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.
So, let us consider eight of these promises.
There are many more – over 40 – that point to the coming of the Messiah.
But we will cover just eight – some quickly, some more in depth.
Promises
First, the Messiah would be the…
Seed of Abraham (Genesis 12.7)
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land."
In this passage, God is telling Abraham that he is going to be the father of a great nation.
He is going to have more children than can be counted.
But here is the interesting thing.
The word for offspring is singular, not plural.
The offspring that will inherit the land is not a people, but a person.
The inference is the Messiah, will be from Abraham, and He will be the one that possesses and rules the land.
The second promise is that the Messiah is from the…
Tribe of Judah (Genesis 49.10)
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet…
This is a part of Jacob’s blessings to his sons.
And he tells us that the kingdom belongs to Judah.
It is Judah’s offspring that will rule.
Though there was no nation yet, there would be a time, and the king would come from Judah’s offspring.
The third promise is that the Messiah would be…
Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7.14)
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
This is very important promise, as the New Testament writers understood it to be huge.
The context was that Judah was being attacked and Ahaz, their king was plenty afraid.
But through the prophet Isaiah, God tells Ahaz that it is no problem.
They are nothing.
So, then, God says, “Ask me for a sign”
But Ahaz refuses, by saying, “I’m not going to test the Lord.”
The trouble is that what he really was saying that he did not trust the Lord.
He did not want the Lord’s help, even when he was afraid.
He was a control freak.
But the Lord gives him a sign anyway that would have huge future impact.
Let me take a moment and explain the importance of this promise…
If you take away the virgin birth, then you are left with just another man, no different than you and me.
We cannot downplay or do away with the virgin birth because it doesn’t make sense to us or it makes us uncomfortable.
Jesus had his humanity through Mary, but the fact is that Scripture tells us that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and that gives him His divinity.
That’s why, as Christians we can’t just say, “Oh that’s just a nice, sweet, imaginary story that made it in.”
All of the theological construct regarding salvation is based on this.
It does not make sense without the virgin birth.
The fourth promise is that the Messiah would be…
Mighty God (Isaiah 9.6)
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Note that the Messiah does not first appear as a king.
No, he starts out normally.
He is born.
He is a child.
But in time, it is much more than that.
The names say it all.
Each one connects His identity as God.
Wonderful Counselor…
Mighty God…
Everlasting Father…
Prince of Peace.
The fifth promise is that the Messiah is the…
Son of Jesse [David] (Isaiah 11.1)
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
Here the ancestry becomes more defined for the Messiah.
First we started with Abraham.
Four generations later, we have narrowed to Judah.
Now, many more generations, we have come to Jesse, with the logical connection of David, since David became the king.
The sixth promise is that the Messiah was to be a…
Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53.3-5)
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
There is probably no more profound prophecy about the Messiah than Isaiah 53.
It describes in detail the very thing that happened to Jesus – His suffering and His dying on the cross.
And remember, it was written before Jesus was born.
ILL Messiah (S)
Barry Leventhal was born in Los Angeles, the grandson of Jewish immigrants. He grew up in a Jewish home and attended UCLA on a full football scholarship. Leventhal participated in UCLA’s first Rose Bowl victory in 1966. Shortly after the Rose Bowl victory, he was confronted with the possibility that Jesus was the Messiah. He says,
“I vividly remember the first time I seriously confronted Isaiah 53, or better still, the first time it seriously confronted me. Being rather confused over the identity of the Servant in Isaiah 53, I went to my local rabbi and said to him, ‘Rabbi, I have met some people at school who claim that the so-called Servant in Isaiah 53 is none other than Jesus of Nazareth. But I would like to know from you, who is the Servant in Isaiah 53?’
“I was astonished at his response. ‘Barry, I must admit that as I read Isaiah 53 it does seem to be talking about Jesus, but since we Jews do not believe in Jesus, it can’t be speaking about Jesus.’”
Leventhal goes on to say,
“Not only did his so-called reasoning sound circular, it also sounded evasive and even fearful.”
Leventhal did become a Christian as he embraced Jesus as his Messiah.
Which brings us to the seventh promise…
The Messiah would be…
Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5.2)
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.
The birthplace of the Messiah is pinpointed.
He is not coming out of a place of power.
Instead, it is an obscure, no-name town.
Also note that the Messiah’s existence stretches back into eternity, reinforcing previous promises.
He is no new personality that is coming into existence.
Instead, the Messiah is the Eternal become incarnate.
The eighth promise regarding the Messiah is that He will be…
Pierced (Zechariah 12.10)
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
This last promise speaks to an aspect of His death.
He comes as a lamb to be slaughtered, and He is pierced.
He is stabbed.
And it is the very thing that happens to Jesus on the cross.
So, understand that in these eight promises that…
God kept His promises through Jesus.
Understand that God, through Jesus, kept His promises to us.
When it comes to promises, God does what He says.
You and I can depend on Him.
He has proved it over and over.
This is why we celebrate Christmas.
God, coming as Jesus, reaches to us because we could never, ever reach Him.
Yet, in spite of the evidence, there are…
Objections
The first objection against Jesus being the Messiah is that…
It is just a coincidence.
It is said, “Yes, Jesus seemed to fulfill many of the prophecies, but it is just coincidence.”
“He was just lucky!”
But this objection is ruled away because the odds are so astronomical that they have ruled that out. …
ILL Messiah (S)
The math has been figured out and the probability of just eight prophecies being fulfilled is one chance in one hundred million billion. That number is millions of times greater than the total number of people who’ve ever walked the planet!
If you were to take that many coins and spread them out, they would cover the entire state of Texas in a two-foot deep pile. Mark one of those coins, throw it in the pile and stir it around. Blindfold yourself and start walking around Texas. Stop after a few days, bend down, and pick up one coin. What are the chances it’s the coin you marked? This is the same probability that one man could have fulfilled eight of these prophecies.
But there is more…
ILL Messiah (S)
Mathematician Peter W. Stoner has estimated that the probability of fulfilling forty-eight prophecies was one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.
Peter W. Stoner, Science Speaks (Chicago, IL, USA: Moody Press, 1969), pg. 109.
You see, the chance of fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah are just too great to be random.
Jesus’ fulfilling of those prophecies is no chance occurrence.
The second objection is that…
The writers fabricated the details.
In other words, the writers about Jesus wrote all this stuff down after the fact.
They wanted to make it appear that he fulfilled prophecy.
The truth is though, as the New Testament was beginning to be written there certainly existed people still living who were also eyewitnesses, but not followers.
They could easily have challenged the credibility of the early Christians.
Indeed, many Jewish leaders of the time would have taken every opportunity to discredit the Christian testimony about Jesus.
ILL Messiah (S)
As Louis Lapides states:
“Even though the Jewish Talmud refers to Jesus in derogatory ways, it never once makes the claim that the fulfillment of prophecies was falsified. Not one time.”
Then something we mentioned last week as well.
Why would the gospel writers fabricate such details as Jesus’ divinity, then be willing to suffer persecution, imprisonment, and even death for such beliefs?
That just strikes against common sense.
The third objection is that…
Jesus intentionally fulfilled Scripture.
This objection states that Jesus deliberately lived his life in such a way that it would have to be concluded that He was the Messiah.
For a few of the prophecies, it is certainly conceivable.
But for others, it would be plain impossible.
For how could Jesus control the fulfillment of these prophecies…
• The place of His birth
• The soldiers gambling for His clothing
• The offer of 30 pieces of silver for Judas’ betrayal
How could Jesus control such details over which he, nor his followers, could have any control?
How could Jesus arrange his resurrection?
If you are still wondering today whether Jesus was the Messiah, I have a challenge for you…
Search for the Messiah yourself.
I don’t know if you will need Google or not.
There is plenty of information and disinformation out there.
But I do know this.
Those that earnestly and sincerely seek God will find Him.
God sees to it.
So, go ahead.
Earnestly seek Him and see if you do not find Him.
And when you do, it is then you can…
Embrace the miracle of the Incarnation.
The little baby in Mary’s arms was much more than a baby.
He was God in the flesh.
For Further Study: Genesis 3.15; Psalm 22; Isaiah 42.1-6, 49.1-6, 50.4-7; Jeremiah 23.5-6; Daniel 9.25-26; Malachi 3.1; Matthew 1.23, 5.17; Mark 14.61-64; Luke 24.44; John 1.41, 5.46; Romans 1.1-4; Hebrews 1.1-2
BENEDICTION:
Seek God, so that you can know His love for you; for this I can guarantee – He is very fond of you.
Seek God, so that you can embrace the wonder of His plan – Jesus is God in the flesh.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral
Bourgaize, Owen Micah – Prophet of the Messiah’s Advent
Buchanan, Rodney An Old Testament Christmas
Richter, Dan Jesus Is Coming: As the Prophets Foretold
Other:
Geisler, Norman, and Frank Turek. I Don’t Have Enough to Be an Atheist. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004.
Strobel, Lee. The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence of Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998.
