Jesus Understands {Legacy Sunday}

God With Us
Matthew 1:18-23 (NLT) – This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His
mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the
marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant
through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man
and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the
engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be
afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by
the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.” 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.’”

Hebrews 4:15-16 – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in
every way, just as we are— yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s
throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:15-16 (MSG) – We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with
our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all
but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to
give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

He Understands
• He understands

Mark 6:3 – “Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of
James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?”

Mark 3:21 – When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of
him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

• He understands

Hebrews 2:17 – For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human
in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high
priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of
the people.

Hebrews 2:17-18 (MSG) – That’s why he had to enter into every detail of
human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the
people’s sins, he would have already experienced it all himself—all the
pain, all the testing—and would be able to help where help was needed.

• He understands .

Isaiah 53:3 – He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering,
and familiar with pain.

Isaiah 53:5-7 – But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed
for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and
by his wounds we are healed… He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did
not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

James 4:8 – Come near to God and he will come near to you.