Maranatha Tabernacle Church of God
381 Manton Avenue Providence RI 02909
God is with us
Isaiah 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.
An outstanding fact about Jesus that distinguishes Him from everyone else is that He is the one person in the history of the world of whom explicit details of His birth, life, death and resurrection were given centuries beforehand. A precise description of Jesus was given by more than twenty different people centuries before he was born. One such prophecy was His name.
We read in the Bible that God revealed the names of some individuals even before they were born. The first such person was Isaac , the second was Ishmael , the third was Moses, fourthly Solomon, fifth was Josiah , the sixth was John the Baptist and the seventh is (Jesus the Christ or) Immanuel who is God with us. John 1:1 clearly explains who Jesus Christ is: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14 of John reads: “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.” Theologically, this is called the incarnation of Christ. The incarnation is the doctrine that the eternal second person of the Trinity became a human being and assumed flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus Christ was the “Word made flesh” (John1:14). This doctrine holds that Jesus was one divine person with both a divine and a human nature.
In my theological musings, I have discovered various doctrinal points of view concerning Jesus. One such viewpoint is called the “dynamic incarnation” which argues that in essence Jesus Christ was not (ontologically) truly God but that the influence and power of God was operative within Him to a high degree. However the prophet Isaiah said his name was Immanuel, God with us. I also read of a group called Jews for Jesus. There are at least two types of Jews for Jesus. The first group believes that Christ came in the flesh as the God-man. Besides their Judaic cultural trappings, these Messianic Jews are no different to Evangelicals. Next there are those Jews for Jesus who believe that Jesus was the Messiah but He was not Divine, merely a human being . However according to all that I have seen in scripture and that I have read of Jewish customs and history, there has always been expectancy by the Jewish nation for the arrival of the Messiah, the Anointed One. In fact at times the Jews seemed so gullible by going after all kinds of strange characters that promised to rescue them from their oppressors.
Their ideas about Messiah ranged from ridiculous to sublime. Some were of the opinion that Messiah would be a warrior king. Others saw Messiah in a mere political role. Nevertheless a majority understood that Messiah would be someone sent by God. Orthodox Judaism as espoused by the Pharisees and Sadducees taught that Messiah is the Son of God or God incarnate. That is why the Jewish prophet Isaiah, who wrote some 600 years before Christ declared in our text: “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).
The very word Immanuel literally refers to the presence of God. God’s presence with humans is not a novel idea. God was with Adam in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). God was with Noah while he was in the ark. (Genesis 8:1 said “God remembered Noah…”) God was with Abraham in Mamre and he gave him a son. God was with Jacob even when his brother hated him and wanted to kill him but God delivered him.
God was with Joseph when his brothers sold him into slavery. Joseph went to Egypt as a slave. In all his troubles God was with him. God was with him in the pit where his brothers first threw him. God was with him in Potiphar’s house where he refused Potiphar’s wife. She then orchestrated things and had Joseph thrown in prison. But God was with him in the prison. Then God took him from the prison to Pharaoh’s palace, and God was with him all the way.
God was with Moses when he was a baby and his mother put him in a basket on the River Nile. God was with him when Pharaoh’s daughter rescued him from the Nile and took him to live in Pharaoh’s palace. God was with him while he lived as a fugitive in the Midian desert. God was with him when he went to Egypt and told Pharaoh to let God’s people go. God was with him when he stood at the Red Sea, Mountains on both sides, Pharaoh’s army behind, and no place to run. God was with him and God parted the Red Sea. God was with Joshua at the fall of the Jericho wall. God was with Gideon when he routed the Midianites. God was with Deborah when she led Israel to victory against Jabin’s army.
God was with Jephtah when he led Israel to victory against the Ammonites. God was with Samson when he defeated the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. God was with Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha… God was with them. In fact God had given the nation of Israel the Ark of the Covenant to remind them of His presence with them as a whole. Further, God’s presence is also detected in the Divine handiwork. All of His creation speaks of His presence (“the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament his handiwork”)
However the crowning fact of God’s presence with humanity was heralded by Isaiah’s prophetic word “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).
This prophecy was fulfilled in the most unexpected fashion and through the most unlikely people and circumstances. No Jew would ever have imagined or suspected that the Messiah’s mother would be a little woman from a poor family in Nazareth. Nazareth was a secluded town in lower Galilee and this made her a Galilean. Galileans were considered culturally and socially inferior to Jerusalem Jews. The Galileans spoke a Patois, which forced its own accent and were considered social inferiors. Furthermore Mary’s choice of a husband was not from amongst the priestly class of Galileans or the well to do but a simple tradesman a young carpenter.
In addition when the time came for Mary to deliver her child they were in a stable in Bethlehem and the baby was born without royal attendance, careful doctors and highly trained nurses. Instead in attendance were stable creatures and the nursery bed was an animal feeding trough called a manger. The ones who first learnt of this glorious birth were engaged in the poor man’s profession of sheep farming and they were the least likely to be believed by any public official. However Joseph never forgot that the angel said, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 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” (Matthew 1:20-23).
Immanuel
The name Emmanuel means God with us. God has chosen to come to us as a person and live in our world, rather than trying to have us go to Him. Jesus does not take us out of the turmoil and pain of daily life, but rather walks with us as we live. It is a mistake to think of salvation as escape from the world instead of engagement with the world. God has a job for us to do right where we live and work. It is in these circumstances that we are best able to see that God is with us. That is where He gives us power.
Immanuel means the breaking in of the divine into human history. Immanuel refers to the intervention of the supernatural into the natural. It means the entrance of the heavenly into the earthly. Immanuel means God is with us in Jesus. God is going through the darkness with us. God is going through the water with us. God is going through the flood with us. God is going through the fire with us. God is going through the flames with us. God is going through the wilderness with us. God is going through the temptations with us. God is going through the pain with us. Going is going through the sickness with us. God is going through the troubles with us. God is saying “you must not carry the trouble alone any longer—cast it down at my feet: I will take it and carry it.” “In fact I will pick you up and carry you if I have to but I will never leave you, I, Jehovah am with you.”
The word Immanuel means that when all our best efforts fail, break down and collapse in disgrace, God begins. Immanuel means that when you feel nobody wants you, God does. Immanuel means that when you are crying and saying “nobody understands me, everyone is standing on the outside and cannot see my inside.” Immanuel means that God is on the inside. Immanuel means God is with you and in you. If the prison doors of habit are closing in around you. God is still with you. If you have tasted failure, shame and self-despising. God is still with you. If you have lost the morning freshness of your soul. God is still with you. If like the Jews in Babylon you feel exiled from the face of God and you don’t want to sing the Lord’s song. Then hear the clarion clear message of Christmas. Immanuel! Immanuel! Immanuel! God is with us.
The Divine Presence
God is with us in the Pilgrimage of Life
Genesis 28:15: And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.
God is with us in times of exhaustion
Exodus 33:14: And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
God is with us Life’s Battles
Deuteronomy 20:1 When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses, and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them: for the LORD thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
God is with us in times of Trials
Isaiah 43:2: When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
God is with us in the smallest of Assembly
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
God will be with us unto the End of time
Matthew 28:19,20.Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
You see when you understand the story of Christmas you begin to realize that you can make it because God is with you, and “if God be for you who can be against you.”
You can make it because God is with you and “You can do all things through Christ Who strengthens you.”
You can make it because God is with you and “Your God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ jesus.”
You can make it because God is with you and “Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.”
You can make it because God is with you and “The Lord is your light and your salvation, who shall you fear.”
You can make it because God is with you and “God is your refuge and your strength, a very present help in the time of trouble.” God is with you…
