Immanuel: God with Us
Pastor Jim Thomas
Advent comes from the Latin adventus meaning arrival, appearing, coming or presence.
Join TVC throughout Advent as we:
- Commemorate the birth of Christ
- Saturate in and celebrate the life of Christ
- Anticipate the return of Christ
Isaiah 7:14 + Matthew 1:18-25
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
– Isaiah 7:14
“The essence of hope is not the downplaying, justifying or avoidance of present pain and sorrow. Rather, hope is the expectation that as real as the pain is now, it will one day feel as foreign as our faintest memories.”
– Brett McCracken
“It is noteworthy that the clearest promises of the Messiah have been given in the darkest hours of history… Immanuel is a grand word. ‘God with us’ means more than tongue can tell.”
– Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The Dawn of Redeeming Grace involved:
- A Sign
- A Son
- A Savior
Discussion Questions
- During this incredibly festive and busy season, what are we doing to actively prepare our hearts for Advent? Are we taking time to pause and give thanks to God who eagerly condescended to be with us?
- Joseph heard a word from God and immediately obeyed. Can the same be said of us when we face difficult, unusual, or uncomfortable circumstances? How immediate is our obedience?
- Mary trusted God completely, even though she had to be utterly confused. What can we learn from Mary’s response of faith and trust? Do we fully trust our infinite God when our finite minds struggle to make sense of things? Are we resting in the God who is always working and will one day make all things right?
“If there were to be an invasion of the immanent by the transcendent, all for the salvation of sinners, would we not expect it to be mysterious, to defy human comprehension? Such mystery would be a mark of reality, not human invention.”
– James N. Anderson
“It’s one thing for God to be with us as God, but it’s on a whole different level for God to be with us as a fellow human being who spent forty weeks in utero, learned how to crawl then walk, suffered through puberty and eventually faced the firing squad of Roman crucifiers. We have that God.”
– Chad Bird
“The central belief of Christian theology is what we call the Incarnation – the belief that God became man. It is a staggering idea on many levels, but most breathtaking of all, perhaps, is what it reveals of divine humility.”
– Gavin Ortlund, Humility: The Joy of Self-Forgetfulness
“God has appointed us a captain of our salvation, and made Him responsible for seeing us through this world home to glory. Thank God we can count on His faithfulness and know that He will never fail, never once lose His patience or His temper with any of us, but will fulfill His appointed task to the very end. He will save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him.”
– David Gooding, An Unshakeable Kingdom
“‘Immanuel’ means the ideal has become real, the absolute has become a particular, and the invisible has become visible. The Incarnation is the universe-sundering, history-altering, life-transforming, paradigm-shattering event of history.”
– Tim Keller, Hidden Christmas