The God who is with us

It was that silent night when the stars turned their gaze to

marvel at the earth, when the heavens gathered breathless

around a lowly stable, when a young mother wept, tears of

worship falling on the baby in her arms.

And the song of the earth arose in Bethlehem, soft as the tender

beating of his heart. And all was calm, all was

bright. Yet could this be the same God

of Abraham, the Conqueror of Israel, this baby, this fragile

life? Is this child the one who burned

his name in rapture across the gasping skies, whose voice spoke

the oceans into crashing rhythms, who crafted the

mountains into guardians of the firmament, whose hand ignited

the thirst of the deserts and a warring surge of the elemental

hosts, who breathed life from dust, broke the oppressor's

rule, scattered the chains of his people like sand, and LED

them through the wilderness with a pillar of flame?

Is this child the one whose presence billowed thunderous on

Sinai's peak, who surrounded Job with the roaring wind, stood

defiant in the raging furnace, wrote judgment against tyrants,

and blazed on the lips of the prophets, scorching history's

pages with the fury of his might?

Could this be the same God who chose to come as the vulnerable

King, setting his throne on straw and Manger, drawing forth

the tears of shepherds, receiving the gifts of wandering

travellers, his fame unknown in this world?

He is Jesus, the one who thunders through the heavens,

yet whispers to our hearts, who reigns victorious, yet vows to

serve the broken. He is God in the fury, God in

the silence. He holds this mystery balanced

in His hands, holds our questions till they lose their

need, until all we see is Him. You'll still get goosebumps.

My goodness, I just love that video.

I love the tension that it creates.

I think that one of the lions is something to this.

He roars in the heavens but whispers to our hearts, Yeah, he

is the God who is God almighty, but he's also God with us, the

God who condescends to us in our valleys and our struggles.

And that's very much what we're going to be taking a look at

this morning. I'm going to jump straight in.

I want to pick up on Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

If you're taking notes, you don't have to turn there.

It's going to be on the screens as we dive in.

Matthew 118 says this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came

about. His mother Mary was pledged to

be married to Joseph. But before they came together,

she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did

not want to expose her to public disgrace.

He hadn't mind to divorce her quietly, but after he had

considered this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream

and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary

home as your wife, because what is conceived in hers from the

Holy Spirit, she'll give birth to a son, and you are to give

him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their

sins. All this took place to fulfill

what the Lord had said through the prophet.

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they

will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

So that's the name of our series that we're going to close 2024

with God with us. And that's a, that's quite a

loaded name. What does it mean to serve a God

who condescends, a God whose greatest desires say no, no, no,

you need to know me as this God with us, not a God upmost

higher. My first and foremost desires to

know you, to be with you in the midst of all that you're facing.

Now, what we've learned from Rory is whenever something like

this that says there, the prophet had said, it's referring

to a moment in the Old Testament.

And what Ross taught us is whenever there's something

mentioned in the New Testament that's drawn from the Old

Testament, it's always good to go back and see what was going

on in that setup, in that environment.

What is it that Matthew wants us to see here?

And you only find that in the context.

So that's what we're going to do this morning.

We're going to look at the context.

What is Matthew on about? Why would he choose this one

prophecy out of 300 plus prophecies out of the Old

Testament and what was spoken of of this coming Messiah?

What's so special about the fact that he wants to be known as

Emmanuel, God with us. So if you have your Bible, you

can turn to Isaiah Chapter 7. That's where we find this

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

prophecy on the scene. And just a backdrop to that,

Isaiah 7 and 8 consider the darkest days of Israel's

history. They've had a string of very

wicked kings, and now King Ahaz is probably the worst of the

worst. He's leading Israel instead of

to their Heavenly Father. He's leading them away from the

Heavenly Father. They've systematically turned

the nation's back on God, and now they're turning their back

on one another. So the nation is divided, the

king is wicked, and then these northern kingdoms decide, OK,

now is the time that we are going to finish off the people

of Israel. So that's the context, the

backdrop. However, in the midst of that is

a God who says you are still my people, my heart is still for

you. I still want to be Emmanuel, God

with you and so he doesn't leave them to their own devices as

much as they said thank you, speak to the hand.

We're not interested. God comes after them and we see

in Isaiah 7 verse 3 says then the Lord said to Isaiah, go out

Isaiah 7:3

to meet Ahaz. That's the king.

Go out to meet Ahaz on the road to the launderers field.

Say to him, be careful, keep calm, keep calm and carry on.

That's where we got it from. Keep calm and don't be afraid.

Do not lose heart because of the these two smouldering stubs of

firewood, because of the fierce anger of Resin and Aram and of

the son of Ramalia. They have plotted your ruin.

Maybe that came up in a board meeting this week.

They have plotted your ruin, saying let us invade you to let

us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves.

Yet this is the heart of God. This is what the sovereign Lord

says. It will not take place, it will

not happen. I'm still on your side, Israel,

I'm still on your side, Dodgy King Ahaz verse 10 again, the

Lord spoke to Ahaz, Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in

the deepest depths or in the highest heights.

But Ahaz said, I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the

test. I don't know what happened

there. I have a feeling that Isaiah was

looking into King Ahaz's eyes and maybe he was like checking

the time. I'm wondering like, are you, are

you done yet? So he says, the Lord says, ask

for a son anything. Look at those words there,

whether in the deepest depths, on the highest heights, you

know, ask me for the lottery numbers.

Whatever it is, it will convince you.

Ask me. And he says, and it seems like a

very pious, righteous. Now I will not test to the Lord,

but actually what he says is I don't know if you've ever had a

teenager say that to you. Turn to your neighbour and

channel the inner teenager again to them.

Now those who are really didn't even look, you're just like, no,

whatever. I'm not going to do what the

pastor says. Now it's one thing for the

person next to you to go or a teenager.

There's another thing completely for your spouse to do that for

you. Imagine you're fighting tooth

and nail for your marriage because it's taking strain and

you feel like you're losing his heart or her heart and all you

get from them is. Verse 13 Then Isaiah said, here,

now you House of David, is it not enough to try the patience

of humans? Will you try the patience of my

God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will

give you a sign. You didn't want to ask for the

lottery numbers. The Lord himself will give you a

sign. The virgin will conceive and

give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel, which means

God with us. I don't know about you, but

that's not kind of the context I thought we'd come across when we

were looking at that verse that Matthew stole from the Old

Testament. A king that doesn't care.

I kind of thought, you know, maybe it would be Isaiah having

coffee with some mates and they've been married for 20

years and they've been trying to have a child.

And she announces, oh, you won't believe it.

You know, this morning it was one strap and then it turned to

two. We're going to have a baby.

We're so excited. It's amazing.

I never thought now. And Isaiah put his coffee cup

down and said, you know, what's really amazing is that God has

shown me that a virgin will conceive and his name will be

Emmanuel. God with us.

That's kind of the context I thought this would transpire in

that Matthew's going like, OK, let me let me bring this into

this would go down well in the Gospel while he's writing it,

but it's a king who could care less.

That is a proper statement that God would still lean into that

with the greatest Prof, greatest promise in the whole of the Old

Testament would give it into that situation.

Why does he do this? Why does Matthew grab that?

Why does he lean into the darkest times of Israel's

history and bring that one into Matthew chapter 1?

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Two reasons. Firstly, because Matthew in his

wisdom knows that between King Ahaz and the day he was writing

the Gospel, nothing had changed. The heart of the people is still

just like Ahaz. God leans in and looks after and

loves on and then. And the reason why I raised that

is because when I look at Matthew's time and I look at

King Ahab's time and I look at our time, we were exactly the

same. Nothing's changed.

I had a conversation on the last time I preached.

I mentioned divorce statistics. I asked the question in the

sermon. I said, you know, what?

Do you know what this stats are for marriage and divorce?

And I mentioned currently it's one in every two marriages end

in divorce. And I, you know, finally said,

like, which half is it going to be, you know, And we all had to

chuckle. But then I mentioned the fact

that those stats are a little bit skewed because if as married

couples, you were to pray together, come to church

together, engage in a community, have quiet times, get into God's

word, bring your days before your heavenly Father is no

longer one in every two. It's now one in every 59,000,

only one in 39,000 that actually ends in divorce.

And I mentioned this from the pulpits and then someone said to

me afterwards, yeah, but you know, I'm not really a reader.

So also known as fortunately that's not you, but maybe you're

here in January when we started the series on Galatians and we

heard about the grace of God and you went, and then we went

through Jonah and we went through the prayer series and

we've just wrapped up Titus. And when you look back through

2024, nothing's changed. Not praying anymore, not leaning

in anymore. You're not drinking of the grace

of God anymore because you and I have gone.

So that's the first reason why I believe he brings it into

Matthew chapter 1. Because the heart of man is

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

deceitful above all, desperately wicked.

The heart of man is modelled after A has, but I actually

think the real reason Matthew brings it into chapter 1, it's

not so much to unpack A has his heart, but to unpack God's

heart. Because point number one is

nothing has changed. The point #2 is nothing has

changed. God's heart for you and me has

not changed. If he is willing to look at that

and say, you know what, I'm going to show you the greatest

sound mankind could ever dream of Emmanuel, God with you, then

how much more you and I are saying, Lord, would you show

yourself to me. So I want to show the heart of

God, not the heart of a has. I want to show the heart of God

in Isaiah around that and how breathtaking it is.

But a reminder for you and me because our hearts are just the

same and we need to be reminded of this.

So I'm going to be a little bit of not a CEO, but Acro chief

reminding officer today. I want to show you the heart of

God in this. You already see it in chapters

7:00 and 8:00, but I want to show you what happens in chapter

6 and in Chapter 9. Is it in in the literature?

It looks like God wraps his arms on either side around this cold

hearted Stony King Ahath. So we're going to look at the

before and then we're going to look at the after.

On the before Isaiah chapter 6, it says in the year that King

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne,

and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him was seraphim, each with six wings, with two wings

that covered their faces, with two that covered their feet, and

with two they were flying and they were calling to one

another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God

Almighty. The whole earth is full of His

glory. At the sound of their voices,

the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled

with smoke. Woe to me, I cried.

This is Isaiah, woe to me, I cried.

I'm ruined, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among

the people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the

Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphim flew to

me with a live call in his hand, which he had taken with tongues

from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and

said, see, this has touched your lips.

Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.

You see the heart of God there. The heart of God first and

foremost is for sin to be taken away, guilt to be atoned for.

So much so that when he's in God's presence, we're standing

here. Now remember, this is before

we're introduced to the king. And it goes, Nah, he's standing

before God. God is preparing him to go there

and he wants to make sure he knows, listen, this is not about

you being, you know, squeaky clean.

I need to cleanse you. I need to redeem you.

I need to restore you so that you can stand before the king

and bring my word. But this is the heart of God

saying to us, no, no, there's nothing you need to do.

Just let me touch your lips. Let me deliver you.

Let me forgive you, because what he's about to declare is that

there is the one who's going to come, the Lamb.

It takes away the sin of the world.

So he stands there first and foremost, completely set free

the heart of God for his people. There's another little comment

there that you don't see. Right at the very beginning, he

talks about the train of his robe filling the temple.

Now, this one gets completely lost on us, specifically me,

because I realized that I was alive when Princess Diana got

married. I think there was like early 80s

if not 1980. Do you remember the train of her

wedding dress? Well, take a look at this.

I actually have a photo. I think the the sort of like the

altar boys are still carrying the very back.

They haven't left the church yet.

You know, she's nearly ready to climb into the club that is 50

meters long. That's train of of her wedding

dress. I did a wedding yesterday.

It was maybe 3 meters long with 30 meters.

Now, that's what I think of when the train of his robe filled the

temple. But actually that's got nothing

to do with that. You see, she had a long train

because she wanted to look pretty.

God's robe has a long train because he wants to declare his

power, See, because in the ancient Near East, they would

make kings like we do in our day.

You know, he's sort of got the golden scepter and that funny

small soccer ball that he had. And king tolls with a the crown,

and then he gets this robe. They would do the same in the

Engineer East. But what would happen is when a

king went to war, if he defeated another king, they would take

that robe and they'd stitch it into their robe.

And then they'd defeat this king and they'd take that robe and

stitch it into his robe. Which meant that when you

entered the presence of the king and he's sitting on his throne

and you can see something of that robe come around the bottom

of his throne, you know, this is a big deal.

This is a mighty man of war. God's train of his robe fills

the temple. Now, I won't bore you with

dimensions, except that it's really, really, really big and

it is filled with his victory. And you know what has been

stitched into his robe that makes that train fill the entire

temple? Victory over sin and death.

Victory over your past and your shame and your dysfunctional

family and your alcoholic, the grandparents and your abusive

boss. Victory over all of that taken

all of that. And so as I needed to see this,

this is the heart of God to wade into your mess and claim victory

on your behalf. The problem is, we really do

have a heart like a has I heard. I watched a Ted Talk this week.

Young guy was busy explaining about his childhood.

He was saying came to the end of Grade 1.

They'd finished the first year of a big school.

And so the teacher thought this is a great opportunity to really

blow some wind into these kids lives and encourage them.

So she had them all stand and when they stood, she said, OK, I

want you to encourage someone else in the room, pick someone,

encourage them. And once you've been encouraged,

you can sit down. And so the kids had to turn and

eventually, you know, the 50 went down to only 20 standing.

Then only 10 was standing. And right at the end, there were

three kids still standing. And the teacher was saying, is

there? Is there anyone?

You want to say something, Butch?

You want to you want to encourage?

And he's like, no, come on, Butch.

Yeah, come on, Butch. Shame on you, Dennis.

You want to say, have you got any?

It's like, no. So these three kids stand there.

No one wants to say a single nice thing about them.

And so the teacher, the teacher says, well, best you do better

next year. So we've got something nice to

say about you. Yeah, I know.

You've got to love it. Hey, so but now here's his

point, He says. So he gets this burning hot

rejection at the age of 6. Now he was probably late 30s,

early 40s and he's saying every time he steps into a situation

that is a little bit, you know, deep water, all he hears is the

screams of a six year old. You not enough, they're not

going to like you. They won't want to do business

with you. And his life is governed by his

six year old self. And we're the same, you see,

because as much as the train of the road folds the temple, when

night comes, our six year old self leopard crawls in and

unstitches because, well, I'm a disappointment.

And you know, this, this shame, I need to take my shame back.

And, you know, I really was guilty and I don't think I said

sorry enough. And so Isaiah needs to see no,

no, no, no. That has been claimed by the

conquering king, and it will be paid for on the cross.

Don't you dare take it back. But Isaiah clearly had.

I beg your pardon? Ahaz clearly had.

I was reminded of an illustration that I did when

this place was still a tent. For those of you who've been

with us for a while, we had the stage on that side.

It was a circus tent. We were all clowns.

We still are. And the faces just extended all

the way to the very end and outside the stages.

But anyway, that the illustration I was reminded of

when, when the Israelites go into the promised land, they get

told that this is your inheritance, say, and the Bible

in Exodus describes it says it's from the mountains to the sea,

from the rivers to the desert. This is yours.

This is what the God of Isaiah 6 has for you.

But then the six year old comes along, you know, and we get

angry with our kids and we disappoint our boss and we break

our wives hearts and we click on something we should never have

clicked on and we get angry and storm out of church.

And what happened was by the time David was king, they were

living in 60% of what Isaiah 6 had for them.

Only 60%. And then it got worse because

Solomon came along and Solomon blesses cotton ticking skin.

Besides, he's going to marry something like 700 wives and

he's going to have 50,000 concubines and he's going to

allow idolatry and even child sacrifice into Israel.

And so at the time of Ahaz, they are living in 10% of what God

had for them in Isaiah 610%. Maybe that's you.

Maybe when you look at your laugh and you look at the

decisions you've made or when you look at what you've been

through, God, where were you? Feels like all I have is this.

And so God says before you're even going to deal with that

heart in Isaiah 6 says, let the train of my robe fold a temple.

Let me take it all, I'll take it all myself, and you can have it

all as a gift of salvation, a God who redeems, who restores,

who renews. And that is the Isaiah that gets

sent to King Ahaz. That is the understanding that

he carries when he stands before the heart that goes.

What about you? Whose report do you believe, the

six year old or the God of Isaiah 6?

Because this God wants you to know him as Emmanuel, God with

us. And that's only half the story

because on this side we get into Isaiah Chapter 9 and it begins

Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

in verse 2 by saying the following.

It says the people walking in darkness have seen the great

lights on those living in the land of deep darkness.

A light has dawned for as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have

shattered the yoke that burdens him.

So he's standing on this side. OK, he's Isaiah's encountered

the living God, the God of Isaiah 6.

He's now had a very pleasant moment with King Ahaz and his

shady heart. And still God is saying that

darkness, there's going to be a light dawning in there, Your

darkness, there's going to be a light dawning in there.

Still, he says in the days of Midian's defeat, that's when

Gideon, against all odds, you're looking at your situation.

You're going? Yeah, but not not mine.

You don't know my baggage, my background.

You don't know what my kids are doing and what my husband has

said now, he says you have shattered the yoke that burdens

him. You've shattered the bar across

their shoulders and the rod of their oppressor.

How is that possible? Well, fine.

To us a child is born and to us the son is given and the

government will be on his shoulders and he'll be called

wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of

Peace, of the increase of his government and peace.

There will be no end. Now that is an amazing statement

in and of itself. The fact that that statement is

made from here, looking back at Ahaz's heart is unprecedented.

That God is still saying after you're in my heart, I'm coming

for you. I want you to know me as

Emmanuel, God with us. I want you to be close to me.

I want to be close to you. I want to overwhelm you with all

that I have for you, which in a word is in the Hebrew Pele.

I want to introduce you to the God who he declare of him Pele.

Pele is basically what he's saying over a has his heart.

Pele is what he was saying over my daughter when she was in ICU

a year ago and is now completely in full remission.

Pele is what was said over a young baby that was born last

week Sunday and they didn't know if she would last 36 hours, but

she might be discharged from hospital this newborn baby this

week because Pele has stepped in.

You want to know what Pele means?

It's it's one of the words that are used exclusively of God in

this context, and it's only ever used in utter darkness.

Pele is essentially that which requires God as its explanation.

Pele how my daughter went from an isolation ward in ICU a year

ago to now complete remission Pele.

That which requires God as its explanation.

You want me to explain? I can't.

All I can tell you is a meta God of whom it is said Pele, and

this is what he is saying over a hairs.

He's looking back and he's saying it doesn't bother me, no

biggie. I can take that and make a Pele.

I can turn that into essentially a hot luck David, if we just

surrender that to him. What is it in your life that you

need Pele? Imagine think of that whatever

it is, maybe it's a marriage, maybe it's a business, maybe

it's a situation you're facing. Maybe it's just ongoing

brokenness. What is that?

Imagine this time next year, you standing where I'm standing,

maybe holding the microphone sitting on the stage with raw he

says what happened, I don't know requires God as an explanation.

Pele so because what he says here, he give us 2 specific sort

of picture stories through Azan. We don't have time to go through

it, but I'll I'll instead just concisely show you the way I

would describe it. The one is kudzu.

I don't know if you know what kudzu is.

Kudzu is a vine and they imported it from the East to

America because one engineer thought, well, this will be

really good. It grows pretty quickly and it

will help us, you know, mitigate the soil erosion while you're

building a bridge or whatever the case might be.

So they, they imported khutsu to the South of the US.

The problem is it grows really, really well, 50 centimetres in a

day. So I want to show you a photo of

khutsu. That was a holiday home.

They built a bridge not far from there.

The family came on holiday, you know, Christmas presents and tow

and you know all that cheese and wine you need for the December

holidays. And the kudzu had eaten their

own. And it is, it is like it is that

thick. You need bulldozers to get rid

of kudzu. And that's one of the pictures

that we see in a Zionine. See God looks at that says it

might have just crept up on you. It wasn't malicious, but he'll

deal with it. You look at it and you think our

December is ruined. We're not going to have

Christmas in that place unless pillar that which only that

requires God as its explanation. And so the picture here that is

happening that Isaiah's prophesying over a has is some

areas of our lives kind of creep up on us.

We weren't malicious. You know, you weren't out there

to destroy that person's business or, you know, ruin that

relationship. But one thing was said and

nothing was apologized. And it was like a stone that got

into your shoe. And then you kind of avoided

them for a while. And this thing has just become

to the point where it feels like everything is just completely

invalid. And now you don't know how to

get out of there. Now you're on such deep water

and there's so much hanging over your head.

Maybe it's financial. It was just a little bit more on

the credit card here and just you needed this because the

business was in a certain place and it wasn't malicious.

But eventually kudzu, maybe that's the situation that God

says. Let me Pele over that.

The other way I'll describe what's going on here is with the

picture of an avalanche. I found this beautiful one.

Can't you imagine? I heard the story of a guy who

was caught in that. And he says it's not like, you

know, we think snow. There's no snow.

It's not even like a wave. It's like a truck.

You get hit by this thing. And he says it hits you so hard

that you, if you're actually able to stay conscious, you just

numb and this thing swallows you as it covers you.

And he said when he was under there, he couldn't tell if he

was upside down or not. Like which which way out?

How do you dig yourself out there?

He says because there's so much pressure from all sides, can

barely breathe, and it puts so much pressure on your body that

you're not even able to tell slightly upside down all that

was up and you are meters under this stuff.

And that is one of the pictures that he paints in Isaiah 9 when

he looks back at a house because he is about to be absolutely

obliterated by these descending armies from the north.

And God is saying, I just want to be Immanuel, God with you.

And God is saying to you, I don't know which of the two you

are. Maybe it's been that slow creep

in 2024. It's just been 2020, no more.

Maybe it feels like like you're under so much pressure.

Maybe you've even thought the only way out is to take my life.

God says, can I blow your mind? Can I take that and make it play

that which requires God as its explanation?

What if 2025, as I heard a friend say, is 2020 Thrive,

Thriving in that good zoo. From kudzu to thriving, from an

avalanche of pressure to thriving.

What if you were to place that into the God who says I want to

be a manual God with you? I want to step into, I want to

wade into that mess and 2025 comes along and that very thing

with this financial or relational or emotional or

spiritual or all of the above, that you're standing here at the

end of 2025 and you can say Pele, Pele, Pele, Pele, Pele.

That which requires God as its explanation.

If so, you would have encountered someone who likes to

be called Emmanuel, God with us. And that's the invitation that

Isaiah gives to King Ahaz. And yet he responds with I get

that. I've been at the place where it

just seems. I mean, that would be lovely,

you know, but 2020 thrive, really, I know what that's like.

Actually, you're starting to doubt the goodness of God.

Like it's been so long, he's worn me down.

I think he's abandoned me. I understand that.

But still, like in Notting Hill, I'm just a girl standing in

front of a boy trying to tell him I love him.

That is what God Most High does for you and I when he says I

will be Emmanuel, God with you and that is the invitation.

So I'm going to close and pray and if anything in your life

desperately needs pillar, I'd like to pray for you.

So Heavenly Father, this morning, I just want to thank

you for your word. I want to thank you even more

for your heart. Thank you that we serve a God

like this. Who would have ever thought that

we could have access to you actually more than that?

That you are wanting access to us?

That a God like this, the God who was a pillar of fire by

night in the desert, the God who sets Israel free under Pharaoh's

reign and part of the sea, that same God would want to wade into

our little mess and our broken hearts.

Pray, Lord Jesus, for every person here who needs an

encounter with God that can only be explained through pillar.

Lord, would you rain down your Pillay over us?

Would you walk into and wade into our mess?

Would you deliver? Would you set free?

Would you restore? Would you redeem?

Would you resource? Would you love on and comfort

and just drown us in your compassion, your mercy and your

grace? Lord, we need you, we need you.

We invite you Emmanuel to come and be God with us and we ask,

would you confirm your word with signs and wonders following

Jesus name, Amen.