Promises In The Darkness Series

PROMISES IN THE DARKNESS

S: Incarnation

C: Prophecies fulfilled

Th: I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

Pr: JESUS IS THE MESSIAH AS PROMISED IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES.

?: How? How do we know?

KW: Proofs

TS: We will find in our study of Scripture eight proofs that Jesus is the Messiah as promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.

CV: “We will clearly communicate the transforming truth of the Bible.”

Type: Propositional

I. Seed of Abraham

II. Tribe of Judah

III. Born of a Virgin

IV. God

V. Son of Jesse {David]

VI. Suffer

VII. Born in Bethlehem

VIII. Pierced

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Understand that God, through Jesus, kept His promises to us.

• Realize that the evidence is strong and the objections are weak.

• Search for the Messiah yourself and embrace the Incarnation.

Version: ESV

RMBC 7 December 08 AM

Last week, we began our Christmas series called…

Theme: “I Love It When a Plan Comes Together”

It was a line that Hannibal Smith used to use on the old TV show, A-Team.

But we are not about the A-Team.

We are about this…Jesus born to a couple – Joseph and Mary.

You can see on this slide, the astonishment expressed by Joseph’s hands.

He understood, as best he could, that little baby was “God with us,” Immanuel.

This baby was God’s plan.

This is why I get so excited at Christmas!

This incredible, fantastic, unbelievable story was God’s plan.

And so we can join in on this theme…

“I Love It When a Plan Comes Together”

As with all plans, there are matters that are accomplished preceding the actual events.

You see, when we talk about the Christmas story, its beginnings are found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Christmas begins in the Hebrew Scriptures.

God began to make promises, promises in the darkness so to speak, that began at The Fall in the Garden of Eden.

He began making promises that we would not be abandoned to live in darkness, but rather, He would show the way out.

He would bring light to this dark world.

And He chose to do this through the Jewish nation.

He promised them an anointed one, the Messiah, who would be the Prince of Peace.

He would set things aright.

He would make the world as it ought to be.

As you read through the Hebrew Scriptures, the promises about the Messiah kept coming.

There were clues that were given about his heritage and his place of birth.

The prophets kept giving information, piece by piece, about the coming Messiah.

And then it stopped.

For 400 years, there was silence.

There was no word from God.

It was a difficult time for God’s people for there was a burning hope for God’s voice.

So much so, that by the time of Jesus’ birth, messianic hopes are at a fevered pitch.

More than ever, there was a longing for God’s anointed one.

This was, of course, all in God’s plan.

For…

Jesus is the Messiah as promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.

This is the point you are not to miss today.

We talked last week about the eyewitness testimony concerning Jesus and how credible it was.

In the same way, we want to speak about how Jesus fulfilled these Scriptures, set across an incredible amount of time.

He was the One that the nation of Israel was looking for.

The shame of this is that most of them missed it.

They missed the Messiah’s coming – the very thing that they were longing for – it slipped right by them.

Nevertheless, we will find in our study of Scripture eight proofs that Jesus is the Messiah as promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.

First, though, consider this…

The Hebrew Scriptures are credible.

From an intellectual standpoint, a lot hangs on the credibility of the Hebrew Scripture.

Though the Jewish scribes had been meticulous about the copying of Scripture, the latest copy we had in our possession was about the year AD 900.

That is until 1947.

That is when the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls was discovered, when an Arab shepherd boy, while looking for a stray goat, happened to throw a rock into a cave along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.

Instead of the bleating of a goat, he heard the crash of a breaking clay pot.

He investigated and found several clay jars containing old scrolls with Hebrew writing on them.

Over the course of the next few years, archaeologists recovered 40,000 fragments of manuscripts in 11 different caves.

These manuscripts represented almost the entire Old Testament.

Not only that, they were dated between BC 175 – 100.

Note again, they were dated before Christ – before Jesus was born.

In other words, these predictions, these promises were written before Jesus came, and not, as some skeptics have said, after He had lived.