There are many names given to Jesus in the Bible. Each one gives us a clearer & fuller picture of who He is and what He means to us. JESUS means “God saves!” He is God’s salvation for us. The word "Emmanuel" comes from two Hebrew words, `immanu, "with us," and 'el, "God” - God is with us. It appears 3 times in the Bible - twice in Isaiah and once in Matthew. The best part of Christmas is not the presents we receive, but the presence of God with us. God is with us, He is in us, and He is for us. God has created us as creatures of relationship; we need each other. He made us in a way that we need real, genuine relationships with our families, with friends. And amazingly, all these relationships stem from the most important relationship that God wired us for; our relationship with Him.
Man is the only creature of God to be given a spiritual and moral nature made in God's own image. We have self awareness & can have relationship and fellowship with God and enjoy His love forever. A man’s earnest desire and his greatest need is RECONCILIATION with God. What reconciliation is? It implies that there was a former friendship. There were once good terms between God and man. It implies an enmity on one or both sides. It implies that God is the prime Author of this reconciliation, yet no man is actually reconciled to God till he complies with those conditions whereupon God offers it. "God was in Christ" when He was "reconciling the world"; we must be in Christ if we be reconciled to God. (See 2 Corinthians 5:16-21) The Hebrew word for reconciliation is kapar, which is pronounced kaw-far’. It is most often translated into the English word, atonement. It brings to mind that when Jesus died on the cross for us He provided atonement for our sins. (Romans 5:10)
The English word for atonement literally means a condition without tension. Therefore, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross removed the tension between us and God. No other word could serve as a better example of what reconciliation should mean between believers. Reconciliation also fulfills what Jesus said would be a key element in demonstrating to the world that we are His disciples, that we love one another (John 13:34-35; John 15:12). Reconciliation shows us that relationships are more important than religion. Our reconciliation with one another has its Biblical foundation in the atonement of Christ. Jesus came not as a great philosopher or educator, not as a revolutionary or religious and social leader. Jesus came as Savior for man’s greatest need. God commissioned Jesus Christ to this work of reconciliation. If God be the first cause in all things, He is the first cause in the highest of His works. No creature could originate this work. The end of this commission was the reconciliation and redemption of man. So Christmas is the celebration of love, joy, peace, and reconciliation. Jesus came to save us, not to scare us.
Hence the title Immanuel tells us about the mission of Jesus; it also tells us about his nature. The human name of our Lord is "Jesus" - a name that describes his work on earth. His prophetic name is "Immanuel," one that reveals the deeper mystery of his mission. In Jesus we see the union of God and man. In giving this title to Jesus in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, God tells us that we are not alone. The greatest blessing of Immanuel is how Jesus is now available anywhere, anytime, and to anyone. No matter where we are or what we have done, God has promised to be "with us" in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Christmas means that God loved us so much he came to live with us, and die for us so that we can live with Him forever. All of us have a real problem—we are an endangered species in this Universe, We are living in a world weighed down by much division and distress. There are wars and rumors of wars leading to fear and misery. There are broken families and conflict among communities and religious groups. This is a world in which many have lost hope and do not enjoy life; we are very fragile with a very short life span, only God can help us. The message of Christmas is ‘“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the City of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11)” It is all about God’s care for all His people everywhere. Christmas message is relevant, revolutionary and reassuring to all people.
What a difference the baby born in Bethlehem’s manger 2,000 years ago makes to our world today. Without a shred of doubt, I can say that,’ the very purpose of the Christmas is 'God is with us “to reconcile the world. That is exactly why Jesus came; to change the world. No other birth has ever involved such important consequences to the human race. The birth of the Lord Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world the healing medicine of love and peace which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years. But the real Christmas message goes far deeper. The One who put the stars in the sky lay beneath them in the form of a helpless baby, entering time and space not to let us know He exists, but to draw near to us and invite us into His everlasting kingdom. It is about God’s greatest gift to the world.
Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus is remarkable for its stark simplicity. It invites us to think more deeply about the events he describes. For a virgin to be with child before she and her husband had “come together” was and is beyond anything imaginable in human terms. (Matthew 1:18) It is here at the first Christmas that the most profound and unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. In the manger, we find not only the Savior of the world, but also the Creator of the universe, God with us—Immanuel. (See Matthew 1:21-23) Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy, both in his identification with humanity by becoming a man and by his death on the cross for sin. In this sense, the word "Emmanuel" truly does embody the meaning of Christmas.
The birth of Jesus, the Holy One of Israel, the Messiah and Savior of all men, has made a way for God to be "with us." If you know Jesus, the great reunion awaits you. God will live with you and your spiritual family forever. And that’s the best Christmas present anyone could ever receive. Matthew begins and ends by emphasizing that God is with us-God with us in the flesh (Immanuel) and ends with God with us through the Spirit :( Mathew 28:20) “Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age”. Incredible and unbelievable as it may appear to a modern man, the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ was a visitor from outer space. He was God Incarnate. That virgin-born baby was God in human form. He humbled Himself, He took the form of a servant, He was made in your likeness and mine, and He identified Himself with the problems of the human race.
And thus it was that the Apostle John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). God’s love for His children was beautifully displayed when He gave His Son (John 3:16). The prophecy of Isaiah 9:6 foretold that a Son would be given (divinity) and a child would be born (humanity). In His incarnation, Jesus was fully human (a Child was born) and yet fully God (the Son was given). It was a profound mystery, miracle and marvel of Christmas when God sent His Son, when Jesus, the Lord of Glory, left Heaven and came to earth to be incarnated in human form, conceived in the womb of a virgin, born in the humblest of circumstances, and laid in a manger for a bed (Gal 4:4). Jesus came to live with us and grew in stature and in wisdom and lived a sinless life.
Yes, Christmas is full of marvel and surprises. The angel has declared to the shepherds the best news anyone has ever heard: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
When Luke wrote his account, he didn’t use any articles to describe who Jesus is. It reads this way: Savior, Christ, Lord (Luke 2:11). Each word is vitally important. Savior is actually an Old Testament word that means “One who delivers his people.” Lord is a term for Deity. It’s a synonym for God. Christ is the Greek version of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “the anointed One.” We desperately need a Savior, don’t we? When the angel announced the birth of Jesus to Joseph, he said, “Give him the name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Humanity needed a Savior.
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was salvation, so God sent us a Savoir. That’s why Christ comes—to be a Savior for everyone who will turn to him. Not only that, but he came to be Lord of the universe. Today he is the Lord of heaven. One day he will return and set up his kingdom on the earth. Between now and then we are called to make him Lord of our lives on a daily basis. That means surrendering your will to him and letting him lead the way. He is the Savior, he is the Lord, and he is the Christ—the one sent from God. This is the heart of Christmas. God loved us enough to send his only begotten Son. All barriers between us and him will be forever gone. He will be our best friend. Jesus will be God with us, forever.
In every newspaper or social media that we read and in every newscast that we watch, we see a picture of hate and lust and greed and prejudice and corruption—manifested in a thousand ways. Morally, socially, spiritually, we are in deep trouble. The fact that we have policemen, advocates, judges and jails and military forces indicates that something is radically wrong with human nature. The Bible teaches that the human race is morally sick. This disease has affected every phase of our life in society. The Bible calls this disease by an ugly, three-letter word: SIN.
The only way to restore our relationship with God was to remove sin. This is the primary reason that Jesus came to us in the flesh. He came to be our substitute. Because God is holy and just he cannot simply ignore sin. The right and just punishment for sin is God’s wrath and spiritual death-either everyone who has sinned needed to pay this price (which means an eternity of punishment and severed relationship with God) or someone needed to live a perfect life without sin and pay that price as a substitute. And that’s what He did. Christ paid the ultimate price so that we would be forever free from sin—and the fear of sin. The Bible teaches that the only cure for sin is the blood that Christ shed on the cross. Christ became the Lamb of God who bled and died on the cross for our sins.
Jesus Himself said, speaking just before His death, “For this cause was I born” (John 18:37). He was the only person in history who was born with the purpose of dying. The Apostle Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). From the cradle to the cross, Jesus lived the life we could not live. Jesus was tempted, just as we are, and yet He never sinned (Hebrew 4:15). He lived every minute of His life in accordance with the will of the One who sent Him—God the Father, God His Father, God our Father — and then Jesus willingly and purposefully went to the cross. He took upon Himself our sins and paid the price of redeeming us with His own blood. The Greek word for Jesus comes from the Hebrew word Yehoshua, which means “he will save” or “YHVH is salvation.” This name was not given by accident. It shows us that Jesus, formerly known as the Word, was born for a particular purpose: to save. We see this in Mathew I: 21 “He shall save His people from their sins.” Jesus was born for the purpose of saving human beings.
The birth of the Lord means peace on earth, but only for those “on whom his favor rests”. Indeed, for those people who receive Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord, they find the peace that can only come from the favor or grace of God. Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish God’s presence and peace, Christmas is a call to connect our story with “His” Story. Jesus Christ can transform our stories of misery in to a miracle. He can transform our troubled Families to a place of happiness and Peace. He can transform our Nation to places of brotherly love and joy. The wonderful promise made through the Christ- Immanuel is that God promises to be with you in your troubles. We are not alone; we face this life with God on our side, and we face eternity with God in our hearts. Jesus truly is our Emmanuel: the ultimate, eternal, ontological expression of the eternal creator being present with and within us.