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EMMANUEL
'GOD With US'
By Pastor
Max Solbrekken, D.D.
A
CHILD WAS BORN ~ SON WAS GIVEN!
"Therefore
the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a
virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call
His name Emmanuel." (Isaiah 7:14): "For unto
us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the
government shall be upon His shoulder and His name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The
Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
“For
God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son …” (John 3: 16) Jesus was born
King and He will return to this earth as King of kings
and Lord of lords! (Matt.2: 2; John 18: 37; Rev. 19: 16)“Of
the increase of His government and peace, there
will be no end. Upon the throne of David and
over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with
judgment and justice, from
that time forward, even forever...” (Is. 9:
6)
“Behold My
Servant (Jesus)
shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted
and extolled,
and be very high.
As many were astonished at Thee; His
visage was marred more than any man, And His form more
than the sons of men.
“He is
despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows (lit.
pains) and acquainted with grief. (lit.
sicknesses)
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was
despised and we did not esteem Him.” (Is.52: 14; 53:
3)
“Surely He
has borne our
sicknesses (heb.
makob) and carried
our pains (heb.
nasa); yet we esteemed Him smitten of God and
afflicted. But He was wounded
for our transgressions, He was bruised
(crushed) for our iniquities; The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him; And
by His stripes we are healed.” (Is. 53: 4,
5)
WE
HAVE ALL GONE ASTRAY!
“All we
like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every
one, to his own way; And
the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not
His mouth; He is brought as a
as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His
mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise (crush) Him.
He hath put Him to grief.” (Is. 53: 6, 7, 10)
“Who
being the brightness of His glory, and the express image
of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of
His power,
when He had BY
HIMSELF purged our
sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
High.” (Heb.1: 1-3)
“Christ
Jesus… Who being in the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no
reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men:
“And
being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and
became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
“Wherefore
God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a NAME which
is above every name: That
at the name of JESUS
every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth; And
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil.2: 5-11)“And
she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call his
name JESUS
(heb. Saviour):
for He shall save His people from their sins…that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by
the prophet, saying, Behold a virgin shall be with
child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call
His name EMMANUEL, which being interpreted is, God with
us.” (Matt. 21-23)
A visiting
missionary arrived at the Vancouver Airport on a Sunday
morning. As the Pastor hurriedly drove toward the
church, it seemed as though every light was green.
Overjoyed,
he jubilantly exclaimed, “My,
isn’t it wonderful how we have had only green lights.
We haven’t even encountered one red light all
the way from the airport. Surely, God
is with us”! The missionary wisely
replied, “If
we would have hit only red lights along the way this
morning, would God have still been with us”?
A 28
year-old preacher died in an East European Communist
prison during the 1970s. He had been incarcerated
for eight years for telling little children about Jesus!
Beaten,
bruised, tortured and brainwashed, he finally succumbed
to the guard’s brutality and they found him dead one
morning in a pool of blood on the dungeon floor.
Vital organs had ruptured as a result of the traumatic
beatings and he hemorrhaged blood until he died.
In
the last minutes of life he had managed to stagger to
the dungeon wall and with his finger write his testimony
in his own blood. So great was the impact of his
testimony that the guards who found him the next morning
accepted Christ as their Saviour. And they passed the
story to Pentecostal Christians in Western Europe, via
the underground route!
This is what
he wrote: “I
believe in the sun even when it’s not shining and I
believe in love even though I feel it not. And I believe
in God even when He is silent, so by faith I’ll hold
on to what I have got”!
He hadn’t
seen the sun in 8 years. He had felt and seen only
hatred from his captors and for eight long years he had
prayed for release from that living hell without an
answer, but still he believed in God! Hallelujah!
Even when
things go wrong, we still have God’s abiding
presence! How wonderful, that God is with us
always. He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
In good times or bad times; in joy or sorrow; in
sickness or health! God is with us - Praise His
Holy Name.
MESSAGE
OF HOPE: GOD IS WITH US!
More than
seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus of
Nazareth, the prophet Isaiah - speaking by divine
inspiration - declared that God would give His Son to
become the Saviour of the world.
The Book of
Isaiah is aptly called ‘The
Gospel of the Old Testament’. How
precious to read of the birth, life and death of Christ
in this Old Testament Gospel!
It is good
news that even “before
the foundation of the world”, God had a
perfect plan for our salvation through the virgin birth,
sinless life, vicarious death and glorious resurrection
of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah of Israel!
He would be
rejected by men and judged by God – because of our
sins - but brought back to life and restored to a place
of glorification with His Father, so that you and I can
receive eternal life.
The
Sign of the Virgin
Birth -
What a Miracle! To be supernaturally
begotten by the Blessed Holy Spirit and born naturally
of a virgin mother. Talk about confounding the
mouths and minds of those who rejected Him.
IT
ALMOST BLOWS THE MIND!
No wonder
the Bible says: “The natural man understandeth not the
things of the Spirit of God for they are spiritually
discerned”. (1 Cor. 2:14) Again the Scripture
declares: “Had they known who He was they would not
have rejected the Prince of life”. (1 Cor.2: 8)
They tried
to reason it all out and couldn’t. The intellectuals
failed miserably; and they are still messing up today
trying to incorporate Jesus the Christ, into their
natural-minded stereotype. It can’t be done!
Why
can’t puny little man take God’s Word at face value
- accept the Gospel of Christ for what it’s worth and
embrace it all, including the supernatural aspects
of:
(1) Who He is, (2)
Why He came, (3) What He did, and
(4) What it all means and how it relates to us today?
But NO, the
egotistical, proud earthling wants to find his own way,
chart his own course and fly his own craft to the
stars! The Bible says, “He
came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
But to as many as received Him, to them gave He the
power to become the sons of God”. (John
1:11-12)
What a
position we enjoy as redeemed blood-bought children of
God. I can hardly contain it all! Salvation is a FREE
gift from our Creator!
COMPLEX?
Yes, God’s part was profound, complex and elaborate!
Our part, however, is easy! It is so simple that many
feel it is too elementary. It’s a fact of life
that in everything from religion to politics, people
like to make things as complex as possible. Yet no
tool or gadget is as good and effective as the one that
is user-friendly. The simpler anything operates
the more valuable it is and the more reliable and easy
to maintain!
Here is the
plain, simple and yet profound truth: “For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. For God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the
world through Him might be saved.” (John
3:16-17)
Jesus
confirmed that statement when He declared: “They that
are whole have no need of the physician, but they that
are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance”. (Mark 2:17); “The Son of man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost”. (Luke 19:10)
WHO
IS JESUS CHRIST?
Emmanuel
...“The
prophet answered by saying, And shall call His name
Emmanuel. (Is. 7:14); God With Us
...“Which
being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matt. 1:22-23)
Jesus ...“And
she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His
name Jesus.” (heb.
Yeshua ~ meaning ‘The Salvation of God; the God who
saves, heals, makes well, protects, delivers’)
Saviour ...
“For He shall save His people from their sins.”
(Matt.8: 21); “For unto you is born this day in the
city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
(Luke 2:11)
The Lord ...
“And thou, child, (John
the Baptist) shalt be called the prophet of
the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the
Lord (Jesus Christ)
to prepare His ways.” (Luke 1:76)
Lamb of
God
…“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto Him, and
saith,
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