Immanuel: God With Us — with Phil Whittall

Welcome to the Grace Church Weekly Podcast. We're an international church right

in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.

Each week, we share a message that's rooted in the faithful teaching of God's

Word and open to the vibrant work of the Holy Spirit among His people.

Here's this week's message.

Welcome, especially if you're a guest, if you're visiting Stockholm over the

Christmas period, you're very welcome here for the first time.

We're glad that you're here, and that we trust that as we speak,

as through worship that's already been happening, that the Lord speaks to you,

makes himself known to you.

So we're just going to pray and ask that right now that the Lord is speaking

to each one of us, and give us something that would encourage us and help us

where we are in our lives right now. So let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, you say that you want to speak, so help us to this.

And we just pray that through the words prepared and through the words of,

most importantly, all the words of Scripture, that you would speak to our hearts.

And where we have questions, we pray that you would let us know that you're

attentive to us and that you ought to meet with us and help us where each one

of us finds ourselves today.

We trust and we look to you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Last week at our christmas service i highlighted

the verse in matthew that said

all these things around the birth of jesus had come about because a prophet

that spoke hundreds of years before jesus was born they said behold the virgin

shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Immanuel.

And Immanuel means God with us.

And this is a thread and a theme that runs throughout Scripture from beginning to end.

And I made some sort of references last week,

but I want to kind of spend a little bit more time revisiting the theme and

bringing it out in a little bit more depth so that we really get to heart with

and get to understand what it means to be able to say,

God is with us.

At the beginning of the story, by the beginning of the very first part of the

Bible, there's a picture of God walking and talking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

There's this picture of life where there's a connection, there's peace there's security,

life is good the way we want it to be the way we imagine it could be it's a good life.

But once sin enters the picture, connection and peace and security and safety

all become harder to find.

Now there's reasons to be afraid. There are enemies. There's rivalry. There's tension.

There's thorns and thistles. There's pain. And there's death.

And that's the world we find ourselves in. a

world which is light and beautiful

but also dark and scary

and things that happen on the

news will show us how bad the world is and every now and then how good the world

could be we see both of those things together all of the time and depending

on the way that we're wired and depending on the things that we choose to look at, we often see,

we either sort of ignore the bad things, that doesn't happen,

you know, just close my ears to it, that's really difficult to do.

More likely, often all we see is, oh, how bad things can be.

But as the story goes on through the Bible, we see God looking for people,

just like he did in the Garden of Eden, people to walk with.

So we see a guy called Enoch, and it says, God walked with him.

We see Noah, God talks with him. And then he finds this man called Abraham.

And here at the story, it's found in the book of Genesis, the story of the Bible begins to take shape.

And in genesis 15 around the

middle of not quite the first third of the book we see

god make a covenant which is a religious word for like a promise like a contract

an arrangement between two partners and god's first words that abraham in this

context are fear not fear not abraham Well,

I am your shield.

Your reward should be very great.

I am your shield.

So in a world where lots of things can get thrown at you, good and bad, what's your shield?

What protects you from home?

And then, through a long and incredible history, God is continually repeating

and reaffirming the same promise he made to Abraham, to Abraham's descendants.

And one day, God meets a man called Moses.

And Moses, God has a mission for it.

He wants to set his people free. And that means Moses has to go back to Egypt

and speak to Pharaoh, a ruler, a king of Egypt, and confront him.

Because Moses' people are in slavery.

And Moses really, really doesn't want to do this.

And so he comes up with a lot of excuses. Lots of excuses.

And he ends up saying, please send somebody, anybody else. Don't send me.

But in his very first attempt to kind of wriggle out of it, God says to him, but I will be with you.

But I'll be with you. What are you worried about? I'll be with you.

And moses begins despite really

not trusting god at that moment in time begins to trust

god so it's a journey that he goes on from i don't want to do what you say till

he gets the point where god says to moses if you're not with us i don't want

to go anywhere if you're not with me And God promises Moses,

my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.

Where do you turn for peace of heart and rest for your soul in a world that's

sometimes full of trouble,

or a mind that can be restless and anxious and full of worries?

Where do you turn for peace and rest?

Sometimes we can just look at our circumstances and we can wonder,

how is all God's promises? How can that really be true?

So we come to the story of a man called Gideon. And in the story of Gideon,

the people of Israel are in a bad place.

They've not been obeying God. And for seven years,

they've been attacked by the Midianites, leaving

them hungry fearful and in

hiding every time they plant crops

and it comes to harvest time out come the raiders capturing taking all their

harvests leaving them impoverished frightened down children and a prophet comes

and god sends someone to speak to them it says He says,

I delivered you, past tense, referring back to Moses,

so you don't need to be afraid, present tense.

The message was, remember what I've done with you in the past?

And that means that right now, you don't have to be afraid, even though your

circumstances don't look great.

But with a reminder saying, you're not obeying me, you're not listening to me, you're not trusting me.

And so God then sends an angel to the younger son of a weak family in a weak clan.

And they've got no strength.

By their own omission, they're not very impressive. They don't have a ton of resources.

They are the smallest and the weakest.

And Gideon hears the angel. The first words of the angel to Gideon is, the Lord is with you.

The lord is with you gilean and

gilean replies hang on

a minute the lord is with

us and why then has all this happened to

us where all his wonderful deeds that our fathers told us about if god is with

us now how come everything looks

so rubbish how come everything around us feel so dark if God is with us?

And we can sometimes wonder that too. If God was with me, surely I wouldn't

be in a dark place, hiding and afraid.

We want to know if God is true, how can this have happened?

Now, if you are feeling this or can relate to that, No, you're not the first,

nor will you be the last. Did you?

Asks this of God thousands and thousands of years ago, showing us that this

is a kind of question that humanity has always wrestled with.

When bad things happen, how can God be good to you?

And sometimes, even though this question is an ancient question,

we can still make the same sort of assumptions that Gideon made.

If God really loved me, then nothing bad would happen to me.

If God really loved me, then nothing would be good.

I shouldn't have to go through suffering.

What good is it, God, if he can't help me the way I want to be helped?

There's a risk in all of these sorts of questions that can create something of a contradiction,

we want god to love us unconditionally but only love him after he's made our life better,

if we're being honest sometimes we don't really want god we want what we think god can do for us,

our love can be very conditional but we want god to love us unconditionally,

now never mind that gideon in the story is talking to an angel of the lord,

and you know it's kind of an odd question to ask an angel where is god it's

like the angel's like dude,

if God doesn't care, would I be here?

You know, would an angel be talking to you if God was somehow not interested?

But it doesn't have to be an angel. Sometimes we don't hear the voice of the

Lord when we read it right with the penage.

We don't hear the word of the Lord when someone speaks to us and reminds us of the truth.

We can be like the rich man, the story that Jesus told.

Jesus told the story of a rich man and a poor man. And the poor man goes to

be with Abraham in heaven.

And the rich man is suffering because he was never kind and he was never compassionate

he didn't do anything for the poor when he was at his gate and the abraham and

the rich man asked abraham for science give give my brothers who are living

supernatural science because then they would,

then they'd listen and abraham says they've got it right here it's all right in fantasy in.

In fact, even if they gained some extra signs, they still wouldn't listen.

Sometimes it isn't that God isn't speaking. It's because we're just finding

it hard to listen to the things that he is saying.

But God is interested in the heart of his people. He's interested in your heart.

He's interested in mine.

And the message to Gideon and people like him who are in the midst of oppression

and suffering is, I'm here, don't be afraid, and then together we'll deal with your enemies.

I'm here, don't be afraid, and together we'll deal with your enemies.

We think suffering shows God's absence.

God says, in your suffering, it's an opportunity to trust in his presence.

Because God does not run from suffering, but enters into it. Comes into our world.

Which brings us to Jesus, Emmanuel.

One of the key pictures God gives, the relationship that God has with people is of a marriage.

And Jesus is the bridegroom who has come for his bridegroom.

Now, there was a group of Christians, maybe 400 or 500 years ago in England

and kind of Northern Europe, and they were called the Puritans.

And they were often thought to be a really miserable lot because they were famously anti-Christmas.

They didn't like Christmas lights and Christmas celebrations.

They didn't see it in the Bible.

And they thought that as true Christians, we shouldn't celebrate Christmas.

And they thought it was a whole lot of unbiblical papery from Rome,

and we should just be done with it. I quite like them.

Anyway, so they're thought to be this miserable lot, but listen to some of the things.

One of their writers says, his name was Thomas Goodwin, and he's talking about

Jesus's heart for people.

And he says, he writes this, it's if he had said, As if Jesus had said,

the truth is, I cannot live without them.

And I shall never be quiet till I have you where I am, so that we may never part again.

Heaven shall not hold me, nor my Father's company. If I have not you with me,

my heart is so set upon you.

And if I have any glory, you shall share it with me.

Jesus said, I don't want to live without you, I want you, I want to find you.

And I want you to be with me and share in what I own.

That's the heart of Jesus Christ.

Trying to capture the center that God fiercely loves his people.

And ultimately, God writes himself into the story, our story,

into our world in the person of Jesus Christ.

He sent his own son because he so loves the world.

And in a marriage, what matters most is faithful love.

That's the marriage you promise. or in

the bible's words the covenant let us

love one another faithfully the question

isn't do you love but will

you love will you love will you love and these are the questions that we were

asked when we were married we love for richer for poorer will you love in sickness and in health.

Not just riches and in health.

Not just in the good half of the story, but in the tough half too.

Because what kind of love would it be if I only loved in the riches?

In our case, well, not at all.

But what kind of love would it be if I only loved when things are guilty,

a selfish sort, a not very sacrificial sort, a very, very conditional sort.

The wealthiest people, literally the very wealthiest people in the world have

everything that anyone could ever want and the means to get anything that the

world can possibly offer,

but they still haven't found a way to make their marriages lost.

They still haven't found a way with billions of dollars to their disposal to

find a way in staying married.

Because when we fail to love and choose to love, things break down.

Now, we might prefer richer over poorer.

We certainly would prefer health over sickness.

But the promise is to love no matter what.

That's what makes the difference. not the external circumstances,

but the internal decision and knowledge of loving and being loved.

That's what sustains you when life is difficult.

That's what sustains you when things are hard and there are things to kind of stress you out.

Knowing that I'm standing within a relationship of love.

So it's not that god doesn't care about your

circumstances but that's your

starting point not his his starting point and what matters most to him is that

we love him for who he is and that we let him love us where we are we love him for who he is,

And we love, let him love us where we are.

And that love in both directions begins to change us.

And everything about Jesus points us to the love of God. Everything. Everything about him.

It says this in 1 John 4. Beloved.

I said, beloved.

It's the scripture of the church. The ones who are loved. Let us love one another.

Because love is from God.

And everyone who loves is born of God. and knows God.

And whoever does not love doesn't know God, for God is love.

And God's love was revealed among us in this way.

God sent his only son into the world that we might live through him.

In this is love Not that we love God But that he loved us And sent his son To

be the atoning sacrifice for our sins,

Beloved Since God loves us so much We also want to love one another,

No one's ever seen God But if we love one another God lives us that his love is perfected in us.

God revealed his love by sending his son.

And his son reveals the depth of his love by becoming the sacrifice that we

could offer back to God in place of our sins.

So God gave his people the picture to show the gravity of sin and the way in

which God would forgive sins. And that was to offer a sacrifice.

They would come and they would bring a lamb and they would give it to the priests.

And the question is, where will he find pure, spotless love?

Where can I find such a lamb that I can bring to God so that he will look not

at me with all my mistakes, all my faults,

and all my shortcomings, all the things that I might be ashamed about,

and instead look at the lamb and declare me to be set free,

choosing the blood of the lamb the life of the lamb place of me and God says

to us I'll give you the lamb,

I'll give you the lamb the new me and that lamb is called Jesus Christ the lamb

of the Lord it takes away the sins of the world and so Christmas,

is our annual reminder that God himself,

provides the pure spotless level god himself has made a way for you to be with you.

And maybe you might not call yourself christian but maybe even today you can

learn you can begin to ask god to i want to trust you i want to trust myself

that this kind of love to someone who loves me this much,

to someone who would give himself to me.

Or maybe you find yourself doubting, or in a dark place like Gideon was,

will you trust the presence of Christ and let him take away your fear?

And then, what is then?

If we do trust ourselves to Christ, the verse says, no one has seen God.

How do we live in such a way? How do we know that God is with us?

Well, the same letter gives us the answer. By the presence of his Holy Spirit.

It says, by this we know that we live with him and he in us,

because he's given us his spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the guarantee, the presence of Jesus by his Spirit until

one day we see him face to face.

And so Jesus said, ask and you will receive.

Talks about how kids know how to ask for things. I imagine that that will be

happening in a few days' time.

And Jesus said, when he speaks of giving gifts, again, a relevant theme,

that if you know how to give good gifts, and I think you've got about three

or four more days to figure out whether your gifts are good ones or not.

He says, if you know how to give good gifts, then how much more will your Father

in heaven give the Humble Spirit to those who ask him?

Come christmas it says which of you would give you know when your child asked

for a gift we'd give them a stove instead of bread so none of you would do that

so if you know how to do that and surely god who is good will give you the most

important gift himself his presence to you,

so the one thing you can do today is that

you can ask you can ask god

for his presence you can

ask God if you trust in Jesus who is the way to the Father that he's I trust

in Christ will you give me your

Holy Spirit so that I know you are with me and he will hear your prayer,

and there's also a word that is called abiding which means being with You,

And this draws us back to Jesus' words, who said, Abide, rest,

be, live in me and I in you.

It's this real picture of intimacy, closeness, inseparability.

How can you separate someone from their own breath?

Only death can do that. And Jesus overcame even that.

So what's one of the main purposes of the Spirit? to remind us of all that Jesus said, Jesus said,

so that our hearts won't be troubled and we won't be afraid because he is with us.

Because he is with us.

The Lord is my shouldhood. What more can I possibly want?

And I may want more. I want a lot of things. I want to wake up younger,

smarter, fitter, and richer.

At Christmas, I will wake up older, duller, fatter, and poorer.

But listen, this is what God says to Jacob, Abraham's grandson.

Behold, I'm with you. And I'll keep you wherever you go.

And I'll bring you back to this place. For I will not leave you until I have

done what I have promised you.

I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.

Behold, I am with you. and I'll keep you wherever you go." In Christ and the

presence of His Holy Spirit, He brings this promise through, for you.

Wherever you go, His Spirit is with you.

If you trust in promise, that's the promise, that's the gift that Jesus brings.

If you receive Jesus.

Wherever you go, his spirit is with you always and forever.

And he will not leave you until he has fulfilled his promise to bring you safely to where he is.

A way you can dwell with him forevermore.

So God comes into our wilderness, Jesus, finds us in our darkness.

Finds us when we're hiding and afraid. And God delivers us from evil.

God forgives us of our sins.

God restores us and He heals us. And He will remain with us and live with us,

if we would only choose to live with Him.

And this all happens through His Son, Jesus Christ, Emmanuel.

Let's pray.

Just take a moment and just, maybe if you want to know this kind of love that

I'm talking about, and this kind of presence, and this kind of absence of fear,

because you know not that,

everything around is all fine, but because the one who is with you,

the one who is with you, makes all the difference.

If you'd like to know His presence for the first time, it's simple.

So please come to me, Jesus, by your spirit, and make yourself known to me. And you can ask.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you didn't want to leave us without hope in

this world, but you came to find us.

You came yourself. You came through Jesus Christ.

That's an incredible truth. Help us to behold it, to look at it,

and wonder at it. and be amazed by it.

But also, Lord, if we're feeling the world around us, the life around us,

the things around us are dull,

would you come into it and help us to see you, to look at you and not the dullness,

to know your presence and know that you being with us makes all the difference.

And you say to us, do not be afraid.

Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you.

And we wouldn't drow and sink beneath the mortars

of our troubles but instead keep walking

towards you in faith thank you

you promised to leave us alone but to send us your spirit so you'd be with us

now and forevermore we wouldn't ever have to feel like we're orphans or alone

because jesus you're with us by by your holy spirit what an amazing comfort that is.

Help us to trust in it, to be reminded of it.

Holy Spirit, remind us of these things. Remind us of the words of Jesus so that

we feel and sense their truth and their power work.

What an amazing gift it is, Jesus, that you will come to us,

that you want to be with us, and that you want us to be with you.

Transformed and changed, healed and restored.

Please do all of those things in our lives and help us to be people of compassion

and of light and of hope because these are the things you brought to us.

We ask this in your name. Amen. We hope that this sermon has encouraged you.

If you'd like to learn more about us, visit us online at gracechurch.se Thanks for listening.