Matt.1:22, 23 – So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
The prophet said that the Messiah would be known by the Hebrew name Immanuel. Matthew translated this for us in his gospel saying Immanuel means God with us. For those who have tasted the amazing power of His presence in corporate worship you would have to agree, there is nothing like being in the manifest presence of the Lord. This presence, the nearness of God is what we were created to enjoy. It is this intimate presence of the Lord that we lost at the fall in the beginning. The restoration of intimacy with God is the focus of redemption, that’s why this prophetic promise is so wonderful. The coming of the Messiah would bring fulfillment to this promise, God is with us.
Victory Church has been blessed with an unusual sense of His presence in all of our services. Every time we gather in His house He comes to be with us, sometimes in shocking ways. The church pastored by Jonathan Edwards in the 1700’s had strong visitations of the presence of God. Here is a quote from Edwards as he was giving thanks to the Lord for the visitation that had started about a year before this message was preached.
“The manner in which God has appeared, has been very extraordinary, and calls for extraordinary notice from us. We should take heed to ourselves that we never forget these signs and great wonders that we have seen. When we consider how great the work, how extraordinarily it was carried on, and what a great, and what an happy, change and alteration has been made in this town, within this twelvemonth past; I say, when we consider this, we have reason to say, as Balaam prophesied, “It should be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” [Num. 23:23]. “How great are God’s works!” [Ps. 92:5]: there are no works like his. God’s all-sufficient grace and mighty power has appeared in many respects in a very extraordinary manner, in that the awakening influences of his Spirit were so general and almost universal, and in that there has been so much of the saving influences of his Spirit. For though none can tell the exact number, and none can certainly distinguish the particular persons that have experienced [them]; yet ’tis beyond all question that there have been a very great number that have been savingly converted to God.…”
The promise of the birth of the Savior in the prophetic word given by Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Christ gave a promise that was bigger than anyone could have hoped for. The Savior would come, God would be with them as the man Jesus of Nazareth for 33 years, after that He would come to the whole earth in the person of the Holy Spirit. God is with us and we are glad.
