THE PROMISED SAVIOR – The Promises of His Life
Malachi 3:1 NIV
"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty.
INTRODUCTION:
One of my favorite subjects in school was math. To this day I still enjoy from time to time playing around with numbers. Of particular interest to me is probability—the chance that something will happen. For instance the piano has 88 keys, so the probability of me hitting any one of those keys is 1:88. Now if I were to ask one of you to come and play just one of those keys what would be the probability that you would play the same note that I just played. Some might think 2:88 which actually reduces to 1:44; well that’s not it as 1:44 is actually a better chance of hitting the same note I played than I had of playing any one of the 88 keys. So if your chance of hitting the same note must be greater then someone might think the probability would be 1:176 or 1:(88*2). Well that is a smaller chance than 1:88 but it’s not right. The actual probability is 1:7,744 or 1:(88*88). Each of us have 88 keys to choose from so the odds of hitting the same key grows exponentially.
Last week we looked at The Promise of His Birth. Now by my count the Old Testament has at least 12 prophetic statements concerning the birth of the Promised Savior. If we count what some might consider duplicates only once then there are at least 9 prophecies concerning the Promised Savior What is the probability that anyone could fulfill all 9 of those prophetic statements? Now it’s not like the piano for just 2 of us to hit the same key. This is not just to fulfill one prophecy, but all 9 or 12 if you want to really make it difficult. To fulfill each prophecy would be like me going to the piano and playing all 88 keys and then you playing the same 88 keys in the same order. It wouldn’t be 1:882 but 1:8888. So for one person to fulfill 9 prophetic statements would not simply be 1:92, but 1:99 or 1:387,420,489. Now that’s nearly impossible! If we were to consider the probability of all 12 that would be 1:1212 or 1:8,916,100,448,256. I think we are safe to say that without God’s help that is impossible!
But guess what. God was not done with just 9 or 12 prophecies. God did not just speak about the birth of the Promised Savior. God also spoke prophetically about His life, and as we will see next week even His death and incredibly His resurrection too. Humanly it is impossible for anyone to fulfill the prophecies made concerning the Promised Savior. But it was not left to human chance. What God said He fulfilled.
Today we are going to continue looking at The Promised Savior as we consider the wonder and majesty of what was spoken through the prophets concerning THE PROMISES OF HIS LIFE.
I. The Promise to Proclaim His Arrival
Malachi 3:1 NIV
"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty.
1. God announced the coming of the Promised Savior!
a) God knew there would be people like me who would figure out that it would be impossible for anyone to be born in keeping with all the promises made. So God promised there would be one to proclaim His arrival, to say “Look, here He is. The one you are seeking has come!”
b) The role of being the promised messenger was fulfilled in John the Baptist. It was John who announce the arrival of the Promised Savior and prepared the way for His coming.
Luke 3:15-16 NIV
15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
John 1:29-30 NIV
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ’A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”
2. Like John the Baptist I stand today to proclaim that the Promised Savior has come!
a) Jesus is here to forgive you of your sins and give you a new life.
b) Jesus is here to baptize you in the Holy Spirit and with fire!
3. God did not stop with a promise to proclaim the arrival of the Promised Savior. God made still more promises about His life.
II. The Promises to be Prophet, Priest and King.
1. Jesus is the promised prophet who would speak the word of God!
Deuteronomy 18:15 NIV
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.
John 6:14 NIV
After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, "Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world."
John 12:49-50 NIV
49 For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say."
2. Jesus is the promised Priest who would minister before the Lord making atonement for our sins.
Psalm 110:4 NIV
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
a) Few of us understand the need for a priest. The Jewish people understood the need for the priest to stand as an intermediary between God and man. No on had the right to just come before God; a priest had to come on your behalf. Today many Catholics would understand this as they depend upon the priest to represent them before God – this is why Catholics today don’t ask God for forgiveness, but instead confess their sins to the priest in the privacy of the confessional.
Hebrews 6:19-20 NIV
19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
b) Jesus has ministered once and for all before the Lord. His blood has paid for our sins, and by His blood He has opened the door to heaven so we can have direct access to God. We can come boldly before the throne of God because Jesus has given us access!
Malachi 3:1 NIV
“. . . Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
Haggai 2:6-9 NIV
6 "This is what the Lord Almighty says: ’In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. 7 I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. 8 ’The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. 9 ’The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ’And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty."
Matthew 21:23 NIV
Jesus entered the temple courts. . .
c) It is not gold or silver that gives the temple its glory. It is God’s presence within the temple that brings glory to the temple. It was not Solomon’s temple that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, but the second temple rebuilt after the exile of which Haggai prophesied that Jesus entered binging God’s glory, a greater glory than silver or gold to it.
3. Jesus is the promised King to reign and rule forever!
a) Over and over the OT scriptures declare that God would send a King to reign on David’s throne. This theme was so prevalent within the OT that many living in Jesus day rejected Him because He did not come as a concquering king to over throw the oppression of the Romans and reestablish David’s throne in Jerusalem. They didn’t understand that the king would first suffer and then establish His kingdom.
Psalm 132:11 NIV
The Lord swore an oath to David, a sure oath that he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne.”
Isaiah 11:1 NIV
A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
Jeremiah 23:5 NIV
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.”
b) And yet Jesus is the promised King. A King who has received ALL AUTHORITY AND POWER!
John 12:13-15 NIV
13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the King of Israel!"
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 15 “Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.”
Matthew 27:37 NIV
37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
1 Timothy 1:17 NIV
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 19:16 NIV
On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
c) What does it mean for you and me that Jesus is the promised prophet priest and King?
1 Peter 2:9 NIV
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
• We have been given the word of God to proclaim as a prophet. “The word of God lives in you” (1 John 2:14).
• We are given the privileged to minister as priests; we are “like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5)
• We are secure in Christ because in Him is ALL AUTHORITY. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).
4. Jesus the promised savior is the promised prophet priest and king, but for many these are:
III. Promises Too Good to be True.
1. Jesus spoke the very words of God—He did not teach like the teacher of the law but with authority—and Jesus preformed miracles to show that He was the promised savior, NEVERTHELESS MANY REJECTED HIM!
Psalm 69:4 NIV
Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
John 15:23-25 NIV
23 He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ’They hated me without reason.’
Isaiah 53:3 NIV
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
John 1:10-11 NIV
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
2. How will you and I respond to Jesus to day? Will we receive Him as the promised savior, or will we like so many before us reject Him?
3. We too will face rejection and even persecution, but we can take heart because Jesus has overcome the world.
John 15:19-20; 16:33 NIV
19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ’No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also . . .33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
