God With Us

The Naming of Jesus

Christmas Day, December 25, 1988

Matthew 1:23 Behold the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means, "God with us."

The names of God as given in Scripture are representative of His greatness and of His workings toward us. We love the names of God:

Reverently we say the name "El Shaddai "nourisher, comforter;" We bow before the name "Elohim," which means "power."

But we have come to love one name of God, because it unlocks to us all the others. And that is the name which Joseph gave to his beautiful wife's firstborn Son, the name of Jesus.

Jesus, John declared, was God's Word. The same Word that had spoken into existence everything that ever was.

Jesus declared Himself to be Bread to eat, and Light in which to walk. Jesus told us that He is the Door to all good things, and that He is the Good Shepherd to lead us, and to seek us when we go astray. He said that He is the Vine in which all life resides, and that we are branches that need to abide in Him for that life. He said that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life; and He said that even though we are appointed for death and the judgment, that He is the Resurrection and the Life, and that he that believes in Him, though he were dead, yet shall he live and never die.

One name or title that goes along with Jesus is the Christmas name Emmanuel, which means "God with us!"

[What IS this God like, whom Jesus comes to reveal?]

I. God is SPIRIT

(John 4:24) To the one woman at the well of Sychar Jesus spoke this profound truth. In it He affirms the personality of God, and the common ground on which God and humankind meet. We, too, are spirit, made in God's likeness.

II. God as Spirit is LIFE

(John 5:26) The Father hath life in Himself; so also hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.

(John 14:6) I am the way, the truth, and the LIFE.

As Wiley says, "the fullness of truth, order, proportion, harmony and beauty" reside in this Life.

Life is that which relates to its surrounding reality. We are "dead" to whatever we cannot respond to. So people are spiritually "dead" unless and until they can respond to God, through His grace. Jesus came to make that response possible.

III. God as Spirit is LIGHT

(I John 1:5) God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.

(John 8:12) I am the light of the world: he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Moral depravity is the absence of light, and finally results because people prefer not to come into the light. Satan blinds people's eyes:

(II Corinthians 4:4) "the god of this world blinds the eyes of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of God should shine unto them."

But if we will, we may respond to the Light which is God:

(I John 1:7,9) If we walk in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin.

IV. God as Spirit is LOVE

(I John 4:8) God is love.

(John 3:16) God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Now THAT is our Christmas Gift for all time!

This, then, is something of what Jesus came to reveal: Jesus revealed God as Spirit, and as Spirit, Life and Light and Love.

Then Jesus revealed Himself as God- and then by His gift of the Holy Spirit, Jesus has made us to understand "Emmanuel!"

For it is the BEST part of the name Emmanuel, this dawning of the reality that in Jesus, the Babe of Bethlehem, God has actually come near, has come to where we are. Emmanuel means 'God with us!' I don't know any better Christmas message. It is what Christmas is all about!

WHO is with us? *GOD* is with us!

WHERE is God in Christ? God is *WITH* us!

With WHOM is God in Christ? God is with *US*!