Emmanuel God With Us | Pastor Chris Searcy | 2.8.26

Emmanuel - God With us

Hebrew- derived from Immanu "with us" and   El "God"

Chief Passages are: Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:23

Isaiah 7:14 is written: 730 years before Jesus’ birth.

Isaiah 7:14

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Ahaz: king of Judah hears that:
Rezin: king of Aram/Syria and Pekah: king of Israel are planning to attack Judah (& Jerusalem)

Verses 10–12: God offers a sign; Ahaz “refuses”

Isaiah 7:10-12
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your[f] God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he (Isaiah) said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?

What’s really going on?

• Ahaz doesn’t want a sign because he doesn’t want to be pinned down to trust God.
• He wants to proceed with his preferred plan.

God in his mercy sends one of the the greatest prophecies ever uttered!

Isaiah 7:1414 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

730 ish years later…..

Matthew 1:20-23
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

It is a fact that Jesus lived!!!!!

The Fact is supported by Historical evidence

Historical evidence: ancient texts and traditions evaluated with standard historical methods.

Historical Methods:
Multiple attestation, Early dating, Independent sources, Contextual fit.

Multiple attestation

Definition: The same core claim appears in multiple sources/tradition-streams.

• Pauline letters: Written within a generation of the events, Paul repeatedly treats Jesus as a real person who was crucified and had known followers/leaders in Jerusalem.
• Gospel of Matthew, Mark, & Luke: Early narrative sources presenting Jesus as a Galilean teacher whose public ministry ends in crucifixion under Roman authority.
• Gospel of John: A different from the Synoptics that still centers on Jesus as a historical figure executed by crucifixion.
  

Non Biblical Sources:

• Flavius Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews (about AD 93–94)
  A 1st-century Jewish historian who mentions Jesus (and separately mentions “James, the brother of Jesus called Christ”), placing him in real Judean history.Tacitus — Annals (about AD 116; passage describes events in AD 64)

• Tacitus (about AD 116)
  Reports that “Christus” was executed under Pontius Pilate during the reign of Tiberius, and connects the movement to Nero’s persecution context. 
• Pliny the Younger — Epistulae (about AD 111–113)
  Describes interrogations of Christians; reports they meet, sing hymns to Christ “as to a god,” and bind themselves to moral commitments (Letter 10.96–10.97). 
• Lucian of Samosata — Passing of Peregrinus (about AD 165)
  Mocks Christians as worshiping a man who was crucified and living by his teachings
• Celsus (late AD 100s) preserved largely through Origen’s Contra Celsum (about AD 248)
  He is a hater!!!!
  He opposes: Jesus’ divinity, His miracles as evidence of his divinity, Virgin birth, The Resurrection.
  
  

Summary of evidence:

• Present in 5,500+ Greek manuscript 25,000+ Manuscripts (including all languages)
• Independent non-Christian writers treat him as real
• Early sources name specific details that are hard to explain if he was invented
  

To deny the existence of Jesus on the basis of a lack of evidence means you must call into question the existence of these historical figures:

Pontius Pilate

Herod Antipas

Tiberius

Socrates

Spartacus

Cleopatra

Most well-known people who lived around the same time as Jesus have far less surviving narrative about them than we have about Jesus

Never Make God’s activity the measure of his existence!!!!

John 14:1-3
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.