God With Us Is Jesus

The Christmas story is a powerful story, filled with wonder and miracles and very real life. It is the story of God with Us, Jesus come to earth as the most wonderful gift of all eternity. As we have walked through various parts of the Christmas story these past four weeks, we have explored the intersection of God with Us in the lives of real people who played a role in His arrival. And we have seen that as He brought hope, love, joy, and peace into their lives in very real ways, He will do the same for us today.

In our time together now, let’s briefly trace our way through portions of this Christmas story again, highlighting all that it means that God is with us.

God with Us Brings Hope

The book of Luke begins with an account of Jesus’s birth.

Most often we start in Luke 2 when we read the Christmas story but if we do, we miss a great deal of important context.

Luke begins his story of Jesus life with Zechariah and Elizabeth, a priest and his wife, an old childless couple.

This couple was past the age of childbearing. They had grown old together, being faithful but without the blessing of a child.

Israel had gone through many seasons, highs and lows and at the time of this story, was once again being oppressed. Israel was wanting their Messiah as badly as Elizabeth had wanted a child.

This was the point that God enters their story. To Elizabeth, God brought a child. To Zechariah, God brought the news of Zechariah’s son.

This was a bright spark of hope within Israel.

Isaiah had written this to Israel:

Isaiah 9:6–7 NASB 2020

6 For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of armies will accomplish this.

But it has been hundreds of years since then. And now, hope was coming to Israel.

How is your hope today? Whether your heart is light or your spirit is deep in despair, let me encourage you that God with Us brings us hope that sparks like a fire. It flows like water. It grows like a seed. Hope grows and spreads like a living thing. It can dwindle and wane and, yes, even die. But with nurture and care, it can revive and flourish and multiply.

God always brings hope to the hopeless.

This is my prayer for us all in this season: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).

God with Us Brings Love

When we talked about love, we talked about Mary and Joseph.

In many ways their story was a common story. Boy and girl meet and they enter into the multi-stepped process of being married in ancient Israel.

Then God shows up and rocks their world. Their once quiet and normal lives turn into what appears to be a betrayal of love.

In just the right ways, God shows His love to them when they are very much in need of it.

Mary goes to visit her cousin and hears precisely what she needs to hear.

Joseph, being an honorable man had determined to do what society said was the honorable thing; send Mary away. God sends an angel and explains what the honorable thing is in His eyes.

Mary and Joseph, being faithful to God, remain faithful to God even during one of the most trying times in their lives.

God with us is love which flows into us and through us. God’s love is always transformative; it completely changes lives.

Love has come into the world through Jesus and has transformed a world; it has transformed us and every person His love touches.

God with Us Brings Joy

Elizabeth personifies Christmas joy.

Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist was Mary’s cousin. Mary went to visit her when Elizabeth was in her 6th month. It was with the visit of Mary, pregnant with Jesus, when the Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth and John.

I can’t completely imagine what it would be like to be pregnant and have the baby leap inside me. To have your cousin show up and just the sound of her greeting causes the baby to leap and then to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It would be impossible not to be filled with joy.

And Elizabeth’s response was one of joy. It is one of the first joyful responses to the presence of Jesus. Elizabeth’s joy overflows into Mary.

Joy is like that. It spreads, and it often is present in circumstances that don’t seem all that joyous—especially when its source is Jesus, God with Us.

Peter described that kind of joy as inexpressible and glorious.

1 Peter 1:8–9 NASB 2020

8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Christmas is a season characterized by joy; because Jesus has entered our world and brought true joy to a dying and lost world.

Let’s rejoice together for the arrival of our Lord and in the knowledge that He is with us, always working to provide and heal in our hearts and lives.

God with Us Brings Peace

We like to think of it as a peaceful night in Bethlehem on that first Christmas.

But I doubt it was very peaceful. For Mary and Joseph it couldn’t have been very peaceful. After getting into town only to find out there was no room for a pregnant woman to give birth and then finally rooming with the animals, maybe some other travelers. Besides the lack of room, there would have been lack of privacy for a pregnant woman to give birth.

When we see pictures of the shepherds, everything seems to be calm with them as well. But there were probably coyotes howling in the distance, maybe even some stalking the herd of sheep. The shepherds would be awake to prevent any predator from attacking the sheep as well as prevent the sheep from wandering too far off.

And it surely wasn’t peaceful when the shepherds first saw the angel and bright light.

But isn’t this the way life is? Even when it is calm, there are still activities going on around us. Even when we find the time to relax, we still think about what we have to do next.

And during this time of year, it seems to be anything besides calm. And Christmas morning, while very much anticipated can be very busy. As soon as the presents are unwrapped, we start to get busy again; putting toys together, trying on clothes, cooking the food, talking about work, about the drive home.

I will stop here because just thinking about all the busyness of this season has me tired and ready to nap.

But the good news brought by Jesus is we can have peace no matter what our circumstances. Not a peace the same as the world gives but a peace that can only be explained as supernatural.

It might be a peace in the middle of the chaotic storms of life; a peace you can’t explain while making those hard decisions. Maybe it is a peace while you walk through a medical crisis or with someone facing death.

Philippians 4:6–7 NASB 2020

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

God didn’t say once saved we will have no more worries. God never told us that once we follow Him, all of our concerns will just vanish. What God did write to us is that His peace surpasses anything that can cause us worry, concern or even fear. It is a peace that only comes because God is with us.

God’s shalom is a completeness, a wholeness in this life with the promise of more in the next; and this is because the Prince of Peace has come.

God with Us Is Jesus

And that brings us to the center of it all.

Luke wrote in chapter 2:

Luke 2:6–7 NASB 2020

6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And with such an understated way, God enters into our world in the most humble of ways: human, infant, poor, vulnerable, physically dependent—God with Us as one of us.

A miracle, the greatest of all miracles, yet a quiet miracle. And the miraculous announcements and events surrounding His birth were at first quiet, personal, even controversial in appearance for Mary and Joseph. Then they were unexpected and localized to lowly outcasts and foreign sages who were on the lookout for such an unexpected disruption of eternity.

And still in the middle of it all is Jesus. Our Immanuel. Our God with Us.

Jesus is the fulfillment of all hope.

Jesus is the embodiment of love.

Jesus is the source of joy.

Jesus is our peace.

Jesus is life.

And because Jesus came to be with us as Immanuel, God with us, we can be with God.

On this night, on this Christmas Eve, let us open our homes, our hearts to God with us.

Let’s pray.

Benediction

“‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’” —Luke 2:10–14