(You Are): Jesus & Immanuel

Welcome

Welcome to camp everyone! Is everyone excited??

Thank you everyone for coming. I know you guys have just finished school, and you are looking forward to the holidays, and you guys probably have a lot of holiday plans as well!

But it’s so good that we are all here, not just because I get to see all your happy faces, but because we get to start this holiday with the word of God. And that is so important because these holidays, you’re going to get busy, and it’s so easy to forget about God and the Bible. And when we forget about God and the Bible, we forget who we are, our identity.

And that is the main idea of this year’s camp. Who are you? What is your identity? And we are going to explore this question, of who we are, by looking at the book of Matthew. We will go through the parts of the book of Matthew that tells us who we are.

And I really hope that through this camp - even if you take away nothing else - you guys will at least take away this one one thing: who you are, your true identity, can only be found in Christ. And we will expand on and explore that idea over the next 3 days.

This why you see all this stuff on stage. Some of the things about our identity we are going to talk about are things like:

Being a city on a hill

Being the light of the world

Being a citizen of the Kingdom of God.

Now just a few things before we start (thanking everyone):

Let’s just start off by thanking a number of people. There’s been a lot of preparation that has gone into this camp. And all these people have volunteered their time, energy, and money, for months, so that you guys can have this camp, and none of them are being paid for this.

These include all the team 2 and team 3 teachers who have prepared all the activities and the stage and so many other things. These include all the mums preparing food for the next 3 days, and let me tell you the menu is going to be amazing. These include all the people in the band + media team back there so that we can have wonderful music and slides for praise and worships. And also the leadership of the church, including pastor JK, pastor Sung, and especially Elder Daniel who has poured in so much time so that this camp is a success.

And most of all, we thank God who has given us all the strength and wisdom to help us organise this camp.

So can we please clap and give a round of applause to God and all the people who have made this camp a possibility.

Now just a few housekeeping things:

This year, we are not sleeping at church for camp, I’m sure you guys are very relieved. Everyone will be going home at the end of the day, and then come back the next morning.

You’ll notice that you’ve been given booklets. These are your passports - you are entering the kingdom of God as citizens of the kingdom of God. These booklets will have all the information that you need, including the camp schedule. PLEASE DON’T LOSE THE BOOKLETS, and PLEASE DON’T TAKE THEM HOME. Please make sure you return them to us at the end of each day.

You’ll see an area in the booklet where there area 4 blank spaces, one for each activity. These are where you collect stamps, kind of like how you collect stamps when you go to the airport with your Passport. There are 3 ways you can get stamps:

At the end of each activity, everyone gets one stamp if they attended.

There will also be hidden missions throughout the camp for each activity, and if you complete that hidden mission, you will get one more stamp.

Also, each teacher can freely give out up to 3 stamps per day. And these will be given to people who the teachers think are being good Christians. Being loving, self-sacrificial, generous, helpful, participating.

And you’ll want to get a lot of stamps, because at the end of the 3 days, there will be prizes for people with a lot of stamps. So make you collect lots of stamps.

There are also a few fun things at camp this year:

Popcorn machine

Photo booth + polaroid

Candy floss machine?

Zumba

Ok, so does anyone have any questions?

Call to Worship + Prayer

Alright, well then why don’t I read our call to worship for all of us. We will be reading from Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Prayer

Now I will invite the music team to come up, and let’s all stand together, so that we can now praise and worship our one and only true God.

Praise and Worship

Prayer

Introduction

So as I said before, the main theme of this year’s camp is ‘Who are you?’ What is your identity?

And what I want to do, is to look through the book of Matthew, and see what Matthew has to say about who we are, our identity.

Now what do I mean by ‘identity’? Our identity is who we think we are - I think many things about myself: I’m 179cm tall, I’m 33 years old, I wear glasses, I was born in Korea and grew up in NZ, I like playing piano, I’m a good listener, I’m not very good I might be a bit overweight! So when I think about ‘Who am I’, these are the things that pop into my mind, these are the things that form my identity.

I’m sure you’ve all heard these slogans at some point in your life:

Just be yourself

Be true to who you are

Live your truth

Manifest yourself in this world

Discover who you are

Now, all these, sound wonderful, and they make you feel all warm and fuzzy. And it makes you feel like you can be whoever you want to be in this world. It makes you feel powerful. You don’t need me and anyone else to tell you who you are!

But you know what the problem is with these messages? They’re only about you. It’s all about you, what you can be, what you can achieve, what impact you can make in the world. Where is God in the picture?

And these messages the world tells us - these highly individualistic messages about you - can be so attractive especially to people your age. Because at your age, you are still discovering who you are, you are still trying to form your identity. It’s an age where you start to compare yourself with your friends, and maybe your siblings, and maybe you are trying to find something special about yourself; trying to find something that makes you unique, that makes you, you. You’re also at an age where many people are really struggling with self-esteem: maybe you feel like you’re not as smart, or athletic, or as pretty, or have as many friends to the person next to you, and that makes you feel like like you’re not good enough, maybe you don’t feel like you’re valuable, maybe you feel worthless.

And when you’re at this age, when you’re still forming your identity, these messages of the world, these messages of just ‘me’ and ‘empowering me’, are like honey. They’re delicious, they’re so attractive. But let me tell you now - I know I’m not that much older than you guys, but from my life experience, and talking with many other people, there is no such thing as ‘just being yourself’, there is no such thing as ‘living your truth’ - this is naive, it’s stupid. The reality is, everyone is in relationship with others, you can’t be, just you. Who you are, is always influenced by those relationships. I’m not just Daniel, I’m someone’s son, I’m someone’s brother, I’m someone’s friend.

And you know what the most important relationship is? Your relationship with Jesus Christ. Your identity is not found inside you. You don’t define yourself with this feeling about who you are inside you; you don’t bring that out and somehow create and forge who you are. Your identity comes from something outside you. And the most important relationship outside you that forms who you are, your identity, is Jesus Christ. My identity is not Daniel Ko full stop; my identity is Daniel who’s been saved by Jesus Christ. That’s who I am, and that’s the most important truth in my life.

So the question of ‘what is your identity?’, is actually the wrong question. That’s why back in the first slide, I crossed out ‘You Are’. Because that’s the wrong approach, it’s not about us, we shouldn’t be asking ‘Who am I’, ‘Who are you’. We should be first asking, ‘who is Jesus Christ’ and then ‘who am I/who are you’ in relationship to that Jesus Christ. Your life is about Jesus Christ, not you. And for both Christians and non-Christians, the very moment you try to find your identity just in yourself, and remove Christ from your life, that is when you really unstable and struggle with identity and who you are, and why you are in this world, the purpose of your life.

One of the greatest passages in Matthew that really shows what I am talking here is right at the start, in chapter 1, the scene where Jesus comes into the world, when Mary becomes pregnant with the baby Jesus Christ.

So finally, why don’t we read this together. We will read one verse each. Read Matthew 1:18–25

“18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

Why is Jesus so important to our identity?

So before we get into how Jesus Christ forms our identity, let’s talk about why Jesus Christ is so important to our identity. Why can’t we just form our own identity? Why do we even need Christ?

Well, what’s interesting is, if you look at Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus, the focus is on Mary eg, how Mary is visited by the angels etc. But in Matthew, the focus is on Joseph. We see in Matthew’s story, that Mary was found to be pregnant with a child. But that’s where the story stops for Mary - from then on it’s all about Joseph. Joseph tries to divorce Mary because he thinks that she’s betrayed him, and found new man. But then Joseph get’s visited by angels and is told not to divorce Mary and take her as his wife.

And who is Joseph? What is his identity? Well Matthew tells us, in the very section that no one really reads, that no one really cares about: the genealogy. Read: Matthew 1:1 “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” And it goes on and on and on, listing all the fathers and sons, going all the way to Joseph. Read Matthew 1:16 “and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

This list, the ancestry of Joseph, shows us who Joseph is. Firstly, Joseph is the someone from a very special family: the royal bloodline of David. In the Old Testament, there are so many passages talk about a future king that will save all, who will be a descendent of David! But secondly, Joseph is also someone from the line of Abraham, the person who God made a promise to, to give many children and descendents, and God promised that through Abraham the entire world would be blessed.

But looking at Joseph, was this true? Where is the king, where is the great blessing? During the thousand years from Abraham and David, to Joseph, there was so many evil kings, not good kings, to the point where God destroyed the kingdom of Israel. And where was the promise to Abraham? There was no great blessing of the entire world as promised.

But in this very ordinary, and humble man, who was nothing like a king, and who was nothing like a great blessing to all people, he carried that bloodline of David of the true king that the OT predicted, and he carried God’s promise to Abraham to be a true blessing to the entire world. But in Joseph, there is this big mismatch between his identity, the carrier of that great bloodline and promise, to who he actually is - he was just an ordinary man, just like you and me, with no real power or influence, there was no way that in him, this great bloodline and great promise was ever going to be real in his life. Just like how you can’t manifest turn the world into what you want it to be, or turn yourself into something that you’re not, there was no way that Joseph was going to become what he was carrying and what he had inherited.

But what happens next? Read Matthew 1:18 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

In the hopelessness of Joseph’s situation, the birth of Jesus took place. And the birth of Jesus was not a normal pregnancy - Jesus was from the Holy Spirit, not sinful man. Jesus was God, but he became like us, a man. God, who was infinitely above us, who could have judged us and destroyed us if he wanted to, became a man just like us.

And only God could make that royal bloodline of David, and the great promise to Abraham, come true, especially in the impossible situation like Joseph. And the way God chose to do this, was to become a man, Jesus Christ - the God-Man.

So the very identity of Joseph, the carrier of the royal bloodline of David and the carrier of the great promise of Abraham, could only be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Only Jesus Christ is the bridge and solution for the mismatch in Joseph’s identity, between his special bloodline, and his situation which meant that bloodline will never come true. The identity of Joseph cannot be separated from Jesus Christ.

And just like Joseph, our identities, cannot be separated from Jesus Christ. Just like Joseph, who we are truly meant to be, is only found in Christ.

In Genesis, what does it say about who we are? It says we were created in the image of God. We are created to be the image Jesus Christ. That means when people look at us, they are meant to see Christ.

When we look in the mirror, and see our true selves, we are meant to see Christ. But so often, we look at broken mirrors, or those weird distortion mirrors that we see in circuses - we don’t see an accurate, real reflection of ourselves, but a distorted reflection. Rather than seeing our identities as reflecting Jesus Christ, we let something else reflect in our identities. Maybe when you think about who you are, rather than seeing yourself as the image of Christ, you let someone else reflect from you: you see yourself as someone who’s good at basketball, as someone’s girlfriend or boyfriend, as a nice person, as someone who gets good grades, someone who has a lot of friends. But none of these are your true identity - your true identity, is meant to be a reflection of Jesus Christ.

How does Jesus form our identity?

So that is why Jesus is so important in our identity. But in what way does Jesus form our identity? We talked about how we are Jesus’ reflection right? So we are meant to reflect and show the same love, mercy, and grace as Jesus. But there is another way Jesus forms our identity.

In this passage that we read, we see that there are two names given for Jesus:

Jesus

Immanuel

These names show how Jesus relates to us, and remember, I said earlier that relationships are an important part of your identity.

Firstly, lets look at the name ‘Jesus’. Read Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.””

The name ‘Jesus’ means ‘God saves’. And the angel tells us this himself, when he says Jesus ‘will save his people from their sins.’ Without Jesus, there is not even a point in talking about identity, because we are dead in our sins. Whatever people believe is their identity in this world, without Christ it’s all pretty meaningless, because it all just goes away and disappears in the end.

Whatever you may think is important and good about you now, is not permanent - beauty and good looks fades away as you get older, how sporty you are will disappear as you age, you may think your friends are so important now but trust me as you get older those friends you think are important don’t really last your whole life. Your intelligence and your grades? Our brain gets slower and less smarter as we get older.

Everything fades away with age, and ultimately disappears with death. And not just physical death, but spiritual death, which is when we are separated from God, separated from Christ.

But Christ comes into the world, to be with us, to save us. So as a Christian, your fundamental identity, is someone who is saved by Jesus. Someone who is loved by Jesus. This is your identity, this is your value and worth. Nothing else is more important to your identity than this.

And you know how I just said Christ came into the world, to be with us, to save us? That is the meaning of next name: ‘Immanuel.’

* Read Matthew 1:23 ““Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).”

Immanuel, means God with us. The OT writers, predicted Jesus’ birth, and they called him Immanuel, God with us. Why?

God who was in heaven, he invaded into this world, in the form of a man, in flesh, to be with us, and to save us. Remember in John, it talks about how the light comes into the world (John 1:9). And the light comes into the world, the world cannot avoid the light even if it wants to. The light is in the world, and you can’t change that fact. Jesus has come into the world.

So whether you like it or not, whether you believe in Jesus or not, Jesus Immanuel, God is with us. Whether you like it or not, Jesus came into the world to be with you, and therefore, you can’t escape him and your identity depends on Jesus. If you don’t believe in Jesus, at the end of the day your identity is still determined by Jesus, because He is ‘God with Us’ - rather than your identity being someone who is saved, your identity will be one who is judged by God in Jesus.

But as Christians, Immanuel, God with us, is not a message of fear, of judgement, but it is the most wonderful and joyful and hopeful message we can have. God is not a distant far away being, who doesn’t care about you or your life. God is with you, Immanuel. And Jesus came into the world, as the very love of God, and to save you.

Conclusion

As Christians, your identity, is someone who God is with, Immanuel. Someone who God has saved, because He has loved you. Your worth and value, does not depend on what you think about yourself, what your friends say about you, what you have achieved whether it’s success or failure. You can be be the smartest, or the least smartest person in the room; you can be the funniest or the least funniest person in the room; it doesn’t matter! Your worth and value is the same, because it doesn’t depend on you, but rather depends on God, and He has determined that you are worthy of love, so much so that He sent his Son into the world to die for you. We were born into this world to try and desperately live. But Jesus is the opposite: he was born into the world, to die, so that he can be with us and save us, so that we might live..

I don’t know what beliefs you have about yourself. Maybe you struggle with self-esteem, seeing yourself as not worthy, not valuable, not deserving love. And maybe this is because, you did bad in a exam, you feel like you’re not good at something, you feel like you’re not as talented as your friends. Or maybe it’s the opposite! You feel ok about yourself, in fact you may even be proud. Where does that confidence come from? Does it come from something that will eventually disappear? What then? How will you feel about yourself and your identity when that happens?

But Jesus says, our identity and our value and our worth, doesn’t depend on us or our achievements. It all depends on who Him, because He came into the world to be with us, Immanuel. Who we are depends on who He is and what He has done for us - and He’s perfect, and He’s already finished his work of saving us. And that means our identities are secure in Him. We are saved, loved, children of God. All we have to do, is believe, and we are called worthy, loved, saved, no matter what state you may be in right now.

So as we think about this wonderful grace that God has shown us in His Son, Jesus Christ, let’s sing this song together ‘Who Am I’. If all the band can step forward again,

Prayer

Pray for ourselves. I want us to ask ourselves, who are we? What is our identity based on? Is it Jesus Christ? Or is it something else in ourselves? And if our identity or our self-esteem comes from something outside Jesus, pray that God would reveal it to you. And let’s pray that only God and Jesus Christ would form the centre of our identity, because that is really the only true identity we have, and our only hope in this life, that will lead to eternal life, we are children of God, saved by Him, from sin and death. So holding onto that single truth, let’s pray for ourselves in this time, so that the Holy Spirit would convict our hearts about who we truly are. Let’s pray.

Now in this time I want us to pray for each other. If all team 2 and team 3 can come to the front seats here, we want to spend this time to pray for you. Can all the adults come forward and we are going to spend this time praying for the kids. Can we please pray that God would protect them from the false messages of this world, that seeks to pull them away from God. And can we pray that they would only find their identity and self-worth, in good soil, in solid ground, the only firm foundation which is Jesus Christ. Because anything else that we base our lives on in this world, is unstable and fade away. And let’s pray that these kids will grow up to be faithful children of God, who will work for God’s kingdom, and not for themselves or for the kingdom of this world. So let’s all lay our hands, or reach out our hands, and spend a few minutes praying for this precious next generation.

Closing prayer.

Small groups - Questions & Sharing

What are the things that make you feel good about yourself and boost your self-esteem?

What are some things that make you feel bad about yourself and lower your self-esteem?

The Bible calls Jesus ‘Immanuel’ (‘God with us’). Jesus is with us whether we like it or not. Is Jesus part of your identity? Or is Jesus not part of your identity?

In what way does Jesus form your identity? Does this help you overcome your insecurities or pride?

Sources

· Leon Morris commentary

· Focus on the Bible commentary

· NT use of the OT

· Spurgeon incarnation book/devotionals

· https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/where-is-your-identity

· https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/lay-aside-the-weight-of-insecurity

· https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/find-your-self-esteem-in-someone-else

· https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/why-we-never-find-our-identity-inside-of-ourselves