GOD IS WITH US.

 

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

 

 

1.      There are four things wish to share from this scripture today.  The first, is the Lord will give a sign.  Why did the Lord do this?  We all need a supernatural experience.  All here who have given your life came through a supernatural encounter.  You heard the word of God, by some means.  Tt entered your mind, your ponder it and then accepted it.  You chose by an act of will in your heart , to put your eternal and natural life in the hands of God.  God saw that and knew we needed a savior.  That is why in Gen 3:15 right after the fall God told us the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent.  Man lost it but God would restore it through Jesus Christ.  The Lord Himself we initiate and provide salvation. It would be through grace.  Christ riches at God’s expense.  We would through unmerited favor to live an abundant and eternal life

 

2.      There are three four reasons by a Virgin was the chosen reason for Jesus to be born.

 

a.      To Fulfil prophecy.  Gen 3:15, the seed of the women.  Our scripture today points this out.  Also

Isaiah 9:6-7, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6).  The virgin birth fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah in order to establish the uniqueness and particular duties of this coming child. He will bring peace and establish an unending kingdom. It is not only a prophecy about the future. Rather, it is a prophecy that cements the identity of Immanuel.

b.      To establish is divine origin and identity.  God with us.  It shows that God will dwell among His

people.  Isaiah 11:10 records, “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.”  The virgin-born Immanuel will do something that requires the miraculous power of God. And this power finds a root in the Holy Spirit: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Isa 11:2).  In Luke’s account, Gabriel tells Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).  An angel tells the shepherds that the baby is “Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The word “Lord” echoes the Old Testament’s primary title for God, “LORD.” What Luke intimates through the whole story of Jesus’s life, death, and especially his resurrection, John says quite plainly: “The Word was God” (John 1:1).  The virgin birth establishes Jesus’ divine origin through the Holy Spirit’s act in Mary’s womb. In some mysterious and glorious way, the Spirit unites humanity to the divine Word of God. Jesus is and always was the union of God and man: Immanuel, God with us.

c.      To confirm Jesus’ sinless humanity.  Given Jesus’ divine origin that the virgin birth underscores,

 we can now understand why Jesus could be like us in every way “yet without sin” (Heb 4:15). While the human flesh may be weak, the power of the incorruptible God is not. Christ as one person with two natures could withstand relentless temptation (without ever caving to temptation to relieve the suffering of temptation) because of his divine nature. He came to redeem us from our sins, to overcome death, and to defeat the devil. Yet the question here concerns why God chose the virgin birth of Jesus. In answer, he did so to fulfill prophecy, to establish Jesus’ divine origin, and to confirm Christ’s sinless humanity.

d.      Sin was a manmade problem and an eternal problem.  Only an eternal man could solve it.  So Jesus the God man did this. 

 

3.      The virgin will conceive and give birth to a so God became like us through Jesus Christ.  He was

100% and 100% God, the perfect union of the divine and natural.  His broken body and shed blood, his death, burial and resurrection would accomplish it.  Mary was the vessel.   God visited us in our frailty and weakness in order to save us from our sins. Had God not become what we are, then we would remain what we were—dead in sin, children of wrath. Instead, we have become by adoption (children of God) what Christ is by nature (the Son of God). By following his Spiritual birth, we too are all born of the Spirit. And we follow the firstborn of the new creation into heaven where we will have joy forevermore.

 

4.      He is called Immanuel.  Luke makes it clear that Jesus is God with us.  God dwells among us.  Jesus lived among us.  He got hungry, tired, had all the difficulties of mankind yet without sin.  He relied on the power of the Holy Spirit and only wanted to do the will of the Father.  What proved His claims was the resurrection.  He rose from the dead.  Christmas is the beginning but Easter is the end, yet also the new beginning.