Getting to Know God – Immanuel – God With Us
I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. It is a great time of year isn’t it. Time that we can spend with family and friends. Deanna and I had a great time in Brisbane, catching up with old friends and with our families. We enjoyed some lovely food and of course gave and received some lovely gifts. I thought I’d bring some of them along today as a bit of a show and tell. I’ve just got 4 here today.
Let’s see. Where should I start... Well I got this lovely shirt from my Dad and Mum. Lovely isn’t it. I mean - am I a trendy guy now or what. Some of you are saying What aren’t you. You know the worst thing about getting clothes from your parents is that they buy you clothes that you would have fitted into about 10 years ago. But since then you’ve changed shape and you need another set of clothes. You know all what I mean. You get fitter and stronger and muscles bulge out in the most unlikely places. And unfortunately you don’t fit into clothes that you did 10 years ago. But this shirt is not too bad actually, I must admit. It will protect me from the elements, keep me from getting sunburnt and be my second skin until I spill something on it and stain it irrepairably - Clothes are always are good present.
Another thing I received from my parents was this dish of glazed fruit. I love fruit and I love glazed fruit. I only get to enjoy it once a year and maybe that is what makes it a special time of year. Mmm it is nice. I’d share it with you all, but there is not enough to go around. I could share it with just a couple of you, but I wouldn’t like to show favouritism by sharing it with just some of you - So I’ll just have to enjoy it myself. You know that they say you are what you eat. So maybe that explains my glazed over look sometimes. Yes I know that some of you are thinking that it says more about me being a bit of a fruit cake – taunt me all you like, I’ve got the fruit.
One of my favorite gifts was this drill from Deanna. I have an old drill that belonged to my grandfather, but not a good electric hammer drill. So even though a cheap one, this is a great present. It is reversible, has variable speed and a 12mm chuck - just about everything I need as a home handyman. It is a practical present. It is not meant to be a decoration, but has a purpose. It is a tool which enables me to be creative - to make furniture, to drill holes in walls so I can hang pictures, to erect fences, etc. A great present.
The last thing I want to show you is this special plate that my sister in law made for me - Us really - It was a joint present, but I know she had me in mind when she made it. It says “You are Special.” It is a plate that we can give to special people that visit us to show them that we think they are special. It is a gift that we can share with others, but I think I’ll be eating off it most evenings though.
I received some good presents don’t you think? I’m sure that you all did also.
It is probably the same everywhere, but in today’s society, it is a bit of a shame that there is more of a focus on the commercial aspects of Christmas than on the spiritual aspects. The shops were packed leading upto to Christmas with millions of dollars being spent on presents and food.
But at Christmas we received the best present that could be given and it wasn’t made of plastic or material – it was made of flesh and blood – it was the Baby Jesus. And this morning, I want us to pause in this busy time of year to look at another one of the names of God (well names of Jesus anyway). I want us to look at this name Immanuel and try to grasp what meaning there is in this word for us now and for the rest of this next year as we seek to serve him in our lives, our church and our communities.
Let’s pause first and pray that our eyes would be openned to what God has to say to us.
Pray Lord, Christmas time is a wonderful time of year, but we can easily be caught up in the commercialism that this world throws at us. Lord, we want to see Christmas for what it really is - the birth of your Son. Help us this morning to catch afresh this realisation. We ask that you would speak to us each one in your own special way and help us to get to know you as Immanuel this morning.
Immanuel, Immanuel - wonderful, Counsellor --- Immanuel, one of the names of Christ, is only mentioned 3 times in Scripture. Twice in Isaiah and once in Matthew 1:23. If we read from vs 18 ... we read ...
Read Matt 1:18 - 23.
Immanuel - is an old Hebrew word literally meaning “With Us God” or “God with us” It is an incredible name - simple, but can you grasp what it says, God with us.
God with us. What an incredible concept. Do you grasp the two aspects to this name ...
1) Jesus is divine. In this baby born that first Christmas, was God - the creator of the world, the sustainer of the universe. Do you see in this name, the name of the Almighty God? See the “el” at the end of Immanuel. This is the Hebrew name for the Almighty God. The one that is so high and mighty, that we can not look on his holy face without dying. That same immense and immeasurable God became a man and dwelt with us.
2) Jesus is a Man.
A story is told of an elderly man who was walking through a park on a cold wintry afternoon when he noticed a pile of birdseed that someone had put out so that the birds would be kept from dying in the snow. There were dozens of birds gathered for this unexpected feeding. But when the man approached them, the birds became anxious. One more step and they began to twitch and flap. Another step and the birds left their feast unfinished and flew away. What had happened? He didn’t want to harm these birds. He had no bad intentions at all, yet they flew away. When he paused to reflect on this, the man realised that it was not his intentions that caused the birds to scatter ... It was because he was SO BIG. He could never have walked among them unless he became a sparrow, flew down to them and shared their life.
This is what God faced and what he did for us when Jesus was born that Christmas day. Since the beginning of time, God never had any thoughts for us other than loving ones and yet we would flee from him. So, he sent Jesus to walk among us - as God and Man.
Jesus was God and Man in the same body. As “the Man”, he understands all about our human emotions, needs and temptations. And as “the God”, he can meet every one of them. As such Christ is the best present that we could ever receive - it leaves my shirt, my fruit, my drill and plate for dead.
Think about it ...
A) God’s gift is that he is always with us - It is forever and is intimate
I want to say 2 things about this quickly...
1) God’s gift is forever.
For Christmas I got this shirt and this glazed fruit. This shirt, while nice, won’t last. In a couple of years, it will be relegated to my work clothes and finally in a moment of inner strength I experience only now and then, it will be thrown into the rag basket. For a time, it will clothe me, protect me and keep me warm. But it’s life is numbered. Similarly the fruit. It will only last - a couple of days and then I’ll be hungry again. God’s gift to us of Immanuel on the other hand is here for ever. Christ promised his followers when he left them, is that “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.” When Christ returned to heaven, he sent the third person of the trinity to earth to be with us for our entire lives. The Holy Spirit dwells within every believer - God is with us forever.
2) God’s gift is intimate
God’s presence is not physically detached like this shirt. The closest this shirt can come to me is to touch the outside layer of skin cells. It is with me in that it comes along with me where I go when I am wearing it, but it is not with me like how Christ is. Christ didn’t come to earth as Immanuel to live next door and every now and then come into superficial contact with us when we desire his presence - much like me choosing to wear this shirt. He came wanting a much more intimate and basic relationship with us.
Christ’s presence as Immanuel is more like the glazed fruit when eaten and digested. Some of the nutrients it contains gets absorbed into me and actually becomes me. It goes with me and helps shape who I am and what I am. God came to be one of us, but also to be one in us. It is a spiritual indwelling. Through his Holy Spirit, Christ comes to live in us. Paul writes in Gal 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul had given his life over to Christ’s control. He lived for Christ, he lived with Christ and he lived under Christ’s control. As Christians we have the opportunity to enjoy God’s gift of his Son Immanuel. God wants to come and live with us intimately. We can keep him at a distance if we want, but he wants to live in us intimately .
I don’t know what 2002 has been like for you. What has your relationship with God been like? Have you been tempted to think that he has deserted you? Let me reassure you that he is always with us if we allow him to be - He is Immanuel. His promise holds - “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Have you been holding God at a distance? Don’t hold this precious gift at a distance. In 2003, I encourage you to embrace Christ as your Lord and Saviour. As Lord, you will have to submit your will to him and follow him. Allow him to dwell within you and in so doing to change you into the person he wants you to be. Rely on him, become dependant on Him in every aspect of your life so that you can say with Paul - “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”
B) God’s gift is practical - It meets our physical and emotional needs and It reedeemed us.
God’s gift of being with us is not just for decoration, but it is immensly practical like my drill. What are the implications of him being with us.
Well firstly, because he became a man, he understands the things we struggle with. How can that be you say? Well listen to these verses ...
Heb 2: 18 - “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those whoare being tempted” - Christ knows what it is to be tempted - to want to gain power, prestige, to want a family, to put his worth in things that the world holds dear. He understands what we struggle with as normal everyday people and he can sympathise and help us conquer them.
Matt 26:37 - Here we read that Jesus was troubled and sorrowful. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane and had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Do you feel sorrow and burdened? Christ understands.
Luke 4:2 - Jesus was tempted in the desert while fasting for 40 days. It is recorded that “He was hungry.” Think about it. Jesus had physical needs. He was an itinerant evangelist and often not sure of where the next meal was to come from or possibly where his next bed or shelter would be. When he died, the only material possessions he had were the clothes on his back. Do you sometimes feel that Jesus does not understand your physical needs? He is Immanuel. He is living within you. He knows what you need, he can sympathise with your needs and as God he can help.
Luke 8:23 - Have you ever felt so tired that you have fallen asleep anywhere? Maybe it’s that new or not so new baby that has colic and is giving you sleepless nights. Maybe something has happened at work which has so churned up your stomach that you can’t sleep and you are now so tired. Christ understands - he was once so tired that he fell asleep in a boat in the middle of a storm. He is Immanuel - he can relate to your physical needs.
Martin Luther I best known for his stuggle against the racial discrimination in America’s South. He is probably best remembered for his stirring speeches, but what is not often recalled is the tremendous persecution he had to endure. Those were the days when the Ku Klux Klan were strong and Luther put up with continuous threats. King rose to fame when he took over the leadership of the bus boycott movement. This was formed after Rosa Parks, a black woman refused to move to the back of the bus where Blacks were relegated. In many parts of the south, they were not even allowed to walk through the front section so after paying their fare, they had to get off the bus, walk to the back door and enter there. It was not uncommon for drivers to close the doors and take off as their black passengers were walking to the back of the bus. Anyway – Rosa took a stand and refused to move to the back of the bus and this caused a near riot. The Black community rallied behind her and started to boycott the bus companies and King was elected its leader. No sooner than this had happened than the threats from the Klan started and within a few days he was arrested and thrown in jail for driving at 30 mph in a 25mph zone. The next night, he was sitting in his kitchen around midnight – shaken. He’d just received a phonecall – the caller saying “Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out, and blow up your house.”
What was King going to do? His wife and new born daughter lay asleep in the next room and he was broken – wondering whether he should give up on it all and run. Here is how King remembers it in a sermon he preached …
Quote from Yancy, Soul Survivor, p. 20.
Three nights later, as promised, a bomb exploded on the front porch of King’s home, injuring no one. But King wasn’t shaken because he had met Immanuel and it was God who gave him strength.
God’s gift is so practical - We have the creator God living with us. He wants to help us in every struggle we go through. He is so creative and is able to achieve far more in our lives than what I could ever achieve with this electric drill here. With one word he created the heavens and the earth. With one word he populated the world with plants, animals, mankind. There is nothing too great or too difficult for God to do.
Does that give you the encouragement you need to face 2003? Knowing that God is with you.
God’s gift is for us - because we are special.
Perhaps the greatest thing that God has achieved for us is in his death. He died so that we could be forgiven. Forgiven and made right with God so that we could live with him for eternity.
God with us. It is amazing that in our fallen and rebellious state, God came to be with us and to rescue us from our own sins. Be honest now, we should not have expected that he come as God with us. Instead we should have expected God against us or God over us or something else like that. But He came as God with us. To live the lives we live. To experience the struggles we experience. To share our emotions. To die the death we deserved and suffer the consequences of our sin.
This is the essential meaning of Christmas. It is not about presents and christmas trees. It is not about Santa and carols. It is not even about just a baby king born in a stable. But is it about God who was born as a baby so that he could live as a man - a perfect man - and offer his life as payment for our sins. We deserved to die, but he chose to die in our place so that we could instead live with him in heaven forever. Remember his promise - God with Us - forever. If we know him as Immanuel, Lord and Saviour, we will live with God - here on earth through his Holy Spirit and then in heaven face to face.
What a gift - and it is offered to each of us individually - Why? Because we are special. We are special in God’s sight. It has been said that if it were just for you and you alone, Jesus would have still died. Did you pause this Christmas to thank God for his gift or did you get distracted by the comercialism of the world?
Have you received this gift this Christmas from the God of creation? Just like any other gift, to be enjoyed, it has to be received. You could of course leave it all wrapped up under God’s Christmas Tree and go home this morning never knowing all the riches that God offers simply because you refused to accept his gift. Or you could receive it, open it and enjoy everything he wants to give you.
God is Immanuel - God with us. This year, he desires so much to be a part of your life. For those of you who don’t yet know him as Lord and Saviour, I invite you this morning to invite him to be part of your life and to live with you for ever more as Immanuel. What a way to start the year that would be. You don’t need to do anything special - just admit to him that you know you are a sinner and need his forgiveness. He wants to be Immanuel to you, so invite him to come and live in your life and his promise “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age” will be yours to claim.
For the rest of you who already know God as Immanuel, I challenge you to let that make a difference in your lives in 2003. Jesus is not meant to be just a decoration for your life. His gift is practical and is applicable in every circumstance you will ever face in the year ahead. So determine right now that this year will be one in which you live every moment with God and for God. Get to know Immanuel and may that be life changing.
Well we are at the end of another year. Let us pause and give thanks for what we have seen God do in the past year and give praise to him in anticipation of what he is going to do in the next year. We serve a great God and we want to ask him for his blessing in the coming year.
Prayer Lord, Immanuel. What a name that is, what a promise that it contains for us. We thank you so much that you did come to live with us when we did not deserve it. Lord, you died for us so that we might live. What greater gift is there than the gift of life. Thank you.
We want to pause now as we come to the end of another year and thank you now for all the blessings you have given us in the past year. As a church, we have seen so many wonderful things happen. You have provided for us in so many ways and we thank you for this family that you’ve brought together. We think of the ministry opportunities we have been able to support this past year and every group that is running in this church. We thank you for the faithful servants from this church who work tirelessly in your service in both this church and also in various parts of the world. We thank you for our church Leaders and the way in which you have guided them and provided for them the wisdom needed to run this church. As we each look back on the year, we also can look at times in the past year which you have provided for us individually. You sustain us daily with our daily food and water, you give us all our daily needs. You give us strength and energy when we have used up our last reserves. You comfort us when we are sad and encourage us when we are depressed.
Lord as we move into 2003, we pray that you would go before us. Help us to know that what ever happens, you will be there as Immanuel, God with Us. May that challenge us ever moment of ever day as we go through the high points and low points of what you have in store for us.
Thank you that you are our Lord. We praise you that you are Immanuel forever Amen.
