Untitled Sermon (5)

God With us Week 3

Last week Ross went through yet another trait of God. This is important for us because as we go through this series we are looking at one of the names of God which describe His Character and Nature. Last week, Ross covered a lot, but one of the traits which describe God’s Character is one we did not see coming: Jealousy.

Exodus 34:14 ESV

14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),

Jealousy. In this series we are looking at one of the names of God, Immanuel which means God with us. We know that God has all kinds of names, Elohim, El Shaddai, Jehovah. Jesus in the NT calls Himself the Good shepherd, The Door, The Vine. All of these names communicate God’s Character and nature. They paint a clearer picture of the God we love. But Jealousy? We have experienced jealousy in our own lives? Maybe we have even been jealous ourselves. When we think of a Jealousy in the context of a relationship we think of an insecure High School relationship. He saw you talking to another boy, never-mind you were simply asking what the homework was in Spanish class. She saw you make a another girl laugh. This is the jealousy we are accustomed to. So is this the jealousy we find with God? Is this how we are to understand who He is? His Character and Nature is Jealousy? God is a Jealous God but not in the way we envision jealousy. One of the shows a like to watch is Dr. Phil. I do not watch it often as I do not have cable. But when I start, I cannot stop. On one of these episodes Dr. Phil had a man whose wife was being enticed by a so-called Pastor in Africa. This woman was half his age and it was very clearly a Green card kind of situation. But she was in too deep. Dr. Phil got her husband Keith on the phone with this man and this is her husband, Keith had to say, “All this stuff you are talking about: your a Christian, I don’t know what Bible [you] are reading, but the one I read says that its one man, one woman, you don’t covet your neighbors wife. And also, I hope you don’t think I will give up willingly. This woman was a gift from God to me, and I will fight until the very end to save her.” Interesting, we see this and we would probably call this man’s response, loving. Surely it is bit it is also jealousy. Jealousy can be good. A man who would fight for his wife so that she would not be lead astray by another. This is when love and jealousy meet. Well this is exactly what we see with the God of Scripture. We a see a loving, merciful, and jealous God who would not sit idly by while his people were either enticed or as we see in Exodus 34 and 35, when god’s people would whore themselves out to worship other god’s. We need to note the word choice here by the author. We do not have a God who sits idly by. We see a mirror of this in the Prophet Hosea. A man who marries a prostitute. He rescues her from that former life. But she goes back into prostitution, and Hosea does not abandon her. He does not leave her. He goes and finds her and he has to buy her freedom. Hosea is a type, a living representation of God’s relationship to His people. The jealousy of God is important because we see very clearly the attributes of God on full display in 2 places in Scripture. What I mean by that is this, we can see a trait here and there as we read the Word of God. We will See His Grace here. His longsuffering there. But to see all of who God is. All of His traits on full display, I argue we see them in two places: The second place we see it is at the crucifixion. But the first is found in the incarnation of God. The incarnation is what we are focusing on today. His Character and Nature, are the reason why He became flesh. It is not absent from His jealousy that God became flesh, but as a direct result of it. Because of His love, His Mercy, His patience, and all the rest including His jealousy, He steps into creation. We really need to understand something right now, there is no other record in human history of God becoming flesh, to die for His creation. Nowhere else. There are those who would say, like Bill Maher in his movie religious, who make the claim that Jesus is just a copy of pagan gods who were already being circulated along the Mediterranean. Let me lay out their claims first before addressing them. They say, Krishna, Mithra, and Horus were all born on December 25, born of a virgin, adorned by three kings, had 12 disciples, baptized, resurrected… they try and pull from all the parallels. What makes this difficult to study is, people are all just quoting one another. There is one name that seems to get to the root of one of these claims and his name is, Gerald Massey.

Let’s address these claims real quick. First off, whoever said Christian’s believe Jesus was born Dec 25th? That is the day we celebrate His birth. Also, Scripture does not say Jesus was adorned by 3 kings. 3 Magi or wise men came to worship Jesus. So let me rattle off a few facts. Krishna’s mother had 7 kids before he was born, Mithra was born of a rock, and Horus was a result of Necrophilia. I know we live in a world where facts do not matter anymore, but they are really stretching the definition of Virgin don’t you think? Krishna when he was killed his spirit ascended to heaven, Mithra never died. Now, Horus was the focal point in Maher’s movie and so much of what he claims has no record. I would know, I read the Egyptian book of the dead. Because if what Bill Maher said was true it would erode my faith. He said it was in the book of the dead. So I bought one and read it. I went to the source. Not only was it a terrible read, there is absolutely nothing of his Horus’ baptism, 12 disciples, a star in the east. We live in a world where misinformation can become fact *like that* because someone quoted someone else. Quoting someone else does not make it truth. No is no other deity that Jesus Parallels. But what we do see is this, the only time we see faith’s gain traction is when the steal from Jesus. Mormonism, JW, Health and wealth for example. Why do I bring this up? Mankind did not make up any such story of God becoming flesh to die for His creation because we could not fathom that God would ever do it. That God would be jealous for His bride. That God would come and die for the sins of His creation. It was never recorded in History because that would be ridiculous! Until it really happened.

There are three main figures in the story of the Incarnation that I want to focus on today.

The first is Mary. Matthew 1:18-25 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” Now I want us to go to Luke 1 for more detail. Luke 1:26-38 “Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. “For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

What we see here is a young woman who is called to be a part of God’s Divine Will. A teenager, called by God to carry, birth, and raise God incarnate. We know that God had this all under control, but Mary did not know. Mary accepted this remarkable call with this statement, “I am the Lord’s servant.” This also translates bondservant or slave. For a moment I want us to understand what Mary was seeing from her perspective. To accept this call might mean some very difficult times ahead. She was not married and now she was pregnant. Up to this point and then every child after Jesus was only born one way. There was no virgin birth. They would have perceived Mary as a sinner, having cheated on Joseph and unclean. Joseph would have put her away and even her own family would have rejected her. From Mary’s point of view there was a very real chance that she was going to to being walking into homelessness, shame and single motherhood by accepting this call. But her call far outweighed what the world might say or do. “I am the LORD’s slave” she said.

The second person I want to look at is Joseph. We read in Matthew that Joseph was going call off the marriage as quietly as possible to not draw attention to Mary. As far as Joseph knew this woman betrayed him. She vowed to marry him and be faithful and clearly she was not! Yet, Joseph’s love for Mary went beyond the hurt he may have felt. He did not want her to be shamed. What a remarkable love. Are you beginning to see why God chose Mary and Joseph? An angel of the LORD appeared to Joseph in a dream and revealed to Joseph the LORD’s plan. That the child in Mary’s womb was God incarnate. The child is Immanuel, God with us. The text says, that Joseph did as the LORD commanded. An interesting point, a side note, as I hope you go back and read both Matthew and Luke's account of the story, notice Joseph’s headship. God appears to Mary. One would say she is a huge part in God’s plan. But notice, God only speaks to Joseph moving forward. When it comes to the safety of Mary and Jesus God tells Joseph where to go. This in no way brings shame to Mary. She is the mother of God incarnate. But Joseph is the head and he is to lead, serve, and protect his family. God speaks to Him alone following Mary’s initial call.

This brings us to the third main figure. Though He is third on this list by order, He is the first. The entire narrative of Scripture is about Him. He is the first and the last, the beginning and the End. The Alpha and the Omega, and He is Immanuel, God with us.

Here is where we will focus for the remainder of our time together. I talked about this before and I want us to cleave to it. I hope to be able to communicate how some of us might feel or how some of us wrestle with this truth. Truth can be difficult to reconcile especially when it appears that we have two truth’s at odds with one another. What do I mean? Why would God be with us? Why is He, Immanuel? The answer is both simple and complicated. It is easy to grasp but impossible to hang on to. For the same reason that mankind could not even fathom a mythology, that God would ever become flesh, bear the sins of His creation, and rescue them from their due penalty. We can hear the truth and it will be as clear as day and when we call upon it again our own memory has made it murky. He is with us, because He is Immanuel. God became flesh because He is love. God loves you. It’s so simple, isn’t it? But when we fall, as we do, this simple truth becomes harder and harder to accept. God loves me? God is Gracious. He is Grace. Able to give what is not deserved out of the Goodness, charity, and love of His being. Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)… God is jealousy. He is the rescuer of His people. He has saved them from slavery and bondage and brought them through the red sea. He alone has done this and yet his people turn back to worship the false gods who kept them as slaves. We are the bride of Christ. Like Gomer, we have been rescued from a life that left us empty and broken. Hosea took Gomer as his wife as God has taken the church to be His bride. But His bride goes back. We go back to the very things that enslaved us. The sin we worshipped before we knew Him as Savior. We go back because, perhaps like Gomer, that is where we belong. We hear the truth. You are loved by God. He is Gracious towards you. He will endure our short comings in His longsuffering. He will lavish us with Grace and more grace. We hear the truth. We take hold of it.

We are Gomer. Hosea has taken a woman to be his wife and she has now left him to go back into a life of prostitution. But Christ is Hosea. Hosea 3:1-3 “Then the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.” Because we know who these people represent there are no more beautiful words in all of Scripture in my mind, “So I bought her for myself.” Why bring this up? This is clearly pointing to the cross and Jesus’ death which bought us. Don’t you see? The incarnation, the birth of Jesus, God becoming flesh was that first step in his pursuit to buy you back. There is not cross without the incarnation. This is where God puts on full display who He is as he enters our plain of existence. As He wraps Himself in our flesh. As He faces our temptations.

If you take any notes here today this is what I want you to write, pray over, and meditate on, “Because He is...” So many times we can find ourselves wrestling with God’s love for us. He grace that he keeps pouring out so generously. The Mercy of another day. The longsuffering and patience of His sanctification. When we are in that place where it seems as though one truth is at odds with another. Understand they are not at odds and there are not two truth’s. There is one Truth, “Because He is.” Why would God love me? Because He is Love. Why would God forgive me? Because He is Grace. Why would God not abandon me? Because He is, Immanuel. Because He is. This is the hope I can give you today, your salvation, your continued fellowship with God, your sanctification hinges upon Him who is. Not upon us, who are not. We remember the cross every Sunday and the Sacrifice made on our behalf by the One who is. We remember that those first steps that were made toward that cross, began in a manger. The manifestation of all of who God is. The rescue of His bride began, when there was no room for him at the inn. “Because He is...” I truly do not know how else to explain it. He is Immanuel.