That It Might Be Fulfilled
Text: Matt 1:22; 2:15, 7, 23. (Listen for the recurring phrase)
Intro: Almost end of year. At end of every year psychics get busy predicting events in the New Year. So here is my prediction – I predict that major newspapers shall release a psychic or astrological supplement by the end of the year foretelling what will happen in 2008. I also predict that the vast majority of prediction will be wrong. How do you know that?
Listen to some of the predictions psychics made in 2006 for 2007.
1. There’s going to be some kind of important shipwreck, or finding of a wreck near India I think. And this will have Jewels and old coins, and there will also be some kind of link to a giant squid.
2. I have a strong feeling for a while now that a tragic event will befall the Royal Family in the UK around late February/early March
3. There will be an Uranium explosion in Ballarat. a town in Victoria, Australia. (Unfortunately, there are no nuclear power facilities in or near Ballarat – in fact the town is about to declare itself a nuclear free zone).
4. Price of oil will go down to $40 a barrel. (It’s actually $91)
5. Bird flu will rear its ugly head, and panic will ensue.
6. Dolly Parton will be diagnosed with a sadly terminal illness that will shock the Nation. Her demise will be rapid following her diagnosis. (Dolly was in Rotherham last week – she has ten days to live, max, according to this psychic!)
7. Here is my favourite, this is a genuine psychic prediction, made in 2006 for 2008, so watch out for this one… “In 2008 something big will happen but I don’t know what it is yet.”
It’s hard to make predictions isn’t it? These psychics failed, even though their prophecies were for a time near future. The Bible says that prophesying the future is one of the ways of distinguishing the true from the false.
4 x’s in the Christmas story we read the phrase “that it might be fulfilled.” You see Jesus coming to Bethlehem was predicted, not by psychics, but by prophets, and not a few months before, but centuries before.
Isa 7:14 (740 B.C.) – Born of a virgin – “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Micah 5:2 (710 B.C) – Born in Bethlehem – “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.”
Psalm 72:10 (1000 B.C) – the visit of the Magi – “The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.”
Jer 31:15 (606 B.C) – The slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem – “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.”
Hos 11:1 (740 B.C) – The flight into Egypt – “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”
You see Jesus didn’t just “happen” to come into the world – his birth was not an “accident” – it was a fulfillment of century old prophecies. In fact not just His birth, but the details His life, death, and resurrection were all prophesied and fulfilled. Prophecy after prophecy, scores of them, each one specifically fulfilled. Why? Because God wanted you to know that He is true. That He is the Truth.
Nor only that, but that He is the Life. You see th events surrounding his birth happened according in a certain way, “that it might be fulfilled”, That you & I would see that, and believe so that we might be fulfilled.
You see God has set eternity in our hearts. There is a void there. A gap, a hole, and as much as we try to fill it with things, or activity or relationships or whatever, it still remains there – a gnawing something, an inner consciousness that something is missing. That something, is really a someone. You see Jesus came noy only that he might fulfill prophecy, but that he might fulfill us. He said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (Jn 10:10) and “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” He came to make us complete. To fulfill us.
He is TRUTH… He is Life… and He is the WAY. The only way to forgiveness. The only way to meaning. The only way to Heaven. The only way to God,
But you have to believe on Him. Believe that He is True. That He is Life. That He is the only way.
Not to be a party pooper, but in a matter of 5 days Christmas will be over for another year. We will look at those tired old decorations and start boxing them away until next year. The kids will lay down some of those gifts they received and may never pick them up again. We must return to work, back to routine. The holiday is over.
But will you feel fulfilled. Or will you wonder why the fuss? What was it all about? Will you be left jumping back on the treadmill of life and wondering what’s missing?
What will fill the hole, the God shaped void of the heart. Jesus will. He came that we might be fulfilled, filled to the full with life and joy. May God help you come to Him.
