Emmanuel - God Among Us

In this message we look at the opening of John’s Gospel and the breathtaking claim that “the Word became flesh and made His home among us.” God has always been committed to dwelling with His people, and Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of that promise. We unpack how Christ’s humanity assures us of three things: He understands our temptations, He understands our suffering, and He intercedes for us every day. Emmanuel isn’t distant — He is present, personal and powerfully involved in our lives.

Transcript

Good morning, church. Hello. How's everyone today? Good. I bring you greetings from Uganda.

A group of 20 of us just got back on Tuesday as you heard from Craig. Largest group ever to have gone out on a mission trip from Venture Church, which is awesome. Lots of exciting things, but I'm not going to go into too much detail because Pastor George himself will be here in the UK next week and I'm sure you'll hear way, way more. But we did have a camera crew on our trip this time to Uganda and in fact there was something exciting because we had a drone while we were there as well. So look forward to lots of footage, lots of videos, pictures and things that will come out over the next few weeks and months about Uganda coming up.

But greetings from everybody in Lightforce and Pastor George himself. Today we're going to be talking and continuing our series on on Emmanuel. And Paul started us off last week talking about Emmanuel and he talked about the unveiling of the promise, the promise that God gave right from the very beginning about sending a savior and how that was prophesied in the book of Isaiah. Many of you remember Isaiah 7:14 and the Lord himself shall give you a sign. The virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son and you will call his name Immanuel, which means God with us.

And that prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew, chapter 1, verse 22, 23. The angel appeared to Joseph and pretty much said the same thing and said, this is the fulfillment of the prophecy. The virgin will conceive and will bear a son and you will call him Emmanuel, God with us. And so Paul talked about the unveiling and the fact that God sent Jesus for us. And today we're going to be looking for looking at another layer of the of the why behind Christmas.

Christmas is a fun time, yes. Decorations, festivities, there's lots of food and lots of drink and spending time with families. All good stuff. But there's another why behind Christmas and that's what we are unpacking in this series for you over the next few weeks. So today I'm going to be looking at Emmanuel, God among us.

And what does that mean for us at Christmas time today? Let's say a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for today. We give you all the glory. This is a day that you have made.

We will rejoice and be glad in it. We thank you for the opportunity and the privilege to sit at your feet and to hear your word. Father, we ask that the rhema of your word will come forth and Complete that which you have purpose in our lives. Leave us changed and transformed into. In the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.

So we all know the Christmas story. We all know how at the time of Jesus's birth, there was a Caesar called Augustus. And he declared a census and said, everybody, you need to go back to your home country to go and get registered and counted. It was the time when Quirinius was the governor. This is all in Luke chapter two, I believe.

And so Joseph took Mary and he decided to leave Nazareth in Galilee, which I think, if you remember, Paul showed the map last week. There was a map of old Israel where Galilee was near the river. And then he went to Bethlehem, the city of God, to get counted. And while they were there, time came for Mary to give birth to the baby Jesus. There was no room in the inn, so they went in a stable and he was laid in a manger.

We all know the story and that's what we sing about at Christmas, all the Christmas carols. But the other side of the story of Christmas is that Jesus also came to us to be among us, to be with us, to understand us, and to walk alongside us. And the reason why we're sharing this with you at Christmas is a bit linked to the presence projects that Craig was mentioning is because God didn't want to just sympathize from heaven because he could have just sent a word and just said, you know what, guys, I'm going to send the Savior and I'm going to just speak a word and all of you will be saved and come to heaven. That could have happened. You could have sent an angel to do the work.

But he decided to step out of his throne, of his deity, step out of his place and come and embody humanity so he could be alongside us. And he wanted to not just come and see what was going on on earth, he wanted to actually live with us. So we're going to start in John chapter one. If you open your Bibles or open your phones or screens to John chapter one, the Bible says in verse one, in the beginning the Word already existed. And this is the new living translation version.

The Word was with God and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him and nothing was created except through. Through Him. The Word gave life to everything that was created and his life brought light to everyone.

Now just to slightly detail here, in the beginning, the Bible says the Word already existed. Now where else in the Bible do we see the phrase in the beginning in Genesis, guys are very Good, Very good. You read your Bibles. In the beginning is also in Genesis. Genesis chapter one.

The Bible says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, it was void. And the Spirit of God hovered over the water. And in verse three, then God said, and Moses that wrote the book of Genesis was giving us a picture of the beginning of time and said, you know, this is what happened at creation. God was there.

God was creating things. The Holy Spirit was there. He was kind of hovering, ready to bring power and bring transformation. But then where's Jesus in that picture? And John in John chapter one gives us he's in the beginning revelation of where Jesus was.

Because when God said in verse three, let there be God spoke words. And when God spoke words, then the word capital W stepped into action. And that's where Jesus was in the story of creation. That's a slight detail. That's not the message for today, but just to help us understand that, we use the Bible to interpret the Bible.

And when you see a phrase or a word or a subject matter like in the beginning, it good to just think about where does it also say in the beginning and see where it links together. What's the synergy? Let the Spirit of God teach you. Anyway, that's a slight detail message for another day. Today's message we're going to land in verse 14.

So the word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only son. The word that's translated home in verse 14 of John chapter 1 means to camp or to reside in the message translation. The Bible says that the Word became flesh and blood and he moved into the neighborhood.

And I think that's the essence of what Emmanuel God among us is, is that God didn't stay at a distance and look down and do something. He actually took it upon himself to come down as a human. And the Bible says in Philippians 2 that actually when he became human, he stayed human. The Amplified Bible says he was completely human. And sometimes we kind of think, oh, he's God.

But the Bible says he actually became fully human. And the reason he did that is so that he could walk alongside us. He could understand what we go through. He could be with us and really know where we're coming from. Now, how many of you go on holidays or have been on holiday this year abroad?

Don't be shy. It's church. You should be honest in church. If you've been on holiday this year, most of us, or some of us, maybe not most, I can't speak for myself. We love to go on holidays where we go to a resort abroad, and it's a pool.

If you're lucky, if you can afford it, you get the swimmer pool to your room, which is even better. There's a spa, there's a beach. If you're lucky again, you have money that's all inclusive. You just eat as much as you want, whenever you want, and then you're kind of in your little bubble on holiday. But that's not what Jesus did.

He didn't come to kind of just savor, just have a taste of a little bit of holiday on earth. That's not what he did. He came to live with us, dwell with us, live next door. The Bible says he moved into the neighborhood. And I remember in medical school, many of you know, I'm a doctor, I'm a gp, but medical school, in my final year of training, we have this thing in Nigeria where we call it Community Health Project or Community Health posting.

And they divide you into small groups, so four to six people in a group. And we get sent out to the local villages surrounding the city where the university was. We went for a week or a couple of weeks and stayed with families and the communities in these villages. And the whole point of that exercise was so that we could understand the people we were living with. We would get to walk in their shoes.

We would get to kind of see how they ate, how they. How they lived, how they, you know, what they were drinking, what they talked about, what was important to them, and we would do stuff with them. And so that by the end of the week or the end of the two weeks, we would have developed a rapport and some sort of relationship with them. So that when we came to talk to them about health issues, like, you know, get your kids vaccinated or stop smoking or make sure you drink clean water and all of that, by the time we were telling them that there was already a relationship, there was already understanding, they knew we were kind of. We understood their culture and where they were coming from.

And I remember one of the days we were this. In this village and a couple of us were going out with one of the teenage boys in the house we were staying with, and we were going to the. To the stream to get some water, as you do in a village where there's no running water. We were going to the stream to get some water, and we're walking around this dirt path with bushes either side. And this teenage boy decided to tell us stories about snakes on the path and creepy crawlies coming out of the bushes.

And then he threw in the odd story about witches. Witches in the village. Now, if you're like me and you come from Africa, you know that African witches are a different level.

There are grades of witches, and the ones from Africa, I don't know. But he was telling us these stories. And at the time, I was actually the assistant pastor of our campus fellowship in university. And I would like to have said that I was brave and said, get behind me, Satan. And I was speaking in tongues.

And I was like, but unfortunately, no, I was running. I was running to the stream to get my water and running back to the house to get in safety. But the point of that story really is that we were sent into this community to understand and live with the people so we could get to know how they lived and who they were. And that's precisely what Jesus did for us. He left all of heaven, took on humanity, came down to live where we were so he could understand us.

And sometimes we kind of think people don't get us. You know, think, oh, yeah, I'm telling. You know, talking to somebody and you think. But they don't really understand. They don't really get it.

And that's the reason why Jesus came. Not just to have a taster, but he actually spent time living in our shoes, doing what we would have done. So remember, he was born as a baby. He didn't come as a full grown man. He came as a baby.

He would have pooed like a baby. Mary would have been wiping his bum. He would have crawled hands and knees as a baby. He would have toddled and he would have fallen on his face a few times trying to walk. He would have become a young boy.

And we saw him as a young boy in the temple. He would have become a teenager and gone through puberty and all the teenage angst and all that. And if you have a teenage boy, let me tell you, I've got one. It's difficult, but the grace of God is sufficient.

But Jesus went through all of that because he wanted to understand and know what it is that we go through and for us to know that he knows. And so that's the bit of Emmanuel, the Christmas story that I want us to take away from today. God didn't sympathize and just say, and there's a difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy says, oh, I feel sorry for you, and I can do Something to help you, but I'm going to keep my distance. That's sympathy.

Empathy says, I really feel what you're going through. I'm going to come alongside you, and we're going to go through it together. That's empathy. And what God did to us wasn't sympathy. It was empathy.

He moved into our neighborhood and said, I want to live like you. I want to walk in your shoes. I want to do what you're doing so I can understand. And that's exactly what he did.

Now, God's purpose right from the beginning of time has always been to dwell among his people. He said that right from the very beginning. And he did that right from the very beginning. If you think about Genesis in chapter three, Adam and Eve had obviously sinned. They'd taken the fruit, and they had now fallen.

And the Bible says in chapter three, verse eight of Genesis that God came strolling into the garden in the evening. In the message Bible, it says he came strolling in the evening breeze, and he said, adam, where are you? And Adam said, oh, I heard you coming. And I went to hide because I knew we were naked. So there's this picture of God coming to walk among his people, Adam and Eve.

There were only two of them at the time, but God still came and was among his people. And then in Exodus 25:8, the Bible says, let them construct a sanctuary for me so that I can live among them. You are to construct it following the plans I've given you, the design for the dwelling and the design for all its furnishings. God's plan has always been to live among them. And God did live among his people, the Israelites, when they came out of Egypt.

24:7. The Bible says that he led them by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. So he was always there. And that's the same promise he has given to all of us, that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Now, what does this really mean for us today in 2025, Christmas season in Venture Church?

Why does Emmanuel God among us make any difference? What does that mean for us? I'm going to give you three things or three points quickly, just to help us cement the understanding of what God went through. Number one, God among us means that Jesus understands when you're tempted and when you go through temptations. So, number one, he was tempted like we are, and so you might be at this time.

I know Christmas is a time for fun and, you know, family and festivities and presents, but actually, some of us are still struggling with temptation, with sins that are besetting us, as the Bible says. As Paul said, there are things that we're still struggling with that we can't get rid of. And at this point in time, at Christmas time this year, I want you to know that Jesus understands and he's there for you. Bible says that he was tempted, just like we are. Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 15.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are. Yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. So Jesus was tempted just like we are. We all know about his temptation.

Matthew 4. 1. The Bible says that Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And we, and we sometimes can over spiritualize his temptation and say, well, yeah, but that was Jesus and that was a spiritual temptation because he had been fasting 40 days and 40 nights and the Spirit of God led him and he was, you know, hyper spiritual and he was God. That's fine.

But remember, Jesus was fully human. He would have been tempted the same way you and I are tempted. So he was. I've just mentioned. He was, he was a, he was a child.

He grew up. He also had siblings. How many of you have brothers? How many of you. Well, particularly the men.

If you, if you're a man and you have a brother, how many of you fought with your brothers when you were younger? Yeah, I have a younger brother and I know the feeling. How many of you still fight with your brothers? Now, you don't have to put your hands up for that one because that would need deliverance if you're still fighting him. But Jesus had brothers.

And I can guarantee you, as they were growing up, you know, siblings do fight. So Jesus would have been tempted to do all the things teenagers do or young boys do. So he would have gone through all of that. He was also tempted. I'm just giving you a few examples of Jesus humanity.

He would have also been tempted in the area of pride. When Jesus landed as a man, the Bible says that they called him Teacher, they called him Master, they called him Lord, they called him Messiah.

Crowds were following him everywhere he went. They wanted to see him, they wanted to be around him. Now it's hard not to be tempted by pride when that happens. I gave this example in the first service. My culture I'm Nigerian.

My culture is sometimes when you have. You're hosting a party, you might invite a live band to come to your party. And usually what they do is they come and do their set, they kind of do their own songs, but usually towards somewhere in the middle of the party or towards the end of the party, they start to serenade the person who's celebrant or his family or some important guest in the crowd. And they call you by name and they sing your praises and they say how wonderful you are and how rich you are and how much God is going to bless you and everything you've got. And they keep singing your name.

And what happens then is the person that they're calling then gets up and does a dance, puts his hand in his pockets, gets every money out and showers them with the money in his pocket. And some of you might have seen that and don't hold it against us Nigerians, but it kind of is something that happens. But it's very hard not to be prideful when someone's serenading you or hailing you. And Jesus had this every single day. But yet the Bible says he was tempted, but he did not sin.

And he would have been tempted with lots of other things. The Bible gives the account of Zacchaeus. One day Jesus was coming, Zacchaeus came round, went and climbed up a tree. We all know the story. Climbed up a tree.

Jesus got to the tree and said, zacchaeus, what are you doing there? Calm down. I'm going to your house today. I want to eat dinner with you and your family. Zacchaeus came down, took Jesus to his house, and Zacchaeus must have lived in a fantastic mansion, I would imagine, because he was a tax collector.

And the Bible says he was rich. When the Bible says you're rich, it's not just rich, you're rich rich. So he says he was rich. So Jesus would have seen this sprawling mansion. He would have seen a Mercedes Benz of a donkey outside on the driveway.

You know, he would have seen the gold cups of cutlery in his house. I mean, so he would have been tempted by those sorts of things. But the Bible says he was tempted, yet he did not sin. And the reason I'm giving you this example is to make it real for you and to let you know that Jesus was. Is God, not was is God, but he was also human.

And he knows everything that we're going through. So we might get pulled and tempted and we might be struggling with something this Christmas season, but God says, I am Emmanuel, I'm God with you. I'm among you. He was tempted as we are. Number two.

He understands our suffering. Hebrews 5:7. While Jesus lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God. God answered him.

Though he was God's son, He learned trusting obedience by what he suffered. Just as we do now. It's easy for us again to think that Jesus is God. He's Jesus. He couldn't have suffered, but he did.

In fact, we just said the story at the very beginning of my preach about how he was born. He was born in a stable or in an inn. His first crib was a cattle trough. That's what a manger is. And I think sometimes we see the Christmas cars, Christmas pictures, and the.

And the manger looks like a very nice thing on sticks. And it looks like a little crib, but that's not a manger. A manger is where cows eat food from. It's not anything nice and very clean. Now, I've just come back from Uganda, and Pastor George has cattle, about 30 cows in Lightforce in Uganda.

And their cattle trough is quite big, but it's minging, if I can say so myself. It's full of the cow feed, and the cows are in there slobbering their saliva into it. And you know how cows eat. It's all very messy. And then they choo, choo, choo, and some of it comes back up, and then they chew it again, and then they pee next to it.

And sometimes they climb into the trough itself and kind of stomp it with the mud on their feet. I mean, it's not the nicest place, but this is where Jesus was born. So he understands poverty. Bible says Jesus himself said foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. So he walked that walk.

He understands denial. Bible says Peter denied him three times. And Jesus looked at Peter when the cock crowed, and he knew that he had denied him. He understands bereavement and loss. The Bible says he went to his very good friend Lazarus.

And when he got there, Lazarus had died. And he was so moved with emotion, Jesus wept. He understands betrayal. Judas Iscariot, one of his 12 besties. These are his best buddies that he hung out together, stabbed him in the back and sold him out for 30 pieces of silver.

He understands betrayal. He's been there. And he understands death because he went to the cross and died. So whatever suffering we think we might be going through again this Christmas. Jesus wants you to know that he is Emmanuel.

He is God with you. He's walking alongside you. He's among you, and he's never going to leave you or forsake you. And point number three, he's interceding for you. And if you take nothing away from today's message, just remember this point that God or Jesus is interceding for you.

The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter 7, verse 23. Now, there have been many of those priests since death prevented them from continuing in office. But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Now, because Jesus has gone through what we are going through, temptation.

He's gone through suffering. He knows where we are. He sees you. You know when someone says, I see you, he sees you, and he knows you. And what he's promised to you is that he's walking alongside you and never going to let you go.

And his job now is because he has come through that. He knows our suffering. He understands what we're going through. He's interceding for us. Intercession means he's making our case and saying to God, he says, God, I know what it's like to fight sin.

So help tyo give him strength. I know what it's like to lose a loved one, to lose a parent. I know what it's like to lose a good friend. I've been there, lost Lazarus. I know how painful that is.

He give him grace. Give him strength. That's what Jesus is doing. That's what he's doing for you and for me right now, interceding for us and the encouragement, I guess, for us this Christmas season is that as God, as Jesus is demonstrating and showing us Emmanuel, God with us and God among us, he's asking us to also think of how we can do that to others. And that's the presence project that Craig was mentioning earlier.

If we receive God's presence with us to help us in our struggles, in our sufferings, in whatever difficulties or challenges, we also need to recognize that there are some people for whom Christmas is not fun. It's not festivities, it's not eating and drinking like we normally do. For some people, Christmas is difficult because sometimes it might be a reminder of someone they lost at Christmas. Some people are struggling because they can afford the mince pies and the Christmas pudding and the presents for the kids, and they're struggling. For some people, Christmas is a very, very lonely time because they just haven't got family or very few friends or their friends and family are far away, and so they've got no one around them.

And so most of us enjoy Christmas, and it's really fun. But spare just a little bit of thought for some people who perhaps don't have that. And this Christmas, receive Emmanuel, God among us and God with us. But also think about how you can be Emmanuel to somebody else. And that's the challenge that we're leaving with you in the Presence Project.

And let this revelation of God with us, let it change your prayer life. When you pray, say, jesus, you've been where I am. You know my struggles. Be real with him. You know my struggles.

You've been there. I'm being tempted by this, or I'm suffering with this. I'm struggling with this. And then his job is to intercede and say, yep, I understand, and I'm going to be there with you.

Hey. This morning as we close, if you need prayer, you want someone to agree with you, stand with you, just to encourage you, please, there are people on my right and on my left. But as we leave this morning, please go and think about the Presence project. How can you be Emmanuel to somebody this Christmas? Let it not be another Christmas like it's always been.

Let it be a very different Christmas this year. God bless you. Have a fantastic week.