Sermon Audio
Sermon Text
Bob Lay
Ashe Alliance Church
November 30, 2026
Introduction
This is the first Sunday of Advent, and this is the season in the church calendar that prepares for the coming of Christ. Advent—you probably know—means “coming.” And, you know, the world has its calendar. I’m a retired college professor. As you can imagine, the calendar that I kept for so many years had to do with the beginning of the semester, midterms, the end of the semester, exams, summer break—what are we going to be doing? And, you know, that just kind of begins to shape your perspective on everything. You think about how much you can do: “I can do a lot more at the beginning of the semester, and toward the end of the semester, I don’t take on any extra projects. It’s like I’m out of steam or whatever.” The reality is, that’s just kind of a psychological outlook, but calendars do shape our outlook.
So this time of year, when we celebrate Advent—and for many churches it’s the only aspect of the historic church calendar that they look at—it’s important to be introduced to that again. The church calendar goes the whole year, and you can find readings out of the lectionary, the church reading calendar, and it will show you for every week of the year what those verses are, what season of the year it is, and it’s an opportunity to shape your perspective a little bit differently than all the things of the world’s calendar and so forth.
The Season of Advent and Signs
This first season of the church year, Advent—where we look for the coming of Christ—is a chance to pay attention to signs and inklings. During the Advent season, when we read Old Testament verses that are little inklings, little indications of a coming Messiah, we see examples like Genesis 3:15, called the Proto-Evangelion or the first gospel: “the seed of the woman will crush the serpent’s head.” That’s a little inkling pointing to what God’s going to do in the future. Those signs are important and that’s what we’re learning.
Today I want you to think about what signs you’re looking for and whether you’re reading the signs around you. I want to be very specific about what those signs are—you see the title of my sermon there—so you have some kind of inkling where that goes. Of all of those verses read during the Advent season, none is more well known than the Immanuel sign: Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” I know that’s probably very familiar to you. I want to look at that today, and I don’t want to just talk at you about it. In the New Testament citation—Matthew 1:22–23—and in the Old Testament—Isaiah 7:14—I want to open it up to you. You’ve got your Bibles handy. When we get there, I’ll open that up to you. That’s kind of my more “prophesial” style of preacher, but I hope you’ll see some things in those passages you haven’t seen before.
Signs in the World
Signs are important. We look for signs and mostly we just wonder what they mean. The world loves looking for signs: the index of leading economic indicators, consumer confidence—people look at that and it guides them, gives them an inkling about where the economy is going. Even a sports draft is a sign: NFL, Major League Baseball, WNBA—the draft picks signal where franchises and money are going. Midterm elections? People watch those as signs. Of course, we live in the mountains, so we have signs like “willyworms.” I don’t know how to read that. Out on the road in front of my house, you see willyworms with big thick black bands and some brown bands, sometimes skinny black ones between two brown ones. They tell me that means something. I don’t really know. Probably some of you could do that.
I had another interesting sign at my house in Zionville, North Carolina, right on the North Carolina–Tennessee border—over 3,000 feet up. Like everybody this year, we have a lot of deer. If I’m up in the morning about daybreak (or just before it’s light), I’ll look out a couple of windows where I have a good view. It’s still dark, so I wait a few minutes for the light to break. Then I begin to see shadows—deer in the yard. A while back, I saw a beautiful doe with a fawn earlier in the fall. This morning, I didn’t mean to look, but I passed by and was a little late—it was already starting. I saw a couple of big shadows. I looked out and there were not one but two big bucks, plus a doe. The two bucks were having a standoff—one chased the other up the hill, then back down, back up, back down—really interesting. One buck had six points, but two of the points shot out like daggers. I thought, “Boy, if they fight, that other one’s going to lose.” People who think about signs—some are very superstitious—see that and say, “Two bucks, and one with that point?” It’s a sign.
In the ancient world, people were very attuned to signs: stars in the sky, a bright light they hadn’t seen before, birds flying above. Ancient Romans paid close attention to those signs and made a big deal of them, though whether they told them anything useful is another question. Jesus himself talked about signs. In Matthew’s Gospel, the Pharisees and Sadducees came “to test Jesus and asked him to show them a sign from heaven.” Jesus answered, “When it’s evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” He made a distinction between ordinary observations in nature and “signs of the times.” They sought anything but what was right in front of them: Jesus, his miracles, his teaching, the coming kingdom of God. Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” What kind of sign is the sign of Jonah? Jonah was an Old Testament prophet, not a quick proof or card trick—they were looking for the wrong things.
The Sign of Immanuel: A New Testament Look (Matthew 1:18–25)
Having introduced the idea of signs, let’s look at the sign of Immanuel in the New Testament. Please open your Bibles to Matthew 1:18–25.
18 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.
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
20 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.
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22 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).
23 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
24 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Notice:
1. The passage opens with a clear description of the virgin birth: Mary was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
2. Joseph, “a just man,” considered how to handle Mary’s pregnancy. Under Jewish law, he was obliged to divorce her, but he didn’t want to shame her.
3. An angel appeared in a dream, commanding Joseph: do not fear to take Mary as your wife—child conceived by the Holy Spirit—and name him Jesus, “for he will save his people from their sins.”
4. In verse 22, Matthew stops to comment: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,” quoting Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive… and call his name Immanuel, which means God with us.”
5. Verse 24–25 resumes the story: Joseph obeyed, took Mary as his wife, and called the child Jesus. They never call him Immanuel— they call him Jesus.
Matthew’s point is that the sign is not only the virgin birth but the broader intervention of God: “God with us.” The sign is bigger, richer, more mysterious than a mere litmus test.
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The Sign of Immanuel: An Old Testament Look (Isaiah 7:1–14)
Now let’s go back to Isaiah 7, around 740 BC. Please turn to Isaiah chapter 7, verses 1–14. Notice the context:
Verses 1–9
In the days of King Ahaz of Judah (house of David), two enemy kings form an alliance against Judah. Isaiah encourages Ahaz not to fear: “It shall not stand, it shall not come to pass.” He tells Ahaz, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” This verse (7:9) gives us the Old Testament definition of faith: the Hebrew word ʾāman means “to be firm, to take a stand.” If you do not take your stand, you will not stand at all.
Verse 10
The Lord speaks to Ahaz again.
Verse 11
“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” God gives Israel the opportunity to choose a sign—unusual, since often God chooses the sign.
Verse 12
Ahaz refuses: “I will not ask, nor will I put the Lord to the test.”
Verse 13
Isaiah rebukes Ahaz: “You have wearied men, and shall you weary my God also?”
Verse 14
Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign:
“Behold, the virgin [Hebrew: ʿalmâ, ‘young woman’] shall conceive and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel.”
A few observations:
– The sign appears in a moment of crisis, when the king was unwilling to trust God.
– God’s sign to Ahaz involved a young woman known to Ahaz and Isaiah—either Ahaz’s wife or Isaiah’s wife, scholars suggest—who would bear a son and name him Emmanuel.
– This name is not a personal name but a description: Hebrew has the preposition ʿim (“with”) fused with the divine title El (“God”), yielding Immanu-El: “God with us.”
– The Greek translators (the Septuagint) rendered ʿalmâ as parthenos, “virgin.” Matthew quotes that Greek text exactly.
Thus, in Isaiah’s day, God provided a sign that pointed directly to his presence with his people—and, centuries later, Matthew shows its fulfillment in Christ Jesus.
The Nature of Faith
In Isaiah 7:9, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all,” we see a vivid Hebrew word-picture: faith (ʾāman) means “to take a stand.” Jesus, in Luke 18’s parable of the unjust judge, says, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Faith is not a vague “just believe”—it’s a firm stance on the promises of God.
Application: What Signs Do We Seek?
The world’s signs—economic indicators, political outcomes, sports drafts, weather patterns—come and go, subtly shaping our outlook. If those are the signs we lean on, we’ll be disappointed. Instead, we should follow the church calendar, pay attention to Advent’s biblical signs, and take our stand on the Emmanuel sign: God came in the flesh—God with us in Christ—and will come again.
Stand firm in that promise. “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Let us be among those who keep their lamps trimmed and filled with oil, eyes fixed on the true signs of God’s presence.
Conclusion and Prayer
Lord, we’re so grateful that you never left yourself without a witness. Throughout the centuries, you spoke to your people—even to the disobedient—and provided signs, portents. Help us today, Lord, to be on the lookout for your second coming. Help us to be like those wise virgins who kept their lamps trimmed and oil in their lamps. Give us eyes for you alone in a time when so many other things demand our attention. We ask all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.