Because of his love for mankind, The Creator chose to confine himself to a humble human body.
so that man could know him. That's the Christmas story. And today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah unpacks the truth. Which has challenged and inspired the human race for over 2,000 years.
What does it mean that God is with us? Here's David to introduce his message. Why call him Emmanuel? And thank you for joining us today. What we're going to talk about today has always been very necessary, but not nearly as much as it is right now.
Right now, more than ever before, we need to know that God is with us. And the Bible tells us that when God came to be a man through Jesus, In Jesus, the that he was Emmanuel. God with us. Listen to me, friends. God is with us in the midst of all of our questions and the challenges of what's happening in your life, maybe what's happening in your church and your community.
Listen to me. God is with you. He is with us. His name is Emmanuel. And we're going to talk about that today and tomorrow, right here on Turning Point.
You know, during the month of December, we always make available a beautiful devotional for the year to come. This devotional will take you through 2026, and every day there will be a new devotional writing. I like to think of this as a jumpstart to your devotional life. You may not just use this as your only devotional, but when you read this and your scripture or whatever other plan you're on, you will be nourished and encouraged and strengthened. It will help you understand what the Bible says, what it means, what it means to you.
And that's how we grow in our faith.
So let me just give you this invitation. Send a gift of any size to Turning Point during the month of December and ask for your copy of A Closer Walk with Jesus, and we'll send it to you. You can begin to use it immediately, and it will be a gift that gives every day in the new year. Our most exciting gift of the whole year for our listeners, and we're thankful that you're listening today, so now you know what to do. Here is part one of Why Call Him Emmanuel.
Back in nineteen ninety six, a pop song by Joan Osborne. made the charts Asking what difference it would make if God were one of us. quote, just a slob like one of us. A stranger on a bus. Commuting home.
Many people thought the song was sacrilegious. But it expressed the longing that all of us have for a God who can understand the kinds of problems that we face in our humdrum everyday lives. What Joan Osborne didn't know was this. One day, God did become one of us. Listen to these words from the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel.
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son. and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Which is translated God with us. Say that with me. God with us.
Many years ago, on a snowy Christmas Eve in Fort Wayne, Indiana. where I was then the pastor of a church How is it? Home on Christmas Eve, and everybody else had gone to bed. I was up late and I was listening to the radio in the kitchen. And I heard a late presentation of Paul Harvey's program.
I remember hearing Paul Harvey tell this story. I'd never heard it before. I have since heard it many times and actually recently found it in written form. I will never forget the impact. that story had on me that Christmas Eve so many years ago.
Perhaps it was the Snow on the ground outside of my home, and the eeriness of being up late at night on a Christmas Eve when everyone else had gone to bed. But most of all, it was the story itself that helped me to understand and appreciate Christmas in a way that I had not ever appreciated it before. Here is the story as I have recently found it. And I think you will understand why it has been such a help to me. One raw winter night, A man heard an irregular thumping sound against the the kitchen storm door.
He went to a window and watched as tiny shivering sparrows, attracted to the warmth inside, were beating their wings and their bodies against the glass of the door. Feeling compassion for the helpless creatures, the farmer bundled up and trudged through fresh snow to open the barn for the struggling birds. He turned on the lights. tossed some hay in a corner. sprinkled a trail of saltine crackers to direct them to the barn.
But the sparrows, which had scattered in all directions when he emerged from the house. still hid in the darkness of the night, afraid of him. He tried various tactics to get them. To a place of safety, circling behind the birds to drive them toward the barn, tossing cracker crumbs in the air toward them. Retreating to his house to see if they'd flutter into the barn on their own.
Nothing worked. He, a huge alien creature, had terrified them. The birds could not understand that he really meant them no harm. In fact, he was trying to help them. He withdrew to his house and watched the doomed sparrows through a window.
As he stared, a thought hit him like lightning from a clear blue sky. If only I could become a bird. One of them. Just for a moment. Then I would enfrighten them so I could show them the way to warmth and safety.
At the same moment, Another thought dawned on him. He realized that he had grasped the whole principle of the incarnation. A man becoming a bird is nothing compared to God becoming a man. The concept of a sovereign being as big as the universe he created, confining himself to a human body, was and is too much for some people to believe. But that, my friends, is the real story of Christmas.
That is the heart of the Christmas message. That God has come to be one of us. God becoming a man so that he could reveal himself and his love to lost mankind. It is the very essence of the gospel, and it is the good news of joy which the angels spoke on that hillside outside of Bethlehem. A Savior is born.
God has come. to be one of us. I'm convinced that if we are to prepare our hearts for Christmas, we must spend some time contemplating this incredible truth. God becoming man. Emmanuel.
Let's begin by pondering the mystery of it for a moment. Think about the mystery of Emmanuel. John the Apostle Wrote about it in the gospel that bears his name. In the very first few verses of his book. In John 1, we have this word, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John said. The only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, was made flesh and dwelt among us. This is God with us. This is Emmanuel.
in what some people considered to be a hymn of the early church. Paul the Apostle wrote about it in a more graphic and perhaps even earthier way. Here's what he wrote in Philippians chapter 2. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.
But made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men, and being found in the appearance of a man. He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. gave us a glimpse into the future of this truth. When he said that God would one day visit his people, and he said that when that moment came, the Son of God would be given a special name that would forever remind his people of his sacrificial love for them.
Isaiah put it this way in his prophecy in the seventh chapter. He said, Therefore, the Lord Himself. Will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name. Emmanuel.
It is that passage that Matthew quotes in his gospel, which we read a few moments ago from the first chapter: Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. Isaiah prophesied it, John expressed it, Paul wrote about it. And Matthew recorded it. God has come to be. One of us.
Emmanuel. One day Paul was writing to his young friend Timothy. And out of nowhere He burst forth into a moment of praise and wonder. In 1 Timothy 3:16, he said, And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, God. Manifest.
in the flesh. Paul was writing to Timothy and he said, Timothy, I don't understand it. This is unbelievable. Without controversy, there's no way you even could contradict it. This is an incredible truth that God has become one of us.
We are so familiar with it because of all of our Christmas cards and all of our traditions that sometimes we go right past it and miss. The magnificence of this truth That Almighty God has come down here to be one of us. God becoming a person, not some spiritual personality, but a real physical person. like you, God becoming flesh and blood. Over the years As I have read about the Incarnation and been somewhat of a student of theology.
I have found that writer after writer has come to this truth. overwhelmed with its Importance. Writers that I respect, you have heard me speak of over the years as I have been your teacher.
Well-known men. have come to the place where we are today. and have written of Emmanuel. Men like C.S. Lewis.
Who in his classic Mirror Christianity writes, The second person in God, the Son, became human Himself. Was born into the world as an actual man. A real man of a particular height, with hair of a particular color, speaking a particular language, weighing so many pounds. The eternal being who knows everything and who created the whole universe became not only a man, but before that a baby, and even before that, a fetus inside a woman's body. AW Tozer Also, he was overwhelmed by this thought.
He said, The coming of Jesus Christ into this world represents a truth more profound than any philosophy. All of the great thinkers of the world together could never have produced anything even remotely approaching the wonder and profundity disclosed in the message of these words. He Came. The words are wiser than all learning. Understood in their high spiritual context, they are more eloquent than all oratory, more lyric and moving than all music.
They tell us that all of mankind sitting in the darkness has been visited by the light of the world. Frederick Beechner adds. The claim that Christianity makes for Christmas is that at a particular time, and place, God came to be with us Himself. When Corinneas was governor of Syria in a town called Bethlehem, a child was born who, beyond the power of anyone to account for, was the high and lofty one made low and helpless. The one who inhabits eternity comes to dwell in time.
The one whom none can look upon and live is delivered in a stable under the soft, indifferent gaze of cattle. The Father of all mercies. puts himself at the mercy of all. Philip Yancey has written In Jesus, something new happened. God became one of his own creatures.
An event unparalleled, unheard of, unique, in fact, in the fullest sense of the word. The God who fills the universe imploded to become a peasant baby who, like every infant who has ever lived, had to learn to walk and talk and dress himself. In the Incarnation, God's Son deliberately handicapped himself, exchanging omniscience for a brain that learned Aramaic stroke by stroke. Omnipresence for two legs. and an occasional donkey.
Omnipotence for arms. Strong enough to saw wood, but too weak for self-defense. Instead of overseeing a hundred billion galaxies at once. He looked out on a narrow alley in Nazareth, a pile of rocks in the Judean desert, and a crowded street in Jerusalem. Finally, here's the way St.
Augustine wrote. about the incarnation Way back at the beginning of the Christian century. He said Man's maker. Was made man, that he, ruler of the stars, might nurse at his mother's breast. That the bread Might hunger.
that the fountain might thirst. That the light might sleep, that the way might be tired in its journey, that the truth might be accused of false witnesses, that the teacher might be beaten of whips, that the foundation might be suspended on wood, that strength might grow weak, that the healer might be wounded. and that life might die. I don't know what you think when you hear all these words by men who are much more. articulate than I could ever be.
But they stretch my mind to the breaking point. This is a truth without any precedent. There is nothing you can compare it to. that the God of the universe, the Creator of us all, Deigned in his wisdom to come down here and for a period of time confine himself to a human body like yours and mine and to walk among us.
so that he might ultimately go to a cross and be the sacrifice for all of us. Here is the mystery of Emmanuel. the creator in a crib. The ancient of days becoming a babe in Bethlehem, the one who thunders in the heavens, crying like a baby. the one who made all flesh, now himself made flesh.
The mighty God.
Now a helpless child. What a story. What a thought. That God has become one of us. In these days that are before us, you will have an opportunity to see a manger scene.
Most often we walk by the major scene and first of all we look for the baby. And if we're with the children, they will usually say, Oh, look at that pretty baby, isn't that a cute baby? Look at the baby Jesus. And certainly that is a part of our celebration, but men and women. When you look at that baby Jesus in the manger of that manger scene, remember that baby Jesus was the Lord God of glory coming down here to be born as one of us.
That is the mystery of Emmanuel. But what is the meaning of it? How does that affect you? How does that affect me? Dr.
Criswell, who was one of my teachers and mentors, used to write about this, and he would. Preach at Christmas time. If you never heard him preach at any other time of the year, you always wanted to hear him preach at Christmas because he could preach at Christmastime. One time he said, Think of the blessing of it all. God is with us.
He shares our labors. He knows the dull, drab drudgery of life's common tasks. The heavy misery of backbreaking toil. He shares our trials and our limitations. He was poor.
With no place to lay his head, he was hungry, he was thirsty, begging water of the Samaritan woman. He was weary and exhausted, and sat for rest on the well. He bore our sorrows and our heartaches. If there was a death in the home, it brought tears to his eyes. When he looked upon the cripple and the leper and the blind and the helpless, his heart was moved.
to compassion. What Dr. Chriswell was saying is that when God became one of us and walked among us, He had all of the same emotions and the same feelings that we have. And that is a part of his gift to us in the incarnation. And because God is with us, there are three things that are true.
First of all, because God is with us, we can endure the difficult circumstances of life. I want to read with you a scripture. I want to read it first the way we would normally read it, and then I want to read it the way I believe it should be read. This is what the scripture says, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Now listen. For he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?
What the Lord has said is so that we can say. What God has said about Himself and His presence with us, He has said to us, so that you and I may be able to say, I don't have to be afraid. What can man do to me?
I have the Lord. with me. The Lord is with me. Psalm 27 is almost exactly the same way. Psalm 27, 1 says, The Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Throughout the scriptures, this concept is repeated over and over again. Psalm 118, verse 6 says, The Lord is on my side.
I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Isaiah 43 says, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame scorch you. Here is the truth of Emmanuel brought down to the everyday experience of each one of us. When we're in difficult circumstances, we are never there alone.
He is with us. He has promised that a part of his coming to be one of us is that he might be with us in the midst of all of our challenges, in the Christmas rush, in the disappointment of the year-end bonus, in the preparation for the new year, in all of the things that touch our lives, he is there. He is there with us. One of the stories that came out of 9-11 was the story of the cross. On a September morning in 2001, as he was searching for bodies amid the wreckage of the Twin Towers.
Frank Cilicia stumbled across a twenty two foot tall steel beam cross. The collapse of Tower One on Building Six had created a chamber in the clutter. and through the dusty sunrise Frank spotted this cross. No winch had hoisted it. No cement had secured it.
The iron beams stood independent of human help. Several days later, engineers realized the beams of the large cross came from two different buildings. When one crashed into another, the two girders bonded into one, forged by the fire. And when people would ask, where is God at 9-11? Where is the Almighty in the midst of all of the rubble?
Frank and his friends would point and say The cross is in the midst of the crisis. He is always there. Max Licato once wrote: God gets into things, doesn't he? He gets into Red Seas and big fish in lions' dens and furnaces. God gets into bankrupt businesses and jail cells and Judean weddings and funerals and Galilean tempests.
Look and you will find what everyone from Moses to Martha has discovered: God in the middle of your storms. You know what, if you take God out of the picture. It's very dismal and discouraging, but put God in the middle of it, even though things around you don't always look so bright, you know that at the center of the story is the Creator of the universe, and He is your God. He lives in your heart through Jesus Christ. He inhabits you through the Holy Spirit, and He is your friend.
He knows you by name. He knows everything about you, and He knows the situation you're in. God is with you. What a wonderful story that is. And we'll talk more about that tomorrow here on Turning Point.
There's a study guide for this series on why the Nativity. I like to tell everybody that the cover on the study guide is beautiful because it's taken from the movie, Why the Nativity? And you'll have the study guide to help you go back over everything we've talked about. It's a great help if you're doing devotionals during December, this year, or next year. You'll have some material from which to do your homework, and we supply this through our website.
Ask about it when you go to davidjeremiah.org today. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's series, Why the Nativity, please visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points magazine and our daily email devotional. Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call us at 800-947-1993.
Ask for your copy of David's new 365-day devotional for 2026, A Closer Walk with Jesus. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King James Versions, complete with notes and articles from Dr. Jeremiah's decades of study. Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org/slash radio.
This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series, Why the Nativity? on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
