Immanuel God with Us - Christ and His Deity

Well, if you would take your Bible and turn back with me to Matthew chapter 1. When I say turn back, I don't mean that we were there earlier, but we have been in Matthew chapter 1 all throughout this series. Our series that I'm calling Emmanuel, God With Us. This is our Christmas series. We've taken a little time to look at Christ, the incarnation and the story of the birth of Christ. This morning we'll be in verses 22 to 23. I have called these our home-based passages within the series. Now I will read and mention other passages as we go along through the message. And as always, I just encourage you to jot those passages down.

It will be good for you to go and study them on your own. Occasionally, I'll hear one of you share with me how you went and studied one of those passages. You saw how all of that came together. And so I encourage you to be a good student of what the Lord gives us on a Sunday morning or a Sunday night in our small group studies or on Wednesday nights when we're here together in the study through Proverbs. Now I believe that everyone here knows the title of our Christmas series. It's Emmanuel, God With Us. And this comes right out of Matthew chapter 1. So let's look at Matthew chapter 1, specifically two verses, verse 22 and verse 23.

Let's look at those two verses together. In all of this took place. Now what is this? All of this. This is the birth of Christ. This is the coming of the Christ child. Matthew says, "And all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet." And we know who this prophet is. This is Isaiah. "Behold," verse 23, "the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel." Now I believe we all remember where Matthew got this information. Matthew got this from Isaiah. He is quoting Isaiah specifically chapter 7 verse 14.

And this is obvious that this prophecy in Isaiah is about Jesus, the promised Messiah, the Christ child. Now I want to take a step back from our home-based passage, and I want to quickly show you how this series has unfolded. There's been purpose in all of this. It's been a logical progression for me in everything that we have studied. First we looked at what I called Christ in the Old Testament. Now the full title of the message was, "Emmanuel, God with Us, Christ in the Old Testament." It was very important for us to see that the birth of Jesus is not just a New Testament story. It's a Bible story. I've repeated that numerous times.

Starting in Genesis chapter 3, there in the garden, after Adam and Eve had sinned against God there in verse 14 and 15, and then all throughout the Old Testament God is promising for His people a Savior. Now a question, why is this important? Why would I go all the way back from Matthew into the Old Testament? We must see that this was God's plan all along. A Savior to save His people from their sins was not a plan B. It was not some new invention by God when He saw man fall and sin against His perfect standard. But yet there's more, this is personal. It was God's plan all along to provide a Savior for His people.

And so for you and me, He is our Savior. And I trust that He is your Savior today. And then second, we looked at what I call Christ in His humanity. And of course the full title was, "Emmanuel, God with Us, Christ in His Humanity." And it was important for us to see that Christ was fully man. Christ was not just part man. He was not part man and part God. He was not even a hundred percent man and a hundred percent God. Because some scholars say that if we do say a hundred percent, it could even imply that it could be less than. And that's not the case. Jesus was fully God and fully man. Now why is that important?

Being that Jesus was fully man, He could take upon Himself man-send debt. He could be that substitute for sin. Second Corinthians 5, 21 says that God made Christ who knew no sin to become sin. But there's more here as well. It gets personal for us as well right here with the humanity of Christ. Because Jesus was fully man, He could bear not only the sin for man, He could bear our sin. He could be our substitute. And I pray that He is your substitute today. I pray that He is your Savior and He is your personal substitute. And you are not outside of that teaching. Now notice how we approach these truths, these realities.

My method has been very purposeful. I know this has been what we would call a quick survey. A quick survey. I have taken you through some Old Testament scriptures and New Testament scriptures. In some cases I have started in the New to reveal what was taught in the Old. I know that. Now this leads me to the next logical step in the series. And we must examine Christ and His deity. You can't look at His humanity unless you look at His deity. On one side of the coin, I like to use that illustration, you have Christ in His humanity. But yet on the other side we have Christ in His deity. So He was fully man and fully God, fully God and fully man.

He was both. So I am sure you have guessed the title of the message. It is pretty predictable. We are looking at Emmanuel God with us. And this is Christ and His deity. Now we will be examining this reality. And I want us to see many testimonies, testimonies in the scriptures. The testimonies of meaning. See there are many different voices which proclaim the deity of Christ, both Old and New Testament. And again, this will be quick. This will be a survey. So number one, I want us to look at the testimony in the Old Testament scriptures. The testimony of the Old Testament.

Now many people may be surprised to know that the Old Testament scriptures speak of the deity of Christ. Again there is a problem some people have. They see Jesus primarily or only as a New Testament figure. Again this is not simply a New Testament story. Jesus is a Bible story. Now I will give you a few passages to show you this reality. First I want us to see the testimony of the prophet Isaiah. Now not our familiar chapter 7 verse 14 passage.

And Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 reads, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Now I think everybody here is familiar with this passage. This is what we would call a Christmas passage right here in Isaiah. This verse, chapter 9 verse 6 really elaborates chapter 7 verse 14. And then we know that chapter 7 verse 14 is quoted in Matthew. Chapter 1 verse 23. Of course the overarching theme is what? Emmanuel, God with us. We see that in chapter 7 verse 14 and here in chapter 9 verse 6.

But notice quickly with me what we see here. This promised son will be the son of King David with all the rights of the throne of David. We studied that last week when we looked at his humanity. But he, the Christ will be more. He will be the Mighty God the verse tells us. So we see that the child, he is born to a virgin according to Isaiah 7, 14 and chapter 9 verse 6. He will assume the throne of his father David and he was a true descendant of Abraham and he shall be called Mighty God. Now what is that? That's deity. Isaiah is saying that the promised Messiah would be God, he would be deity.

Now the second voice of the second testimony comes from the Psalms and they're more than one, but I just chose one that really resonated with me. So second I want us to see the testimony of the Psalmist. Psalm 45 verses 6 and 7. Let me read the verses. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. Verse 7. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Now this can be a difficult verse, but with the help of Bible scholars we see that there is an immediate application and a further application.

First this is a part of what scholars call a wedding song. This is addressed to a son of David and a son of David is about to take a bride for himself, but there is a greater application. The ultimate application is God speaking of the Lord Jesus. God the Father is speaking of Jesus as God. To further solidify this interpretation, the writer of the book of Hebrews quotes these verses in chapter 1. He boldly states that it is God the Son reigning as God. So we see God, God Himself ascribing deity to God the Son in the Psalms and this very passage is referenced there in Hebrews chapter 1. So what do we see right here in the Psalms?

Deity, God, God in the flesh. And then third, the third testimony, I want us to see the testimony of Daniel, the prophet Daniel. Specifically two verses, Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14. Daniel says, "I saw in the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days, and he was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and language shall serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." Of course we have before us one of Daniel's many visions and his visions can be difficult to interpret. But specifically we have a vision of Christ Jesus Himself. This phrase in verse 13, "Son of man" refers to Jesus. Many times in the Gospels, Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of man. See Matthew 16 verse 27, Matthew 19 verse 28, and then on over in Matthew 26, 64. But notice that David goes a little further. Notice this phrase, "Son of man." He was given dominion and glory.

He was given a kingdom that all nations should serve him. And this is an eternal indestructible kingdom. That's all in the verses. So we see Daniel recognizing Jesus as the Son of man, the promised Messiah of God, deity. Daniel is seeing this eternal Christ reigning in the future as God. That's none other than deity, God Jesus Himself. So in summary, what are we seeing here? Just a handful of verses. We see this testimony of the deity of Christ out of the Old Testament passages. Of course this is just an overview. It's very fast. This is not exhaustive. I would love to take some of these passages one day and be very, very exhaustive.

But notice what we see. From Isaiah to Daniel and in the Psalms, the promised Messiah is seen as God. Daniel even shows us that God the Father sees God the Son as deity. Now in going back into the Old Testament to see the deity of Christ, we started in Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 9, and I'll read verse 6 again. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God." That's deity. "Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." And again, this is an elaboration of Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 verse.

"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign, behold the Virgin shall be conceived and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel." And that simply means God with us. Again, this is all quoted here in Matthew chapter 1 verse 22 and 23. I have said several times that Matthew chapter 1 verse 23 would be our home base, that we would come back to this verse. Well that's what we have here. The one spoken of all throughout the Old Testament, he was the promised Messiah. And here he is right here when Matthew says all of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken. This is Emmanuel, God with us, right here in the story in Matthew.

Now I want to move on from what the Old Testament says about the deity of Christ. We've gone from the Old Testament right up to Matthew 1. I want to move past that. I want to go one step further. So number 2, I want us to see the testimony of Jesus. Let's look at the testimony of Jesus Himself. Now there's a big misconception here. There are many because they're ignorance of the Scriptures. They do not believe that Jesus openly claimed to be God. Of course we learned that Jesus claimed to be God many, many times in our study through the Gospel of John. We thoroughly went through the Gospel of John.

But I want us to see a few passages where Jesus claims deity. Now there are quite a few, but again we'll only look at a handful. First I want us to see that Jesus claimed to be pre-existent. Jesus claimed to be pre-existent. Now I'll give you a few references out of John. John chapter 6 verse 22, John 8 verse 23. But I want to read you John 16 verse 28. And Jesus Himself says, "I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father." That is an illusion to His pre-existence. He was not a created being. And in John chapter 8 verse 23, Jesus was facing off with the Jewish leadership.

They were trying to kill Him. He said that He is from heaven and not from earth. But yet over in John 16, that which we read, He stated that He was from God and He was going back to God the Father. Only a pre-existent God can do this. We also saw this pre-existence of God in our Scripture reading in John chapter 1 earlier. So Jesus is claiming pre-existence. He is eternal. That means He is claiming deity. Then second, Jesus claimed ownership of what was God's. Notice this. Jesus in His ministry, He claimed to own that which belonged to God the Father. We see Jesus claiming ownership of what is truly God's in many, many passages.

Matthew chapter 13 verse 41. Notice what Jesus says. "The Son of Man," that's a title for Christ, "will send His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers." Here we see Jesus claiming ownership in two ways. First He is claiming ownership of the angels. What does He say? "The Son of Man will send His angels." He also is claiming ownership of the future kingdom. He will gather out of His kingdom all sin and all lawbreakers. And we see Jesus claiming ownership more in the Gospels. In Matthew 24 verses 30 to 31, He claims ownership of God's people.

In Matthew 13, 41 and in chapter 24 verses 30 to 31, He claims ownership of the angels again. So Jesus claims ownership of what is God's. Therefore He is claiming to be God and claiming deity. And then third, Jesus claimed an absolute unity with God the Father. Jesus claimed a total and perfect unity with God the Father. Now we see Jesus make this audacious claim quite a few times in John's Gospel. I say audacious because the Jews never did like those types of statements. But specifically John 14 verses 9 to 10.

Notice what Jesus said, "Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me Philip?" Now He's addressing one of His own, His disciples. "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father?" See the background is Philip is asking Jesus to show them the Father. Verse 10, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works." Here we have Jesus dealing with some doubts in His disciples, specifically Philip. In dealing with Philip's doubts, he is very, very straightforward.

He tells Philip that if he has seen him, he has seen God the Father. We see this same claim in chapter 10 verse 30 and in chapter 12 verse 42. So Jesus is claiming a perfect unity, a perfect oneness with God the Father. And this would be none other than claiming deity. So with just a few passages, what are we seeing? Jesus, all throughout the Gospels, is claiming, asserting Himself to be God and deity. There are many, many other passages which show this same thing. I will allude to a few. In the Gospels, Jesus assumed divine authority over the Sabbath, the forgiveness of sins, and the destination of men's souls.

Who can do that other than God and deity? He exercised divine authority over demons and death and disease, even over the natural world. Who can do that other than God, deity, in the flesh? He claimed to have the right to receive worship, and He gave Himself the title of God and even calling Himself the Son of God directly. Now who can do that other than deity? And for the Jews, just for the Jews, He claimed to be the great I AM, the great I AM of the Old Testament. And of course, they hated Him for that. So Jesus ascribed to Himself deity. So we have the deity of Jesus Himself. Now to be honest with you, I would be missed if I stopped here.

So I want to move quickly past Jesus and into the New Testament. So number three, I want us to see the testimony of a few of those New Testament witnesses. And again, this is not exhaustive either. There are many, many passages all throughout the New Testament other than the Gospels, which speak to Christ's deity. Now again, this is just a few. First notice the testimony of the Apostle Paul. I want to give you one verse, and this is the testimony of the Apostle Paul. And this comes out of a place that might surprise you.

In Acts 20, verse 28, Paul is addressing the Ephesian church and he says, "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all of the flock of the flock of God in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers." He's talking to the church leaders. "To care for the church of God, which He obtained with His own blood." Now this passage might slip by us if we're not paying attention. Here Paul is warning the Ephesian church elders that this divisive group of wolves in sheep's clothing will rise up within the church.

Later on in verse 29, he says that these men, well, they will twist sound doctrine and they will twist sound doctrine for their own devices to draw some to their own ideas or their own camp. But notice this one little phrase about the church. What does he say? "To care for the church of God." He says that the church is God's church. God owns it. But Paul goes one step further. He says that he purchased his church with his own blood. Now who did this? Jesus. Jesus purchased the church with his own blood. So Paul is affirming the deity of Christ right here in this one passage. And then second, or the second testimony, the testimony of Titus.

The testimony of Titus. And this comes from Titus chapter two verse 13. Now we know who Titus was. He was that pastor there on the island of Crete. And what does Titus 2 13 say? "Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." Again, this reference might slip right by us if we're not looking. Here Titus is writing about the future appearing of Jesus. That's the main subject. But notice how he speaks about Jesus. He calls Jesus our Savior and our great God. This is straightforward even though we can miss it. So Titus is affirming the deity of Jesus exactly like Paul.

But then our third testimony and our last testimony, the testimony of John. The testimony of the Apostle John. Now we read these verses earlier and I'm talking about John chapter one starting there in verse one. Verses one to three. This passage and others in John one are probably some of the most powerful and most important in studying the deity of Christ. Here John describes the deity of Christ in many ways and in different ways. John says that Jesus is pre-existent. Look at verse one, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." That is the pre-existence of Christ.

He says that he was with God, God the Father there in verse one. And we've read that. He says that he was at the creation in verse two. Verse two, "He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made." He goes on to say that Jesus was the creator God. And then in verse four he says that in him was life and that life was the light of men. Verse four and five, "In him was life," that's Christ, "and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it." So John is showing us here that Jesus was God and is God.

John is saying just in these three verses that Jesus was deity. So what have we seen here? Again, just a handful of passages. The deity of Christ was declared by the apostle Paul, the apostle John. They were the apostles, those church fathers. But Titus, Titus was an apostle but he was one of those pastors that came behind the apostle Paul. And Titus does the same thing. This group of ministers declared the same message that Jesus was deity. But notice more. Again, I'm talking about John, the apostle John here. John presents Jesus as deity but he gives us quite a few more details. He presents Christ as the eternal God.

He presents him as God with the Father. They are one but they are distinct beings. He presents them as being at the creation even as the creator God. He presents him as the light and the life of men. What was Jesus saying or John saying? He was saying that Jesus was God, he was deity. Now as I move away from what I call the body of the message and what I mean by that is dividing the verses and explaining the words, helping us understand what God's word says. Notice what I've done. This is a quick overview. I have not been exhaustive. I did not intend to be exhaustive. But we have seen Christ and his deity. It is affirmed in the Old Testament.

We have seen Christ and his deity affirmed by Christ himself. And then in the New Testament writers, those church fathers, they affirm the deity of Christ. Now question, what must we see and understand this morning in this message? We must see the other side of the coin. Again my illustration. Last week we saw the humanity of Christ. This morning we see the deity of Christ. Simply Christ was fully God and fully man and don't ask me how I can rectify that seeming contradiction. He was not one more than the other. He was not God sometimes and man at other times. Again it seems contradictory. Jesus was both God and man.

He was the God-man, Emmanuel, God with us. Now an application. What must we apply to our life? How do we apply this? I mean how do we take this into our own life? We must ask that type of question. And first we must look back to last week because you can't divide the humanity and the deity of Christ. We learned that Christ had to be man in order to bear the sins of man. Second Corinthians 5, 21 is a key verse. And Paul says that the one who knew no sin became sin. Because of Christ's humanity he was able to bear our sin. And this brings me to a place where I must ask you a question. Is Christ your sin-bearer?

Have you experienced the forgiveness of God, the peace of God, true salvation whereby you know you have been forgiven of your sin? See there's one or two people here, only one or two. You're either bearing your own sin, you're bearing the guilt of your sin, you're carrying that heavy burden or you've been forgiven of God, saved by His grace, and you know that your sins were placed on Christ and you have peace and you have freedom. There is a freedom in Christ that can only come by the new birth. There's only one or two people here, two categories. So my question for you is this, has Christ become your sin-bearer?

See the humanity of Christ directly relates to us. I'm so thankful that God saved me. I'm so thankful that there was a time whereby the power and the work of the Spirit, God drew me to that place and God did what only God could do. He gave me a new heart and a new mind and the Spirit of God did what only the Spirit of God could do. It wasn't a commitment, it wasn't a promise, it wasn't a decision, it was what's called the new birth. And so I want to ask you, have you been forgiven? Is that burden gone? Are you still carrying that burden?

Again, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, it says that God, God the Father, made God the Son that perfect sin-bearer, the one who knew no sin, became sin, so we don't have to carry the burden of sin. But then second, looking at this morning's message, we must see that Christ had to be God, He had to be God in order to conquer sin and conquer death and conquer the grave. And second Corinthians 15, verses 55-57, Paul says that Christ defeated sin and He defeated death.

Verse 57 says, and I'm quoting, "But thanks be to God who gives the victory, the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ who is God and only God defeated sin and death." But there's more. Because Jesus was God and is God, He was able to rise again. See death and the grave could not contain Him. Paul said in Romans 25, "This is Christ who was delivered up for our trespasses." See there's that substitutionary death. In raise for our justification. Paul is saying that without the resurrection there is no justification before God. We can't be right before God. So notice how all of this fits together.

Because Jesus was and is God, He defeated sin, He defeated death, and He defeated the grave. Because He was and is God, He was able to defeat sin, death, and the grave through the resurrection, therefore providing salvation and resurrection in our life. So again, my question to you. Have you experienced resurrection? Have you experienced a new life? Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, "Then any man," and I'm paraphrasing, any young person, any woman, no matter who they are, if they are in Christ, they're a new creation in Christ. New life has been given. They've been born again, born of the Spirit. So my question for you is this.

Has God brought you to the place where you see yourself dead and you are carrying that sin burden and you deserve death, you deserve an eternal punishment. But God, by His good grace, gave you a new life. Not a better life, not turning over a new life to make your old life a little bit better life, but a new life that can only come from God. You've been raised from the dead. I shared this story many times with our young people. I love teaching our teenagers. This might date me a little bit, I know. But I shared many times that I went to my 10-year high school reunion for two purposes.

See when I was in high school, I was lost and without Christ. I was carrying my sin burden. I had an old life that was full of sin, full of self and rebellion, and God had saved me. And I went back to my 10-year high school reunion to tell those that I lived with for so many years, in those high school years, that God had saved me and I had a new life. It wasn't a religious promise. I had a new life. Some of them were astonished. The second reason I went is I went to ask those who profess to know Christ why they never told me about Jesus. Why didn't you tell me about Jesus?

See when I went to those people that knew the old Christ, I was able to say, "That's the old Christ. There's a new Christ because He's been raised from the dead." You see how His humanity and His deity, it affects us. It relates to us above and beyond just that Christmas story, that nativity scene, or that Christmas play that we might enjoy. So what have we seen here this morning? Emmanuel, God with us. God determined to do this forever ago, and His Son came fully man and fully God. And this was Christ and His deity, just the other side of the coin of what we studied last week. So what have we seen?

This is just still that same train going down the tracks of Emmanuel, God with us. And next week we will conclude this series by getting into some of these familiar passages and characters and stories within Matthew and Luke, looking specifically at that faithful day when the Christ child was born. Let's pray, and then we'll sing a closing song, a few closing verses, verses of worship, honoring and loving and praising this God that loved us first. So let's pray, and then we will sing.