GOD WITH US
Matthew 1:23
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.
Where is God? St. Paul answers, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28 He is everywhere. Everything in our lives points to a divine Creator, but the point of our text is that God isn’t really with us until we come to know His Son. Only those who have been adopted into the divine family through faith in Jesus, can say with fullest confidence, God, my Father, is here.
This was the case when the world was at its beginning, in the age of Paradise. Think of the world that God created! It was furnished with sun, moon, and stars, and water, and animals of every kind. It was a splendid garden with full-grown flowers and plants and trees .God was there! When everything was ready, He introduced His highest creation into that garden, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26. What a glorious state this world was in. Man had a delightful home where they cared for the plants and had creatures of every sort to attend to them. God was there, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our corrupt human reason can’t begin to understand the bliss and happiness of a world where innocent man could talk to God and God could commune freely with them. Truly, God was there!
Alas! How quickly that vanished! Our arrant parents felt no need for God’s presence but determined to go it alone, a path that put them under the curse of death and led straight to perdition. God be forever thanked that His Son, Jesus Christ, offered His life as a sacrifice to restore God’s presence. Through Christ, God adopted us into the divine family where He could dwell with us forever. Think of how God dwelt with His saints in Old Testament times, how He took Enoch directly to heaven, how He pointed out the stars to Abraham, how He was with Moses at the burning bush, how He was with David to guide a single stone through the impregnable armor of Goliath.
The one appearance that has always impressed me was God’s appearance to Jacob, perhaps because Jacob was so much like many of us. He was an outgoing and impetuous young man who wanted everything his own way until he got his life into such a mess that he had to leave home, hated by his brother, with barely a shirt on his back. The first night away, all alone in the wilderness with no plan for the future, he found a stone for pillow and lay down to sleep. There God appeared to him in a vision and outlined the plans He had for him. God promised Jacob that he was not alone, that some day in the future He would bring him safely home again [if only after 21 years] and would make him one of the progenitors of Jesus. When Jacob awoke the next morning, he still had a long uncertain journey ahead of him, and was going to face many years of hard work and disappointment. However, no matter what problems the future held, and there were many, Jacob had this comforting assurance from the Lord Himself, “And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.” Genesis 28:1. God was with him!
There are times when you and I, like Jacob of old, make a mess of our own lives, and put our selfish will above the will of God. There are countless times when we lie awake nights, fearful for the future of our mixed-up world, or deeply concerned about each other. There are times when the problems of our families seem overwhelming. What a comfort to know that the words with which our heavenly Father once comforted Jacob, He still comforts us: And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places whither you go.” Genesis 28:1. God is here!
Nowhere does the abiding presence of our Lord shine forth as brilliantly as in the life of His Son. In that helpless babe, lying in swaddling clothes, we see almighty God Himself, “Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 All through His life, here on earth, ending in a shameful death, God was always in His Son working out our salvation, “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. Even those moments when Jesus, hanging on the cross, cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46, God was behind it all, accepting the full payment for our sins.
When Jesus rose from the dead, as our victorious Savior, as “Lord of Lords and King of Kings, “Revelation 17:4, and was no longer confined to life on this earth, He wanted His believing children to know that He hadn’t deserted them. On the very first Easter evening, He passed through the locked doors of an upper room to be with His frightened and disoriented disciples and to set their hearts at rest. For 40 days he comforted them with His presence, and then ascended into heaven so that He could share His presence with you and me and believers all over the world for all time, as He promised, “And lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20.
Indeed, Jesus is “God with us.” He has been with us all our lifetimes and He promises to be with us in the coming year. We might think of our own dear homes. What kind of home doesn’t make any difference, whether a thatched roof or a stone floor or the most elegant mosaic. What matters is that God is there with His word to comfort us and strengthen our faith. Where the Scripture is read and studied, where the family is joined in prayer, that house is a temple for the living Lord. And If there are moments when it seems as if God were not here, times of intolerable pain or black depression, times in which we are almost afraid for our own future, may we say with the Psalmist, “The LORD preserves the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me. He delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” Psalm 116:6, 8, 12. Should the LORD, in the coming year, graciously take us from this vale of tears to our home in heaven, we have the promise of God Himself that, as He is wit us now, He will be with us then forever, for “Precious in the sight of our LORD is the death of his saints!” Psalms 116:15.
0 Lord Christ, our Savior dear,
Be Thou ever near us.
Grant us now a glad new year.
Amen, Jesus, hear us! TLH 97, v. 4
Hymns 117 – 123 - 97
This sermon was preached by Pastor Robert Dommer on December 31, 2007.