Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14 NIV)
Jesus has a lot of names. Have you noticed? I went through our worship folder today and counted all the names for Jesus. Do you know how many I found? 22. I was going to list them all for you, but it’s so many! Like Jesus. Christ. Savior. Lord. Redeemer. Messiah. Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. Son of God. Light. Immanuel… And 9 more names! There’s something special about Jesus, isn’t there? You can’t fit everything he is into one name! Except maybe that last name: Immanuel. Do you know what Immanuel means? “God with us.” That’s what Jesus is all about, isn’t it? In the darkness of our world, Jesus is “God with us.”
It’s just that those three words don’t make any sense. “God with us.” Does that sound right to you? It shouldn’t. It’s hard to think of crazier words. Imagine you ask me, “Pastor Nathan, what are you doing for Christmas?” If I were to respond, “Well, Tom Brady and I are going to…” You’d cut me off right there. “Tom Brady and you? No way.” Or if I said, “Taylor Swift is coming over to our house…” You wouldn’t believe it for second. “Your house? Yeah, right! And we’re having the Queen of England over. No offense, Pastor, but there’s no way you belong with them.” You’d be absolutely right. So how about with God? God with us? Whom are we kidding?
There are a million reasons why God should have nothing to do with us. In fact, all of human history is the story of why God should not be with us. Do you know what we have done to God? It started with Adam and Eve. God gave them a perfect world with just one command: “Don’t eat from that one tree.” But they broke it. That’s what we do to God. We break God’s commands. We break God’s heart. God chose the Israelites to be his people, but they turned and worshipped idols. That’s what we do. Worship everything other than God. All of history screams out to God: “Don’t have anything to do with these people. They don’t deserve you. They are so sinful!”
And that was even before the last two years. God’s seen it all now, hasn’t he? Our anger at everything. Our selfishness. Our arrogance that we alone are right. Our despair. God’s seen it all. And the devil whispers in your ear: “God shouldn’t want anything to do with you. Why would he? Remember your adultery? Think of your greed. Look at your sin. God should never love you. You don’t deserve it!” Do you hear those whispers? Know what? The devil is right. We don’t deserve God’s love. Would you ever look down at our world and say, “I want to go there!” No way. There are a million reasons why God should have nothing to do with us sinful people.
But there’s this amazing thing about our God. When people sin, he doesn’t step away. He comes even closer. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, do you know the first thing God did? He searched for them. When Jesus taught about God’s love, do you know what examples he used? A shepherd searching for lost sheep. A woman searching for a lost coin. A father searching for his lost son. It’s called grace. The undeserved, seeking love of God. When God saw all that we had done against him, he made his people this promise, “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
Remember what Immanuel means? “God with us.” God became one of us. That’s who Jesus is: The Son of Mary and the Son of God. True God and True Man. Jesus is God with us to save us! Because of Jesus, you are forgiven. Because of Jesus, there is hope. Because of Jesus, death isn’t the end. Because of Jesus, you are never alone. Because of Jesus, there is eternal life. Because of Jesus, you never have to be afraid. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). When you feel like you deserve to be abandoned or alone, God does the opposite. He comes. That’s even Jesus’ name: Immanuel—“God with us!”
So why do we still get so anxious? It’s simple. If you misunderstand any one of those three little words—“God with us”—you will miss the peace Jesus brings. Starting with the word “God.” Why so little peace? Because we make God little. We deny God created the world, right? It just happened on its own. We deny that God heals. Our medicines do the miracles. We deny that God provides. We work hard for everything we get. We don’t think much of God. And we don’t think about God very much. The most common use of God’s name is to curse, isn’t it? “Oh my god!” We’ve made God small. Just god. Small god = small peace. “god with us?” We need more.
No we don’t. We just need God—the real God. If you want peace, look up. On this beautiful night, go out and look up at the stars and planets. See how big God is. Jupiter is 318 times the size of earth and about 550 million miles away. That’s big! Then you realize that there are 300 billion stars in our galaxy, and there are at least 2 trillion different galaxies. That means there are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand on the entire earth. And God’s bigger. Wow! “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). You can’t say “God” with a shrug of your shoulders. Three little letters hardly do him justice. Even 22 names for Jesus is nowhere near adequate. You almost have to spread your arms out wide every time you say it: “GOD.”
He’s with us. Isn’t that amazing? The bigger God is in your eyes, the bigger the peace will be in your heart. The God who made all those stars… The God who invented hearts and eyes and kidneys… The God who set the boundaries of the oceans… The God who raised people from the dead… That God is with us. Actually, that God knows your name. He promised later in Isaiah: “I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). Actually, it’s even better. That God calls you his child: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). GOD with us. Big God = Big peace!
But even if you know that God is GOD, you can trip over the word “with.” Like this: “God will be with us.” Catch what I did? I added “will be.” We do that. “When we get to heaven, God will be with us.” What’s implied? For now, we’re on our own. See the problem? Facing cancer is terrifying if “God with us” becomes “God will be with us.” Or maybe for you “God with us” has become “God was with us.” Christmas Eve brings back memories of a different time. When God was with you. When you felt loved and secure. But those memories seem long gone. You got sick. She died. You moved. God was with you then, but where’s God been lately? Not with us!
Except that’s impossible, because Jesus says, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Not, “I will be with you one day in heaven.” Not, “I was with you before you messed it all up.” “Surely I am with you always.” Later in Isaiah, God made another amazing promise: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15-16). Wow! Even if a loving mother could forget her children, God will never forget you. Even if the bank account’s empty or there’s bad news from the doctor or that friend is unfaithful, God is with you. Now!
In fact, at Christmas, how much closer could God possibly get? When he saw our sin and our sorrow and our pain, God didn’t just set up a Zoom meeting from heaven and say, “Hey guys, how’s it going down there?” God came. But he didn’t come and set up his God headquarters and rule from his throne. He took on our flesh and blood. God made himself one of us. “God with us” is as literal as can be. Jesus is God with us. Remember how when people sin, God doesn’t step away? He comes even closer! When you see God as a baby, when you see God dying on a cross for our sins, how could he get any closer? God’s forgiveness, God’s love, God with us, now!
That sounds great, doesn’t it? For them. God with us? That last little word can’t be right. It sure seems like God’s with them. Not with us. Doesn’t it? You scroll Facebook and see people so happy. God’s with them. You look around and see families that seem to have their lives together. God’s with them. But not with me. How could he be? After all the foolish decisions I’ve made the last couple years? After how discontent I’ve been? After what I said? After how I’ve pushed him away again and again? I can see how God’s with them, but there’s no way God’s with me!
If that thought’s on your mind, then you missed what the angel said. “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). “A Savior has been born to you.” To you. Maybe that’s why Jesus was placed in a lowly manger and not in a palace. He’s the Savior for all. Maybe that’s why the news was shared with humble shepherds instead of the rich and famous. He’s the Savior for all. Jesus came for all of us to live for all of us and die for all of us and rise for all of us. If he came for all of us, do you know whom he came for? You. When he died, he died for you. When he forgave, he forgave you. When he saved, he saved you.
Maybe your whole life it’s seemed like God is with somebody else. Maybe it feels like you’ve done too much bad stuff for God to ever love you again. Maybe you’ve been told that you’ve strayed too far away for God to ever find you. It’s not true. If you are hearing these words, it’s not because mom made you come or dad made you watch. It was God. God at Christmas looks you in the eye—you!—and says, “I am with you. I came to save you.” No matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’ve been, you have a Savior. You have a God. In fact, you have God with us! Immanuel. What a perfect name for Jesus. He’s exactly what we need. God. With. Us.
I have a confession to make. I preached this same sermon last Christmas Eve. That’s one good part of moving to a different church! But I didn’t actually preach this sermon again just to save time. I needed to hear it again. There are too many days when I don’t feel God’s presence. Too many days when I feel alone. Too many days when God seems small. I know that you have days like that too. Days when you’re searching for something, but you don’t know what it is. You can’t quite seem to find it. It’s here. It’s Jesus! What you’re looking for has been here the whole time. It’s Jesus! I need to hear that more than once. You need to hear that more than once a year. My heart forgets. My mind moves on. And the anxiety comes. I need Immanuel: God with us!
You do too. Today. And tomorrow. And next week. Immanuel: God with us! That’s our comfort when life is good, and when it’s not. God with us. Those three little words give you strength in the face of despair. God with us. They are your protection against fear. God with us. They are our battle cry against the devil. God with us! You are not alone. You are not forgotten. You are loved. You are forgiven. Jesus is with you. It’s even his name: Immanuel—“God with us.”
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