Immanuel - God with us
Isaiah 7:10-14 10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Matthew 1:18-23
18This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23”The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” which means, “God with us.”
Someone once said that if you could convince a man that there is no hope, he would curse the day that he was born.
You see, hope for humans is an important part of life.
Years ago a submarine was rammed by another ship and quickly it sank to the bottom of the ocean.
The entire crew was trapped inside that submarine.
Many boats rushed to the disaster, but no one really knew what the submarine crew went through in those few hours underneath the water.
Men bravely clung to all the oxygen that they could get until, slowly, it gave out.
One diver who came to the rescue,
swam down and put his ear to the side of the submarine and listened,
The diver heard tapping noises - someone was banging out a message in Morse code.
The message was a question: ’Is there any hope?’.
That question, is the cry of all humanity.
Is there any hope?
In different circumstances, and situations, that question can be heard: ’Is there any hope?’.
In London, near where I used to work, in a place called Bunhill Fields is a very interesting cemetery - if you’re interested in cemeteries.
It’s a place where many famous people are buried - Charles Wesley is buried there, Isaac Watts the great hymn writer, Daniel Defoe the author of Robinson Crusoe.
Opposite that graveyard is the chapel of John Wesley and a statue erected to him.
Also across that road is John Wesley’s house, where on March 2nd 1791 Wesley opened his eyes and exclaimed for the very last time, upon his deathbed, these words: ’The best of all is this: God is with us’.
He could have said various things, but he said that the best of all is this: God is with us.
I want to speak to you today for a few moments on ’Immanuel’.
Simply put Immanuel means ’God with us’.
As Charles Wesley, John’s brother, said: ’Our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man’
God with us, God come to dwell in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to ask three questions:
What did Immanuel mean to Isaiah?
What did Immanuel mean to Matthew?
And What does Immanuel mean to you?
So let’s deal with the first question:
What did Immanuel mean to Isaiah?
In our reading from Isaiah chapter 7 Isaiah is speaking to the King of Judah, King Ahaz.
King Ahaz was an evil man, King Ahaz was a man who sacrificed his own children to false gods.
So you know the character of the man that we’re dealing with here.
At this time, The Assyrian Empire, which was one of the superpowers of the day, was increasing in influence and power.
And because of that, Syria and Israel wanted to form a coalition with Judah to oppose the growing power of the Assyrians.
They made a proposition to King Ahaz, but King Ahaz wavered.
He wavered to and fro, he didn’t know what to do, and because of his hesitation Syria and Israel turned against him - they decided that they were going to punish him for his luke warmness.
They were going to remove him, they were going to put another King upon the throne of Judah so that they could have their way.
Hearing the news that Syria and Israel were against him, King Ahaz trembled in his boots.
Isaiah the prophet was sent to the King to calm him down, to give him a message of comfort, and we read that message in chapter 7 of Isaiah.
Isaiah said to him: ’Look, if you would only trust in God, Ahaz. If you would only put your faith in God, give everything into His hands, then you would be alright and God would look after you, He would take care of you’.
Isaiah commanded Ahaz, he commanded him to actually test God, to actually ask God to prove this message that he was bringing, to confirm it with a sign.
But Ahaz in all his pride, in all his stubbornness, he refused - he went his own way.
He trusted in his own wisdom and he decided that it would be better to use men, and he went and made a treaty with another nation, with the King of Assyria - the enemies of the whole of that continent - only to have the King of Assyria break that covenant and Ahaz, as we would say today, ended up with egg on his face.
But Isaiah announced to Ahaz, in verse 14, what would happen - that if he only trusted in God,
if he only put his faith in God, if he
just trusted God, God would send a sign.
That sign would be a baby, and that child that would be born and would be conceived would be called Immanuel, he said, and he was given his name even before the child was born or even conceived.
And if Ahaz would wait, and if Ahaz would have faith, when the age came that that child was able to discern right from wrong then all the bother, all the pressure, all the threat, all the onslaught from the other nations around, it would all pass away and all would be peace.
Ahaz refused to listen to the voice of God.
Because of that - listen, and this is beautiful -
God did not withdraw his promise because of the King’s unfaithfulness
God was faithful to the remnant of those people in the nation of Judah who were faithful to Him, and He said:
’I’m going to send this child, I’m going to send this baby - whether Ahaz fails Me or not - and this child will be born,
a virgin will conceive,
and his name will be called Immanuel’.
In all the trial and tribulation and pressure that the nation of Judah faced, even though their King betrayed them, even though their King buckled under the pressure of human men and kings and politicians, God remained with His people.
That’s what Immanuel meant to Isaiah - divine hope, God’s grace, God’s faithfulness in the midst of man’s failure.
Now, this name ’Immanuel’ is only found three times in the word of God: it’s found here in Isaiah, then it is found again in chapter 8 and verse 8, and then it’s found in Matthew 1 and verse 23.
Immanuel – God with us.
God is not just looking after us,
God doesn’t just have His hand on us and care for us, but God within the birth of this child,
God’s very presence has come to actually dwell within the body of this child.
Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, says:
’For unto us a child is born’ - speaking of this child, Immanuel - ’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’.
In Hebrew El-Gibbor, the mighty God!
this child actually signified the living presence of the eternal, mighty God with His people.
And that child was going to be born - that’s what Immanuel meant to Isaiah.
The second question that I’ve asked is:
What did Immanuel mean to Matthew?
Matthew 1:23,
’Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us’.
What did this name ’Immanuel’ mean to Matthew?
What did it mean those Matthew was writing to?
An artist once drew a picture of a winter scene, it was twilight,
the trees within the picture were heavy with snow, there was a dreary, dark house in the background that looked lonely and empty.
Right there, in the midst of a snow storm, all that could be seen was a dark black house shadowed with the silhouette of these trees.
It was a sad picture, but then with a quick stroke - just one quick stroke - with a yellow crayon, the artist simply put in a beam of light coming from the window.
The effect, it was transforming, it was magical, because the picture was transformed into a vision of comfort, a vision of cheer.
Listen: that is what the name ’Immanuel’ meant to Matthew, that is what the name ’Immanuel’ meant to God’s people.
It was like a beam of light, into the darkness –
and Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, Immanuel,
this child would be the Light of the world.
The point of it is this, the point of the name Immanuel,
the only time it’s mentioned in the New Testament is here:
to show that - just as the first Immanuel in Isaiah chapter 7 was to signify the hope of Israel,
was to signify judgement on their enemies,
and deliverance and grace - so the birth of Christ, He would be Immanuel, He would signify deliverance, He would signify God’s saving act among His people.
The birth of Immanuel, signifies that God’s presence is with His people through a child...a child.
Was it not one of old who said: ’...and a child shall lead them’?
The child spoken of in Isaiah’s child is the Christ child.
Isaiah’s Immanuel is a picture, pointing a great big arrow to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, the child that was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary,
that child that was conceived by the Holy Spirit that overshadowed her, that holy thing - the word of God says - that was conceived within her.
It is indescribable, so much so that the Holy Spirit, when writing it down, had to say a ’holy thing’.
Titus put it like this: ’For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men’.
[My friend, can I say to you:
if you’re not born-again,
if you’ve never met Jesus Christ in your life,
if you’ve never had Him revealed to you by the Holy Spirit, if you’ve never been saved or if you’re backslidden today - listen:
do you not see your need to know Immanuel?
to know the joy of God with you]
Do you see your Immanuel?
Do you see that out of the darkness of your life,
or your depression,
or your illness,
or your weariness - whatever it is
- the pressures of the world that are coming in upon you,
can you see that God in His Son,
has sent Immanuel?
He is testifying that He is with you!
That God is for you!
That He wants to save you!
That His grace, His saving power, His deliverance, His act of redemption is in the midst of us today by His Son!
That’s what it meant to Matthew.
It was the good news - we all know it - we need to rejoice in it today?
That Christ Jesus came into the world,
Immanuel, God with us, to save us from our sin!
He came to save His people, didn’t He?
Oh, Immanuel, what that name should mean to us!
What it meant to Isaiah;
What it meant to Matthew: the deliverance of the Son of God into the world.
But what does it mean to you?
What does Immanuel mean to you?
A God who cares for you.
A God who understands you.
A God who loves you.
A God who is with you.
A God who forgives you.
A God who gives you the free gift of salvation.
A God who has saved you.
What does Immanuel mean to you?
Some people want to love a representation of God - that’s why they fix their affections,
their spiritual feelings, upon objects like pictures and idols, because they want to lavish and direct their spiritual affections toward things - they want to see something!
But God is invisible,
and through all the eras of time men couldn’t do that, they shouldn’t direct their spiritual affections towards an object, so God stooped.
Listen - and I speak reverently, God stooped to become a baby!
God, who was not physical, became substance that we might see Him, as John says:
that we might touch Him,
that we might worship Him,
that we might hear Him.
What a wonderful stoop this was!
Yet He took upon Himself form,
He took upon Himself nature -
that was the desire of man: to have an object to love - yet they rejected Him!
They’d got what they wanted really, but they rejected Him.
Did men get tired of worshipping invisible things?
The Bible says, in the book of Romans, that: they changed the glory of God into an image made like corruptible things.
Jesus became man - so that He could be seen, so that He could be touched
But the Bible says that He was the express image of the Father,
He was like the rubber stamp of God,
He was His image,
He was His expression - if you could take a photograph of God, it would be the Lord Jesus Christ,
Immanuel would be what you’d see!
He was the living form of God,
yet man shut their eyes to Him.
They wanted to see God, but when they saw God they shut their eyes to God,
they refused to acknowledge the glory that shined from Him to them.
Do you want to talk with God?
In the old testament A priest is a person that goes to God for men.
And that’s what had to happen:
they had to have a special man, a holy man,
to go to God for them and to worship God for them and to offer sacrifices for them –
they couldn’t go to God directly,
they couldn’t talk to Him,
they couldn’t give Him gifts or worship without someone in between.
And man wanted to speak to God.
So what did God do?
God put Christ, His Son, the word of God, into human flesh so that we could speak with Him - yet we rejected Him.
To be without God in the world is to be in the most wretched state imaginable.
To have God against us in the world is to tremble - surely it is to be fearful!
But listen, take joy in this:
to have God with us is to have everything!
You’ve seen war films on TV or in the cinema,
the army - perhaps at the last stand - and they’re going into the battle, and one by one, young men get struck down by cannons or by bullets, by explosions and by the bare hands of men -
and still for their country they run into battle,
one after one continually falling.
They’re failing, they’re losing - but suddenly from the back, from the camp there is a cry that is shouted across the field and it’s this: ’The General has come!
The King is with us!’.
There’s many a battle where the tables have been turned because of a voice such as that.
Can I ask you, are you a Christian soldier?
Are you weary, are you tired?
Do you feel the pressure and the pain of the world and the temptations that the world brings,
and all of the pressure that we have in this age that we live in?
Do you feel it?
Do you feel it when you see the gospel of Christ trodden into the ground?
When we see so many churches that disregards the place of prayer - saint, soldier, do you feel the pressure?
Listen: there is the cry of a King among us - for God is with us! God is with us!
Picture a child on a boat, he’s sailing on the sea - and a storm comes on to the ocean,
and that boat is tossed to and fro,
and people are hanging over the edges,
feeling sick and even fearing for their life,
and the captain doesn’t know what to do -
but this little child is calm, this little child is at peace.
Why? Because the child has its Father with it.
My friend, are you going through the storms of life?
Are you going through the storms of sickness or bereavement or pain?
Are you going through the storms of loneliness or desertion?
Whatever storms you’re going through, listen:
God is with us!
God, Immanuel, He has come not just to put His hand on us, not just to say ’Well done’ and give us a pat on the back and push us forward -
but He has come to stay, He has come to dwell,
He has come to reside with us!
In the news this week it said that more people are emigrating to Australia, or Spain, or America than ever before.
I read that and I thought about, how lonely it must be to leave family, to leave friends and loved ones, perhaps never to see them again.
But what if all the relations and friends are all emigrating to that place - that’s different, isn’t it?
It would be lonely to be on your own.
Maybe you’re on your own today,
maybe you’re on your own in life,
you’ve been left on your own - but listen,
no matter where you are,
no matter how lonely you are,
no matter how you feel,
no matter where you are in your life,
listen: God is with you!
For the soldier in the battle: Christ Jesus, Immanuel, is the Captain of our salvation.
For the fatherless child, for the orphan: He is the everlasting Father.
For the lonely one: He is the omnipotent Companion that is with us wherever we go, whatever we do.
For the sick, for the lonely, for the deserted, for those going through the valley of death - listen to this word my friends today: Immanuel...God...with...us!
He is with us! Us!
He took upon Himself our nature,
He took upon Himself our being, our feelings, our emotions so that He would know what we go through.
So that He could empathise, so that He could sympathise –
He was God with us, but He was God!
He was God with us!
He had such glory, such beauty, such splendour - yet He came down and He left it all, He was true God yet true God became true man...and he became God with us!
He became God at our side.
There’s a picture in Milan of an angel - who is feeling one of the points of the crown of thorns with her finger.
There is a look of wonder and amazement upon his face.
He has been told that it means agony,
it means pain, but he cannot feel it.
To him it’s so incomprehensible,
because he belongs to a different world, he belongs to a world that has never experienced pain, he was never born into the conditions in which the Son of Man was born, where there was sin, where there was suffering, where there was sacrifice.
But Immanuel is God with us - and God did not send an angel,
He sent His Son,
He sent Himself and He took upon Himself our flesh,
that He might suffer that when we suffer
He might know what we go through,
He might empathise,
He might comfort,
He might help us.
This is God’s promise to us today – Immanuel, God with us.
Jesus promised us the Holy Spirit, who now dwells in our heart.
Wherever we are, He is there with us.
God is with you all the time.
He is Immanuel, it means you can never be alone. God is with you all the time.
Whatever your need is let this word sink into your mind and your heart:
Immanuel, God is with us.
