Immanuel: The Promise that came with Jesus

Immanuel: The promise that came with Jesus

I brought this message to my Burundian church this Sunday 16^th December, having been asked to bring something suitable for both children and adults in our Sunday school-centred Christmas service. Having been handed the graveyard slot at the end of the service, where I was sure to be time-pressured after everything else in the service plan had overrun, I did my best with a significant dose of prayer to carry me through. Please read this and be encouraged!

• A very special name

Most names have a meaning of some kind. Perhaps you know yours? Perhaps you don’t. Mine, for example, means ‘strong and manly’, which I’m sure doesn’t come as a surprise. If you don’t have an English name, perhaps your name translates into another language. When I came to Burundi, I met an ‘Ésperance’, a beautiful name meaning ‘hope’ in French. Similarly, being drenched in Kirundi when I went up country, I realised that the frequently-used words ‘Kwizera’ and ‘Mugisha’ (meaning ‘Faith’ and ‘Blessing’) make for very popular Burundian names.

Do you think you live up to your name? Jesus did, and He didn’t even just have one name. People called Him ‘Messiah’ (anointed one), others called Him ‘Rabbi’ (teacher). His God-given name, Jesus, is in fact a later version of the name ‘Joshua’, meaning ‘the one who saves.’ Isn’t it incredible that Jesus was given so many names, and managed to live up to every single one?  

In the gospel according to Matthew¹, we see Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled² when the angel of God appears to Joseph, telling him that he is to call Mary’s son ‘Immanuel’, which means ‘God with us’. That wasn’t just a name, it was a promise, and what a promise.  

• The reason behind Immanuel

Hang on – in sending His only son to earth as a baby and calling Him ‘Immanuel’, God made this incredible promise, but was it a new promise? I don’t think so. It doesn’t take an in-depth Bible search to see God’s constant pre-Matthew reminders to His people that He is with them, and He loves them:

·         Isaiah 41:10 – ‘Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God’.

·         Joshua 1:9b – ‘The Lord is with you wherever you go’.

When God rescued the Israelites from Egypt in Exodus, He was with them in the form of a massive pillar of cloud, and by night a pillar of fire!³ How incredible is that? And yet, for some reason, it wasn’t enough. God’s constant reminders of His love and care for us never satisfied. Why?

Here’s one possible explanation. Imagine me standing above a huge swarm of ants – not those dirty great wood ant things, but the tiny ones which try to carry off food you leave on the floor. I could spend days, months, years, shouting down to those ants ‘I LOVE YOU! I’M WITH YOU! I’M ON YOUR SIDE!’ but they wouldn’t believe me, not even if they’d somehow learnt English. They’d just take one look at my size 12 shoe and say ‘there’s no way he can be for us, he’s too massive! He could crush us in a second!’

I don’t think the situation between us and God is all that different. However many times God shouted down to His people ‘I LOVE YOU! I’M WITH YOU! I’M ON YOUR SIDE!’ people were never able to comprehend how such a huge, powerful, creator God could love and care for ants like us. Look how much the Israelites grumbled at God in Exodus, despite the fact that He was rescuing them from slavery.⁴ 

Perhaps that’s why God sent His son to earth as Immanuel. Perhaps the only way I could convince that swarm of ants that I was on their side – that even though I was huge and powerful, I cared for them, would be to become an ant myself, understand their limitations, and show them how far I was willing to go to convince them of my love and mercy. God made the ultimate sacrifice in sending His only son to live to die on earth to convince doubting people that His love and mercy for us is genuine and constant.

In the service, I pulled out a colourful puppet who asked me the following questions. Unfortunately there was no easy way to re-enact that in a blog!

• Who is this promise for?

Anyone and everyone. It’s a simple answer. Whether you’re English, Russian, Vietnamese or Burundian, this promise can apply to you. God is not just with preachers, ministers and worship leaders. Jesus is not just on the same side as white people, or rich people. God promises to be with anyone who calls his or herself a child of God, and He promises even more than that – In John 3:16, God promises eternal life to ANYONE who believes in Him⁵. What incredible love! 

• Isn’t it too hard for God to be with us all the time?

Nothing is too hard for God. Even when the devil appears at his strongest, and our Christian lives become long, dangerous roads, God remains with us wherever we go⁶. The Bible says that we will face persecution⁷, and never claims that life on earth as a Christian will be in the walk in the park, but states clearly that if God is for us, NOTHING can stand against us.⁸

• If Jesus is no longer walking with us as a man on the earth⁹, how can the promise of Immanuel still apply?

If I had left the message at ‘God sent Jesus as a man to be with us’, there would be a gaping hole. It would be perfectly justifiable to question how God is still with us, as Jesus does not currently walk the earth as a man. But the Son of man himself promised to send someone, or something in His place.¹⁰ The Holy Spirit is living proof of the Immanuel promise. What’s more, if we choose it, the Spirit will actually inhabit us!¹¹ You don’t get closer to ‘God with us’ than that. The Spirit of God offers help and strength in weakness.¹²

• How should we react this promise?

Be excited! No one else can offer you a promise like this; a never-ending, never-failing, trustworthy promise of the constant watching presence of God. Don’t keep this promise to yourself! This Christmas, let’s remember to tell people ‘God is with you.’ How do we know that? Because He sent His son, Immanuel, ‘God with us’. Amen. 

• Bible References

¹Matthew 1:22 ‘All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet.’
²Matthew 1:23/Isaiah 7:14 ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’)’.
³Exodus 13:21 ‘By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.’ 
⁴Exodus 14:12 (To Moses) ‘Didn’t we say to you in Egypt “leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians”? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’
⁵John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not die, but have eternal life’
⁶Joshua 1:9b ‘The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go’.
⁷2 Timothy 3:12 ‘In fact, everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’
⁸Romans 8:31b ‘If God is for us, who can stand against us?’
⁹Acts 1:9 ‘[Jesus] was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight.’ / Luke 24:51 ‘While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven’.
¹⁰John 14: 16 ‘I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.’
¹¹1 Corinthians 3:16 ‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives among you?’
¹²Romans 8:26 ‘In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.’