God With Us

Introduction: Like many this week, Jaynie and I will soon be traveling back up to New Jersey to spend Christmas with family. And inevitably, whenever the family gathers, there is always a time when we tell the kids stories about when their dad, aunt, and uncles were growing up. It's a fun time together to recall antics of the past while also embarrassing one another in good fun.

There is one story in particular that my parents like to tell about when I was about five years old or so. Apparently, I did not like being alone at that age, as there must have been something about it that frightened me. So one day, I asked my parents if they would come with me to the back room because I was afraid to go alone. They said to me, "You can go alone, and you'll be fine." To which I replied, "But I am afraid to go back there by myself."

"Don't worry," they said, "Jesus will be with you."

I thought for a moment: "But me and Jesus are both scared and need you to come."

As a five-year-old, I definitely didn't have sound theology, but my parents were trying to teach me something significant. They wanted me to understand that there is nothing to fear if the Lord is present with you. From a young age, they wanted me to realize that you can live a blessed life even in a scary world when God is present with you.

Just a few moments ago, the teens read for us Matthew 1:18-23, and I am sure at this point in his life, Joseph was troubled as well. But he was afraid for legitimate reasons. He was betrothed and committed to marrying a godly woman, and he finds out that she is pregnant out of nowhere. How can this be? Well, there could really only be one explanation, right? Mary had been unfaithful.

Well, he couldn't marry her now, could he? But neither did he want to publicly break their commitments to one another, which would devastate Mary's life. After all, he still loved her; that hadn't changed. So, he made plans to quietly and privately dissolve their betrothal.

That is until an angel from the Lord visits Joseph. The angel tells him that Mary hadn't done anything wrong, but that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. The angel continues by telling him that the child would be a Son who would save His people from their sins.

At that moment, Joseph's mind must have rushed back to Isaiah 7:14: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

Long ago, Isaiah had given a prophecy to Ahaz saying that even though Ahaz had forsaken the Lord, the Lord had not abandoned his promises. Regardless of Ahaz's disobedience, God would preserve the Davidic line, and one day, a Son would be born who would fulfill all the Messianic promises. The sign of this prophecy's fulfillment would be that a virgin would conceive and bear a Son, and this Son would be Immanuel, God with us.

By faith, Joseph believed that there was nothing to fear. Instead, excitement must have welled up inside of him. It was happening! The Messiah had come, and it was better than man could have imagined. The Messiah was not just a man, but God's special presence had finally come.

Immanuel, God's special presence, is what makes Christmas so significant. Immanuel is not another empty promise. Immanuel is not the promise of a legalistic Santa who rewards you for the goodness you don't have. Immanuel is not the promise of earthly gifts or sentiment, which will inevitably be forgotten. Immanuel is not about pretty decorations and an immaculately decorated tree. Christmas is the fulfillment of the promise that the people of God have always held dear, that we could be reunited with God. Christmas fulfills the oldest promise there is - God with us.

Transition: In many ways, the wait for Immanuel has shaped human history, and tonight, I want to consider the coming of Immanuel from two different perspectives: man's wait for Immanuel and God's plan for Immanuel.

Man's Wait for Immanuel

Since the fall of man, God's people have been waiting for God to provide a way back into His presence. By taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve decided that they would rather do what is right in their own eyes than trust that God knew what was best for them. Because they had rejected God, they had to leave God's special presence in the garden.

However, God made a promise that he would not abandon man in this lost state but that He would provide a way back to Himself. In Genesis 3:15, God promised there would be conflict between the forces of Satan and the seed of the woman from that point forward. Although Satanic forces would do significant damage to the woman's seed, ultimately, one man would be born of woman who would deliver the fatal blow and crush all Satanic opposition, making a way back into God's presence. From that moment on, God's people have been looking for the man who would bring us back to God.

Well, Adam and Eve have a son and name him Cain. The woman, Eve, seeing that the Lord had given her a son, said, "I have acquired a man from the LORD."

Eve thought Cain would be the one to crush the serpent's head, but then she has another son named Abel. Maybe him? No, it wasn't either of them. Cain killed Abel and was cursed by God, so it had to be someone else.

Well, Adam and Eve have another son, Seth. Again Eve says, "For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." Maybe the promised seed was Seth.

But Seth doesn't reconcile anyone to God. In fact, Genesis 5 tells us about the continuing effects of sin as generation after generation after generation of Seth's descendants continue their march toward death.

It's not until Lamech has a son named Noah that the idea of the seed is brought up again, and Lamech says, "This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed."

But Noah didn't redeem man. In Noah's day, the forces of the serpent had become so active that "that every intent of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually." Instead, everyone in Noah's day drowned in judgment. Noah was preserved to preserve the promise of the seed, but it wasn't Noah who would redeem man.

God does, however, renew His promise and identifies the seed of the woman would eventually come from Noah's son, Shem. Well, in Genesis 12, we are introduced to Abram (Abraham), a son of Shem. Maybe Abram would bring man back to God. After all, Gods promised him, "I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

But Abram, although he is a man of great faith, lived a life marked by deceit. It's not Abram but through Abram. Maybe Isaac? No, but through Isaac. Isaac has two sons, and the promise is passed down to Jacob. But Jacob definitely isn't the one as he is a liar and deceiver.

Jacob has twelve sons, and the promise is passed down to Judah in Genesis 49:10. But it's not Judah. If you've read Genesis 38, you know it's definitely not Judah, but through Judah.

Centuries pass. Perhaps it's Moses. It isn't.

But Moses says in Deuteronomy 18:15 that “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.” The seed will be a prophet like Moses, but it isn't Moses.

Another four centuries pass, and God has commanded Samuel to anoint a king to replace Saul. God directs him to the house of Jesse, who is of the house of Judah, and Samuel anoints David. Will David bring people back to God? No, we find out in 2 Samuel 11 that David has his own deeply rooted issues with sin. However, God promises in 2 Samuel 7 that the seed will come through David.

The prophets identified the man who would bring man back to God as being very closely associated with David. In fact, Ezekiel identifies the Messiah so closely with David that he calls the Messiah David.

Ezekiel 34:23 NKJV

I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them—My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd.

Ezekiel 37:24 NKJV

“David My servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them.

Another 400 years pass, and no one has come to bring man back to God.

Perhaps this is too great a task for a man. What man can reconcile mankind to God? Will man ever be able to enter into the holy presence of God? According to Genesis 3:15, it must be a son born of a woman, but who can accomplish such a task?

It's at this moment that God reveals to Isaiah in Isaiah 9 that a son will be born, and His name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." So, the son will be a man, but he will also be God, and the sign of Immanuel's coming is that He is born of a virgin. He will be the seed of the woman, not the seed of man.

Transition: By the end of the Old Testament, God's people were hoping and praying for God to make a way for man to be in his presence, waiting for Immanuel. But as they were waiting, God had already been drawing closer and closer to them.

God's Plan for Immanuel

As we have already observed, God's promise of a son was passed from Seth all the way down to David. It was a promise that spanned hundreds of years. But even while man waited for Immanuel, God still desired to be with His people.

This is why God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle. For as soon as Moses finished constructing the tabernacle, God holy presence filled it.

Exodus 40:34 NKJV

Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:38 NKJV

For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

The tabernacle was a place where God was visibly among His people, and from it, He spoke to His people. Yet, the tabernacle was temporary, and God desired to be with His people forever, not temporarily. So 400 years later, he instructed Solomon to build a temple to live among His people permanently.

Again, as soon as the temple was completed and consecrated, God’s holy presence filled it.

2 Chronicles 5:13–14 NKJV

indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying: “For He is good, For His mercy endures forever,” that the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.

Now, the Lord no longer lived in a tent but in a house permanently among His people. Yet, according to Jeremiah 2:13-14, the people were still committing the same evils of walking away from the presence of God and into the arms of man-made idols. Their hearts were desperately wicked, and despite all that God had done to come near to them, they still walked away from God's special presence with them.

They needed more than a man to bring them to God, and they needed more than God living in a house among them. They needed to be totally transformed. They needed to be brought from death to life. They needed God, not among them, but in them, making them a new creature.

Roughly a thousand years pass after the completion of Solomon's temple, and an angel visits a carpenter named Joseph and tells him not to fear. God's special presence, prophesied by Isaiah, was coming through Mary. He was from the line of Shem, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and, most significantly, David. Jesus was the seed of the woman, God with us, who would bring man back to God.

According to John 1, just as God's presence filled the tabernacle and temple, God's presence filled human flesh and was a man. Jesus was God living among His people.

But his work wasn't done. Just as it wasn't enough for God to live in the temple, it wasn't enough for Jesus to live among His people. People needed a changed heart, not just God among them but God in them.

This is why, as Jesus' crucifixion and departure drew near, Jesus said to His disciples, "and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever." Jesus, God with us, went to Calvary, and there the promise of the seed, the man who was more than a man, crushed the head of the serpent forever. From before the foundation of the world, this was God's plan so that man could be with God.

But that wasn't the end of God's plan for Immanuel. After Jesus' ascension, when the day of Pentecost had come, just as God's presence filled the tabernacle and temple, it now filled believers. God had done more than any man could have imagined. The promise was fulfilled, and it was no longer the promise of God with us but God in us. And, according to 2 Corinthians 1:22, the Spirit of God in us is now the guarantee that where He is there we may be also.

Transition: God with us. That is what gives Christmas its significance. God sent His Son so that where He is there we may be also. When you strip Christmas of all of its decorations and traditions, you are left with the most simple and powerful message of all - God made a way for us to be with Him.