God with us. That’s what Jesus is. The baby in the horse trough.
Beyond the absolute revelation (in so many ways) that God became like one us is the promise that He would with WITH us.
It never really hit me as much as it did last week when I was preaching the good news once again. God is with us. He promised He would be and our confidence in the future should be based on that promise. But I hadn’t quite seen the promise quite like the way that the Holy Spirit revealed it to me last Sunday. I didn’t see it this way before. I know Satan doesn’t want me see it this way. Who else would teach me such a lesson, but the Holy Spirit. Not a new message. Just helping me to understand the message He had already given to all us in His word.
Yes, God came to be with us in a shared humanity. He came to set up residence, not next door, but in our very homes. He came to take up residence in our very bodies through that precious gift He gives to each of His people, His precious Holy Spirit.
But He didn’t just promise to BE with us, He promised to GO with us. “… go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, … And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” Matthew 28:19, 20.
He would send us into this broken, decaying and unredeemed world and He promised to go WITH us. Then He did just that. To a broken apostle, caught up in fear at the prospect of once again proclaiming Christ in that cesspool of a city, Corinth, God would say this. “… “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no-one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”” Acts 18:9, 10. God didn’t just send Paul. Jesus didn’t just commission and stay back behind the front lines. No He goes WITH us.
And when we are working though a terrible day … when the pain of life is just too much. … you have those days, don’t you? When the only thing you can do is cry and pray and then cry some more. When the question starts to rise up from your grief stricken soul. What is God doing?
Then, it dawned on me. Maybe, everyone else knew this and I had just not put it together. When I am grieving, when I am hurting so bad, when it feels like I’m at the bottom of bottomless pit of despair, what is God doing? He is WITH me. He is with me in my pain but what is He doing. He is crying. He is hurting for me. The almighty, holy and perfect God is bent over crying WITH me.
That’s why He told me to “… mourn with those who mourn.” Romans 12:15. Because that is what He does. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. … Jesus wept.” John 11:33-35.
Real parents do that, don’t they? When your child is so upset, does it upset you? Real marrieds do the same. When your wife cries does it rip you apart? It is the same with God. When He sees His children in pain it tears Him up. He feels it because He is WITH us.
One thing I love about preaching Jesus is that right in the middle of a message that I am preaching, God can be teaching me a lesson. He did that last Sunday. And what did I do? I did what every preacher does. I preached it.
Do not be afraid. Keep on speaking. Do not be silent. God has many people in this city. " I am with you"
