Christmas Prophecies Series

Christmas Prophecies

(tropical)

1. Lin Smalec writes, "I read recently about a children’s Sunday School class that heard the Christmas story and sang the beloved Christmas carol, “Silent Night”. They were then asked to draw what they thought the nativity scene might have looked like. One little fellow did a good likeness of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus, but off to the side was a roly-poly figure. The teacher, thinking that the boy had somehow worked Santa Claus into the scene, asked him who that was. She wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or even more worried when the boy responded, "Oh, that’s Round John Virgin!"

2. Unfortunately, many youth in American do not know the Christmas story. It is hard to believe, but ask the school teachers or the folks who work with lot of children.

Main Idea: The Christmas story carries with it deep theology and fascinating prophecies that were fulfilled.

Let’s look at just two of these prophecies this week. Next week, we’ll examine a couple or three more.

I. The Promise of A REDEEMER (Genesis 3:15, Job 19:25-27, Numbers 24:17-19)

A. In EDEN (Genesis 3:15)

(God speaking to the serpent) "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head,and you will strike his heel."

B. Known throughout the ANCIENT world (Job 19:25-27)

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see

Officials from India were concerned about the aboriginal tribes which inhabited the islands off the coast of Myanmar after the Tsunami disaster. They feared that as many as 6,000 of these primitive people may have been killed — perhaps even wiping out some of the smaller tribes. So they sent helicopters to look for them, and deliver food and supplies.

But the helicopters were met by a hail of arrows and thrown rocks from these fiercely independent people.

The reason they survived is that they live mainly in caves up in the hills, even though they rely on fishing for their living. According to an AP news story carried by CNN and others, the Mokkien held to a belief handed down by the elders that “if the water recedes fast it will reappear in the same quantity in which it disappeared.” By the time the first great wave of the tsunami arrived, “the entire population of the Mokkien fishing village had fled to a temple in the mountains of South Surin Island,” Hataway said. The article concludes by saying, “It’s good to listen to one’s elders.”

The Scriptures are full of truth handed down by our elders, and these truths are important for our life and survival. As John said, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched — this we proclaim concerning the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). We say with Job: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:2). [Sermon Central, Rodney Buchanan ]

• How this was perverted in the Babylonian religion

C. Associated with a STAR (Numbers 24:17-19)

"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…A ruler will come out of Jacob…"

Balaam helped found the Magi, an order in the Zoroastrian religion

• Jethro may have been a Zoroastrian

• Revelation 22:16

D. Here is an ancient Jewish understanding of the Star, 21. Trumah : 86. The stars

Verse 860. "Then the seventh window will be opened to the whole world, and its star is the star of Jacob. This is what Bila’am said, "There shall come a star out of Jacob" (Bemidbar 24:17), and this star will illuminate for forty days. When King Messiah will be revealed and all the nations of the world will gather before him"

The Zohar Volume 11. Truma Section 86. The Stars

E. Why do we need a redeemer?

1. We are lost because of our sin

2. We are helpless to remedy our lost conditon

F. What is a redeemer

1. Someone who "buys back"

2. He came to "undo" the mess that sin made

3. Some of that redemption is realized in the life of the believer now; much of it is future…

II. The GENETICS of the Redeemer (Genesis 49:9-10, Jeremiah 23:5, Psalm 110:1, Isaiah 9:6-7)

A. His HUMANITY

1. From Israel and particularly JUDAH (Genesis 49:9-10)

"The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes."