"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"

December 23, 2012

“O Come, O Come Emmanuel”
Matthew 1:21
Scott Howard

 

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means, God with us.’”

---Matthew 1:21-23  (the prophet text is from Isaiah 7:14)

Emmanuel:  God With Us.

Three truths about Emmanuel:

Ø  God is with you!

Luke 1:28 says of Mary just before telling her she would give birth to God’s Son: “Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.”

God is everything you need Him to be for you right now.  When you’re weak, He is your strength; lost, He is your guide; hopeless, He is your hope; in chaos, He is your peace; hurt, He is your Comforter.  The Greek word for comfort is ‘Parakletos’ which means: Para = Alongside & Kleto = Called to.  So it literally means that God is called to come alongside us to comfort us.  The all-powerful, ever present, all-knowing  God of the universe; that God, is with you!

Ø  God was with you!

Looking at God’s word and in the lives of the many people in the Bible, you can see even through the rough times, God was with them the entire time.  It is easy to see how God was with us in the past, in our own lives, and how He was working to bring us to the place we are now.  We can see specific evidence of this in Genesis 37:21 when Joseph (son of Jacob) had been sold by his brothers in slavery, and later put in prison: “…The Lord was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor…”  God ultimately saw fit to have Pharoah put Joseph in charge of Egypt!

Ø  God will be with you!

“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Joshua 1:5b

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.”  ---Romans 8:33 

And Jesus said in Revelation 1:8:  “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, the one who is, and who was, and who is to come.”   He is infinite.  This tells us that He is, and was, and will be everything He has promised He would be, which includes Emmanuel. 

So, the question is…

Ø  Are you with God?

Do you have an ongoing, loving relationship with God?  He wants you to be with Him.  He wants you just as you are.  There is never a way to be “good enough” to deserve His grace, mercy, and love.  That’s why it’s called “unconditional.”  The only thing God wants from you is for you to respond to His free gift of salvation.  So, wherever He leads you, whatever He calls you to do, He’ll be with you….Are you with Him?