Immanuel

Last week we studied how Joseph faced this first Christmas

His and Mary’s long journey to Bethlehem

I know you can see them in your mind

Two very simple ordinary people

Just think of all the people they met along the way

People that all they seen was a young pregnant couple

Not knowing that this woman carried the Christ

Mary must have struggled with great doubt along this journey

How can I be the one

How can I be the mother of the Son of God

How can I raise the one that will literally raise me

But she showed great faith

In the angel

In her fiancée

In her God

Many people missed out on that first Christmas

Not even knowing it was taking place

But Mary was fully focused on her task

And when the time came

She, forced to birth her firstborn son in a filthy barn

The only company she had was her fiancée and some cows and sheep

And finally it was done

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

And as they counted his fingers and toes

And as she held him close and looked into his beautiful face

They probably laughed together and cried together

Joseph and Mary

But most of all they worshiped

Because they knew who this child was

They didn’t miss the first Christmas

How could they?

They knew why they were there

They knew what this first Christmas was truly about

About a Savior, the King, Christ child coming to this earth

To save the world from their sins

Because Mary thought back to those words

The words that not only changed her life forever

But changed the world

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means “God with us”

Immanuel - “God with us”.

If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words these would be the words

Sometimes we lose our focus and almost miss Christmas

We tend to focus our attention at Christmas on the infancy of Christ

But the greater truth of the holiday is His deity.

He is the omnipotent all powerful Creator of the heavens and the earth!

He was infinitely rich, but became poor

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

So tonight lets look at Immanuel GOD WITH US

I. God

Creator John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

Christ was not only the heir of creation;

He was also in the beginning the divine agent of creation.

The Person of the Trinity through whom the world was made and for whom it was fashioned.

Think of what that means

A hollow ball the size of our sun would hold about one million earth sized planets.

The brightest star in our sky Sirius Canis Major, is twice the size of our sun.

Arcturus is more than 23 times larger than our sun.

Betelguese, one of the stars visible in the constellation Orion is about 300 times larger then our sun.

No wonder Job expressed his awe of God this way in Job 9:2,9 “How should man be just with God? Which maketh Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.”

Job is naming constellations and is in great awe of the handiwork and power of Almighty God Jesus Christ.

So how big is this universe that Jesus, 100% God created?

A ray of light travels at 186,000 miles per second.

It takes 8 ½ minutes for light from the sun to reach us.

That is 93 million miles away from earth

If you could travel that fast you could reach

The moon in a second and a half

Mars in 4 ½ minutes

Jupiter in 35 minutes

Pluto in 5 hours 20 minutes

Alpha Centauri the closest star in 4 years 4 months

Sirius 8 ½ years

Arcturus 37 years

Betelgeuse about 522 years

The size of the universe is incomprehensible.

The baby in Bethlehem made all of it. He created everything.

But we all know that

God didn’t make everything, wind it up like a clock and go away. Without Him the world would fall apart.

He didn’t desert His creation.

He stepped into it as a little infant with only a manger for His cradle.

You may wonder things like did he cry