Emmanuel: God With Us

Beginning in verse 18. Matthew chapter one beginning in verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise then when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, She was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then, Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example was minded to put her away privilege. In other words, before they were joined in marriage, both ceremonially and physically, she was found with child.

His first thought was that she had been what? Unfaithful. That would be the obvious conclusion and rather than making her a public example which could have even led to her death, he was going to divorce her in in their day when you were betrothed rather than engaged. It was slightly different. Betrothal actually required a divorce and he was going to do this quietly not desiring that she should face public judgment but verse 20, while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife.

For that which is conceived in her is of the holy ghost. And she shall bring forth a son. And thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means Jehovah saves. The Lord is salvation.

It identifies this little baby. Conceived by the Holy Spirit. Is the son of God and the savior of the world. Verse 22. Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son And they shall call his name Emmanuel which being interpreted is God with us.

Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him and took unto him his wife and knew her not till she had brought forth her first born son and he called his name, Jesus. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for it. The opportunity to look in your word this morning to spend some time in it as we worship you, as we acknowledge that this word is not merely the words of man, but indeed as it is the word of God, by which we are saved, by which the Holy Spirit leads and guides us, convicts us, and conforms us to the image of your son. We pray indeed as we look into the mirror of your word today that it would light our path and that we might be willing to be changed into your image that we might be willing to respond in repentance to your conviction and Lord, if there's one here today that's never trusted Christ as savior that today, they might be saved.

In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen. Amen. We want to focus this morning on that name, Emmanuel Which being interpreted is, God with us. Now, this is the only place in the New Testament that Jesus is called by this name.

He was not known throughout his life by this name. It wasn't his surname. It wasn't his common name. It was a title descriptive of who he is and why he came and what he would do. He is God with us.

In Isaiah seven fourteen as was quoted here in Matthew, Isaiah prophesied hundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. In the Old Testament, God said to Israel, I will give you a sign that I have not forsaken you. Though Babylon came in and conquered Israel though they were scattered throughout the world.

Though they were under the thumb of Rome in the day when Jesus was born, God wanted Israel to know that he had not forgotten them. That he had not forgotten the promises of a Messiah. King that would come not only one who would rule but one who would save them from their what? From their sins. And how would they know who this is?

Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. And he shall be called Emmanuel. God with us. This is how they would know. Among many other signs and miracles that Jesus did including his resurrection from the dead.

What is so important about this title attributed to Jesus? Why is being with us so important or different that God should make this part of his prophecy here in Isaiah and repeat it in Matthew. I believe it is important and it is different because for millennia, that's plural for millennium. That means for thousands of years, God had been separated from man. Because of man's sin That's why it is so important because God and man were separate by sin.

Even in the Old Testament Tabernacle, you couldn't just walk in to the Holy of Holies. There was a lot. There's a veil between you and God. A reminder of our what? Of our sin and our unworthiness to approach God in all of his glory and holiness.

Isaiah fifty nine one and two. Behold the days the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. Neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities, that is your sin, have separated between you, you, and your God. Your sins have hid his face from you.

That he will not hear you. In the days of Isaiah, Israel was going through a to mention tempestuous time in their history. There'd be great days when God did wonderful miracles and then a year later, things would be very bad again. One king would honor the Lord and God would bless them and the next king would turn from the Lord and God would curse them like he said he would back in Deuteronomy. He would bring judgement.

Very tempestuous time. Isaiah lived during the reign of about four or five kings in Israel. From the end of Uzziah's reign to the end of Hezekiah's reign in Judah. And many people thought that the Lord had forsaken them but it was not God who had forsaken Israel. It was Israel who had forsaken who?

Who had forsaken God By their sin. A reminder that all of us are separated from God. By our sin and iniquity. Way back in Genesis, God created Adam, Eve, and he put him in a perfect environment. The Garden Of Eden and there, he walked and talked with them in the cool of the evening.

He was with them. It was perfect. Their fellowship was perfect. There was nothing that came between them. And their God.

Until one day Satan entered the picture in the form of a serpent, serpent and he deceived thee and she ate of the fruit and she gave it to Adam and he ate also. And they sinned. They brought sin into the human race. They brought death into the human race and they brought misery and sorrow. Into the human race.

As we all became sinners in Adam. Romans five twelve says, wherefore as by one man, that's Adam, sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. There are two words in Greek for death. One is neck cross, the other is Thanatos. Neck cross is a word that speaks of death as being unresponsive.

Unresponsive. Dead, go up to a dead body, you can tell it to do anything. Is it going to respond? No, it is what? It is dead.

Unresponsive to God. The other words, Thanatos is a word that means separation. It's used often in context where it speaks of death as separation. When we die physically, our soul is separated from our body. If we die without Christ, we die eternally and we are separated from God for all eternity in hell and then after the judgment, the lake of fire.

That Bible says is the second death. We are separated. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were what? Separated from God. They were kicked out of the Garden Of Eden.

They were separated from that perfect union they had with him. God was not with them as he was with them in the garden because they turned in disobedi from him and it cost them that perfect fellowship that they had we were all became separated from God but God did not give up on us. He did not give up on us and all throughout the Old Testament, we see where God promises again and again to be with those who put their faith and trust in him. If you're in the men's Bible study a couple weeks ago, some of this may sound a little bit familiar to you because we looked at some of these same passages. To Isaac, Abraham's son, God said, sojourn in this land and I will be what?

With you. And I will be with thee. We'll bless thee. For unto thee and under thy seed, I will give these countries and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father. To Jacob in Genesis thirty one three, God said, and the Lord said unto Jacob, return unto the land of thy fathers and to thy kindred.

And I will be with thee. Moses in Exodus three twelve and he said, certainly, I will be, help me out. With thee. With thee. You can say that every time, alright?

Got that part down. And this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt. And you shall serve God upon this mountain. God was sending Moses to do an impossible task to stand before Pharaoh and to demand that Pharaoh let his people go. God said to Moses, it'll happen because what?

I will be. With thee. With thee. And you'll come and worship me on this mountain. That's Mount Sinai with all the children of Israel and indeed, of course, they did.

Joshua, Deuteronomy twenty one twenty three, Joshua took over for Moses after the forty years in the wilderness and Joshua led the next generation into the land. God here in Deuteronomy says, and he gave Joshua the son of none a charge and said, be strong and of a good courage for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I swear unto them and I will be. With thee. With thee. You see that makes makes all the difference.

Again, God had given Joshua another impossible, seemingly impossible task to defeat walled city after walled city and army with chariots and machines of war that Israelites had never seen. Men who made them look as grasshoppers as they said in their sight. There were people to the west of the Jordan River who were nine and ten feet tall not to speak of the Philistines on the coast who some of them were pretty big too and the Anakim in the middle of Judah God said, I'm going to send you and you're going to take it because I will be with thee Judges six sixteen, God came to Gideon. This is who we were studying on Friday night. Our men's Bible study couple weeks ago and we ran across this face phrase and the Lord said unto him, that is Gideon, surely, I will be.

With thee. With thee. And thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. Gideon was not the example at first of a mighty man of valor though that's what God called him. But he became one because God was with him and indeed that is what he needed to defeat the Midianites.

Not not an army of thousands. God did it with an army of 300. What he needed was God with him In Isaiah 43 and verse two, again, speaking to Israel as they were suffering because of the judgment upon their sin God said, when thou passes through the waters, I will be what? With thee. With thee.

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. God said to Israel and he's speaking metaphorically here as well in some cases, physically. He says, though you're going through trials, if you will embrace me by faith, I will be what?

I will be with thee and I will carry you through and I will bring you through and I will bring you back as I promised to do and indeed he did. We come to John in the New Testament chapter one and verse 13 and throughout these Old Testament passages, God said to each of these these people, he said, I will be with thee. I will be with thee. I will be with thee. But he wasn't with them in body.

He was with them in spirit. He was with them in guidance. He was with them at very brief times in appearance before Abraham and a couple of others as the angel of the Lord. A pre incarnate, I believe, appearance of Jesus Christ. But in John chapter one, something wonderful happened.

Amen. The God of heaven who was separated from us because of our sin. Left the glories of heaven. To become a man. And to be with us.

In a way that God had not been with man since the garden of Eden. Despite our sin and despite the humbling experience Jesus left the glories of heaven to be born and placed in a manger because there was no room for him in the end. To live as a son of a carpenter to die as a criminal on a cross for sins which he did not commit In Philippians chapter two, it says that we are to have the same mind as Jesus had. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who be in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself with no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Christ came to Earth John one fourteen and the word was made flesh and did what? And dwelt among us with us and we beheld his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the father full of grace truth Jesus went to that cross and there he died that he might remain with us forever.

You see, it was never God's desire to be separated from his creation. He created us to be with him, to have fellowship with him, to enjoy the blessings of heaven. And to praise his name. Forever. But sin marred the image of God in us and sin separated us.

From him. God already had a plan to redeem us, to buy us back, to reconcile us. Through the death of his son. The lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. That means in the mind of God.

Even before Adam and Eve sinned, Christ was already slain upon that cross. To redeem those who would rebel and yet who would receive his offer of salvation and forgiveness and be reconciled again to him First Peter three eighteen, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins. The just for the unjust that he might bring us to God or back together with God. Being put to death in the flesh but quickened or made alive again by the spirit. Jesus suffered not for his sins but he suffered for mine and why did he do that?

That he might bring us, reconcile us back together with who? With God. From whom we were separated. By our sins. You see, Christ didn't just come to walk among men that he might be with us for a time.

Christ came to die on the cross so that he might be with you forever. That he might be with you forever. He wants to be with you. He wants you to be with him. He created you for that purpose.

He loves you. Like no other could. When Jesus was speaking to of his disciples of his death, his resurrection, and ascension back to heaven. He comforted them by telling them that when he went back to heaven, that he would send a comforter. Who would not only be with them as he was but would even be in them.

John fourteen seventeen, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it see it him not neither knoweth him but you know him that is the holy spirit. For he dwelleth with you. And shall be in you. Jesus said, don't be discouraged. Don't be stressed over my leaving.

Because it only gets better. Because I'm with you. But when I go back to heaven, I'll send the comforter and he will come and he will live in you. In you. And he'll be with you and even a better way In Hebrews thirteen five, Hebrews thirteen five word of God tells Christians this, let your conversation, your your conduct, your lifestyle be without covetousness but be content with such things as you have.

How is it that we should be and can be content in a world that does not know contentment How is it that we can have this In a world that is covetous and greedy and void empty because we have what? Savior. We have the savior Jesus Christ with us and he has promised in his word one that he will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Romans chapter eight, Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus Christ. He will always be with us.

Who know him by faith, who have become his children by grace. He will not leave us nor forsake us. And nothing can separate us from his love. Not even death. In first Thessalonians chapter four, some of the Christians in the church of Thessalonica were all distraught because they thought Christ was going to come back before any of them died.

And they were all distraught over the death of their Christian brethren. God assured them and Paul assured them God had not forgotten those who had already passed away. A matter of fact, Paul said in another passage to be absent from the body is to be what? Present. Present with the Lord.

And he says here as he explains the rapture in first Thessalonians four seventeen, it says, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them. That is with those And so shall you ever be with the Lord. Jesus came, God with us, Emmanuel and he died on the cross to save man from sin that he might send his holy spirit to live in us but one day, he's going to come back to bring us, take us unto himself that where he is, there we may be also. In a place that he has prepared for us. It's not done yet.

Revelation 21 verse three. Revelation 21, God describes what is essentially heaven is the new Jerusalem descends for the new heaven with a new space and new earth that God has created after all. All things have passed away. And he creates a new world, a new universe without sin. And the new Jerusalem descends.

He describes it there. And he says this, and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. And he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God. This is our final abode. Our final estate with God forever.

We shall be his people and he will dwell with us and be our God. Amen. In the Tabernacle of the New Jerusalem. The word tabernacle is a word that means dwelling place. When you read in the Old Testament of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle simply means dwelling place.

It was a place where God would dwell within the midst. Of Israel. There are several several tabernacles in scripture. The first one is the Garden Of Eden. That's the first tabernacle.

Wherein that garden, God and man dwelt together. But that was marred because of man's sin and we were separated from him. Under the mosaic law in Exodus, God again had them make a build a tabernacle, a dwelling place where he could dwell in the midst of Israel that he might be with them though separated by the what? By the veil. That kept them from the holy of holies.

Except via the high priest who took the blood of the lamb to sprinkle on the mercy seat once a year on the day of atonement. Symbolic of the death and the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ that would once one day take place for the sins of the world. This was the old covenant. Under the new covenant, the New Testament, the Tabernacle is not a building made by hands. A man's hands anyway.

Right. But the new tabernacle, the new temple is our body. When we receive Christ as savior, God comes to live within us. We are told in first Corinthians chapter six that we are the temple the Holy Spirit. We have been bought with a price.

We are to glorify God in our body and our spirit which are his As he dwells within us. Guides us and teaches us strengthen us in his service day by day and then we have as we read here the eternal tabernacle of the new Jerusalem where we who know Christ will dwell with him forever. All made possible by the sacrifice and ministry of Emmanuel. Jesus Christ God with us who came to Earth 2,000 ago that he might live die for us and rise again to redeem fallen man to reconcile us together with our creator in heaven that we might dwell with him forever If you know him today as savior and not just as a baby in a manger or as an ornament on a tree then you have that promise Amen. And that place is your home This world is not our home.

We're just what? Passing. We're just passing through. That's my home. And as nice as this home is that home is better.

If you're here today and you haven't trusted the Lord Jesus as savior, you have yet to choose to become his child by faith and his shed blood. Placing your soul in eternity in his hands. If you have not yet done that, if you have not yet called upon Jesus Christ, be the Lord and savior of your life, then, your home isn't here. Your home right now is a place called hell in the Lake of fire. That's not where God wants you to go.

Christ died to save you from that. God doesn't want you to be separated from him forever. He wants to be you to be reunited in Christ that you might experience the glories of heaven and the pleasures that are yours forever if you will come and accept him today We pray as we give this hymn of invitation That if that's you that you wouldn't let your pride stand in your way. That you wouldn't let peer pressure stand in your way. That you wouldn't let sin stand in your way.

That you might come today. That we might show you from God's word how you might be saved and know him be reconciled to the God who created you and made you through Emmanuel God with us. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for what you did for us. Thank you for being Emmanuel Not only coming to Earth that you might reveal God in human form but dying on that cross that you might suffer as man.

For the sins of mankind. That you might redeem us and save us through faith. In your shed blood, in your sacrifice on the cross. Lord, I thank you for those who have recently come to know Christ as savior. I pray that you would strengthen them in their walk with you.

I pray they might grow in the Lord to serve you and know you better every day and I pray Lord that for all of us who know Jesus as savior. Lord, I look forward to the day. We will see you face to face but Lord, we pray once more this morning for those who may not have yet have come to you by faith, who have repented and trusted in you as Lord and savior. I pray today, Lord, would be their day of salvation that they might come as we give this hymn of invitation. We come to know you and be reconciled with you through faith and have this promise.

Be their promise also. In Jesus name, we pray. Hey.