Random Quotes & Articles to Provide Food for Thought
Matthew 1:18-25
I want to speak to you for a few moments from the latter part of verse 23: “And they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”
Emmanuel is one of the names given to Jesus. Nowadays when we give names to our children, the names don’t necessarily mean anything. Often we call our children by the names of a near relative or someone we specially admire. Sometimes we call them by a name that just sounds good—we like the sound of it. This was not the case in Bible times. Names had meanings and contained teaching, and this was never more true than in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has many names, and those names are all full of meaning and instruction. The name Jesus, for instance, means “God saves,” or simply “Saviour” as we saw in verse 21 of this passage: “for He shall save His people from their sins.” Isaiah tells us that “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” And here in our text He is called Emmanuel, which means “God with us.”
It’s interesting that there’s no record of anyone actually calling Jesus Emmanuel in the New Testament writings. In fact, this verse is the only place that the name is used. But the meaning, or teaching, or doctrine that is behind the name—Emmanuel, God with us—is everywhere in the New Testament. For example, 1 Tim. 3:16 says that “God was manifest in the flesh”—in other words came to dwell with us. John 1:14 says, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.” And so, although they don’t use the actual name “Emmanuel,” the New Testament writers continually refer to the fact that when Jesus came, it was God coming amongst us—God with us.
Let’s look for a few moments at some of the implications of these words, God with us.
I understand that in the original language, the force of the words “with us” is very strong. The words do not merely mean “in company with”, but “together with,” or “sharing with.” They imply intimate fellowship. Christ shared our very nature. He literally took upon Him the nature of man—flesh and blood, bones—everything that makes a body; mind, heart, soul, memory, imagination, judgment—everything that makes a rational man. Everything that we are, Christ was—with the exception of sin, of course. He was completely and perfectly man, but at the same time He was completely and perfectly God. God with us. He was one of us. And the marvelous part is that He is still one of us. The one who sits on the throne in heaven interceding for us is still truly man and truly God.
Christ’s incarnation, or God becoming man, is one of the deepest and most profound mysteries of the Christian faith. It boggles our mind to think that the creator of the universe, the one who spoke worlds into existence and who upholds all things by the word of His power became a helpless babe who needed to be fed, changed, burped, and all the other things that we associate with newborn babies. We must never, never give up the doctrine that Jesus Christ was very God of very God, that He was begotten not created; but it remains a mystery to our finite minds. “And without controversy, GREAT is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” And so we accept it by faith. We don’t understand how it could be, but we believe it and we rejoice in it.
And yet on the other hand, if you think about it, this was the only way that God could help us. This was the only way that God could be “with us”—by becoming one of us. As long as He was a God afar off, with no experience of our situation, our limitations, our suffering, our need—He couldn’t really help us in the way that we needed to be helped. But by entering the human race in the same way that the rest of us have entered it—as a helpless baby—He became one of us. He linked arms with us, so to speak; He came right alongside us and helped us out of our troubles and sorrows.
And so not only is Christ with us in sharing our human nature, but He is one with us in all of life’s pilgrimage. He went through everything that we go through. Were you born as a baby and placed in a cradle? So was the baby Jesus. Were you a child under parental authority? So was the boy Jesus at Nazareth. Are you alone? So was He in the wilderness, and on the mountainside, and in the gloom of the garden of Gethsemane. Do you find yourself in crowded places? Jesus was often in the midst of the multitude. Whether you find yourself on the hilltop or in the valley, on land or sea, in daylight or darkness—Christ has been there too. No matter where we find ourselves, Christ has been there before us, and is with us even now, and will be with us forevermore.
Especially we need to remember that Jesus is “God with us” in times of sorrow. There is no sorrow that breaks our heart but what Jesus Christ has been with us in it all. Do you feel the sorrows of poverty? He “had not where to lay his head.” Are you experiencing the griefs of bereavement? Remember that Jesus “wept” at the tomb of Lazarus. Have you been slandered, and has it vexed your spirit? He said “Reproach hath broken mine heart.” Have you been betrayed? Don’t forget that He too had His familiar friend, who sold Him for the price of a slave. He’s been on the stormy sea; through the dark night of adversity; in the fires and in the rivers; in the cold night and under the burning sun. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
Another way that Jesus is Emmanuel, or God with us, is by His atonement and reconciliation. Before Christ came, men were under the condemnation of a holy God. The human race had sinned, and God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and so the whole human race was separated from God by sin. Psalm 7:11 says that “God is angry with the wicked every day.” His wrath constantly burns against all forms of wickedness. But in the fullness of time, Jesus came. And not only did He come as a babe in Bethlehem, but He came on purpose to die on Calvary for our sins. The whole purpose of His birth was that He might be made a sin offering and bring us back to God. There was no other way that God could be with us except through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. The moment we put our trust in Christ’s redeeming blood, we find that God IS with us!
And as soon as we become God’s children through faith in Christ, we find that God is on speaking terms with us. He is WITH US in conversation and fellowship. He talks to us, and we with Him. He speaks to us through His Word and by His Spirit; He comforts, guides, corrects us; and we speak to Him in prayer. Not only so, but the Bible says that He actually comes to live in us. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Yes, God in Christ is with us, not now as the Babe of Bethlehem, but as the indwelling Spirit who lives and reigns in our hearts. One of the last reported sayings of our Lord before He ascended back to the Father was this promise to His disciples in Matthew 28:20, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”
As we enter the Christmas season, let’s not allow ourselves to forget that the real purpose of Christ’s birth was to fulfil His name Emmanuel—God with us, and that He desires to be with each and every one of us, not only today, not only through the Christmas season, but until the end of time and then on throughout the ages of eternity.
Emmanuel—God with us! Amen.
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