Here is the sermon for tomorrow. I am posting it on the blog, because I will not be preaching in it in church. It is just too boring. In fact as I have looked back at the entire sermon series so far, it is all too boring to continue it. I never usually apologize for anything that I preach but I am apologizing for this particular sermon series, it has been awful. Thankfully Friday night I realized that as I was practicing it. It is also very long. So I decided to not preach it at all. I have no idea what I am talking about tomorrow I am just going to wing it. So you might want to come and watch, it could be interesting, hopefully for me in a good way. Again my sincere apologies for a very boring series. You guys are too long suffering at times. Well here it is in all its unedited unpolished glory.
THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING HIS LIFE
DEUTERONOMY 18:15, 18-19
FEBRUARY 8, 2009
If you look at a typical gravestone you see the date of the person’s birth and the date of their death and usually between those two dates is a dash. That simple dash represents that person’s entire life. But on the grave marker it looks pretty insignificant. The emphasis seems to be on the beginning and the end with no attention to the in-between. If you listen to many Christians and most of the messages coming out of Christian churches you hear much of the same thing. There is a real emphasis on his birth, the Christmas season. And there is a real emphasis on his death and resurrection, the Lent and Easter season. But all the stuff that happened in between is in many cases simply ignored or always put in the context of his birth and death and resurrection. In fact if you ask the typical Christian questions about Christ he can tell you in great detail the facts about Jesus’ birth and his death and resurrection but is not so sure or informed about what happened in between. It is as if it wasn’t that important. You know his birth well yeah that’s big, his suffering and death and resurrection, well yeah that’s huge. But his life, well maybe interesting but we need to keep our eyes on the big stuff. But Jesus life, the dash in-between is of huge importance for us today.
The Old Testament prophets certainly thought it was important, because they talked about it a lot. The New Testament writers certainly thought it was important because they wrote a lot about it. Paul certainly thought it was important as he stressed that Jesus living the perfect sinless life in our place was a must for our salvation. The birth yes important, the death and resurrection, yes important, but none of them would have meant a thing if Jesus had not lived the law perfectly for us, if he had sinned for instance then his death and resurrection wouldn’t have meant anything, he would have just been saving himself. Also there were many things that the Old Testament prophets said were important in the life of the Messiah, that he had to do these things to fulfill what God wanted. So today we are going to look at the Old Testament prophecies concerning the life of the Messiah and their fulfillments in the New Testament life of Jesus. There are tons of these but we are just going to look at the most important ones.
Moses is the first guy we run into this morning with something to say about the Messiah. Moses of course was the leader of the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt. He was the guy God has personally selected and sent to the people. Under his leadership the people were liberated from four hundred years of slavery under the Egyptians. It is said that no one has ever had a relationship with God like Moses did. God spoke directly to him in person and he was God’s man on earth to the people. In the book of Deuteronomy though he is getting ready to leave the people, in other words die. And this was a very traumatic event for God’s people. Moses had been the go to guy all these years, he had done everything, knew how to solve every problem, he was the one who God talked to and who God listened to when they had a problem. So what were they going to do? God understood their fears and so through Moses he makes them a promise, one that they can count on and know that they are going to be alright. In Deuteronomy 18 Moses says, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.”
The immediate fulfillment of this prophecy is of course in the line of the prophets that follow Moses in Israel’s history. God always provided them for the people but the ultimate fulfillment is found in Jesus. In Luke 7 after Jesus raises the widow’s son from the dead the people were all filled with awe and praised God. A great prophet has appeared among us,” They said, “God has come to help his people.” And in Luke 24 after Jesus’ resurrection he is walking with some the believers on the road to Emmaus; they don’t recognize him yet but are telling him about Jesus, about himself in other words. They say, “About Jesus of Nazareth, they replied. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.” The people themselves realize that Jesus is a prophet from God. And we see he is also very much in the way of Moses. Like Moses, Jesus delivers his people. Moses delivered the people from slavery in the land of Egypt and Jesus delivers his people from slavery to sin and death. He leads them out of the land of darkness and into the kingdom of God.
Jesus throughout his life though acted as a prophet. He proclaimed God’s word to the people and he warned them of the coming judgment and told them to repent. He also told them about God grace which was found in him and he told them what was going to happen in the future, both about the destruction of the temple and the second coming. In his baptism God the Father reiterated his command to the people about listening to his prophets. He said, this is my Son with him I am well pleased, listen to him.” Unfortunately many people of this day and of our day don’t listen to Jesus and his message of salvation. Just like the ancient Israelites used to ignore the prophets or even persecute them so it is today. Even sometimes in the church we don’t pay close attention to his words. For those that do though, there is comfort and good news.
Jesus was also very much not only the Son of God, but also a Jew. And because of that he will dedicated to his Father’s house. In Psalm 69:9 we read, “For zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.” Then in John chapter 2 we read about Jesus clearing the temple of the money changers. He overturns their tables and drives them out with whips. He says, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The house of God represented the presence of God among the people and that it would be defiled was like God himself was being defiled and for Jesus as God that was a personal insult to both him and more importantly to his Father who he loved. It’s like the story about Bob. Bill White of Paramount Washington tells this story. “Our church is in the heart of the city, so along with the great opportunities come some challenges. For example, our church building has been “tagged” a number of times – spray painted with local gang signs or the initials of the culprits involved. A few years ago our worship leader, Bob Olson, was in his office at the back of the sanctuary when he heard strange noises in the alley. Tired of having bad things happen to his place of worship, he decided to act. He burst into the alley through a barred door that hadn’t been opened in years. There stood two teenagers holding spray paint cans, initialing the building. “What are you doing?” he yelled, despite their being only fifteen feet away. They stood up and acted tough. One answered back, “What are you going to do about it, old man?” Bob’s hair is thinning, and he’s in his sixties. There were two of them, and they were young and strong. But as the Scripture says, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” Bob started walking right at them. The guys stood their ground for a moment, but then they turned and sprinted down the alley. And Bob gave chase! He chased them around one corner, down a residential street, across a yard, and down another street. But Bob didn’t stop. After a two-block chase, he leapt at the slower of the two guys, grabbed his jacket, and pulled him to the ground. The guy struggled free, and made off – but not without leaving behind his jacket and his spray paint. Although the police caught the two of them on the next block, they might have been relieved to be away from the passionate worshiper with the thinning gray hair.”
All that zeal that Jesus has in our text comes from the fact that he truly is the Son of God. In Psalm 2 we read this prophecy, “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” We see this prophecy explained as applying directly to Jesus in Matthew chapter three. As Jesus was being baptized God spoke. It says, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” In Luke chapter one as the angel Gabriel is explaining Jesus coming birth to the Virgin Mary he says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” This is that incarnational fact that we celebrate every Christmas. God become man and yet remaining fully God. Jesus is more than just a mere man. He is more than just a prophet; he is God himself in the flesh living among us. That in itself is mind blowing, but it also leads us to some very important things. This Jesus has the power to do what he has set out to do, namely save us from our sins and give us salvation. In the midst of world of uncertainly and anxiety. In the midst of hard times that seem to get harder every time we check the news and see more lay offs, new diseases, death in of all places peanut butter. That this Jesus, our Savior is truly the Son of God, God himself is of great comfort. That God would go to the extreme lengths of actually become man shows us how much he loves us and that he will preserve us no matter what. And that leads us to the real gospel concerning the Old Testament prophecies about his life.
The first one is that the Messiah will be anointed to preach liberty. In Isaiah 61 we read the prophet saying this about the Messiah, ‘The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.” This describes in wondrous detail what the Messiah was going to do when he came. He was going to preach the gospel to the poor, and that was not just the physically poor, but the spiritual poor. He was going to proclaim freedom, freedom from sin and death and release sinners from their bondage to sin. He was going to proclaim the final coming of his kingdom and the end of the ages and was going to comfort all who mourn no matter what they mourn about. This was a fantastic promise that the Old Testament people held onto. It was something that they looked forward too. This Messiah was going to take care of everything. And so it was great amazement that in Luke chapter four we read that Jesus visits the synagogue and is given the scroll to read, and it just happens to be this particular passage that he reads that day. After he gets done reading it in front of the people it says, “Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” There is no way to take the shock out of what they must have experienced at these words. Some rejected what he said but others it seems came to faith in him, and believed that he was that Messiah they had been waiting for. Here was the answer to all their prayers. He is the answer to all of our prayers and searching for help, deliverance and comfort.
These words of Jesus are a great comfort, but Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy with more than just words but also with his actions. For instance in Isaiah 35 we read this about what the coming Messiah will do in his life here on earth, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.” This prophecy said that the Messiah will heal people from various ailments, that in fact that would be a sign that he was the true Messiah. It was a clear way of identifying him. Then we read in Luke chapter seven about John the Baptist who is now in prison sending some of his disciples to confirm that Jesus really is the Messiah that John thinks he is, “Calling two of them, he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who has come, or should we expect someone else? When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’ At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” In other words, “Yeah John I am it, there isn’t anyone else coming. I am the Messiah fulfilling those identifying prophecies in Isaiah. The life of Christ here on earth touched many people in very practical ways, but more importantly it gave a demonstration of the real healing and raising from the dead that he was going to do on the cross at the end of his life. Those other miracles were only temporary. Eventually all these healed people were going to die anyway, and even the ones he raised to life were going to die again some day. But the healing and life that won through the cross is forever, it is eternal healing and eternal life.
The last prophecy I want to look at today has to deal with Christ’s coming in victory in our world and in our lives. In Psalm 118 we hear the prophecy, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you.” This is talking about a victorious king returning from victory, the one who has defeated his enemies with God’s help in other words. We see this fulfilled in Matthew 21 when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday. “A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ “Hosanna in the highest!” When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.’” The crowd was welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem like a conquering king. Maybe they thought he was going in to kick out the Romans, to set up a new kingdom of Israel that would be as powerful as it was in the past. If they thought that they were wrong.
Jesus did enter Jerusalem that day like a conquering king. He was coming into the city to get rid of the people’s enemies, but it wasn’t the Romans. Instead the enemies that he was going to defeat were Satan, sin and death. He would achieve victory not man’s way but God’s way through suffering and death. By the end of the week the victory would be his as he hung bleeding and dying on the cross. He had truly come in the name of the Lord and he had done God’s work. That work of God extends down to us today as we benefit through the forgiveness that receive through Christ’s death and resurrection. But that would not be the final fulfillment of this Old Testament prophecy in fact you could say were are still waiting for it to happen. Jesus himself prophesied that this prophecy would again be fulfilled in the future. In Luke 13 Jesus expresses he is great sorrow over Jerusalem. He foresees that the Romans are going to completely destroy it in 70 A.D. and it pains him to know the suffering that they are going to undergo because of that. So he says this, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” This if course is referring the second coming of Christ that is talked about in Revelation chapter one, “Look, he is coming with the clouds and every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him, and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be. Amen.” That is a day that we are still looking forward to with great anticipation. That day as we talked about a couple of weeks ago.
The life of Jesus Christ was more than just a dash between his birth date and his death on earth date. It was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy identifying who he was and what he was called to do for you and I. His life was also the perfect life for us. Where the first Adam had fell into sin and dragged us down with him. The second Adam, Jesus Christ was without sin, lived the perfect life in our place, fulfilled the law for us and then through our faith in his death and resurrection gave us his righteousness and holiness and perfection. Like Moses he led us out of the land of slavery and into the land of freedom and perfection. This Jesus is our Messiah, our Christ, our Savior; he is the fulfillment of prophecy in this age and in the age to come. Amen.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Prophecies about His Birth - Sermon for Feb 1, 2009
THE PROPHCIES OF HIS BIRTH
ISAIAH 7:14
FEBRUARY 1, 2009
The other day a woman had eight babies at once. She was supposed to only have seven but apparently there was an eight one stowed away in there somewhere that the ultra sound didn’t pick up. Eight kids at once. And now it turns out that she had six kids before that to go from a family of two to a family of eight and the instantly to a family of fourteen is simply amazing. The birth of one child is drama enough. The coming birth of a child is something that people wait for with great anticipation. Even to the point of parents asking right after a couple gets married when they can expect to be getting grandchildren. And once conception has happened there are months of getting ready. Trying to figure out names and colors for the nursery. Trying to organize the baby shower, doctor visits and all kinds of tests. Some people even start making plans for future schools and setting up college fund accounts. The mother is given tons of attention and as the due date gets closer schedules of grandparents and friends are rearranged so that they can be a part of the whole big event. Then the day finally arrives and what ever else was going on, no matter how big, it all comes to a screeching halt as the mother is hauled into the delivery room and the birth takes place. After the event there is much celebrating and in the days or weeks that follow there is usually a big baby shower and friends and family pitch in to help in any way that they can as adjustments are made in the family. The anticipation of and the birth of a child are a big thing in our lives. But they are nothing compared to the anticipation of The birth. The birth of God among humanity. The anticipation for that birth was over the top and the events of that birth although in normal circumstances were astounding.
It all started at the beginning, where most things start. It begin with a promise, a promise of life. We have all heard that quote from someone I can’t remember that a baby is the promise that life goes on. Well this particular baby would be the promise of eternal life for everyone who would believe in him. Man had fallen on hard times. Hard times that were his own fault. Man had made a really bad decision to disobey God and as a result fell into sin, lost his property in the garden and got kicked out into the streets East of Eden. Everything was lost. The Garden property was the least of it. Man now had developed a terminal disease called sin. He was going to suffer for years and then die of it. The image of God, his righteousness that had been put into him at creation was gone, and without it he was going to die forever, there was no hope, nothing he could do it about.
And then God, his creator stepped in and said that he was going to send a child to save him. A child that through his suffering and death was going to give him a transplant. He was going to take out the sin of man and transplant his righteousness, the righteousness of God back into him. We hear unfortunately today of the possibility of babies being born for the purposes of providing organs for transplant. In other words babies full of spare parts. In a sense that is what this child of the promise of Genesis 3:15 was going to be born for as well. He was going to be the second Adam who would save us by dying for us and giving us his holiness and righteousness. This was a baby that was to be born for the purpose of dying so that we could once again be united with God. Through this Child man would once again be able to have that same relationship with God that the first Adam had in the garden before the fall. As I said this promise was given to our first parents in Genesis 3:15 when God said that he would send a Savior from the seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s head as Satan struck his heal. That promise would later be expanded upon and further explained.
In Isaiah 7:14 we get some more information on how this child would be born. Isaiah says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah very clearly prophesies that the mother of this promised child will still be a virgin when she gives birth to him. And of course we see in the New Testament that Mary the mother of Jesus is a virgin when she gives birth to Jesus. In Matthew one we find, “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins,” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel which means God with us.” We hear a somewhat expanded account in the gospel of Luke where we read, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The Virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
The virgin birth of Jesus has been debated about for years, but Scripture is very clear that this is the way it was. Some people totally disregard the doctrine and say well why is it important anyway? But the fact is it is important for a number of reasons. One if she wasn’t a virgin then Jesus had a human father and therefore was not the Son of God. He was just a man. Without the virgin birth there is no Christ, there is no Savior. Secondly without the virgin birth Jesus is born in sin. Therefore he is not sinless and not God therefore he is totally useless as a Savior and even if he does die on the cross he dies for his own sins and not ours. So the virgin birth was of upmost importance. Jesus is yes born of a human mother and takes on her flesh, but he is also pure and sinless and is the Son of God. That is the only way that he can be our Savior. As a human he can identify with us and put himself under the law and die for us. As God he can live the perfect life and in his death defeat Satan, sin and death and rise from the dead declaring victory. So the fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah is very important and we see that Jesus does just that through Mary.
Another very specific prophecy about his birth is that he would be born in Bethlehem. We read in Micah 5, “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, thought you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Then of course we read in Matthew 2, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “For this is what the prophet has written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”
And of course we all know that story very well especially after having celebrated it just a few weeks ago. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth but because of the census they had to go to the city of their lineage and register. Bethlehem was that city of David for them and so they loaded up and took off. Sometime during their stay there Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God, thereby fulfilling this Old Testament promise. What is interesting about it that it was not Mary and Joseph that planned for it happen this way. They went to Bethlehem not for the purpose of fulfilling a prophecy but for the purpose of fulfilling a government responsibility. The Roman ruler made the fulfillment of this prophecy a reality. It is to say the least an interesting way for the King of the Universe to enter his universe. Not coming down in glory in the clouds, not in a royal palace, but in a small no account town, in humble surroundings with absolutely no fanfare except for that surrounding some peasant shepherds out in the fields.
The next prophecy actually takes back to the first one from Isaiah 7:14 where it says that he will be called Immanuel or God with us. There is more significance to that then first meets the eye. We look at it and we say well yeah God becoming one of us and living like us, yes he was God with us. But again there is more to it than just simply that. Remember why the Son of God came down in the first place. He came in response to the promise of Genesis 3:15. God and man had been united in the Garden, they were like this. That was the way that God had designed that relationship. But after the fall man and God were not only separated from one another, they were at war with one another. The purpose of Genesis 3:15 was the promise that one day man and God would be united again in a harmonious relationship. And that is exactly what this Jesus; the Son of God had come to do. Not only would be he be God with us for 33 years of his life here on earth, but his later death and resurrection would mean that God and us would forever be together again. Jesus is God with us even today.
There is also another major prophecy concerning Jesus birth. This is the one concerning the star out of Jacob. This actually comes from an oracle of Balaam who was commissioned by an enemy of Israel. Balak king of Moab wanted Balaam to pronounce curses upon the Israelite army, but instead Balaam finds himself time and again pronouncing blessings upon them. In Chapter 24 he prophecies this about Israel’s Savior, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.” The prophecy finds immediate fulfillment in King David but is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In Matthew 2 we read, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod; Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Then we read a little later, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.” The result, a baby shower for the Savior of the world. Talk about some expensive gifts! Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh wow! Everything that a new family could want and more. Gifts that literally would set them up for what was coming next. This was also where the gentiles come into the picture. They, we are part of the promise as well. These gifts are symbols of our gratefulness to God.
These gifts as I said would help them out as the next prophecy around his birth came true. That would be the flight into Egypt. In Hosea eleven we read, “”When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” This is first of all referring the Exodus of the children of Israel from the country of Egypt during the time of Moses, but Matthew looks upon that exodus as a picture pointing forward to the picture of Jesus’ coming from Egypt. We read in Matthew 2, “So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Egypt reminds of the slavery to sin that we were born into. Just as Israel was captive to slavery during their time in Egypt so were we captive to sin which pervaded us through and through. And just as Moses leads the children of Israel out of that slavery and eventually into the Promised Land. Jesus leads us out of slavery to sin and death through the blood he shed for us on the cross. He leads us out of death’s grip, makes us his and eventually when we die leads us into the promised land of Heaven. All of these things added together present us an amazing picture of the prophecy and its fulfillment in the birth of Jesus Christ. This was not just a happenstance event, it didn’t just happen out of the blue. It was planned from the beginning and talked about from the beginning and talked about through the years leading up to it. The promise of the coming Messiah filled the Old Testament world with anticipation, they couldn’t wait, it was on their minds constantly. Then one day they saw it all fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. God had kept his promises to his people. He truly had come to save us from our sins and make us his forever. God is not slow in keeping his promises but he does do it in his own time and way.
And that leads us to the last major prophecy concerning the events surrounding his birth. That is the prophecy concerning the murder of the innocents. In Jeremiah 31 the prophet says, “This is what the Lord says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.” Then in Matthew 2 we read, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Now why would we include that in the prophecies about the birth? Well first of all because it is one of them, but also it points to some very important things. Most of the birth narrative is a very feel good story. It is shapes our view of the Christmas story that we celebrate and act out each year. But it was a narrative with a larger purpose than that. Yes everyone likes babies and the gifts of Christmas but the setting of this story is actually really messy. And I not just talking about being laid in a feeding trough for a bed either. No the reason that this child was born was very bloody. And here in the fulfillment of this Old Testament prophecy we see just how bloody and brutal it is going to get.
Lots of blood flowed that night of the massacre of the little children. A scene we don’t really even want to think about really. But it would point forward to another miscarriage of justice some thirty years later when another innocent person would be killed to satisfy the hatefulness of another group of leaders. Except that the blood that flow down from the cross would leave more than loss and death, but would also cleanse us from our sin. Why both deaths, the death of the children and the dead of Christ would be horrible, in the death of Christ you and I would find life everlasting. We would be reunited with God in a relationship similar to what we read about in the garden before the fall. Christ’s death reconnects us with God the Father and guarantees us a place in the real Garden of Eden, Heaven.
The prophecies concerning Jesus birth were fulfilled in the New Testament in Jesus Christ. He is the one that was promised back in Genesis 3:15. He is the Savior of mankind, and more importantly the Savior of you. But his birth was just the beginning of the cosmic adventure. Jesus would now spend the next 33 years fulfilling even more Old Testament prophecies as he lived his life. We will look at those next week. Amen.
ISAIAH 7:14
FEBRUARY 1, 2009
The other day a woman had eight babies at once. She was supposed to only have seven but apparently there was an eight one stowed away in there somewhere that the ultra sound didn’t pick up. Eight kids at once. And now it turns out that she had six kids before that to go from a family of two to a family of eight and the instantly to a family of fourteen is simply amazing. The birth of one child is drama enough. The coming birth of a child is something that people wait for with great anticipation. Even to the point of parents asking right after a couple gets married when they can expect to be getting grandchildren. And once conception has happened there are months of getting ready. Trying to figure out names and colors for the nursery. Trying to organize the baby shower, doctor visits and all kinds of tests. Some people even start making plans for future schools and setting up college fund accounts. The mother is given tons of attention and as the due date gets closer schedules of grandparents and friends are rearranged so that they can be a part of the whole big event. Then the day finally arrives and what ever else was going on, no matter how big, it all comes to a screeching halt as the mother is hauled into the delivery room and the birth takes place. After the event there is much celebrating and in the days or weeks that follow there is usually a big baby shower and friends and family pitch in to help in any way that they can as adjustments are made in the family. The anticipation of and the birth of a child are a big thing in our lives. But they are nothing compared to the anticipation of The birth. The birth of God among humanity. The anticipation for that birth was over the top and the events of that birth although in normal circumstances were astounding.
It all started at the beginning, where most things start. It begin with a promise, a promise of life. We have all heard that quote from someone I can’t remember that a baby is the promise that life goes on. Well this particular baby would be the promise of eternal life for everyone who would believe in him. Man had fallen on hard times. Hard times that were his own fault. Man had made a really bad decision to disobey God and as a result fell into sin, lost his property in the garden and got kicked out into the streets East of Eden. Everything was lost. The Garden property was the least of it. Man now had developed a terminal disease called sin. He was going to suffer for years and then die of it. The image of God, his righteousness that had been put into him at creation was gone, and without it he was going to die forever, there was no hope, nothing he could do it about.
And then God, his creator stepped in and said that he was going to send a child to save him. A child that through his suffering and death was going to give him a transplant. He was going to take out the sin of man and transplant his righteousness, the righteousness of God back into him. We hear unfortunately today of the possibility of babies being born for the purposes of providing organs for transplant. In other words babies full of spare parts. In a sense that is what this child of the promise of Genesis 3:15 was going to be born for as well. He was going to be the second Adam who would save us by dying for us and giving us his holiness and righteousness. This was a baby that was to be born for the purpose of dying so that we could once again be united with God. Through this Child man would once again be able to have that same relationship with God that the first Adam had in the garden before the fall. As I said this promise was given to our first parents in Genesis 3:15 when God said that he would send a Savior from the seed of the woman who would crush Satan’s head as Satan struck his heal. That promise would later be expanded upon and further explained.
In Isaiah 7:14 we get some more information on how this child would be born. Isaiah says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah very clearly prophesies that the mother of this promised child will still be a virgin when she gives birth to him. And of course we see in the New Testament that Mary the mother of Jesus is a virgin when she gives birth to Jesus. In Matthew one we find, “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins,” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel which means God with us.” We hear a somewhat expanded account in the gospel of Luke where we read, “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The Virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
The virgin birth of Jesus has been debated about for years, but Scripture is very clear that this is the way it was. Some people totally disregard the doctrine and say well why is it important anyway? But the fact is it is important for a number of reasons. One if she wasn’t a virgin then Jesus had a human father and therefore was not the Son of God. He was just a man. Without the virgin birth there is no Christ, there is no Savior. Secondly without the virgin birth Jesus is born in sin. Therefore he is not sinless and not God therefore he is totally useless as a Savior and even if he does die on the cross he dies for his own sins and not ours. So the virgin birth was of upmost importance. Jesus is yes born of a human mother and takes on her flesh, but he is also pure and sinless and is the Son of God. That is the only way that he can be our Savior. As a human he can identify with us and put himself under the law and die for us. As God he can live the perfect life and in his death defeat Satan, sin and death and rise from the dead declaring victory. So the fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah is very important and we see that Jesus does just that through Mary.
Another very specific prophecy about his birth is that he would be born in Bethlehem. We read in Micah 5, “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, thought you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Then of course we read in Matthew 2, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “For this is what the prophet has written: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”
And of course we all know that story very well especially after having celebrated it just a few weeks ago. Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth but because of the census they had to go to the city of their lineage and register. Bethlehem was that city of David for them and so they loaded up and took off. Sometime during their stay there Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God, thereby fulfilling this Old Testament promise. What is interesting about it that it was not Mary and Joseph that planned for it happen this way. They went to Bethlehem not for the purpose of fulfilling a prophecy but for the purpose of fulfilling a government responsibility. The Roman ruler made the fulfillment of this prophecy a reality. It is to say the least an interesting way for the King of the Universe to enter his universe. Not coming down in glory in the clouds, not in a royal palace, but in a small no account town, in humble surroundings with absolutely no fanfare except for that surrounding some peasant shepherds out in the fields.
The next prophecy actually takes back to the first one from Isaiah 7:14 where it says that he will be called Immanuel or God with us. There is more significance to that then first meets the eye. We look at it and we say well yeah God becoming one of us and living like us, yes he was God with us. But again there is more to it than just simply that. Remember why the Son of God came down in the first place. He came in response to the promise of Genesis 3:15. God and man had been united in the Garden, they were like this. That was the way that God had designed that relationship. But after the fall man and God were not only separated from one another, they were at war with one another. The purpose of Genesis 3:15 was the promise that one day man and God would be united again in a harmonious relationship. And that is exactly what this Jesus; the Son of God had come to do. Not only would be he be God with us for 33 years of his life here on earth, but his later death and resurrection would mean that God and us would forever be together again. Jesus is God with us even today.
There is also another major prophecy concerning Jesus birth. This is the one concerning the star out of Jacob. This actually comes from an oracle of Balaam who was commissioned by an enemy of Israel. Balak king of Moab wanted Balaam to pronounce curses upon the Israelite army, but instead Balaam finds himself time and again pronouncing blessings upon them. In Chapter 24 he prophecies this about Israel’s Savior, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.” The prophecy finds immediate fulfillment in King David but is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In Matthew 2 we read, “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod; Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Then we read a little later, “After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.” The result, a baby shower for the Savior of the world. Talk about some expensive gifts! Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh wow! Everything that a new family could want and more. Gifts that literally would set them up for what was coming next. This was also where the gentiles come into the picture. They, we are part of the promise as well. These gifts are symbols of our gratefulness to God.
These gifts as I said would help them out as the next prophecy around his birth came true. That would be the flight into Egypt. In Hosea eleven we read, “”When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” This is first of all referring the Exodus of the children of Israel from the country of Egypt during the time of Moses, but Matthew looks upon that exodus as a picture pointing forward to the picture of Jesus’ coming from Egypt. We read in Matthew 2, “So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Egypt reminds of the slavery to sin that we were born into. Just as Israel was captive to slavery during their time in Egypt so were we captive to sin which pervaded us through and through. And just as Moses leads the children of Israel out of that slavery and eventually into the Promised Land. Jesus leads us out of slavery to sin and death through the blood he shed for us on the cross. He leads us out of death’s grip, makes us his and eventually when we die leads us into the promised land of Heaven. All of these things added together present us an amazing picture of the prophecy and its fulfillment in the birth of Jesus Christ. This was not just a happenstance event, it didn’t just happen out of the blue. It was planned from the beginning and talked about from the beginning and talked about through the years leading up to it. The promise of the coming Messiah filled the Old Testament world with anticipation, they couldn’t wait, it was on their minds constantly. Then one day they saw it all fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. God had kept his promises to his people. He truly had come to save us from our sins and make us his forever. God is not slow in keeping his promises but he does do it in his own time and way.
And that leads us to the last major prophecy concerning the events surrounding his birth. That is the prophecy concerning the murder of the innocents. In Jeremiah 31 the prophet says, “This is what the Lord says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are no more.” Then in Matthew 2 we read, “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Now why would we include that in the prophecies about the birth? Well first of all because it is one of them, but also it points to some very important things. Most of the birth narrative is a very feel good story. It is shapes our view of the Christmas story that we celebrate and act out each year. But it was a narrative with a larger purpose than that. Yes everyone likes babies and the gifts of Christmas but the setting of this story is actually really messy. And I not just talking about being laid in a feeding trough for a bed either. No the reason that this child was born was very bloody. And here in the fulfillment of this Old Testament prophecy we see just how bloody and brutal it is going to get.
Lots of blood flowed that night of the massacre of the little children. A scene we don’t really even want to think about really. But it would point forward to another miscarriage of justice some thirty years later when another innocent person would be killed to satisfy the hatefulness of another group of leaders. Except that the blood that flow down from the cross would leave more than loss and death, but would also cleanse us from our sin. Why both deaths, the death of the children and the dead of Christ would be horrible, in the death of Christ you and I would find life everlasting. We would be reunited with God in a relationship similar to what we read about in the garden before the fall. Christ’s death reconnects us with God the Father and guarantees us a place in the real Garden of Eden, Heaven.
The prophecies concerning Jesus birth were fulfilled in the New Testament in Jesus Christ. He is the one that was promised back in Genesis 3:15. He is the Savior of mankind, and more importantly the Savior of you. But his birth was just the beginning of the cosmic adventure. Jesus would now spend the next 33 years fulfilling even more Old Testament prophecies as he lived his life. We will look at those next week. Amen.
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