God with us (2)
God with us • Sermon • Submitted
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Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Immanuel, God with us. Charles Spurgeon in his sermon said, “Oh! may God teach you the meaning of that name Immanuel, “God with us”! Immanuel. It is wisdom’s mystery, “God with us.” Sages look at it, and wonder; angels desire to see it; the plumb-line of reason cannot reach half-way into its depths; the eagle-wing of science cannot fly so high, and the piercing eye of... research cannot see it. “God with us.” It is hell’s terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; his legions fly apace, the black-winged dragon of the pit [trembles] before it… Satan trembles when he hears that name, “God with us.” It is the labourer’s strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake... how could men labour if that one word were taken away? [Immanuel] It is the sufferer’s comfort, it is the balm of his woe, it is the alleviation of his misery, it is the [rest] which God gives to his beloved, it is their rest after exertion and toil. “God with us,”— it is eternity’s sonnet, it is heaven’s hallelujah, it is the shout of the glorified, it is the song of the redeemed, it is the chorus of angels, it is the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky. “God with us.”
As we lead up to Christmas I want us to truly invest the time into, as Spurgeon said, reaching half-way to its depths. We will be building to the birth of Christ but for now I want us to meditate on this very special name of God, Immanuel. As a young Christian I thought that Joseph and Mary messed up. They were supposed to name Jesus Immanuel! Of course, along with any of the names of God it is meant to describe Him, His Character, His Nature.
Looking back to before Isaiah, we go to the Garden of Eden. We see this only once but it is clear that what we are about to read was a consistent occurrence. Genesis 3:8, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” The text communicates to us that they did not hear a sound and think it was God. They heard the sound of the LORD walking. They knew his foot steps. They knew the pace which he walked. Looking back to Genesis we see God’s creation, for a moment in time the way it should be. We see Immanuel in Genesis 3. But we also see, the sin which separated us form Him. From that day froward, it was no longer, Immanuel, God with us, rather, from that day forward it was God’s assurance, “I am with you.” This manifested in many ways: God assured Israel of his presence when they confronted battle (Dt 20; 31; Joshua 1) and promised to be with them when they were fearful and weak (Is 41:10) and when they were facing great trial (Is 43:2). God’s presence was manifested by the pillar of cloud and of fire (Ex 13, 22),by the tabernacle and the temple, especially the Holy of Holies and the ark of the covenant.
I want to emphasize this point for a moment. God was with his people: Pillar of fire, pillar of smoke. the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant. He was with them, but we could not approach Him. IN the Garden Adam and Eve were face to face with God. He was walking in the Garden right alongside them. What changed? Our sin has changed His being with us.
Now, though we saw Him as a pillar of fire and smoke we would not dare approach Him. Though His presence was upon the Ark of the Covenant we would dare not touch. One man did, to keep the Ark from falling and he was struck dead.
God was in the Holy of Holies but we would dare not enter. Sinful man cannot approach, cannot touch, cannot enter in the presence of The Holy God.
In the Garden, Immanuel, God with us. Sin ended that. It is no longer God with us, but now God says, “I am with you.” It is God who assures. But it is not Immanuel, God with us. Not how it was. Not how God wants to be with us. But in Isaiah 7:14 the emphasis changes from “I am with you” to “He is with us.” One of the texts we will see come up again and again is Ezekiel 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my laws. So If I can summarize what we are going to see throughout this series is, God with us, then it becomes I am with you, and then again we have God with us. What we will see is Immanuel yet again through Christ. It is the closest to Eden restored we could get in our fallen world. What made Eden, Eden, in my opinion was Immanuel. This is what God wanted all along.
Going back to Ezekiel 36, we have a prophecy which points forward.
Imagine for a moment being a Jew under the Old Covenant. There are moments where God’s presence is seen and experienced. God is speaking to His people, reminding them of His promise to bring them to the promise land. In that, Ezekiel prophecies this, Immanuel, God with us. We talked about this before, not in a pillar of fire or smoke. Not on a battlefield. Not in a moment of fear or weakness. Always. God with us, always. Isaiah prophecies that this will come to pass and Immanuel, God with us, would become a reality. In light of this remarkable prophecy, the promise land pales in comparison. “You mean to tell me God will no longer dwell in the Holy of Holies but in me? You mean to tell me God will not only be approachable, even in my broken state, but that I could commune with Him?”
We will get into this more on the 28th and so today I want us to see Immanuel and place this name over our lives for examination. His name is Immanuel, God with us. How is He with us? Can we talk about one of the most beautiful ways? Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” He is not with us in a removed way. Not only is He with the Christian, whom He has sealed with the Holy Spirit, He is not with us in an emotionally detached way. One of the key words here in verse 15 is weakness. This word hold to it a density we need to address. Translated weakness or incapacity. This is a state of weakness or limitation. This is so important for us because we know that our war against sin is not over. We still fight, we still struggle, we still fall short. This is our state. This word also means, illness. That even in our ailments God is with us. The reason why this is so important is because of legalism within Christendom. Whether it was brought in by the false prosperity gospel or by our trying to pursue God apart from Grace. There are those who will say you are sick because you have failed God. Your sickness is a punishment. He has judged you. Or worse he has left you. Not only are these lies theologically shallow but it shows the evil of the heart of the person saying it. We just spoke of our state. That’s who we are until the LORD returns. Therefore there is no way for our obedience to save us from illness. Meaning, we should all be sick and abandoned by God, if that is how God deals with sin, then we should all be sick and abandoned. This is not at all what Scripture tells us. Scripture is telling us that in our illness He is with us.
He has not condemned us, He has not left us, He has not smitten us. This word also means timidity, a state of weakness of courage. Even in our shortcomings. Have you ever walked away from an interaction and you knew there were so many chances to tell them about Jesus, your faith, and His Grace? His Word says He is with us then. I believe it is not just in the teachable moment, but that He is working beyond us. The spreading of the Gospel is not just limited to you and me. God is always drawing people to Himself and even in those times we get timid and we do not preach the Gospel, God is still in that moment and interaction.
We have serve the God who sympathizes with us, why? Because He walked in our flesh. God is all knowing which means He would already be aware of what temptation is and it relation to the flesh. But we are without excuse. We cannot say He does not understand. We cannot suffer and say, He never suffered. We cannot hear that whisper and say, He cannot relate to this addiction, this temptation. In Matthew 4 Satan himself comes to tempt Jesus at the end of a 40 day fast. 40 days, no food, just water. A minister once said, do not think for a moment that Satan is tempting you. You are not even worth his time. We give into temptation so easily. We want to blame Satan, but really, we do well enough on our own. Satan himself, came to tempt Jesus at the end of a 40 day fast. I tried to find what happens to the body with a 40 day fast, the best I found were two brothers who fasted for 20 days just water then 20 with juice. Jesus was not in a state of strength, but is a state of weakness when Satan came. His body is eating itself. His brain is in survival mode. Then Satan tempts Him. To say that Jesus cannot relate, does not understand, or is removed form our hardship is demonstrably false.
Immanuel, God with us. This name says far more than just God becoming flesh. This is God, in active pursuit of His people. This is God, not resting in His Divine Will to save that which is lost. This is Immanuel, God with us.
Immanuel means, not just the good times. We have had those experiences or those relationships. When things are good, then this person is around. I pray you are not this person. When stress is low he is a good husband. When you just do as she says, she is a good wife. When I keep giving her veggie straws, then Evelyn will be happy and sweet. Immanuel, God with us, is not just the good times. He is there as you stand beside the casket of the one you love. He is there when you are tired, worn out, sleep deprived, and still need to be a good wife and mother. He is there when the doctor gives you the news on your biopsy. It is in the pit of our despair, when is feels as though we are drowning in our tears, when the very lives of Christians are about to be taken, His name declares it, IMMANUEL!
I want to encourage you to read Acts 7 today and read the boldness of Stephen as he rebuked and preached the Gospel. For our purposes we will pick up at Acts 7:54-60. We look at Stephen the first Christian Martyr. He just finished speaking boldly the council. They were cut to the heart, but instead of repenting they decided to silence the voice speaking. God knew what was about to happen. Stephen was going to die and what do we see? Immanuel.
Stephen stood before the very men who were about to take his life. They were about to stone him. To this day, stoning someone takes a while. They do not select huge rocks. They will pick up any rock around them, but not too big. They want the person to suffer. If one were lucky they would be struck in the head and knocked unconscious. Perhaps this is what happened to the apostle Paul when he was stoned and left outside the city. They left him for dead but he was only unconscious. It was slow. Before these men were going to Martyr the first Christian, we see Imannuel. He did not distance Himself from His child. He was not removed. He was present, even in the time of suffering for Stephen. Some 100,000 Christians are killed every single year for their faith, and God is not removed from them. He is not distant from them. How remarkable is this? That God would subject Himself to being present in this. To throw Himself into this alongside His children. Immanuel.
We look at Paul, who was there at the stoning of Jesus. Only then he was named Saul. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
First and foremost we have no idea what this thorn is. We do not know if it is a sin temptation or is this is a bodily infirmity. The Greek can point wither way. Maybe Paul was sick. Maybe he combated with a burdensome temptation of sorts. We truly do not know what the thorn in the flesh is. Though as readers we want to know. What is Paul speaking about? But, why do we want to know? We want to make Paul to be more like us. I mean, Paul seams untouchable. He has suffered and by the text he just seems unfazed by it all and on and on. To that I want to say, Paul was affected by it. No man could go through that and not become discouraged, frustrated, or worn out. Second, the Bible is not about making those we look up to more human. They already are human. But because we do not know what the thorn is, we have before us a rare occurrence where we can insert ourselves into the place of the person. We can be Paul for a moment and be able to relate to that thorn because we have our own.
Do you see what this does for us? Now, we are not trying to relate to Paul, like, “Amen brother I hear ya.” Instead we turn alongside Paul with our own thorn and our eyes, our focus, our attention is directed toward Christ and what He has to say about this thorn. What does Jesus say? “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Jesus does not remove the sin. Jesus does not heal the body. Instead Jesus calls us to His Grace. Why is this so significant? First, by Jesus calling us to fall upon His Grace He is calling us to press into Him. To approach Him. Second, if He is calling us to grow closer to Him then certainly He is not pushing us away or hiding Himself from us. He is Immanuel. He is with us.
Let that sink in. We can hide our sin, our shortcomings, our foibles from one another. You see, you don’t see me, when I am sleep deprived because the babies are not sleeping and I stand up to get the bottle form the microwave, and my head hits the corner of the doors from the cabinet above. You do not hear what I said to the cabinet. You do not see when I am short with my wife for no reason because I had a moderately stressful day. You don’t see me kick the dog. There is a lot we do not see of one another. The things we can hide from one another, we do. That has to change. If I am going to tell you a cursed out a cabinet, and I recognize it was wrong and I still have more submission in my life to be handed over to Christ, can we have more vulnerability among us? Can we have more transparency? Because though we can hide some things form one another, there is nothing hidden from God, Hebrews 4:13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Jesus knows. Jesus see’s. Nothing is hidden from Him and yet, He calls us to fall upon His Grace.
As we close I want to encourage you in this, Immanuel God with us. This means so much more when we understand that He knows. See’s. Nothing is hidden from Him and He is still with us! Do not forget, He knew you were a fixer upper when He saved you. He is not surprised by your sin. Or have you forgotten, it was your sin that was nailed to that cross. He is not surprised by your sin, He has already paid the price for it. But in the midst of all our brokenness. All of our struggles. All of our hardships. All of our illness, God does not push us away, rather, He draws near to us. He is Immanuel. What a beautiful name it is. Immanuel, God with us. His name bears testimony of His Promise, I am with you.
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.