Today, we will be looking at the Christmas Carol, IMMANUEL, which is right out of Matthew 1:23, where Gabriel the angel says to Joseph, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). There are 3 points in the outline:

1. Immanuel: God is with us – The Sign (Isaiah 7:14)
2. Immanuel: God is with us – Literally  (Philippians 2:5-7)
3. Immanuel: God is with us – Personally (2 Corinthians 13:5)

To know that God is “with you” is the greatest blessing there is. That’s the comfort that David knew in Psalm 23, when he said “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for YOU ARE WITH ME.” He knew he could face anything – even death – because God is with him.

And that is the blessing we celebrate at Christmas time: that God the Son came to earth, to be “with us,” just as our passage for today says.

The last verse of the Christmas Carol, Immanuel, says;

So what will be your answer?
Will you hear the call?
Of Him who did not spare His son
But gave him for us all
On earth there is no power
There is no depth or height
That could ever separate us
From the love of God in Christ

So what will you do with Jesus Christ this Christmas season? Will you ignore Him? Will you dismiss Him? Will you sing the songs of Christmas without thinking about the very words you are singing? Or will you embrace Him for who He truly is — no longer a little baby born in a stable in Bethlehem — but the risen and exalted Son of God who died for sin and rose again and now sits at the right hand of His Father in heaven. He Himself said, “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”