The great essential doctrine of Christianity lies in these few words, God with us.To hear of Christ having come on this earth for a little time, and then having gone away again, would not be to us glad tidings of great joy. The first apostles would not have won men to the Gospel if they had preached an absent Jesus, One who had left His Church and gone to heaven. The great secret of our Christian joy lies in this fact, that we believe in a present, not in an absent Jesus; one who is Emmanuel God with us. Try to get hold of that great fact of our Lord's presence, and then you will see what results flow from it.
I. First, that fact should make us humble. If the Son of God, King of kings, and Lord of lords, chose to come to this earth in the lowliest manner; if He chose a manger to be born in, a workman's home to live in, the commonest of clothing and of food, surely we, who profess to be His followers, have no right to be proud.
II. The fact of our Lord's abiding presence ought to make us brave. If God be for us, and with us, who can be against us? No temptation need be too strong to be conquered; no difficulty need be too hard to be surmounted by those who know that God is with them Emmanuel.
III. The fact of our Lord's abiding presence ought to make us good to each other. Look on your fellowmen, and learn from the Incarnation to respect man, everyman, as wearing the flesh which Jesus wears. Learn to look upon all men as brethren, who have a claim upon us in their need. There is a noble family in Italy whose name of Frangipannimeans breakers of bread, that is, for the poor. We who are bound together in one family with Him who gives us our daily bread, not only bread for the body, but bread for the soul, should all be breakers of bread with our brethren, helping those who have need to a share of our blessings; for thus alone can we give something to Him who freely giveth all things our Emmanuel, God with us.
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. i., p. 39.
These words contain in themselves the whole history and course and means of man's redemption. In their highest sense they express that unfathomable mystery that God hath been with us, in our nature, that the Creator has taken His creature into Himself; but, by virtue of that gracious mystery, they declare God's presence in His Church, and with and within the souls of her members.
I. Such, then, is the twofold force of the title "Emmanuel, God with us," God in Himself, but with us, and such as we; not with us merely by mercy, or care, or providence, or protection, but with us as one of us; not restoring us by His word, as He created us, but by becoming as one of us; not by raising us by the hand when fallen, but by humbling Himself to us; Himself sinking to us, that He might rise with us, placing at God's right hand, united with Himself, and as part of Himself, the nature which He had redeemed.
II. And if He be such to us in deed and in the fulness of His purpose, if He have been thus God with us, and purposeth that we should be thus with God, how should He not be with us now in all things if we be His? What but sin can hide His face from us, in that it blinds our eyes that we see Him not? Why should He not be with us on our way, who is Himself the Way? To us, as to the disciples, He shows Himself in different forms, but He is the selfsame Saviour and Lord in all. He is our home and sure abiding-place; and all things in this earth may speak of Him, for we dwell in a redeemed world, which His sacred footsteps have trod and sanctified. Only, if we would truly see Him, we must seek to have the mirror of our hearts cleansed, that it may receive His glorious image. "The pure in heart," He hath promised, shall see Him. Love is the eye whereby the Spirit sees God. Disputing about holy things but blinds us. If we love, and as we love, we shall see and shall receive. While the world jangles our Lord comes secretly to us, if we, with pure hearts, draw nigh to Him.
E. B. Pusey, Sermons for the Church's Seasons,p. 54.
References: Matthew 1:23. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1270; H. Wonnacott, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 1074; G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines of Sermons,p. 9; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 324; vol. x., p. 341; New Outlines of Sermons on the New Testament,p. 1; A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,3rd series, p. 169; H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year,p. 15; G. Huntington, Sermons for Holy Seasons,vol. i., p. 15.