Emmanuel - God with Us - God Incarnate!
I hope God had a great Thanksgiving? What about you, I hope you gave God a good Thanksgiving! I hope you got plenty to eat and it was all good!
We are now going into the Christmas season. You didn’t know the birth of Christ was a whole season? You get only one birthday! But you do get 364 un-birthdays! But yeah,the decorations are going up and some people have had the decorations up for a month already. Some have had their decorations up already for 12 months! The stores have had Christmas stuff for a month or two now! It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!
But Christmas happened a long time ago (about 2025 years) and Christmas was planned even longer ago than that! When? Well that’s what today’s verses are about!
Did you know that some people thing Jesus was just a man? There are religions that deny the deity of Christ. The devil has created many religions that deny Christ’s deity to try to fool people. Any religion that makes Jesus just a man easily makes them a false religion. Why, because there are many places in the Bible where it shows Jesus really is God!
This is why Jesus goes by many names: Emmanuel - means God with us! He’s known as God incarnate! The son of God. Part of the Trinity. Jesus said, before Abraham was, I Am! The Pharisees went to stone Him because he made Himself equal to God - which He is!
As we start the Christmas season, let us remember where Jesus came from and ultimately Why He came!
John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Wow, right off the bat John tells us there was this “Word” with God, and that the “Word” was God. So separate but equal! The trinity is hard to understand for some people. Why do they understand that an engine and wheels and seats make a car is easy to understand but they have a hard time understanding that The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are God! Just go with it if you don’t understand!
John 1:2
2 He was with God in the beginning.
Notice it says “He”. John is slowly introducing us to Jesus.
John 17:24
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
John 1:3
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In verse 3 we see that Jesus was the creator of all things. But wait, I thought God was creator of all things… Ah, now you’re getting it!
John 1:4
4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the is the way the truth and the Life! Remember when God breathed life into Adam and walked in the Garden of Eden? Yeah, that was likely the pre-incarnate Jesus!
John 1:5
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus is the light of the world. Follow Him and you will not walk in darkness!
John 1:6-8
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
People want Jesus to point to the light, but He is that light. Instead, John pointed to the light who was Jesus and they didn’t want to believe him!
John 1:9-13
9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Jesus is that light, and He is the Savior! Why didn’t the Jews want to believe in Jesus? They were looking for a King coming to conquer, not a servant who would be crucified. They didn’t realize that Jesus needed to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. The Jews think they can get to heaven by their works and that’s impossible.
John 1:14
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This verse is the clincher!. The “Word” who in verse 1 says was God, became flesh and dwelt among us. Who was that God that became flesh and dewelt among us? Jesus of course. This is talking about the birth of Jesus. He came here to this world as a little baby, and grew up and walked among us!
Jesus is the one and only Son of God who came from the Father, and he was full of grace and truth!
Jesus is:
Emmanuel = God with us!
God incarnate!
Thomas said, My Lord and My God!!! Jesus did not rebuke Thomas for saying that!
When Jesus asked who do you say I am, Peter said Lord! Which means God!
Philippians 2:6 Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider to be equal with God something to be grasped,
Jesus will be sitting at the right hand of the Father! He will rule and reign in Heaven!
So we know that the “Word” came and was born. But why did they name Him Jesus?
Matthew 1:20-21
20 But 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. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
They named him Jesus which meant: Savior!
The whole reason Jesus left heaven and came to Earth was to save us. There was no other way to do it. By God’s law only perfect people can go to heaven and we are not perfect. Since we are not perfect we had to pay the price of sin which is death. Jesus stepped in our place and became our sacrifice. The whole reason He came was to be our Savior!
Luke 19:9,10 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
But Jesus is much more than Savior! He is God, He is our friend, and we have become Joint-heirs with Him and will get to live with Him in heaven some day. Isn’t it great to know that we have a friend in Jesus? Only God can save! Religions that don’t believe Jesus is God think they must get their themselves which is impossible since they are not perfect and only perfect people go to heaven because God can not tolerate any sin in heaven. Once a sinner always a sinner… that is, until you receive the atoning gift of Jesus!
Matthew 7:13
13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Christmas is a wonderful time of gift giving! The greatest gift of course is when God saw our plight and because He loved us so much, He sent His Son to take our place of punishment to save us. God truly wishes that none should perish. But you have to accept this gift. Whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved! Salvation only comes by faith, not by works, not by mental gymnastics, not by baptism, not by anything you can do. To be saved, you have to come to Christ through faith.
Romans 10:9
9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Jesus is the greatest Gift, and He brings the gift of salvation to those who will accept it by faith!
1 Timothy 3:16
16 Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:
He appeared in the flesh,
was vindicated by the Spirit,
was seen by angels,
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.
Don’t miss out on the greatest gift at Christmas or any time! Jesus is our Gift and our Hope! If it wasn’t for Jesus there is no hope!
