Title: God With Us
Theme:
Text: Matthew 1:18-23
Read that last verse, 23, with me
Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Now let them words just resonate in your spirit. What do they mean? Can you feel the overwhelming power in those words. Close your eyes, let your mind attempt to imagine what they mean.
Introduction
Wow! What a statement. Does that statement touch you the way it touches me? I don’t think our minds can truly comprehend what the statement “God with us” means.
The almighty, all holy, all powerful, immencience, omnipotent God came down with us. He walked amoung us, not only did he walk amoung us but he also became one of us. Born as we are born, lived as we lived, tempted as we are tempted.
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
He became us so that he could be like us. He could feel as we feel. He could be tempted as we are tempted. He could overcome as we can overcome.
Oh what an amazing Revelation.
Isaiah understood it this way:
First speaking of the kind of birth Is 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14 AV)
Jesus born of a virgin. His mode of birth is just as important as his birth. For if he was not a virgin he could not offer forgiveness of sins. For if he was not born of a virgin then God could not be called His father. Oh let us never make light of the virgin birth it is one of our cardinal doctrines.
Next speaking of the power Is 9:6
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, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 AV)
There has never been a greater event.
John’s version
John who actually begins his Gospel before the birth of Christ wrote this about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Turn with me to John chapter 1
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
God became flesh. Jesus who has always been lowered himself to become man. As can see from the description in scripture Jesus continues to be what he became.
Human’s Perspective
Maybe it could be illustrated better with a human illustration. Told yearly by Paul Harvey I wanted to read it this year instead of attempting to tell it to you from memory.
The Sparrows
ONE RAW WINTER NIGHT a man heard an irregular thumping sound against the kitchen storm door. He went to a window and watched as tiny, shivering sparrows, attracted to the evident warmth inside, beat in vain against the glass.
Touched, the farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights, tossed some hay in a corner, and sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them to the barn. But the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house, still hid in the darkness, afraid of him. He tried various tactics: circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing cracker crumbs in the air toward them, retreating to his house to see if they’d flutter into the barn on their own. Nothing worked. He, a huge alien creature, had terrified them; the birds could not understand that he actually desired to help.
He withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window. As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky: If only I could become a bird--one of them--just for a moment. Then I wouldn’t frighten them. I could show them the way to warmth and safety. At the same moment, another thought dawned on him. He grasped the whole principle of the Incarnation.
A man’s becoming a bird is nothing compared to God’s becoming a man. The concept of a sovereign being as big as the universe He created, confining Himself to human body was--and is--too much for some people to believe.
--Paul Harvey
How fearful we must be looked upon by the birds and the animals. Most that is.
So has it hit you yet? Do you understand what Matthew 1:23 means when it reads “God with us”? God became us. Throughout history God has proven his faithfulness to man. He has shown his love and commitment even in the face of failure. Yet it culminated in the birth of Christ.
Greatest of all he continued to show his love through the death of Christ.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3 AV)
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5 AV)
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: (Philippians 2:6-7 AV)
Jesus came yet he not only came just to come but he brought the “gift” of salvation.
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21 AV)
Conclusion
The final fulfillment of this will happens in
Rev. 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God. (Revelation 21:3 AV)
