God With Us

By Pastor Jeffrey Smith 

I heard a true story one day that struck a chord with me. The story is about the USS S-4, an S class submarine of the United States Navy built in 1919.  In 1924, the USS S-4 was accidentally clipped by a coast guard ship and began to sink with six trapped crew members in the middle of the ocean.  One could only imagine the primitive technology compared to what we have now, especially the diving technology.  Fortunately, there was an air pocket in a certain part of USS S-4, and a diver was sent down in attempt to save the crew members.  Realistically, there was not much he could do to rescue them. 

The diver made his way down to bottom of the ocean and heard a sound. He placed his ear against the submarine and realized that the members were inside banging against the walls in a continuous rhythm. It didn’t take long him to notice they were communicating in Morse code. The message was, “ Is there any hope?”

In our world, we find people hoping to find fulfillment in various areas, such as having the right job, the right marriage, the right body. People are looking for peace from anxiety, heartache, and depression.  Without Jesus, we too are like the trapped crew members in the bottom ocean banging out the same message. “Is there any hope?”

Christmas is about this message that started with a prophecy in Isaiah 7:14, “All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

This declaration was a huge statement: “A virgin will conceive a give birth to a son,”  because virgins do not conceive. Hundreds of years before Jesus, it was prophesied a child would be born and his name would be Immanuel, “God with us.” At the time of Jesus birth, we find in Matthew 1:22-23 the Old Testament message echoed, 

“All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

‘Look! The virgin will conceive a child!

    She will give birth to a son,

and they will call him Immanuel

    which means ‘God is with us.’”

God with us. What a beautiful statement! In the next few weeks will unpack the true meaning of Immanuel: God with us.

The message of Christmas is a message of hope, God became man to be with us. Understanding this truth will greatly impact the way you see the world around you. Jesus is the ultimate hope of the world.