Core 52 Week 32 - God With Us

It’s been a consequential week.

Int’l - bombing in Lebanon - horrific damage and loss of life.

Nat’l - Ongoing fight against coronavirus and a nat’l election that’s heating up.

Local - School starting this coming week. Lots of questions and debate about how to do this wisely and successfully.

Personally - Lana exposed to coronavirus (again). Tested (again). In quarantine (again).

Polls continue to show that Americans are still feeling isolated, insecure, anxious at very high levels.

Here, at the beginning of a new week that promises to be every bit as consequential as the last, the pastor wants to talk about the incarnation. The what?

Jesus, Immanuel, God with Us.

Usually a theme we address a little later in the year, around Christmas. In fact, that’s just about the only time we talk about it and almost exclusively regarding Christ’s appearance as a baby in a manger.

Now, the baby in the manger is beautiful and rightly we celebrate God’s arrival in flesh. At the same time, we need spend some time focusing on the awesome, powerful nature of Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.

This is, in fact, an excellent time dig in to this core doctrine of the Bible.

Why so important? Because we need to know how to connect to a God who is bigger, more powerful, more able and better equipped than we are to navigate this consequential world we live in.

We need to know and believe that God isn’t just “out there” somewhere, not really paying attention to what’s happening in our world and in our lives.

That He knows and cares about our concerns, our dreams, our hurts and our victories.

What we see today in the pages of the NT is that God’s answer to connecting with us completely is to join us in this messy world. To become one of us.

To be God with Us.

Why the Incarnation Matters:

The Bible Affirms That God Is With Us

Matthew 1:23 NLT

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ ”

John 1:14 NLT

14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

Because God Became One of Us, We Can Know Our Creator

John 14:8–9 NLT

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?

Colossians 1:15 NLT

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

God Became One of Us to Save Us

Romans 5:8 NLT

8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

1 Corinthians 15:20 NLT

20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

God Became One of Us to Show Us True Life

Matthew 20:28 NLT

28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

2 Corinthians 1:22 NLT

22 and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us.

John 15:25–26 NLT

25 This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’ 26 “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.

Here’s the action item:

Jesus as God in flesh, has shown us how to live. Not like little gods, but to model and demonstrate what life in God is all about.

We are as I like to say, very specifically, the hands, the feet, the eyes, ears and beating heart of Jesus in our world; the church, body of Christ.

We need to know and believe in the Incarnate God - Jesus Christ so we can continue his mission.