Advent: The Prophets Series

Advent: Prophets

November 29, 2020 Morning Service

First Sunday of Advent

Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK

Rick Boyne

Message Point: It is no accident or coincidence that Jesus is the Son of God!

Focus Passage: Luke 2:21-38

Supplemental Passage: but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. (John 20:31 NASB)

Introduction: People love to play the lottery. Dreams of big money come along when the jackpot is over $100 million dollars! But, the odds of winning the lottery are not great. They aren’t even good. They are 1 in 258.9 million. Here’s a list of things that are more probable than winning the lottery:

1. Being audited by the IRS – about 1 in 175

2. Catching a foul ball at a baseball game – about 1 in 563

3. Being struck by lightning – about 1 in 12, 000

4. Losing an Appendage in a Chainsaw Accident - about 1 in 4,464

5. Going to the E.R. With a Pogo Stick-Related Injury – about 1 in 115,300

6. Being killed by a meteorite - about 1 in 700,000

7. Becoming a movie star - about 1 in 1.5 million

8. Dying from hot tap water – about 1 in 5 million

9. Dying in a plane crash – about 1 in 11,000,000

10. Becoming an astronaut - about 1 in 12.1 million

[https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/20-things-more-likely-to-happen-to-you-than-winning-the-lottery/]

I. Over 200 Old Testament Messianic Prophecies (Here’s 10)

a. Born in Bethlehem – Micah 5:2, Luke 2

b. Born of a virgin – Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1

c. Give sight to the blind – Isaiah 29:18, Matthew 9:27-31; Matt. 12:22; Matt. 20:29; Mark 8:22-26; Mark 10:46; Luke 11:14; 18:35; John 9:1-7

d. Betrayed for 30 pieces of silver – Zechariah 11:12, Matthew 27:3-10

e. Would be beaten and spat upon – Isaiah 50:6, Matthew 26:67; 27:26-30

f. Bones would not be broken – Psalm 34:20, John 19:33

g. Clothes would be divided by casting lots – Psalm 22:18, John 19:23-24

h. He would be pierced – Zechariah 12:10, John 19:34

i. Nailed on a tree – Psalm 22, Matthew 27 (centuries before Romans started crucifixion)

j. Resurrected from the dead – Psalm 16:10, Matthew 28

II. Odds of Fulling just 8 of the 200

a. Picture yourself in the biggest wide-open space possible. Then stretch that space out by nearly 400 miles in every direction. That’s approximately the size of Texas, the second largest state in the United States, at 268,581 square miles. Now imagine silver dollars stacked two feet high across all of that space. Somewhere in there is one silver dollar painted red. Your job is to find it. A helicopter will drop you in. You have one chance to pick up the correct silver dollar. And you’ll be blindfolded, of course. If you find it, millions of people’s lives will be saved. If you don’t, the whole world goes up in flames. Sounds like a video game with impossible odds, doesn’t it?! But those are exactly the odds of one man fulfilling just eight of the prophecies of fulfilled by Jesus’ life. [http://thepropheticvoice.info/2019/08/16/the-improbable-christ/]

b. Those odds are mind boggling

III. Odds of fulfilling 16 of the 200 prophecies

a. The chance of Jesus fulfilling just eight of those prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. Jesus also fulfilled hundreds more. (Scholarly opinion varies on exactly how many prophecies of Jesus there are in the Bible. Numbers range from 200-400.) So the chance of one man fulfilling sixteen prophecies comes to 1 in 10 to the 45th power. “Let us try to visualize this as we did before. Take this number of silver dollars. If you make these into a solid ball, you will have a great sphere with a center at the earth, and extending in all directions more than 30 times as far as from the earth to the sun… If you can imagine the marking of one silver dollar, and then thoroughly stirring it into this great ball, and blindfolding a man and telling him to pick out one dollar, and expect it to be the marked one, you have somewhat of a picture of how absolutely the fulfillment of sixteen prophecies referring to Jesus Christ proves both that He is the Son of God and that our Bible is inspired. Certainly God directed the writing of His Word.” [http://thepropheticvoice.info/2019/08/16/the-improbable-christ/]

b. That is just 16 out of the over 200. What are the coincidental odds of all 200? I’m not sure anyone has ever calculated that.

Application/Invitation: What is the conclusion to all these numbers? Jesus is, indeed, the Son of God. He is who He says He is. He did what was foretold that He would do and will do all that He said He will do. While we look in reverse at the first arrival, we are compelled to look at the future for His coming arrival. He said He was coming back; are you ready? Has your soul been made ready for eternity? Are you only looking at earthly things and do not have your mind on the eternal at all? I beg you by the mercies of God to be reconciled to Him through Jesus Christ! Do not delay! Today is the day of salvation. You can’t be “a little bit saved;” either you are or you are not. The Bible says “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10 NASB)