God With Us

Good morning.

On April 12th, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to enter space and orbit the earth.

! This was a momentous event in human history.

And if you know the history of that time, you know that it also spurred on the competitive space race between Russia and the United States,

and it led to the massive expansion of NASA and ultimately the U.S. landing a man on the moon.

But the Russian government used this moment to promote some bigger ideas.

The Kremlin ended up producing lots of propaganda, including a poster of a picture of a cosmonaut in outer space saying a message,

and the message said, there is no God.

As if to say, we went to outer space, we looked around, we didn't find God,

and so therefore that's clear and convincing proof that God does not exist.

Were they right?

Were they right?

I think that's a totally fair question.

I think for many people in our modern culture, perhaps even for some of you,

this is a pretty convincing argument.

If you broaden it out that we've, through science, we've looked at the world through empirical observation,

and we have yet to find convincing proof of God.

But this time of year, it's great to sing Christmas carols and spread holiday cheer,

but at the end of the day, Christmas isn't a reason to believe in God.

Now, that's one possible story,

but we see another possible story in our gospel passage this morning in Matthew chapter 1,

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

where we are introduced to somebody named Emmanuel.

Emmanuel, this name that comes from a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7,

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

a name that means God with us, God with us.

And this name, Emmanuel, God with us,

is at the very heart of the Advent and Christmas season,

and it's at the very heart of the Christian faith.

And so a question that we have to ask this morning is,

which story is true?

Is the story that we've looked for God,

but yet we haven't found any evidence of him,

is that story true?

Or is the story true that God has come to be with us?

And that's what we're going to look at this morning.

And also, if that story was true, what difference would it make?

So we're going to look at this name, Emmanuel, God with us,

and we're going to look at these two stories together.

So first of all, Emmanuel means God with us.

It means God with us.

In Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 21,

Matthew 1:18–21

an angel appears to Joseph and tells him not to be afraid

about Mary's pregnancy.

Nothing scandalous or immoral has happened,

but rather this has all happened through the initiative

of the Holy Spirit.

In verses 22 and 23, the angel says that this is to fulfill

the words of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 7,

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

Now, many people, I think, in our culture find this to be pretty

irrational and implausible.

Surely Jesus was a historical figure.

He was a good spiritual leader and moral teacher,

but he certainly wasn't conceived supernaturally.

He certainly wasn't God.

He certainly wasn't God.

How could we possibly believe that story?

But around the time that Yuri Gagarin,

the Russian cosmonaut, went into space for the first time

in the early 1960s, there was a professor of ancient literature

at Cambridge University by the name of C.S. Lewis.

And in 1963, Lewis published an essay responding to this claim

that the Russians had been to space and confirmed that there is no God.

And in this essay, Lewis writes this,

the Russians, I am told, report that they have not found God

in outer space.

But looking for God or heaven by exploring space

would be like reading or seeing all of Shakespeare's plays

in the hopes that you find Shakespeare as one of the characters.

If God does exist, he is related to the universe

more as an author is related to a play

than as one object in the universe is related to one another.

He's saying if you're trying to find God in outer space

would be like Hamlet trying to find Shakespeare.

Hamlet could never possibly find Shakespeare

by exploring and examining his own world.

He would never find him.

But that doesn't mean that is not evidence

that Shakespeare does not exist.

In other words, the claim that there's no empirical proof

for God in the world is nowhere near a convincing argument

that God does not exist.

Why on earth would we assume that if God did exist

that that is how we would find him?

Of course we would never find him like that.

For Hamlet, for Hamlet to know Shakespeare,

Shakespeare would have to write himself into Hamlet's story.

For Hamlet to know Shakespeare,

Shakespeare would have to reveal himself

to Hamlet in a personal way.

And this is the claim that Christianity makes on the world.

It's the claim that Christianity makes on the world

at Advent and at Christmas

that in the birth of Jesus Christ,

God has written himself into our story.

In the birth of Jesus Christ,

God has revealed himself.

You may say, well, I believe that Jesus

was a historical person.

I believe that he was a good spiritual and moral teacher.

But I still can't quite believe in God

because I don't see the historical evidence.

And may I suggest that if that's your view

and if that's where you're coming from,

perhaps you haven't examined

the historical evidence closely enough.

Perhaps you haven't examined

all of the historical evidence.

Let's just look at one.

If we look at the eyewitness accounts of the Gospels,

which were reliably recorded and reliably transmitted,

we see in the Gospels that lots of people come to Jesus

and they don't just receive his teaching,

but they actually worship him.

That some people actually fall down on their knees

and worship him as God.

And what you need to understand

is that this was a completely absurd

and an even immoral thing to do in Jewish culture

in the first century.

In Jewish culture, it was completely blasphemous

to treat another human being as God.

Only God could be worshiped.

And there were all kinds of traditions and laws

that prevented people from treating other people like God.

And what's amazing is that in the Gospels,

in no one instance, does Jesus respond and say,

hey, you've got the wrong person.

You know, you've got the wrong idea.

I'm just a rabbi.

I'm just a teacher.

I'm not God.

Don't worship me.

Worship God alone.

No, in every instance, he doesn't turn them away,

but he accepts it and he worships it.

He welcomes it.

Which, if you think about it,

if he wasn't God, if that wasn't true,

Jesus was either a fraud, a complete fraud,

or he was a complete narcissist,

or he was both.

If you have captured this better than C.S. Lewis

in mere Christianity,

by the way, I try to limit my C.S. Lewis references

to one in most sermons,

but sometimes just, you gotta have two.

This is one of those days.

C.S. Lewis, mere Christianity,

says, I'm trying here to prevent anyone

saying the really foolish thing

that people often say about Jesus.

I'm ready to accept him as a great moral teacher,

but I don't accept his claim to be God.

That is the one thing we must not say.

A man who is merely a man

and said the sort of things Jesus said

would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic

on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg,

or else he would be the devil of hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was and is the son of God,

or else a madman and something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool.

You can spit at him and kill him as a demon.

Or you can fall at his feet

and call him Lord and God.

But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense

about him being a great human teacher.

He has not left that open to us.

He did not intend to.

Lewis says, when it comes to Jesus,

there's only really three rational responses

if you consider the historical evidence.

He's either a liar,

or he's a lunatic,

or he's Lord.

He's either a complete fraud,

he knew who he truly was

and completely lied about it to everybody.

Or he truly believed that he was God,

but he in fact wasn't,

which would make him insane.

Or he actually is who he says he is.

If the Christmas story is true,

it means that Jesus is Emmanuel.

It means that he's God with us.

We can't just think of him

as a good teacher or spiritual leader,

but as someone who has the right

to make claims on our lives.

As somebody who deserves our worship

and who deserves our obedience

in every single aspect of our lives.

And so we have to decide,

was Jesus a fraud?

Was he a narcissist or a liar?

Or was he God?

So first of all,

Emmanuel means that Jesus is God.

Second of all,

it means that he is God with us.

He's God with us.

In the Old Testament,

it was always a pretty radical thing

when people got to be with God,

to be in his presence.

God appeared to Israel on Mount Sinai

with a cloud of fire

and an earthquake

and the roaring sound of trumpets.

And of course,

if you know the Exodus story,

no one could even go close to the mountain

except for Moses.

God told people,

if you even touch the mountain,

you're gonna die.

Encountering the presence of God

in the Old Testament

is kind of like dealing with nuclear radiation.

To deal with nuclear radiation,

you need a lot of preparation.

There's a lot of rules that you have to learn,

a lot of protocols,

and there's a lot of stuff

that you have to wear.

You have to have the right credentials.

You have to wear a really expensive suit.

And if you don't do that,

if you become unprepared,

it's gonna kill you.

And that's what kind of the tabernacle

and the temple

and the sacrificial system

were for Israel.

They were to prepare people,

an unholy people,

to encounter a holy, radioactive God.

There's this line in Lord of the Rings

where in the fellowship with the ring,

where they're figuring out

what to do with the ring

and Boromir says,

one does not simply just walk into Mordor.

But one does not simply just walk

into the presence of an awesome holy God.

He is like radioactive nuclear radiation.

His glory will melt your face off.

And yet,

and yet,

the news of Advent and Christmas

is that the God who was so radioactive,

the God who was so glorious,

the God who was so holy,

came into the world.

Came into the world

as a baby.

This is something I've been thinking about

a lot recently

because,

as many of you know,

my wife Molly and I

are expecting our first child,

which is really exciting.

We're thrilled.

We're very excited to be parents.

It's a very exciting season in our lives.

And so,

Advent,

as parents who are expecting our first child,

Advent has made me think in a new way

about the reality of the incarnation.

And in particular,

I've been thinking a lot about this question.

why,

for Jesus,

did he have to come as a baby?

Why couldn't he have just come

as a fully formed adult?

He still could have been

Trinitarian Orthodox,

could have still been fully human,

fully divine.

He could have just come

as a 33-year-old adult,

showed up on the scene,

and done his ministry,

and done everything else that he did.

So why did he have to come as a baby?

Well,

there's a lot

that we could say

in response to that question.

But I think one of the things

that we have to say is this.

You know,

I think it's a common human experience,

whether we're Christian or not,

whether we're religious or not,

is,

how can I know

that I'm not alone?

How can I know

that God is with me?

How can I know

that God hasn't abandoned me?

Perhaps that's a question

that you're wondering

this morning

as you're coming into worship.

Where is God

in this struggle

that I'm facing?

Where is God

in this diagnosis?

Where is God

when it feels like

my life is falling apart?

Where is God

when it feels like

the world is falling apart?

Where is God?

Are we alone

ultimately?

And I want us

to consider the fact

that God didn't just show up

on the scene

as a fully formed human.

He became a baby.

There is no one

so more vulnerable.

There is no one

more open.

There is no one

more accessible.

there is no one

who is more completely

and totally

with you

than a baby.

For nine months

during pregnancy

and then for many months

after that

all babies can do

all they know

how to do

is just be there

with you.

They're sleeping

they're eating

they're crying

they're making

dirty diapers

of course

but they're just

there.

They're there.

They're there.

What if God

came as a baby

so that you could know

beyond a shadow

of a doubt

that he's like that

with you?

He's just there.

He's with you

all the time

24-7

night and day

every other

religion

and philosophy

says here's what

you need to do

in order to be

with God.

Here's what you

need to do

in order to be

with the divine.

Only Christianity

says

look at what God

did to come

and be with you.

Look at what God

did to come

and be

with you.

Look at what he did

to make himself

utterly available

to you.

Look at what he did

to make himself

utterly open

to you.

The God

who revealed himself

in radioactive glory

on Mount Sinai

the God

who created

the world

and the glory

of the galaxies

and the billions

of stars

in our universe

is here.

He's available.

You have access

to him

by faith.

What's so amazing

about the incarnation

is that we have

this rock-solid

assurance

that God

is always

with us,

that he'll never

leave us

and he'll never

forsake us.

let's look back

at those two stories

that we talked

about in the beginning.

Story number one,

there's no God.

We call this

a secular story.

If the secular

story is true,

then in the moments

where you feel

most alone,

in the moments

where you feel

like I'm incredibly

lonely,

there's no one

with me,

if that story

is true,

then you're right.

You are alone.

There's no one

ultimately with you.

Your deepest feelings

of being abandoned,

your deepest feelings

that there's no one

with you

are right

and they're true.

But if we look

at the second story,

if the second story

is that God

has come to be

with us

in Emmanuel,

then when we

experience

those very same

feelings,

when we experience

those very same

emotions

that we're alone,

there's no one

with us,

if that story

is true,

then nothing,

nothing could be

further from the truth.

Our deepest sense,

our deepest feelings

that we feel alone,

there's nothing

that could be further

than the truth

because God

has promised

to always be with us.

Whether we feel it

or not,

whether we know it

or not,

he's there.

He's with us.

So Jesus,

Emmanuel means

Jesus is God.

Emmanuel means

Jesus is God

with us.

And third,

and finally,

Emmanuel means

that Jesus

is God

with us.

He's God

with us.

Verse 21,

the angel says to Joseph,

she will give birth

to a son

and you are to give him

the name Jesus

because he will save

his people

from their sins.

Many Bibles

have a footnote,

probably yours does,

a footnote on that verse

that says that Jesus

is the Greek name

for the word Joshua,

the name Joshua,

which means

the Lord saves.

Jesus.

Why was Jesus

born into this world?

He was born

into the world

to save us

from our sins,

to save us

from our sins.

Now,

I think it's worth noting

that I think a lot of people

in our culture,

a lot of modern people,

educated,

sophisticated,

thoughtful people,

I think it's fairly

narrow-minded,

fairly outdated,

morally regressive

to believe in the doctrine

of original sin.

But I would actually say

that sin is the doctrine

that our culture

needs the most,

needs the most.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

was a Russian author

who was imprisoned

and sentenced to work

in the gulag

in prison camps

under the Soviet Union

for speaking out

against the government.

And as he's in prison,

he's thinking and writing,

and he's writing

about how the culture

that he lived in

believed fundamentally

that the dividing line

between good and evil

ran between groups of people,

between this group of people

and that group of people.

And he says,

he's reflecting on this,

he says,

you know,

if that were actually true,

we would have solved

humanity's problems

a long time ago.

If humanity was divided up

between good people

and bad people,

all we would have to do

is just separate

the good people

from the bad people

and then society

would flourish.

And many systems

and governments

have tried to do that

over the years

and it has ended horrifically.

Solzhenitsyn says,

the reason why we haven't

been able to solve

humanity's basic problems

is because the dividing line

between good and evil

does not run

between groups of people.

He says that it cuts

through the heart

of every single person.

The dividing line

of good and evil

cuts through the heart

of your heart

and my heart.

If the dividing line

between good and evil,

if we believe fundamentally

that the dividing line

runs through groups of people,

the oppression

and violence

and injustice

in the world

will never stop.

We'll always have an enemy,

it will always be us

versus them,

but if,

if the dividing line

between good and evil

cuts through the heart

of every person.

That is our only hope

of seeing society healed

because it's the most

fundamental basis

to say,

I'm no better than you.

I'm not more righteous

than you

because the evil

that exists in the world

isn't just out there,

it's in here.

It's in here.

And this is what it means

when the Bible

talks about sin

and it's why Jesus was born.

We all need to be rescued

from the same problem

and it doesn't matter

our race, class,

ethnicity,

social status,

rich, poor,

Democrat, Republican.

The Bible teaches

that we all fall short

of God's holy standard

of our lives

and we've all committed

treason against

the king of the universe.

We've all,

we all owe God a debt

that we cannot repay.

We are hopelessly

and irrevocably

lost in our sin.

That's the human condition.

But the good news

of Christmas

is not just that God,

that Jesus is God.

God.

It's that he's God

with us.

He's God with us.

On the cross,

Jesus took the evil

that's inside

each and every one of us

and he placed it

on himself

so that we can be

forgiven and reconciled

to God.

And this is not just

good news

for us as individuals,

it's good news

for the whole world.

Because if we admit

that Jesus was born

to save us

from what's inside

our hearts,

then we can't look

at someone

who's different

from us

and hate them.

We can never truly

hate other people.

You know,

in the Sermon on the Mount,

Jesus says,

love your enemies.

And this isn't

a cute phrase

on a coffee mug.

It's not also

an unattainable

ethical ideal.

It's a declaration

about the only

rational response

to the grace

that we've been given

in Christ.

Do you see?

Do you see this morning

that the dividing line

between good and evil

cuts through your own heart?

And have you trusted

in Emmanuel

to save you

from this condition

as your only hope

for the forgiveness

of sins

and for eternal life?

Verse 21 tells us

that Jesus was born

to save us

from our sin.

To take down

the dividing line

of good and evil

in your heart

and my heart

so that you and I

might cross

lines of

class

and race

and ethnicity

and politics

and to cross them

with love.

To cross them

with love

and to bring healing

into the world.

And to do

any different than that

is to completely

miss what Advent

and Christmas

are all about.

Because this

is what God

has done for us

in Jesus Christ,

in our incarnation.

Jesus is Emmanuel.

He's God.

You can't just

treat him as a good

moral teacher,

a good spiritual teacher.

He demands our worship

and our obedience.

He demands our whole lives.

He's God

with us.

He's made himself

completely open

and accessible

and available

to you

so that you can know

even in your darkest

moments of doubting

if you're actually alone

so that you can know

beyond shadow of a doubt

that you're never

actually alone,

that he's with you,

that he'll never

leave you or forsake you.

And he's God

with us.

With us.

Sinners

in need of a savior.

Dorothy Sayers

was a 20th century

British author

and novelist.

She was known

for a series

of detective crime novels

and her main character

is a detective

named Lord Peter Whimsey.

And midway through

this detective novel series,

Sayers introduces

another character

in addition to

her main character

named Harriet Vane

who joins up

with Lord Peter Whimsey

and helps him

to solve crimes.

And as they solve crimes

together,

these two eventually

fall in love.

And a lot of the

literary critics

over the years

who have looked

at these stories

have noticed

a pattern

that there's

a lot of similarities

between Harriet Vane

and Dorothy Sayers.

Harriet Vane

was educated

at Oxford,

so was Dorothy Sayers.

Harriet Vane

was tall

and had dark hair,

so did Dorothy Sayers.

Harriet Vane

wrote detective novels,

so did Dorothy Sayers.

And the literary critics

have said

it's quite obvious

what she was doing,

that she was writing

herself into the story.

She had created

this character,

Lord Peter Whimsey,

and the more

that she developed

his character,

the more that she

wrote about him,

the more that she

wrote his story,

the more that she

fell in love with him.

He was a great detective,

he was committed

to justice,

he was intelligent,

and he was rich,

but he had flaws.

He had a personal crisis,

he was lonely.

And so Dorothy Sayers

wrote herself

into the story

to rescue her main character

and to fall in love

with him.

And friends,

that is what it means

for Jesus Christ

to be Emmanuel.

It means that

God has written

himself

into our story

to rescue us

in love.

In March 1791,

John Wesley,

the great pastor

and theologian

and founder

of the Methodist movement,

was nearing the end

of a long

and faithful life

of ministry.

If you're not familiar

with Wesley,

one historian

wrote about the impact

of Wesley's life

and said that

in the course

of his life,

he rode over

250,000 miles

on horseback.

He gave away

over 30,000 pounds,

which was a lot

at the time,

and he preached

more than

40,000 sermons.

He formed societies,

opened chapels,

trained preachers,

administered aid charities,

helped the sick,

and oversaw many

orphanages and schools.

This was a man

who knew a lot

about God

and who did a lot

for God.

But in March 1791,

as he was nearing

his final days,

as he lay on his deathbed

at his home

in London,

his friends came

and gathered around him.

And as his friends

are gathered around him,

as he's laying

on his bed,

he grasped

each of their hands

one by one

and looked each of them

in the eye

and told them,

farewell,

farewell.

But in the moments

before he breathed

his final breath,

John Wesley called

his friends

to gather around him.

And he told

each of his friends,

the best of all,

the best of all

is God with us.

And as his voice

grew more feeble,

he lifted up his arms

and he spoke

in a feeble voice,

lifting up his arms

as if giving

one last pastoral benediction.

And he repeated it,

the best of all

is God with us.

Let's pray.

Our Father in heaven,

we thank you

that you have

come into the world,

that you have

written yourself

into our story,

that you are Emmanuel.

Lord, I pray

in the places

in our hearts

where we feel

most alone,

would you show us

and reveal yourself

to us

in a way

that we can know

beyond the shadow

of doubt

that you're always

with us.

We pray all this

in the name

of the Father

and the Son

and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.