it because they think this is politically not very wise, this is very offensive to people so if I want to have more people, don't talk so much about negative things like sin but talk about how you can have a positive attitude to life. When I hear that I, I'm disturbed because you're just covering or you just sort of a making a surface help, giving surface help to people, when their deep problem is a problem of sin so are we compromising - my friends, maybe you are sharing the Gospel with someone and you want to be faithful to God, you want to lead that person to Christ but you are afraid of telling him about sin so you just tell him come believe Jesus, believe Jesus “ho huh” [hokkien: good] “xin Yaso jin ho” [hokkien: believe Jesus very good] come, come believe, believe, just keep saying believe, believe, believe, believe, believe, believe, believe and after a while,  they say ok la, believe la [local slang].  Seriously, there are people like that, right?  Hey come la, believe Jesus very good, believe, believe, come to church, you're Christian and their whole entire life, maybe this lie that they have spun for themselves oooorrrr ..if I come to Jesus I'll get all that I want without realising that their deepest problem is a problem of sin.

It's amazing when I read about urh, urh the most popular sermon or one of the most well-known sermons - sinners in the hands of an angry God, Jonathan Edwards.  Besides the Sermon on the Mount, I think this title is probably the most famous sermon title I heard and Jonathan Edwards was preaching about wrath of God.  Again sin and yet that sermon is greatly used by God to save many people. You say it's negative, no, it's not negative, it's necessary, now of course, let's not be unbalanced and keep telling people you're a sinner, you're condemned, you're going to hell and then you don't tell them about Jesus, that's terrible but don't tell them about Jesus, without telling them about sin.

Let me apply this to parenting alright, I, I don't have much time but let me just say this, uh it's so important to share the Gospel with your children to tell them about the love of God in Jesus Christ, important!  No questions, but many times we teach our children believe in Jesus, believe in Jesus, believe in Jesus but they do not know why they really need to believe in Jesus and add to that, a lot of times our child training, our discipline of kids is to change their behaviour so for example if your child is very rebellious, very naughty, you say - you're a naughty boy, you're a naughty girl, you did this wrong and I'm going to cane you, don't ever do that again – correct?  That's what happens, right - you're naughty, I spank you, don't do that again. The next time it happens, you do the same thing, you're naughty, I spank you, don't do that again. After a while I think if you are consistent in that, your child would know - I cannot do that - so what have you successfully done? You've successfully changed his behaviour. Great but is that really great? No, because his heart is still the same. He has only learn how to not manifest it, whereas I think biblically, the Bible tells us to train up our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord - we are to direct our children to God, to Christ.  I, I think parenting is about shepherding a child's heart borrowing a title from Tedd Tripp - it's about shepherding a child's heart, to direct your children to someone, to somewhere, to Jesus Christ. You say how do you do that? In discipline, I think, this is, ok this at least what we do in my family. Shawn,  Matthias - if they're naughty, rebellious, they cross the line, we will have to bring them somewhere for this encounter – ok this is the encounter, so bring to the encounter, either to a room, private corner, we sit down and we say, Shawn, Matthias - what you did is wrong, do you know that?  Yes. What did you do wrong, so they tell me what they did wrong and I'll ask him - why did you do that?  After so many years they'll tell me because I am sinful.   Serious, serious - they'll say because I am sinful – why - because every time we tell them why you do this – you do wrong - I will tell them – you, you sin, you disobeyed because you are a sinner, Shawn, you would disobey and you do this wrong thing because your heart is sinful. So every time they do something wrong, they are reminded about their behaviour springs from the heart and their heart is inherently sinful.  Then I will proceed to tell them because your heart is sinful, you need God to change your heart.  You need to repent of your sin and believe in Jesus for the new heart.  You need to be saved. Do you see your sin?  Do you see the problem in your life? You need Jesus and Shawn, Matthias, papa would have to cane you to remind you of the problem of sin so they'll do a dance now, don't want, don't want, don't want, don't want, don't want, they dance around, very pain, argue, can I not, 3, 2 urh…it's an ongoing thing and after the dance is over, we will cane them on their buttocks and then they will cry and then I'll say come, papa hug…! Eh wa you so fierce just now then you hug him huh… No I will explain to them, Shawn - why did papa cane you - because you love me!  I say Shawn you're absolutely right. I cane you not because I hate you but because I love you, hug them and then pray. Lord, please help Shawn, Matthias repent of their sin, believe in Jesus for a new heart. Humble them that they may repent and believe, save them at an early age and then the encounter is done.  I repeat this encounter for many times over and over and over I almost, think, say the same things urh, broken recorder as I said, but I have also said to you, these things need to be done over and over again for them to really get it.

I think there's nothing wrong with repeating this because in the Bible, Old Testament, God is very good at repetition. If you look at the temple worship, day after day, morning and evening always the same ritual,  animal sacrifice, blood spurting all over the place. Why - because God wants it to be a perpetual visual reminder of sin and what it deserves and to remind them that there will be a coming Saviour over, over 365 days a year, and so I say if I have to do that encounter over and over again with my son. Thank God for that, because when he's older, I may never have the opportunity again. So when he's young, I present them the Gospel but I do not present the Gospel without, without bite because the Gospel is never going to be appreciated until you realise the problem of sin.  The Gospel that does not confront sin is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I, I saw this and I know it's not very er…. clear but let me read this to you, is just on social media and I thought it's appropriate - DA Carson, he says, the more clearly we see sin's horror, the more we shall treasure the Cross. Why do people despise the Cross - very simple reason, they don't see the horror of their sin. They don't see how big that spiritual cancer is in their lives.  When you realise how massive the problem of sin is, you will be absolutely grateful to what Jesus did on the Cross.  You see, there is no Gospel if there is no sin. There is no understanding of the Gospel if there is no  appreciation of sin so I think this name is the most appropriate one, the angel of the Lord was absolutely right when he says call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

This morning I pray you will be saved from your sins. Very quickly let me move on to name number two.  The second name is not so much a name but a title and the title is a second word that you use most for the Son of God, Jesus and Christ - excellent it's more a title. The word Christ is the word Christos in the Greek which is a translation from the Hebrew word Messiah.  Verse 18 - now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way - the word Christ is a Greek translation of the word Messiah and these two words, Greek, Hebrew really mean the same thing, which means to be anointed, anointed mean someone takes oil and pours it over you.  You're anointed with oil, you're anointed, you are poured over with oil, this is a custom, a practice for the selection or the confirmation of priests and for the confirmation of kings in the Jewish culture. How do you know this guy's going to be the priest of God? How do you know he is going to be the king of Israel? Well, when there is a proper anointing that takes place so you remember that David was appointed King of Israel by Samuel when he was anointed. So the word Christ means anointed. Jesus, this is a little bit forecast of what we're going to look at chapter 3 - Jesus was anointed in chapter 3, not with oil but with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in Matthew chapter 3. He was anointed as King so Peter also understood this later on in Matthew 16 - You are the Christ, You are the Messiah, You are the anointed one, You are the chosen one!   Chosen to do what?  He's the one chosen to crush the serpent's head, to defeat sin and death, devil hell. He's the one who is chosen to bless all nations, when God spoke to Abraham, He's the one chosen to be the King that sits on David's throne forever. Matthew declares the chosen one, the good news that Jesus Christ is the promised King.

Now some of us may think, oh well I'm not surprised, God chose Jesus, because God first had Abraham, cannot make it.  Moses cannot make it.  David cannot make it.  Elijah cannot make it.  Everyone cannot make it, so now “bobian” [hokkien: no choice] call His Son now la, the last resort la. You know how it is right? You send your lousy troops first, after all the lousy troops cannot, then te-te, the master comes out,  we think that's the case but no, it's not like this, Jesus is not last resort. Jesus has always been plan A!  God doesn't have plan B because His plan always comes to fruition so the Bible tells us Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world. He was the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. It has always been Jesus. He's not a knee-jerk reaction. He is the predetermined counsel of God. He reviews the sovereign power of God and I say to you, therefore Christ is the chosen one. In fact, I say He is the only one. There is no name given under heaven whereby man may be saved. The Bible says, Jesus Himself said of Himself, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me because I am the Christ - I am the anointed one!   This morning, this is therefore a very important message, because if you hear this name Jesus and you refuse to believe in this Jesus, there's no one else who can save you from your sins. God has appointed only one.

Final name I want to speak of is the name - Immanuel. The Bible says all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet - behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.  This is a prophecy made in Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah, chapter 7 verse 14, some 700 years ago and Matthew is very religious, very careful to say - this Jesus is the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy as I've mentioned to you, Matthew is writing to the Jews and repeatedly, he keeps on saying, it is fulfilled, it is fulfilled, it is fulfilled so that all would know for sure that Jesus is the Christ so prophecy made 700 years ago that says - behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel. Now what's the meaning of the word Immanuel? How come you so smart?  How come you know? I thought this is Greek. Ah… you know because the Bible tells us so, which means, God with us. Simple principle of reading the Bible - let the Bible explains itself, just be a bit more patient, read before, read after, usually the answer can be found so Immanuel means, God with us and this is good news, this is great news.

Many song writers write about this. For example, can you think of some songs that have the name Immanuel? Oh come, oh come, Immanuel, good, Joshua, song leader must know.  Well, there, there are two songs that I want to share with you.  One is this song - you don't recognise what this is, 1,2,3,  what's the song?  Wa very good, this Joshua, this song leader, extraordinaire.  OK - Hark the herald angels sing, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel so hark, listen, the Herald angels sing, glory to the newborn King. It's, it's a song of joy. Another song - old little town of Bethlehem - the last statement - we hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell, O come to us, abide with us our Lord, Emmanuel”.   I want to end with this song because it says great glad tidings tell Emmanuel. Glad tidings!  What, what does glad tidings mean? Happy news, glad right, happy news, very similar to Gospel, good news so I went by this church once, church building, once I, I know some of the leaders in this church, I walked by and actually visited them for a while and then I walked out, I, I notice the building looks like this - Glad Tidings Church and on the building itself - Immanuel God with us.

What is the happy news we have today? What is the happy news – water price dropped 30% again, oh no, no, no, no, no, some of you may be happy but the great glad tidings tell is that Jesus is Immanuel -God is with us.  Why so happy if God is with us?  Two reasons I find in Hebrews 2, number one, if Jesus is now man, Jesus is flesh and blood, then the Bible tells us, we have a merciful and faithful high priest who is not untouched with all our struggles and sorrows - He feels us, He understands us, He empathises with us so He's our perfect, compassionate, merciful and faithful high priest. This is the Jesus we have in our lives. God is not unaware of your struggles and struggles and pains, but you can come to this Great High Priest. The second reason is this, again in Hebrews chapter 2 that He having partook of the same things of flesh and blood can now through death, destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.  How is Jesus going to crush the serpent's head?  How is Jesus going to bless the nations?  How is He going to save us from our sin and death and hell – well, He is going to be made man so that He may die and through death, destroy the works of the evil one!  Amazing, go right to death to save us and so today, you and I have a merciful high priest, you and I is delivered from the devil and death and hell because Immanuel, God with us, great glad tidings we tell.

My friends, this speaks of the amazing grace and humility of Christ.  He is equal with the Father. Philippians 2 would tell us - but He made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, He humbled himself.  He left heaven's glory to be in this sin-filled world, this dirty messy world, that's our Jesus.  A couple of weeks ago, I was with my wife.  We decided to have a lunch date. Very rarely do we have a time to have lunch - she works, I'm somewhere else, and so we, we finally decided to have lunch one day and the, we chose an interesting restaurant in Little India.  I mean we're used to Jap, Western food, so we wanted to try something different so we went to Little India to an Indian restaurant. We went in and woah, the aroma of Indian spices was strong.  It hit us then there's Indian music all over and there were Indians all around us and we ordered of course, Indian food, although there was Chinese food option too so as we were eating this wonderful meal in this Indian heavy atmosphere, a thought came to me and I, then I ask my wife – Winnie, if God calls us from Singapore to India, would you go? Straight away we know what we're talking about because we say go India not go to the palace, or go to the Delhi or Bombay la but, but, go to, go to poorer villages urh that mental image both of us have is the Ganges River, you know how people will “bang-sai bang-jio” [hokkien: pee and bowels] or, or people who would do everything there – they'll wash their plates, wash their clothes, they will swim there, you know that, that picture?  Please, please don't get me wrong.  I'm not looking down at any country, culture, urh I'm just saying that, that's a different way of life – there are many happy people there, nothing wrong with that, but for me personally, it's, it's quite a stretch to think of living there but in my heart I said, I wanted to ask my wife just in case God really does call us there and I want to find out if she's willing to go. I ask her, are you willing to go because in my heart, I say no question if God really calls us, I'm going.  She says yes, I'm willing to go, after a few seconds, she said, provided there's a clean, source of water. I mean I can understand, okay, maybe we, we just fly in bottles of mineral water, I don't know what la but you see we, we struggled thinking about living in a physically less clean environment as we would have estimated it but God's Son left heaven to be with us. You see, we are so used to sin, we don't see how dirty this is anymore, do you realise that? We think it's okay, we think it's fine but can you imagine what it was like for the Son of God? I mean we think we can make a big deal about Him being a carpenter's son, wa like very “chum” [hokkien: pitiful] but actually the real struggle is to be living amidst the people full of sin. Now, He remained pure, He remained untainted with sin but it, it brings me to remember the amazing love, grace and humility of our Saviour and why did He do all that?  Why would He suffer as such?  Why would He empty Himself?  Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. Adam and Eve messed it up. We all messed up but in Jesus Christ, you can have a new life, you can be born again, you can know God who made you. So the Son of God became a man, so that man can become the sons of God.

Today I preach not myself, but I rejoice in the great and good Saviour.  This is my King.  He's won my heart on the Cross and today, I pray you will come to believe this King, my King and may He also be your King. Why should He be King because He's called Jesus!  He will save you from your sins.  Why should you believe this King, because He's the only one, the anointed one, the Christ, the chosen one!  Why should I believe this King, because He's Immanuel, God who came for us!

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. This morning I pray you will come to my King and let Him also be your King.  Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die. My friends your sin is going to damn you to hell, do know that?  We don't like to hear these words, but it is real, it's in the Bible. Your sins will damn you to hell. You will be punished and you will suffer for all eternity in the fires of hell. No one wants to be there even for a second but you will be there for all eternity because we sin against an infinitely holy and majestic God. That's why the Son of Man came to be Immanuel!   He is the Christ chosen before the foundation of the world that He may die for your sins to save you from your sins.

This morning, would you humble yourself, would you repent and believe in this one and only Saviour for your own soul's sake?  Will you listen to this and would you think about this and would you respond to God in this - repent and believe in Jesus Christ because there is really no one else who can save you. I urge you with all my heart; come to the King before it is too late because one day, the Bible tells us, He's coming back and this time, He's going to receive those who believe to Himself and He will pour out His wrath against those who don't.  He's no more coming in a donkey.  He's coming as judge.

Today is the day you can choose to repent and believe. Please do so the best you know how, right here, right now on your seat, I urge you, look at your sin, your disease that no one can cure, except Jesus.  Turn to your Saviour today.  Some of you are going through hardships and difficulties I want to say to you, remember the great glad tidings.  Sometimes you're so absorbed in our temporal sorrows, great as it may be but we forget that there's a greater joy that will swallow up that sorrow, greater joy found in Jesus Christ.  There's a glorious hope awaiting you, hope of eternal life of everlasting bliss, communion unhindered with God forevermore.  Maybe today you need to pray because you have forgotten you've a merciful High Priest who knows you and feels for you.  Behold my King, believe Him, serve Him, come to Him.

Father, would you bless each one here this morning with Your word. I pray Jesus will be King of every heart this morning.   Thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit.  We pray this now in Jesus' name, amen.

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