1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,360
[Automatic Translation - to clarify or report corrects please reach out to podcast@glendale-church.com]
God with us, son of David, son of Abraham, Matthew 1.

2
00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,640
That's the title I was given.

3
00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:25,560
Emmanuel, God with us, son of David, son of Abraham, Matthew 1.

4
00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:32,200
I've been really blessed in reflecting on Matthew 1, and I trust that encouragement

5
00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:38,680
that I have received will come through to you.

6
00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:43,560
You know, what we say and what we speak has got a lifetime behind it.

7
00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:51,320
A lifetime of learning, growing, failing, relearning, discovery, thinking, rethinking,

8
00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:52,320
reading.

9
00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:59,760
I guess in Matthew and Matthew 1, Matthew, the book of Matthew, if I were just to think

10
00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:08,120
of people who have influenced me in more recent, maybe the last 10, 20 years, I would say Charles

11
00:01:08,120 --> 00:01:12,480
Price, William Barclay, Paul Wright.

12
00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:21,760
I just say that because we're all a product of thoughts and thinking and growth and development

13
00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:28,360
that along the path of life people input into us.

14
00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:35,280
I'd just like to tell a little story that will come out in the end with meaning.

15
00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:38,560
I like to have a walk.

16
00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:44,560
Sometimes I like to have a walk with someone because it's just lovely to be out in God's

17
00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:52,560
open nature and walk with someone with whom we can just allow the world to speak to us

18
00:01:52,560 --> 00:02:00,160
and the trees and the birds and no agenda but be open together.

19
00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:02,160
I love that.

20
00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:06,720
If there's anybody here that I haven't been doing that with and you'd like to, I'm always

21
00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:08,200
open to schedule that.

22
00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:13,200
And there's other times I just like to walk by myself, very particularly.

23
00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,200
That's a schedule for me.

24
00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:17,240
That's my day.

25
00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:19,240
That's my day.

26
00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:30,560
I just want to be myself in the open, particularly on the hilltop, God and me.

27
00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:38,120
I had one of those days many years ago on the Isle of Wight and Ruth would release me

28
00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:40,960
for a day.

29
00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:48,680
And I was walking on the coast and I came to Tennyson Down and I went up to the top

30
00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:52,480
of Tennyson Down and on the top of the little monument at Tennyson there's a seat and I

31
00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:54,680
sat down and the seat was lovely day.

32
00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:58,280
I was looking out to sea and there I was.

33
00:02:58,280 --> 00:03:04,800
There didn't seem to be one person on the hill looking out to sea.

34
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:14,800
And I thought, ah, you know, Northern Ireland feels very far away.

35
00:03:14,800 --> 00:03:22,800
Home, schools, remember those days?

36
00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:29,560
Fall feels very far away.

37
00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:39,400
I have my journey, who understands the depth of my journey?

38
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:45,160
I'm sure you all know what it's like some far away place to feel, do you know?

39
00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:48,640
Who is there here that understands me?

40
00:03:48,640 --> 00:03:56,360
And then sometimes you may be asked the question, where is God?

41
00:03:56,360 --> 00:04:00,400
Heaven seems far away.

42
00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,880
Just let me say one little thing here.

43
00:04:02,880 --> 00:04:06,600
Andy's read Matthew 1.

44
00:04:06,600 --> 00:04:08,800
Can you just think about yourself on that seat?

45
00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:13,200
Let me think about myself on that seat.

46
00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:23,600
Over 2000 years ago I'm sitting, let's say, in that location.

47
00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:28,160
I only know what I then know because there's no New Testament and Jesus hasn't arrived.

48
00:04:28,160 --> 00:04:29,920
So I only know what I know.

49
00:04:29,920 --> 00:04:33,400
I only know what the Old Testament had to tell me.

50
00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:38,280
And I'm thinking about it.

51
00:04:38,280 --> 00:04:44,400
Must be very easy to think.

52
00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,000
Where is God?

53
00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:56,200
The Isaiah people talked about a Messiah.

54
00:04:56,200 --> 00:05:00,400
Where is he?

55
00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:04,600
Well, back to reality, I was sitting on the seat.

56
00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:06,800
Suddenly somebody appeared and he sat down.

57
00:05:06,800 --> 00:05:08,000
Chump sat down.

58
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:09,600
All the same seat.

59
00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:13,000
It was he and me now.

60
00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:19,200
I turned and I said, where are you from?

61
00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:27,600
He said, Northern Ireland.

62
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,600
Where are you from?

63
00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:36,600
I said, yeah, Northern Ireland.

64
00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:39,200
Where are you from in Northern Ireland?

65
00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:43,400
I said, I'm from County Down.

66
00:05:43,400 --> 00:05:48,600
He said, so am I.

67
00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:50,800
He said, where are you in County Down?

68
00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:56,400
I said, I went to school in Downpatrick.

69
00:05:56,400 --> 00:06:01,800
He said, I went to school in Downpatrick.

70
00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:08,000
And then suddenly, sitting on my own, looking out to sea,

71
00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:14,000
feeling there's nobody around here, understands me.

72
00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,400
I've got this guy sitting beside me.

73
00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:20,200
Well, in those few sentences of exchange,

74
00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:26,800
he already had a few things summed up.

75
00:06:26,800 --> 00:06:32,400
He said, I know you went to the Green High.

76
00:06:32,400 --> 00:06:34,600
I said, yeah.

77
00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:38,800
He said, you know, you would know that I went to the Red High.

78
00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,800
I said, yeah, I do.

79
00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,600
Well, the Green High is where the Protestants went.

80
00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:50,000
Red High is where the, well, the Roman Catholics.

81
00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:52,400
That's a nice way to put it.

82
00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:54,600
But in those days, you would say, that's where the Finians went.

83
00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:57,600
But anyway, you hadn't heard that.

84
00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:02,000
So I thought, oh.

85
00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:10,200
And then he looked at me and he said, we're in the same seat together.

86
00:07:10,200 --> 00:07:12,000
I said, yeah.

87
00:07:12,000 --> 00:07:17,400
Yeah, but he said, when you walked the streets of Downpatrick,

88
00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:21,000
going to school, you saw me in my red uniform.

89
00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:24,800
You walked on the other side of the road and didn't look at me.

90
00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:27,600
I said, yeah, and you walked on the other side of the road and didn't look at me.

91
00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:32,400
He said, that's right.

92
00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:36,000
We're on the same seat.

93
00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:40,400
And there entered a depth.

94
00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:45,000
He had a pedigree and I had a pedigree.

95
00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:50,400
I had a place I lived, a place I went to school,

96
00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:54,000
and a thousand things come into his mind and in my mind

97
00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:58,000
that we understood on common ground and about each other.

98
00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:07,800
And there embarked a conversation that was an in-depth, fascinating understanding.

99
00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:13,400
So what was far, far away, suddenly,

100
00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:23,200
there was a reality came to the seat, meeting this person.

101
00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:27,000
If you were, we'll park that till later.

102
00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:35,600
If you were a Jew, a Jew in the then world, who you are,

103
00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:43,000
we talk in our culture, people talk very much in our culture today about their CV.

104
00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:45,800
If you want who I am on paper, then there's my CV.

105
00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:47,800
There's your CV.

106
00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:52,000
And you hear it in conversation, oh yeah, that'll be good for my CV.

107
00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,000
Somebody's done this or that and done that.

108
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:56,400
A child has done the Jew-Gadden-Burra scheme.

109
00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:01,000
I'll be good for my CV.

110
00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:06,200
If you were a Jew in the then world, in the then culture at that time,

111
00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:13,200
it wasn't CV, it was here's my genealogy.

112
00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:18,400
This is me.

113
00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:23,200
And a good Jew with an impressive CV, with an impressive geology,

114
00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:32,000
genealogy would have purity in their genealogy that would go right back, back, back, back.

115
00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:42,000
So for Matthew to write a genealogy of Jesus that went zoom back to Abraham,

116
00:09:42,000 --> 00:09:49,000
who on the face of it, that was impressive.

117
00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:57,800
But my, there were things in the Jesus genealogy that were not impressive.

118
00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:14,600
As far as the Jew was concerned, they needed purity in their genealogy to have acceptance.

119
00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:23,600
A priest had to produce an unbroken record of pedigree back to Aaron.

120
00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:37,200
And if he married a woman, he had to prove her pedigree at least for five generations.

121
00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:49,400
So that was the culture of the then world, re-pedigree of genealogy.

122
00:10:49,400 --> 00:11:00,400
But when we look at this genealogy, well, what a pedigree.

123
00:11:00,400 --> 00:11:03,000
First of all, there's woman here.

124
00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:05,800
But you didn't put that on your genealogy.

125
00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:08,000
That wasn't the CV you produced.

126
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:16,600
The identity of a Jew had a genealogy of purity that certainly didn't mention a woman.

127
00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:24,800
And as for a woman in the then culture, in the eyes of an orthodox Jew, they thank God every day.

128
00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:37,600
That I wasn't a Gentile, I wasn't a slave, and I wasn't a woman.

129
00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:47,400
But here we not just have woman, but we've got Rahab.

130
00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:57,600
And she's a Canaanite prostitute, a professional Canaanite prostitute outside the camp.

131
00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:03,000
And she's in this genealogy of Jesus.

132
00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:08,800
And then you've got Tamar.

133
00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:16,800
And she dressed in disguise according to Genesis 38 and offered herself as a prostitute to Judah.

134
00:12:16,800 --> 00:12:29,200
And then Perez is one of her sons, and this is in the Jesus genealogy of identity.

135
00:12:29,200 --> 00:12:34,400
And then we've got Ruth here in this genealogy.

136
00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:37,400
And she is a Moabitess.

137
00:12:37,400 --> 00:12:51,000
Well, according to Deuteronomy 23, no Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord down to the tenth generation.

138
00:12:51,000 --> 00:13:02,600
And Ruth is in the genealogy, prominent.

139
00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:14,200
And then we have Bathsheba referred to as Uriah's wife, with whom is the story of King David and adultery.

140
00:13:14,200 --> 00:13:26,400
And many other things beside in relation to deception and in relation to purposeful strategy for murder.

141
00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:33,200
Here is the genealogy of Jesus.

142
00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,400
Even back with Abraham, funny things were happening.

143
00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:42,000
Ishmael and Isaac and women and children.

144
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:46,000
Hagar, Jacob's here.

145
00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:52,800
Oh my goodness, it should have been Esau, but then there was deception and manipulation.

146
00:13:52,800 --> 00:13:58,000
And then it was Jacob and Jacob's here.

147
00:13:58,000 --> 00:13:59,800
And this is the genealogy of who?

148
00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:04,400
It's the genealogy of Jesus.

149
00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:11,400
Yes, as Andy said, we have from Abraham to David and David to exile and exile to Jesus.

150
00:14:11,400 --> 00:14:22,200
Each fourteen generations and split those in two and it's sevens and that's seven times six.

151
00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:26,200
And Jesus is the beginning of the seventh seven.

152
00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:38,800
And that's very mathematically impressive and scripturally impressive and interesting spiritually.

153
00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:45,800
It's very much a Bible of sevens, God bringing things to completion.

154
00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:54,800
For example, he created the world in seven days and the seventh day was the crowning day of creation.

155
00:14:54,800 --> 00:15:02,600
He made the rainbow of seven colors and together in completion they send us perfect light.

156
00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:12,400
Seven complete and here we have Jesus at the beginning of the seventh of the seven.

157
00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:20,000
But together with this completed perfection, well, one commentator has said,

158
00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:34,200
if you actually ransacked the whole of the New Testament to try to find woman,

159
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:41,600
unsuitable to be in the pedigree of the genus, Jesus genealogy,

160
00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:53,600
you probably find the ultimate of that which is not credible.

161
00:15:53,600 --> 00:16:03,000
Right up front, Matthew is very subtly opening the door to us about the genealogy and the pedigree

162
00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:12,000
of someone coming along who is Jesus, who breaks down barriers.

163
00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:19,600
And it's quite obvious even here we've got the barriers breaking down between Jew and Gentile.

164
00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:24,000
And as we read the New Testament and we read Acts and then we read Galatians,

165
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:30,600
which deals with this specifically, we've got all of the issues that arise as people within a certain camp

166
00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:36,800
see themselves as pure and look at people outside the camp as impure on how this affected the gospel

167
00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:39,400
and the teaching that Paul had to give to counteract it.

168
00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:49,000
But here in the very first Matthew 1 genealogy, Jew and Gentile barriers, social barriers are dismantled.

169
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:59,800
Jesus has come to show the love of God indiscriminately, non-judgmentally, unconditionally.

170
00:16:59,800 --> 00:17:05,400
Social barriers broken.

171
00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:18,600
The genealogy of Matthew chapter 1 shows with absolute clarity that Jesus is breaking the gender barrier completely.

172
00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:26,000
There's no sense of apology for a woman in the genealogy.

173
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:32,000
Gender barriers are broken.

174
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:38,000
This God manifesting himself in Jesus as someone coming on the scene

175
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,600
who will sit on the well by the Samaritan woman, whoever she is,

176
00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:51,400
this is the one who's breaking down all gender barriers totally.

177
00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:58,800
And then we have the barriers of righteousness and sin.

178
00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:09,400
Great person and not so good person, wicked person and righteous person.

179
00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:17,600
This genealogy breaks down the sinner, righteous person barrier completely.

180
00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:24,400
I have come not to call the righteous, but the sinner.

181
00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:31,400
So in the genealogy of Jesus, we have Jacob and the story of deception,

182
00:18:31,400 --> 00:18:37,800
David and the story of manipulation and even murder.

183
00:18:37,800 --> 00:18:40,800
We have the story of adultery.

184
00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:43,600
We have the story of prostitution.

185
00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:50,400
We got all these stories and they're all broken down and Jesus has come.

186
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:55,200
I'm not here. I'm here to call the sinner.

187
00:18:55,200 --> 00:19:02,800
And there will be a prostitute at his feet and he will accept her fully

188
00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:08,400
because Jesus is not talking, is not here for the moral or the immoral,

189
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:12,800
the righteous or the unrighteous, but Jesus is here for the world of people

190
00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:19,000
with all social barriers, all gender barriers and all moral barriers broken down.

191
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:22,600
And it's so easy even at the sensitive time of year of Christmas

192
00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:26,800
to come to the point where you think, oh, my black spots, black spots,

193
00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:31,000
this one, that one or that thing in my life.

194
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:36,000
Jesus is saying whatever the black spot is that anybody thinks is in their life,

195
00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:45,200
morally, adulterally, of whatever nature you put the label of vile sinner upon oneself,

196
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:52,400
says Jesus, look, I love you unconditionally, non-judgmentally.

197
00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:56,800
And it's all there in his own genealogy, purposefully brought to the light,

198
00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:02,000
purposefully exposed, purposefully declared.

199
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:07,000
Without apology, this is the essence of the gospel.

200
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:18,000
This is who Jesus has come to the world to save.

201
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:26,000
And then we're introduced then to the coming of Jesus and the word Emmanuel.

202
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:31,400
Isaiah introduces this to us in chapter seven and chapter nine.

203
00:20:31,400 --> 00:20:38,200
And this word, yes, is a word which is a name.

204
00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:43,800
The name of Jesus, Emmanuel, prophesied by Isaiah, and here we have,

205
00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:50,000
Emmanuel has come, but this word is also a truth.

206
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:56,000
And the truth is, God with us.

207
00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:08,600
Jesus has come and in coming he's bringing us God, God with us, Jesus with us, Jesus for us, Jesus in us.

208
00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:14,600
You remember my story, sitting on the seat, looking out over the sea,

209
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:20,800
and suddenly something appears when I think,

210
00:21:20,800 --> 00:21:27,600
it's all very far away, that life where I used to be in Northern Ireland,

211
00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:32,400
but suddenly somebody comes and is with me.

212
00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:35,800
And I suddenly feel understood.

213
00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:41,400
In fact, I feel something exposed that was never exposed to me in that way before

214
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:45,000
because I didn't see myself as walking along the street.

215
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:46,600
And if somebody doesn't understand,

216
00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:51,400
the Prophesianism and Catholicism in Northern Ireland, feel free to ask me and I'll explain.

217
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:59,800
But I feel, felt understood and in being understood was able to enter into emotionally

218
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:03,600
something of an experience with someone that was quite powerful.

219
00:22:03,600 --> 00:22:08,000
Jesus has come.

220
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:09,800
Where has he come to?

221
00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:14,800
To be with us, beside us, in us.

222
00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:15,800
Who?

223
00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:17,000
Everybody.

224
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,800
Who's excluded?

225
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:25,200
Moral creed type, social barrier, gender barrier?

226
00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:26,800
No, no barriers.

227
00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:28,200
Whatsoever.

228
00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:41,400
Jesus has come to be with us.

229
00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:46,400
Jesus came in human flesh to where we are.

230
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,800
That guy just sat beside me on the seat.

231
00:22:49,800 --> 00:22:55,600
Jesus says, can I just sit beside you on the seat where you are now?

232
00:22:55,600 --> 00:23:01,800
And could you just feel the reality of the eternal God with you?

233
00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:02,800
With you?

234
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:09,000
Not focused on the past black spots of life or the things that come up to bring a guilty conscience,

235
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:10,800
but just who you are.

236
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:16,000
I just accept you as you are and I want to be with you.

237
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:20,000
Christmas can expose loneliness, isolation, feeling down.

238
00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:27,600
Jesus said, I am with you now and forever.

239
00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:33,880
At the end of the book of Matthew in chapter 28 verse 20, it concludes by saying, I am

240
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:37,600
with you always to the very end of the age.

241
00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:44,200
It starts with Emmanuel and it finishes with, I am with you always till the very end of

242
00:23:44,200 --> 00:23:45,760
the age.

243
00:23:45,760 --> 00:23:50,280
What more do you and I want than that?

244
00:23:50,280 --> 00:23:55,320
If we were to illustrate this with say one living New Testament example, take Stephen

245
00:23:55,320 --> 00:24:00,280
in Acts chapter 7 and he's declaring the truth of the gospel with clarity and it's

246
00:24:00,280 --> 00:24:05,720
not liked and it's not accepted and as a result of that people want to stone him and in the

247
00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:09,680
act of wanting to stone him and he is going to be stoned and he's going to lay down his

248
00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:15,560
life as a martyr, but in the act of that and in those critical delicate moments he sees

249
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,960
something.

250
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:22,440
Who does he see?

251
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,520
Looking up to heaven he saw who?

252
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:27,200
He saw Jesus.

253
00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:29,640
Jesus the son of David.

254
00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,240
Jesus the man.

255
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:33,940
Jesus the human being.

256
00:24:33,940 --> 00:24:40,920
He saw Jesus the son of man.

257
00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:47,880
It's all easy to think about God as a way far off and who and where when in fact he's

258
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:55,000
came to be with us on our seat where we are and just to be with us and he wants to be

259
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:58,160
with us forever.

260
00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:06,640
So that the Bible then refers to us particularly in Hebrews as Jesus the great high priest

261
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:14,240
who is the son of David the son of man in the heavenlies there to represent you and

262
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:26,840
me as a man but God who is touched with the feelings of our infirmity.

263
00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:39,240
In conclusion, Irish man, there was a rather significant Irish man called St. Patrick a

264
00:25:39,240 --> 00:25:47,160
way back in the fourth century who produced a breastplate on prayer and one of the verses

265
00:25:47,160 --> 00:26:02,120
reads Christ be with me Christ within me Christ behind me Christ before me Christ beside me

266
00:26:02,120 --> 00:26:13,880
Christ to win me Christ to comfort and restore me Christ beneath me Christ above me Christ

267
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:25,560
in quiet Christ in danger Christ in hearts of all that love me Christ in mouth of friend

268
00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:28,440
and stranger.

269
00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:31,200
His name is Emmanuel.

270
00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:32,200
God with us.

271
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:40,060
Amen.