Sermon
Jesus - Immanuel - God With Us
January 30, 2005
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and your sermon notes today. I pray that all of you have them. For a number of weeks we have been in a series of lessons learning what the Bible has to say about the deity of Jesus Christ. And the reason that our hearts have been inspired in this direction is because we're fully aware that the person that gets attacked first is Jesus Christ when it comes to the cults. And if you ask any of those involved in cults what they think about Jesus, it won't be very long that you'll find that the Jesus they believe in is not the Jesus of the Bible. And so in order for us to have an understanding of what the Bible says about Christ we have launched this series of lessons, and today our sermon, our lesson is entitled 'Jesus-Immanuel-God With Us'.

Now as I've noted in our recent weeks, we've been talking about what the Bible says about Jesus and what Jesus said about Himself...that He claimed deity. He said, if you've seen Me you have seen the Father, and He said that I came from above. I am not of this earth.

And so over and over again we've come across passages where Jesus has made the claim that He is God in human form. We believe that with all of our heart, but Jesus realized that not everybody would be leave His words, and therefore today we're going to take some of the evidence that was lived out, that marked His ministry and His life as He lived it here on Earth, because He's going to tell us if you don't believe what I say, then at least consider the evidence of My deity.

So we start today with His birth. Would you turn in your notes to Matthew 1:18. It's Matthew's record of the birth of Jesus Christ. I've read for you:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."

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."

And as we note in our notes that particular verse comes out of the book of Isaiah chapter 7: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." God with us.

But as I have noted, Jesus said, there will be many who will not believe the words that I speak, so I ask you, please consider the evidence. Take your notes and turn with me to page 3 because I'm going to hurry along today. I want to get to the heart of our lesson. And here we have recorded for us on page 3, it says, As Jesus Christ prepares to go to the cross; He has a very interesting discussion with Philip. And here is the record of that discussion: "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him."

Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you are not just My words. Rather, it is the Father living in Me, who is doing His work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me: or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.""

And so for the next number of weeks we want to think about the evidence that proves that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God, and we're going to talk about the miracles. Now I'm fully aware that here is a point where the skeptics have had a hay day. You go back through the pages of church history and there have been skeptics all the way down through time who will not accept the miraculous. They just will not...they do not believe in the miracles.

I go back to 1677 and his name was Spinoza, and he was a theologian, but he didn't believe in the miracles and here was his logic. He said, if God in His creation had a physical law, it was a law of nature, that if a miracle happened then it would be a violation - it would break the original law and thus violate nature itself, and the new law or the new miracle would then be the new law.

In other words, God is unchangeable and therefore if He created the world and all the laws exist, He's not going to do something of a miracle that's going to change any of His original laws. That was his logic. So he said, therefore, God does not do miracles. He is an unchangeable God.

There were some other critics that came along and they wrote that in respect to miracles they really are not miracles in themselves, they are just simply the discovery of a new law in nature. In other words, they said, Jesus knew human nature and He knew this universe well enough that there were a lot of physical laws that He knew about that He could bring into play, and those physical laws then were the explanation to what seemed to others to be a miracle, but in reality it was just simply one law that man was not familiar with that Jesus used to do what other people call in miracle.

You come to the 1800s and over in Germany you had a school of people who really ridiculed the Bible, and one of the skeptics and his writing wrote these words: Christ did not heal the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, He only detected an impostor. Now think that one through folks. This man who Jesus heals has been an impostor for 38 years. He's playing sick.

That's not a very good explanation, but the skeptics have got to find something to get around reality, they've got to find an explanation.

He did not change water into wine at Cana, but brought a new supply of wine when that of the house was exhausted. He did not multiply the loaves, but distributing His own lunch and the disciples' lunch, He created a sense of guilt and thus turned that guilt into liberality and everybody else shared their lunch and so there was enough lunch. Now you figure that one out. A guy would have to carry a lunch pail big enough to accommodate about a hundred people because He fed 5000 plus women and children.

The skeptics go on, and I like this one, He did not cure blindness at all. Otherwise, then a skillful eye doctor might do it, which indeed as the evangelist reserve that Jesus said with His own lips, I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work. So the skeptic says He was just a good eye doctor, and He needed the light of the sun, so He said I must do this while it's still light for the night cometh when I can't work, so I've got to have the light of the sun to perform this eye operation. The Skeptic says He was just a good eye surgeon, and He did it during the day with the light of the sun. Quite foolish, isn't it?

Just one more - he says that He did not raised Lazarus from the dead, but guessed from the description of his disease that he was only in a swoon, and happy He found it that way when He got to the tomb. So he really wasn't dead, just in a swoon.

You see, what I'm trying to show you folks is that down through time the miracles have been a real issue with the skeptics, and they try to just do away with the miraculous. Jesus said listen, if you have a problem with My words, at least observe the evidence, and He's talking about His miracles.

Back to our notes page 3 - In John 10:38, Jesus said: "But if I do it, even though you do not believe Me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father." In other words, examine the evidence and it will prove My deity.

Now let's talk about those miracles just for a moment. One of the amazing things about the miracles of Jesus is that He never worked a miracle on His own behalf. Perhaps the finding of the coin in the fish's mouth is the only exception of His rule of using His supernatural power for His own need. Remember, Jesus is returning to Capernaum, He's got Peter along with them, and as soon as He arrives in town He's got some skeptics that are accusing Him- You don't pay the temple tax, do you? And then He talks it over with Peter because Peter realizes the conversation has come up and Jesus said, you know, is it the kids that pay the tax or is that the strangers?

And Peter said well it's the strangers. Well Jesus said in essence they are criticizing for us not paying our taxes. So what you do, Peter, you go down to the lake and the first fish you catch will have a coin in its mouth, and that coin will have sufficient value enough to pay for your tax and Mine. So there was an accommodation to a personal need, but other than that I don't know of any other miracle that was worked that Jesus did on His own behalf.

Neither extreme hunger in the wilderness nor the intense suffering in Gethsemane or on the cross could drive Him to work a miracle for His own relief when the glory of God could not be promoted by it. A league of angels waited to obey His command, but He did not solicit their help. He provided ample food for the hungry that followed Him, yet would not transform stones into bread to satisfy His own hunger. And as He was dying of extreme thirst, no water miraculously appeared to slake His thirst.

Some other observations about the miracles of Jesus...I'm at the top of page 4. Christ never paraded His supernatural power. His miracles were never wrought for display, or even to prove His claim. He rejected such use as a temptation and always refused to perform miracles to satisfy the demands of unbelief. Christ never performed a miracle to create a sensation or to win adherents. He did not make every sick person well. While He refused none who sought His aid, many were not healed.

Pause - the modern-day miracle healers tell us that if you don't get healed there's something wrong with you, that there's something wrong with your faith. But Jesus didn't heal everybody. I've always been amazed...He walks into that pool of Bethesda. It says the multitudes were lying there sick and infirmed waiting for the stirring of the water, because it was their belief that an angel came down and stirred the water and the first one in got healed. Jesus walked into that scene with the multitudes laying around in pain and in sickness, ignores everyone else and He finds this one man who's been there for 38 years and said, do you want to be healed? He said yes, so Jesus heals him. He turns around and walks out, and leaves everybody else in pain.

So when the modern-day miracle healers tell us that Jesus healed them all, He didn't, they don't know their Scriptures.

Back to our notes: He passed by a great multitude and selected only one for healing. Thus, in all of His cures, there was no ulterior motive. They were all of a beneficent character, harmonious with His life and teaching. Thus we cannot remove the miracles from the gospels without wrecking them, as the merciful works of Jesus were woven into the very texture of His character and His claims. So it's imperative that we understand that His miracles are for real. It's a true record, and you take them out and you've destroyed the gospel story.

The methods Jesus employed in His miracles indicate that He could heal with or without external means. And sometimes He laid His hands on the needy or touched them. At other times, He healed without any contact with the sufferers. His word and will were sufficient.

And then Christ's healing acts were never tentative. In the gospel narratives there is no trace of a failure or of a relapse of any that He healed.

Pause - They have those who go around and survey these supposed miracle healers and the sad thing is they find out that many who claim healing, they are back to their sickness as soon as they leave the platform. Never in the record of the Scriptures is one that Jesus healed does it say that he ever relapsed back to his original sickness. That's interesting.

Another feature of Christ's miracles is that they were signs, not universal, but a testimony of His deity. They were the insignia of His God-Manhood, the evidence of His divine commission.

So Nicodemus makes a visit. It says, "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said: 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.'" Now Nicodemus got the message. The miracles were the evidence of His deity, and he admits it.

So, from the Scriptures we have considered thus far, Jesus invites us to examine the miracles (signs, works) which He did, for in these, there is a sufficient evidence that in truth God is with us...His name is Immanuel.

We've already considered the miracle of His birth; so let's consider the event of His baptism at the Jordan River. Mark records, "At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are My Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased."

Now there are three aspects of the sign are distinguishable; first of all we have the opened heavens, secondly we have the descending Spirit, and thirdly we have the Voice of heaven. Now while Jesus ascended from the water still praying, the heavens opened and to use Mark's very graphic statement, were "rent asunder."

You know it's interesting; you can read Scriptures and I have read this over many, many times, but I didn't catch the difference that Mark's...how he describes. He says heaven was rent asunder like the tearing of a curtain. So it must have been a dramatic scene, there by the River Jordan they are standing there and all of a sudden the heavens rip open like a curtain! Mark said they were torn asunder. This forcible expression appears to be connected with the heavens stretched out as a curtain, and opened heavens symbolize in the Scriptures divine favor. When Stephen had finished his message just before they picked up stones to kill him, the Bible says: "When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, "Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

So with the heavens torn asunder it's evidence that God is giving favor to this scene. Out of the opened heavens comes the Holy Spirit and descends upon Christ, and twice over it says that "He abode on Him." He was a dove.

In Scriptures the dove is the symbol of peace, and as a bird it is noted for its remarkable quietness, tenderness, purity, and love--which qualities Jesus perfectly personified in the days of His flesh. And the descent of the Spirit "as it were a dove in bodily form," implied the gift of supernatural power.

And then one more...then there was the mysterious Voice speaking from heaven and uttering a divine benediction upon Jesus. By divine proclamation, God announced the presence of the King and set His seal upon the years that He had lived.

Jesus' baptism inaugurated His ministry and began the Messianic Age. Now think with me...John is out there in the Jordan and he's baptizing, and Jesus makes His way to the Jordan, and He says to John, I want you to baptize Me. Immediately you'll notice that John is reluctant. You should be baptizing me. The discussion continued and Jesus finally said, it's necessary for Me to fulfill all righteousness. You see baptism was a symbol of the washing or the cleansing from sin, and Jesus had no sin.

That's what John was working through in his mind and what Jesus was really saying is that it's righteous for Me to do this because as the Savior of men I identify with the sinner, and the sinner needs to be baptized when he makes his confession in Christ; and thus, I'm going to fulfill all righteousness and I'm going to set the example for all to follow. He identifies with us as sinners in the act of water baptism.

As soon as He goes beneath that water the heavens were rent asunder, and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and that marvelous word - Behold My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Now there's an interesting thing. You're going to find this out as we study the miracles together. In many of them you have the frequent gathering of all the Trinity. You have Jesus, God the Son, you have the Holy Spirit that descends in the form of the dove, God the Holy Spirit, and you have God Almighty with His voice, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Isn't it a remarkable thing that the very first moment in Jesus' public ministry heaven opens and declares the deity of Christ? He is my beloved Son. Amazing. Jesus said if you don't believe Me, then just follow the evidence.

Go with me quickly to page 6 in our notes. We come now to the first miracle that Jesus does. We're in the middle of the page, and here's what John says, "On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, They have no wine." Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."

Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. It was customary in your home that you had water, a water basin or ample water so that when the guests arrive they take off their sandals and you'd wash the dust off their feet. So these were vessels filled with water for the washing of feet.

Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the brim. And He said unto them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast." And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!

This beginning of signs, or miracles, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed on Him.

Now having won a decisive victory over Satan in the wilderness, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and commenced His supernatural ministry. Thus, the wilderness temptation over, Jesus and His disciples attend the celebration of a wedding. Mary, the mother of Jesus was present and the story indicates that by her concern for the shortage of wine, no doubt she had something to do with the wedding arrangements.

One of the Coptic gospels from Egypt tells us that Mary was a sister of the bridegroom's mother. And other ancient writings suggest that the bridegroom was no other than John himself.

Now in Palestine a wedding was really a notable occasion. It was a Jewish law that the wedding of a virgin should take place on Wednesday. Another interesting fact about the wedding in Christ's time...it lasted for far more than one day. And the newly married couple did not go away for their honeymoon; they stayed at home and for a full week they kept open house. Now that's interesting. Now the wedding festivities lasted as long as your pocketbook did. If you are short of resources, it was very short; sometimes one or two days at the most. But if you were financially capable, the wedding could go on for seven days as long as you could feed your guests.

The wedding has gone on - now some say that what actually happened, Mary had invited her son Jesus, but there had been a time frame and not knowing that He had gathered together some disciples, when Jesus brought His disciples that upset the number count and thus created the drain on the remaining resources. And so what Mary is really saying, Jesus, You created a problem here. You brought some guests that weren't invited. However it was, it says that there was this shortage.

Let's read on in our notes. Back to the wedding. For a Jewish feast wine was essential. "Without wine," said the Rabbi, "there is no joy." It was not that people were drunken, but in the East wine was an essential. Drunkenness was in fact a great disgrace, and they actually drank their wine in a mixture composed of two parts of wine to three parts of water. In other words they never drank the wine without a mixture of water. And you decided how many guests you had, and how much wine you had, and how much water it would take to feed them and so you put the water in the wine and stretched it out.

When I was a little tiny guy my folks were very, very poor and we couldn't buy milk, fresh milk. So mother bought these little cans of condensed milk, Carnation condensed milk, and I can still remember 70 years ago sitting there looking at that table and that little white can and there was a picture of a cow on it, and under the cow it says 'This milk came from contented cows.' And in 70 years I haven't figured out how they knew how to select contented cows.

And what would happen is that mother would mix that concentrated milk with water. Now if it got near the end of the week and we were short of funds you got more water than you did milk and she made it stretch until the end of the week. Amazing. Well, that's in those days...If you drank straight wine you were a barbarian. That's interesting. So what would they do? They always had a mixture; two parts, three parts, whatever it might be.

Now at any time the failure of provisions would have been a problem, for hospitality in the East is a sacred duty, but for the provisions to fail at a wedding would be a terrible shame for the bride and the bridegroom. That indeed would have been a humiliation. In fact I was reading one text and they said if you were a guest and you came to a wedding and you didn't like the way you were treated, you didn't get enough food, you could turn around and sue the one who invited you. You wouldn't want very many guests like that, would you?

So the idea of running out of wine at a wedding is just unheard of, and that's why Mary comes to Jesus and says, Jesus, they are out of wine. Now in the Authorized Version the translation of Jesus' reply makes it sound very discourteous, but really it isn't folks. If we were reading it in the original language, this would be what it would sound like: Mary, don't worry; you don't quite understand what is going on; leave things to Me, and I will settle them in My own way.

Remember! He is Immanuel...GOD WITH US. Now the water pots, of course, were filled. Now think that one through folks. There are six of them and they contain between 20 and 30 gallons each. Let's just say 25 gallons each. I mean boy you've got 150 gallons of good wine. Now that's a party. And Jesus turns all six pots into wine.

I'm at the top of page 8. Our Lord, it must be observed, did not touch one of the vessels. The servants poured water into them and then poured out wine, and such a real transmutation was effected by divine power that revealed our Lord's sway over the fruits of the earth. Now actually, the miracle at Cana involved a speeding up process which required actual creative power.

Drop down a couple lines. Now in a moment, He willed the instant chemical changes whereby the water became like old wine mellowed with keeping. Now I have never drank anything that's alcoholic so I don't know anything about the value of wine or what's the difference between good wine and bad wine, but I am told that the older it is and according to the vintage the longer it sits the better it gets and the more mellow.

So what happens at this marvelous miracle? (Claps hands) What Jesus does is He compresses time and in an instant that which would have taken years to mellow is done instantly. And only the creator of the universe can do that. That's why those disciples looking on they saw the glory of God demonstrated. He was more than a man at a wedding. He was Immanuel, God, the Creator of the universe, and He took that water (claps hands) and made it into mellow wine in a second. And it says while those disciples observed the glory of God they believed.

Remember what Jesus said, if you don't believe My words at least give some thought to the evidence of what takes place in My life. And if we had walked over to the Jordan that day, and we would have stood there and watched heaven being rent asunder and the Voice speaks this is My beloved Son, and heaven witnesses to the deity of Christ. And if you and I had been there at that wedding and said this is marvelous, a need is met, and is met with the finest, the aged wine. Jesus said that should give evidence to who I am.

Suggestion -when the cultists come to your front door, if you don't want to talk about theology, talk about the evidence. You may not be able to explain all the verses concerning the deity of Christ, but say, listen, let's talk about what Jesus did. Let's talk about His miracles, because Jesus said the miracles give evidence that I am who I say I am. Amen?

Lord Jesus, Your word is so precious and we really believe with all of our heart, we believe in the miracles. We're not skeptics. We're in church today because we believe, but what a wonderful foundation it lays for our testimony to use these various miracles as evidence of Your deity. And although we can't explain or understand it all, we are not asked to. All we do is respond in worship, so we worship You, O wonderful Christ. You are the Lord of heaven and we love You. Amen? God bless you folks.