CHRISTMAS MESSAGE - HIS NAME IS I/EMMANUEL
TWO EXAMPLES OF CHRIST’S APPEARANCES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
In the first part of this message, there are scripture readings I have put into the text.
[A]. THE FOURTH MAN IN THE FURNACE
Daniel 3 – {{Daniel 3:19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with wrath and his facial expression was altered toward Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. He answered by giving orders to heat the furnace seven times more than it was usually heated, Dan 3:20 and he commanded certain valiant warriors who were in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, in order to cast them into the furnace of blazing fire. Dan 3:21 Then these men were tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes, and were cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire. Dan 3:22 For this reason, because the king’s command was urgent and the furnace had been made extremely hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who carried up Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. Dan 3:23 But these three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, fell into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire still tied up. Dan 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste. He responded and said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “Certainly, O king.” Dan 3:25 He answered and said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”}}
This was a theophany, that is, an appearance of God. The three faithful men committed their cause to God because it was all out of their hands. God was with them in the heat of judgement and kept them safe. The Lord became their Deliverer. Jesus Christ is always with His people in hardship whether He is seen or not, and whether He delivers them or not. All that is required from us is faithfulness.
[B]. THE ONE MAN AT PENIEL
Genesis 32 – {{Genesis 32:24 “Then Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak, Gen 32:25 and when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Gen 32:26 Then he said, “Let me go for the dawn is breaking,” but he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me,” Gen 32:27 so he said to him, “What is your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” Gen 32:28 He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Gen 32:29 Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name,” but he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” and he blessed him there. Gen 32:30 Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”}}
Jacob was a bit of a wayward person, a scoundrel if you like, but that night the Lord appeared to him and his life was change forever after that. When God comes among us all is changed. It was God with him. When Jesus took on human flesh and came into the world, the world was not going to be the same again.
[C]. OUR MESSAGE FOR TODAY – HIS NAME IS EMMANUEL/IMMANUEL
(a). There are two Old Testament references to this Name, both found in the book of Isaiah. Ahaz was a wicked king of Judah. {{Isaiah 7:10 “Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz saying, Isa 7:11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God. Make it as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.”}} Ahaz refused so the Lord Himself gave the sign – {{Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. Isa 7:15 He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.”}} This is the prophecy concerning the coming of Messiah who is called Immanuel meaning “God with us.”
(b). The second reference is a prophetic one again – {{Isaiah 8:8 “Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck, and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel. Isa 8:9 Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered, and give ear, all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered.”}} Although it was not recognised at that point Israel is Immanuel’s land
[D]. GOD’S PROPHECY SEES REALITY
700 years passed, one by one, THEN {{Galatians 4:4 “but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, Gal 4:5 in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”}}
We see that promise taking fulfillment in Matthew – {{Matthew 1:20 “But when he (Joseph) had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, Matt 1:21 and she will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” Matt 1:22 Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Matt 1:23 “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.” Matt 1:24 Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, Matt 1:25 and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son, and he called His name Jesus.”}}
[E]. GOD WITH US – WITH HIS DISCIPLES
“God with us” – the very God of creation, who desired to have contact with His fallen men and women was born in Bethlehem. Yet it was not always like that. At the beginning the Lord walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve, until such times they disobeyed, and guilt caused them to hide from “God with us”. What a glorious, unbroken fellowship they had until such times that pride and disobedience yielded its bitter fruit, the fruit of their expulsion.
Jesus did not become Emmanuel at His birth; He was Emmanuel at conception; and even before that. However, the reality day by day, firstly for His parents; then for the disciples, was the very Presence of the Living God in their midst. Only those who had contact with the Saviour, could savour the sweetness, and gentleness, and perfection of His Presence, as He who is Very God walked, talked, and ate with them. John wrote – {{John 1 v 14 “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”}} What a beautiful verse. John says that God, who is The Word, took on flesh, and dwelt among them, glorious, full of grace and truth. Paul understood the same principle – {{Colossians 2 v 9 “In Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”}}
Isaiah had already said that {{Isaiah 9:6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us . . . . and His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” That is the fullness of Deity. They are powerful titles, but no more important than Immanuel. He, who is the Wonderful Counsellor, is among us, as He was with the disciples. The Mighty God, Eternal Father and Emmanuel is with us right now, as He was with His disciples in the three and a half years when He shared the grace and love of the Father with them in all wisdom. All praise and glory belongs to the Lord.
The angel proclaimed to the shepherds the news that Christ the Lord, the Saviour, had been born; then all the angels broke out praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest” . . . and they were praising the babe in the manger, God, who had come to earth as “God with us.” This very God “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”
[[C.H. Spurgeon wrote, “Observe the wonder of condescension contained in this fact, that God, who made all things, should assume the nature of one of His own creatures; that the self-existent One should be united with the dependent and deprived; and the Almighty linked with the feeble and mortal. I am persuaded that no man has any idea how wonderful a stoop it was for God thus to dwell in human flesh and to be, “God with us.”]]
Jesus, coming down from heaven, is the pledge that He will take His people up to heaven. His taking our nature is the seal of our being lifted up to His throne. Spurgeon quote again – [[“Now, think for a while and you will see that God has, in very deed, come near to us in very close association. He must have done so, for He has taken upon Himself our nature, literally our nature - flesh, blood, bone, everything that made a body; - mind, heart, soul, memory, imagination, judgement, everything that makes a rational man. Christ Jesus was the man of men, the second Adam, the model representative man.”]]
(One has written – actually Spurgeon) – [[“A child is under parental authority, or should be. Christ was also a boy in the home at Nazareth. Have you entered upon life’s battle? Your Lord and Master did the same, and though He lived not to old age, yet through incessant toil and suffering, He bore the marred appearance, which usually attends a battered, old age. Do we worry about being alone? He was alone in the wilderness and on the mountain’s side, and in the garden’s gloom. Do you mix in public society? So did He as He laboured in the thickest crowds. Wherever you find yourself, on the hilltop, or in the valley, on the land, or on the sea, in the daylight or in darkness – there is no place you will walk, without discovering that Jesus has been there before you.
Two believers may be very different from each other, and yet both will find that Christ’s life has in it, points of likeness to their own. One might be rich, and another might be poor. One is actively laborious, and another patiently suffering, and yet each man, in studying the history of the Saviour, shall be able to say, “Emmanuel’s pathway ran close by my own. He was made in all points like unto His brethren. How comforting is the fact that our Lord is “God with us,” not here and there; and now and then, but forever.”]]
[F]. CHRIST WHO IS EMMANUEL, IN ALL HIS MINISTRY
This glorious word, Emmanuel, means that God in Christ, is with us in very close association. The Greek expression here used is very strong and expresses the strongest form of “WITH”. It is not merely, “in company with us,” as a different Greek word would signify, but deeply, “with,” “together with,” and “sharing with, intimately close.” When the Lord taught His disciples, He used a series of very wonderful “I AMs” found in John’s Gospel. Emmanuel is the I AM. In the closest association with us, He is the great, divine I AM.
In John chapter 6, He is the Bread of Life come down from heaven. He came down to be with us, the Bread on whom we feed, for eternal life. He abides with us, enriching us by the very word of God – the Bread of Life with us, to lead us into all truth, for God’s word is truth. Well may the hymn writer have written, “Break Thou the bread of life, Dear Lord to me; As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea.” Are you longing for the Lord to break and feed His scriptures to you? It is one thing to take the Bread of Life for salvation, but another matter altogether to feed constantly on His word for growth and communion. God with you to share His word! What can be more exciting!
In John chapter 8, He is the Light of the World, come to provide us with eternal directions. As we are lost in the darkness, so He, the Light of the World is with us, just as if we have the most penetrating light attached to our helmet of salvation. The Light is with us, and in every step He leads us; every step illuminated by Him so we can have perfect light in this world’s darkness. The Light shone in the darkness and the darkness could not understand or extinguish it. The Light is with us forever.
In John chapter 10, He is the Door of the Sheep. The sheepfold has only one door, and you can’t be the robber that tries to climb up the wall, or over the briar fence. The pathway to the door is narrow and few find it, but for those who do, the Lord is with them. Emmanuel, who is the Door, leads His own in and out in a tender closeness, for He is with them, and we know how wayward we can be as sheep.
In John chapter 10, He is the Good Shepherd, the One who was with His beloved disciples in the events of every day, God with them teaching, healing, feeding and preparing. Then, it seemed suddenly, He was no longer with them as He laid down His life, endured the cross, despising the shame and suffering, to pay the penalty of sin forever, and win spotless, eternal salvation. The Good Shepherd is with us. He knows us and we know Him. The sheep that walk closest to the Shepherd’s feet in the way, know Him best, and are least likely to wander off.
In John chapter 11, He is the Resurrection and the Life. Oh, what a blessed fact this is, as the Lord is close to us when tragedy or sorrow or death strikes. As He was with Mary and Martha when they were sorrowing outside Lazarus’s tomb, so He is with us in our own tragedy, or when we tread the verge of Jordan. It is the greatest comfort to know that He who is the Resurrection and the Life, is our Emmanuel in every heartache. We know the Lord as THE LIFE if we have claimed Him as our individual, personal Saviour; and if the Lord tarries, and we are absent from the body and present with the Lord, then we most certainly will know Him as THE RESURRECTION when He comes to rapture His precious Bride, the Church.
In John chapter 15, He is the True Vine who is with His branches in 100% support. We are no more than branches, and by ourselves we can not be productive and generate fruit at all. The vine’s branches are always with the vine, close, and drawing on the life, goodness and vitality of the vine. Jesus Christ is the True Vine, and He is close to the branches, for He is with them. I might add that this illustration the Lord is giving about the Vine and the branches, has nothing to do with salvation, but all to do with fruitfulness. Abide in the Vine. The Lord is with you. He supplies you with spiritual vitality and nourishment, and you can’t help but be fruitful for Him.
There is one more “I AM” I want to do. It is found in this verse – {{John 6 v 19 “When therefore they had rowed about three or four miles, they beheld Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat and they were frightened, John 6 v 20 but He said to them, “IT IS I. DO NOT BE AFRAID.”}} Picture the disciples battling the fury of the elements and making tough headway, if only a little. As far as they were concerned, Jesus was not with them. He was not in the midst; not the constant companion they were getting to know. Seemingly, they were on their own.
Then the great realisation came. It happened when they saw the Lord walking on the sea coming towards them. The word for “frightened” (NASB and NIV) is the Gk “phobos” containing elements of fear, dread and terror. In other words, they were utterly undone with alarm and maybe hopelessness. Then you had the authorative words of the Creator of the universe, in English - “It is I. Do not be afraid.” It is I. The Greek is simple – “ego eimi” and literally means, “I, I AM”. Here is the eternal God, the Master of sea and sky, again declaring His divinity to them. What a difference that made. The Lord had not left them, but was with them, just as he would have been, had He been in the boat. This is Emmanuel, God with them, whether they saw Him with physical eyes or not. They, and us, need spiritual eyes to understand this. {{Hebrews 13 v 5 “Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have, for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.”}} That is Emmanuel speaking and He will be with us forever, as He comforted His disciples the last time they would see Him on this earth in their lifetimes – {{Matthew 28 v 20 “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”}}
The Lord Jesus Christ has not forgotten Christians facing martyrdom or those persecuted for their faith. My sheep know My voice and follow Me. The whole essence of our Christian lives is to follow and obey. We leave the rest to the Lord. He is with us. He is with us forever. He is with us in the fiery furnace. He is with us if we wrestle God with a problem.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.
Hail the incarnate Deity.
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
"Glory to the newborn King!"
Praise Him for all He has done! Jesus, our Immanuel!
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
Zephaniah 3 v 16-20 is very applicable, especially verse 16. Probably no time for that.
