Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.
and jesus says this is the amen talking
this is the one who’s not going to tell
you what you want to hear i’ma tell you
like it really is
god wants you to fear him more than you
feel what’s wrong
he wants your fear of him to be greater
than your fear
of your problem truth is god’s view on
any subject matter
if there is no truth there can be no
legitimate unity
i’m here to tell you jesus saw satan had
you caged
but on the cross he has now opened the
cage door
so that he who the son sets free is free
indeed
a master key is designed to unlock any
door
so that you can enter in to see what’s
inside
jesus is the master key
to christmas and one of the ways that
we get to know him
is through the many names that god has
given to him
in scripture one name that i would like
to focus on today is found in
matthew chapter 1 verse 23.
it reads as follows behold
the virgin shall be with child
and shall bear a son and they shall call
his name
emmanuel which translated means
god with us let me read that again
behold the virgin shall be with child
and shall bear a son
and they shall call his name emmanuel
which translated means god
with us
here we have a name given to jesus
christ
and that he was to be called emmanuel
now if you will notice closely in your
bibles you will see
that this is a
quote verse 22 says now
all that took place to fulfill what was
spoken by the lord
through the prophet so verse 23 is a
fulfillment of something that had been
previously
predicted or prophesied
that comes from isaiah chapter 7 verse
14
where it says a virgin shall have a
son so in order to understand
what matthew 1 23 means you have to go
back
to what isaiah 7 14 meant
since matthew 1 23 is a fulfillment
of isaiah 7 14.
we know what it’s translated to mean it
means god with
us but what does that really mean
to call jesus emmanuel god with us
well back in isaiah 7 14
god’s people were being attacked by the
enemy
god showed up and told king ahaz i’m
going to give you a sign of victory
and the sign of victory i’m going to
give you is a virgin
having a son which will be
my sign that you win
and the enemy loses so
the virgin that has the sun is really a
sign of your victory
and that i’m going to be with you in
spite of what is
attacking you
matthew picks up that quote
and quotes it related to the birth of
jesus christ
so one of the things you need to
understand about emmanuel
is that no matter what you have gone
through no matter what’s been good
bad and ugly this year no matter what
you’re going to
face next year
you need to know the name emmanuel
because that means you’re not
facing it alone god
is with you you’re not by yourself
because the birth of christ or emmanuel
means
god is with you but let’s go a little
deeper
because obviously this prophecy goes
much
deeper he says that this
child that is born will be
not just with you but god
with you so the first thing you need to
understand about jesus christ
is his designation as god
he is designated as god
now we’ll talk about how that happened
in just a moment but for right now
the new testament over and over and over
again
equates jesus with god
colossians chapter 1 verse 15 says that
jesus
is the exact copy and duplication of god
hebrews 1 3 says he is the exact
representation of god
the jews wanted to kill jesus because he
made himself
equal to god
so when we talk about jesus we’re
talking about
god not just another man when i began to
look at some of the names of god
in the old testament and then some of
the declarations about jesus in the new
testament
it became even more replete about the
deity
of jesus christ that he is god for
example
god is called in the old testament
elohim
the creator god and yet the new
testament says
everything that was created was created
by christ jesus
in the old testament god is called
jehovah
the i am jesus says to the jews before
abraham was
i am in the old testament god is called
adonai
the boss in the new testament the bible
says we must
confess jesus as lord your boss
in the old testament he’s called jehovah
nisi
your banner of victory in the new
testament jesus says and i have
overcome the world in the old testament
god is called jehovah roja
the lord is my shepherd in the new
testament jesus says
i’m the good shepherd and the sheep hear
my voice
in the old testament god is called
jehovah
saba he’s the lord of hosts in the new
testament jesus said i could have called
ten thousand angels
in the old testament god is called el
elyon
the lord who is uh high and mighty
in the new testament jesus says i sit on
the right hand of the father
way up high in the old testament god is
called
el shaddai in revelations 1 8
the bible says jesus christ is lord
almighty
so if you can get confused about the
name of god
all you got to do is remember emmanuel
because he is not only with us
he is god with us
but how did god get to be with us
because god is transcendent in nature
that means all the theologians say
he’s holy other that is he’s outside of
our
realm he exists in another realm
he is infinitely distinct
from his creation so you cannot talk
about creation
as though god is a part of it because
he’s distinct from it
he’s in another zone but he wanted to be
with us dwelling among
us so exactly how did this occur
well the prophecy tells us because
the scripture says that a virgin
would get pregnant and have a baby boy
well a lot of things go into that we
call this
in theology the hypostatic union
that means the union of two natures
in one person unmixed
forever let me say that again the
hypostatic union is
two natures in one person
unmixed forever that’s why jesus is
sometimes called the son of god
because he has the nature of deity and
other times he’s called the son of man
because he has the nature of humanity
two natures in one person that never
cross
each other unmixed forever
well the way that occurred is that a
virgin
would have a baby when mary asked the
question
in the book of luke how could this
possibly be that i’m pregnant
the angel told her well let me explain
girlfriend how this works
you have an egg and the holy spirit’s
got the sperm
and he’s going to fertilize your egg
with the sperm of deity and so you are
going to apart from a man
get pregnant and give birth to a baby
boy
that is the only time in history that
this has occurred
so the reason that jesus christ can be
god and man
is he has the egg of humanity and the
sperm of deity
coming together to produce two natures
in one person
unmixed forever the bible explains how
that occurs in philippians chapter two
because it says in verse six who
although he existed in the form of god
he did not regard equality with god
as the thing to be grasped or held on to
so let’s just stop there
it says although he existed in the form
of god
that is jesus before he became a man
existed as part of the godhead
that’s why isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 says
unto us a child is born but unto us
a son is given because even though the
child was born the sun had to be given
because the sun existed
before the child ever got born because
the sun
existed in the form of god prior to the
child being born
in the form of man so the only reason
you got the child being born is because
you previously had the son in existence
he says now the way that that occurred
according to
this next verse it says but he emptied
himself
taking the form of a bond servant and
being made
in the likeness of men he emptied
himself what does that mean
well let’s pretend you’ve got a picture
of water the water in the picture
represents deity or divine nature
and then you’ve got a glass and you take
the picture and you pour the water you
empty the water out of the pitcher into
the glass
whatever is in the picture of the water
now has been deposited or emptied
into the glass so what you had at the
virgin birth
was deity being poured into humanity
[Music]
i’m sure for many of us maybe even most
of us
this has been one of the most trying
years in our lives
people have suffered loss people have
found themselves
claustrophobic and closed in light of
the virus we’ve seen all kind of
division and yet in the midst of this
we’re called to trust god it is our hope
that throughout this year god has used
the urban alternative and our ministry
of god’s word
to help encourage and strengthen you
during this time
as we close out this year i want to
thank you for your prayers for us
for your prayers for the word of god
that’s been going forth and for your
support
your generosity which has kept us
bringing god’s truth throughout the
nation and actually around the world
so may god richly strengthen you
help you to recover from anything that
has
that has hurt you this year but also
empower you
for a brand new hope in the year to come
again
thank you for being a friend of tua
we couldn’t do what we do without you
[Music]
so all that made god god was poured into
human flesh so that apart from sin
god became a man in the person of jesus
christ
he emptied himself into humanity and why
did he do that
so he could be with us so that he could
be
human in every aspect of the word apart
from sin
while at the very same time being god
and go through the growth and
development process
that every human being goes through
without
losing his deity i love when the book of
hebrews explains the fact
that when jesus and god got together
they had a conversation
and in the conversation according to
hebrews chapter 10
verses 5 through 7 the father and son
decided that they would
give the son a body so he could come
down
and live among men so the important
point you want to know
this holiday season is that the way you
get closer to god
is to get closer to jesus because jesus
is god with us he is emmanuel he is the
very presence of god
in the midst that is the nature of the
incarnation the incarnation
the becoming flesh of god in man
the whole old testament said there will
come
a king and this king will be
god in the flesh and he has to come
through the line of judah
via the lineage of david because there
were a lot of lineages in the line of
judah
but it had to come through this one line
that would be through the lineage of
david
now in 70 a.d in 70 a.d
the roman soldiers sent in titus and the
army
to destroy the jewish nation and they
destroyed the city of jerusalem
and they destroyed the temple that’s
what jesus meant when he said not one
stone would be left among another
because if the city would be totally
wiped out and the temple would be
totally destroyed now why am i telling
you that
i’m telling you that because in the
temple were where the genealogical
records
of the jews were stored so when the
romans destroyed the genealogical
records
of the temple they destroyed a jew being
able to trace back their
lineage to their particular tribe
that is all except one record there is
one record that was remained
and protected through all that would
take place because
god said that the messiah had to come
through the line of judah now
there are two genealogical records in
the scripture
one is the record of joseph and the
other is the record of mary
so when you read the genealogical record
it designates that jesus christ
is from the line of david both
biologically
and legally in matthew chapter one
he makes it clear that it is the line of
david for example in verse 6
jesse the father of david the king
david the father of solomon so he’s
tracing this
line all the way down there’s so many
stories and how god had to make this
line work i’ll just give you one story
one story is in a whole book of the
bible called the book of ruth
ruth wasn’t even a jew she was a
moabitess
but because she followed naomi her
mother-in-law
back to israel and met boaz
got married to boaz boaz was a jewish
man
she had a baby named obed obed had a
baby named jesse
and jesse became the father of david so
god even reached to a foreign country
to get her to the right country to meet
the right man
so that they could be in the right
lineage to fulfill the list in matthew
chapter 1.
he goes even further and he traces this
line
and then it comes to verse 16. jacob
the father of joseph the husband of
mary by whom
jesus was born who is called the messiah
so we get to joseph but if you look
carefully you’ll see a switch
it doesn’t say joseph
was the father of jesus
it only says mary was the mother of
jesus
you need to know that by whom is a
relative
feminine pronoun why because joseph
had nothing to do with this this was
totally outside of joseph
but jesus had to come from the legal
line
so since joseph became jesus’s
stepfather because he was not his
biological father and joseph is from the
legal line
of david jesus qualifies to be messiah
because joseph is his legal
father even though he is not his
biological
dad but according to the jewish line
the messiah also had to have the biology
of david
that’s why when you look in luke chapter
3 there’s a whole other genealogy
but that’s not the genealogy of joseph
that’s the genealogy of mary
and he traces the genealogy through
david
biologically and comes all the way down
to mary
who is the physical mother of jesus
so now god’s got to do something else he
got to get two people to fall in love
who are both from the same line one from
the legal
and one from the biological so he gets a
cupid
to shoot some arrows and joseph sees
mary and the two fall in love and they
get engaged
but we still got a problem because the
old testament prophecy said
that messiah micah 5 2 had to be born
in bethlehem it’s like a little country
town
so enter the roman irs because a
census was taken and people were being
taxed
and had to go back to their place of
birth
joseph then had to go back to bethlehem
which was his place of
origin in order to fulfill the roman irs
census and wouldn’t look have it
that he wind up going back at the exact
time that it was time for mary to give
birth
to her baby boy so that the prophecy
would be fulfilled that jesus would be
born in bethlehem
and remember god did a lot to hook up
this holiday
because christmas means god is with us
and the god of heaven has entered
into human history and why
because he wanted to let you feel like
you experience what it’s like when god
is sitting right next to you
and guess what else he wanted he wanted
to know what it feels like
for man to sit next to him that’s why
when abraham was
being sacrificed was sacrificing isaac
and he says now i know that you fear me
he says because now i know what it feels
like to be chosen
above your own son and i like how that
feels
god wants to feel you so god became a
man according to hebrews chapter 4
verses 14 to 16
so that he could sympathize with our
weakness that we have a high priest who
feels it why
because doing his 33 years on earth he
went through
every category of situation you now
face he went through loneliness he went
through being forsaken
he went through being rejected he went
through being crucified
he even went through death he went
through everything you’re going through
so you ain’t saying
nothing to him that he doesn’t know what
you’re talking about
but i hope you understand that in the
name emmanuel
you and i have been given a christmas
gift where god wants to
hook up with you hang out with you wants
to connect with you
and be to you god right next to you
because he understands completely what
it means to be human
while at the same time being god
so let’s give him what he deserves let’s
give him the adoration what should be
the response
well let me close with philippians
chapter 2.
here’s what it says beginning in verse
9. for this reason god has highly
exalted jesus
he’s highly exalted him and bestowed on
him the name
which is above every name so that in
at the name of jesus every knee will bow
of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and that every
tongue will confess
that jesus is lord to the glory of the
father
you say i wish i could feel jesus
i wish i could feel the closeness that
god with us was meant to say well he
gives you the secret if you if i can
call it that
of not only knowing him but feeling him
he says at the name of jesus god has
proclaimed
that every knee should bow every knee up
in heaven so let me tell you what’s in
heaven right now
everybody who’s in heaven is paying
homage to jesus christ
because god has declared that everybody
is to get recognition to jesus christ
then he says everybody on earth is to
pay homage to jesus christ
then he says everybody folk who have
died
god is calling to pay homage to jesus
christ so
here is the option you can pay homage to
him
now voluntarily or you will pay homage
to him later
mandatorily but everybody
is going to have to pay homage to the
christmas miracle
of jesus christ so why don’t we give him
some real praise
during the holiday season why don’t we
give him some real glory
because this is not another man this is
emmanuel
this is god become a man who wants to
dwell among
us and all you got to do is bow and give
him the glory to his name
give him the recognition that he
deserves because he is lord of life
and he is lord of christmas
[Laughter]
of all the seasons of the year there’s
none like christmas
because we are celebrating the greatest
birth
of the greatest person ever to enter
into this world it’s god
become flesh it’s immanuel
god with us i mean think about it
god loved the world so much that he
entered the world
in human form so that he could
experience life as we live it apart from
sin
while simultaneously providing solution
for the lives that we experience
day to day as our savior
so when you think about jesus christ and
you think about christmas
uh mr all the other celebration that
goes with the holiday
the festivities the gifts the food
the family the fellowship and all the
other
ingredients not having to go to work you
name it
there are a lot of perks to christmas
but there is
none that can compare with or be likened
to
the eternal perk the perk
of the offer of eternal life
because remember jesus christ was born
to save people from their sins
jesus christ came to offer eternal life
and jesus christ is the
visible physical manifestation
of the invisible god you and i can’t see
god but we can get a good clue
on how he functions and what he is like
this christmas take a close look at
jesus
because you will be looking in the face
of god
[Music]
[Music]
you