Sermon Central
-
Living Between The Prophecies
Contributed by Stephen Belokur on Sep 6, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: There are two major groups of prophecy regaring the life of the Messiah on earth as the Lamb of God and the return of the Messiah to earth as King and Judge.
If you would, please stand as we say together our memory Scripture for this quarter:
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
And our memory refresher Scripture is …
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.”
Please open your Bibles to 1 Peter 1:3-12
At family camp they always have fun events after the evening services on week nights.
Mostly these games are for the children and the teens but this year there was one that allowed adults to participate as well. It was an escape room.
I am not sure exactly how most of them are set up but in this situation there were clues in the first room which, if found, enabled you to move into the next room and on and on. All the while you would be collecting clues to the final objective.
It was not professionally done but it was fun.
Having never participated in an escape room before some of the clues did not seem to make any sense. But in thinking back on it, it was easy to see how all of the pieces fit together.
(We won, of course …;-)
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read 1 Peter 1:3-12 with special attention to verses 10-12 …
1 Peter 1:10-12(NIV)
10 “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
11 “trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when He predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.
12 “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.
“Even angels long to look into these things.”
We live between two great groups of prophecies.
Both of these have to do with the arrival of Jesus the Messiah on earth.
(Move to left side of the platform for a moment …)
Let’s say that this side of the platform is the time in which the Old Testament prophets lived. It was a time of mystery regarding exactly how the Lord’s salvation would come through the Messiah. Even the Messiah was a mystery. Who would He be? How would He bring salvation?
------------ Old Testament --------------------
The First Great Revelation is found in the Old Testament.
They knew from the beginning the Messiah would be human.
When satan is being cursed in the garden of Eden the LORD says to him:
Genesis 3:15 NIV
“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.”
They also knew that there is One and only One true God!
What is the first sentence in the great Jewish Shema prayer?
Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
Deuteronomy 6:4 YLT
“Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God [is] one Jehovah”
Deuteronomy 6:4 NOG
“Hear, O Israel: Yahweh is our Elohim. Yahweh is the only God.”
Of course the Trinity had not yet been revealed.
The only true God was Jehovah or Yahweh!
And that is absolutely true but the oneness of Yahweh the Father, Yahweh the Son and Yahweh the Holy Spirit had not yet been revealed.
So, it really must have messed up their minds when the Holy Spirit would say to the prophets, “Write this down” and it seemed to be saying something incomprehensible.
Isaiah 7:14 NIV
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel.”
This makes great sense to us right?
We’ve been hearing it from before we can remember.
“The virgin shall be with child” as it says in the KJV.
The Hebrew word translated as virgin in this passage could also be translated as “maiden” or “young woman.”
A maiden or young woman conceiving and giving birth to a son is no big deal.
It happens thousands of time a day.
What IS a big deal is a virgin conceiving. That just doesn’t happen!
